New Light

by Ben Johnston

  Breathing in a great gulp of fresh clean air, Anniya turned back to the pilot inside the shuttle. "Breathing this air is like drinking water!"

  The pilot acknowledged her with a distracted nod before returning to her transparency. Anniya's eyes squeezed closed, then sprang open with a smile. "This planet is so much better than Heenu.” She turned back to the pilot inside. “Have you ever been to Heenu?"

  The pilot placed her stylus in her front pocket then looked away from her transparency with lowered eyebrows. She gave Anniya a quick shake of her head. “Yeah, no.”

  The pilot then held up her hand, opening and closing it in a short wave goodbye before pulling a lever. The shuttle door began to close and the stairs withdrew. Anniya jumped off the retracting stairs onto the thick grass.

  Turning away from the now closed shuttle, Anniya saw an approaching young woman with long, straight, honey-blonde hair.

  “Hi there! I’m Acida Stopts.” Acida gave a small bow as she snapped her gum, a different colored spark going off in her mouth each time she did. “I’m your sponsor! How exciting, right? And let me tell you, you’re lucky to have me. My family is full of Scholars and is one of the oldest families at the School. I myself am a thirteen thousand and fourteenth generation Stopts. But I’m like my mom; I’m not into lumistry or photics. We’re more historians, but not archeologists - Ruin take me! - and I’m currently studying sociology.”

  Anniya blinked then pointed. “What are you chewing?”

  Acida smiled and snapped a green spark. “Luma.” She tilted her head with a half smile, one eye squinted. “You really aren’t from around here, are you?”

  Anniya shook her head as she looked around.

  Acida pulled out a stick of the gum and offered it to Anniya. “Here. Try some. Next best thing to chocsugar.” She winked. “In the not so humble opinion of myself,” she placed her fingers on her chest, “a notable member of the great Stopts family.”

  Anniya accepted the stick of the luma, looking at it with furrowed eyebrows, then up at Acida. Acida gave a wide, relaxed smile.

  “Try it. It’s good. Every kid in the Union grows up chewing lightgum.”

  Anniya unwrapped the luma, put it in her mouth, chewed, and snapped a loud, bright red spark.

  Giving a big toothy smile, Acida laughed. “Red! You’re tense.”

  Anniya shook her head. “Nah.” She looked upwards, at the nearest soaring Tower fading into the misty blue of the sky itself. “Not tense.”

  Anniya let out a small sigh. “Just lost.”

  Acida tilted her head towards a shiny-black car hovering a short distance away. The vehicle hovered, shining warm patterns of light onto the dense grass beneath it. “Well, you’re not lost anymore. We found you.” She turned and began walking towards the waiting car. “Come on, Anniya. Let’s get you registered with immigration. Then let’s go find you a new home.”

  Inside the hovering car Anniya found a young man with a straight nose and short black hair. He introduced himself with a bright smile and a nod.

  “Miss Anniya, I’m Morse Stopts. Acida’s brother.”

  Anniya held out her hand to Morse. “Hi, Morse. Nice to meet you.”

  Morse took Anniya’s hand gently then released it. “We Stopts are the oldest family at the School.”

  Anniya blinked. “Yeah, I heard.” She tilted her head. “So, how long have you Stopses been here for?”

  Acida gave a tiny grunt and shook her head. “StopTs, Anniya. You have to say the T.”

  Anniya blinked at Acida. “The T? What?”

  Acida breathed in through her nose. “You said Stops. Our family name. It’s not Stops, it’s Stopts. It’s like you’re saying, ‘I stopped’, but the plural of stopped. Stoppeds. Stopts.” She gave a few quick nods with a tight smile.

  Anniya stared at Acida. “Can’t I just say Stops? It’s easier and less weird.”

  Acida glared at Anniya, squinting under lowered brows. “Weird? What? Stops? No. Stops is not my family’s name.”

  Morse shook his head, rolling his eyes. “Sun’s and Ruin, Cici! Why do you care so much if people say the T? It’s just a complication. The StopTs,” he put a sarcastic emphasis on the T sound, “should have dropped it a thousand millenia ago and just been the Stops. There’s more Stops in the universe than Stopts anyhow.”

