by Lucia Ashta
Kai turned his attention from the horses to us. “You were going to leave us behind?” He sounded betrayed.
Dolpheus put his hands up. “Hey. We didn’t say anything about leaving you guys behind.”
“You were thinking it,” Ilara accused.
“Can you blame us?” I asked.
Dolpheus had already admitted that we lied when necessary to protect others. But neither one of us liked lying. We did of little of it as possible and hardly ever just to protect our own skin.
“We are the lifelong soldiers,” I argued. “We are the ones that stand the best chance of getting out of there alive. Even Kai has far less experience than us—sorry, man. We’re just trying to look out for you. We don’t want you to get hurt. If we have to do this foolish thing, then let’s minimize those of us that can get hurt doing it.”
“You’ve already made this argument,” Ilara said. “You’re not saying anything new.”
“That’s because they’re good and valid points. You should listen to me, Ilara.”
“I assume that the princess of Planet Origins gets to decide what she does.”
“More or less,” I said frankly. As independent as Ilara was, she was as much a pawn under the King’s control as any of his subjects. And there were things she couldn’t do—a man she wasn’t allowed to love—because of who she was.
“Whatever that means, which I hope you’ll explain at some future point, I assume I don’t usually take orders from you.”
“No,” I said softly.
“So if I say I’m going with you guys, I’m going with you guys. I’m not going to collect firewood.”
“What’s this firewood you speak of?” Lila asked. “You mentioned collecting wood for fire before too. What’s that about?”
Ilara appeared genuinely surprised by Lila’s questions. “What do you mean? Don’t you use firewood here?”
Lila sat up and opened her eyes. “What is firewood?” she asked again, in that annoying way she had of speaking as if you were half as intelligent as you were. “That’s what I’m asking you. Firewood. What is it?”
“You know what wood is?”
“Of course we do. But what’s wood have to do with fire?”
“On Earth we burn wood to prolong fire.”
“You actually burn the wood on purpose?” This time it was Kai, and he was alarmed. “Why would you ever burn wood on purpose? Does wood not come from trees on Sand?”
“Yes, it does,” Ilara said, sounding less certain of herself.
“Then why on O would anyone ever burn a part of a tree on purpose?” Kai was aghast.
“I’d bet you courtiers would,” Lila said bitterly.
“Tress are alive,” Kai continued. “Don’t you know that? Don’t people on Sand know that?”
“Yes, I suppose they do, I do.” Ilara’s voice was soft now, and she turned her face away from Dolpheus and me and toward the massive trees that bordered the clearing.
“Then why would anyone burn something that was alive?” Kai asked. “That’s horrible.”
“I suppose it is,” Ilara said toward the trees.
“What’s the wood actually used for?” Lila asked. “I mean, how does it prolong fire, as you said?”
Ilara didn’t look at Lila. She looked at the forest full of trees and seemed sad. “On Sand, we set fire to the wood. The fire consumes the wood, and once the wood’s reduced to coals and later ashes, the fire puts itself out, because there’s nothing left for it to burn.”
“That’s fascinating,” Lila the scientist said, ignoring Kai’s horrified expression.
Ilara turned her back to the trees. “What do you burn here? What do you set fire to?”
“Nothing. Fire burns on its own,” Lila said. “It burns until you put it out.”
“Wow. That’s incredible.”
Lila shrugged. “What’s more incredible is that you don’t realize that fire can burn on its own on Sand, and that you burn living trees to fuel a fire that doesn’t need fuel.”
“How does it not need fuel?”
“It just doesn’t. It never has. Fire is its own energy. It sustains itself. I suppose it’s a cycle of some sort. The fire puts off energy that then nourishes and sustains it. I don’t know. I’ve never stopped to think of it before. Now I will.”
“Do people on Sand kill something alive to get water too? Or air? Or dirt?” Kai asked.
“No, just fire.” She hesitated. “Though on Earth they cut down trees to make paper and other things too.”
