by Rebecca Rode
Mar scowled and caught up to her. “Well, I guess we can run your errand first. I mean, since you don’t know your way around.”
Mar technically didn’t either, but Ember didn’t feel like pointing that out.
They made their way down six flights of steps before the street came into view. She felt light-headed for a moment and paused along the wall, allowing people to pass.
“You okay?” Mar asked, pulling up beside her. “I know the air’s different here, but they were supposed to give you an adjustment when you got your uniform. I didn’t need one, but I totally understand if you’re feeling an oxygen percentage discrepancy.”
“I’m fine.” Ember stepped slowly down to a sidewalk packed with flickers. They seemed to be crowding toward a sky-train platform. She turned the other direction, determined to walk. She’d had enough air travel to last her a lifetime.
Ember headed down the sidewalk, already deep in thought. Would Talpa turn her in when she got home? Would the Empire care enough to look for her again? Was Dai still alive?
One step at a time, she reminded herself as Mar fell into step beside her.
“It’s called Latitude H2C,” Ember told the pharmacist for the third time. “La-ti-tude. It comes in small round pills, a brown color.”
“I say again,” the woman replied. “A hospital drug. Cannot get here.”
The pharmacy was a tiny, two-level building with nothing but photographs of smiling people lining the walls. The occasional image displayed blinking words in Common. It seemed the Empire allowed only one language on their stations.
Ember sighed. “Where else should I look?”
Mar groaned from the doorway. This was the fourth pharmacy they’d visited in two hours, and even Ember was beginning to lose hope.
“Cannot get anywhere but hospital.” The woman looked impatient. “I must go now.” She turned and headed toward the back.
“Come on, Ember,” Mar said. “Let’s take a break. Remember the Grande, that VR place I told you about? It’s only a fifteen-minute walk from here. Maybe we’ll find someone there who can help you. Besides, it’ll look bad if all we do is visit pharmacies. The Empire’s tracking us, remember?”
Ember tried to thank the pharmacist, but she had already disappeared behind a wall. Mar was already striding down the walkway before Ember got there. City trains zoomed past, the wind whipping at Mar's knotted ponytails, but she didn’t seem to mind. A bit of her prior excitement had begun to come back.
“Fine,” Ember muttered. If Dai’s medicine was regulated that strictly, the only way to get it would be the underground. Maybe a bar wasn’t such a bad idea.
She had just gone to follow Mar when a female voice hissed, “Hey, flicker girl.”
Ember stopped and turned. The pharmacist she’d just spoken with stood in the back entrance, waving at her.
“I think I have what you seek. You wait behind.” The woman motioned behind the building and disappeared inside.
Ember searched the crowd for Mar’s head and found her half a block up, striding purposefully toward an intersection. She’d catch up to her in a minute.
Ember circled the building until the street was out of sight, then made her way to the back door and waited.
The pharmacist reappeared a moment later and handed Ember a container. “It is this, yes?”
Ember took the container, excitement rising within her. She slid open the top and looked inside, then felt her shoulders sag in relief. “Yes! This is it. Now I just need to ship it to Earth.”
The woman’s eyes widened. “Oh, no, no. I cannot do for you. Is too expensive.”
Expensive. Ember had forgotten about that part. She pulled out her wristband and checked her account. Stefan’s 200 credits plus another nineteen from the previous week. “What does this cost? I’ll give you all I have.” She held out her band for the woman to see.
A glimmer of mischief shone in the woman’s dark eyes. She didn’t even look at the screen. “You are flicker, yes? I know the jacket.”
Ember swallowed, everything within her crying out to resist the label. She wore the uniform, but that didn’t change who she was. “You want me to read your future?”
“No. You will read my husband.” The pharmacist took Ember’s arm and pulled her through the door before she could protest.
The woman took her to a flight of narrow stairs that led above the shop. Ember found her mind whirling at this new development. What did this woman want her to do? Was the man having a secret affair his wife wanted exposed? Was he looking for a job?
They reached a bedroom with a figure covered in several blankets. The room stunk of medications and unwashed fabric. The woman made her way to her husband’s side and took his hand.
“You tell me if he lives,” she said, her former mischief gone. She was completely somber now. “You tell the truth, I give medicine.”
Ember stepped over to the other side of the bed and winced at what she saw. The man looked dead already, his features pale and sunken. Even his chest seemed to cave in strangely. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know this man’s future.
“Why isn’t he in the hospital?” she asked.
“They send him home. You read him now.”
“Very well,” Ember said with forced enthusiasm. She closed her eyes and began to hum. She felt her own light pulse and extended her reach. The man’s light was weak, fluttering. He was very near death.
She reached in and experienced bits and pieces of his past. His childhood on Tantom as the fourth of twenty-eight children. His time at the university when he met his wife, who was training to become a pharmacist. Their eleven children, three of whom were taken in the war. His time serving the Union as a spy.
She straightened, jerking out of that particular memory. The Union. She’d heard of the group before. Was that the enemy Talon had mentioned? Surely the pharmacist didn’t know about her husband’s true profession, or she would never have asked Ember to read him. She wore the Empire’s uniform, after all.
