The Sound of Stars

by Alechia Dow

  She doesn’t answer. Just angles her head back. “You’ve seen so many places.”

  “Yes, but never for fun.” M0Rr1S snuggles closer.

  Her voice is quiet, measured. “If I went with you one day, despite every obstacle in our path, would it ever be safe for us?”

  “I will make it safe.”

  She’s quiet again, and he wishes that he could read her mind. He wants to tell her not to worry so much. That everything is going to be okay one day. Yet, those are lies. “Tell me about the ugliest planet you’ve ever been to.”

  “There is one that is always dark. It has no sun or water. The beings that thrive there are monstrous. It is dangerous and terrifying. And cold.” He shivers thinking of it. “I won’t go back there.”

  “Tell me about the coolest place in the universe.”

  He shakes in silent amusement, and ponders what will seem most interesting to someone who knows only Earth. “There is a realm formed between three planets where there is an opposing gravitational pull. Thus, depending on which planet you enter the realm from, you will see people walking perpendicular to you on two sides like a triangle. You can buy fruit from a market across the realm that must be weighted for delivery. It’s hard to explain, but it’s amazing. There’s nothing else like it in the universe.”

  “Tell me—”

  “You have asked many, many questions. And I will not tell you about any more places, because you will travel there with me, and we will see these worlds together. I will not spoil this for you.” He’s resolute. He likes the dream of them together, Earth saved, her parents happy and healthy, and the two of them traveling the universe, even if they remain only friends.

  “Morris—”

  “Ellie.”

  She huffs. “All right, then tell me about why sex with Orsa was horrible.”

  “Janelle,” he groans.

  Ellie cocks her head. “Oh, too touchy a topic? Hmm, want to go back to discussing the universe?”

  “Actually, I’d like to discuss the Starry Eyed, if you don’t mind.” The corners of her lips rise, scrunching her nose. He won this battle. “That song that you said was your favorite, what was it called?”

  “‘Lost With You.’ Although, ‘Everything’ is beautiful as well, so they’re tied in first place.”

  He recalls the words. “I never wanted to see you cry out in pain. The fault is mine, I’m covered in shame... I know it hurts, but I can explain. I shout, you weep, I lie, you speak... The truth,” he sings. “It’s very relevant to our situation.”

  She turns her head toward his again with a small giggle. “You think?”

  “Well, it’s about the singer breaking another’s heart, and trying to gain their love’s trust again, right?” His eyebrows rise, and he studies her face.

  Ellie’s eyes sparkle. “It starts off with their dirty boots because they’re burying secrets. I always took that to mean that whatever the heartbreaker did, they are both trying to get over it. And so the singer—the heartbreaker—is telling their love that they will never do it again. That it killed them inside to hurt them, and that they mean everything.”

  “Yes, see? That’s us! We’ve listened to that whole album, and every song was about us.” M0Rr1S lets his head fall back against the windshield close to Ellie’s.

  “I guess, in a way, parts of it could be applied to our weird relationship. Maybe. But these things are also universal, I bet,” she admits.

  “Universal,” he laughs. How true is that? He rolls to his side and asks the most important question that has been on his mind for as long as he can remember. “Love is in every story and in every song. In theory, I know what it is, but what does it feel like?”

  She purses her lips. “Love is...it feels like, hmm.” Her fingers pick at a strand of unraveled thread from her sweater. “It’s affection and wanting to be with someone... I think I read somewhere that love is the connection of two hearts.”

  M0Rr1S is quiet for a moment. “But hearts cannot feel or connect, no matter how we wish they could.”

  “Well, don’t take it quite so literally,” she says, with the corner of her mouth raised. “I’d imagine it’s the connection of two minds, too. That seems more plausible anyway, since you’re right, hearts only function.”

  He considers it. “When I’m connected to Il-0CoM, there are so many minds connected to mine. And that’s not love.”

  Ellie’s lips scrunch together. “It’s really weird,” she says, bemused. “But Allister Daniels—he’s the lead singer of the Starry Eyed, said that love feels transformative. If music is a story, it comes alive with love. The more love it has, the more likely the story will never end.”

  “See? Further proof that this band and their music is for us.” He smiles. “Love transforms. I like this.”

  Her eyes flick to his and he feels a warmth spread through him. “Don’t you have love where you’re from?”

  “Love is an abstract concept that’s never discussed. True Ilori get married, share energy and, if they should choose, they take strands of their genetic material to create a new being. There is no love. Only respect and compatible programming.”

  She lets out a chuckle. “That sounds so...alien. What about labmades? What were you supposed to do with Orsa?”

  “0rsa and I would have gotten married, shared energy, lived our lives and died. We can have intercourse, but we cannot make new beings organically. Labmades are traditionally made to serve and expire when we no longer can.”

  She stiffens beside him. “You’ll die when you can’t serve?”

  M0Rr1S shakes his head. “My life was created to be similar to a human life, to yours. I am made of electrical currents, organs, blood, emotions... I can feel pain. I can dream when I sleep, although, with proper charge, I don’t require sleep. I was born, I have grown, I will age and then I will die.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I’m Ilori and, sometimes, it feels like I’m human, too. I’m of two worlds.”