Kai’s eyes bulged. “Oh the oasis. That’s awful. Why on O do they kill trees to make paper? What is paper?”
“People use paper to write and draw on.”
“Why not just write and draw in the air like we do?”
“I don’t know, I really don’t,” Ilara said, all too ready to admit defeat. If I had to put a name to her expression, I’d say she looked ashamed. I’d never seen this woman or the princess ashamed of anything before.
Maybe we can slip away while they’re distracted, Dolpheus said in my head.
Distracted or not, I don’t think we’re slipping away.
Aye. I don’t think so either. Sorry, Tan, but I think we’re going to have to find a way to bring them with us.
You realize that’s ridiculous, right, Olph?
Aye. Fully and completely.
I sighed heavily and ran my hand through my hair. It was probably sticking straight up all over the place.
“All right, guys,” I said, walking back toward the gathering, Dolpheus right behind me. “We can talk about the murdering practices of Sanders at another time. If you guys really won’t let me convince you of the wisdom of remaining behind, I need to understand why you think you should come.”
Ilara and Lila started speaking at the same time.
“One at a time. Ilara, you first.”
“Of course she’s first,” Lila huffed under her breath. We all ignored her.
“I’m going with you guys because this directly involves me. Of all of us here, I’m the only one who’s been off planet, is that right?”
“Riiiiight, but—” I said.
“The splicing lab’s equipped for off planet transport, and I’m the most experienced in it. I’m the one these dudes, Brachius and Aletox, are apparently trying to kill.”
“All the more reason to—”
“So I have all the more reason to find out why. Incidentally, they’re also apparently responsible for killing the woman who was my mother and for seriously injuring the man who seems to be my father.”
“Correeect, but—”
“And if my theory’s right and these dudes are harvesting the bodies of identical human beings from parallel, holographic worlds, then I have more interest than anyone else in going because I’m the only one to have apparent ties to two of the planets involved. And I’m the only one who might actually be one of these identical human beings from a holographic world. Should I go on? Because I could go on all day, not that I need to convince you I’m going, because I am. I don’t need your permission.”
She does need to know how to get in, though, Dolpheus said in my mind. I doubt she’ll be able to figure it out without us at this stage. The full-on princess with her full memories, possibly. But without all her skills and experience, I don’t think so.
I agreed with Dolpheus, but I wasn’t about to tell Ilara that.
“I’m not telling you that you do need my permission, Ilara,” I said aloud. “I’m telling you that I want to protect you and keep you safe so that you can help your people on O. So that you can take over rule from Lord Drakos while your father recovers, and if he doesn’t ever wake, so that you can claim rule of O and do good for the people of this planet.”
I thought I saw a flicker of doubt cross her wild, cosmic eyes. I continued, hoping my reasoning was getting through to her. “Ilara, the risk is too great, not just for you, but for your people. They can’t afford to lose you. They only just got you bac
k.” In front of our audience, I left out what I was really thinking. I only just got you back. “Ilara, you’ll be in danger.”
“Danger shmanger,” she said, and even though I had no idea what exactly that meant, I realized my reasoning was a waste of energy. She said, “I’ve never shied away from danger before. I do what I have to do, no matter what. That’s the way I ended up here in the first place. I felt really strongly that I was supposed to go on top of that mountain in the lightning storm. So I did. Even when everyone else was turning back because they said it was too dangerous, I persisted. Because I felt like I was supposed to. Now I feel like I’m supposed to go into that lab with you. So I’m going, too.”
And just like that, she won me over. I couldn’t argue with following those kinds of feelings. It’s what I did. It’s what Dolpheus did, and it’s precisely what the princess had done since she first seduced me.
“All right,” I said. “Come then.” I didn’t like the idea, but since when had me not liking an idea done anything to prevent it from happening anyway?
“Good,” she said. But she continued to stand fiercely, with her arms across her chest.
“Is it time for my argument now?” Lila asked.
