Station Fosaan

by Dee Garretson

  Grandfather asked a few questions and when I was finished, he said, “Why were you holding her hand? It was extremely inappropriate. You made a spectacle of yourself.”

  I couldn’t believe holding Mira’s hand would be an issue, certainly not something my grandfather should care about at a time when there were far more serious things happening. I didn’t understand it at all. “We’re friends,” I said, knowing I sounded defensive. “She was scared. She’s never been off Fosaan before.”

  “Do your parents know about you and this girl?”

  “There’s nothing to know.”

  He kept his gaze fixed on me like he didn’t believe me. I stared back at him, determined not to let him know I wasn’t quite telling the truth. Finally, he said, “I’m relieved to hear that. As long as you realize it means nothing, we’ll let it go. Your next years are going to be taken up with far more important things. Just be aware every single thing you do will be under scrutiny, not only because of our family’s name, but because there are some out there who would like to see you fail because of me. I paid a high price for your father’s bad judgment. I can’t have anything else happen that would reflect badly on me. Especially not now.”

  My anger flared. I didn’t want to be the one to make up for the actions of my father. I didn’t even know exactly what he had done that was so terrible, and my grandfather’s concern over his own reputation seemed petty and meaningless. At that moment I wished for nothing more than to go back to Fosaan and forget I was even part of the Neen family.

  Grandfather apparently thought the conversation finished. “We need to get through this debriefing,” he said.

  “What’s going to happen with the remaining Fosaanians?” I asked. “They don’t have enough food and there are some that need medical care.”

  “You don’t need to concern yourself with the Fosaanians. We’ll send people to evaluate the situation. Because of the uprising, we’ll put a military presence down on the planet.”

  “How did you know there was an uprising? It’s only been a few days and they took control of the communications.”

  “I can’t tell you. It’s classified.” He pushed a markon on a table panel and spoke into it. “Get everyone back in.”

  “Did Earth trigger the supervolcano that caused the Fosaanian apocalypse?” I blurted. Tasim’s claim had been nagging at me.

  My grandfather went still. He looked at me, his eyes unreadable. “Don’t ask that question again,” he said. “It’s a preposterous idea. Go sit over there.” He motioned to the opposite side of the table.

  I did as I was told. Decker and Lainie joined me. The next few hours were exhausting. It felt to me as soon as one of us would tell a part about what happened, someone new would come in the room and want to hear it all again. The same questions were asked over and over. I found myself becoming more and more aware of just how terrible I felt. As the tremors in my arms increased, I let Decker and Lainie do most of the talking, trying to concentrate on just staying upright.

  After what seemed a long time, the admiral held up his hand for silence, tapping his earpiece. After a moment he said, “I’m happy to report the station scientists and their families have been recovered without incidence. They are on their way here.”

  Clapping broke out, but the admiral quickly silenced it, as if it were just another daily maintenance task. The questions continued. I was frustrated that no one seemed to realize just how dangerous Ansun could be, if he was still alive, and I thought he probably was. From the remarks people made, they saw him as a minor figure who could easily be captured and punished.

  The dizziness increased. My stomach did an odd little twist that brought on a wave of nausea. I thought if I just closed my eyes, everything would be fine. I didn’t realize until later I passed out then, effectively bringing the debriefing to a close.

  I came to in a bed in the ship’s sick bay, my parents standing over me. I was happy to see them, but couldn’t work up the energy to tell them that.

  “You’ve had quite a time of it, I hear,” my father said. “The doctors gave you some meds and some fluids. They said you passed out because you were suffering from exhaustion and dehydration, though they do want to do some more extensive testing once you’ve rested up.”

  I flexed my fingers. I didn’t feel any tremors and my head did feel much clearer.

  “Saunder told us how you got the shock,” his mother said, her lips were trembling. “I don’t know how that happened with the bot. No one should have been able to reprogram it that way.”

  “I’m good now. I feel much better.” I didn’t want my mother thinking any of it was her fault. As I lay there trying to figure out what else I could say to reassure my mom, I became aware I had to turn my head to see my father. Reaching my hand to my face, I realized there was a patch over my eye.

