Starbound

by Brenda Hiatt

  From someone who’d spent his life on Mars surrounded by technology way beyond anything we had on Earth, that was saying something. Worried as I was about what was going to happen, I was also increasingly curious.

  The Mind Healing Facility was one of dozens of large, angular, crystalline structures lining the main thoroughfare of Pryderi. We were ushered through a sky-blue lobby and down several corridors of the same, soothing color. A few people did double-takes, then bowed, as they realized who I was.

  When we reached a sealed silver door, our guide touched a panel in the wall next to it and the door slid silently into the ceiling. The man then bowed and hurried back the way we’d come. Cormac took up a position in the hallway and Mr. O and I entered a large, sky-blue room. The entire opposite wall was transparent, with a dozen or so chairs lined up in front of it.

  At our entrance, Nels Murdoch, Devyn Kane and Morag Teague turned, then bowed, as did an auburn-haired woman I hadn’t met. I noticed she bowed more deeply than the others.

  “Welcome, Excellency. I am Adara Walsh, head Mind Healer, and I will be overseeing today’s procedure.”

  I nodded, then peered through the window into the next room. Rigel, attended by two other Healers, reclined in a sleek gray chair with several bizarre-looking instruments attached to it. It reminded me slightly of a dentist’s office.

  “This won’t hurt him, will it?” I asked anxiously. Rigel appeared conscious, but unnaturally relaxed.

  Are you okay? I thought at him through the glass, as Adara assured me the procedure was painless.

  The only thing that indicated he might have heard me was a slight movement of his eyes toward the window. There was no change in his expression, and no response.

  “Is he all right? What have you done to him already?”

  “Just a mild sedative,” Adara said soothingly. “The procedure works best when the subject is in a dreamlike state.”

  “So he doesn’t know we’re here?”

  “It’s doubtful.”

  I stared through the window, aching with all my being to tell him how sorry I was, how much I missed him. To touch him. Rigel? Rigel, can you hear me?

  Still no response. I tried, hard, to tap into his thoughts but all I sensed from him was calm tainted by a tiny bit of confusion. Had they even told him what they were doing? I was about to demand more information when Gordon Nolan entered the room.

  “Sorry if I’ve kept you waiting.” He made a perfunctory bow in my direction. “There were a few things I had to take care of before, well, let’s get started, shall we?”

  “A moment.” Mr. O pulled out a tiny black box like the one Eric Eagan had used to make sure the conference room back in Tullymayne was secure. Standing in the middle of the room, he turned in a slow circle, the box held in front of him. Suddenly the box chirped—and Gordon flinched. The box was pointed right at him.

  “Did you perhaps forget to turn off your omni?” Mr. O asked with exaggerated politeness.

  Gordon didn’t meet his eye as he fumbled in his pocket to pull out his omni. “Um, I must have. Sorry.” He touched a control and the black box stopped beeping.

  “Now we can proceed,” Mr. O’Gara told the Healer. “You’ll all know soon enough why we insisted on this level of security.”

  Adara, along with everyone else, was looking askance at Gordon, but now she turned to the window and touched a spot near the edge. “You may begin.”

  We all sat down and watched as the two Healers in the room with Rigel pulled up holographic control screens from each of the instruments in turn, making adjustments to a few of them. One of them touched a similar screen on the wall and the window in front of us instantly became opaque.

  “What—?” I began, but then an image appeared on the window-turned-vidscreen—an image of my quarters aboard the Quintessence.

  It was like watching a movie, with Rigel as the camera. He crossed the big living room, stared at my parlor door for a second or two, then knocked softly. Unlike the vid feed on the Quintessence, this one had sound. I opened my door and pulled Rigel inside, then threw myself at him. Gordon snickered audibly, making me cringe. At least they weren’t getting Rigel’s actual thoughts, just his memories.

