Impact Velocity (The Physics of Falling)

by Leah Petersen

  Those loyal members of the ISS who risked their lives to bring him to justice deserve our deepest gratitude. Two days from now, when you might otherwise have gathered in your homes to make clear your intention to separate yourselves from any who would plot treason, we will instead gather in every city, the loyal citizens of the Empire, and watch as Prince Jacob is brought to trial and made to answer for crimes of sedition and an attempted coup, and also the murder of the emperor, a crime he has already confessed to.

  He bowed his head as if mourning anew the tragedy. I scoffed in disgust. Lady Chou gave me a funny look.

  Long live the empire!

  I cast her a meaningful glance. “As if that sentence doesn’t say everything.”

  She raised a brow. “He has to say what Laudley will approve, or he loses his access and influence.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “You still think he’s on your side?”

  “My side? Not ours?” She sneered. “Of course. He plays a dangerous game, but he has always helped us.”

  I shook my head in disgust. “You don’t know the half of it. If he has a side, it’s his own. He’s not loyal to anyone. Certainly not the Resistance.”

  She scowled. “You’re wrong—”

  “I was the emperor! You think I didn’t see and hear things you couldn’t come near in your wildest dreams? He’s not on your side, Lady Chou. He’d betray you in a heartbeat. How do you think they got to Dawes?”

  “There are always risks in an underground operation. Someone betrayed us, but it wasn’t him.” Her voice crackled with anger but less certainty.

  I looked away, disgusted with her naivete. “You’re wrong. He’s played you, probably for a long time. He’s played all of us.” I looked at the vid that now showed some scene from an old movie. “If anyone is winning now, it’s him.” Sudden hope lit in my chest. I rounded on her. “Did he know about my plans?”

  She frowned. “What plans? Other than dragging me down and trying to sell me your lies?”

  I grinned. “You don’t know. I only told Jonathan and Dawes.” I laughed. “It’s still safe.” I whirled around, dashing to the vid. “Get me some access, woman, I have things to do.”

  You have no idea how much I miss you.

  Yes, I do.

  iv51

  Pain. Sleep. More pain.

  I was lying on the bed in my cell, just slipping away from a sleep I didn’t want to leave when a guardsman entered the room. He carried a tray of food and set it on the small table.

  “How long have I been here?” I managed. He stopped, not looking at me but not leaving either.

  “Three days,” he said. I closed my eyes tight. And then, so quiet I wasn’t even sure I heard it he said, “Your Highness.” The door shut behind him.

  I turned my face to the wall. There was something I was trying not to think about. “I’m sorry, Pete,” I sobbed. I couldn’t even remember what for. “I’m so sorry.”

  The door opened, light from the hallway flooding the room. I blinked into the brightness, blocking it with my hand up in front of my face. It was Pete standing in the doorway. He stormed into the room.

  I sat up, sucking in a breath, the whole room wobbling around me before I could focus again. And when I did, I found Naganika standing there, looking down at me. I wasn’t sure what look was on his face. Was that pity? Disgust? For the strangest moment I thought perhaps it was pride, or even regret.

  I’d thought it was Pete. I wanted Pete.

  “Children are so adaptable,” Naganika said, as if we’d been having a conversation. I just blinked at him.

  “Molly’s already coming around. She smiled at Laudley this morning, though she’s still a bit shy around him. Owen is helping her. He’s just happy to have his grandpa back and to be home and safe. It’s amazing how little it takes and they just do everything you ask.” His mouth twisted in a funny smile. I watched him, stunned. When I didn’t react, he shrugged as if unsurprised and left the cell, closing the door behind him.

  I lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, and started laughing. I covered my face with my hands and laughed into palms that were still wet from sweat and tears. Did he have any idea what a gift he’d just given me?

  He was lying. My Molly, who could throw a two day tantrum over a dress? Owen, who was fiercely protective of his family and so careful with his trust? No, they weren’t won over so easily. I had no idea why he’d said it, why he’d thought I would believe it.

  The door opened again and the guards hauled me off the bed and down the hall. I closed my eyes. My children hadn’t given in.

  So neither did I.

  ***

  It might have been a day or an hour later. I came out of the pain and lay for some time, disoriented and confused. I wasn’t in my cell, but Anna wasn’t talking to me in her velvety-vicious voice. The technicians weren’t unstrapping me, either, or removing receptors while guards waited to take me back to my cell. I didn’t bother trying to sit up—I could barely breathe after a session—but by turning my head just slightly I could see that the door to the corridor was open. Just outside, Naganika stood, angled away from me, talking to someone. His voice carried into the room.

  “It could be any day now.”

  “Day?” a voice demanded. It sounded like Laudley, or maybe I just thought it did. It was so hard to tell.

  “Or hour. They thought they were close this morning, and then he regressed.”

  “Why is it taking so long?”

  “Because a real noble would have broken by now, but he’s an unclass and too stupid to know what he’s supposed to do?” Naganika’s voice was cut off by the sound of an openhanded blow. He rocked backward for a moment, silent until he steadied himself. “Forgive me, Your Excellence. My sarcasm was out of place.”