Don’t worry, she told the man inwardly. Your secret is safe with me.
She reached for the light again and saw his pain, deep and raw. She saw herself standing above the man with her eyes closed. She pushed forward, straining to see what lay beyond, but it was a strange blur of color and sound. And then nothing.
Ember swallowed hard and opened her eyes, settling her gaze upon the anxious woman across the bed from her. The pharmacist watched her with wide eyes, then her lips parted slightly in understanding. She lowered her gaze upon her husband.
“I’m sorry,” Ember whispered. “There’s not much time left.”
The wife let out a sob and fell upon her husband’s chest with a high-pitched wail. The husband’s arm moved slightly as if to comfort her, but there was nothing to be done. Ember had just removed whatever hope remained.
“Go,” the woman said between her tears.
Ember held out the container of pills, but the woman shoved it back at her and returned to her wailing.
“I really am sorry,” she said again, the woman’s sobbing her only reply.
9
The vision of that sick man haunted Ember as she wandered the city. She shivered as she remembered his blank expression, his pain. Did the man still live? Was Dai as helpless and limp right now as that man had been?
At least the dying man wasn’t alone. She couldn’t say the same for her father.
She walked for forty-five minutes and didn’t see a single dock or landing pad. She watched the sky above her, hoping to catch sight of a shuttle, a freighter, anything. But the skies remained empty. She finally asked a man on the street for directions to a transport station but got a confused stare in return.
“This entire planet’s the station,” he said. “There’s only one authorized landing pad, and that’s where you arrived.”
Ember sighed. It seemed she’d be heading back to the massive white testing building after all. Maybe if she hurried there would be time to se
arch the building for a way to get home.
She jogged back, winding through the ever-busy streets, suddenly weary of the lights and noise. A guard scanned her wristband at the bottom of the steps before motioning her onward. She climbed the six flights of steps, which seemed to have multiplied since her descent earlier, and made her way inside. Thankfully the corridors were still relatively empty.
For ten minutes she wandered down a series of corridors that all looked identical. Occasionally she passed a soldier in a crisp uniform. They didn’t look surprised at the sight of Ember’s jacket, but she noticed they gave her a wide berth. What a strange situation for flickers here—being forced to become a weapon for the Empire and being shunned for it at the same time.
She thought about the other flickers, probably returning to this building right now. Were they reading the people they met, forcing their way past the defenses regular citizens weren’t even aware of? Were they gathering information to turn in to the Empire and get a pat on the head?
Such knowledge would be dangerous in a place like this, especially for people like the dying man, who had hidden ties to the Union. No wonder flickers were so tightly controlled.
She turned yet another corner and pulled up short. Stefan was striding toward her. He stopped and grinned. “Had enough of the city already?”
She forced a smile. “Just tired. You?”
“I’ve seen it a few times before. Fifty, eighty maybe.” He shrugged. “I grew up on Dalimane Station, and we visited here often.”
“You mean there are others like this?”
“Of course. This one’s more central, but it’s not even the biggest. You should see Germini.”
She rubbed her arms. “Maybe someday.”
“The rec deck is pretty impressive, though. They have some new tech I’ve never seen before. Have you been there yet?” His smile faded when he noticed Ember’s face. “Oh, that’s right. I forgot that your father is sick. Of course you’re not impressed by any of this.”
She watched a soldier walk by, but the man didn’t give them a second glance. “It’s just that he needs his medicine. Where do citizens go when they need to travel?”
“Uh, they don’t. It’s a military station, Ember. Those who leave go through inspections and all kinds of clearance, even the merchant pilots.”
She sighed.
“You know I’d help if I could,” he told her. “But even if it were possible, I’d be in huge trouble if they found out.”
“Oh, I bet.”
He checked his wristband, missing her sarcasm. “You look like you could use some cheering up. I want to show you something.”
“I’m not exactly in the mood for crowds,” Ember muttered.
“Not the rec deck. It’s something you can only find on this station, and not everyone knows it’s here. Come on.”
Stefan led her down several more corridors until Ember almost felt dizzy. How he knew his way around these drab white hallways was a mystery. On the sixth turn, Stefan suddenly whirled to face her, and she plowed into him.
He smirked. “You can walk next to me, you know.”
She felt her cheeks warm. In her village, it was inappropriate for a woman to walk in front of a man. She’d learned quickly to lag behind. “I’m more comfortable here.”
“Ah. Like the view, eh?” He winked.
“You’re insufferable.”
“Well, I’m a ladies-first kind of guy. But I’ll tell you what. Let’s meet in the middle, shall we? You can walk alongside me.”
Ember shook her head, feeling foolish, and stepped beside him. “Happy?”
“Quite.”
They continued to walk for another few minutes before the hallway changed, opening up into a large room that looked to be some kind of public sitting area. A clear tube at the center carried people up and down. Soldiers and workers sat drinking and chatting at various tables. They seemed relaxed, almost content.
