New Light

by Ben Johnston

  Alexander bowed his head. “Chair Advisor Jonas Apolas.” He raised his head.

  Jonas looked Alexander directly in the eye. “Increase observational activities at the School. I want your slip spies to watch for the Golden Girl. When they find her, I want you, Colonel, to personally watch her.”

  Alexander swallowed, nodded once. “Clearly understood, Advisor.”

  Jonas turned away from Alexander and walked away towards the platforms at the end of the esplanade.

  Alexander turned away from the receding advisor. The other silver-coats who had been waiting a short distance away all gathered around him, forming a circle. The white-blonde-haired man relayed the advisor’s command and they began a quick discussion on how best to go about deploying more spies to the School.

  Jonas stepped onto a platform and shot away from the esplanade and the palace, off into the forest, off towards the snow-capped mountains to the city that lay beyond them.

  Chapter 31

  The stolen Vectan ship came straight down out of the starry sky with no more sound than a shooting star before turning to flit across the dry, ruddy surface of the desert planet. The craft sliced through the cold night, hugging the desolate, eroded landscape.

  Ahead of them, a brilliant white sun climbed above the horizon in a burning sickly-colored fast-motion sunrise. As the sun reached the center of a moss-colored noon sky, a sharp line of tall, dirty mountains, jagged like the edge of a dead leaf, rose up to meet them. Christopher banked and pulled back on the control stick, causing the ship to climb, bringing them to fly parallel and level with the peaks of the toothy mountaintops.

  Beyond the brittle peaks was an enclosed valley. The air inside the valley looked white against the dull green of the rest of the planet’s atmosphere. In the bottom of this bowl of clear air stood a massive building. Cube-shaped, dark and coppery, the structure was nearly as tall as the surrounding mountains. At the feet of the big, coppery cube there crowded a disordered city spread out in a gleaming, rusty sprawl.

  Christopher lowered the nose of their ship, dropping them below the wall of mountains. The city, the cube, and the clear atmosphere all vanished from sight. He talked about the city as they descended.

  “That big cube thing in the center. That’s the atmosphere generator plant. It’s converting the planet’s air. It sucks in the unbreathable gas and pours out fresh air. The fresh air is heavier than the green air, so it falls down to collect in the central valley allowing everybody in the city to breathe.”

  He smiled.

  “Which is nice.”

  Chrisopher landed their stolen Vectan shuttle, setting down onto dry, rocky dirt next to some low barren hills. Outside the front window, wisps of green mist blew by.

  Holding up three metallic cuplike devices with fabric straps attached, the archeologist pointed out the front window of the ship. “Those little misty wisps out there are the only fresh air we’re going to find this far away from the city, here outside the mountains. So we’re gonna need to wear breather masks.”

  He looked around. “Where’s that fox thing of yours? I don’t have any tiny breather masks, so he’ll need to stay here on the ship.”

  Anniya shrugged. “I never know where he goes, he shows up when he wants to. but I have a feeling Spirit wouldn’t need a breather mask anyway.” She stroked her eyebrow with a finger, looking upwards. “I don’t even know if he breathes.”

  She blinked a few times. “He does sigh a lot, though.”

  They strapped on their masks, dropped the rear ramp, and left the Vectan craft behind, as they hiked off through the barren valleys and foothills towards the mountains. On the second day, they came upon a gigantic, wide pass cut squarely out of the mountains. Through this pass, they could see the city away in the distance, the dark monolith of the copper cube rising above the skyscrapers like a mountain itself.

  As they approached the first isolated structures on the outskirts, the air around them became clearer and cleaner. A few vehicles rumbled by in the distance. Soon the random buildings and structures began to form some sort of order, and something like streets began to appear with something like traffic. When they started to see more people without masks, they took off their own breathers.

  Anniya scrunched her nose and stuck out her tongue. “Blind me twice! I’ve never smelled so much fuel exhaust!”

  Tom laughed, then coughed. “As soon as you get a breathable atmosphere, people start burning lipetrol in it.” He shrugged then coughed again.

  Christopher drew in a deep breath of the mixed air, patting his chest with a smile. “Smells like progress to me!”

