WHEN HEROES FALL

by Abby J. Reed

  “Obviously, I survived banishment. My uncle was not so lucky. He was thrown into Elba for his actions.” I paused for the gasp I knew would be circulating. “Which is exactly what the Queen Mother wanted. Remove him, weaken the factions, and keep everyone’s gaze from what she was truly doing—mining dark matter: A source of never-ending energy.

  “Princess Scorpia brought ShuShu back to me on Syktyv with a request: To stop the Queen from finding more dark matter. As a result, the Queen tried to kill her own daughter. If you’re seeing the reports from Atina from earlier this morning, one of the fallen ships carried Scorpia. Thankfully, she survived. Unfortunately, Syktyv wasn’t as lucky. It didn’t last el noche, and neither did my uncle. He was killed, along with a number of the line-less on Syktyv, by the Queen Mother and her horde of Extrats.”

  Scorpia gestured for me to continue.

  “Sí, you heard that right. Her horde. She has been controlling them and directing them to attack. Right now, she is on her way to a planet in the black-zone with reports of the biggest load of dark matter in the galaxy, the biggest load of never-ending energy in the universe. If she is so willing to throw away the lives of her people now, think what would happen if the Queen gained control of the dark matter.”

  Another pause for effect.

  “We don’t have to live in fear anymore. We don’t have to live alone. We, who dream of places like Salvade, we who have bi-blood or red-blood, we who have only purple in our veins but believe every life is valuable . . . We can choose to be better. Right now, the factions are torn apart. Fear is spreading. I’m begging everyone, everyone who was impacted by Salvade, everyone who was impacted by my uncle, everyone in the factions, everyone who dreams of peace, to please ready your ships and meet us in the black-zone.” I locked eyes with Scorpia. “Everything I said on the broadcast was true. I did not lie. I do believe the best way to accomplish this is by working with the throne. But not with the Queen. With Princess Scorpia. Scorpia has worked with my uncle and the factions and also dreams of building a better home. I believe she can help us do this by first helping us protect one of our most vulnerable planets, where the Queen is headed now. Please respond if you would like to help. In the meantime, be ready to fly.” In a moment of inspiration, I touched my fist to my chest. “Live brave. Live true.”

  Scorpia cut the recording.

  Satisfaction thrummed in my chest. I knew, as though I lived on the sun-locked side of a planet with no shadow in sight, both ShuShu and Tahnya would’ve been proud. “How was that?” I said. “Think I overdid it?”

  She winced. “Not terrible. Bit cliché. Luckily, we can try again.”

  “Trust me, it won’t get any better.” Before she could erase, I leaned over and sent the wide beam. I reached for the teapot for a refill. By the time I finished filling my cup, the interface lit with responses.

  Chapter 38

  TAHNYA

  My thoughts were wisps. I was in the compound gardens, the crimson soil overplayed with brackish fog. Tips of growing plants poked through, like fish coming to surface. Momma stood in front of me, dressed in her grave-clothes, a corpse half-rotted away, her reaching hands full of up-rooted reddrops.

  “Momma!” I rushed to her, not caring if her bones showed through her skin, not caring her face was more skull than flesh, but my feet tangled with vines and roots and I couldn’t move.

  “Tahnya,” Momma whispered.

  I struggled against the plants. My plants, my friends, working against me.

  “Tahnya, wake up.” Momma released the reddrops and the flowers fell from her hands. They spilled out like a never-ending cup of liquid, like blood.

  The crimson blood turned cerulean and splashed into the fog.

  The dream of Momma vanished into a cloud, replaced by the clean lines of a white ceiling and an achy awareness of my body.

  I groaned. The sound was rough and raspy. A tingling spread across my lower body. Tight, soft clothes exposed my limbs. A strap held my waist and ties trapped my ankles and wrists. I was bound to a slim ivory chair, facing a window. A nebula smeared coral and emerald, the color not unlike the ground up seeds used to make dyes. I’m in space.

