Star of Hope

by Moira McPartlin

  ‘Troops?’ She released her gun’s safety.

  ‘Put that away, you fool,’ he snapped. ‘Do you know how much damage you could cause?’

  ‘Don’t call me a fool,’ she spat. ‘And stop calling me hun.’

  He began to laugh, holding onto his skinny belly as if it were a cushion.

  ‘Don’t you know what I’m talking about? Not real troops. Who do you think has been looking after these beauties all this time?’

  He took the smaller of his devices from his pocket and clicked it a few times. ‘This is why I’m still alive, they needed one person to oversee the ticking-over. The State always assumed I would stay away because there was little I could do with such a moribund infrastructure out there.’ He swiped through some menus on the device and the hum and crackle sounds were joined by others. A door opened and closed somewhere in the deep recesses of the hangar. A small squeak grew in intensity, headed their way. Ishbel flattened her back to the nearest row and hovered a hand over her gun.

  Skelf laughed. ‘Oh dear, listen to that racket. Someone seriously needs an overhaul.’

  A small discus, the size of a Jeep wheel laid flat, with smaller wheels supporting, trundled towards them from the far end of the corridor to where they stood. It stopped in front of them.

  ‘What is it?’ Ishbel fought to keep the wonder from her voice.

  ‘It’s a Fixit. A term I personally hate, by the way. This little bot does more than fix things. It keeps these beauties on a run-and-maintain schedule and has done for decades. It repairs all the other Fixits, or I should say they maintain each other.’

  ‘How is it powered?’

  ‘Solar. They work by night and power up in sunlight hours. This little guy will be fully charged for sure.’

  ‘How many Fixits?’

  ‘Not many. Ten I believe. Enough. They are really efficient. No, wait a minute, there are nine. One was irreparably damaged when it ventured out to repair an antenna in a storm and was struck by lightning. Most unfortunate.’ He picked out some options from his menu and the Fixit attached itself to the server housing. It travelled up the length of the hangar and each time it passed a server a small arm reached out and the server whirred to life. The squeaking set Ishbel’s nerves jangling. Skelf screwed his face in pain.

  ‘So old and obsolete,’ he said. ‘We could have done wonders if we’d been allowed to continue. Still, we are where we are, as they say. We must make do with what we have.’

  The Fixit stopped two rows up, about a third of the way along.

  ‘Oh no! This is no good for an initial start-up. I’d hoped for more,’ Skelf bawled.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘We’ll hardly be able to blow our nose with this power, hun.’

  Ishbel whistled through her teeth but held her wheesht.

  ‘I know there is only limited capacity,’ Skelf said. ‘But why would your man bring me all this way for this piddling amount of power? We need to get this star of yours working – pronto.’

  Isabel had a worry in her belly.

  ‘Maybe it’s for the best that you can only start small. Maybe we should wait for further instruction from The Prince’s Blue Pearl. If it’s so dangerous maybe The Prince decided this was all the power we should start with?’ And maybe Merj was mixed up in this, but she kept that thought to herself.

  ‘Maybe. Maybe, maybe? Is this all we have? What were these instruction you had from this Blue Pearl?’

  ‘To bring you here and switch the server on.’

  ‘There you are then. The Blue Pearl knows what it’s doing. That monkey you had in tow, Merj was it? Where is your disappearing monkey? He is the Blue Pearl, yes?’

  ‘Yes, he works for The Prince.’

  ‘Oh, The Prince. How quirky. Well, Merj obviously had his own agenda. So, hun.’ He held up his hand. ‘I mean, Ishbel, it seems to me The Prince and the Blue Pearl know exactly what they will unleash if this whole installation goes live. But worry not.’ He pointed to the Fixit. ‘We don’t have the full power – yet, but all these are organised into silos for specific areas of use: medical, military, defence, you get the idea. There is little harm can be done with what’s already live.’

  ‘But what if we get more power from The Star of Hope?’

  ‘The Star of Hope,’ Skelf said with a flourish. ‘The possibilities…’

  Ishbel had no idea of The Star’s power but she knew Sorlie was tasked to start it. And Merj was out there somewhere with his own agenda. Had he gone looking for Sorlie?

  ‘We must get to them.’