  Anniya rolled her eyes. “You would think progress would smell better.” She strapped her breather back on.

  Christopher started to laugh, but got interrupted by a cough. He held his breather, ready to strap it back on his face. “I think that’s enough progress for me for now. Let’s go find a place to stay. Someplace nice. With air filters.” He strapped his mask back on. “After that, we’ll get some blinding thing to eat before I send out the message.”

  He adjusted the straps behind his neck. “Then.” His eyebrows jumped. “We wait.”

  Anniya’s eyebrows fell. “And when we get the reply back? What then?”

  Christopher’s breather mask covered his smile, but his eyes narrowed. “Just stick with us, Goldie. That’s what.” Christopher’s gaze wandered away from Anniya. “Ah! There we go!” He pointed down the block to a man standing by several idling fuel vehicles. “Taxis.”

  Christopher turned to Anniya and Tom. “Hope you two are ready to do a whole lot of nothing!” He turned and began walking down the dusty sidewalk.

  For two weeks they hid waiting on Heenu for Christopher’s communication to reach the Director, stranded while the message inched its way between the galaxies, drifting towards the heart of the Union.

  Finally, the reply came.

  Part III

  Chapter 32

  Jonathan strode through his dark, stone space of an office, walked up to the cool, flat wall behind his large desk, placed his hand over a panel, and the gray wall vanished to reveal a distant line of horizon. Outside, the sky above was a dark blue approaching black. Far below, the bright green landscape shined, puffy white clouds gleaming, little glints of structures and air vehicles sparkling. The old director stepped out through the opening.

  On every floor, wide, flat, and open walkways lined the immense exterior wall of the Tower, and when Jonathan stepped out from the great stuffy space of his dark office into the bright, cold, high-altitude air, a warm field of atmosphere appeared, covering the walkway. Proceeding across the walkway to its outside edge, Jonathan came to a large landing pad onto which a grey and silver shuttle, the crest of the union emblazoned on its hull, was setting down. Softly, the silent shuttle cast a glow beneath it as it hovered noiselessly a few feet above the deck, its glass and silver parts glinting in the raw sunlight and thin air.

  Once settled, the shuttle’s shining lemon, ruby, and emerald engines blinked out, leaving only ember-colored light to play shifting patterns across the deck beneath the craft.

  Inside the shuttle, Anniya turned to Tom with furrowed brows. “They’re gray.”

  Tom tilted his head, blinking. “They are?” He blinked again. “Wait, what are?”

  Anniya rolled her eyes. ““What do you think?”

  She gave a nod to the sheer gray wall of the Tower outside the window. “The Towers, bright guy. Why are the Towers gray? I thought they were supposed to be golden or something?”

  The rear ramp of the shuttle cracked open and began to hinge down. Christopher, looking distracted, answered as he stood and grabbed his bags. “Yeah, no. They’re made of goldenlight, but they’re just gray.”

  Anniya turned a confused look to Tom.

  Tom expounded on Christopher’s terse reply. “The Towers are infused with goldenlight, Anniya. They’re built from goldenlight-infused materials. When we go inside, you’ll see w
ood and stone and metals, and a lot of other materials that we just don’t know what they are.”

  Anniya tilted her head. “You mean, you don’t even know what your own School is made of?”

  “Yeah. We have no idea.” Tom shrugged. “The goldenlight infusion makes the Towers indestructible, so we can’t take samples of the materials.”

  As Christopher, Tom, and Anniya walked down the ramp, out of the shuttle, under the bright sun and the blue-black sky, a misty dome of warm blue atmosphere glowed to life, covering and pervading the landing pad. Their sleeves and capes billowed in a mixed warm and cold wind, the atmosphere field around them pulsing with the gusts.

  Jonathan moved down the walkway, approaching the trio.

  The dusty archeologist wore an open grin on his bearded face, holding his arms wide as he strode towards the old director. “We got it, Jon! This time we got it!”

  The Tower director, his wizened face holding a flat expression, held a finger in front of Christopher's face, silencing the archeologist. Jonathan then opened his hand in front of Christopher’s no-longer-grinning face, palm up.

