by Rebel Miller
The woman raised her eyes to mine. Her large gray eyes were shiny with tears, many of which were streaking paths through the dust coating her cheeks. “I c-can’t find m-my father,” she said in a tremulous voice.
I gave her what I hoped was an encouraging smile. “We can try to find him together.”
She stared at me for the longest time. I had started to think she wasn’t all there when she nodded slowly.
“Okay,” I said, looking her over. She appeared to be maybe one or two years older than me. Through a dense coating of dust, I could see that her thick hair was an uncommonly bright red. “What’s your father’s name?”
There was a slight hesitation. “Donal,” she whispered, but there was an underlying defiance.
I repeated his name to confirm it as I scanned the area, taking in a deep breath. “How about you go over there and I’ll search around this side. We’ll comb the area calling his name. If he’s conscious, he should hear us.”
She nodded and struggled to her feet, eyeing me. When she turned, I saw that her back was not as covered with dust as the front. Through the fine film, I recognized an Elite uniform. A thought darted so quickly through my mind that I couldn’t pin it down. Dismissing it, I turned to start my search only to bump into Gannon. I had a feeling he hadn’t gone too far.
“Who’s that?” he asked, looking after the woman with a frown.
“I don’t know.” The intensity of his scowl made me follow his line of sight. “She says she can’t find her father.”
“She’s wearing an Elite uniform, but I’ve never seen her before,” he said. We watched silently for a while as she picked her way through the rubble.
I sighed. “Well, no matter who she is, she needs our help.” I started to walk off, calling her father’s name.
Gannon caught my unhurt arm. “Donal? That’s her father’s name?”
“Yes.” And as I responded I put two and two together. All Above, she was the daughter of Donal Ambassador, exiled leader of Argon. I glanced back at the woman just as she swung a wary look in our direction before continuing her search.
Gannon pulled me out of her eyesight and engaged his comm. Tai answered immediately.
“Is she okay?” he asked.
“She’s fine. It’s Donal Ambassador.” Gannon said in clipped voice. “His daughter’s here, looking for him.”
Tai cursed and barked out orders to his team. “Where are you?”
Gannon provided our location. Meanwhile, I watched as the young woman surveyed the area. Now that I knew who she was, I picked up on the furtive looks she cast about her, looks that had nothing to do with finding her father. She seemed hunted.
Gannon disconnected the call and looked at me. “What did she say?”
“Nothing much. She was distraught and looked disoriented,” I said, still watching the woman.
Something seemed to draw her attention. She rushed over to a low pile of tangled metal bars and rock. I stepped toward her, but Gannon stepped in front of me.
“We should help her,” I said.
Gannon scowled. “For all we know, her father orchestrated this attack. You’re staying right here!”
“Her father, not her.”
“What else would she be doing here?” Gannon pressed.
I shook my head. Something wasn’t right.
Why would her father put her in danger?
Suddenly, the woman let out a heart-wrenching cry. I ran over to her, hearing Gannon curse before he followed.
I crouched down, resting a hand on her back as she sobbed, hunched over, her face in her hands.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She reached out and placed a shaking hand on the rubble where a bit of dark cloth peeked through. Light glinted off a piece of metal affixed to it. Leaning toward it, I saw that it was a badge of the Elite caste.
I only had to glance at Gannon before he started pulling at the rock, removing the wreckage from the buried figure. Off in the distance, the sound of boots on the ground grew in volume, announcing Tai and his team’s arrival. They too joined in to dig. With everyone’s help, it took only a minute to uncover the battered body of an older male. His face was bruised where the debris had fallen, but we could easily make out his identity.
The woman crumbled before us and flung herself across the man’s chest. She started whispering desperate words in another language as she wept.
Tai pulled a device from his back pocket and leaned down to press it against the man’s neck. After a moment, he looked up at Gannon and me, his face grim.
He confirmed what we already knew. “He’s dead.”
* * *
“What are you reading?” I asked Tai. He was seated beside my cot in the private room where I had been waiting for what seemed like hours. I smirked as he pulled his eyes from his tablet to look at me. “Some instructional guide on interdominion espionage?”
He snorted. “I do more than develop strategy around rebellions.”
I smiled and jutted my chin toward the device in his hands. “So?”
“They say reading relieves stress.” He shrugged. “So I read a lot.”
Still, I waited.
Tai shifted in his seat, looking down at his tablet. “It’s a classic from the old world. You’ve probably never heard of it,” he mumbled.
“Try me.”
He glanced up, an unexpected insecurity in his eyes. “The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham,” he muttered.
Of course, I had heard of it. It was a story about a family’s life on the fringe of a postapocalyptic world. Ma had introduced me to it just after I turned thirteen, and it had remained one of my favorite books ever since.
“Huh.” I grinned but looked out of the small window to my side, since Tai seemed to be getting red-faced from my attention. “There’s more to you than meets the eye, isn’t there, Tai Corporal.”
He grunted, and I laughed out loud at his chagrin.
