Dark Star Calling

by Julia Keller

  He wanted these names.

  These were the spiritual mothers and fathers whose ideas had truly given birth to New Earth, back in the doomed, final centuries of Old Earth.

  And now New Earth itself was doomed.

  * * *

  Rez had given them a quick briefing just after they arrived at the observatory. Everything was ready.

  The materials that Ogden Crowley had secretly gathered were crucial. Without them, Rez explained, they could not have made the deadline. With them, there was a chance. A real chance. When Violet had led him to the hidden warehouse the day before, and he began pulling the tarps off the giant pods, his face had lit up. Discovering the stockpiled energy reserves had made him even happier.

  The pods, each capable of carrying five thousand people, had begun their departures from the transport site that morning. Each citizen had received a pod assignment and a boarding pass, stamped with a time at which to arrive for embarkation. The entire process would require sixteen hours, and groups of pods gathered along the horizon before the final stage. They would be hurled away from New Earth like rocks in slingshots, following the precise trajectory required to arrive at the planet in approximately nine years. The landing process had been planned with similar exactitude by Rez and Kendall, with assistance from Zander. At that point, people would be awakened from cryogenic sleep.

  And then the real work would begin—the task of establishing an entirely new civilization from scratch. But their parents and grandparents had done it before, and so they could do it again.

  Not everyone wanted to go. The people on Old Earth had been offered the chance to leave, too; a few agreed, and they had been brought up to New Earth to join the lines for the pods, but most stayed. Here on New Earth, it was generally only elderly people who resisted, claiming they were too old to start all over again. A few others were openly contemptuous of the projections that Rez had made public. They professed disbelief in the prediction that New Earth’s orbit was deteriorating at a much faster rate than had been foreseen. That New Earth was, in effect, galloping toward the edge of a cliff.

  The doubters, the skeptics, the deniers, the people determined to stay, could do as they pleased. They had that freedom. Once the last pod was jettisoned from New Earth, they would be trapped here, lashed to a dying civilization like a captain tying herself to the wheel of a sinking ship. When New Earth’s fall began, it would accelerate quickly, and they would ride it down to its final fiery landing on Old Earth.

  Rez had requisitioned the DemoRobs to tear down the largest and heaviest physical structures on New Earth, to cut down on friction in the orbit. They would start once all the transport pods carrying the rest of the population had departed.

  He wanted to do right by those who had chosen to stay, no matter how ridiculous he found their view. He would strip New Earth bare, making it as light and as aerodynamically sleek as it could be to delay the final fall as long as possible. The work of the DemoRobs would buy the holdouts a few extra hours. Maybe even an entire day.

  A single day, Violet had thought, when Rez first told her his plan. How would I spend one day, if there was a chance it might be the last day I’d ever have?

  She wasn’t sure.

  Now she asked herself the question again as she stood in the vast echoing space in the shadow of the massive telescope, along with twenty-four DemoRobs and five friends: Shura, Kendall, Rez, Jonetta, and Tin Man.

  My last day? I’d spend it with these guys. Absolutely.

  She smiled. The realization had made her happy. As it was, they had plenty of days ahead of them. They were going to a new planet, and they would make a new life there. But it was their choice. The skeptics had made another one—which was their right.

  “I’ve given them the timetable for the DemoRobs,” Rez said. “It’ll be up to them to stay out of the way. They understand.”

  “How can they understand?” Shura said. “They don’t really believe New Earth is dying. Why would they approve of your tearing most of it down once we’re out of here?”

  Rez shrugged. “I don’t know. Based on my final conversation with their leaders this morning, I’m sort of convinced they do believe it, no matter what they say. They just don’t want to do anything about it.” He checked a few coordinates on his console, then resumed his musing. “Maybe it’s like those people on Old Earth, right before Violet’s dad created New Earth. Toward the end, they had to have seen what was happening. They had to know that the ice caps were melting and the oceans were gorged with plastic and the air was so polluted that you could taste the poisons in it. The world was dying right before their eyes. But they insisted they didn’t see it because they didn’t want to change. Better a pretty lie than an ugly truth, I guess.”

  An alarm sounded on Rez’s console. He silenced it and faced his friends.

  “The countdown’s started,” he said. “I’ll set the coordinates for the time-delay deployment of the DemoRobs. Shura, you and Tin Man will be in charge at the transport site. Violet, you and Kendall need to go up to my lab and shut down the computers and power sources. While you’re there, send a message to Zander that we’re on our way to the new home he picked out for us. And thank him again. If he hadn’t found that broken star for us…” He let his sentence trail off. “But he did. And we’re going.”

  Tin Man was already on his way out the door. Shura lingered for a moment.

  “One more thing, Rez,” she said. “Yeah, Zander found the star. But don’t forget who found Zander. It was Rachel. Rachel’s chip is what brought Zander to us. Otherwise, you’d still be frantically searching for that star while our orbit decayed. Rachel led us to our destiny.”

