The Starlight Fortress

by Fiona Rawsontile

  Life seemed to have gone back to normal. The busy days were easy to deal with, but she was having sleep issues at night with this strange feeling of insecurity, despite how many guards were patrolling around in her palace. Exceptions were those nights when she half woke up, she could hear the sound of Mason coming back late from work, the slowing down of his car outside the windows, the muffled shower in the nearby bathroom, and the familiar feeling of relief would last her through the rest of the night.

  On a Saturday afternoon when she came home from the cemetery where Mason was buried, she was told that Captain Presley was playing with Kyle in the backyard. She went directly to her office and tried to do some work, but found her mind a jumbled mess. She stepped out to the balcony and immediately heard Kyle’s laugh from below. He was eighteen months old now and began to run pretty well. Sterling sat on the ground facing a small pool. On the other side of the pool stood a glass funnel. Every time he threw balls into the funnel, the water would swirl the balls back to him. If he missed the target, Kyle would have a long laugh and run around to fetch the ball.

  Her gaze moved up and stopped at the sea of flowers in the back of her garden. She thought of Fernando, who used to play with her a lot when they were little kids. Those afternoons in the garden were incredibly long, compared with the short days she had as an adult. She heard he got married while she was away. Too bad she missed his wedding …

  As she decided to go back to work and turned around, she heard a loud cry from below. She looked down and saw Sterling bending over the pool and picking up Kyle, who was drenched with a ball in his hand.

  A minute later she was outside the building, heading to the circle of maids and nannies who were holding dry towels.

  “Were you really playing with him?” she stepped in and snapped at him. Recently she had been unusually irritable, but she attributed it to her pregnancy. “Or just pretending to be a good father?”

  “Sorry I got distracted,” he said with a blush. “The falling of the balls reminded me of … something …”

  “Like Newton’s Third Law?”

  “Kind of related to that …” He murmured as his gaze fell onto the balls again.

  The fact that he was still dwelling on his thought provoked her. She seized Kyle over from his arms and glared at him. “Alright, Captain Presley, I’ll be awaiting your theory on Monday morning in my office. If it’s going to be crap, you can start looking for another job now.”

  * * *

  To her surprise—and relief, although she wouldn’t admit it—his idea did turn out to be promising. He was thinking of using the artificial gravity technique as a way to modify missile trajectories.

  “For a target close to the surface of a planet, we have to take into account the gravity when computing its trajectory.” He was drawing on the whiteboard in her office.

  “I’m very aware of that,” she said stiffly, her arms crossed.

  “Similarly, if we create a large gravity field in the outer space, the trajectory of an enemy’s missile could be altered. Of course, ships won’t have sufficient power to generate a strong field for that purpose, but our fortress can. Since we know how much gravity we create, our own ships can make corrections for their guided missiles.”

  She loosened her arms and put on a serious expression. “I remember somebody proposed a similar idea years ago. The problem is the enemy could easily detect the gravity and make corrections themselves.”

  “Any measurement takes time. We can set the gravity to fluctuate quickly over time. When they make a correction based on the last measured value, it’s already outdated.”

  She mused for a moment. “A difficulty is … if we want our own ships to be able to perform the corrections, they have to know the exact fluctuation time course in advance.”

  He cast her an approving glance. “Right, and we could install several programs beforehand, and let the fortress send out signals to choose or switch the program at any time, without giving away the actual values. And synchronization signals—that’s really important.”

  “Plausible, I think.” She tried to look solemn again. “But what if the enemy catches one of our ships?”

  “We’ll need some kind of automatic deleting program, I guess? Whenever it detects a damage or a forced entry to the ship, the gravity curves will be deleted.”

  She nodded. “How long do you think it will take to implement everything? Do we need to install an extra artificial gravity generator in the fortress?”

  “I believe there is an extra already. It’s mostly computer programming and testing. Shouldn’t take very long once we have our turn to guard the fortress.”

