Star Spark

by Day Leitao

  “So we can send a message to the planet,” Larissa added.

  The blond girl smiled. “Exactly.”

  Saytera sighed. “Let’s hope they hear it.”

  “Hum,” Sylvia had a grimace. “First we have to land there.”

  Nadia waved a hand. “You know I got it. Don’t worry.” She looked back at Saytera and her friends and got serious. “Also, I don’t think you were safe in Sapphirlune.”

  Probably. But there was something Saytera had to ask. “Weren’t you worried about the other Mainlanders who were taken to your Moon?”

  Nadia looked away. “No, because I was sure they were being treated well and just imprisoned.”

  “So they are fine?”

  Nadia’s face was blank. “They were killed.”

  “Oh.” Saytera leaned back, trying to register the shock, counter the revulsion she felt. Then she thought that someone else would be even more shocked. “Does Dess know that?”

  Nadia was teary-eyed. “No. No, no. It’s better if he doesn’t know anything. For some reason my parents stopped trusting him after he was rescued from the planet.”

  “Well.” Sylvia shrugged. “He did assault a superior and purposefully deactivated the tracking system.”

  Nadia stared at her. “It was probably some silly dispute with Sam and Amil. Dess hates them. He hates everybody.”

  “How come they let him bring us in, then?” Larissa asked.

  Nadia laughed and rolled her eyes. “Me. I was all ‘but mom, I love him, he loves me.’ They were so eager for me to get a boyfriend that it was easy.”

  Why was the girl making fun of it?

  Larissa raised an eyebrow. “So you don’t love him.”

  Right. That made sense.

  Nadia sighed. And showed the palms of her hands. “Look, I tried, I really did. He’s not my type.” She looked down. “I thought I could change… my type. I can’t. But it was nice to make my parents happy for a while.”

  Strange to hear that a girl could not be interested in Dess, and horrible to know that Dess was probably interested in a girl who didn’t like him. Not in Saytera. Better not think about it.

  Sylvia shot her friend an annoyed look. “It must be so cool to know you can pick and choose anyone you want.”

  Nadia scoffed. “It’s not like that. He didn’t like me either, but I assume for completely different reasons.”

  Saytera felt lighter, and hoped they didn’t notice her relief sigh.

  The blond girl shrugged, then looked at Saytera. “Hang on, how do you know Dess?”

  Oh, no. Saytera had said too much. But she tried to pretend she hadn’t. “He brought us to the moon, remember?”

  “Yes, but how come you asked if he knows about the Mainlanders? And you even knew there were some here.”

  “We knew people disappeared. If he was out, near Mainland… I mean… it was sort of obvious, right?”

  The girl looked at her for a while, then said, “I guess.”

  Saytera looked down. She wondered if Dess knew where she was and if he was safe, but didn’t want to ask. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust these girls, it was just that she wanted to be cautious. Larissa stared at Saytera with worry, which likely meant she felt the same. Christina, as usual, watched them quietly.

  After a while, Larissa asked, “Isn’t it forbidden to go to the Tahari moon?”

  “I think I can make it,” Nadia said.

  Sylvia stared at her friend in disbelief. “You think? I thought you had it all figured out.”

  Nadia shrugged. “I do, and that’s why I think we’ll make it.”

  Sylvia facepalmed.

  Larissa leaned forward. “There’s a cannon there. Basically anyone who approaches will be shot down, right? Did you manage to disable it remotely?”

  Nadia shook her head. “Only the Peace Alliance can do it remotely. They locked it when our war started, hoping it would make us reach an agreement.” She scoffed. “Right.”

  Saytera had a queasy feeling in her stomach.

  Larissa glanced at her friends then turned to Nadia. “So… what’s your solution for landing there?”

  Nadia shook her hands in front of her. “Listen, I know what I’m doing. If I tell you, you’ll start doubting me, and I’ll start doubting it, and it won’t work. Some trust, please.”