  “What’s up with this?” I asked, dreading to hear the answer.

  “The doctors want to give that eye time to recover,” my father said. “It may take some additional surgery.”

  “But it will be all right, won’t it?”

  My father just looked at me for a moment. “Probably, but you know doctors. They don’t want to commit themselves.”

  The words sunk in. If it came to an artificial eye, I knew they never worked as well as real ones. My parents stood there, as if waiting to see my reaction. I didn’t know what I felt, so to change the subject, I asked, “Where’s Piper? Is she okay?”

  “She’s fine. She’s with some of the other children in the exercise area,” my mother said, sounding relieved I didn’t say any more about the eye. “You’ll see her later. And before you ask, Mags is fine too. She’s in our quarters after causing quite a commotion when we took her off the shuttle. She took an instant dislike to the poor guards there. When did she start calling people ‘dogboys?’”

  I managed to smile at that. “Blame Decker for that.” I sat up, realizing I was still very sore.

  As if he had heard his name, Decker walked into the room. “You look better,” he said to me. “I was afraid you were going to throw up all over me in the conference room.”

  “I almost did,” I said, relieved Decker didn’t mention the eye patch. I wanted everyone to ignore it so I could too. I took in Decker’s outfit, all in black in a basic cadet’s uniform. “So why are you dressed like that? Did you instantly join up? I guess you were serious about getting offplanet.”

  Decker shook his head. “They found us some uniforms that don’t have any rank attached to them yet. Our clothes were in such bad shape, they got rid of them. There’s one for you too. So are you well enough to go?”

  “Go where?”

  “There’s a celebration starting in a little while,” Decker replied. “The entertainment officer thought the scientists’ rescue would be a good reason for a party. I think they just want to keep the little kids occupied so they don’t run all over the ship.”

  “The doc says you can get up when you want to,” my father said.

  “Yes,” my mother added. “But I think you should rest instead.”

  I didn’t want to go anywhere. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t much to celebrate. “Have you seen Mira?” I asked Decker.

  “No, but Lainie said we’d see her at the celebration.”

  That made me reconsider. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, realizing I felt far steadier than I had just a few minutes before. Even if I didn’t feel completely back to normal, I was well enough to go see Mira.

  After my mother saw I was determined to go, she stopped arguing, and my parents left me to dress. By the time Decker and I got to the entertainment clubroom, the party was already in progress. When the two of us entered the room, we were swarmed by the space station scientists and the younger children.

  I didn’t see my sister at first, but then I heard Piper’s voice. “Quinn! Quinn!” She ran up to me and threw her arms around my waist. “Do you like the eye pat
ch I chose for you? They had them in all different colors but I thought you’d like the silver.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “I do.” I was glad she wasn’t weirded out about the idea of me wearing an eye patch. I looked over her head to see Lainie and Saunder approaching, their arms linked. Piper tugged on my arm. “They have some great food here. Want to come get some?”

  “In a minute. You go ahead.” She danced off. I shook my head. “Well, I guess there’s someone who is totally back to normal.”

  “She’s a good kid,” Decker said.

  Lainie and Saunder were all smiles when they reached us. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever see any of you again,” Saunder said. “Lainie’s told me a little about what happened. Unbelievable. I want to hear more.”

  “Later,” I said, thinking maybe never, though I knew I’d not forget everything that happened. I was happy Saunder looked okay. I’d feared Saunder would have suffered some of the same injuries as Gregor had, but besides dark circles under his eyes, Saunder seemed fine.

  Lainie had on a basic uniform similar to the one Decker and I wore, one that didn’t fit her well. She pulled at the collar of the jacket. “This uniform-thing is driving me crazy. I’m glad military carvers don’t follow strict dress codes. I couldn’t stand to wear this sort of thing every day.”

  “You’re going to have to wear a uniform during training, and that’s coming soon. Did you hear?” Decker asked me.

  “Hear what?”

