At Galactic Central

by Kate MacLeod

  “News?” she said to Scout.

  “Message,” Scout said.

  Daisy nodded, then turned to the youth. “Sammy—”

  But he didn’t even let her finish her request. “Sure, early lunch,” he said with a shrug. “It’s not like you haven’t earned it, miss Never Takes Her Breaks.”

  Daisy glanced over at Scout. “It might be more than that.”

  “Well, I certainly hope I’ll see you again, but if I don’t, it's not like high turnover isn't quintessential Galactic Central,” Sammy said, giving her biceps a firm grasp. “Best of luck to you.”

  “Thanks,” Daisy said, then grasped Scout’s arm and all but dragged her out of the public house.

  “We have to get to the court building,” Scout said. “That’s all I know.”

  “So you didn’t find Sparrow,” Daisy said.

  “No, got a message from Bo,” Scout said.

  Scout had to all but jog to keep up with Daisy as they crossed the open plaza.

  The closer they got to the court building, the more it towered over them. It was the single largest building on this island and supported the largest buildings in Galactic Central.

  Scout had seen smaller cities.

  Daisy ran up the steps, then stopped at the massive open doorways to wait for Scout to catch up.

  “Which way?” Daisy asked.

  Scout, fighting to catch her breath, just shook her head. “Just said court.”

  Daisy frowned, looking around. Then she grabbed Scout’s wrist to tow her after her into the building’s lobby. One long desk of glowing wood dominated the far side of the lobby, two long staircases curving around behind it. Swarms of people were waiting in queues to speak to the clerks who stood on the far side of the desk, looking things up on tablets built into the tabletop or pointing out directions on holographic maps they handed to the visitors.

  “Here,” Daisy said, pulling Scout over to a computer screen built into the wall.

  “Shouldn’t we get in line?” Scout asked.

  “That will take too long,” Daisy said, then thrust her finger against a port built into the bottom of the computer screen. Her eyes flickered rapidly until, as if sensing how creepy that was for Scout, she closed them.

  Daisy had memorized the maps of the city back on Schneeheim. For some reason Scout had assumed that had involved looking at images and committing them to her photographic memory.

  She kept forgetting just how much Daisy’s body and brain had been augmented. Daisy was so much more than human now.

  But her augments paled in comparison to what Shi Jian had coursing through her body.

  “There’s an office,” Daisy said, turning away from the computer screen. “It’s on the second level, but quite a way back.”

  “You can find it?” Scout asked. The computer screen was telling her nothing.

  “Yes,” Daisy said. “And at the top of the stairs there’s a moving platform, so the five-kilometer walk won’t be so bad.”

  “Five kilometers?” Scout repeated, but Daisy was already taking the steps two at a time. Scout followed after, acutely aware of the eyes of a security guard tracking their progress. But if there was anything unusual about two teenaged girls in the courthouse all but sprinting around the space, the guard made no move to restrain them or tell them to slow down.

  The moving platform that ran down the immense hallway was more elaborate than Scout had been expecting. There were five separate belts, each moving at its own speed. Daisy stepped onto the first one, then worked her way across, stepping onto the ever faster-moving walkways until she was whizzing down the hallway. Scout progressed more slowly, terrified of what would happen if she fell. How far would she be thrown? How badly would she be damaged, flying into the stone archways that punctuated the endless hallway of dark wood doors and larger open doorways?

  Daisy came back to hold out a hand and help her step onto the last, fastest platform. Scout didn’t mind her holding her hand now; her heart was beating a mile a minute, and the visions of flying off the platform wouldn’t leave her mind.

  “One of these courtrooms is full of people deciding our fate right now,” Daisy said, trying to peer into each open doorway they passed, but they never got more than a glimpse of rows of people sitting in benches, other people further forward on platforms, pontificating.

  “More than our fate,” Scout said. “Our whole world’s. I wonder if Seeta, Geeta, and Emilie have been summoned to speak for us yet?”

  “All Space Farers,” Daisy said.