  It sort of made sense. So far she had rescued them, and it was true that having people doubting you could make things harder. “I’ll trust you.”

  Larissa snorted. “I guess.”

  Sylvia puffed. “Nadia, I swear, if you’re wrong you’ll hear so much from me.”

  “No.” Christina broke her silence. “If she’s wrong, none of us will ever hear anything again.”

  28

  New Moon

  Drip, drip, drip. Blood fell on the basin beneath Dess. He bit on a cloth, wondering if it had been a good idea to do this with only a light analgesic pill and in an apartment where he couldn’t scream. Or complain. Or anything, really.

  Despite all the pain he was already feeling, when the chip came out, the sharp pain brought him a feeling of relief. The chip was immediately put inside a strange, small spongy ball. The man was now patching up Dess’s skin.

  Freedom. Freedom to do so much. Once he was out of his apartment. The man took a display and wrote on it: “The small ball is a heater. The chip must always be at body temperature, or an alarm will be raised. You can recharge the heater on the black disk. The battery can last up to three days. Rest and clean the wound often.”

  Dess took it and wrote: “Thank you. Who are you?”

  The man wrote: “Don’t you worry about that. Take care.” He then opened the door slowly and left.

  Dess called Marcus and decided to write to him: “Who was he? Why did you decide to do this now?”

  “It was me, Sylvia, and Nadia. When you were away. We were worried about you.”

  “Nadia? What about her parents?”

  “It’s fine. We can talk about it tomorrow. You’d better rest now.”

  “Thanks for being my friend.”

  “You saved my life, Dess. I had to save yours.”

  Dess stared at the chip in its warming circle, fake life surrounding it. Like his city. He wanted to go out and do something, but was still in pain, and the analgesic made him drowsy. If he were to do anything, he had to be alert, so he had no choice but to rest.

  “We’re approaching it.” Sylvia’s voice trembled.

  The Tahari moon was smaller than Sapphirlune, its surface darker. It was odd to hear so much about something, then get to see it for real. This was the reason Saytera’s planet was at war, the reason Sapphirlune didn’t get enough food or water, the reason some people died. Yet it was just a ball in space. A ball with something very valuable in it. The truth was that they were just fighting for money. As if the common Mainlander citizen would even see any of that.

  But now what Saytera wondered was how exactly they would bypass the moon’s defenses. As much as she wanted to trust the girl, she would only really relax once they indeed landed in one piece.

  “Nadia,” Sylvia’s voice was tense. “They’re preparing to shoot.”

  “I know. Silence.”

  Saytera leaned over to see an orange light becoming brighter. She then fell to her side, as the ship jerked sideways quickly. A few seconds later, an orange ball passed them. Nadia exhaled.

  “That’s your plan?” Sylvia sounded furious and terrified.

  Nadia kept looking ahead. “Quiet.”

  The ship jerked down, now. That had been so close. The closer they got to the moon, the harder it would be to evade those shots. Saytera closed her eyes, aware that there was nothing she could do other than hope they didn’t get hit. After some ten sudden movements and a low crash, when it hit their shield, the ship started flying freely.

  “We’re out of its range!” Nadia yelled.

  They all sighed.

  Saytera looked out the window. “But… we’re no
t getting into the city.”

  “We’ll have to land outside, then find a way in.” Nadia turned. “There are suits on the back.”

  Saytera was stunned. “So we’re walking in.”

  “Yeah.” Nadia nodded.

  Their ship landed on a rocky surface, right beside a domed city, sort of like Sapphirlune, but apparently smaller. Such a lifeless, desolate landscape.

  They went to the back and pulled the extravehicular suits.

  Larissa looked at them. “We don’t all need to go at once.” She turned to the Lunar girls. “Do you have a plan on how to open the entry door?”

  Nadia took a deep breath and looked down. “We’ll… have to figure out a way.”

  Larissa pointed at herself. “Fear not. You got an expert here. If it’s a digitally secured door, I should be able to open it.” She turned to Nadia. “The two of us can go, then we signal for the others.”