  “They’ve lowered the age for training. Unrest in various places is straining the force. We’re all in just as soon as they can process us.” Decker smiled when he said it, but I felt like someone had punched me in the chest. I didn’t know what that meant for me, especially with the eye injury. I didn’t think the reconnaissance patrol would take me if I was blind in one eye. My grandfather probably couldn’t make the officer training program take me either, though I had never thought of alternatives. What if I was unfit for anything? And what did it mean for Mira and me?

  A couple of girls walked by who smiled in our direction, cadets by look of the emblem on their uniforms. I looked around behind me to see who they were smiling at. There was nothing there but a wall.

  Lainie nudged my arm. “They were smiling at you, in case you can’t figure that out. I’ve already had some other cadets ask me about you.” She rolled her eyes. “You’d think they’d never seen a couple of scruffy hero-type boys before.”

  To hide my embarrassment, I asked, “Where’s Mira?”

  “She’ll be along soon,” Lainie said. “That woman Raisa brought along some replicas of pre-Apocalypse Fosaanian dresses and when I left, Mira was trying them on.”

  I was confused. “Why would Raisa bring those?”

  Lainie shrugged. “She said it was research. She wants to know how much Fosaanian culture has changed since the Apocalypse.”

  “She’ll be in for some big surprises,” I said.

  The sudden quiet in the crowd made me turn around. Mira had entered the room, my grandfather next to her. She was dressed like the Fosaanians I had seen in the old images, in a long flowing colorful dress. Her hair was piled on her head and decorated with some sort of gleaming little ornaments. She looked nothing like the girl I’d first seen, dripping wet and wary in my quarters. When she realized everyone was staring at her, she stopped and ducked her head.

  I walked over and took her hand, not caring that my grandfather was watching. Out of the corner of my good eye, I saw my grandfather frown, but then someone came up and spoke to the man, drawing his attention away from us. I took the opportunity to lead Mira away from the crowd over to the large viewing port.

  “Your eye?” Mira said, reaching a hand up to my face but not touching me.

  “The eye is fine,” I lied. “It just needs some time to recover. You look amazing.”

  She turned her head away from me as if she hadn’t heard, but I saw a smile appear on her face. We stood side by side watching as Fosaan spun slowly below us. “It’s beautiful,” Mira said. “I never realized just how beautiful. So green.”

  “It is an amazing place,” I said. “Even with its giant lizard creatures and sulfur smell. I was kind of getting attached to it. How are you? No one has been treating you badly, have they?”

  “I’m fine. They seem to think I’m just an ignorant native girl who knows nothing. At least for now, that’s the way I want them to think, until I know more about what’s going to happen to the rest of the clan.”

  “You know I’ll help in any way I can. Just tell me if you want me to talk to my grandfather or you want me to be with you when you do.”

  “I know,” she said. “But for a few hours, I don’t want to think about it. Tomorrow, and the days after that will be time to decide what to do. Tonight I want to see how the Earthers live and I want to taste all the wonderful food and I want to dance.”

  I didn’t want to think about tomorrow either. Not with a girl like Mira standing right in next to me. “What is this about dancing?” I asked.

  “Raisa said there would be dancing. She’s given me what she calls a ‘rush course’ in Earther dances so we could dance.”

  “I need a rush course too.”

  “You don’t know how?”

  “Not very well.” The music started. “But let’s see how we do,” I said as we went out to join the dancers.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thanks are due to all who helped me build the world in this story. First, as always, thanks to Dean, who is my idea sounding board, my science advisor, and much more. Thanks to Garret for always being willing to read bits, talk through plot problems and come up with solutions. Thanks to Hope for casting a keen eye on details.

  Major thanks to two of my readers, Jacob Meazle and Riley Foster. I wouldn’t be confident to go forward with the story without input from readers like them. Thanks to Amanda Avutu and Lori Foster, who helped this story in its earliest days.

  And last, thanks to my brother Kim Garretson, who first introduced science fiction to me. All those amazing books that shaped the genre are my inspiration.

  DEE GARRETSON

  Dee Garretson writes for many different age groups, from chapter books to middle grade to young adult to adult fiction. She lives in Ohio with her family, and in true writer fashion, has cat companions who oversee her daily word count. When she’s not writing, she loves to travel, watch old movies, and attempt various kinds of drawing, painting and other artistic pursuits.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

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