by J. M. Page
“Dad, no!” It was too late. Abatu’s eye-lasers fired at Scorpia and she turned with a shrill wail, her hard exoskeleton protecting her from the attack.
Celine felt something hot and wet running down her arm, but when she touched her fingers to it, they came back dry, finding only a small hole in her clothing. Boiling acid poured under her skin, lighting her arm on fire, blinding pain pooling in her fingers as blackness crowded around the edge of her vision.
Before she put the pieces together, the world began to spin and six Scorpias danced in front of her eyes as the ground came rushing toward her.
Then there was nothing.
Chapter Fourteen
Ben
The hangar was filled to the brim with people, all clamoring for a spot on the next evac ship. Thousands of people crushed in the doorways and crowded one another, shouting and wailing in panic and fear.
Ben felt guilty for what he was about to do. It certainly wasn’t going to do him any favors in public opinion, but consequences be damned. He refused to sit idly by while Celine rushed headlong into danger. He refused to run away like his father.
Not without putting up the fight of his life first.
Ben shoved his way through the crowd, finally drawing on decades of breeding and lessons. He had to assert himself, play the part of the selfish Prince to get what he wanted.
The thought made him a little queasy, but he’d do that and much more for Celine.
At the front of the mob, trying desperately to contain it and prevent a riot, was a line of Royal Guardsmen, each brandishing a clear crowd shield and a look of unease. They were no more equipped for this than anyone else on the planet.
Ben cursed his father and all the royal viziers for being so short-sighted and narrow-minded. In the Space Force, they had a contingency for everything and anything. It seemed ludicrous that the crown didn’t operate in the same fashion.
Besides their shields, the Guardsmen brandished weapons, intimidating the crowd into compliance. It was only a matter of time before someone got jumpy and violence broke out.
Not that he could blame them. These people were left in the dark, fearing for their homes, their families, their very lives. Of course they were going to turn to violence. He just hoped he could fix everything before things went that far. Before any more tragedies occurred.
The guards at the front of the line recognized him and he shouted to be heard over the jeering. “I need a ship,” he said.
The guard pointed. “The next ship loading is over there Your Highness,” he said.
Ben shook his head. “No. My own ship. Now.”
The guard looked at his fellows on either side, all of them exchanging wary looks. He looked a little flustered and awkward when he answered. “Your Highness, all crafts are being used for evacuation efforts. We can’t let you—”
“Like hell you can’t,” Ben said, mustering up every bit of Princely authority he could find. “My father has already evacuated. That leaves me the de facto King, the only royalty left on the planet. And I demand a ship.”
The guards seemed to mull it over, still swapping worried looks, like this was some kind of test.
Ben growled and pushed past the barricade, meeting no resistance. The guards were too stunned to stop him. “I’ll find one myself,” he said. Before they could make up their minds to stop him, he was jogging away. He sent one look over his shoulder, enough to tell him they wanted to follow, but weren’t, busy as they were with crowd control.
It was a small victory, but a step in the right direction nonetheless. Ben chose a smaller craft, one that was meant to be crewed by a handful of men. It wouldn’t be much use in the evacuation as it only held a half dozen at most. Besides, he needed it.
Skipping the pre-flight checklist, he zoomed out of the hangar, his small craft zippy and agile, just the way he liked them. He didn’t want to waste any time, or give anyone a chance to stop him or stand in his way.
He was past the wall in moments and thinking back to the last time he saw Celine, when she urged him to check on his father. Had she known then that she was going off to the Wastelands alone? Was she already planning to walk to her doom when they last kissed?
Would that be the last time he ever kissed her? Ben’s gut wrung itself tight, twisting his insides, making him feel sick and full of lava-hot adrenaline-laced dread.
It couldn’t be. He refused to accept the possibility. There’s no way that he’d never see her again, never hold her again. Not now, not when he was only just starting to realize how much he lo—.
No. He couldn’t think about that either. Ben took a deep steadying breath and focused on his instrument panels. He’d make it to her in time. They’d get through this.
They had to.
The dust made navigation difficult, though the ship he piloted now filtered the dust better than the hoverspeeder he’d pilfered from the city a few days ago. It seemed like a lifetime ago.
It was. It was a lifetime before Celine. Everything changed after her.
He dipped the craft lower, closer to the surface, peering out, looking for signs of… something. He didn’t know what he was looking for exactly.
But then he saw it. One figure clad in head-to-toe white. His heart leapt. The figure wasn’t alone though, it was joined by two smaller robe-wrapped people — children. Then there were more. Dozens more. Maybe hundreds, all in a long line, all marching toward the city.
She saved them, he thought, his heart swelling with pride. Of course she did. How could he have ever doubted her?
Ben looked closely, trying to spot any identifying features, hoping Celine was among them, but something told him she wasn’t. She’d be leading them if she was.
He flew over the end of the line, garnering more than a few looks up from the Wastelanders. Now what? The question didn’t linger for longer than a heartbeat as his ship drew nearer to three more shapes, barely discernable through the dust.
