Escape

by Gun Brooke

  “No. Don’t ask me. I will not be responsible for any changer-hating individual taking your life.” Stirrings of sheer nausea at the thought of anyone snuffing out this precious girl’s existence due to stupid fear made Thea sound harsher than she intended.

  “All right.” Going very still, Caya closed her hands into tight fists. “Will my sister be there?”

  “Yes. She and all your friends are invited to the presidential box.”

  Caya nodded slowly. “Fine. I’ll come. At least I’ll see other people for a bit. Perhaps I’ll get some readings on something useful as well. Who knows?” She stepped into the corridor and the door closed behind her. “What? No guards?”

  “The corridor is monitored remotely. They’re only seconds away.” Thea knew she had said Caya could join the naming ceremony as she was, but her hair needed tying back. “You need a hair ribbon.”

  “Oh, right. Wait.” Caya pushed her hand into a deep pocket and pulled out a long, dark-blue silk one.

  Thea took it from her and motioned for Caya to turn around. She pulled the blond masses of hair back and arranged them into a low ponytail. As she tied the ribbon securely, her fingers tingled at the feeling of the silky strands. A surprisingly spicy scent emanated from Caya’s hair, and this together with her otherworldly beauty made Thea yank her hands back before she dug her fingers deep into the golden treasure.

  “There. Good to go.” Thea motioned for Caya to follow as she strode toward the presidential jumper gate.

  The guards knew better than to react openly to Caya’s presence. They merely saluted their president and treated Caya like she wasn’t there. As they took their seats, joined by four of the most seasoned presidential guards, Thea had to exhale in relief. She hadn’t enjoyed pulling rank or being subjected to such resentment, but having Caya come with her was yet another step in the right direction. If Caya, as well as her sister Briar, were to have any kind of normal existence when they reached their new homeplanet, the people needed to see them for what they were. Changers, yes. The sisters possessed the mutation that gave them extraordinary powers, but in their case they were harmless to others. Nothing about them was violent or malicious. Instead, they had saved lives and would continue to do so if allowed.

  Briar Lindemay was revered already. She was Red Angel, a moniker ordinary people had given her when they knew her as a nurse ready to risk her life for her patients and possessing a level of empathy for them that superseded anything they’d ever known. She was untouchable. They regarded her younger sister Caya, however, as a stowaway changer, which in part was true, but it also meant they feared she hadn’t showed her true self with her full arsenal of powers. The Oconodian people had grown up fearing the violent changers: the ones that spewed fire, threw plasma spheres, altered people’s minds, hypnotized, and created explosions with their powerful minds. Oconodos had eventually become a society ridden with fear and demonstrations, and when the last few years before the Exodus operation to leave the planet to find a new home had commenced, Thea had been forced to issue martial law.

  Remembering how she had felt when it turned out the young woman she’d come to take quite an interest in was a changer, Thea closed her eyes briefly. Caya had gone into convulsions during a presidential ball, right there on the dance floor, and foreseen Hadler Tylio’s death in a terror event. Thea had wanted to remove herself from the ballroom and distance herself from the writhing young woman, but she hadn’t been able to move. Instead she had knelt next to Caya and kept her safe until her sister reached them. When it turned out Briar was also a carrier of the changer gene and every bit as powerful as her sister, Thea knew she had reached the point of her presidency that would define her as a person and politician forever.

  The jumper stopped, and the loud background noise of excited people slammed into them when the doors opened. Thea stood and followed two of her guards. The others moved in, two steps behind Caya. As they entered the lane leading to the presidential box at the large park area at the center of cube one, Thea felt the usual pull at how beautiful it was. The engineers and botanists had created a real park with actual vegetation and grass. At the center stood a semicircular stage that Thea would soon enter to announce the name of their new homeworld. Protective transparent shields would keep her safe from potential terrorists, but she wasn’t worried about herself. Caya was the true target. Her intelligence officers had confirmed that the chatter among the population hinted that most of them feared her and her abilities.

  “How many people have gathered here?” Caya spoke quietly.

