Elysium Shining

by Terri Kraemer

  He set the kit down next to four more relics from other worlds, presumably, that had been visited by the alliance over the years.

  Then he continued, saying, “Your primary assignment for this class will be twofold, three if you count your research. For each and every one of you—no, this is not a group assignment or I will deduct from your grades—I will have you formulate and write about any one of these five items here. You will choose one, and then choose your format of story so long as it is a minimum of two thousand words.

  “This can be turned in any time between your midterm exams and the second to last week of class. Be warned, however, that you will be scheduled upon turning in your written draft, and then you will be asked to read or perform your project before the rest of your peers. The full project will be worth seventy-five percent of your total grade.

  “Now then, do any of you have questions regarding this assignment?”

  Zoey did not raise her hand or have any questions, unlike most of the class. She sat there and smiled at the relics while she listened. Ideas churned in her head like the dual rings of Natt Grans if they moved at a neck-breaking pace.

  * * *

  She had been wiping down the front counter at work when a police car pulled up to the sidewalk outside of the bakery. Dasos got out of the front passenger seat, which Zoey now spotted through the vertical blinds and window. Her brother walked into the store, and the two other customers noticed him. They went back to browsing the store’s selection before them.

  “Hello, welcome to the Super Cake Pros,” Zoey said.

  “I was wondering when I would catch you here,” said Dasos. “I’ve come for the usual for my partner and me.”

  “Is this anything like where I come from, and you’re now feeding into an old stereotype?”

  “If, by that, you mean this place has good coffee, then yes. I’ll take two of those.”

  Zoey snorted to herself and grabbed the two cups to dispense the current stock of coffee that was brewing.

  “So,” Dasos said, “Mom tells me you achieved the second level yesterday during class.”

  “I can hardly believe it myself,” Zoey said. “She told me I can stop holding back with my Aelfen senses, because I would have hit the second level sooner. I told her that feels like cheating unless I’m fighting a certain someone we know.”

  “Here, the rest of us take that edge for granted. Good job on learning that so quickly. I almost have to wonder if you’re driven by something, though.”

  “You and Mom both. Anyways, here are your coffees. That will be fifty burras per cup, so one hundred, please.”

  Dasos proceeded to pay by inserting his card in the side of the device when he said, “Mom wants us to go to dinner with her tomorrow. A couple of admirals will be there with their wives, including the Fjorfolias. She said Tonny was invited too.”

  “The timing might be odd. I’ll have to ask Tonny.”

  “Agreed. Well, take care with work; I won’t keep you any longer.”

  He grabbed both coffees and returned to the car.

  * * *

  Tong-Chang hated the idea of staying alone for the night, but she told the two siblings to go have dinner without her. She had work to do, and the suspicious timing of the Fjorfolias asking her to dinner in public was one risk she was going to have to do without.

  So it was seven people at one dinner table. Zoey felt as though everyone there, who wasn’t a Thalassas, had some secret or trap waiting for other people at the table. On top of that, she felt like she was being watched from all sides while their party dined in the middle of a fancy restaurant.

  “Pardon my asking, Admiral and Lady Fjorfolia,” said Zoey.

  “Oh, please,” the admiral said, “we’re all friends here. Call us Chan-Yeol and Fe’remene.”

  “Yes, sir. I noticed that your driver or bodyguard isn’t here this time, or was that not what she was?”

  “Ho-ho,” said Fe’remene, “she is indeed in our employ, but she was too busy with other tasks, I’m afraid. We simply could not bring her along this time. Was there something of interest between the two of you?”

  “No, Lady Fe’remene. I was just curious was all.”

  “You have an eye for these details, Lady Zoi’ne. I think you may be a natural for high society. You could come to our manor sometime and I’d be glad to teach you what you really need to know.”

  “I’m flattered, but this isn’t for me.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “Speaking of naturals,” the second admiral said, “I still find it to be a shame that you retired, Captain. Someone with your talents could have made the rank of admiral by now.”

  Bon’sinne said, “Let me know when such a rank opens and maybe I would consider coming back, just so I can retire again.”

  “Your family of upstarts, I swear.”

  “What can I say? I had my reasons for leaving.”

  “I’m aware. I was the one who read that report and letter of resignation. It was a dreadful tragedy, but I tell you again what you must have been told many times in the past revolution. No one high up blames you for what happened at the Allied Medical Institute.”

  “That’s one person in this room who does, then. Had I been in a better state of mind, I would have made a better call. That one Hulda’fi would have gotten away from the clinic, but there would have been more survivors, more innocents spared.”

  “Now I hear you teach at the university.”