  Acida rolled her eyes. “Of course there’s more, More, but they’re a different family than us.” She snapped a hot pink spark in her mouth then turned to Anniya. “Family.” She rolled her eyes. “They’re impossible, right?”

  Anniya gave a weak smile. “Yeah. Family.”

  With no feeling of motion, the scenery out the windows began to scroll by as their car sped off.

  Anniya’s smile fell. “Well, actually. No. Not really. I didn’t really have a family. It was just my dad and I when I was a kid.”

  She turned away from Acida and Morse, gazing out the window at the passing scene. “Then it was just me.”

  Chapter 34

  Jonathan strode through the great dark space of his office as he led Christopher and Tom towards his wide desk. On the other side of the desk stood a tall, thin man with a prominent nose and thick dark hair.

  Jonathan held his hand out towards the man. “Director Miller!”

  Still striding forward, Jonathan swept his hand back at his companions. “May I introduce my nephew, Tahmos Weaver, and my good friend, the great archeologist, Doctor Christopher Cernon.”

  Arriving at the desk, Jonathan turned to his nephew and the archeologist. “Gentlemen, this is David Miller, Head Director of Union Special Projects.”

  They bowed and then took seats around Jonathan’s large desk.

  David wore a comfortable smile beneath his handsome nose, his attentive, tan-colored eyes assessing Tom and Christopher. “Gentlemen. Tell me something I don’t know.”

  Tom burst out first. “Honorable Director Miller, we think the Vectans are planning something. Maybe some kind of attack on the Union using some new technology.”

  David shut his soft brown eyes with a sigh. “Young Mr. Weaver. The Vectans are always planning to attack everyone.” He opened his eyes, his gaze fixed on Tom. “I am the director of Special Projects. I know of several Vectan plans regarding an attack on the School. I said to tell me something I don’t know.”

  Christopher patted Tom on the shoulder and picked up the thread. “SP knows a lot, Director. We know that. But this is different. Anniya said there was something strange about the material those connection lines in the Shuttle were made of. And Tom knows the slot type indicates some kind of navigation device.”

  Tom cleared his throat. “An interactor unit, actually, Doc’. It’s for plane-shunting inertial and entropic effects.”

  David blinked at the dusty archeologist and the messy scholar before leaning back in his seat and drawing in a slow breath. “Gentlemen. SP received your message and report. We are aware of the anomalous materials in the craft. We are still in the process of getting that ship off Heenu discreetly. SP arrived on Heenu recently and found the device slot you speak of. SP is going to wait while the girl is being processed. Once she is a proper Union citizen, she will be interviewed. We will then have her illustrate and diagram the light ratios of those new materials, after which…”

  Tom interrupted. “Uh, Director, she doesn’t know light ratios. She’s some kind of weird self-taught lightmaker.”

  David’s eyes left the young scholar, proceeding to the wizened old Director sitting behind the desk. “Jonathan. Let’s turn to the problems we have here and now.”

  Jonathan nodded. “Indeed. From my perspective, at the high-level political, regarding our Vectan friends, so far they appear to have made no direct connection between the School and the girl’s dramatic disappearance from their Golden Tournament. The official word I got from the Vectan ambassador is that they believe their Golden Champion was kidnapped by ex-Republic forces or remnant elements of the former Phoenix Federation.”

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sp; David frowned. “They aren’t going to believe that for much longer.”

  His tan eyes visited Tom and Christopher again. “For the moment, only you two, the girl herself, and the director and I know the full extent of what has happened. But the circles of trust are about to extend out beyond that, so we have to move quickly to get you both as far away from her as possible, before any connections are made. We need to shove the girl out into the spotlight as quickly as possible so that the Vectans do not think we’ve been hiding her or that the Union had anything to do with kidnapping her.” He looked between Tom and Christopher. “Meantime, we need to shuffle you off somewhere out of sight.”

  Jonathan nodded, looking away from David as he turned a tired smile to the archeologist, and his nephew. “We’re going to set her out on a hill in the sunlight for all to see.”