  She walked to her desk and checked a calendar. “Rainprus is next on the list. We are after them. I’ll talk to Jonathan to see if he can let us have the whole year.”

  She sat down in her chair and resumed working. Then she heard him asking at the door, “Shall I find a box and collect my stuff?”

  She knew he was joking but didn’t find it funny. She still couldn’t cope with the guilt for Mason’s death, but if Sterling ever left, could she cope with everything else?

  * * *

  Two months later, around the time when Geneva gave birth to Mason’s son, Alfred, Sunphere launched the secret gravity project inside the Starlight Fortress. Except a few officers and the programmers, everybody thought they were just practicing with an improved battle-coordination system. After another four months, the implementation was generally finished, along with the compensation software installed in the twenty-eight warships and sixty planes that normally resided in the fortress. To help test the program and evaluate its effectiveness, Sterling flew over and took charge of the project.

  Meanwhile, Geneva resumed the investigation on her mother’s death. On a Saturday afternoon, she invited Fernando to her palace.

  “So I tracked down a teacher who taught your mother’s class,” said Fernando, walking with her in the garden. He had gained quite some weight in the past year as a married man. “She said she remembered Quincy, although he was only in her class for a semester. A quiet and polite young guy, remarkably talented in music. She didn’t remember ever seeing your mother talking to him, but there was one thing she thought was weird. Ten years after your mother graduated, the school had a reunion. Your mother showed up, which was a big deal since she was already the queen at the time. The teacher remembered being surprised to see Quincy. You know, he didn’t really belong there.”

  “Ten years after she graduated …” Geneva did some calculation. That was the year before she was born …

  “Daddy! I want Daddy!” she heard Kyle’s angry voice. She looked ahead and saw Kyle yelling at his governess and nannies in a playground.

  She walked over and asked, “What’s the matter, Kyle?”

  The front part of Kyle’s bib pants was all covered with mud. Behind him laid a cone of melted ice cream and a flat ball. Seeing his mother, he calmed down a little, but his cheeks still bulged with anger. “Where is Daddy?”

  He had asked this question several times recently, Geneva thought. “Daddy is at work,” she said gently. “He’s very busy, but soon—”

  “Daddy no work!” Kyle shouted. “Daddy with Kyle!”

  “Mom will play with you.” She moved closer to him and bent down. He scowled at her for a few seconds, turned, and strode to the house.

  Geneva straightened up. She smiled at the people around her apologetically and resumed her walk with Fernando.

  “So you sent your boyfriend to the fortress, boss?” His tone indicated he wasn’t just asking a question.

  “Is there a problem?”

  “Ur, hehe … I recently read an article in Honor. It was an interview with Lieutenant Commander Tara Prichard.”

  “Who is she?”

  “You didn’t know her?” He was surprised. “She’s your boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, and she’s currently in the fortress.”

  “My ex-boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend? That has nothing to
do with me.”

  “Really?” He turned to her and grinned. Then his smile slowly faded, and he came into a stop. “Geneva, listen …”

  She frowned. She didn’t remember ever seeing him with such a serious look.

  “If I were you, I would stop here. Whatever relationship your mother had with Quincy, it was long gone. If there was nothing, it doesn’t deserve your time. And if there was any …” He paused for a second. “It wouldn’t do you good to find out.”

  She turned away from him and looked around the palace, as well as the big land outside. Maybe he was right. There was no memory of her playing with her mother. She was too young when her mother died. But she couldn’t pretend the whole thing never existed. Someday someone would dig it out, and it would be to her disadvantage if she were unprepared.

  “Go ahead, and find out as much as you can.”

  After Fernando left, she went to check on Kyle and Alfred, who were both napping in their own rooms. Then she sat inside a nearby conservatory and opened a magazine. When she finished the first page, she checked the time. It had been forty minutes since she began reading.

  Damn it! She walked to her study and picked up the phone. “Ms. Lander, could you find out when our next logistics delivery is scheduled for the fortress?”

