Chapter Text
Solly never expected things to turn out this way. It was just a bit of holiday cheer, a celebratory moment after the reprieve of getting the gravity trains raised.
They were looking towards January, who was with Gale on the piano bench. It was unbelievable, they might actually be doing what they were supposed to - finally getting busy. Drones were already hovering in place, ready to capture the pivotal moment. The moment that would win them the election. Well, that and getting the array up and working. But Solly’s job was to make sure that nothing got missed in the giant production that was Gale's electoral campaign, and there was almost nothing more important in Solly Francis’ life than their job.
They thought the two of them might actually do it. Kiss, that is. They could see all of the signs that Gale was a goner for January. And they had seen the way January looked at Gale sometimes, like he wanted to spend all his time in their orbit. It defied explanation, although Solly did flatter themself that they had seen his potential all along. After all, they had been the one to pull him out of the lineup at Tereshkova Wharf, they had been the one to first suggest the marriage, when Ren was losing their shit over the crash and burn at the debate with Song, and Gale was losing their shit over this person they had met once for about fifteen minutes. “Apparently that’s enough time to destroy his life,” Gale had snapped at them when they pointed this out. Solly must have known then, on some level, that things were going to work out between the two of them….
As they turned to make sure the second drone was in place, they felt the impact of a small, heavy body against their own. They looked down, and saw the Earthstrong person they had almost knocked to the floor. They were quite…fashionable. Thin for their height, but proportional, like a Tharsese person in miniature. And they were wearing fabulous shoes, lovely two-tone wingtip oxford brogues in yellow patent leather with green accents. Yellow, not what January had derisively called ‘mustard,’ and very of-the-moment. Solly wondered fleetingly how they could afford them, but then realized the person was still kneeling on the floor, saying something to them.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did I knock into you? I was going to ask about your fabulous sweater, but I don’t think you saw me there. I didn’t hurt you, did I?
Solly’s first impression was immediately validated. A person of actual taste! “No, no, it’s fine. Please let me help you up.” They extended a hand to them, not even registering that they were wearing a cage, of course they were, until they stood up, barely bracing themself on Solly’s outstretched hand.
“I’m Solly. Solly Francis.”
“Oh, I know, I recognize you. And it says so on your necklace.” The person smiled charmingly. “I’m James.”
“Pleased to meet you, James. I was just about to get myself a glass of champagne, would you join me?” Solly was smiling down at them while navigating through the crowd, towards the bar table where hot toddies and champagne were being served. That’s when they noticed the green pin on their, no, his lapel. They had assumed it was just an accessory, to match the shoes, but now they realized it was a gender pin. They had never seen one up close - January didn’t wear one - and had missed it at first.
“You’re a man?”
“Um. Yeah? Last time I checked.” It was a joke, but Solly didn’t really get it. They smiled anyway.
“And you?” James asked.
“I’m Tharsese,” Solly said, and didn’t think about it any more. Champagne in hand, Solly scanned the room to see where their charges were - and damn it all! Gale was clearly headed upstairs, alone, and January, looking strangely unsettled, was walking towards the front door. Solly briefly considered intercepting him and reminding him what he was there for, and then decided that it was a celebration, and they were going to take a moment to celebrate. Gale and January would both still be there tomorrow, equally clueless and just as impossible to bend to Solly’s PR-loving will as ever.[1]
“So, you said you recognized me, but I haven’t seen you before - tell me all about yourself.” Solly prompted, turning back to their companion. James was from London, like January, and had worked as a model for an international clothing firm before the Flood. “It’s not as glamorous as it sounds,” he demurred. “I did some runway shows, and lots of photoshoots, but mostly I was paid to look pretty wearing their clothing at events and trunk shows.”
“And are you working as a model here?” Solly was curious. It might explain those shoes.
James laughed, and it seemed to have a little bit of a bitter edge to it. “No, no, I work as a shop assistant in New Kowloon. Mostly selling versions of Tharsese designs scaled for Earthstrongers to rich tourists. I can’t afford the clothing any more than any other refugee, but they let me have a few items to wear, to show off.”