  “That doesn’t matter anymore,” Scout said.

  “It never did, I guess,” Daisy conceded. “It was all a lie. But it was a lie that killed my parents. And yours.”

  “But the lie is over,” Scout said. “Isn’t it?”

  “Only because we’re facing bigger foes,” Daisy said. “Here, we should start moving back across. We’re nearly there.”

  This time she stayed close to Scout’s side, not pulling her about but hovering in case Scout should need her. Scout took it one step at a time, moving to ever more slowly moving platforms until she found herself standing on immobile stone.

  “This way,” Daisy said, leading the way to one of the endless rows of unmarked doors of dark wood. Scout looked at it, blinked, and her glasses gave her a label: council chamber 97445, reserved for Tajaki Trade Dynasty representative Bo Tajaki and staff.

  “I hope it’s good news,” Scout murmured. Daisy gave her a tight smile, and Scout knew she didn’t think it was but didn’t want to disappoint Scout.

  Then she pushed open the door, and they were inside a long, narrow room. The far wall was a series of windows overlooking some smaller interior courtyard below, a walking path between trees growing from massive urns. Across the courtyard was more of the court building, and just visible high above was the sky of pink clouds that encompassed all Galactic Central.

  The table that ran down the center of the room had chairs enough for four dozen people to sit together, although how they could have anything like a council meeting with so many present Scout couldn’t imagine. But at the moment the space was empty. A few chairs at the end closest to the door were in disarray, as if a smaller number of people had just gotten up to step out for a moment. A carafe of water and a scattering of glasses were still there, condensation dripping down the sides.

  “Did we just miss him?” Scout wondered, but Daisy was backing away, putting Scout’s body between her and something at the far side of the table.

  But when Scout looked up the only thing there was a single man standing with his back to them as if he was looking out the window to the garden below. But instead, he had a hand pressed over his eyes.

  The hand was shaking, ever so slightly.

  Scout looked at the darkly tanned skin of the man’s bare scalp, the white mustache just visible under the hand pressed to his eyes. The gold ring shaped like a twisted shaft of wheat.

  Did she know this man?

  Daisy took a step back, grabbing Scout’s wrist once more to drag her out of the room, but Scout was not ready to leave yet. Bo had sent for her, and she had come, but where was he?

  And why was this stranger so familiar?

  Daisy tried to tug her away again, pulling hard enough to yank Scout off-balance. She grabbed the back of a chair to keep from falling over, and the legs of the chair skittered across the stone floor loudly.

  Daisy made a sound that Scout would swear was a whimper if she hadn’t been absolutely sure that no such sound would ever leave Daisy’s throat.

  The man startled at the sound, then dropped his hand and turned towards them.

  Scout had been hoping for a moment of revelation, but even seeing his entire face, she still wasn’t sure who he was.

  His eyes on hers said he didn’t know her either.

  But then they moved past her to land on Daisy.

  “By the stars innumerable,” he said, taking half a step forward. Then, with deep anguish, “Clementine?”r />
  And just like that, Scout knew who she was looking at. Tony Smith, father of Ruth Smith, the first person Scout had ever seen die.

  The woman who had taken in Daisy’s sister Clementine as her ward, a decision that had led to her murder.

  Tony Smith, the governor of the world of Amatheon.

  7

  A series of images flashed through Scout’s mind: Clementine’s mouth contorted in an endless scream with Ruth’s too-still body beside her, the strange little device Warrior had perched on Ruth’s belly to learn what had killed her.

  Ruth’s body wrapped in a sheet between Viola’s and Liv’s. Scout had stood over them, wanting to say some words but not knowing what words to say.

  Scout triggering the explosives that collapsed the entire compound hidden deep under the surface of Amatheon.

  But only one real thought would form in her mind, although it repeated ever faster on a desperate loop.

  How much does he know?

  Daisy let go of Scout’s hand and straightened to her full height. Now that fleeing without being seen was no longer possible, she had no qualms about confrontation.