  Chapter 23

  She left for the fortress on Thursday evening in a convoy of three ships. It was a long trip since the fortress was on the opposite side of the sun for the time being. When seventeen hours later she saw that giant starfish ahead, however, she wished the convoy would turn around and go home immediately.

  Seriously, what was she here for, if anybody asked? What would people think of her unexpected visit? As the queen, she had the right to inspect her soldiers, but that would have involved an announcement at least two weeks in advance, and she would’ve brought along her own ships with a group of officers and secretaries, rather than just maids and bodyguards. Even if she came here to visit Sterling, it wouldn’t be a big deal. The public didn’t believe they were truly over with each other no matter what. But this wasn’t a regular visit in any sense! People would soon figure that out. She could foresee how the media elaborated on “a heated competition between Her Majesty and one of her women officers.”

  She picked up the intercom and talked to the captain. The convoy was scheduled to leave for home on Sunday, and that was enough to get her exposed. Fine, let others say what they cared to say! She was becoming numb lately. According to Fernando, a film company was going to make a movie out of her experience in Thyphol. What was to complain about, considering the sacrifices her soldiers had made, if all her people wanted from her was a little entertainment?

  The ships entered the fortress through Limb C and parked at a loading plaza. She stepped out and saw boxes of supplies slipping out from the sterns onto several transportation belts. After somebody hurried away to find Vice Admiral Howard, she was led to the center of the fortress where Howard’s office was located. It was dinnertime, but she didn’t have to wait long at the reception before she saw Lisa Howard, one of the most awed women officers in the Sunpherean Royal Fleets, stepping out of the elevator, fully dressed in uniform.

  “Your Majesty!” Howard said nervously. “Nobody informed me of your trip!”

  Geneva blushed. “Ur, I’m here for … personal affairs.” She gestured the admiral to sit down with her.

  Howard made a “gotcha” expression. She took off her hat and set it on the table at her side, revealing her tightly braided hair, half brown and half silver. “When I was on the way here, I saw Captain Presley heading in the direction of the club. Would you like me to send for him, ma’am?”

  “No, it’s fine … How is the project going, admiral?”

  “You’ll have to ask Captain Presley for the details. As far as I know, there seems to be a bug in the compensation program. They tested it on Monday and was able to deflect missile trajectories, but failed to make the corrections.”

  “Do we have scouts between here and the Trawtle?”

  “Yes.”

  “Since the last battle, our fortress is at the top of our enemy’s list. I don’t know if the fortress has any weakness, but …”

  “Nothing is indestructible, ma’am.” Howard straightened in her chair. “The Thypholians should be busy with their colonies at the moment, but we never know.”

  Geneva nodded. Recently several major colonies in the RB decided to revolt against Thyphol. She was glad that Howard didn’t relax her vigilance. “Oh, I heard we have visiting cadets from our Academy?”

  “In fact, they are just about to leave, in an hour or so.” Howard put on a gentle smile, like a mother speaking of her kids. Geneva knew she had a short marriage a long time ago, but wasn’t clear about the details.

  “They were all excited to see how everything operates,” said Howard. “Although, a few of them were disappointed since we didn’t show them how the umbrella folds.”

  They chatted for a while when Howard’s assistant was making arrangements for the queen’s accommodation. Then Geneva and her attendances were led to Limb B, the residential area, where she saw dorm after dorm with men sitting on their double beds playing cards or chesses, or coming in and out with towels and toothbrushes. The women’s dorm was quieter, although every now and then she could hear their giggles through the half-open doors. Further inside must be the officers’ rooms, which were smaller with the doors shut. She changed her clothes in her room and put on a wig and heavy makeup. She remembered passing by the Starfish Club somewhere in Limb B. There, she wanted to go alone.