Obviously none of them had been torn from their homes in the middle of the night.
She caught a glimpse of a large hatch on the other side of the glass tube. She squinted at the words above it.
Emergency Only.
An escape pod.
“That’s just a break room,” Stefan said. He pointed to another corridor, but this one was lit with a strange blue light. “What I want to show you is down there.”
She gave the escape pod one last glance. If there was one, there had to be others. Of course a station would have a way to get its residents to safety in case of an attack. She’d keep an eye out for more pod stations. If she managed to eject from here somehow, maybe she could hitch a ride home on a passenger ship.
Stefan led her to the entrance of the hallway, and she blinked in surprise. It wasn’t a corridor but a small, dimly lit room with a sitting area. A huge screen spread across the opposite wall like a giant window.
“You have to sit down to get the full effect.” Stefan plopped down in a seat and motioned to the one next to him. She gave him a coy look and sat two seats away.
“On,” Stefan said with a crooked grin.
The massive screen flashed, and a scene took shape before her. It was like looking downward from the heavens. The camera stood atop an extremely tall mountain, so tall the clouds below were barely visible, and the ground not at all. Everything was green. No, an incredible array of greens, variations of the color she’d never even seen before. Several glass buildings shaped almost like castles soared high, even over the mountain peaks. Figures moved slowly in the distance, as if they had all the time in the galaxy.
“What is this?” Ember breathed.
“Empyrean,” Stefan said. “That’s where you go when you’ve served the Empire well, kind of like retirement. The emperor himself lives there, as do most of his cabinet and the richest of citizens. Every edict and law comes from Empyrean.”
So this was the Empyrean mentioned in the article. “Where is it located?”
“That’s the thing. It’s a closely guarded secret, as you can imagine. Security issues galore. Very few flickers have made a big enough impact to earn a spot there.”
Ember couldn’t tear her eyes away. It was so beautiful, so dreamlike. “You want to live there.” Even she wanted to go, to enter those beautiful buildings and look down upon a world of green from the sky.
He paused. “Eventually. More than that, I want to earn a place there for my parents. A soldier who serves well enough can bring his whole family. And there’s nothing my parents would like more than to live in the highest society in the universe.”
She gave him a sideways look. What son sacrificed so much to help his parents reach a higher social class? Surely it went far deeper than love for his family. It had to be a personal challenge, something related to that vision she’d seen of him.
Ember tried to recall the details. The dead brother, the father whose dreams had just imploded. His lack of confidence in his younger son.
“Your brother was a flicker too,” Ember said slowly. “So he served the Empire?”
Stefan’s smile faded, and he looked at his hands. “He did, and flawlessly. Everyone thought Adam would make it to Empyrean someday, maybe even serve the emperor as a special assistant. But the Union had other plans. They sent assassins to target our flickers. Took out half our flicker force in a single night.” His voice went hard at the end.
The Union again. That old man hadn’t seemed like the brutal type, but then, she knew very little about them. The group must have been formidable, indeed, to threaten the Empire itself. “So he died in battle, and your parents thought all was lost. They forgot that their younger son had the same potential.”
“I’ll never be the flicker he was, and they know it.” He took a deep breath. “Let’s change the subject.”
Ember turned back to the screen. “So you grew up on stations? Was that because of your father’s work?”
“Nah. I was born on Gliesian System TX-31, but they took me from my parents when I tested po
sitive for flicker ability at age sixty-two Gliesian months. They like to control how flicker children are raised. Too much potential for problems, as you can imagine. I’ve been training for this trip my entire life. Most of us have.” He gave her an apologetic smile. “That puts you at a serious disadvantage.”
“It would if I intended to stay.”
He pressed his lips together in disapproval. “You aren’t curious at all? You don’t want to see how far you can go?”
“Nope, not really.”
They sat there in silence, watching the screen for a long moment.
Stefan finally spoke. “Thanks for following me down here. Sometimes it’s nice to get away from the others. They can get pretty draining after awhile.”
She turned to face him. “But they’re your friends.”
“On the surface. Here, we’re all competitors. It’s just nice to talk to someone who isn’t plotting how to beat me, you know? Actually, I think you know more about me than any of them, and I’ve only known you two days.” He chuckled. “So what about you? When you get home, what do you plan to do? Assuming you can get that medicine to your dad.”
She would live her life. Tell futures, help Bianca deliver her baby, help Dai recover, and try to forget what the Empire was doing with the others who held her gift. It was a simple life, but it was all she’d ever known. How could she explain that to a gadjo, especially a man raised by the Empire to become a weapon someday? He’d never understand.
“Whoa, slow down there. I can’t keep up.” Stefan chuckled.
Ember looked around the room, realizing how poorly lit it was in here. Had she really allowed herself to sit and talk with this man alone? Her father would be horrified at how far she’d fallen in two days.
She rose to her feet, smoothing the skirt that wasn’t there. “Thanks for the tour. It’s been . . . enlightening.”
He stood, looking thoughtful. “You know, maybe you can mail that medicine to your dad instead of trying to escape. At least consider it.”
