As Darshy and Daven got started, Byrani pulled Tiera to the side. “Just give me a second, okay?” Byrani said in response to Daven’s questioning look, and she returned her attention to Tiera. “I’m not sure if we’ll ever see each other after this, so I brought you my parting present just in case.” Byrani reached toward her coat pocket.
“What?” Tiera was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that they had saved the Earth. She hadn’t given much thought to what would happen to her when she finally succeeded.
“It’s an Osyan custom,” Byrani explained, taking Tiera’s hand and placing something small and cold on her palm. “This is my family’s crest. I’ve always hated jewelry, but I thought you might like it. It’s platinum and lapis lazuli—in case you were wondering.” For some reason Byrani seemed embarrassed, and when she pulled her hand away Tiera looked down at the pendant—a platinum, five-pointed star with a bright blue half-dome of lapis lazuli at its center, all about an inch across and hanging from a matching chain by two of the star’s points.
“Byrani . . . ” Tiera stared down at the pendant, suddenly overcome by the thought that she might never see any of her friends again.
“I don’t care if you don’t have anything for me,” Byrani said quickly, raising a hand to muss up her short dark hair. “Like I said, it’s an Osyan custom. I just wanted you to have something to remember me by.”
“Thank you,” Tiera finally said, and Byrani just smiled, then walked over to help Darshy and Daven. Tiera pulled the necklace over her head as she walked over to join them, tucking it into her shirt and hoping it wouldn’t be taken from her if—when—she was arrested.
The four heavy-duty cabinets were wide enough to hide the door completely, and thick enough that tipping them over would have been nearly impossible, especially with how they were stacked against each other. Darshy and Daven had barely removed the first of the four cabinets when Byrani and Tiera joined them. After they removed the second, Tiera and her friends discovered why Leon and his officers were having such a hard time: the battering they had done to the fourth cabinet had warped the steel, pushing it forward and into the third cabinet and essentially strengthening the bearings of the fourth. Working together with the officers on the other side, they were able to wobble the fused cabinets away from the door just enough for the officers to squeeze through.
Tiera took deep breaths as Leon’s purple-suited officers surrounded them, their gray police batons in hand. Leon took a step toward Tiera, the silver crest on his uniform as prominent as ever, and regarded her with an unreadable expression.
“What have you been up to this morning, Tiera?”
Tiera’s face got hot as she realized every single person in the room had eyes only for her. “Well,” she began slowly, “I wasn’t lying when I said I was helping a friend with a science pro—”
“What kind of science project nearly depletes the city’s power reserves?” Leon demanded. “What kind of science project requires you to barricade yourselves into a lab?” A few of his officers gave Leon surprised looks. “I thought you might be trying to go back to Earth! I was wo—” Leon stopped himself and closed his eyes. “Just tell me what it is you did.”
“Tiera didn’t do anything,” Daven cut in, and even he looked surprised with himself.
“Yeah,” Darshy said, giving Daven a nod. “It was all me.”
“Us,” Byrani corrected him.
“That includes me, in case that wasn’t clear,” Daven clarified awkwardly.
Looking at each of them as they spoke, Tiera’s chest swelled with pride and gratitude for her amazing friends. I can’t cry yet, she thought, trying to get her emotions under control before her next move.
“Alright,” Leon said, “but what did you do?”
“I’ll tell you, but first I need to ask you something,” Tiera said before anyone could respond. Leon looked at her expectantly, and she took that as permission to continue. “In all of the planetary charters, the Republic of Origin is defined as ‘the governor, lawgiver, and defender of all Andromedan life and sentience,’ is it not?”
“I clearly haven’t committed it to memory as well as you have, but yes,” Leon said. “What—”
“And you recognize this as law?” Tiera interrupted.
“Yes, but—”
Tiera’s heart was pounding. “And you, Chief Leon Uedent, made some sort of oath to uphold the law, didn’t you?”
“I did.” Leon had clearly stopped trying to get a word in edgewise.