  “Last estimate, 110,000 including the official cube representatives from the different enclaves. Thea cast a glance forward. “Look. There’s your sister with Adina and Admiral Heigel and her spouse.”

  “Meija.” It looked like Caya might forget herself and rush forward to greet her sister and their friends, but she dug her teeth into her lower lip and remained between the guards. “It’s been too long.”

  “We’ve all been insanely busy after that last attack. Not finding the culprits in a timely manner—”

  “If you’re going to use this moment to twist my arm, I might as well go back.” Caya’s light, transparent eyes fired off lightning bolts. “I can’t force images to appear. How many times…”

  “That wasn’t my intention at all. Come on. Let’s join your sister before she leaps over the railing and drags us in.”

  As they entered the box, the presidential march played, and the gathered Oconodians and Gemosians stood and sang the ancient lyrics.

  Along the path where hills turn into mountains,

  Where brooks grow into rivers

  And raise the mighty seas,

  I dream about the plains of Galamanor

  And the colors of the skies

  Above the purple beetles’ trees.

  As always, the song made Thea momentarily homesick. Yes, for her entire life, the threat of growing numbers of hostile changers had cast its shadow over the Oconodian homeworld, but no other planet could possibly be as devastatingly beautiful. Not to mention how brave its people were. Most of them had never even contemplated entering a spaceship. The military or freighter crews were usually the only ones who traveled in outer space.

  Thea continued up onto the stage, where Interim President Bymento of the Gemosians and his wife, Dalanja, met her. He was a sparsely built man, low-key in the way he spoke and carried himself, while Dalanja was exuberant and glamorous. Thea had learned over time that the president’s soft-spoken manners hid an iron will and a brilliant intellect, and his wife was not shallow at all, but sweet and loyal to a fault.

  “Mr. President. Mrs. Bymento.”

  “Madam President.” The Bymentos greeted her, he cordial and correct, she with obvious warmth. “This is a great day.”

  “It is.” Thea motioned to the conductor of the orchestra, and the musicians began to play the Gemosian anthem. Thea hummed along in the ancient Gemosian tongue, as did the vast crowd below the stage. When she glanced at the couple next to her, she saw how Bymento’s features had softened and Dalanja had tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.

  “Thank you,” Bymento murmured as the music ended. “I did not expect that.”

  “Sir. We’re one people now.” Thea allowed her eyes to fall upon Caya, where she sat with her sister Briar’s arm around her shoulders and Meija Solimar on her other side. The social anthropologist simply patted Caya’s knee and then smiled up at Thea, who could have sworn Meija winked at her.

  Thea pulled her self together and, after a deep breath, stepped up to the sound system. “My fellow Oconodians. My friends, the Gemosians. This is a very special day. It’s not a mere naming ceremony, even if it is important what we will call our future home from now on, but in fact, this is the official day when we merge our two people. We will no longer be known as merely Oconodians or Gemosians. As we continue on our journey toward our new homeworld, where we will be met by the advance team that is working so diligently to receiv
e all 2,100, 000 of us, we will do so as one. If and when we face adversaries, we will meet and combat them as one nation. When we reap the fruits of what we sow, we will enjoy them as one. The Oconodians will not be superior because we were originally in the vast majority. Nor will the opposite be said of the Gemosians. From now on, there is no ‘them.’ There is only ‘us.’ We are capable of so much more when we work together side by side.”

  Thea looked at her colleague to the left of her. “President Bymento has shown great leadership skills, and until we can hold the first democratic voting procedure on our new homeplanet, he has agreed to act as our vice president.” She held her breath now, waiting for protests to erupt among the Gemosians. When that didn’t happen, she almost lost her train of thought.

  “Now the moment has come to reveal the name suggestion that sixty-five percent of you voted for. P-105 will from now on be called Gemocon!”

