"When is the next Galaxy Express train stopping by?" Ran-ald asked.
"We should get to the Orbital Immigration Station tonight," Dan-sam answered. "You might want to rest now, or you'll sleep on the Galaxy Express..."
Do you want to stay a little longer? Jes-syd transmitted. We can catch up with them with the next train...
Nah, I want to see Mirabilis too... for different reasons than Emma-lin! She smiled at her boyfriend who squeezed her hand. Don't worry, honey, I'm not planning on settling here...
I wouldn't mind it, but it doesn't have labs or great universities yet, so... maybe when we finish our studies, what do you say?
Maybe for our honeymoon? she replied. When we have our degrees, we can get married and come back, what do you think?
I think I love you very much, my rainbow-haired princess!
He took her in his arms and gave her a long kiss that made their friends whoot and cheer.
Sire Minds
We thought we made it. We love you, Iso-bel Aya Shermac. We'll always be with you.
The transmission hit her with the combined voices of her parents. In a flash, she saw them holding her seventeen-year-old brother between them and staring at the main screen of the Haiduc. Dan-ylo's terror was palpable, but her parents were calm. Alarms blared throughout the starship, and then nothing. They vanished from her mind and her heart skipped a beat, making her gasp for breath.
She crumbled to her knees, panting and trying to reconnect with her family, worlds away on Marc'harid, but the connection was gone. What were they doing on the Haiduc? What were they running away from? But what upset her the most was – why was the mind link with them gone?
She slowly regained control of her heartbeat and her breathing, and she realized her teacher was shaking her as Shanell stared anxiously at her. She focused on the Academy gym where she'd been practicing some martial arts and closed her mouth, gulping.
"Aya, are you all right?" Norine Andera was a middle-aged, tight-muscled woman who still spent more time in a gym than at home. She'd been in the Queen's Guard for years before starting to train younger girls for the task. She taught at the Sylvanian Academy and owned her own gym near the Queen's palace where the other guards often went to exercise. She had put one hand on Iso-bel's shoulder and looked worried. "Did Shanell hit you too hard?"
"She didn't hit me," Iso-bel whispered, still breathless.
"She just fell, we hadn't even started, yet!" Shanell added, frowning in concern.
"What just happened, then?" Norine asked, nonplussed.
Iso-bel closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"I think my family is dead." Another whisper, another lump in her throat.
She slowly got up and stared at her feet.
"I must call them," she said a little louder. "I must make sure they're all right."
Norine harrumphed but waved her out of her class. She knew Iso-bel was a Sire and had some form of telepathic link with her family.
"I'll go with her!" Shanell said.
"You stay here, Shanell! Keep training with Melodie! Come on!"
Iso-bel didn't turn around to look at her roommate and sparring partner. She slowly went back to her room in the Academy compound. She felt dazed. She took her videophone and punched in the call, but it didn't go through.
Her heart tightened in her chest as she tried her grandfather, then her friends, anyone, really! Nobody picked up from the former Imperial palace, though. As if they were all dead.
With an even more impending sense of doom, Iso-bel went on the meganet, freeing her chestnut brown hair from the tight bun she wore it in for training that started to give her a headache. Newsfeeds were flooded by now.
Her eyes widened in shock at the titles screaming "Former Imperial planet destroyed by impact after meteor shower!" or "Mega Arena crashed on Marc'harid after a malfunction, destroying it!"
If she switched on the audio, voices superimposed themselves, so she just picked the first article and read it silently. The tragedy was still ongoing, so there were continuous updates. She scrolled down to the first news.
A meteor shower in Marc'harid's solar system had provoked a malfunction of the Mega Arena NePOshields. The space station almost as big as a planet had been hit by a comet that had thrown it off its orbit and towards Marc'harid's sun.
There were no ongoing shows, so the tragedy wouldn't have been that bad if the planet itself hadn't been in the way of the off course Mega Arena. The meteor shower had damaged the NOOwatches, so the planet was blind to the threat. Even though the Vaurabi Labs Observatory had the means to deflect or destroy the broken station, they didn't see it coming.