  Nadia nodded fast. The girl was so terrified that it was hard to believe she’d gotten them this far.

  The two of them went to the airlock after suiting up. Saytera watched the side window to see when they would show up, but instead the airlock opened again and they returned.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Larissa removed her helmet. “There are automatic pistols. They were shooting us.”

  They all looked at each other.

  Christina said, “I could, maybe, try to shoot these pistols, but it depends on how many they are. If we have a shield, something to take cover…”

  Nadia shook her head. “Too many and too fast.”

  Sylvia was thoughtful. “What if… we placed our airlock right in front of the door? So there would be no space between us and the door?”

  Larissa shook her head. “The shots are coming from the door. We’d stand no chance.”

  “Do you think it’s only the entrance that’s protected?” Saytera asked.

  Nadia sighed. “They have thick walls, we wouldn’t be able to—”

  “No. I mean…” Saytera was having an idea, but not sure if it made sense. “If I find an electricity panel, I know how to cause a blackout. It would shut off the automatic pistols.”

  Larissa was thoughtful. “Would they leave a panel unprotected?”

  Chrisina was staring at Saytera with eyes narrowed. Sure. The word blackout certainly reminded her of something. It was a try. Saytera wasn’t sure it would work, and technically she didn’t need any panel, but there was no way she could explain it.

  Saytera shrugged. “Trying to find a panel won’t kill us.”

  “Oh, I’m sure it will,” Larissa said. “If we go out there—”

  “I mean we fly there.”

  Nadia shrugged while she removed the thick jumper. “We can try. But I won’t go outside this time. I need to get us back to the door.”

  “Let me go alone.” Saytera hoped they’d agree.

  And that was how Saytera was left by herself around the outer wall of the city, to “look for an electricity panel”. Did anyone even believe that? It didn’t make any sense even for Saytera. She’d only gotten there because Christina and Larissa somehow trusted her, Christina with more knowledge than the others.

  Saytera had trouble moving. Instead of steps, she jumped. She felt a weird fear that she wouldn’t go back down and instead would float into space. It wasn’t logical, of course, but her body was not used to walking in so little gravity and thus played tricks on her mind.

  Saytera approached the wall. This was when things would get real. She remembered all the blackouts in the academy, and yet had trouble reconciling these outside events to her own mind, her own power.

  The ship was now away from her field of vision, having gone back to the door. They would need to go out and open it or at least shoot and disable the pistols during the time the electricity was out. Saytera waited. This was lonely as she’d had never felt before, on a land without life, only black sky above her. So many stars as she’d never seen before. A shimmery universe reminding her how much more power there was out there. Stars in the universe, stars within. And yet they were so many more than she had even imagined she could see with her own eyes.

  But her job now was not to connect with the stars, but with the darkness between them. Her darkness. Solitude. Quietness. Peace. As if things could stop burning and changing and atoms would stop moving and reacting. Just quietness. In the silence on that moon, it was easy to find that. There wasn’t that much breathable air in her tank, but she took a deep breath as she focused on darkness. No, not focus; relax. As if she were in the training house and the city were the lamps. That wouldn’t work. The door was the one lamp she had to quench. And whatever security system was there.

  Saytera suddenly remembered being in that house, hoping to do her exercise well, hoping that Yansin would appreciate her. Why did it seem that Saytera had always yearned for Yansin’s approval, when it was something that she always had? It was like a person swimming in the ocean, yearning for water. The moment in that morning came back to her mind. She remembered then how much she anticipated meeting Cayo again. That was a thought long gone, too. Now she wasn’t even sure if young Saytera had ever truly felt anything for him. Hard to know when he was the only guy around. As if her life now were any more different.

  And yet none of it mattered, only darkness. And then she remembered the vision at the house, the funeral ceremony. And then darkness was not only outside, but within as well. Saytera collapsed.