  A tube sprinted from my arm to a simple machine next to me, but nothing dripped into my veins. Next to the stand hovered a digiScreen. Below the screen hung a row of shiny pails. Illegible scribbles swallowed their sides. On the screen, a line beeped in time to my heart rate while the edges showed images of bones. They told a story, a clear progression of a break to wholeness. I truly had broken my back. The Queen must’ve fixed me.

  How long had I been here?

  The room itself was bone-white, filled with bolted down cabinets and drawers along the back. I didn’t recognize any of the equipment by name, but I knew the scent of a med bay when I smelled one.

  A squeezing sensation, my chest compressing—a flank.

  We finished and no nebula waited out the window.

  We were traveling.

  Where was Brody? Where was—

  The memory hit.

  Jupe was—

  Jupe was dead.

  The realization felt like breaking my back all over again. I stared dumbly at the ceiling tiles as this new pain went on and on and on. My eyes burned with tears. I should be used to people dying. You expected death on Scarlatti, grew up with it as a neighbor, always staring in your face, peeking in your windows. But out here wasn’t Scarlatti. And Jupe was too large to fit within Scarlatti’s rules.

  It was so unfair. The world needed Jupe in it.

  The tears overflowed, and the first sob wrenched its way from my throat.

  “You will not want to waste your tears.”

  I whipped my head toward the voice behind me. Out of the corner of my eye, the Queen sat on a luxurious velvet gray chair that had no place in a med ward. It swiveled, floating through the air until she came full into view. Her ankles were crossed at the feet, lounging as though she had never known a hard dia’s work. She wore pearl-white again, a deep contrast to her skin, the angles sharp and severe.

  “Why not? You killed him.” I wielded the accusation like a knife. “You killed Jupe.”

  The Queen held up an empty crystal goblet, looking at the space beyond through the window. “You need the hydration.” The way she spoke, so matter-of-fact. She didn’t even bother trying to deny what she did to Jupe. “You were lucky. We had an entire team work on your back as soon as you stepped onto the ship. We were able to repair the nerve damage as well. The bruises, too, were almost a work of art.”

  I set my jaw, the tears vanished into a deep rage. Well, I feel fine now. I let a hum build in the back of my throat. I’d tear her apart. I’d—

  “You cannot sing your way out, either,” she said. “I made sure there was no metal in this room.”

  I paused, letting the humming die. “This is a ship. There’s plenty of—”

  The Queen lowered her glass, bemused. “You need direct access to influence metal. Coat everything in a layer of synth glasstic or rubber and your power is worthless.”

  I had my chance to fight back and save us. I had my chance and I lost it. My bones rattled with the knowledge. I could’ve won. Could’ve won against even all those ships if I hadn’t doubted myself, if I hadn’t been afraid. Instead, I let us crash and I let Brody be taken and I let Jupe die.

  The Queen uncrossed her ankles and leaned forward, hand draping lazily to the side. Every movement was decadent. “I take it that I know more about your ability than you do.”

  How? I itched to scream. I remembered my conversation with ShuShu. He warned me about telling others I was blue-blood. Was he aware that the Queen knew it existed? “Where are we going?” I said instead.

  The Queen gave an easy smile. It was so similar, yet so unlike Scorpia’s. “To your planet,
of course. Scarlatti, you call it. It has a different registered name.”

  We flanked again.

  This time, an ebony planet waited outside the window.

  I waited for the ache in my chest to pass. Jupe’s Leech needed much more time between flanks than this Solteran ship. “How do you know where Scarlatti is?”

  The Queen looked outside, watching the planet rotate slowly. It wore a crown of stars. “I have seen blue blood before, you know.” She ran a slender finger under her jaw, as though deciding what to say. “Do you know why the blood is blue?”

  “Evolution?”