  Christopher placed his hand over his face. “Meanwhile, you’re gonna hide Tom and me in a hole.”

  Tom looked at the tired archeologist with concern, then back at his great uncle. “You’re putting us in a hole?”

  Jonathan held out both his hands. “Nephew, this is out of our hands.” He folded his hands together and set them on his desk. “We’ll see you both in six weeks.”

  Christopher placed his hand on Tom’s shoulder.

  Tom looked at the hand, then up at Christopher, then down at the floor.

  Jonathan turned a sad smile on his great nephew and old friend. “It’s for the best that nobody knows what you’ve done.”

  Tom shook his hanging head, then looked up at Christopher.

  Christopher gave the scholar a half smile and a pat on his shoulder. “Like I said, Spark. Nobody knows the true heroes.”

  Tom and Christopher exited out the rear wall of Jonathan’s office and proceeded back down the exterior walkway to board another gleaming shuttle that was already waiting for them on the pad under the dark-blue noon sky. Inside the dim office, Jonathan phased the wall back to solid, then turned to David. “Dave. Exactly how confident are we that we can unlock the goldenlight from the sunstone?”

  David looked Jonathan directly in the eye. “Not overly, Jon.”

  Jonathan stroked his face. “What’s the plan, then?”

  David nodded. “It’s a six week plan. We’ll start with a very small, very expert team. They’ll be the only ones allowed to work on unlocking the goldenlight sunstone. Then, every day that we fail to make progress, we will add a few more to the team. By the end of the six weeks, we will have thousands of the Union’s greatest minds working on the problem. Naturally, by that point, with that many people, rumours will have started to leak, so if we haven’t unlocked the goldenlight by that time. Then we’ll be forced to announce the goldenlight sunstone, and the coming collapse of the Twelve Towers.”

  David moved his gaze to the sunstone in his hand again before placing the object into his own pocket. “After we announce the end of the Towers, we will immediately begin planning for the abandonment of the Towers and the evacuation of the surrounding areas.”

  Jonathan reached down to his desk and picked up an old book, turning it over in his hands. “Dave. You make it sound so…”

  The white-haired director placed the book down onto the desk. He glanced up at David. “Do you think the secret will keep that long?”

  David sighed, raising an eyebrow. “We’ve got the best and most trustworthy people slated to work on it.” He gave Jonathan a warm smile. “Minus your grand nephew, of course. Yes, Jon. I think the secret will keep.”

  Jonathan nodded. “So. Six weeks.”

  David stood. “Six weeks.” He bowed.

  Jonathan returned the bow. “Maybe sooner. Our Lumists and Protists might unlock goldenlight before then. We might be making an announcement next week. Maybe tomorrow afternoon.”

  Jonathan accompanied David as he took the long, dark walk through the dark, cavernous space of Jonathan’s huge office over to the towering door. The great door phased open to allow in a surge of bright, artificial sunlight from the large plain of the Tower floor.

  Jonathan turned to David. “Director Miller. Good luck.”

  David nodded once. “Director.” He turned and walked down the steps.

  Jonathan watched David descend the wide stairs outside his office, walking away down the path between hedges and over green lawns, heading in the direction of the nearest platform station. Jonathan gazed at the great, indoor plain of the vast Tower floor, looking out to its distant rolling hills and forests, over the scattered buildings, and up at the distant, spanning blue ceiling and its hundred glaring sunlights. Nearby, at the foot of the wide stairs, the trees sounded out with chirping birds and chattering squirrels, fluttering and scurrying about in the artificial sunlight.

  Dropping his gaze to the ground, the old director shook his white-haired head slowly as he turned and vanished back into the dark space of his office.

  Chapter 35

  On the bench seat in the shuttle, Tom sat reading from a transparency in his hand. “SP is sending us to survey worlds along the Ruin border.”

  Christopher, arms folded, eyes closed, was leaning back in his seat. “Great. We’re gonna catalogue broken, barren planets for a month.”