  ‘Yes my dear, we must.’

  Two missions merge

  Ishbel limped slightly, but before I got a chance to meet her, I caught sight of something bizarre. Reinya ran from the trees at the end of the lavender fields without a care for who or what might be spying. Noni trotted behind her. They moved so fast they didn’t notice Ishbel. And Ishbel seemed to be unaware of the group who overtook her from the far side of the mound, she was too intent on helping the skinny man tiptoe across the space between the mound and The Star. A giggle bubbled in my throat. It looked like a scene from some old disaster movie-caster where the final survivors of the ruined world congregate for the last scene. But where were Dawdle and Jake in this scene?

  Reinya and Noni reached me first, out of breath and sweating.

  ‘Where’s Dawdle?’ I asked.

  She rubbed Noni’s back. ‘You OK?’ She handed Noni a water canister she must have retrieved from the canoe. ‘You OK?’ she asked again, but Noni gaped at her as if she’d gone mad to ask, then sat down with her back to the wall, watching.

  ‘Tell me,’ I said with one eye to the door. ‘Ishbel should be here any minute.’

  ‘Ishbel. Was that who that wus? She looks older. No wonder though, ‘er boyfriend is un absolute traitor.’

  ‘Dawdle?’

  ‘Dawdle.’

  ‘What about Dawdle?’ Ishbel asked, helping the skinny man into the hall. ‘Sorlie, Reinya.’ She nodded my way. ‘Good to see you both,’ she said, all formal-like, squinting at us, but saying no more. She meant business.

  ‘What about Dawdle, Reinya?’

  ‘Like uh say, ‘e’s a traitor.’ She hooped in a big breath. ‘We leave ‘ere and ‘ead back to the canoe. He ties that Jake up again and dumps ‘im in the boat.’

  ‘Jake?’ Ishbel puzzled a look at me. I mouth a ‘tell you later’.

  Reinya took another gulp of air. ‘We’re waitin, like you told us to, Sorlie. We make camp, ‘ave some scran. Then Dawdle gets pinged a message.’

  ‘Who from?’ Ishbel asked. I could see by her frown that she had noticed Noni, but she stayed focused on the topic of Dawdle.

  Reinya shrugged. ‘But then out o nowhere he pulls u gun on me and Noni.’

  ‘What? I knew he was up to something.’ My blood was boiling.

  Reinya nodded. ‘Got more o they plastic things and plans to tie me and Noni up. He points the gun at me and tells Noni if she doesn’t tie me up ‘e’ll shoot me.’

  ‘I’ll kill him!’

  ‘Sorlie.’ Ishbel put her hand on my arm. She swallowed, hardly breathing.

  Reinya nodded to Noni. ‘Course, Noni ‘as no idea ‘ow to make u loop with plastic ties. She tries and then throws the lot in Dawdle’s face, then loups on ‘im. Knocks ‘im out. So uh make the loops and we tie ‘im up and belt back ‘ere.’

  ‘He’s not dead?’ Ishbel asked. Reinya shook her head.

  ‘He might not be but he will in a minute.’

  ‘Sorlie,’ Ishbel said with real sadness.

  ‘Look, do we have time for this?’ the skinny man said. ‘Sounds like this chap’s been dealt with. Now, can we get on?’

  He was right but I struggled to stow my anger.

  ‘This is Skelf.’ Ishbel grudgingly introduced us.<
br />
  ‘The guy who brought down the net?’ I asked, stoundit.

  ‘Who told you that?’ Ishbel’s sharp words stung me, but I held my backlash. Reinya was right, she’d aged and looked worn out. It’s been a long road for all of us.

  ‘Pa told me, Ishbel. I mean, The Prince.’

  ‘Right, well, very good,’ Skelf said. ‘Then you’ll know the score. We need more power.’

  ‘I’m working on that. A reactor is working and the first turbines are turning.’

  ‘I can hear,’ this Skelf said. ‘Did the bot get it started?’

  ‘How do you know about the bot?’

  ‘What’s u bot?’ Reinya looked bemused.

  ‘A bot is a machine that can do the work of humans,’ Skelf said. ‘And yes, I know about the bot because my company set this protocol up.’ Despite his scrawny look there was a smugness about him that could do with a slap.