“Well, your shoes are beyond. And I like the way you’ve styled them.” James smiled again, looking very flattered. He was wearing the brogues with no socks and fashionable silk pants that were tight at the ankle but then loose above. His bare ankles were a titillating contrast to the billowing fabric above them and the elegant shoes below.
“That means a lot coming from you. You’re a fashion icon.”
“Well, I don’t know about that, but I like to look good. It makes a difference, in my business.”
“I watch the show, House Gale, the employees at the boutique got me into it. You’re the best part by far.”
They had a conversation about the show. Solly was very interested to hear a ‘person on the street’ impression, post-January’s arrival. James had some helpful insights they would think about incorporating. Overall, it was an enjoyable conversation, and as the evening party began to wind down, they found themselves seated on a couch in a softly lit corner. “You’re really bloody gorgeous, you know that?” James offered, gently touching one of Solly’s braids.
“You’re quite attractive yourself, and very good at flattery,” Solly said, smiling a beguiling smile. “Would you like to try a kiss?”
“Yes, yes a kiss would be lovely.” James’ eyes were shining, and he leaned forward just a bit. Solly kissed him gently, on the lips. Surprisingly, it was not unlike kissing a regular person. James lifted his hand and threaded his fingers through Solly’s braids, the metal filaments of his cage making tiny clinking sounds against the gold beads in their hair. They kissed again, deeper this time, and Solly began thinking ahead, deciding for themself where they would like this to end.
Suddenly, Solly heard shouting from the other room. They pulled away from James. And then everything went to hell.
————
In the tent, it was written all over Gale’s face. They were going to tell him, and January, even shot, without his cage, was going to finish the job, rip off the other leg or just tear them limb from limb. But instead there was a Big Reveal, the realization that Aubrey, stupid, vicious, snotty Aubrey was literally haunting Songshu, deliberately making River appear crazy. Aubrey, whom Solly had seen as a glamorous auncle in their youth, but who quickly revealed themself to be a selfish, incompetent prick when seen up close, after Solly joined the Songshu PR staff.
Ren ushered them all out to the next tent, no doubt to give the lovebirds some privacy. What Solly wouldn’t give for a fly drone on the wall of their tent…but not everything could be public. Even Solly acknowledged that their job was to carefully control Gale’s, and now January’s, public face, making it appear complete and realistic, while maintaining a firewall behind which there could be some modicum of normalcy and actual reality.
“What do you think is going on in there?” they asked the assembled senior staff, most of whom had shed their heat suits in the warmth of the somewhat crowded tent.
“None of our business,” said Sasha, “unless January plans to kill them, and at this point I guess they’d rather have that than no privacy…” They could tell Sasha was angry. Angry at January, for calling Song, mostly, but angry at themself for not dealing with Aubrey more completely, for not finding Max and dealing with the body, for allowing the Praetorians to take Gale in the first place. Maybe even for letting January get shot. Because Sasha liked January, Solly could tell. They liked the way he made the House feel energized and, dare they say it, happy, in spite of dancing all the time on a knife’s edge.
“It may not matter. I expect that January will bleed out before too long. He won’t make it to morning without medical treatment.” Okonkwo sounded resigned, in the brutal way doctors have when they aren’t mincing words.
“Fuck, that is gonna suck. Probably even more than being found by the Praetorians.” Ren groaned. “But maybe if he’s dead, Gale will agree to leave him behind. We’ll make it to cliff edge and…”
“Please stop talking about him dying!” Solly spit out. “Are you the ones who are going to have to scrape Gale off the floor of that tent, manually unhook their hands from January’s body and force them down the trail? No. It will be me.” They paused. “And maybe Sasha, because Gale’s stronger than me and so fucking stubborn.”
Molotov was quiet, in their mousey way. God they just made Solly insane with their absent-minded genius routine and their inability to think in real words instead of numbers and formulas. “Molotov, what have you got to say about it? Everyone else has gone.”