  After several long, embarrassing seconds, Rigel pulled back—it was so weird seeing myself through his eyes!—and we sat down. The others in the room flicked glances my way when they heard me admit I really didn’t want to be Sovereign, that Devyn would be a better leader. But then I started telling Rigel about the Grentl and everyone’s attention was immediately riveted on the screen in front of us.

  When I got to the part about the communication device and Faxon, the fear and tension in the room was so palpable it made me squirm. I heard audible gasps from Morag Teague, Adara and at least one Healer on the other side of the window.

  After I finished, Rigel asked a few questions, like why I hadn’t told him sooner, and I answered. Then we cuddled and kissed for like half an hour. Everyone kept watching, but I could feel them getting restless, fear now warring with raging curiosity.

  Finally Rigel left me, saying, “If I stay, you know as well as I do we’ll do something we shouldn’t. I need to go while I still can. I love you, M.”

  It was all I could do not to cry. Would we ever have a chance to be together like that again?

  As soon as Rigel left my parlor, the image faded and the window became transparent again. Swallowing back emotions I couldn’t afford to indulge right now, I turned to face the others. Morag’s face was white as a sheet, and the rest looked nearly as shaken. Devyn hid his fear best, but I could still sense plenty from him. He was the first to find his voice.

  “Surely it can’t be true?” He looked from me to Mr. O’Gara and back. “Everything you told him? How—?”

  “Not only is it true, there’s more.” I was careful to keep my voice calm and reasonable. “Things I didn’t learn until after I arrived in Nuath.” I repeated everything Eric Eagan told me, including his prediction that there would be another power outage that very evening. “If you don’t believe me now, you will after tonight.”

  All three of my opponents exploded with questions, their voices getting louder and louder as they talked over each other until Mr. O raised a hand. To my surprise, they shut up.

  “I can attest to everything you have just learned, as can the Palace Engineer Eric Eagan and the Echtran Council on Earth. The real question is, what are you prepared to do about it? At the very least, I hope you, Nels, will put additional safeguards in place before tonight’s outage.”

  “But…it can’t be true! Can it?” Nels Murdoch was almost pleading, more frightened than ever. “Why would these aliens—especially if they’re the ones who brought us here in the first place—want to destroy us? You said this Engineer is old. It’s possible his mind isn’t completely sound, that these outages have nothing to do with this outlandish story. The anti-Royalists already claimed responsibility, after all.”

  “Which Crevan Erc later recanted. Those people would say anything to bring attention to their cause, you know that. You’ve found no proof they were involved have you?” Mr. O challenged him.

  “No, but—”

  Devyn Kane broke in. “Nels, I recommend you take those precautions. If no outage occurs this evening, as I devoutly hope it won’t, we’ll know the risk is not as great as the Princess and Quinn wish us to believe. I’m sorry,” he said to me, “but you must admit this all seems rather self-serving, an elaborate ploy to convince us to withdraw from consideration for leadership.”

  I blinked. “What? You think we somehow implanted a false memory into Rigel? Would that even be possible?” I asked Adara.

  “Not by anyone outside of this facility.” Her terror receded with something else to focus on. “The procedure would be extremely complex, requiring equipment existing nowhere else. Only a handful of people—myself and three others—know how to do such a thing. And I assure you—” this to the others— “none of us have done so.
What we just witnessed is what the boy actually remembers.”

  “All right, so she actually told him all that. But how do we know it’s true?” Gordon demanded. “It could all be a setup to convince everyone she has to be Acclaimed whether she’s the best person for the job or not.”

  Mr. O gave a disgusted snort. “Until that video on the ship was leaked, her Acclamation was never in any doubt. You all know what her approval ratings were when we first landed. Besides, if it were a ploy, we could have broadcast this news to all of Nuath from the start. I leave it to each of you to imagine what the reaction would have been.”

  “Mass panic,” Devyn said heavily. “If this is true, then you—and the Echtran Council back on Earth—had good reason to keep it quiet. I suppose we’ll know for certain this evening. Meanwhile, Nels, you should probably err on the side of safety. You can say it’s a mere precaution, because of the outages we’ve already experienced.”