  Rez’s face was blank. He was holding back a great torrent of emotion, a fact that would be apparent only to the people who knew him best.

  “She was brilliant,” he murmured. “She would’ve changed the world. She would’ve—”

  “Hold on,” Violet said, interrupting him. “You’re always talking about how smart Rachel was. And she was smart. No question. But sometimes you act as if that’s the only thing you’re mourning—her intelligence.”

  “She was a genius. The world lost a lot when she died.”

  “Yeah. But I’m not talking about what the world lost, Rez; I’m talking about what you lost. You. And not because of how smart she was. Because she was your little sister, and you loved her.”

  Rez started to speak. He couldn’t. He waited a few seconds, and then he tried again. His voice was clipped and businesslike. He was, Violet knew, trying to keep his feelings hidden behind a show of gruffness. That’s what he always did. But she knew the truth.

  “Let’s get moving,” he snapped. “Lots to do.”

  * * *

  Violet flipped the toggle switch on the control panel. She was just about to flip the toggle switch right next to it when Kendall put his hand on top of hers.

  “Hang on,” he said.

  She was mildly annoyed. They had begun the shutdown protocol in Rez’s lab. Surely Kendall wasn’t going to bring up the whole why-can’t-we-be-together stuff. Here? Now? Today of all days?

  “Kind of in a hurry here,” she said. “We’re got a million things to do. And then we’ve got to get to the transport site. Our pod number’s coming up soon.”

  “Yeah. But give me a minute.”

  Mystified, Violet shrugged and backed away from the control panel. “What’s up?”

  He didn’t answer right away. She was just about to repeat herself, only with a lot more annoyance packed into her voice, when he spoke.

  “I’m not coming, Violet.”

  “What?”

  He was kidding. It had to be a joke, right? It wasn’t funny, though. Who did he think he was? Mickey?

  “I’m not getting in the pod,” Kendall said. “I had a long talk with Zander last night on my console. They’d like to learn all about the Intercept. More than what they already know. And I’m going in person, not on the Consciousness Tether.”


  “You—you can’t do that.” She was suddenly frantic. She realized Kendall was serious. “No way. You’d be dead by the time you arrived. It takes about ten thousand human life spans to get there.”

  “They’re sending a ship for me. It’s scheduled to get here just after you guys leave. We’ll use suspended animation for part of the trip, as long as it’s safe. When my vital signs start to show the wear and tear, Zander has a plan for the next few thousand years or so. They’ll put me into something called biostasis conversion chronology. Time will pass, but my mind and my body won’t feel it passing at the same rate that it’s really going by. When I get there, I’ll be fresh and ready to go.”

  “And you trust their technology?”

  “Yes. I do.”

  She was feeling increasingly desperate. “You have to tell the others.”

  “No. I don’t want to argue with them. Especially not Rez. He and I fight a lot, and he can be a real SOB, but he’s got a sentimental streak. Especially now. He’d be pulling out all the stops to get me to change my mind. Besides—I’ve already turned off my console.”

  Violet felt tears coming into her eyes. “You can’t survive on Zander’s planet. The atmosphere is all wrong. That’s why we couldn’t transfer New Earth there. We’d all have to live inside bubbles.”

  “Zander has a plan for that, too,” Kendall said quietly. “I don’t understand it yet, but he assures me I’ll get used to whatever device he comes up with. Not a bubble, but something that protects me from the planet. Enables me to breathe. It’s true that I’ll miss the wind on my face. Or being able to touch the ground and really feel it. But I can survive. And I’ll spend the rest of my life with Zander and his colleagues, explaining how I created the Intercept. Describing what it’s like to live with the ability to think and feel. It’s still so new for Zander. He’s not sure how to handle himself.”

  Violet was openly weeping now.

  “Is it worth it, Kendall? With all that you’ll be giving up?”

  “I’ve lost my parents. I’ve lost my brother.” With his eyes, he added, And I’ve lost you, too, Violet. You’re still alive, but you don’t love me the way I love you, and you never will. I feel that pain every day. Out loud, he went on, “I’m the perfect choice to be the permanent ambassador from New Earth to Zander’s planet. I’ve got nothing more to lose.”

  Violet felt a sadness that reached so deep inside her that she was sure it had taken root in the soles of her feet. But she believed to her core that people had the right to decide what they wanted for their lives. It was the most fundamental freedom in the universe.

  “You need to go now, Violet,” he said solemnly. “They’ll be waiting for you at the transport site. And I’ve got work to do here. Zander gave me instructions on how to prepare for the ship they’re sending. Once I go, there’s no return. The path will seal up behind me. It’s a one-way trip.”

  “No. No, Kendall. Please.” She clutched his arm.

  He gently removed her hand and then held both of her hands in his. “I’ve made up my mind. This is how I want it to be.”

  He turned away from her.

  “Kendall,” she said. “Wait.”

  She took his arm again—not grabbing at it frantically this time, not trying to change his mind, but because she wanted to have a final connection. She wanted to make a memory—a memory of how it felt to be close to him.