  “Yes, sir. Someone has to teach our children that mistakes can and will be made, and that it’s up to them to be more of a sound mind going into the decisions we make. Someone has to keep that incident from ever happening again, because putting me back in an active position to lead starships is the reverse of that.”

  During that time, Zoey sensed someone watching her more directly rather than observing the table she sat at. She looked around the room, and saw a woman shift her sunglasses and turn towards a door, her rosewood hair flashing for an instant before she was gone.

  “Excuse me,” Zoey said, getting up. “I have to use the ladies’ room.”

  It couldn’t have been who she thought that was, but Zoey happened to need to use the restroom, so it was good timing. She also needed to get away from the Fjorfolias for a moment, because, compared to any restroom in the whole universe that she could imagine, Fe’remene especially made her feel filthy.

  Zoey walked in and saw one other person in there, her feet appearing in one of two stalls. Zoey rolled her eyes and stepped into the next stall out of the remaining two. Her footsteps echoed half of a second before her feet touched the ground.

  Once she sat in the other stall, Zoey said, “I hope you’re not planning to make this awkward.”

  “Awkward?” said Soror Valide. “I’ll have you know I do have standards. It’s you I’m worried about.”

  “Sure you are. Soror, why are you here? Or how are you here? The Fjorfolias said you couldn’t come.”

  “Never mind that. If you must know, I borrowed someone else’s craft without asking, and I intend to give it back before I return home. I can almost see Dasos’s face if he knew the number of crafts or vehicles I’ve stolen in the last two revolutions. Almost.”

  “He doesn’t know yet. Neither do Mom or Dad, but it’s a matter of time before that changes.”

  “So she didn’t see me then?”

  “She isn’t sure what she saw. I got an earful or two about it, asking me if I was in that forest.”

  “I really didn’t come to talk about that.”

  “Well, tough. I want to know what you were doing that night? Visiting the house and then fleeing?”

  “I have my reasons. I don’t need to explain them. You know what? Fine. Why haven’t you told them I’m alive? That’s what I want to know.”

  “It’s your secret to keep and yours to share. I don’t rat out my friends.”

  “We’re not friends.”

  “No, we’re sisters. That makes it so mu
ch worse.”

  Soror Valide sighed in heavy disapproval. “Is she OK?”

  “Who?”

  “Tonny. I didn’t see her at the table. Is she OK? Is she safe at least?”

  “She’s feeling a little cooped up, but she’s fine. Tonny’s the only other person who knows, by the way. She misses you.”

  “As long as she remains herself.”

  “What?”

  “It’s nothing.”

  “What do the Hulda’fi want with her?” Zoey sat there expecting Soror Valide to blow her off. Instead they both sat for seconds; almost a minute. Zoey was ready to speak out again and repeat her question with more force.

  “She’s a primary candidate for solving one of our biggest problems,” said Soror Valide. “We have a scientist from Earth trying to stabilize wormholes on command, but he needs better equipment. He needs better tools and machines to handle his algorithms and workload. Tonny might be clever enough to make it work. There are others, but she’s the first choice.”

  “How do you have a scientist from Earth?”

  “Never mind about that. I can’t believe I’m about to ask you this, but keep her safe. Can you do that?”

  “I fully intended to. If you came for her I’d kick your butt.”

  “Good.”

  “It’s not easy, though. She needs to go out for class. She wants to be able to get a job. We can’t even talk to the police about setting up protection, because we don’t know who to trust. If you really cared about her, you would do something to help her.”

  Soror Valide pounded on the partition separating their stalls. A moment passed before Zoey heard her sister shuffling her bodyweight. Then she saw a slip of paper beneath the partition.

  “Give this to someone with the power to do something,” Soror Valide said. “Let Dasos know. Tell him I’m sorry.”

  “You really should tell him yourself,” said Zoey.

  “No, I can’t. I can’t face anyone right now. Just take the damn paper already. It has the name of one of our insiders with the Trullwick Police. I love my family, the Hulda’fi, but I cherish Tonny, and I hate spies. I love them. I love...”

  Her voice seemed to trail off like someone becoming less sure of their own words or where they were the more they said them. Soror Valide got up and walked out of her stall.

  Zoey hurried up with what she was doing and attempted to give chase, but Soror Valide was gone in an instant before Zoey was out of the stall that she had used. Zoey swore silently and examined the paper she held.

  [ 39]

  Soror Valide said, “I will need to speak with him in private for a moment. Wait outside for me.”

  Her two sisters standing guard looked at one another for a moment. Soror Valide wondered if they would willingly defy her, or if they were ordered against anything she might say, but then her sisters nodded to one another and again to her. Both of them made their way up the stairs.