  * * *

  She was almost suffocated by a mixed smell of cigarette and alcohol as she entered the club. Her eyes searched in the smoke and the crowd for a while before she headed to a corner, where Sterling was sitting at a table with two men. They wore the same white T-shirts with an eerie starfish painted on the fronts. As she walked closer, she heard them laughing wildly. She sat down at a nearby table, where two older guys were having a quiet conversation. Then she took out a small mirror from her bag and pretended to check on her makeup.

  “So he called Howard Mom?” she heard Sterling’s voice followed by a few more chuckles.

  The guy at his side with a bandaged arm said, “Now everybody joked with him, ‘Eddy, could you tell your mom not to turn off our lights at eleven?’”

  “You know,” the third guy said, “she would’ve killed him if he didn’t call her Mom.”

  Now two girls walked over and joined their table. Geneva wondered if either of them was Sterling’s ex-girlfriend.

  “How’s your arm, Gavin?” One girl asked. “We heard Eddy had another adventure last night, but we need the full version.”

  “All right.” Some tinkling of lighters. “Last night I woke up around two and went to the bathroom. When I was back, I saw Eddy’s bed empty. I was like, he must be doing his walking thing somewhere because nobody else was in the bathroom. And I’d better catch him before he’s caught wandering around you girls’ dorm. So I walked down the halls. Nobody. I kept walking, and finally I saw Howard’s door open and the room dark. That was strange—imagine Howard sleeping with her door open—but I stopped there. Whatever she was doing inside, I didn’t want to find out.”

  “You didn’t?” the third guy mocked, but he was neglected.

  “Then I heard her shouting, ‘Who are you? What are you doing in my room?’ And Eddy said, ‘Sorry, Mom! I’ll go back to my room.’”

  Everybody at the table laughed again.

  So much happier than being with me! Geneva pursed her lips.

  “Hi, miss … miss!”

  She suddenly realized someone was calling her and put down her mirror.

  “Who is with you here?” one of the two guys sitting at her table asked.

  “Nobody.” She smiled.

  “Nobody? How did you get in? … Can I see your ID?”

  She shrugged.

  “Captain Presley!” The guy stood up and called out to Sterli
ng, “We have someone suspicious here.”

  Everyone at the other table stopped talking and looked over. Sterling studied Geneva for a few seconds and said to the guy, “Send her to security if you believe so.”

  “Wait,” one of the girls said. “She looks … kind of like Her Majesty your girlfriend.”

  Sterling had a brief laugh. “You must be kidding me!” He glanced at Gavin, who then left the table and walked over to Geneva. “I’ll take her there.”

  * * *

  Geneva was escorted to the security department in Limb A. In front of a set of monitors sat four guards, fully equipped with guns, electrolasers, and intercoms. After Gavin said something quietly to one of them, a guard left his station, brought Geneva to an inner room, where a table and two seats were the only furniture, and shut the door. She thought they were going to talk to her soon, but after she waited for half an hour she lost her patience.

  She knocked on the door and said to the guard who opened it, “Let me go. I’m Geneva.” She took off her wig.

  The young man studied her for a few seconds. “Ur, you do look like Her Majesty …”

  “I am she! Do you need to see my ID?”

  “One minute, ma’am.”

  He ran away to talk to his colleagues, and then brought back a jar of iced water. “Sorry to have you wait here, ma’am, but we can’t let you go yet. Captain Presley will be here soon to talk to you.”

  “Soon?”

  “Alternatively, we could contact Admiral Howard.”

  That would be too embarrassing. “No, I’m fine! I’ll just wait.”

  What would Howard think of her? She sat back at the table and poured herself some water. So finally, she was inside his territory!

  Another twenty minutes later, Sterling came in wearing a tunic outside the starfish T-shirt. He closed the door behind him and sat opposite her at the table. Then he filled a glass with water, but didn’t drink it.

  “What are you doing, Geneva?”

  She watched the ice melting in her own glass. What was she doing, and what did she want from him, exactly? She had a strange sense of light-headedness, probably caused by interactions of the artificial gravities between different limbs.