Both the orbital station and the planet had been aware of the dangers of NePO – near-planet objects – and NOO – near-orbit objects – that could damage them, and that was why they had NOOwatch satellites and NePOshields, but everything became useless when the Mega Arena was captured by the planet's gravity.
Like an asteroid too big to be slowed down by air friction, the orbital station punched through the atmosphere as if it wasn't there and smacked into the planet's crust, vaporizing itself and creating a huge rippling shock wave and a crater that threw rocks back into the air.
Some debris flew right out of the atmosphere while others rained back down on the planet's surface, heating the atmosphere until it was like the inside of an oven, triggering forest fires all over the landmasses shaken by earthquakes and volcanoes. The combination of dust from the impact and soot from the forest fires and volcanic eruptions still wrapped Marc'harid, not allowing rescue ships to land and check damages.
It was estimated ninety percent of the population was dead or would die soon after the impact. Volcanic and seismic activity was still ongoing and probably even underground facilities like the Vaurabi Labs weren't safe havens. Some starships had made it safely away from the planet and were being rescued by any Star Nations cruisers present in the quadrant, but most didn't have time to leave.
Iso-bel lay back in her chair and stared into the distance. So that was what she had seen. Her family had jumped on their private starship, the Haiduc, as soon as the threat had become visible somehow, either to the eye or to some instruments, but the starship had been hit by a rock thrown back into space when the Mega Arena had crashed.
That was why they hadn't transmitted earlier – they thought they were clear. Who knew how many starships had been destroyed as they tried to leave the doomed planet...
And then it hit her again. Her parents, her younger brother, her friends on the home planet... were gone. All of them.
She dragged herself to her bed and curled up, feeling the hole of the severed mind link growing inside her.
She was alone now. Twenty and alone and with nowhere to go back to. Shivering with cold that came from within her, she tried to control her grief, but her mind started screaming.
***
Shanell bursting into the room wide-eyed and her phone ringing startled her awake. Iso-bel had dozed off in her fetal position, and she still felt empty as her roommate rushed to hug her.
"Oh, Aya, we've heard... I'm so sorry... Princess Arica is going to take all the Sire currently on Sylvania to Gweltaz, hurry up, your family may have made it!"
"They're dead," Iso-bel replied flatly. "They didn't make it."
Shanell held her breath and squeezed her.
"Are you sure you don't want to go? Maybe someone made it... relatives or friends' families... isn't your boyfriend on Serenaide? Anyone spread on other planets' universities?"
Iso-bel took a deep breath, trying to calm her heartbeat once again. Shanell was right. Jes-syd was on Serenaide and maybe others had made it. Maybe she wasn't all alone after all.
"You're saying they're gathering survivors on Gweltaz?" she asked, rising and checking her phone. Missed call, Jes-syd. At least he was all right. She'd call him back from the starship.
"Yes, it's the closest planet to the disaster zone," Shanell answered, still frowning
in worry. "I'll help you pack. Your friend Kim-ash is probably already onboard. Princess Arica is waiting for you to leave."
Iso-bel sighed and tried to gather her wits. She grabbed her duffel bag and threw in some clothes and her phone. Shanell took her to the spaceport with her flying car and dropped her in front of Princess Arica's Star Dreamcatcher, a hyperspace freighter with good shields and very good speed. It had a small crew of five and enough passenger space for the two dozen or so distraught Sire women who were on Sylvania at the time of the tragedy.
Princess Arica was sixty, with a golden artificial arm and a proud demeanor. She taught piloting starships big and small at the Sylvanian Academy and she wasn't in the line of succession. A princess with the title but no real powers, much like Iso-bel.
The tall woman nodded silently to Iso-bel, who barely reached her shoulder, and let her in, closing the spacecraft door behind her. Iso-bel had barely waved good-bye to Shanell, keeping her mind shields at the maximum. She had enough of her own emotions, she didn't need to feel others' as well.
"You can relax, Aya," Princess Arica said, reminding her that she was a telepath as much as the Sire. All the Queen's daughters, being her clones, were telepaths.