  Scout wasn’t so sure that was a good idea. She tried to keep her body between Daisy and the governor, but he brushed past her to look down at Daisy’s upturned face. He raised a hand, not quite touching the strands of her closely-cut hair.

  “Not Clementine,” he said, but there was still a question in his eyes.

  “I’m her sister, Daisy,” Daisy said. “Clementine is dead.”

  “Yes, I know,” he said. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “Your loss too,” Daisy said.

  “My loss, but also my fault,” he said. “There are so many things I wish I could have done differently.”

  “Is that why you’re here?” Scout asked.

  He looked over at her as if suddenly noticing she was there. “You’re from Amatheon as well?” he asked.

  “Sunshine Valley, originally,” Scout said. He flinched, recognizing the name of one of the cities destroyed in the war. “My name is Scout Shannon,” she said, bracing herself, uncertain of how much he knew. But if her name was familiar to him, he didn’t show it. He just nodded absentmindedly.

  “You’re here for the court case,” Daisy persisted.

  “Yes,” he said. “The tribunal enforcers fetched me, right out of a council meeting. Now I’m here, but I don’t think anything I say is going to make any difference. I can see it in the eyes of those three judges. They already know their answer. This is all just formality. A time-wasting formality.”

  “They are giving control of Amatheon to the Months,” Scout said, her hands tightening into fists.

  “Who?” the governor asked.

  “Mai and Jun Tajaki,” Scout said.

  “The sisters? Oh no,” he said, shaking his head with absolute surety. “No, Bo Tajaki is who we will answer to soon.”

  “You don’t think that’s the best outcome?” Scout asked.

  “Absolutely,” the governor said. “I’ve only been here for two days, but already Lord Tajaki and I have shared a great rapport. He has great ideas for improving life on Amatheon and knows exactly what my role should be in implementing them.”

  “So why are you so sad?” Scout asked.

  “Because none of it’s going to matter,” he said. “The tribunal court requires my presence here for four more days. Just some formality, they say. But in four more days, life on the surface and in orbit around Amatheon will likely be destroyed.”

  “What do you mean?” Scout asked.

  “War is breaking out, and because I’m here, there is no one there to stop it.”

  “War,” Daisy said.

  “There’s a lot I didn’t tell you,” Scout said, her voice pitched low, but the governor looked at her intently. Clearly, he wanted her to go on. “The rebels have what your daughter was bringing to them. I tried to keep it away from them, but I couldn’t. They know about the gun under construction.”

  “I’ve tried to block that monstrosity at every turn,” the governor said, pressing one fist to his mouth as if to hold back his own frustrated anger. “I did block it, officially. Not that it mattered. Our laws no longer matter. Not even to my own council. I’ve long suspected they were working against me, but I didn’t want to act without proof. I regret that now.”

  “It’s going to be a three-way war,” Scout said. “Planet Dwellers, Space Farers, and rebels, all fighting each other.”

  “No,” the governor said. “Not that it matters in the bigger picture, but we lost control of that gun some time ago. And the guns that date back to the first war have fallen into disrepair. My government is out of the fight. Our people will just be collateral damage now.”

  “Lost control?” Daisy repeated. “How?”

  “The rebels have it,” Scout guessed.

  The governor nodded. “It won’t matter who fires it,” he said. “The Space Farers will retaliate. Life on the surface will be wiped out long before I can get back there.”

  “So leave now,” Daisy said. “I can get you a ship.”

  The governor’s eyebrows raised. But then he shook his head. “No, it’s quite impossible. I’m being monitored at all times. The tracker is irremovable. I cannot leave until the tribunal court dismisses me.”

  “Is there anyone back home you can get a message to? Anyone you trust?” Scout asked.

  “No one, not anymore,” the governor said. “Someone has been turning my council members against me, against our planet’s interests. I thought it was just one or two, but I’m increasingly certain it’s all of them. I don’t know who or why or what they want. I just know there is no longer anyone I can trust.”