“Then you, as an officer of the Republic of Origin, have to protect Earth.”
“Tiera.” Leon took on a pitying look. “We’ve been over this. Parliament never recognized Earth as a colony of Origin. And surely it’s gone by now, with the black holes—”
“We saved it.” Tiera watched Leon warily, unsure of how he would respond.
“You—what do you mean?”
“We saved Earth,” Darshy said, pointing at himself, Daven, and Byrani. “Tiera mostly just watched.”
Leon gave Darshy a level look. “I know for a fact that black holes throughout the universe are currently sucking the Milky Galaxy dry. Earth’s star was one of the first targeted.”
“Yes, but Earth has a new star now,” Byrani said, her lips tight in a falsely sweet smile. “328E16R4775, to be exact. Earth is now Andromeda 9.”
“And by law, you and the Republic of Origin must defend it,” Tiera told the very confused-looking Chief of Police.
“And,” Daven added timidly, “we’re not going to tell you anything else without our lawyers present.”
Chapter 29
“Tiera Jasperson, will you accept a visit from Xana Seeli?”
Tiera jolted awake and looked around in confusion as she slowly remembered where she was: a cozy little cell in Faroa City’s jail. I guess I fell asleep, Tiera thought, sitting up in her bed and straightening the old USU t-shirt that Xana had brought in for her last week. She wasn’t required to wear prison greens since she was technically only being detained, but she and her three accomplices weren’t allowed to leave the jail until those Parliament walruses determined exactly how moving the Earth into their galaxy was illegal—and then she’d probably be sent to Hyran again.
“Tiera Jasperson,” the male intercom voice repeated, but this time less patiently, “will you accept a visit from Xana Seeli?”
“Yeah! When have I not?” Tiera grumbled, still struggling to orient herself. She pulled her smart glass out from under her green blanket and saw that it was already 16 in the afternoon. Weird. Usually she was pulled out of jail around 14 or 15 to testify in court. Despite the annoying questions, court time was usually the highlight of her day—especially if her friends were there to testify at the same time. She knew the only thing that separated them was a few walls, but it still felt like Darshy, Daven, and Byrani were miles away.
“An officer will escort you to a visiting room momentarily.”
“Thanks.” Tiera swung her legs over the bed and slipped her shoes on, then she stood up and grabbed her gold pleather purse from her cell’s small desk, shoving her smart glass inside it and pulling it over her shoulder just as an officer opened her door. “Good afternoon, Ferrer; your eyebrows are certainly on fleek today.”
Ferrer just sighed as they let Tiera through the door. “What does that even mean?”
“‘On fleek’ is an English slang term for nice or stylish,” Tiera explained, stepping past them and into the hallway. “You really ought to be taking notes, now that Earth is a part of the Republic.”
Instead of responding, Ferrer just rolled their eyes and led Tiera down the hall and to the visiting rooms. She had made this little trek often enough that she really didn’t need Ferrer’s help to get there, but Tiera was one of the galaxy’s biggest troublemakers now, so of course she was under constant supervision.
“Hi, Tiera,” Xana said, standing up as her friend entered the white-walled waiting room, and Ferrer stood just outside the
open door to guard her. She kept looking up at the ceiling as Tiera approached.
“Hey!” Tiera said with a smile, then made her way over to hug her friend. “Something on the ceiling?” Tiera asked teasingly as she pulled Xana in.
“Oh! No, I was just wondering about their ventilation systems,” Xana said, her head over Tiera’s shoulder. “So have you heard?” Xana asked animatedly as she pulled out of the hug. The two of them sat down on the cushioned gray bench.
“Heard what?”
“They’ve decided to adopt Earth!” Xana said. “Can’t you connect to the news interface on your smart glass?”
“I was taking a nap,” Tiera defended herself. “But that’s great! Have they—?”