  He turned back.

  She kissed him. They had kissed only once before—a long, long time ago, back when everything was different, back when the Intercept ruled New Earth, back when the yearning went in the other direction: She loved Kendall more than he loved her.

  This kiss, like that one, was filled with as much sorrow as joy.

  Joy for what they were: good friends who had enriched each other’s lives.

  Sorrow for what they would never be: lovers, partners, united for all time in a fierce bond of mutual passion.

  “When I look at the stars at night,” Violet said, her voice barely a whisper, “I’ll know you’re out there.”

  “And I’ll be looking back at you,” he said. He smiled. “I probably won’t wave, though. I doubt if you could see me.”

  She laughed. She was glad he’d relieved the tension with a joke.

  “Sounds like something Mickey would’ve said.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment,” Kendall replied. “He was a good friend.”

  They were quiet again. The quiet wasn’t awkward; it felt exactly right, somehow, as they gazed into each other’s eyes and thought about all they had been through together.

  But the pressure of the situation—they both had other places to be—caused Violet to cut into that silence. She would never see him again. There were so many things she wanted to say. So many things she needed to say.

  Too many things to get them all said in this brief span of time.

  So she gathered up all of those things as best she could. And she realized, as she did so, that the words she was about to say contained enough energy to fuel the mighty furnace of the stars and to keep the planets spinning in their elegant orbits and—the most immense and difficult task of all, a task that dwarfed the others—to move a single human heart, changing the universe for all time.

  “I love you.”

  * * *

  The four of them stood next to the giant pod that would take them away from everything they knew, everything they had ever known.

  Violet, Shura, Rez, Tin Man.

  They were the last passengers on the last pod.

  All around them, the beauty of the New Earth sunset filled the sky with the colors of fire: amazing reds and gee-whiz golds. The members of the Color Corps had already boarded a pod; this sunset was a natural one.

  Along the horizon, visible now only as tiny black dots, thousands of giant pods hovered. They were awaiting the final pod. At that point, the propulsion systems would engage, flinging them in unison into deepest space.

  Violet had told the others about Kendall’s decision. They did not understand it, any more than she understood it, but they had to accept it. It was too late to go back to the lab and say goodbye to him. He had designed it that way, Violet realized. It was how he wanted it.

  “We have to go,” Rez said, tapping his console. He boarded the pod. Shura went next, and then Tin Man.

  Now it was Violet’s turn. She stepped forward. She paused. She had one foot on the metal threshold of the enormous vessel while the other foot still rested on the surface of New Earth. There were a few words she needed to say to herself while she was still touching this planet, this world. The words were a link to her past. Another kind of tether.

  Her father had recited the words to her when she was a little girl. He had done it just after he’d told her the story of New Earth—a story about courage in the face of the unknown. It was fitting then. It was even more fitting now.

  “Per aspera ad astra,” she murmured. It was a line from Virgil, an Old Earth poet from long, long ago, who spoke an ancient language called Latin. She added the translation: “To the stars through bolts and bars.”

  And then it was time to go. The stars were waiting—and so were her friends.

  Acknowledgments

  As this journey rounds to a close, I am compelled to thank Alexander Key and Ray Bradbury, authors of, respectively, The Forgotten Door and The Martian Chronicles. The first time I read those wonderful books, I felt the world shift beneath my nine-year-old feet; doubtless The Dark Intercept was born then. I can only hope that, through the death-defying magic of words and stars and time, in some dimension richer and less linear than ours, the spirits of those two writers know how very much their work meant to me—a bespectacled, curly-haired girl growing up in West Virginia, a girl whose happiest hours were spent in the Gallagher Village Public Library at the bottom of the hill.

  Thanks once again to Ali Fisher at Tor, who made each book in this trilogy better, and to Lisa Gallagher, longtime source of expertise a
nd encouragement.

  This book is dedicated to Ruth Thornton, my Latin teacher at Huntington East High School. Ancient Rome now lives only through its writers—but as Mrs. Thornton taught us, that is enough. That is more than enough.

  by Julia Keller

  THE DARK INTERCEPT TRILOGY FOR TEENS

  The Dark Intercept

  Dark Mind Rising

  Dark Star Calling

  THE BELL ELKINS SERIES FOR ADULTS

  A Killing in the Hills

  Bitter River

  Summer of the Dead

  Last Ragged Breath

  Sorrow Road

  Fast Falls the Night

  Bone on Bone

  The Cold Way Home

  About the Author

  JULIA KELLER, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and former cultural critic at the Chicago Tribune, is the author of many books, including the Bell Elkins series for adults and the Dark Intercept series for young adults. Keller has a Ph.D. in English literature from the Ohio State University and was awarded Harvard University’s Nieman Fellowship. She was born in West Virginia and lives in Ohio.

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  Website: JuliaKeller.net, or sign up for email updates here.

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  Twitter: @darkintercept

  Thank you for buying this

  Tom Doherty Associates ebook.