  Once they were out of the way, and she could hear the door swing closed at the top of the steps, Soror Valide sat on the couch. She felt the weight of the planet come down with her, and she pressed her hands down across her face; then bowed her head forward, her elbows hitting her knees.

  “I was near about to go to bed,” Doctor Wilde said to her.

  “I did a thing,” Soror Valide said. “I don’t know how long I have here.”

  “What sort of thing? Why tell me? I thought you Hulda’fi types always confided in your Lord and Lady.”

  “This thing I did goes against them. I sneaked around and gave up information on one of our own. I did it to protect an old friend of mine I haven’t spoken to in two revolutions. That isn’t my life now. What have I done? Why do I care? W-what?”

  The doctor proceeded to hug her, her face now pressed against his chest. His hand hesitated before eventually patting and rubbing her back.

  He said, “I have never been very good with emotions, but I hope this helps.”

  “I shouldn’t be like this,” Soror Valide said. “I am the scourge of the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance. I lead an elite team to do difficult, often dangerous jobs for the Hulda’fi. I shouldn’t be going off to Elysium IX like I have been. I should never have gone back the first time.”

  “I’m still afraid of you if it’s any consolation.”

  “Don’t patronize me, old man. I could kill you where you stand and make my pending punishment more severe.”

  “No, no, I don’t think either of us will come to that.”

  “It’s a matter of time before that girl gives the note to someone of authority. That means our Hallowed Lord and Lady. I did not think this through. She deserves my old life more than I do. When they see the note with my writing on it, I’ll have nothing. I won’t have any life.”

  * * *

  A cool breeze groaned outside of the trellises as Zoey and Dasos walked back to their condo. She tried not to think about such things as the Fjorfolias asking her about her schooling or about Tong-Chang.

  “Thank you for not giving away Tonny’s location tonight,” said Dasos. “Even where we were, there was no telling who was listening. I think a few of the servers might have been watching and listening.”

  “I think it runs deeper than that,” Zoey said.

  “Do you? I would be curious to learn what you know, if that were the case.”

  “Once we’re inside and settled down I will tell you.”

  She grabbed her key and unlocked the door to their home. Her brother looked at her with a plain face and followed.

  Inside, the sole source of light came from the living room monitor, which was playing the news on mute. There was a story going about someone’s private stiern-boat going missing for several hours and then turning up not far from where it had started, from what Zoey could read on the news header.

  Tong-Chang was on the couch, asleep, with her digital pad in her hands. Her head rested on the reclined backside of the sofa. Zoey smiled at her and ran a finger through Tong-Chang’s scalp before kissing her on the Ginserei’s dainty nose.

  “Hm?” said Tong-Chang. “Oh hi, lover. Did you just get home?”

  “We did,” Zoey said. “You might want to be awake for this.”

  “For what?”

  Meanwhile, Dasos grabbed one of his last beers that he bought from Natt Grans and set it on the counter. It was now or never, before Dasos opened the bottle.

  She fetched the slip of paper from inside her shoe and handed it to her brother. It was smaller than her hand, but she suspected it to have a greater impact than every punch she had ever thrown in close to eighteen years.

  “What’s this?” Dasos asked.

  “I encountered her again. She wanted me to hand this to someone of authority. You’re the first such person I can trust.”

  Dasos regarded her before looking at the note. Zoey was glad that he thought nothing of where she hid it. He looked at it intently before giving it a humored huff.

  “This reminds me of Lyssa’s writing.”

  “Yes,” Zoey said.

  “Where did you get this?”

  “I was in the restroom. Soror Valide handed it to me herself.”

  Tong-Chang gasped and said, “Stars beyond, you’re telling him.”

  “I wanted to tell you sooner, but it’s her.”

  Dasos inhaled sharply, his face growing angrier. His voice raised. “Do you think this is funny?”

  “No. Not in the least.”

  “I don’t mind most pranks, but this is going too far if you mean to make it seem as if Il’lyse is alive. This is a good officer you are indicating!”

  “It’s her, Das. It’s really her. Soror Valide handed me that note because she still cares about you and Tonny.” Zoey reached out to him, wanting to put her hand on his shoulder.

  He withdrew. “Don’t! Don’t.”

  “She wanted me to tell you that she’s sorry. There’s a lot I don’t believe, coming from her, but this I do.”

  “Lyssa?” His hands shook with
the note in hand. He fell to his knees. “Why?”

  Zoey kneeled and finally placed a hand on him. “I don’t know. I think it involves the Fjorfolias, but there isn’t enough evidence. If you take this note to your captain, then maybe he can at least do something about this officer, and we’ll have helped Tonny in some way.”