“They didn’t say anything about your guys’ sentences,” Xana interrupted, intuiting what Tiera was about to ask, “but all that’s left to figure out is property damage and the electric bill—and I guess theft, but for some reason they can’t prove that you guys stole those parts from the lab.” Xana’s eyes practically twinkled. “But they’ve decided it wasn’t illegal to bring Earth into our galaxy, since there’s no law against it—yet—and that means that Parliament has to acknowledge its duty to govern Earth now.”
“Awesome!” Tiera said, but then she remembered how little she liked Parliament. “I think.”
“Yeah, Earth may end up worse than Rencin,” Xana said quietly, eyeing Ferrer through the doorway. “But at least it wasn’t destroyed.” She gave Tiera a hopeful smile.
“At least it wasn’t destroyed,” Tiera agreed, but she couldn’t help but feel worried for Earth’s future. Earth’s governments have a hard enough time getting along with each other—how are they going to get along with Origin? Tiera tried and failed to suppress a shudder. And how will Origin respond when they don’t?
“There’s one more thing,” Xana added, pulling Tiera from her thoughts.
“Yeah?”
Xana stared down at her lap. “I’m going to be working for the government now.”
She’s acting like we’re in a confessional. Tiera gave Xana a confused look, but she didn’t see it. “Congratulations?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Tiera waited a moment for Xana to say more, but she didn’t. “You don’t seem like you want to work for the government.”
“No! I do,” Xana contested, her eyes darting toward Ferrer again. “My parents agreed that working for the government would be good for my . . . professional image. Plus I’m the only person who has any experience converting Earth technologies to something our tech can process. Not that it’s hard.” Xana shrugged.
“So you’ll be working with Earth tech? Does that mean you’ll visit Earth?” Tiera wasn’t sure where she’d end up after all of this was over, but she’d love to show Xana around Salt Lake someday.
“I doubt they’ll let anyone visit Earth anytime soon. Not until they’re sure it’s safe at least,” Xana said, and Tiera tried not to show how much her hopes just fell. “No, I’ll do most of my work from here, probably. They’ll open a permanent wormhole in Earth’s orbit so its satellites can communicate with Origin’s, which will relay everything I need to Faroa.”
“That makes sense.” Tiera wondered what sort of job she’d be doing herself when this was over. She had always wanted to be involved in politics, but she wasn’t sure if Origin was going to let her anywhere near that field at this point.
Xana put a hand on Tiera’s arm. “Are you okay?”
Her question surprised Tiera. And it made her think. She stared at her hands, balled together in her lap, and thought of her friends here and the adventures she shared with them—adapting to Faroa, visiting Origin, going to prison on Hyran, saving the Earth. That meant that her family was safe now, free to live their quiet lives in Utah.
And I might join them soon.
Tiera reached over and gave Xana’s hand a squeeze. “I think I will be.”
***
“The accused; Byrani Kawa, Darshy Chelladri, Daven Theo, and Tiera Jasperson; will stand.”
Tiera and her friends stood, and the lawyers sitting behind them quieted their chatter. It had only been two days since Xana had relayed the good news about Earth to Tiera in that jail’s visiting room. Two days. That’s all it would have taken to determine their punishment if Parliament hadn’t been so hell-bent on trying to make them pay for saving the Earth. But instead they held them in jail for nearly three weeks.
The jury member who had been whispering in the judge’s ear for the past ten minutes finally left, and Tiera tried not to scowl at him as he crossed the vast floor of white marble and rejoined the other jury members at their section of cushioned seats. It makes no sense. Tiera had learned that the jury of every major court case in this galaxy was required give a seat to a representative from Parliament—which obviously tipped the results of the cases in Parliament’s favor.
Luckily, though, they were also required to offer a representative of the Police Bureau a seat. Even though Leon clearly disapproved of Tiera’s actions, he was keeping his oath to uphold the law. He had sent one of his officers to fill the jury seat, and Tiera had seen the woman argue with Parliament’s representative on more than one occasion.