Iso-bel slumped in a seat next to Kim-ash and closed her eyes. Nobody spoke as the Star Dreamcatcher took off. All the mental shields were on, as if each and every woman wanted to mourn on her own.
After some meditation time, Iso-bel felt calm enough to open her eyes and look at Kim-ash. Her secondary school friend stared into the distance, looking paler than ever under her short raven haircut.
Iso-bel remembered the missed call and took out her phone. She found a message from Jes-syd, telling her he was on Gweltaz, waiting for her. Serenaide must be closer to Gweltaz than Sylvania. The newsfeeds still said the same thing – Marc'harid was still wrapped in ash and debris and dust and soot and it was impossible to land. Very few starships had made it off planet and Iso-bel scanned the names, just in case...
The Haiduc II! Iso-bel checked the passengers list, but it was just non-Sire living on Marc'harid. Of course she knew Dadina, her mother Maela and her husband Wim – her father had considered Dadina his foster sister all his life – but they weren't related to her. They weren't even Sire, although the tragedy had hit all of Marc'harid's inhabitants, whether they were Sire or not.
Iso-bel put down the tablet and sighed. It must have been sheer bad luck that of two ships leaving the planet at the same time – since she was almost certain that the two Haiducs had left together – one hadn't made it. Why her family? Why not the non-Sire immigrants? It was so unfair...
"They're all gone," Kim-ash said.
Iso-bel turned to look at her friend and met her big black eyes.
"Have you checked the ships? Some made it," she suggested.
Kim-ash seemed to come back to life. She hadn't thought about that. It seemed some of her relatives had made it to Gweltaz.
"But Emma-lin is gone, and so is Dan-sam," she said mournfully again. "Is Jes-syd all right?"
"Yes." Iso-bel stared into space, thoughtful.
Yes, her boyfriend was all right, but his friends were both gone – cocky Ran-ald and cheerful Dan-sam, Kim-ash's boyfriend. And her best friend Emma-lin was also gone. Iso-bel had no cousins, since her father had been an only child and her mother's relatives were on Xi-kong, total strangers to her. Her closest relative was her father's cousin's son who lived on Ypsilanti with his Ypsilantian mother.
We love you, Iso-bel Aya Shermac. We'll always be with you.
She didn't think she could cope with the loss. A disembodied family wasn't enough. The missing mind link hurt more than anything else. The bond with her family had been stronger than the one with Jes-syd, she realized now that she had lost it. Could it be because Jes-syd had been part of her life for only five years – and was still alive?
Tears didn't come. Her heart was slowly turning into a block of ice.
***
Iso-bel had a temporary relief on her arrival on Gweltaz. Outside of the Star Dreamcatcher she found Maela, the Sylvanian who had been head of security at the former Imperial palace for thirty years before retiring from active service. In her sixties, she was also Dadina's mother and had been on the Haiduc II when the impact had hit Marc'harid.
A cyborg after a maiming during the war with the Reptilians, Maela greeted Princess Arica with a nod, then looked at the Sire women behind the Sylvanian ship captain. She had a list of names and people waiting for them and she left Iso-bel last.
"Iso-bel," she said gravely as the others were taken away by the rescuers.
Unlike the other Sylvanians, she used her first name. It had been Iso-bel's idea to use Aya in her studies. On Marc'harid everybody called her Iso-bel except her mother, who used Aya. And Maela knew her from Marc'harid.
Iso-bel gulped. "I know the Haiduc didn't make it," she whispered. "They sent me a message."
Maela exchanged a puzzled stare with Princess Arica. Both nodded, thoughtful.
"When you feel like it, you can read my mind or Dadina's," Maela said. "We had to watch the second tragedy unfold under our eyes, unable to do anything. Now come. As you might know, we have friends on Gweltaz, and they'll take care of you. I think your boyfriend is here too, right?"
"Yes, but I can't see him right now," Iso-bel answered. Her voice was still choked. She felt she didn't want to communicate at all. With anyone. Her grief was too huge to handle.
"You should scream it out," Princess Arica suggested. "I'll be here when you all want to go back to Sylvania or wherever."