  The park area erupted in cheers, and people stomped and clapped so hard, Thea feared this sound might affect Pathfinder’s course. She smiled, relieved and with a sense of accomplishment, as she had dreaded their respective people would hate the merger of Gemosis and Oconodos. As it turned out, people really did like the name. A new calmness flooded her, and she laughed out loud until her eyes met Caya’s. Then Caya nodded where she sat, still with her head on Briar’s shoulder. Why this gesture made Thea finally relax fully, she wasn’t sure, but if Caya had hated the name, she wouldn’t have been able to.

  As the ceremony continued with performances by dancers, singers, and actors, Thea returned to the president’s box with the Bymentos. She sat down just in front of Caya, which she didn’t like at all. Thea wanted to watch her young clairvoyant changer, make sure she didn’t do anything to set off alarms or alert the guards. Instead, she had to sit there, straight and in control, when her entire being was wrapped up in Caya’s scent.

  Afraid Briar might inadvertently read her thoughts, Thea used some meditation techniques to empty her mind of thoughts of Caya. She knew Briar, the Red Angel oracle, did not invade someone’s thoughts if she could help it, but she was still perfecting her gift and might stumble into someone’s personal contemplations without meaning to. Thea could not risk Briar discovering just how much time during her waking as well as sleeping hours she had Caya on her mind.

  Chapter Two

  Caya sat among the people she loved, watching President Tylio give her speech, followed by the Gemosian interim president Bymento’s. He addressed mainly the Gemosian but made sure everyone knew he was pleased to assume the office of vice president.

  “His wife is actually quite lovely,” Adina said. “She comes off as trendy and glamorous, but when I talked to her at the presidential dinner, she was so much more than that.”

  “I know,” Briar replied. “She came to see me for a few sessions, and as it was her initiative, I figured I might learn from the experience. I mean, until then, I hadn’t had any one-on-one meetings where I’ve tried to use my gift.”

  “I know you can’t say what you talked about, but was she pleased?” Caya hugged her sister’s arm against her, eager to get as much closeness while out in public as possible.

  “She was. We’ve had more sessions and I’ve learned a lot.” Briar looked down at Caya, who easily spotted the sorrow in her eyes. “It’s so good to be out here with you and Adina and our friends. I just hate—”

  “Shh.” Caya placed a finger on Briar’s lips. “We know I have to go back after this is over. I’m doing all right in those quarters. You know.”

  “I know. I don’t worry for your physical wellbeing. I fear for your mind. You must miss everyone when we cannot visit.”

  “I do.” What Caya didn’t tell her sister was how frustrated she was, how angry and upset and filled with resentment for being held captive by the woman on the podium. Gassinthea Mila Tylio, who insisted they should be on a first-name basis, hadn’t budged when it came to Caya’s incarceration. Yes, her friends and family could visit as much as she and they wanted, and the Creators knew that the president came by at least every other day. Caya also knew she could page Thea on her private communicator at any given time if she had a vision of some impending doom. That, somehow, didn’t make Caya feel any better.

  Thea went up to the sound system again and waited until the applause after Bymento’s speech died out. Caya regarded her with that strange emotion she had felt ever since she first met Thea. Adina, her sister-in-law, had been hospitalized after a severe red-garnet burn, and together with Briar, she had saved the entire neonatal ward at the hospital and potentially more than that. Caya had visited Adina together with her sister Briar when Thea and her entourage entered the hospital room. Something had happened then that defied everything Caya had ever hoped to experience. Thea had commented on what she called Caya’s unusual eye color. Caya never knew until then that she and her sister’s eyes held the rarest transparent turquoise hue. Thea had seemed mesmerized then, and Caya had caught her getting lost while looking at her on several occasions. She knew Briar had picked up on it, but apart from looking mystified, she hadn’t commented.

  Now, Thea locked her gaze on Caya, again, and began to speak.

  “Pathfinder has passed its half-journey mark. According to Admiral Korrian’s calculations, we have traveled past the buoy put in place by the advance team that came here two years ago. They of course traveled much faster than we do and reached Gemocon in a little more than a year. If all goes well during our second half, we’ll be there in about four hundred days. The advance team is working hard mapping out the territory where we’ll set down our cubes when the time comes. Admiral Caydoc, the woman who lent her name to this park area, sends me constant updates via the buoys they left like breadcrumbs for us to follow. The latest message also showed some footage—we have yet to receive live films—and we’re happy to be able to show you. Can we project the photos, please?”