Molotov shrugged. “I just hope we can get things settled in time to get the array up. Because if we have to orchestrate a coup from a remote location, it might take a while. Whole days, and we don’t have that much time left to get the tower finished. Even if Song leaves what we have already standing.”
Leave it to Molotov to cut to the chase. They weren’t thinking about Gale or the election, they were thinking about whether their engineering project would get off schedule. Immediately after they thought that, Solly gave themself a mental slap on the wrist. That was unfair. There was much more at stake here than the election, or whether January, or any of them in this tent, lived or died. There were the thousands of people who would inevitably die before the Crossing ships landed with their uranium and the power plant got going again. And there was Tharsis itself, which Gale predicted would be overrun by colonial powers within the next decade, as Earth descended into climate hell.
After that, they were all quiet for a while. Sasha, in soldierly fashion, took a nap sitting up, and Molotov reviewed notes on their tablet. Okonkwo bandaged some superficial wounds they had all picked up stumbling through the brush. Ren passed out energy bars for everyone, and then sat looking at the Schedule they had downloaded onto their phone before the internet went out, looking mournful. Solly just fretted; they were always a wreck without their haptics.
A couple of hours later, January was yelling hoarsely for Sasha, and all their speculations were turned on their head.
After everything, they limped back to Songshu in a ragged bunch, January barely standing but still holding desperately to a crying, shivering Yuan. The whole way, Solly’s stomach was in a knot, waiting to round the corner and see Gale’s body swinging from the doorway or slumped to the ground in a pool of frozen blood. The scene that met them instead, Gale and Song, presenting a united, amicable front, made their stomach unknot and then sink down into their boots. Whatever Gale had traded, it was big. The election, probably, and their life, or at least their freedom, in exchange, they were sure, for the lives of their staff and especially of January. They tried not to feel the rage that welled up inside them, but they knew it was hopeless now. Everything they had worked for, both in their own career and as a Tharsese citizen, traded away because of one reckless Earthstronger. One they themself had insisted be invited in.
When they entered and saw the bodies laid out, they suddenly thought of James. They had lost him in the rush, and hadn’t seen whether he had escaped with January from the tower after all. They scanned the mute corpses, looking for a pair of yellow brogues with green accents, and was relieved not to see them.
“Solly!” They turned and saw him, rushing towards them. “Oh my God, are you okay? I was sure you’d been killed!”
He grabbed them, very unexpectedly, in a hug, as if they were a long-lost friend, or a lover.
“I’m fine, fine. And you, did you stay here?”
“Yes, I hid at first, and then when there was the announcement about everyone getting back in their cages, I was still in mine, so I just went to stand with the others. Solly, there were people lying dead on the ground and I…” He began to sob. Solly patted his shoulder, as if comforting a child. They were so small, these Earthstrongers, it was hard not to patronize them. January didn’t allow you to patronize, it kind of slid off him, but someone like James, he was realizing, someone Solly’s age with maybe a bit less experience of life’s cold, hard realities, would be easily overwhelmed. There was nothing heroic about James, and that was okay. He was a survivor.
“Have you eaten? Let’s get you a hot drink and then I’m afraid I have work to do,” Solly said, not unkindly.
James decided not to stay, in the end. He took the offer of a horse and joined a group riding to the cliff edge. Before he left, he gave Solly his contacts, and Solly realized he had no idea how bad things were likely going to get for Solly in the next day or so. Solly gave him a quick goodbye hug, never expecting to see him again, and forgot about him almost immediately after turning back to the scene inside.
Footnotes
1. Later, Solly often wondered what would have happened if they had just run after January, instead of letting him put on a cold suit and go outside. If Aubrey hadn’t led him to Max, if he never called Song. But as Ren told them, unexpectedly comfortingly for Ren, no one could have predicted this outcome, it was just too bizarre. And even January had pointed out that the last person January wanted to see after NOT kissing Gale as expected was Solly. If anything, he would have put on the heat suit just to get further away from them. [return to text]