Iso-bel nodded, staring at her boots. Maela put her prosthetic arm around her shoulder and gently led her out of the spaceport.
Iso-bel sat in the flying car in a dazed state. She snapped back to reality when the car stopped in front of a mansion in the countryside. The white villa was even bigger than Mansion Shermac! There must be wealthy people even away from Marc'harid, but Iso-bel had never met any.
The Sylvanians were very spartan and their hive-towns were built to look the same. Only the size of apartments changed, from single to couple, since at five girls were sent to Girls' Houses. Iso-bel had seen more varied buildings on Earth than on Sylvania. But here was Gweltaz, another planet similar to Marc'harid, with mansions in the countryside.
The grand entrance hall with two marble staircases that met on the first floor was almost as impressive as the Imperial palace. Maela led her to a living room on the right of the staircase, where a few people were waiting.
"We're here!" Maela announced.
"Welcome." A tall woman with short white hair and big blue eyes immediately came forward. "I'm Mya Lylestar and this is my house."
Iso-bel stared at her and lowered one shield. Mya Lylestar, former Galaxy Police, then Marc'harid Imperial Guard, had gone back to her home planet after the fall of the Triumvirate. She was almost seventy and had known Kol-ian Vaurabi and Ker-ris Shermac well. And Maela and Dadina. And Iso-bel's father.
"Mya helped us when the Emperor caught Kol-ian," Maela said with a half-smile. "We hid here before hitting back. She left Marc'harid long before you were born, though, that's why you haven't met her before."
"I saw her in my father's memories," Iso-bel said weakly.
"Shan-leo was a very smart boy. You have his eyes and his hair," Mya said gravely.
Iso-bel smiled ruefully. Yes, she had her father's features and her mother's willowy built. Dan-ylo was the opposite, with his mother's face and his father's tall built – he was already taller than his mother and his sister at seventeen and...
A pang in her heart reminded her she'd never see him become as tall as her father.
"This is my partner and sister-in-law, Camilla Mansun," Mya said, introducing the woman by her side. Another widow who had found true love with her departed spouse's sibling, like Iso-bel's grandfather.
"Welcome to Villa Mansun," Camilla said, looking as sad as Mya. "There's still plenty of room if you want any of your surviving f
riends here with you."
"Not now," Iso-bel answered through clenched teeth.
Dadina came forward as the house owners moved away. Now in her forties, Iso-bel's father's foster sister looked heartbroken. She had saved her husband and her family, but had to watch her first love die on her starship screen. Iso-bel quickly raised her mind shields again before Dadina's sorrow worsened hers.
Dadina hugged her without speaking. Iso-bel glanced at her husband, Wim, who held their children close and stared back at her, serious. Dadina was the younger copy of Maela, being born on Sylvania with sperm created from her mother's bone marrow, but her children had been conceived with a man, so they were of both sexes and looked a little like both parents.
"You should lie down," she whispered in her ear. "You look like a wreck."
I am a wreck. I saw them die too. Words didn't come out.
She nodded and let Maela take her to her room.
"Bess-lin?" Iso-bel asked outside of the living room, since she didn't see Maela's Sire partner in the welcome committee.
"On Ypsilanti, with Kay-low and Jay-lee," Maela answered. "She chose the right time to finally meet her grandson."
"Oh. Good for her." Isobel felt indifferent. She had asked only out of courtesy.
The bedrooms were up the grand staircase and down a corridor that reminded her of the Imperial palace. The room itself felt like going back to her room on Marc'harid.
She dropped her bag on the floor and went to lie on the bed, closing her eyes. Her stomach was clenched shut and so many emotions were battling inside her, she only wanted to sleep and wake up when it was all over.
***
Except it could never be over. Marc'harid was gone, destroyed. Her family was gone. She spent a few days barely eating at Villa Mansun, then Dadina invited her for a walk in the countryside. They both needed to vent their pain, sorrow, frustration at the inability to do anything to change the outcome of the impact. They both screamed in the Gweltaz wind until they fell to their knees, breathless, and hugged each other.
SMTG--Iso-bel Aya Shermac Page 4