  ‘Jake had already killed the guards and the engineer when we got here.’ I didn’t go into the details – that could wait. ‘A robot can work the plant. It’s powering up another reactor just now. We just need to make sure we’re safe from the Military.’

  ‘You’re safe from the Military all right,’ Skelf said, then looked around at his audience. ‘The one we need to worry about is Merj.’

  ‘Merj?’ I turned on Ishbel. ‘What’s he got to do with this?’

  ‘He rescued me in Bieberville, said The Prince sent him.’

  Ishbel glanced through the outside door, maybe looking for Dawdle, maybe Merj, probably both. ‘Why are we safe from the Military?’ she asked Skelf.

  The grinding that had been happening within the plant quietened to a hum. Skelf leaned his head back on the wall next to Noni. He shuffled his bum and girned in pain. ‘I used to have a nice cushion here.’ He patted his bum. ‘My butt was so big you could land a Transport on it. Now I’m too bony. I don’t suppose there’s a cushion anywhere.’

  ‘Get on with it,’ I hissed.

  ‘The Military aren’t coming because there’s hardly any left.’

  ‘Are you crazy? I lived on a Military Base. There are Bases everywhere.’

  ‘True, there are lowercase bases around, but have you been in them?’

  I opened my mouth to speak.

  ‘Apart from the one you grew up in?’ I closed my mouth. ‘No, thought not. The ones left are a shambles. Even the Bieberville border has only a smattering of Military.’

  ‘It’s true,’ Ishbel said. ‘I’ve seen very little in the way of Military in Esperaneo Major.’

  ‘So forget the heavy guns,’ Skelf continued.

  ‘No, wait a minute. That’s not right.’ I couldn’t let him fool us like this. ‘If there are hardly any Military, why were there two Transports at the tower to arrest Ishbel?’

  Skelf squinted at Ishbel. ‘Is that right, now? In that case, the powers that are left must believe Ishbel to be a very important person. Is it not the case she is the daughter of the revolutionary leader, Vanora?’

  ‘OK, OK,’ Ishbel said. Her face was slightly pink. ‘What about surveillance?’

  ‘There is surveillance,’ Skelf assured us. ‘But there are hardly any Privileged left to maintain it. So The Military commissioned the TEX to set up the illusion of a huge Military force. Of a State that is all-powerful, of a Privileged race that has the natives as their slaves.’ He looked pleased with his revelation. ‘Don’t you see? Your world is a great big lie.’

  ‘That’s impossible. My ma and pa worked for the Military. I was born and brought up on a Base. I attended an Academy.’

  ‘A virtual Academy,’ he corrected me.

  ‘Yes, but we got together for selection.’

  ‘I bet there weren’t that many present at this selection?’ I thought back to the times we were lined up in the gym hall.

  ‘True,’ I had to admit.

  ‘But it can’t all have been an illusion?’ Ishbel said. ‘What about all the natives who worked in factories, in domestic service for the Privileged? I was in domestic service myself.’

  ‘Again,’ Skelf said in a calm, cold voice. ‘How many of these were you in touch with outside your own Base?’

  ‘I went to market every week with produce to sell.’

  ‘And who did you sell it to?’

  Ishbel’s brows pringled. ‘Other natives, for their Privileged owners. But it was always the same group of about a dozen or so natives.’

  ‘So we have a dozen Privileged who don’t live on your Base. And how do you know it wasn’t for the natives’ own uses, or maybe the Noiri took it. They are everywhere, aren’t they?’

  A doubt started nibbling in my mind.

  A sly smile passed his lips. ‘Any other examples of this great Privileged race and State you were all working for?’

  ‘What about Steadie?’ I chipped in. ‘The natives there went out and worked every day.’

  ‘Where did they go?’ Skelf asked.

  ‘I don’t know.’ I flushed red. ‘I never thought to ask. I just assumed that they went out to work in the Privileged homes.’

  ‘Did this reservation have food?’

  ‘Yes, but they grew it themselves.’

  ‘Where?’

  Suddenly the floor was more interesting than this conversation.

  ‘You don’t know, do you? You eat the food laid before you like a Privileged and never think to ask.’

