Redemption Installment 5

*continuing from Joanne and the "dark lady's" convo..*

“What? You took us so you could keep studying us after our homes were destroyed?” Joanne’s face was flushing with anger. “That makes no sense. Are you going to lock us in little cages and test our blood and DNA or something? And what’s the purpose of destroying Earth when you’re so keen to study us?”
“Please calm yourself, Miss Mitchell. We want you to understand what is going on here, though it may be hard at first. We are destroying your world before you destroy each other. You and your comrades are here to start a new Earth.”

In the awkward silence that followed the dark woman’s words, Joanne had no thoughts. Her mind was literally empty as she stared dumbstruck into the calm collected face of this alien. Slowly, her mind tried to process all this new information. A new Earth, a culture that revered women and worshipped blacks, the destruction of Earth; slowly, tears made their way down her cheeks. “But, why?” She whispered almost to herself. “Why do you have to destroy us?”
“As I said,” the calm alien woman before her spoke. “We are concerned that your people are destroying each other, and if we do not intervene, then all that is what you call Earth and humankind, will be gone.”
“But you’re destroying it anyway! What difference does it make? Either way we lose!”
The dark woman shook her head. “No, this way, you may continue your culture, and we may continue to study it. Most of our top scientists are in full support of this because it gives us a chance to watch how your culture evolves from nothing. Can you understand this?”
Joanne was furious. A million different things ran through her mind, many of them unutterable things she longed to yell at this woman before her. “I’m afraid I can’t understand at all,” she spoke slowly, trying to keep her temper in check. “Isn’t there a way you will change your mind?”
The woman smiled faintly. “It is not up to me what happens to your world. I merely speak and act upon the will of my people. The council makes the decisions and unless you believe you can change their minds-”
“Yes!” Joanne suddenly felt hopeful. “Let me speak to this council, give me a chance, I know I can make them change their minds.” I have to, she thought to herself.
“Very well Miss Mitchell,” the woman inclined her head politely. “Tomorrow you will accompany me to a meeting of the council,” she walked over to the end of the table and pressed a button. “For now, you will remain her with your comrades. I will return in a few short hours after you have rested.” The door opened and the light blue man who had accompanied Joanne everywhere thus far entered the room, sweeping a deep bow to both the women. “Teka will be your attendant for as long as you stay with us, he is skilled in many Earth tongues.” She turned to him and clicked and whistled rapidly, in response he bowed again and as the dark woman swept one last curtsey to Joanne and glided out of the room, Teka approached Joanne, motioning with his hands.
“Come, Miss Mitchell, it is time you rested, your comrades will have finished their meal now, but I will be sure something is brought to you.”

Minutes later, Joanne had polished off a pretty decent meal of chicken with rice and beans. As a green skinned Myantide exited with her empty plates, she thought to herself that that had to have been the best in flight meal she had had in a long time. Teka stood awkwardly in a corner of the room, watching Joanne meticulously. A bit uncomfortable, she twisted around to see what her “comrades” were doing. Chinue, the thin black girl, was still huddled underneath her blanket, and when Joanne’s eyes met hers, Chinue’s glance fell quickly to the ground. Much to her dismay, the red headed woman, Rosemary, came and sat beside her.
“So,” she whispered, leaning in close to Joanne’s ear as she peered suspiciously at Teka. “What happened? Did you speak to any of them?” Rosemary’s eyes shone bright with a hunger for information. Joanne now understood why the Myantides had never spoken to her or the other lighter skinned people. Though, even if Rosemary had been black, Joanne felt no one would confide much information in her.
She shrugged, making herself seem indifferent to the whole situation. “I talked to someone. She’s taking me to some council meeting tomorrow.” Suddenly two other figures appeared beside Rosemary. Tene and Jabari leaned in eagerly.
“What sort of meeting is this?” Jabari warbled. “Are they really destroying Earth?” Rosemary’s eyebrows shot up at the new information and she suddenly looked frightened.
Joanne cleared her throat awkwardly. She hadn’t really wanted to tell the others about this. She had hoped to go before this council, explain to them that they just couldn’t destroy Earth, and then go home. It didn’t much matter to her that the others were involved. “Well, I’m going in front of a council to convince them not to destroy Earth.” Jabari and Tene sat back, their faces a bit more subdued.
Tene shook his head. “They will not listen. We have tried to reason with them before, but reason is something completely different to them.”
“Maybe they’ll listen to me,” Joanne felt a bit insulted that the men didn’t trust her. “The woman I spoke to said they respect women more than men, I’m sure they’ll listen to me.”
“Oh, they’ll listen, no doubt,” now Keiji knelt beside the group. “But they will not understand. They are a different people from us, there is much we could never convey to their hearts, try as we might to explain it to their heads.”
Joanne was confused. Her brain felt like it was twisted into a billion tight knots closing around her head. Why shouldn’t these people listen to and understand her? It wasn’t that hard to understand, was it?

The next day, Joanne lost what she had been so sure of. She seated herself between Teka and the dark woman whom she had been told to call “Giaga”, which Joanne assumed to be the equivalent to “queen” or “empress”, or something very high status. The council meeting was taking place in a private ship quite similar to the one she had seen Giaga exit from the day before. The entrance to the ship was the entrance to the meeting room, which was the ship. Plush seats lined the curved walls and all ready a couple hundred people of various blue colors were seated. A floating council, Joanne thought as more people entered and took their places. She wondered if they would actually be flying during the meeting.
But as the meeting began, Joanne lost all confidence in herself and began to shake in her seat. She hadn’t felt this way since high school speech class. The immense size of the room and the huge number of people, Myantides, occupying it frightened her in a way she couldn’t explain. She soothed herself with thoughts of her friends and family, and all that she knew that was good in her life. Maybe it wasn’t spectacular, but it was something worth fighting for. Or so she thought at the time.
Giaga rose regally after a pale blue man had led the group in a series of clicks she assumed was the standard beginning to every meeting. Giaga’s voice filled the room with ease. Joanne sat amazed at the power this woman had over her audience. Every eye in the room was focused on her, and though she couldn’t understand anything that was being said, Joanne too found herself mesmerized. After a few urgent clicks from Giaga, Joanne found herself caught up in a great silence. Slowly it dawned on her, Giaga was done speaking. And every eye was now on her. Joanne blushed profusely, looking from Giaga to Teka for an explanation.
“You are expected to speak now,” Teka said flatly as if this should have been completely obvious to her. Dazed, she rose from her seat and made the mistake of looking into a million pairs of eyes. Heart racing, her palms filling with sweat, Joanne turned wide eyed to Giaga. The woman gazed back with placid eyes and took her seat, pushing something on the sideof Joanne’s armrest as she did. Almost simultaneously, an invisible force field seemed to take hole of her. At first it was if her lungs were being squished underneath a steam roller, but gradually the pressure lifted, though Joanne could still feel some eerie presence about her.