  “You are out of time,” Laudley snarled. “It is already past midnight. I want him at my feet and begging to confess.”

  “I know, Your Excellence. We’re doing our best. We may have to consider giving up on getting a confession and use a more smoke-and-mirrors approach.”

  “Which everyone now knows is how Rikhart hid the fact that Blaine wasn’t executed. There has to be something public. Dawes has called them all out to be part of something. I intend to give it to them.” Suddenly, as if it just occurred to him, he protested, “Why are we having this conversation here?”

  Naganika’s head turned and before I could look away, he met my gaze squarely and held it. He turned back to Laudley. “He can’t hear us.”

  I lay there, weak and stunned.

  “Get back to work, Anna,” Laudley said. “Or perhaps we will see if some personal experience with the machine will teach you how to use it more effectively.”

  Her reply was stiff but clear. “Yes, Your Excellence.”

  There were sounds of movement and quiet talking and I lay there with my eyes closed, wishing I could just disappear.

  “Prince Jacob?” I didn’t want my eyes to open and see Naganika, but for some reason, they did anyway. “There’s an easy way to end all this,” he said, soft and kind. I’d have punched him if I could have moved. “Laudley’s given them a deadline but that still means they can zap you with that thing five more times. Is all this struggle really worth that?”

  I blinked. He shook his head sadly, turning to glance at Anna as she entered the room. “Oh well,” he said to himself as he walked out. “I tried.”

  I just stared at the empty space where he’d been. Five times.

  I only had to hold out five more times. I started to cry and Anna smiled at me, a look of fake compassion meant to hide her relief.

  “You see, Jacob. It’s too hard. We don’t have to do this anymore. Don’t worry, we’ll stop now. Why don’t you just tell me the story and we’ll leave this room right away and never come back.”

  Only five more t
imes. I smiled at her.

  “Go to hell.”

  I have come to conclude that I’m a better actor than I realized. Also that I hate acting more than I ever imagined.

  iv52

  I concentrated on my tablet and on not meeting the eyes of my fellow passengers without appearing unfriendly or out of place. The servant I was impersonating had been at the palace long enough to be trusted, but not so long that he was familiar to everyone. Still, while the blinder could mimic his looks, even his fingerprints and retinas if they were on file, they couldn’t mimic his mannerisms.

  His name was Niel and he was a member of the Resistance. He’d been away from the palace since shortly after the emperor’s death, supposedly spending time with family off-planet in the wake of the tragedy. Where he really was I didn’t know, but I had studied all the data on him and watched all the available recordings on which he appeared and now I had to play the part as well as I could.

  In only a few hours it would be daylight, and through some coordination by the Resistance all over the empire, the gatherings were to begin at dawn in Imperial City.

  I wished I could believe I wasn’t afraid. I was, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that wasn’t just understandable, it was smart. I was no stranger to the covert and illegal, but my part had always been played out behind the scenes. It’s one thing to practice treason in the dark and present an innocent face in the light; it’s quite another to put on a disguise and walk into the lion’s den.

  My protections were flimsy and few. If the device I wore and the part I tried to play were exposed, I was completely powerless. I didn’t even have Dawes’ curiously powerful shield of popular opinion. My safety had always rested on power and wealth and position, born to, strengthened, and perpetuated by the status quo. Laudley had destroyed that, not only for me but for all of us. He’d taken our splendor and separateness and made it something cheap and gaudy; exposed it for the transparent, baseless lie it was.

  I felt like a traitor even thinking that, but when I examined the emotion further, it tasted suspiciously like wounded pride.

  The transport came to a stop and the other servants returning to the palace began to disembark. I hung back. I’d considered hiding myself in the middle of all of them, hoping the crowd would conceal me, but we’d all have to be singled out for scans before we made it through the door and I decided it was safer to have as few people around to watch me as possible. This wasn’t my area of expertise. At least, I thought wryly, I had the years of experience on Dead End to draw from. Duke Blaine the noble wouldn’t have had the first clue how to do something like this.

  I tried to hide how carefully I watched as the others were checked and cleared. It seemed no more than a quick scan of hand and retinas and more or less friendly banter with the guards passing them in. I wondered if the undercurrent of tension was just my imagination. I wasn’t used to noticing the servants, or even seeing them. But I didn’t imagine they’d always been this keyed up when they were serving me. The nervous tension in the air was like a noxious smell.

  I stepped up to the empty scanner.

  “Back early, Niel?” the guard said.

  I shrugged, keeping my eye on the pad where my hand lay, watching it flash green. “As if I’d be anywhere but here today,” I replied, hoping to sound casual.

  He laughed but there was little humor in it. “I don’t think there’s any good place in the empire to be today.” He glanced at the results of my retina scan and nodded me through.

  On the other side I took a deep breath, dizzy with relief, and stopped to orient myself. I knew the nobles’ area of the palace well, but not the servants’ passages. I tried to reconcile the map Lady Chou had given me with my own recollections and finally took the passage to the left, hoping I was right.