“Sure. Why not?” I waved my hands around exaggeratedly while I spoke, punctuating my sarcasm in case she missed it.
She didn’t care. “I’m the only one who’s ever worked in the lab, who knows more about splicing and the instruments than any of you combined.”
“She has a good point,” Ilara interjected.
“Of course I do.” Lila smiled.
“Besides, I’m the only one who has these.” Lila wiggled her fingers and eyebrows and grinned maniacally, sticking out her tongue and panting like an overheated dog.
“You totally look like a crazy person, like I’m-going-to-move-to-the-other-side-of-the-clearing-if-you-keep-doing-that kind of crazy person,” Ilara said, saving me from saying the same.
“I have the necessary biometric identifiers to get us in through the door. Fingerprints, eyeballs, breath, and blood. You can’t get in without me.”
Of course we could get in without her. Dolpheus and I’d done it before, and if she’d taken a pause in her one-woman crazy show, she would’ve realized it. We crashed into her inside the lab.
“You think we’re just going to gallivant through the front door with you?” Dolpheus asked, heavy on the skepticism. “Five of us? Are going to walk through the door with you? Into one of the two most heavily secured buildings on O?”
“Yes,” she said.
After that, we didn’t even bother asking Kai why he thought he should come in with us. Once there were four of us, one more made little difference, especially when Kai could prove useful if we encountered anyone trying to kill us.
Dolpheus looked only to me. “So our plan’s gone from you and I breaking into the lab to all five of us just going in the front door?”
“I guess,” I said. Our plan stunk.
“Wow. That’s a really bad plan.”
“Yes, it most certainly is.”
17
We left the horses tied to trees, and out of sight of the splicing facility. From there, we went on foot. None of our crew wore those ridiculous high-heeled shoes courtiers did, so we were more or less prepared for stealth, or as close to it as we’d get.
“You know,” Dolpheus started out loud, since the others walked behind us, “Kai’s a trained guard, he might do okay in there, and Ilara’s swift and agile. She’s trained and done sparring, less than us, obviously, but she’s not completely inexperienced.”
“Even if she doesn’t remember any of it?”
“Even so. I think there’re certain things the body must remember. Regardless, she’s sharp-minded. And Lila’s wily, dodgy. And she’s right about knowing a lot more about not just splicing, but the splicing facility. This might go all right.”
“You really think so?” I asked, dreading that each step brought us nearer to a poorly planned, precarious situation.
“I don’t know, Tan. I guess not. I’m just trying to make the best of it.”
“Before we no longer have that option?” I chuckled sardonically.
“You know it.” He smiled. “Besides, there might not be reason to worry.”
“Why do you say that? I can see plenty of reason to worry.”
“Because chances are high that Aletox voided Lila’s entry authority the instant he got back from seeing her in the village with all of us.”
“You’re right! Of course he would’ve done that. This is Aletox we’re talking about. There’s no way he’d allow Lila to continue having the access to enter the facility now that he knows she’s been compromised,” I said.
“Precisely.”
“It would’ve been the first thing he did.”
“Yup.”
I felt my whole body relax. We’d just go ahead with the ruse. Allow Lila to attempt entry, while hoping like crazy that no one spotted us. When her entry was denied, we’d retreat. Then the only way left to try to gain entry would be via the force field manipulation method Dolpheus and I’d used before, albeit inelegantly. They couldn’t blame us for not allowing them to come along. It’d just be the circumstances, nothing we could do about those.
In the end, it would be just Dolpheus and me going in. Exactly the way we’d wanted it, since we’d already seemingly committed to this dubious course of action.
I pulled us all to a stop, much cheerier now that I understood this to be a show for our companions and nothing more. “All right,” I whispered. “From here on out we need to be as quiet as possible. I looked for monitoring devices outside the facility last time, and I found none.”
“Yeah. The facility doesn’t have any. Not inside either,” Lila said.