  She gives him a small smile as silence falls between them. Has he made her uncomfortable? The need to hear her voice overwhelms him. That can’t be it. He reaches over and touches the edge of her purple hat, warming as her heart rate picks up at the sudden contact.

  “Have you always worn this?”

  The moon shines in her eyes. “It’s my purple crown,” she laughs. “A few months before the invasion, my dad bought it for me at this little booth under the Brooklyn Bridge. I sorta fell in love with it and haven’t stopped wearing it since. It reminds me of the Starry Eyed’s ‘Fairy-tale Girl.’ It’s about a girl who wears this purple crown and has to keep her stories hidden—at least I think that’s what it’s about. Anyway, I know that’s weird, but this hat is like my security net. It makes me feel safe, and... It’s hard to explain.”

  “It’s so...vibrant. Like you.” He slides off the hood and extends an arm to her. “She’s got glitter. Yeahhhh, she sparkles and shines in my sky. I want to hold her close, I want to look her in the eyes... Shining so bright but I can’t look away.” His voice wobbles and the notes are short, but she beams up at him through her eyelashes.

  “We’ve only listened to it once. How do you remember all the lyrics?” Ellie props herself on one elbow, color flooding her cheeks.

  He shrugs, inviting her again. She glances at his hand once more before she takes it.

  They stand close together. M0Rr1S is briefly unsure what he should do or can do. But then he pulls her into a hug and dances with her. “Promise this is more than it seems. My starry dreammmmmms.”

  “This world... It’s bigger than the two of us, but it’s really only them and us...and I want them all to know my star, I’ll never let her go.” This is the moment. A big moment. Her heart is slow and steady, and he appreciates that. It means she’s comfortable, maybe she even trusts him again.
r />   “Janelle Baker.”

  “Don’t tell me you like me again,” she says quietly, the corners of her lips quirking upward.

  “But why not?”

  “Because it makes me nervous.” She exhales. “And before you ask me again if I like you, the answer is yes. It was always yes, even though I tried not to.”

  His own heart races, suddenly. She likes him. Him.

  He feels like he’s walking on clouds and holding a star in his arms.

  She likes him, even if she didn’t want to. He understands. Would he not feel the same way if he were human and she, an Ilori, destroyed his world? He is asking her for too much—yet he can’t stop himself.

  “I never imagined someone like you would exist, or that I would find you.” He pauses, trying to contain the truth, but it bursts through anyway. “I’ve listened to a thousand songs, and those—they made me feel something. You make me feel something. I don’t want to live in a world without you in it. I can’t live in a world without you in it.”

  “You’re ridiculous. You know that, right?” Her voice is small but her eyes are big, and beautiful.

  “If someone meant everything to you, would you waste time pretending they didn’t?”

  “I don’t know, Morris.” She pulls back, but not away.

  “I know,” he replies, his own heart pounding. “But I have this feeling deep in my chest that is both warm and cold at the same time. It makes me feel like I could jump over walls and swim in the ocean, although I don’t know how to swim. It makes me feel like I could do things beyond imagining.” The slight breeze cools his face. “Hope.”

  The stars are in her eyes that crinkle at the edges.

  “I have hope, Ellie.” He takes her hand in his and lifts his head to the sky. “Hope doesn’t rid me of the fear, but it changes it, and so I must say that despite our circumstances, the danger and the terror I feel taking you with me when it may very well be the last thing either of us do, anything can happen.”

  “Morris, I—” she starts but doesn’t finish. “What do we do now?”

  “We go to California. And we continue to hope.”

  “Oh, is that all?” She laughs, her chest heaving.

  “No one is looking for me, yet.” They will soon.

  “So, it’s safe for now?”

  “For now,” he answers. As long as he doesn’t enter Il-0CoM and AvR0la stays under the radar.

  “I’ve never been to California.” It’s dark and he doubts she can see much, but she looks west as if she can.

  “We have to go. Time doesn’t stand still, even for us.” M0Rr1S doesn’t drop her hand and instead turns to her. “Janelle, may I?”

  “May you what?”

  “Kiss you?”

  She hesitates. “No. Not yet. I’m too...nervous.” She shakes her head. “I can’t...not right now.”

  “Ellie, I will wait to kiss you until the end of our time together if you ask it.”

  “I—” She looks away, her cheeks pink despite her dark pigment. “I don’t think I could wait that long.”

  “Good, because I’m not sure we have that much time either.” He opens the car door for her. “You can sleep, as reaching our destination will still take a while.”

  “I’m not tired yet.” She shrugs before sliding into the car. He walks around and gets in the other side.

  “Would you tell me another story?” M0Rr1S’s eyebrows lift in anticipation, but he tries not to show too much excitement.

  The sun is in her smile and the stars still in her eyes. “Would love to. What kind of story?”

  “Any story read by you will be my favorite.”

  “You’re a bit of a hopeless romantic, Morris.” She twists in her seat, getting comfortable.

  He presses the ignition button, and the car purrs to life. A smile spreads across his cheeks. He understands why humans show their happiness instead of saying it now. Because she beams back at him. “No, Ellie. I just told you, I have hope.”