  A large screen lowered from the tall, sky-like ceiling. As soon as it clicked into place, photos of the advance team began to appear. Caya looked wide-eyed at pictures of machines digging, people pulling wires and other equipment. Far away, she saw tall, snowy mountains and, at the foot of them, bright-green woods. The possibility of feeling solid ground beneath her feet in the near future made her tremble. Then reality caught up with her and she stood so fast, Briar fell away from her and onto Adina, who barely caught her.

  “Caya?” Briar frowned and struggled to get to her feet.

  “No. You stay. I’ll—I need to go back to my quarters. My prison. You stay here and enjoy your freedom and the wonderful prospects all the advance team’s hard labor has to offer a free person.” Caya pivoted and signaled to the presidential guards that she wanted to leave. They looked confused for a moment, but eventually two of them stayed as the other two flanked Caya.

  “Please. Just wait until Thea is done up there. She’ll want to—”

  “But I don’t. I don’t want to do anything. Yes, she might plan to treat us all to dinner, or some other festive event, but it won’t matter. Once it’s over, you, Adina, Korrian, and Meija will return to your quarters, where you can come and go at your leisure. I, on the other hand, will return to the presidential guest quarters. No fancy dinner or entertainment will change that. I can’t stand it, Briar. Don’t you see?” Caya’s throat hurt, and the idea of being in Thea’s presence as if she were on an equal footing with everyone else made her nauseous.

  “I do. I actually do.” Pale now, Briar pulled Caya into a firm embrace. “For a moment, before you shut me out, I did look into the bright light that is your soul, and the solitude there hurt.”

  “You read me?” Caya hadn’t thought it was possible for Briar to penetrate her defenses. She rarely let her guard down, but of course, in Thea’s presence, Caya lost her bearings.

  “I had to. You scare me when you are this…this vehement. This is not the little sister I recall.”

  Caya wondered if Briar was being deliberately obtuse. “Back then, I wasn’t
incarcerated. Well, at least not to this degree.”

  “And you’re not incarcerated now.” Thea’s sonorous voice made them all jump. “You’re in protective custody.”

  Less affected by Thea’s commanding presence than the others, Caya placed her hands on her hips again. “Of course. It’s all for my own good. Why can’t anybody here get it into their heads that if something horrible were to happen to me, I would sense it ahead of time and be able to avoid it?” To Caya’s dismay, her lower lip began to tremble, and she pinched her midsection hard on either side to keep from making a fool of herself by showing vulnerability in public.

  “She does have a point, Caya,” Meija Solimar said, her gentle voice pensive. “Perhaps your gift doesn’t work so well when it comes to your own safety? So far, your predictions have always been about other people. Even the despicable Had—oh. I am very sorry, Madam President.”

  Caya knew Meija had almost spoken the president’s ex-husband’s name out loud in her presence. Glancing carefully at Thea, she saw Meija didn’t have anything to fear for her faux pas.

  Thea smiled wryly. “Even the despicable Hadler. Yes, Caya. Meija does have a point as well. Perhaps your gift extends to your own safety as well, but for now, my ruling stands. That said, I think Briar and Adina would be heartbroken if you didn’t join us for dinner. I have arranged for something out of the ordinary. We’re going to have our meal at one of the places aboard Pathfinder very few people are ever allowed to go. I’d hate for you to miss it.” Holding out her hand, Thea focused her dark-blue eyes on Caya, imploring her. Her blond hair, streaked by white highlights, framed her perfect oval face. Her pink lips kept smiling, but now with a touch of uncertainty and with an onset of nerves that Caya didn’t have to have her sister’s empathic abilities to sense. Curious now, and also reluctant to hurt Briar in any way, or Adina, who had been nothing but majorly wonderful to her and her sister, Caya sighed and nodded. “So much for my grand exit in a huff.”