  The tired and messy archeologist gave a weak smile, withdrew the sunstone from his inside jacket pocket, then placed it into the old director’s hand.

  Jonathan fixed his attention on the sunstone in his hand for a moment before his hazel eyes slid away to gaze at the dark and bright horizon. Staring out at that line, where the sky met the verdant landscape, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, clenched his hand, and then placed the sunstone into his own jacket’s inner pocket. A smile rose up on his face, and he opened his eyes as he turned to Anniya.

  “Miss. I welcome you to the Union and express our deepest gratitude for your part in helping bring the goldenlight sunstone to us.”

  Anniya smiled back. “Thank you very much, Director.” She held out her hand. “My name is Anniya.”

  Jonathan, still holding his smile, reached out both his arms to grip Anniya’s shoulders. “You're very welcome, Miss Anniya. Quite pleased to meet you.” Still smiling, the director turned her around and began to gently push her back up the ramp onto the shuttle. “Now, off to immigration with you.”

  Anniya blinked, confused. “Wait, what? But...”

  Jonathan talked over her protest. “Don’t worry, Miss. Anniya. This is all part of the plan. And good luck!” Anniya glanced back gaping at Tom with a worried look. “But Sparky and Chris said, I mean, doctor Cernon and Tom said I was supposed to stay with them at the School… Hey guys!”

  Tom, gawking, looked up at the old archeologist by his side. The bearded man wore a defeated expression. Tom broke away from Christopher’s side, striding towards the shuttle ramp. “Uncle Jon, what are you doing? We told Anniya that we would take care of her.” He held out his arm towards the soaring Tower. “We’re supposed to get her registered here, at the School!”

  With a hint of regret in his kind smile, Jonathan turned his head to look back over his shoulder at Tom. “Nephew, you and Christopher can not be seen with her.” The old director tilted his head at Anniya, smiling as he turned her around one more time before gently pushing her back down onto the side bench seat in the shuttle. “Miss Anniya here is known across the universe, and very soon the universe will know that she is here in the Union, at the School itself. That is not going to make Vectus happy, so we’ve got to do everything we can to minimize the political damage from this. And we can’t have them thinking that we sent in two of our own,” he pointed a finger at Tom and then Christopher, giving them both a low gaze, “with the specific task of stealing one of their society’s most important members.”

  Christopher started to say something, but with a look, the director cut him off sharply. “Of course that wasn’t our plan, Chris. But that’s what happened. We got the sunstone, good. But in the process we stole the Vectan’s champion. Well, they say we stole her, at least. My point is that thanks to all this,” he swept his hand at Anniya sitting in the shuttle, at Christopher, and Tom, then finished the gesture by patting the goldenlight sunstone in his pocket, “relations between the Union and the Vectan empire, which I have spent my career building to the fragile level they are now at, are going to plummet.” He shook his head. “This could be bad. Could be the spark that lights the lipetrol vat!” His head fell.

  The old director suddenly raised his head, walking away from Anniya, down the shuttle ramp, gaze fixed on Christopher then at Tom. “As for you two.” He shook his pointed finger at them. “You are going to talk to the director of Special Projects.” He snapped his fingers and pointed towards his open office wall. “Now.”

  Christopher and Tom threw a quick glance at one another with wide eyes, then turned and began walking up the walkway. Tom paused halfway and turned back around, watching Jonathan and Anniya in the shuttle.

  Jonathan gave a sigh and a shake of his head then walked back inside the shuttle, smiling as he addressed the seated Anniya. “Again, I wish to express our thanks to you for your part in bringing us the sunstone and your coming to the Union. You will be flown to meet your Union sponsor, Ms. Acida Stopts. We look forward to seeing you again very soon, Ms. Anniya.”

  Jonathan turned, exited the shuttle, and proceeded up the walkway, patting his nephew on the shoulder as he passed by before vanishing through the great square opening in the outside wall into his dark office. From the walkway, Tom watched the shuttle ramp close.