“Each of you will be charged with defacing public property, as well as resisting arrest,” the judge announced. The tear-shaped pearl hanging over her forehead wobbled as she gathered and released the fabric of her burnt-orange frock—an absentminded habit of hers. “You will each be required to complete a public service as determined by your local city councils. Byrani Kawa, Darshy Chelladri, and Daven Theo will also be fined for misuse of city resources.”
Tiera was pretty sure the judge was referring to all the power they had drained from Faroa City’s reserves. Apparently the lab building didn’t have a power limit because they didn’t want to accidentally cut the power on a professor’s important research, but since Tiera and her friends’ “research” wasn’t approved, they had to pay for it.
“You’re all very lucky that there was no law restricting the transplant of an entire planet into our galaxy,” the judge continued, looking down her nose at them from behind the bench, which was carved from crystal to look like waves and cascading waterfalls. “But know that it is illegal now, and if you try this again you will all serve life sentences in the Hyranian maximum security prison. In lieu of this, you will each be sent back to your planet of birth, where you will remain until you are deemed safe for interplanetary travel.”
To her left, Tiera saw Darshy hang his head, and guilt seeped through her all over again. Sensing her gaze, Darshy looked up and grinned at Tiera reassuringly, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. His life is about to get so much harder.
“This case is dismissed,” the judge said, ignoring their little exchange. “You will each have a police officer chaperone you as you gather your belongings and arrange for them to be sent to your home planet. You must complete these arrangements by 9 tomorrow morning, when you will be escorted to your home planet. You may go.”
Tiera turned and gave each of her friends a tight hug, then tried not to cry as they all filed out of the courtroom for the last time. And out of each other’s lives.
***
“Please try to figure out how to contact me,” Tiera told Xana again, whispering to keep Ferrer from hearing her. They were Tiera’s police chaperone until she reached the WG station at the outskirts of the city, and they were just a few paces ahead of Tiera and Xana, hauling a box of her things into the car. Tiera didn’t want them to hear because however Xana contacted Tiera, it would be illegal. As soon as she was on Earth, the only native Andromedan Tiera would be allowed to contact was Leon.
“I will,” Xana mumbled. She seemed almost sullen, but from the redness around her eyes Tiera knew this was just her special way of grieving. Tiera knew what it was like to shut down when things got too hard.
After putting the boxes in the car, Tiera turned around and hugged Xana as fiercely as she could, staring ou
t over her shoulder for one last look at the gleaming white walls of Dawning Court Apartments. “I love you, okay?” she told Xana, pulling out from the hug and putting her hands on Xana’s shoulders. “We’ll see each other again.”
“How?” Xana grumbled. She was crying again.
“We’ll figure something out,” Tiera told her friend, then gave her shoulders a little shake. “We will!”
Xana sniffed and pulled her lips up in a pathetic attempt at a smile. “You mean I will,” she teased. “This is Hyran all over again.”
Tiera laughed. “Exactly.”
As the magnet car pulled away from the sidewalk and onto the street, Tiera waved goodbye, and Xana halfheartedly waved back. But once the car turned the corner, Tiera slipped—she couldn’t hold back the thought that she might never see Xana again anymore, and she started bawling. Ferrer turned around from the seat in front of her to give Tiera a weird look, but they had enough tact not to say anything.
I’ll come back, Tiera told herself as the car zipped past the pearly white city. I’ll come back someday. She watched the city wane as it gave way to the surrounding forest, and she had mostly gotten a handle on her emotions by the time their car was hurtling through the crystalline wastelands that surrounded Faroa City. Before she knew it she was spiraling into the crater that housed the WG station, pulling into the car port, and being passed off to Leon.
“Remember,” Leon began, picking up two of Tiera’s three boxes, “another wormhole will open in the exact same spot in precisely 25 hours. We need to start working right away.” His tone was so stoic compared to what Tiera was used to.
Tiera still didn’t trust her voice, so she just nodded to show she understood, then lifted the third box of her belongings. As the only person in the galaxy who could fluently speak both English and Original—who wasn’t an imprisoned insurrectionist—Tiera would complete her court-ordered public service as a liaison of sorts.
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