  Though clearly still distressed, Nels nodded. “Our Engineers have already reinforced the existing backups, but some systems should probably be taken completely offline before…beforehand.” He pulled out his omni. “If I may?”

  Mr. O’Gara nodded, but Gordon rounded on him. “Well, I for one refuse to believe it until this supposed outage actually occurs. And I’m not sure I will even then. Maybe you’ve somehow rigged it—”

  “Listen to yourself, Gordon,” Devyn snapped. “How could they possibly have done such a thing? The last outage occurred before the Princess even arrived. I, for one, will be convinced if this next outage takes place as predicted. At that point…we’ll discuss our options.”

  “I believe some should be discussed now,” Mr. O said. “Princess, why don’t you have Cormac take you back while I hash out a few details on how we might move forward?”

  Eager as I was to get away from Gordon and the others, I hung back. “Can’t I at least talk to Rigel before I go?”

  Morag Teague spoke for the very first time since our arrival. “Certainly not! With respect, Princess, seeing you now could seriously set back my grandson’s recovery. Apart from that, it would be most improper after what we all just witnessed. I gave permission for this procedure hoping that it might squelch the gossip tainting our family, but now—”

  “I can’t imagine anyone here will wish to make public what we’ve just seen,” Devyn assured her, flicking a steely glance at Gordon. “But I agree, Excellency, that it would be unwise for you to interact with Rigel Stuart at this time.”

  “As do I,” Mr. O’Gara concurred. “You should go now, Princess. I’ll join you in Tullymayne shortly.”

  I opened my mouth to protest further, but Mr. O gave me a look that stopped me. Realizing he probably wanted to negotiate some kind of compromise to get me Acclaimed quickly, I reluctantly left the room, though every cell in my body was straining to return, to get back to Rigel, to touch him.

  After one last, longing look through the window, I turned away. If the next power glitch happened on schedule, odds were good I’d be Acclaimed. Mr. O would see to that. And once I was, nobody could stop me from getting Rigel back. Meanwhile, I had to hold it together, be ready for what would come next.

  Be ready to save us all.

  CHAPTER 33

  Reghnuchan (REN-new-hahn): Acclamation, as of Sovereign

  “Well?” Sean demanded the the second Cormac and I stepped out of the elevator. “Did it work? Were they convinced? Will they support you? Where’s Dad?” He and Molly both radiated fear and tension.

  I shoved away my lingering frustration about Rigel so I could calm them. “Your dad stayed to talk with them—to negotiate, I think. Gordon’s in total denial but I think Devyn and Nels Murdoch will come around, especially once the next power glitch happens.”

  Molly managed a tiny smile. “I’m really glad you’re back. I thought Sean would wear a rut in the floor, pacing.” He shot her an irritated look but she didn’t notice. “What happened, exactly? What was it like?”

  “It was weird, watching Rigel’s memory replaying on a big screen for everyone to see. Seeing myself from Rigel’s perspective. Seeing—” I broke off. There was no point sharing the parts that would hurt Sean. “Anyway, now they know the whole truth. Once they get over being freaked out, I’m sure they’ll realize the important thing is to stop the Grentl from pulling the plug. All the political and personal stuff can get hashed out later, as long as we get a later.”

  Sean shuddered visibly. “Yeah. They’re smart guys, even if a couple of them are jerks.” I wasn’t sure if he was trying to reassure himself or Molly. Probably both. “How long till tonight’s power failure, exactly?”

  I glanced at my omni. “Almost six hours.”

  Those six hours felt like at least a week. We tried to eat, but not even Sean had much appetite. When Mr. O joined us about two hours into our wait, his report was reassuring.

  “Everyone was shaken by what they learned, of course, but Devyn and Nels are reasonable men. Assuming the power outage occurs on schedule, they are both willing to do whatever is necessary to safeguard Nuath—which includes helping you get Acclaimed as quickly as possible.”