  Tom blinked at the reclining archeologist. “It’s archeology, at least.”

  Christopher, eyes still closed, gave a grunt. “It’s a mapping mission, Spark.” He shook his head. “This is archeology the same way painting a barn is art.”

  Tom tilted his head. “Painting a barn?” He scratched his curly hair. “I mean, that actually would be art.” He looked up, staring. “I mean, what are you painting on it?”

  Christopher opened his right eye at Tom. “Suns, you really have spent your whole life on a light world, haven’t you, Tom?”

  Tom lowered his brow at Christopher. “What do you mean?”

  Christopher opened both eyes, rolled them, then closed them again. “On fuel worlds, which is to say ‘normal’ worlds, if you want to change the color of a building you have to apply paint to it, or dye it, or something like that. You have to do it chemically. Manually.”

  Tom frowned, nodding. “Chemicals. No lumical materials. That makes sense. Fuel worlds don’t have a light-line run to them, so light-based materials and power light would have to be imported and stored. Hence, expensive.” He scratched his head. “Never thought about that.” He looked upwards with his mouth open and one eye squinted. “Yeah. Wow. That’s crazy. How else would you change the color of duraclay, or… I mean. What do you make barns out of, anyway? I mean, when you build a barn on a fuel world.”

  Christopher gave a half smile before opening his eyes again to peer at Tom beneath a scrunched-up brow. “Wood. You make barns out of wood, sparky.”

  “Wood, huh?” Tom nodded, his mouth slightly open. “Wow.”

  Christopher blew a relatively strong amount of air out of his nose. “They get it from trees, you know.” He raised his eyebrows at the young scholar.

  Tom scowled, turning away from Christopher back to the transparency in his hand. “I know what wood is, Doc’. There’s buildings made of infused wood all over Administra. I live by a forest! I was just. I was just pondering how fragile a structure made of non-infused wood would be. It couldn’t even last a millennium. Could it?”

  Chapter 36

  Immigration took longer than a day, and so Anniya found herself being ferried, by hovercar or shuttle, back and forth from the wind-blown island of Acida’s sprawling residence, to the sterile and boring halls of Administra’s head immigration office. Finally, on the third day, she was sworn in.

  After a minor, administrative correction had been applied to her application, Anniya walked out of the immigration office to be immediately swarmed by a crowd. A stunned Anniya was whisked back inside the office by Acida where they arranged a more discreet exit.

  Back at home with Acida, Anniya received a communication from the School proper. It was a request asking her to come to the Main to speak about her abilities. />
  The Main, as Anniya discovered the next day, was a grand outdoor theater on floor one of Tower One. The splendid theater was ‘outdoors’ in the sense that it was open to the Tower floor’s great plain. Anniya was introduced to the huge audience by the presenter, a young, slight man with a long face and thin wispy hair who introduced himself as Album.

  Album, standing on the stage under the artificial sunlight from the distant, sky-blue ceiling, welcomed the audience with an energetic smile. Then, following a series of thank-you’s and mentions, he moved on to the main subject.

  “Now. For those of you who are lightmakers, and for those of you who are familiar with lightmaking, you will know that the process or the method for radiance is straightforward: you need only envision the sigil in your mind. The ratio will emerge naturally as the hard light and soft light flow through the sigil. Of course, depending on the lightmaker, results may vary.”

  The crowd gave a low laugh. Album continued.

  “Well, this person here.” Album gestured to Anniya. “She does none of that.”

  There was the sound of a massive sigh as all at once thousands of people shifted in their seats, heads turning to look at Anniya. The crowd then went silent, all eyes on her.

  Album extended his hand from Anniya to the audience. “Miss Anniya. If you would, please tell us how you generate your radiance.”

  Gazing at the massive audience, her mouth slightly open, Anniya closed her eyes, giving a quick little shake of her head as she cleared her throat and stepped forward. She brought her mouth close to a coppery horn-shaped device that Album had been speaking into. She spoke into the horn. “When I was young.”

  Her voice boomed out, causing her to take a step back. “Is that what I sound like?” She turned to Album. “My voice sounds so weird.”