  Despite being tired, Dess didn’t sleep much. He sat in the kitchen, eating his morning porridge while Marcus still slept. The city still slept. He had no idea what was happening to Saytera and if she was safe. He kept the chip close to him. Would anyone be able to track his movements inside his own apartment? Would anyone be watching? Dess didn’t know, but didn’t want to take a chance.

  What he had to do today was go out and get some answers, out of this apartment where he was watched. He had no doubt it had something to do with Nadia’s parents, and his only question was whether they wanted to make sure he wouldn’t break his precious daughter’s heart or if they somehow mistrusted Dess. Well, they probably did.

  Loud knocks startled him. Dess put his chip in his pocket. More knocks before he even made it to the door. Who could be that desperate at that time in the morning? The door was pushed open before he got to it. Five people were coming in, pistols in hand.

  “You’re under arrest,” one of them said.

  Dess raised his hands, trying to come up with a solution, a way out of this.

  “Get his friend,” the man then shouted.

  “Leave him out of this,” Dess protested.

  As a reply, he got punched in the jaw. Sam was one of the people invading his apartment. Predictable. Dess swallowed his instinct to strike him back.

  Someone was about to handcuff him, when he raised his hands again. “I’m unarmed, outnumbered, and have all the reasons in the world to want to cooperate.” He stared at Sam. “You can’t be that scared of me.”

  Sam laughed. “Still slime and will be treated as one.” He turned to the other man. “Get him locked.”

  Dess extended his hands, wrists up, as if submitting to the handcuffing. Only a fraction of a second to think. So little time. Little time was what he had, and if he didn’t do anything, they could do something to Saytera. He had to get her out of this moon, and he wouldn’t be able to do it while imprisoned. In a quick movement, Dess stole the guy’s weapon, shot him, hoping it was set to stun, then turned and shot Sam and the other guy. He heard steps from the hallway and shot the two soldiers bringing Marcus. Dess tossed his friend a pistol and signaled for him to follow him. Dess and Marcus were silent in the elevator, then walked outside. The official transport was in front of their building. Dess got into it.

  “What are you doing?” Marcus asked.

  “Gaining time. They were probably going to take us to headquarters. So that’s where we’ll go.” Dess took his chip and waved to his friend. “I need to ge
t Saytera out.”

  “They’re already out.”

  Dess’s stomach sank. “What?”

  Marcus looked away. “I couldn’t tell you. Sylvia made me promise. They took her to the Tahari moon.”

  So many questions in Dess’s mind. “How were they able to leave Sapphirlune? How are they going to land there? It’s impossible.”

  “Nadia found a way.”

  Dess covered his face with his hands. This was terrible. “Why?”

  “To stop the destruction of our city, how’s that? They believed in Saytera and her friends.”

  “Is that why you got my chip out?”

  “I thought there could be consequences.”

  “You could have told me.”

  “I didn’t know they’d come here before morning to arrest us. Us. As if I’d done anything wrong.”

  Plan, plan, plan. Dess had to plan something. “We’re going to the academy.”

  “What?”

  “Kitchen. There shouldn’t be anybody there. Yet.”

  Dess’s passcode still worked. He approached the grabber droid, which had been his favorite one. “Sorry, little buddy.”

  After opening the droid’s control panel, Dess put his chip inside it, then undid some of the grabber’s programming.

  Marcus watched him in curiosity. “Are you going to poison people?”

  “Why are you giving me this idea only now? It’s brilliant.” Dess laughed. “No. But this little droid will move around enough to give them a chase. I hope.” Then he shrugged. “And we don’t have any narcotic. We barely have food.” Dess got up. “Let’s go.”

  “Where? The civil port is the most obvious place they’ll look for us. The military port will also be impossible to reach.”

  “I know a place where they won’t expect us.”

  Saytera woke up and noticed her head was on someone’s lap; Larissa’s. She sat up surprised, sitting in a strange room with controls in one wall and some sofas on the corners.

  “What happened?” her friend asked.