The Tellers

The Tellers chapter 2

Derron frowned as he looked out the door. "No, Neve. I still say its impossible."

The girl he was talking to, Neve, sighed. "All the evidence points to it. Come on, even someone as stubborn as you has to admit that."

They were talking about their surprise guest, the man who told them his name was Ransom Lewis. He had slipped into a feverish semi-conscious state soon after saying his name, and hadn't told them anything coherent since. It had been a fight to keep his body temperature down, and when Derron had tried interfacing with Ransom's simulcrom to get his biological data, he found that it was incompatible with his software. Which was almost unheard of. Universal interfacing had been industry standard for fifty years now. And he kept mumbling, muttering names such as Huon and Borg, having imaginary conversations with someone named Psome, and muttering something about "the Tellers". Once he woke up screaming at someone named Jack, bathed in sweat, his entire body rigid. Neve had held his wrists and talked him down, but he had stared right through her with wild eyes. Eventually he calmed down, but only when she sang an ancient Earth lullaby to him.

They had been trying to figure out who he was and where he had come from. The guy certainly had made a dramatic entrance. Neve had been visiting Derron for the weekend to get away from her family. His job as a shepherd kept him traveling from cabin to cabin, some of them less permanent than others, rotating his herds of the squat sheep-like creatures known as knumes. It was a lonely job, given this was the cabin closest to the city, New Albuquerque, and it was 20 kilometers out. His little brother Ko rotated shifts with him, two weeks working alone, two weeks working together, two weeks off.

Derron's mind went back to events before their guest had so rudely interrupted.

Seeing Neve on his two weeks off had been a surprise. She had moved away from New Albuquerque three years ago and he hadn't been in touch with her since. Her family situation was... rough. He saw her cousin occasionally at the gym, so he knew she had been living with her best friend in Dalphi, the capitol, attending university there. Her leaving had been for the best, he knew. Her family was tied up with some of the most violent organized crime in the region, rumored to be linked to the Resistance, and her father could be abusive at times. Still, he had missed her. They had been in a relationship at one point, but she had wanted to take it to the next level physically, and didn't understand his reluctance. He tried to explain his moral convictions, but she didn't get it. Who still believed in those ancient religions any more? She had convinced herself there was some other reason he wasn't telling her. So they had broken up, and soon after, she left. Now she was back, after three years, and happy to see him. Her family situation was as uncomfortable as ever and he offered her the chance to get out for a couple weeks. When Ko went back to town she would go back with him.

He had grown a lot over the past three years, and so had she. There was a lot of catching up to do. She had gone through a couple relationships that didn't pan out. He had focused on his training, trying to qualify for the planet-wide Olympics, in the sports of wrestling and Pankration, the Olympic name for mixed martial arts. No time for relationships. And anyway none of the girls he knew seemed very interesting to him after dating her.

The morning Ransom had dropped in, Ko had taken the hovercraft to track down a Jerga that had been killing the knumes in the northern pastures. That left him and Neve alone, something that made him nervous. He honestly wasn't sure if he had the willpower to turn her advances down this time around. They had spent the morning rounding up strays from the herd. Then there wasn't really much to do, so they decided to do some of that catching up.

"How has your training been going? You gonna win the gold medal next year?"

Derron nodded. "Yes. Yes I am. No, really. I am." He was completely serious. He had trained long, hard, and smart for next year. Some of the most skilled professionals on Merensol were based out of his gym, and the consensus among them was that he would have the best career out of all of them once he turned pro. The only reason he was still an ameteur was because he wanted to win that gold medal. Ko was also entered in the competition, and a lot of bets had already been placed that one of the two would surely earn themselves a gold disk around his neck.