One was large and bulky — definitely not Celine. Another, was smaller — maybe Celine — and the third was… Ben flew closer. Not human. The native Celine told him about. The one who’d wreaked all this havoc.
His eyes narrowed, his heart pumping fast and hard even as everything started to slow down. Combat he was used to. This, he could handle.
The maybe Celine shape dropped to the ground and Ben’s heart lodged itself in his windpipe. Was he too late?
No. He couldn’t let himself go down that line of thinking. Not yet.
He swooped in, zeroing in on the alien creature who only noticed the shadow of the looming ship seconds before it descended on her with a wholly satisfying crunch.
Ben wasted no time exiting the ship and rushing to Celine’s side. He slid forward in the sand on his knees, scooping her into his arms, cradling her limp form close to his chest.
“Come on now,” he said, his heart all but stopped. He brushed stray hair away from her damp forehead and pleaded. “You can’t leave me now. I promised to show you the galaxy.”
Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused and dull. “Ben?” Tears clouded her captivating eyes and he shushed her. “I couldn’t… without my arm… sorry.” Her eyes drifted closed again and Ben resisted his urge to shake her awake. To scream and cry and demand she not leave him.
Instead, he held her close, whispering. “Celine. No, Celine, come on. Wake up for me, sweetheart. You’re going to be okay.”
A heavy hand landed on his shoulder and nearly made him jump up, but he wouldn’t let her go. “She’s been poisoned. The beast stung her.”
Ben’s eyes were wet somehow and terror stampeded through his veins. There had to be something they could do. An antidote. A… “We have to save her. There has to be something.” He heard the words and recognized his own voice, but it seemed so far off. Detached from him somehow.
“Help me get her to the ship, I might have an idea,” the hulking man said, taking Celine and cradling her like a child. Ben felt empty without her in his arms, but he
saw the the paternal love in the other man’s grasp and realized this was Celine’s father.
He took some small comfort in realizing the other man didn’t look nearly as helpless as Ben himself felt.
Ben sectioned off an area of the ship for Celine’s father to lay her down. The other man looked at her unconscious form with a mixture of sadness and adoration.
“I think I can stop the venom from spreading, but she won’t like it.”
“Anything. Do whatever it takes, you have to,” Ben said without hesitation.
Her father nodded and left the ship. Ben took the moment to stroke Celine’s ebony hair and whisper soothing nonsense in her ear. It mostly amounted to “Please be okay. You have to be okay. You’re going to be okay. Please.”
When he heard the heavy footfalls of the other man coming back up the gangway, he dried his face.
Celine’s father paid little attention to Ben, carrying her mechanical arm with him. “It’s a little worse for wear,” he said, blowing off some dust, “but I can fix it up for her later.”
Ben understood now why he thought Celine wouldn’t like the solution, but that was a chance he was willing to take.
The ground rumbled under them and in the far-off distance, another evacuation ship darkened the sky over the city. He had to get back, had to stop the evacuation and fix the force field and restore order to his kingdom. He had all those things to do, and yet the only thing on his mind was whether Celine was safe or not.
“Go,” her father said. “Hold this bucket of bolts steady for me if you don’t want her to end up with a nasty scar.”
Ben hopped in the pilot’s seat, thinking it wouldn’t matter if Celine was covered in scars. He would still think her the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. He just wanted her to be okay.
Still, he did as instructed, going back into pilot mode, shutting out his fears and worries to just fly.
He was no sooner off the ground when the older man spoke again. “So you’re the boy she ran off for?” His voice was gruff and straight to the point, no dancing around like Ben was used to.
He actually didn’t know how to respond to the question, first feeling shocked. But then he thought about it and the idea warmed him from the inside, making him feel content in ways he hadn’t known possible.
“I suppose I am, Sir.”
The old man grunted and Ben wondered what that was supposed to mean. Was he measuring him up? Wanting him to apologize?
“And were you a part of this… mutilation?” he grumbled.
Ben winced at the accusation. The thought that he’d ever want Celine to be anything other than exactly what she was.
“No. I didn’t know about that until recently,” he said.
The other man grunted again.
Ben thought back to all the times Celine mentioned her father — it wasn’t often, but it was enough for him to remember the man’s aversion to city-dwellers. The way he warned Celine off by saying they were blood-thirsty.
He sighed and stared straight ahead as the city’s shadow grew closer.
“You probably don’t think I’m good enough for someone as tenacious and brave as Celine. And you’re probably right,” he said. He had no idea if the other man was listening, but he’d started this and he wasn’t going to stop now. “From our first meeting, I saw that spark of courage and determination in Celine. She never wavers when there’s someone in need and never shies away from a challenge.”
Ben smiled at his memories, his stomach still clenching in anticipation. She was going to be okay, wasn’t she? He didn’t dare look over his shoulder.
“It’s admirable, really. I’ve spent my whole life wrapped up in myself and my identity as one thing or another… Celine’s made me realize how pointless it all is. She helped me see my identity is the sum of things I do rather than the things I am.”