  “In a way. There is power in the blood. It is the result of dark matter poisoning from living within close proximity. Blue blood can evolve from any color and takes a very long time. Almost as though the universe realized the dark matter was a mistake and tried to build a way to keep it in check. As the saying goes, nature likes balance.”

  Was that why there were both Herons and Elik on Scarlatti? The Herons that moved to Houtiri and lived over dark matter mines eventually became Elik?

  The Queen turned from the window and watched my expression. “I see you know what I am talking about.”

  “How do you know this? You’ve never been to Scarlatti.”

  “Correct. However, there are two planets in that same little system, are there not?”

  “You’ve been to Carmesi?”

  “Whichever one has no ring. I chased a ship there once, long ago before your great-grandparents were even born. But instead of finding the wreck, I found something better. Green-bloods, blue-bloods, and dark matter.”

  I bit my lip. There were others on Carmesi? What Breaker wouldn’t give to learn this.

  The Queen continued, “The stupid fools sat on a small payload of dark matter and worshipped it. They had no idea what it was truly meant to do, that I had been searching for it ever since I had come through the wormhole. I hadn’t dared hope I would find it again. So I took it. I took it all.”

  The way the words slid off her tongue in a twisted snarl . . .

  She didn’t just take it. She’d slaughtered the entire planet.

  My chest felt hollowed out. All those people. Dead.

  This was what Scorpia was afraid of. She’d known her mother was capable of doing such a horrible thing. The Queen never intended to negotiate with Scarlatti’s locals.

  She planned to raze the planet to its core while she mined it. But why?

  The hollowing turned into another compression, another flank. Another step closer to Scarlatti.

  “If you already have dark matter,” I said, “why do you need more?”

  The Queen’s tongue flicked, wetting her lips. “It was not nearly enough.”

  “For what? What could you possibly want with so much power?”

  The Queen shot me an amused glance. She rose in a fluid motion to stare at the view full of stars. Her hands clasped behind her back, dangling the goblet by the stem. “I know what they say, the media, the Councilors: I hate Humans. Why I prevent them from rising in status and wealth to the safety of the green-zone. They are wrong. I do not hate the Humans. But I do not care about them. They can all burn in this wretched excuse of a galaxy. I know, too, the factions are afraid that this power will grant me the ability to hack lines, hack entire fleets. They are also wrong.” Suddenly, she spat and her fists clenched. Hot rage rolled off her as though her insides burst into flames. “Scorpia is a fool. She showed the most potential to be like me.”

  “That’s why you killed your own daughter? ‘Cause she’s not like you?”

  She turned to me, cold. “Apparently you’re a fool as well. I thought your blue blood would give you a better understanding, to make you more compassionate toward helping me.”

  “Why would I ever want to help you?”

  The Queen paced closer. She poked the tube inserted in my arm and turned on the machine. The low vibration coming from it sounded anything but pleasant.

  “This is what you do not know, what Scorpia did not know, not even the infamous ShuShu Cho. You cannot control the Extrats. Not even with dark matter. You cannot control something whose only desire is to destroy. However, you can direct it. They usually listen if it benefits them. Usually. Their vocabulary is horribly limited, though the older ones seem to do a little better. Having blue-blood helps with the communication, though you do not need it. Especially if you are patient. And I am very, very patient. Their urge to destroy is fascinating. They are sometimes willing to even attack their own, if there is no prey. But I pushed them in the direction of the red-zone and gave them a target. Better the Humans than my people.”

  “You’ve lived too long if you think anyone in this galaxy aren’t your people.”

  “And you have not lived long enough to understand.”

  “Then why are you bothering to tell me this, if I’m such a khaim?”

  The Queen bowed her head, all at once showing all her years. The angles of her shoulders, her dress, sagged. The wars, the fears, the burden of a galaxy rested on her shoulders. How long had she carried this weight?