  We watched the news feeds, which mostly consisted of speculation about what that secret memory extraction had revealed. At least until Nels Murdoch released a statement cautioning people to remain indoors between five and seven o’clock that evening while maintenance was done on the power grid.

  “Ah, good.” Mr. O was clearly relieved. “That should dramatically decrease the chance of injuries.”

  I kept sneaking peeks at my omni as we waited, desperate for some word from Rigel or even from Eric, but there was nothing.

  Finally, it was time.

  We all held our breath, caught between hope and fear that the blackout would really happen. My heart beat once, twice…then everything went black. Terror erupted in waves from Molly, Sean and Cormac, even though they’d known it was coming. Mr. O’s fear was less pronounced, but definitely present. I tried hard to keep my own panic in check, counting seconds.

  “How long?” Molly whispered into the dark.

  “Not long.” Mr. O’s voice was surprisingly steady. “Three. Two. One.”

  And the light returned as abruptly as it had disappeared. As one, Sean and Molly ran to the window, apparently needing to see for themselves that their world had survived. Mr. O and I followed more slowly. Everything looked just as it had, the street still deserted. Even craning my neck, I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Yet.

  “Let’s check the feeds,” Mr. O suggested after a relieved few minutes. “If there was damage, they’ll be reporting it soon.”

  A visibly distraught Moya filled the vidscreen. “—despite Nels Murdoch’s earlier assurances. People are understandably frightened and angry that this so-called maintenance resulted in the longest power outage in Nuathan history.” Over her shoulder was a live image of people venturing into a street somewhere, a few sobbing, others shouting.

  “Earliest reports reveal only minor damage so far, thank goodness. The suggested precautions no doubt saved countless lives. Had zippers and private vehicles been running, casualties could have been extensive.”

  She glanced off to the side, gave a small gasp and turned back to the camera. “This just in, from near Keary, in the far northeast corner. Several large pieces of rock apparently fell from overhead, damaging one home and injuring livestock, sparking new concerns about Nuath’s structural integrity. Keary is low-tech, so some there may not have heard the directive in time to protect their animals. We’ll have someone on the spot shortly. Now we go to Gaynor, in Thiaraway. Gaynor, you’ve been there since before the blackout. What can you tell us?”

  “People here are scared, Moya,” said Gaynor, the Royal Palace behind him. “This blackout has reminded us all that our colony’s very existence depends upon uninterrupted power. Already, some are calling for accelerated emigration to Earth, a topic barely discussed since Faxon’s ouster. We’re hoping for a state
ment from the Interim Governor soon.”

  Over the next half hour, reports continued to come in from all over Nuath, everything from escaped sheep and chickens in the North, when force fences shut off, to the failure of two improperly secured anti-grav construction cranes in the South, resulting in significant property damage. Then the first fatality report came in—a woman in Strahancill whose roof collapsed because she’d illegally replaced physical supports with anti-grav ones to save space when remodeling. I swallowed hard. Could I have somehow prevented that death? I really, really hoped it would turn out to be the only one.

  Sean and Molly were both still paler than usual and I realized how much harder this had to be for them. Nuath was their home in a way it could never, ever be mine. And they were only two of the nearly quarter million people it was my job to protect. If only Rigel—

  At the sound of Nels Murdoch’s voice, my attention snapped back to the vidscreen. “I deeply regret that our upgrades were not sufficient to prevent this latest power failure, though they should keep such a thing from ever occurring again. Still, given the current mood of our populace and the need for a stabilizing influence in these uncertain times, I have decided to step down as Interim Governor and to withdraw my name from consideration for more permanent leadership. It is my hope that our born Sovereign, Princess Emileia, will step forward to lead Nuath into the future and I ask all of you to join me in Acclaiming her our natural leader.”

  My breath whooshed out of my lungs. “Wow, just like that? Do you think Devyn—”

  Before I could finish, Devyn Kane stepped onto the dais where Nels was giving his statement, standing shoulder to shoulder with the man who just this morning had been his political opponent.