  CHAPTER 17

  “Freedom (feat. Kendrick Lamar)”

  —Beyoncé

  M0Rr1S

  Ellie tells him a story about two teenage boys falling in love through emails—he thinks that’s what they’re called—before she drifts off to sleep. Her breaths come slow and steady now, and M0Rr1S wonders how the rest of the story goes. She awoke earlier, screaming out once and scratching at the door of the car, but he calmed her and urged her back to sleep. Since then, her face has been tilted toward him and he can’t help but snatch glimpses. For hours, the scenery has been consistent; fields of flaxy tan waving grass, and the sun beating down on the pavement beneath them.

  M0Rr1S takes a deep breath before hitting the small third button on his panel. Charge 93 percent. He doesn’t regret spending too much time talking and dancing with Ellie, but they can’t afford many more delays. 0rsa will check in on him, try to figure out where he went and what he is doing. He needs to finish this mission.

  He shouldn’t do it, but he flips the switch for Il-0CoM, telling himself that he’ll just check in.

  Status on the vaccine?

  A labmade general crackles only seconds later. Commander M0Rr1S. We are pleased to hear from you.

  Commander M0Rr1S, a true Ilori who has nothing else better to attend to states with little inflection. 0rsa D3ihl stated you haven’t arrived at your pod location in her quadrant for a debriefing and memory installation. We are concerned you are not following protocol. Again.

  I am still finding active solutions to our humanity problem west, as my familial code, he stresses that part, suggested. I will arrive at my pod soon. Is there a status on the vaccine?

  Yes, the general cuts in again. Distribution was able to re-create your formula and begin new production. We expect the supplies to reach every center within a rotation.

  Tonight? M0Rr1S almost gasps.

  The timeline has shifted. Your familial code, Our Esteemed Leader, Emperor 1lv, has discussed his imperial visit within Il-0CoM, which you have missed from your constant absence. The true Ilori’s tone is biting, and M0Rr1S understands how thin a line he walks. He wishes to explore the facilities before we offer Earth to tourism. A demonstration for upper command. Acquisitions battles in only seven quadrants now, as opposed to twelve yesterday. Rehabilitation, Agricultural Services and Habitation, while working slowly over the course of occupation, are now at full speed, and expect to be done within eight rotations. We are ahead of schedule.

  Three days. That’s very soon. Too soon. And when does Our Esteemed Emperor wish to arrive?

  Thirty-three rotations.

  Eleven days. I see. Then it is most prudent that I offer my guidance to those battling humans. At any point, someone could call him on his lies. If there was a prier, he would already be collected and under arrest. Thankfully, he doesn’t feel any slight nudges into his mind.

  Follow protocol, Commander. We do not wish—

  No, Brixton interrupts. Any guidance you can supply, I’m sure, would be appreciated, Commander M0Rr1S. However, if no results are produced, we may have to further inquire into your mental well-being. There’s a pause. Your methods have impressed leadership, but they are unpredictable.

  Thank you, Captain. I assure you, I am in control and work only to serve the Ilori Empire. A chill travels down his spine. Brixton being nice can’t be good.

  Very well. When you are ready for extraction, you need only ask.

  M0Rr1S wants to get off Il-0CoM as soon as he can. Thank you. And may I—

  0rsa D3ihl stated you are traveling with a human. That you found companionship with a human. Another true Ilori remarks before Morris can end the conversation.

  Brixton’s tone holds a slight edge to it. My brother would not embarrass himself or the 1lv line by finding kinship with his inferiors. Would you, Commander?

 
Before M0Rr1S can deny the accusation, tell them he is loyal to his race and to their new colony, his gaze flicks to Ellie. It’s warm. She shrugged off her sweater at some point, but there are beads of sweat on her hairline and the wispy curls are stuck to the sides of her face. He should lie. Lying isn’t hard. Yet, they will pry regardless now that the accusation’s been made. 0rsa made sure there is no way to avoid suspicion.

  No, she is... She is bait? She is everything to him? She is music and a story that has come alive? Permission to sign off?

  Permission n—

  He flicks the switch on Il-0CoM anyway, the voices disappearing all at once. By not answering, he exposes himself to their derision, but they can’t charge him. They don’t know his location. No one can pry. He can still get out and complete his mission without becoming a fugitive. AvR0la was right, he should never have gone on there.

  But now he knows he has eleven days to download his song into Il-0CoM. Eleven days to kill his grandfather and free his race. All of this to save humans, labmades and Ellie. Especially Ellie.

  And he’d do it again.

  He casts the thoughts aside as he turns on the air conditioner for Ellie’s comfort, noticing the car is a bit low on fuel and electricity. Perhaps draining it last night for a few hours was a bad idea, but it was also one of the best nights of his life. He huffs to himself. No need to worry. There’s a backup battery in the trunk, they won’t get stranded.

  M0Rr1S wonders if it’s the Starry Eyed that is keeping him calm. They’ve listened to the same album four times. The band’s music plays to his emotions, and it speaks to his experiences here on Earth. Like it was written for them. He smiles, the Il-0CoM incident already pushed to the background of his resounding emotions.