After Donal Ambassador was found dead in the rubble of the arc craft, the site had erupted in a flurry of activity. Tai had deployed teams to transfer survivors to vehicles waiting outside of the arc station. Once he updated his superior and Realm Council members, he was tasked with working directly with High Marshal Thaddeus Centurion to search the area for other rogue individuals, dead or alive. Before moving out, he informed Gannon of a private location where Realm councillors and the rest of the delegation were being taken, and told him to take me there. I wanted to stay on-site and help look for survivors, but my appeals fell on deaf ears. Now that they had a strong indication that Donal was involved in the attack, Tai and Gannon didn’t have much tolerance for any more of my acts of selflessness.
Hours later, I was lying on a cot in a medic room, staring at the ceiling with a frantic mind. Gannon had been sitting by my side most of the time, only leaving now and then to speak with his father. When Tai had returned a couple hours ago, Gannon had gone to stretch his legs and check on other citizens being cared for. Since then, Tai, my muscle-bound nursemaid, hadn’t moved from beside me, his head ducked, eyes focused on his tablet.
Now Tai leaned forward suddenly, his hazel eyes fierce in their intensity. “I’m so fucking proud of you, Kira. “
“For what?”
“In the face of all that chaos, you were so in control.”
I pressed my lips together with a shrug.
“If there was ever a time for a panic attack,” he added, “that would have been it.” “That’s not how they work. They happen when I least expect them,” I murmured. “You’re the one who helped so many people.”
“As you said before, I’m trained to do that,” he countered.
Tai seemed determined to see my conduct as something that warranted recognition. My gaze fell to the thin blanket covering me, and I played with its edges. The room was clinical white in all things — furniture, equipment, walls and bedding. It reflected the spare and barren landscape of Septima Two. The restless traveler in me was not impressed by thi
s world. I sighed, feeling a deep yearning to go home.
I felt Tai’s eyes on me for a few moments before a figure shadowed the door.
“Subordinate Metallurgist?” The medic, an older man with a highly efficient air, entered the room swiftly. He swiped through a tablet as he approached the cot. “Good news. There’s no injury to the head, but your wrist has a minor fracture. As long as you continue with the ultra-light therapy it should be as good as new in no time.”
“Are you certain?” Tai asked as he stood.
The other man craned his head back to face Tai. Despite his disadvantage in height, he was able to quell Tai with a look.
“I’m certain. You see, I do this all the time,” the medic said.
Tai narrowed his eyes.
Relieved, I swung my legs over the side of the cot. “I can leave then?”
“Yes,” the medic said, looking at me. “But they’re asking citizens to stay on-site. There’s a lounge area down the hall where you can find food and drink.”
“Thank you,” I said before he quit the room. I overheard him greeting a fellow patient nearby as I started collecting my few scattered belongings and throwing them in my bag.
“I spoke with Rhoan,” Tai said.
I glanced at him as he helped me pull my coat over my bandaged wrist.
I had called my family as soon as I’d arrived at the holding station and, as expected, they were frantic with worry. While they’d recognized the great opportunity this trip was when I told them about the minister’s invitation, my family had been very hesitant about me going on it. I believed it was guilt over their recent revelations that kept them from being too vocal against it. I tried to alleviate their worry when I called from Dignitas One by telling them that Tai and a senator I had been working with were with me at all times. They took some small comfort in that. Rhoan, though, found it particularly interesting to learn about a senator who was so kind as to watch over me during and after a massive attack. No doubt, Rhoan suspected that this was the same senator who had given me the information about my aunt and her family.
“You and Rhoan are on speaking terms now?” I asked, peering up at Tai and anticipating the worst.
“Tragic circumstances often bring positive results,” he said drily as we walked out of the medic room.
I understood what he meant. In the face of the attack, the tension between my family and me had temporarily lost some of its chill.
“Rhoan asked me to keep an eye on you,” Tai said. “He doesn’t trust your senator.”
I looked away with a shrug, feeling an angry heat crawl up my neck. “Why would he? He doesn’t know Gannon. As far as Rhoan’s concerned, he’s the senator I’m sleeping with to acquire covert information.”
Tai grunted his agreement. “I told him not to worry. That he wouldn’t hurt you,” he said. I stopped in my tracks.
“You said that?”
Tai nodded, his expression inscrutable.
“Thank you,” I whispered, searching his face. He swallowed before looking away. Tai moved off, so I followed. With my good arm, I pulled my bag up higher on my shoulder. “It doesn’t matter. Rhoan will despise him anyway, you know,” I said.
“That’s what older brothers do,” Tai said, nodding a hello to a fellow protector passing by.
I glanced up at him. “He wouldn’t despise you, Tai,” I said quietly.
“I don’t care about that,” he said, but when I eyed him, he chuckled. “Not that much, at least. If I decided to be with you, I would risk Rhoan hating me any day.”
“Then wh—”
“You see how I live, Kira. This one day in your life would be every day with me,” he said. “Are you prepared to live in fear?”
“Yes,” I said without hesitation.
Tai stopped and studied me intently. After a moment, he raised a hand to touch my cheek. “My fearless Kira — that’s what I’ll call you. Kira, na temin’ha,” he said in Samaric, our world’s official language.
“I was looking for you.”