  ‘They went out to work in the fields.’ Ishbel said. ‘I should have guessed that, but even I didn’t bother with the workings of Steadie.’

  ‘I saw the specials work within the compound.’ My voice sounded small. ‘I knew that plastic was recycled there but I never talked to any specials or natives other than Harkin or Con. Jupe sake, I am still such a Privileged brat.’

  Skelf laid a hand on my shoulder.

  ‘You are not entirely to blame,’ he said. ‘The division of classes worked well and helped to keep the illusion alive. This is a world of broken communications. If you keep every part of it separate and in the dark then it’s easy to create an illusion. But once this power is on and we can open up some of the silos of information, that illusion will crumble. Are you ready for that?’

  ‘Of course. The conditions the natives live under are unbearable,’ I said. ‘It’s the right thing to do. And this is what The Prince wants.’

  ‘Ah yes, The Prince. And how is he going to use this power, I wonder?’ He left the question floating in the air, no answers forthcoming. There was a series of rumbles from deep within the mountain. Skelf held his face up and listened.

  ‘Sounds like it’s started. Now we get to the interesting part.’ From his pocket he produced a device and swiped through a menu. The bot came into the room. And stood waiting.

  Ishbel, Noni and Reinya gaped at it. The robot smiled at him but did not move.

  ‘Your command device is very sophisticated,’ he said to me. ‘Probably produced by technicians from my own company.’

  ‘Yes, and now working for my grandmother,’ I nipped. Skelf gave me a sharp look.

  ‘Give me back control, Sorlie.’

  ‘I don’t think so.’

  He sighed. ‘No matter, we all want the same thing. We should be ready to start.’

  ‘Do you know what to do?’ I said, suddenly feeling childish at my initial refusal.

  ‘Of course. I created this model. Quite stunning, even if I say so myself.’

  I did as he asked and unclipped my plugin from the bot. He was right, we did all want the same thing. The robot climbed the stairs and disappeared into the control room.

  Skelf smiled. ‘And now the missing piece. Do you now believe that the illusion worked? Because we are about to find out the truth.’

  The truth. I’ve been searching for the truth for aeons. Ever since I discovered my DNA passport
was fake and that I was part native. Was it really going to be revealed, did I want that? In some ways living in the dark was easier.

  Throughout this exchange Reinya had been eyeing Skelf with concern. She pushed herself off the wall and walked towards him.

  ‘You say it’s easy to keep un illusion if the communication is broken and the pieces ur kept apart, but not all the communication wus broken,’ she said. ‘Thurs u group that know what’s goin on everywhere.’

  That horrible churning in my stomach bubbled to the surface with my own dawning of the truth and what it meant.

  ‘Correct, my dear.’

  ‘The Noiri.’ I said it before my mind worked through all the possibilities.

  ’Give the boy a coconut.’ The familiar voice came out of nowhere.

  ‘Merj!’

  He stood by the door, a gun held in each hand. He walked into the hall and swung the guns around like some oldie superhero, out to fight the whole room if someone dared to move.

  ‘Everyone, into the corner. Sorlie, instruct that robot to step away from the controls.’

  ‘Why? Why are you doing this, Merj? The Prince wants The Star operational and you work for him.’

  ‘No I don’t, not any more. Now move.’

  Everyone shuffled into the corner. I stood in front of Reinya and Noni, ushering them to sit.

  ‘Why, Merj?’ Ishbel asked in a measured voice.

  ‘Because, my dear Ishbel, if this plant facilitates the server Switch-On we will go back to the way it was before. Do you really want that? Where everyone had access to information. Every movement recorded. The TEX once more holding all the power and the Noiri’s activities curtailed. Then the natives truly will starve.’

  ‘Come now, that’s not necessarily true,’ Skelf said with a little nervous cough.

  ‘And why should we believe you?’ Merj sneered. ‘You’re the main architect of this mess.’

  I saw a familiar shadow appear in the doorway behind Merj. Ishbel was beside me. She grabbed my arm and squeezed it.

  ‘Ah, so touching, aunt and nephew, supposed rulers of the new world.’

  Dawdle moved closer to Merj in the darkness, unnoticed. We just needed to keep Merj occupied.