  “It’s the Months,” Scout said, looking to Daisy. “They know they’re going to lose this. They would rather see it all destroyed than not own it.”

  “Are you sure?” the governor asked, then grasped Scout’s arm to lean closer to her. “Can you prove it?”

  “Yes,” Scout said, but was forced to add, “and no.”

  The governor looked like he wanted to say more, but a clutch of Bo’s lawyers came into the room. Scout saw to her surprise that they were all dressed in different colors. When she had been on Bo’s ship, everyone had worn the same color to suit his whim, the color changing as his whims changed.

  It seemed that he had given up a measure of control. Scout was pleased he had listened to her.

  The governor released her arm and turned to the lawyers, but his release was more of a shove, a hint that she should make herself scarce. Daisy was already fading back against the wall, slipping out the door to the hallway beyond. Scout ducked her head, flittering unnoticed through the mass of chattering lawyers.

  Scout was torn between relief that he didn’t know she had been there when his daughter died and a more complicated, confused, disappointed sort of feeling.

  Had she gotten that used to everyone just knowing who she was? Which was ridiculous. She was a bike messenger from a planet so remote it was literally sealed off from the rest of the galaxy.

  Granted he had been from the same planet, but still. And anyway, it was better that he didn’t know her. It saved telling the story of everything that had happened in the underground compound during that solar storm.

  They were back out in the hallway, and Scout looked at the moving platform, which only ran in one direction. She was just lamenting the long walk back and considering trying to bust out one of the windows so she could ride out on her glider when Daisy caught her elbow, directing her through one of the open doorways. This courtroom was empty, the only light from the hallway behind them and through another open door on the far side of the room. Beyond that door was another hallway, this one with a moving walkway running back towards the main door.

  Without a word, Daisy and Scout rode the walkway until it ended, then went down the steps and back out to the plaza.

  “What now?” Scout asked as Daisy led the way past the fountain. �
�Are you going back to work?”

  “Work?” Daisy said. “No, we need to find Sparrow.”

  “Sparrow?”

  “If your hunch is right, and it is the Months behind everything, she’s our best bet to find proof.”

  “What good will proof do?” Scout asked. “We bring it back here, and then what? Someone is holding the governor here for no reason. We’ll just end up trapped here with him. He said he can’t trust anyone on Amatheon. I don’t think we can trust anyone here either,” Scout said.

  “Maybe not,” Daisy said. “But I still want reliable info before we act.”

  “Did you hear something about where we can find Sparrow?” Scout asked as Daisy led the way through the arches of the public house and back into the marketplace.

  “No,” Daisy said.

  “So this is hopeless,” Scout said.

  “I know it’s not how we wanted to play it,” Daisy said. “But I’m here with you, so I think it’s our best bet.”

  “What’s our best bet?”

  “We’re going to let your pursuers come to us.”

  It took a lot longer than Scout would have liked. Soon her stomach was growling so loudly that even Daisy could hear it. She stopped at a food cart and got her a skewer of grilled fish and another of vegetables, and Scout ate as they continued to roam down the most remote, narrowest alleys they could find.

  There were a lot of places in the marketplace that were ripe for an ambush. Too many.

  “We should get back,” Scout said some hours later. “Or at least one of us should. The dogs need to be let out.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Daisy said, disappointment clear on her face. But then the corners of her mouth quirked as if she were fighting a smile. Scout looked at her, but she just raised hands.

  “We surrender,” she said, and Scout turned to see five kids all dressed in black walking up behind them. She looked the other way and saw three more blocking the only other exit.

  “Yes, we surrender,” she said, letting one of them take her glider from her. “Take us to your leader?”

  None of them said a word, just led the way down a maze of alleys to another public house. It was nowhere near as large as the one where Daisy worked, but this one too had been tunneled into the stone of the bridge itself to gain a sublevel. There were no floating platforms here, and Scout had to duck to get her head under the coarsely made wood floor as she followed the steps cut into the stone down to a dark basement.