  “Because I am tired. And I only ever wanted one person, just one person, to try to understand me. I had hoped Scorpia would be that person. I had hoped she would rule while I rested. I had hoped.” She straightened and turned a valve. The machine made a noise, and my blood drifted from my vein, filling the tube with a shocking shade of royal blue. No! I shook back and forth, but the restraints held. Those pails . . . Were pails. Pails meant to hold all my blood. “Luckily, I do not need your permission to gain your help.”

  She held the goblet under the tap and my purified blood poured into the bottom of the glass as though it always belonged there. Once the liquid kissed the rim, she paused the tap. “I only need your blood.”

  The Queen toasted, lifted the goblet to her lips. And drank.

  Chapter 39

  BREAKER

  We followed the map by solalight through the tunnels, just ahead of the Extrats. Sections had collapsed and barricades built. We could follow the trail of bodies to find our way around the blockades and alternated between riding and walking for horas, trying to gain space between them and us.

  Our local gossip never touched on the reality of how much was crammed underneath the fortress. Like the tablet drawings of an iceberg. One part visible, so much more hidden. The bit I’d seen when King Oma kindly invited me inside was just the welcome mat. Now I saw school halls and kitchens and gardens grown by mirror-directed light and ballrooms and art galleries and entire hallways devoted to scientific discoveries.

  Just when I couldn’t stand being under kilos of rock any more, the map finally started to lead us to the surface.

  We emerged on the backside of the Heron mountains, near the top of the ridge. The light burned my eyes at first, but it felt so banging pleasant to see some color other than dark. According to the map, the tower was closer than I’d expected. It was located nearer to the neutral zone, in the space along the mountain range neither Heron or Elik claimed, where the game trails passed through. To return to the compound from the tower, we’d have to trek east through the neutral zone to the northern main trail that cut alongside the river into the valley.

  Malani flew for a quick recon scan of the area to make sure there were no Extrats ahead, taking the map with her, leaving me alone with my thoughts at the tunnel exit.

  I sat with my leg and Circuit outstretched, a snack in hand, overlooking the backside of the mountains and the maze of switchbacks below. I’d never been to this side of the mountains. The ocean glowed pink in the light, waves crashing on the sliver of shore below. The sound was a gentle roar and the wind tasted sharp. If I hadn’t seen the truth from above, or ventured back here myself, I wouldn’t have believed the ocean had been so close this entire time.

  There
was so much to this measly planet, more than I had ever imagined.

  My resolve hardened. I’d fix my mistakes. I’d save this place. My red blood for a red planet. Always.

  I flicked the pupal stem onto one of the switchbacks, but the wind caught it and stole it out to sea. The ground was too hard to dig a pit for the wishing seeds, so I tossed those too, and watched as the wind carried them out of reach.

  Shouldn’t Malani be back by now?

  A dull, thundering noise echoed from inside the tunnels. I twisted, peering around the bike. Oh, bloody bang it. The stupid Extrats caught up. I stood, shoving the rest of the pupal in my mouth. I looked to the skies. No sign of Malani.

  My brain spun with options:

  1. I could leave without her. She’d know I’d want her to do the same. But she took the map. I didn’t know these trails. Leaving without her would almost guarantee I’d get lost along the switchbacks.

  2. I could wait and pray she got back in the next two mins. Yeah, no. Not likely.

  3. Or, I could use the last explosive.

  I fumbled for the sack and took it out. Found a pressure point at the mouth of the cave. Set the timer. Deep inside the cave, glimmers of metal reflected the light off a multitude of tangled limbs. My mouth ran dry. How many had followed us in there?

  I leapt on the bike, hurrying a short distance away before it blew. The exit came down like a heavy curtain, the dust puffed in a great billowing cloud, the glorious boom mixed with the Extrat screams and echoed over the ocean.

  Malani dropped next to me. “What the hell was that?”

  I jumped at her sudden appearance. “Extrats.” I opened the satchel to show her the near-empty inside. “We’re out of explosives. How’s the mist?”