  The young scholar remained standing outside on the walkway, watching the shuttle lift slowly and silently into the air where its engines shined to life. Noiseless as a cloud, the shuttle shot off smoothly, accelerating into the distance, shrinking to a small, bright point at the end of a contrail. A muffled boom reached him a short moment later.

  After the boom had faded and the contrail vanished down into the clouds below, Tom turned away from the great spanning Horizon of the planet and the fluffy clouds like so many thousands of cotton balls, and walked into the big, dark, warm square opening to Jonathan’s office.

  The opening closed.

  Chapter 33

  Inside the shuttle, Anniya sat back in her seat and turned her head to gaze out the crystal clear window. At first, like the face of a great cliff, the Tower filled the entire view. Then, as the shuttle sped away and dove down towards the planet’s surface, the tremendous Tower finally began to shrink away, although its vastness still loomed over.

  The view through the crystal window went white as the shuttle dove into a cloud. Anniya turned her attention to the front window in time to see the white vanish to reveal a patchwork of rich forests and rivers interspersed with grassy fields and low structures of colored concrete and colorful metals glinting in the sunlight.

  Anniya turned to say something, then stared at the empty seats next to her. Her face fell. Looking forward to the cockpit area, in the rear-view mirror she saw the pilot’s eyes lock onto hers, then look away. Anniya looked down at the empty seats around her, then back to the rear view mirror. The pilot’s eyes were looking back at her again.

  Letting out a sigh, the pilot leaned back in her seat. "So, I’m not supposed to talk with you, you being a SVIP and all. But that’s a pile of shards.” She turned her head towards Anniya. “You look a little lost.”

  Anniya closed her eyes and blew out a puff. “Lost? I don’t even know where I’m supposed to be.”

  The gleaming shuttle approached a wide, grassy field on which sat dozens of sparkling shuttles and a few larger craft. Lining the landing field were thick-trunked trees and smaller buildings interconnected by skyways or ground paths.

  The pilot nodded as she returned her focus to landing the shuttle. “I got moved around a lot when I was active duty. It’s disorienting. Personally, I always found that a little info helped to light my way.” The pilot raised her hand and pointed out the front window. “The big building made of green concrete, there on the edge of that field, the one with all that clean silvery metal and the long windows, that’s the Union Central immigration office
of Administra."

  Anniya nodded. “Yeah, I see it. Pretty.”

  The pilot leaned back again and rolled her head in her seat to face Anniya. "The Union has thousands of star systems, each with entire worlds dedicated to nothing but immigration.…” She tapped a finger to her lips a few times, then pointed at Anniya. "I don’t think you realize how lucky you are."

  Returning again to the shuttle’s controls, the pilot reached over her head and flipped a large handle. A floating green arrow appeared above the control panel. "The Union immigration process usually takes around ten years. But here, on Administra proper, you’ll be in and out before dinner."

  Anniya scooted forward on her bench seat, towards the pilot. "Ten years? Really?"

  The pilot gave her a glance. “Usually ten years, but there’s stories of applications taking longer. Sometimes fifty years.” She smiled.

  Anniya looked out the window, seeing that they were setting-down onto a marked square on the open grass between two other similar shuttlecraft. She sat back. "The Union must be pretty great if people are willing to spend their lives just trying to get in."

  The pilot smirked, adjusting a knob on her left. “Or everywhere else is just worse.”

  The shuttlecraft set down to hover gently and silently above the thick grass. Reaching over her head, the pilot pushed three large blue buttons. Every light on the control panel lit up, then faded away as at the same time the door on the side of the shuttle opened and a stair ramp smoothly extended to the ground.

  With a sigh, Anniya stood. “Thanks for the info.”

  The pilot smiled. “Don’t mention it, Lucky.” She winked. “And I mean it. Literally do not mention any of this.” The pilot saluted, then snatched a floating transparency out of the air and began checking-off a list.

  Anniya walked a few steps down the stair ramp of the shuttle.

  Down here on the warm and sunny surface, amid the buildings and forests, the base of the nearest Tower dominating the horizon, the air had a cool and crisp taste of early spring complemented by the chirps and warbles of small birds twittering about. The bright noon sun warmed Anniya’s skin.