I turned out of Tai’s touch quickly when I heard Gannon’s voice. His long strides ate the ground up as he approached.
“You’ve been released?” he asked, pulling me into his arms.
I nodded. “We’re heading to the lounge.”
“Good. You need to eat.” Gannon tucked me under his arm and nudged me forward gently. Tai fell in step beside us.
One of the other positives results of tragedy seemed to be Gannon’s more overt demonstrations of affection. I enjoyed it, even knowing that as soon as things were settled down, we would become circumspect again.
“I just received a report from my father,” he said. “The Corona’s condition is worse than they first thought. There’s internal bleeding and broken ribs. They’ve sedated her so she can rest.”
I frowned as Tai accepted the news with a grim expression.
A low din told us we were near the lounge. As we entered I saw that it was not very full. A few groups of citizens huddled in corners, eating and no doubt talking about the catastrophe we had all been through. Gannon ushered me over to the tables spread with food and refreshment. Tai opted not to eat, saying he would have to leave soon to report to his superior. After filling our trays, Gannon indicated a table in a quiet corner on the far left.
As we walked toward it, I saw the young woman, Donal Ambassador’s daughter, seated alone at a table on the opposite side of the room. Her head was down, her long hair forming a protective flame-red curtain around her. Two protectors stood guard beside her, but they couldn’t shield her from the large group of citizens nearby who shot both hostile and curious looks her way.
I pointed to the woman. “Let’s sit over there,” I said, stopping our trek.
Gannon and Tai swung around to glare at me.
“No,” Gannon said.
Tai looked at me like I had lost my mind.
“She’s already been interrogated,” I said. “They weren’t able to pin anything on her.”
“She’s still under investigation, Kira,” Tai said.
I pursed my lips.
“You want to befriend an enemy of the Realm?” Gannon asked incredulously.
I turned to Tai. “She lost her father. I think you more than anyone can understand how she must feel right now.”
Tai lost two shades of color and I instantly regretted reminding him of his own father’s passing. He glanced away with a twist to his lips. When he returned his gaze to mine, it bore into me. Then, with a fierce scowl, he headed toward the woman’s table.
Gannon considered me a long moment. “Well, let’s see what she has to say,” he said before he strode off in the same direction.
I followed, now uncertain whether speaking with this woman was worth the disapproval I’d seen in Gannon’s and Tai’s eyes.
Tai had just finished saying a few words to the protectors standing close by and was already settling into a seat when Gannon and I reached the table. Tai nodded to us and I understood that we had received approval to sit with the young woman.
“I hope you don’t mind if we join you,” I said, standing by her shoulder.
She looked up. Her eyes flared slightly when she took in Tai and Gannon, but she recovered quickly. After scanning the lounge, she shrugged, obviously trying to appear more collected than she was.
I sat beside her as Gannon placed my tray of food in front of me and lowered himself into a chair on my other side. He coolly studied Donal’s daughter while Tai tapped out messages on his ever-present tablet across from me.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said once settled in.
There was a long pause, then she said in a tight voice, “Thank you,” but she didn’t look at me. Her head was bowed, her hair falling over her hunched shoulders and around her hands, which were clasped on the edge of the table.
“My name is Kira Metallurgist,” I said, then turned to Tai and Gannon. “The excessively muscular one is Tai, and the excessively arrogant one is Gannon
.”
My attempt at levity fell flat.
She narrowed her eyes at Gannon, who had been glowering at her, but wasn’t able to hold his challenging stare and soon dropped her eyes back to the table.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
Her eyes flickered around the table. “What do you care?” she said.
My back straightened. Gannon smirked, sent me an “I told you so” look and started to eat. Tai continued to tap out messages, seemingly oblivious to our exchange.
If she wanted to play out her role as an outcast, then so be it.
For a while the three of us ate in silence, the only sounds Tai’s frequent taps and the low hum of the rest of the lounge. Before long the woman shifted in her chair, then turned to me abruptly.
“My name is Liandra,” she said, her chin held high.
I tilted the corner of my lips up only a bit in response, still smarting from her earlier rudeness.
Liandra looked Gannon and Tai over. “You two look important,” she remarked.
“I’d like to think so,” Gannon drawled.
Tai had no comment.
I chose to dismiss the offhand implication that I wasn’t important and offered a more formal introduction. “Gannon is designate to the high chancellor at Realm Council, and Tai is a corporal on Prospect, where I’m from.”
“Good,” she said, still looking at them. “They s-say my f-father did this.”
Gannon stopped eating as Tai looked up.
“Did he?” Tai asked.
“No,” she said, her eyes wide and luminous. “He c-couldn’t have.” She seemed to be trying to reconcile the attack with the man she knew as her father.
Gannon and Tai exchanged a quick look. They didn’t appear moved.
She cleared her throat and took a moment to gather herself. “My father did nothing wrong. He didn’t deserve this,” she said adamantly, her speech much smoother now.
“Your father was conducting exploration,” Tai said, his eyes hard.
“You think my father was the only one?” she hissed in a low voice. “You’re a fool if you do.”
We all stared at her. Was she really trying to drag others into her dominion’s act of corruption?