His pulse was really racing now. This was the first time he’d put these emotions to words and it surprised even him.
“For her, I want to do better. I want to do right,” he sighed, pushing a hand through his hair, frustrated with how jumbled his words came out. “What I’m trying to say I guess is, though I don’t think I’m deserving of her, I’m going to do my best to be better. To be worthy.”
After a long beat of silence, the other man grunted and Ben deflated. He might as well have poured his heart and soul out to a brick wall.
Speaking of walls, the Great Terran Wall was visible, pushing through the clouds of dust, the city sprawling out behind, now blanketed in a foot of dust.
Ben sucked in a breath, steadying himself for what he might see, and turned around to ask how she was doing.
Before he could say anything, his eyes focused on Celine, her father propping her up against his broad chest, her eyes struggling to open.
“How are you feeling Bug?” the older man asked, his mechanical eyes glowing bright blue with love for his daughter. Ben swallowed his questions and navigated the ship as close to the palace as he could manage.
“What happened?” Celine asked, her voice weak, raspy, and unlike herself.
Ben’s chest tightened with anxiety again. What if they were too late? What if the venom already spread and was killing her slowly as they spoke?
“We’ll fill you in on the details later,” her father said. “Do you think you’ve got a repair in you?”
Celine blinked, only just realizing her arm was back. She flexed her mechanical hand and turned an eye toward the dust and the few stragglers still in search of shelter. The pale listlessness drained from her face and was replaced by hard determination. She knew what was at stake as much as Ben did.
Their gazes met for a moment that made Ben’s breath catch, and then she looked up at her father, gave him a curt nod, and said “Absolutely.”
Chapter Fifteen
Celine
“And then, he landed the ship on her!” Rufus exclaimed excitedly, regaling the story of Ben’s daring rescue for the dozenth time. He zoomed around the room, pantomiming the battle and mimicking the sounds for her.
Celine laughed at his antics, grateful for the distraction. In her one human arm, there was a series of tubes delivering medicine and anti-venom. She’d been in the hospital for almost two days and she was starting to go a little stir-crazy.
Darkening her doorway was the man of the hour. “He’s not telling that story again, is he?”
Celine giggled and nodded. “It’s all very impressive,” she said, reaching for Ben’s hand, giving it a little squeeze. He still looked embarrassed any time it was brought up, but he deserved to be proud.
“I think he’s decided he likes you,” she said out of the corner of her mouth.
Ben smirked, sending a suspicious look over at the robot. “What else has he been telling you?”
It was Celine’s turn to smirk. She had a pretty good idea what he was talking about, but didn’t want to embarrass him anymore. Once she’d woken up and wanted to know what happened, Rufus tapped into his recordings and played the whole thing for her, including Ben’s talk with her father.
Her heart swelled at the thought of the things he said, how his words made her soar, but he didn’t have any idea she’d heard them.
She shrugged. “Nothing too exciting. How is… everything?” she asked, careful to tiptoe around the subject.
The past couple of days were difficult for Terranys. Celine repaired the force field after they landed and the bewildered Terrans exited their homes to find modders cleaning up the destruction. It was a bit of a culture shock, but by all accounts, they’d been as welcoming as she hoped.
It helped that her people knew how to treat exposure — the hospital employed every last one of their medics to help with the widespread symptoms.
In the last day and a half, most of the refugees returned and then the rumor mill started churning.
The screen in Celine’s hospital room seemed to always be tuned to TNN, the Terran News Network, and she followed along with the break
ing stories as a way to combat the monotony of being stuck in a bed.
It didn’t take long for word of the Prince’s love affair with a modder to make headlines. Even less time for people to realize he’d stayed behind to fight and save them while the King and other officials fled. It didn’t look good for his father, but Ben had never been more beloved. The women all swooned at his sacrifice and the men all applauded his skill. He was the Terran golden boy all of the sudden and it drove him a little crazy.
Celine made sure to turn off the screen whenever he visited.
Ben squeezed her hand tight and shuffled from one foot to the other. “Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I just had a meeting with my father…”
The familiar grip of dread closed around her lungs and forced the air from her. What could it be now? Was the King going to kick the modders back to the Wastelands? Worse?
Celine felt guilty for jumping to that conclusion. She was the one always fighting against that prejudiced way of thinking, but it was too easy to be afraid with so much at stake.
“Well, it seems between the Grounding and the evacuation, the public’s opinion of my father… of the whole government really, is quite poor. On the other hand, stealing a ship to save the woman I love has seemingly done wonders for my image. He’s effectively stepping down to allow me to inherit my birthright early.”
Celine’s blood turned to burning ice, making her hot and cold all at once, barely hearing the last thing he said over the buzzing excitement roaring in her chest. “Did you just say…”
“I’m going to be King,” he said, his chest expanding. “And I wanted you to know that my first act is to grant all the refugees of the Wastelands full naturalized Terran citizenship.”
Celine heard him talking, but she was still locked in a moment, frozen there. “Did you say you love me?”
Ben laughed at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling in that endearing way she so loved. “Are you even listening?”