  I began to pass identical doors, each labeled in the servants’ code, so that anyone here without authorization would have to guess where each door led. But I’d been given this information too.

  I only backtracked once, and tried to look as if I had simply gotten distracted, if there were any cameras on me, before I found the right door.

  I entered the playroom connecting Owen’s room to Princess Marquilla’s, more nervous than I could remember being before. About anything at all.

  The children turned at the sound of the door. Owen subtly moved Princess Marquilla behind him. She clutched his hand and glared at me hard enough to bruise.

  “We’d like to leave the room now,” Owen said, steady and clear and with a tinge of weariness, as if this were a script that had been repeated again and again.

  “Of course, Prince Owen,” keeping my voice neutral with effort.

  His eyes widened as if the request had been purely for form, as if he hadn’t even considered I’d say yes. He recovered with a maturity and aplomb that made me long to go to him. He looked so like Hera. He nodded, the prince expressing approval and the proper amount of gratitude to a servant.

  “Please take us to see Prince Jacob,” he said.

  I stifled any reaction, but I was taken aback that he’d even known Dawes was in the palace. I cut a quick glance at the servants and guards in the room. Which one was it? I was certain it was no part of Laudley’s plan that the children should know Dawes was there while his head was still connected to his shoulders. I bowed the proper deference.

  “Right away, Your Highness.”

  His eyes went even wider, his hand clenching around Princess Marquilla’s.

  “Thank you,” he said, his voice hoarse, and finally I saw the boy behind the mask of calm and maturity. If I hadn’t known what reaction I was likely to get, I would have dropped my disguise right there, taken him in my arms.

  My son.

  How had I ever believed anything in the universe was more important than this?

  The other servants were glancing among themselves, clearly confused by this sudden change of direction.

  “Niel—”

  It was Sabria. The informants hadn’t been clear on whether Laudley had given her the position with Owen again. If she was here, Laudley must not know, or care, that she was the one who knew I went to the safehouse, and who was going to trigger the return mechanism for me. I approached and stood before her, watching her intensely, begging her to understand.

  “Hello, Sabria,” I said, letting my assumed voice slip a little. “I meant to send you a message while I was away, but someone unexpected came to visit and I wasn’t able to.”

  She frowned, her eyes searching my face. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here now.”

  “Yes,” I nodded. “I know.”

  After a long moment of silence, our eyes locked, she gave me the slightest nod. “Our orders were to keep the children here for the day,” she said.

  “I have new orders.”

  “Very well.”

  The servants began to prepare the children. One servant moved to straighten Princess Marquilla’s hair. She batted the servant’s hand away and glared at her. The woman backed off, giving me a look of exasperation and exhaustion. Part of me wanted to smile. The princess had all the determination of one father and all the fiery spirit of the other. It was a good combination, for this young woman in particular. She’d need it.

  Without prompting, Owen smoothed his hands down his jacket, making no protest when a servant ran a brush quickly through his hair. He took Princess Marquilla’s hand and faced me. “We’re ready.”

  Thank you for marrying me.

  You already said that.

  I mean it twice.

  You’re such a sap. I love you.

  iv53

  When the fifth jolt ceased as suddenly as they all had, I began to laugh. It quickly turned into sobs of relief.

  “You were supposed to clean him up.” Sam’s voice dragged my head up and I found him standing there, at the he
ad of his guard, looking down at me in disgust.

  “There was no time,” Anna snapped, hard and bitter. “We had to work until the very end.”

  “So he’s not ready?”

  She looked pale. “No.”

  Sam met my eye, still examining me as if I were an unknown specimen. “Well, the Grand Duke won’t be happy, but we’ve a plan for it anyway.”

  He held out his hand and one of the guards dropped something into it. “If he’s not going to say what they want him to, he’s not saying anything.” He stepped close, placing a tiny, skin-colored patch, no bigger than a fingernail, on my jaw behind my ear. He held up a remote device for me to see. When he activated it, a low tingling began to itch under my skin. I opened my mouth to protest but my mouth didn’t open.

  He jerked his head at two of his men. “Get him ready.”

  ***

  They fitted the restraints on my arms and legs. Sam told two guards to carry me, but when he saw I could walk he just shrugged and led the way. We passed out of the prison and into the palace corridors. A moment’s deja vu caught my memory and I chuckled. Sam frowned at me, pulling the remote from his pocket and flicking it. The tingling in my face stopped and I opened my jaw in relief.

  “Did you have something to say, Your Highness?”

  I laughed again. “Yeah. I was just thinking that you and I have done this before, Sam.” He looked away.

  “I serve my emperor.”

  “Yes. I respect that about you.”

  He gave me a sideways look, as if not sure how to take that. “Thank you,” I said. He looked away before I did, and activated the device again.

  ***

  They brought me in by way of the front doors, parading me down the length of the throne room. Laudley sat in a chair beside the throne, his expression haughty and gloating. I looked around at all of the assembled spectators as we passed. Some watched, some didn’t. None met my eye. They brought me to a stop in front of Laudley and shoved me to my knees.