I nodded. “That’s what I concluded.”
“Why would that be?” Kai asked, with good reason to be befuddled. “Monitoring devices are all over the palace.”
“Because,” Dolpheus answered, “even though Brachius wants the splicing lab to be as secure as possible, monitoring feed isn’t. If he records what goes on out and inside of the splicing facility, then that’s a feed that somebody could tap into. No matter how he protects and hides the footage, it’s there, a constant danger that someone will discover it—”
“And discover what he’s actually up to,” I finished. “You don’t know Brachius, do you?”
Kai shook his head.
“Imagine the most paranoid, secretive man you can, then multiply that by a factor of ten. He doesn’t want anyone knowing anything about him, not even his comings and goings from the facility.”
“He doesn’t transport into the place like the rest of you?”
“Brachius might be brilliant, but he can’t transport, at least not that I know. I’d imagine he’s tried it, but you have to possess a certain amount of… malleability of the mind to transport safely. Perhaps it’s as simple as the fact that he’s too set in his ways and rigid to transport.”
But I exchanged a questioning look with Dolpheus. What I was saying didn’t quite add up. Why couldn’t Brachius transport? Someone as determined as him certainly could have made progress with practice. And transporting offered tantalizing advantages to someone so intent on concealing his movements from others.
“I guess that makes sense,” Kai said, even though it didn’t. “But Aletox can transport, obviously.”
“Aye,” Dolpheus said.
“Hunh,” Kai said.
Exactly, I thought. “Anyway, back to us. There are no monitoring devices inside or out, so unless someone’s looking, our approach should be safe. But employees leave their flying machines off to one side. Any one of them could come in or out at the wrong moment, and then we’re caught.”
Dolpheus continued, “So keep it down. Do everything possible to keep attention from coming our way.”
“And once Lila opens the door?” Ilara asked. “What’s the plan then?”
We had no plan
for then. We wouldn’t get inside like this. That Lila hadn’t realized it was surprising, but to our advantage.
“Then we do everything we can to cross the lab without being noticed,” Dolpheus said. “And hope that luck is miraculously on our side. Because it won’t be easy to hide all five of us moving through the lab, especially not when the Suxle Sun is still up. That’s probably the busiest shift.”
Lila nodded.
“Maybe we should wait till the Suxle sets,” Kai said. It was a smart strategic move. But not when it wouldn’t matter anyway. We weren’t getting in with Lila.
“No, let’s just go in now,” I said, ignoring Kai’s look that questioned our tactical strategy.
“All right. Let’s do this then,” Lila said. Her voice was too convivial. It made me wonder if this was as close to having a good time with friends as she got.
“Let’s,” Dolpheus said, looking straight at me. Let’s get this over with so you and I can get in there and get this done already.
I nodded, not bothering to remind everyone to be silent one more time, and turned back to lead the way.
Once we reached the last of the cover, I didn’t bother conferring with our companions again. After a quick scan to confirm that no employees were at their flying vehicles or milling around anywhere, I walked out into the open clearing, starkly free of trees and their far-reaching ability to conceal. Dolpheus was immediately beside me. We walked straight and visibly relaxed, even if we weren’t. Like we belonged there. Because there was no faster way to be caught for something you weren’t supposed to be doing than to appear as if you were doing something you should be caught for.
In less than a minute, all five of us were at the door, looking at Lila expectantly.
I had to give her credit. She was focused and composed. Her demeanor instantly made me wonder how often she did things forbidden to her. I’d expected her to be flustered, at least a little, even if she’d admitted to performing additional experiments on the side at the lab. However, it was one thing to do a little experiment that she could likely explain away if anyone saw her doing it, and it was quite another to be so blatant about the wrongdoing. There was no way to explain away what she was doing now. If anyone spotted her with all of us, it’d be clear she was up to no good. And Brachius and Aletox were particularly intolerant of transgressions like this one, so long as they weren’t the ones committing the transgression.