by Lace, Lisa
I had started this conversation taking the position that bringing Kenna to a wedding was completely out of the question. I was learning that my mother was very persuasive and good at getting her own way.
“I know that you don’t remember anything, Darvish, but it would be a bad idea to let anyone else know that. Only myself and a few trusted servants know the truth about you. You haven’t been going out much. And you have been spending so much time with Kenna, I had to circulate the rumor that you were engaged.”
“What?” I said, reeling from the bomb that she had dropped into the conversation. I remembered that part of the briefing about Susohnnan culture quite clearly. If we said we were engaged, that meant that we were not only intending to get married, but we were also sleeping together.
One of the euphemisms for sex in our language is getting engaged. How could she have done that?
Kenna and I had decided that we should avoid each other for the rest of the trip because it was too painful to be together and now my mother had circulated a rumor that would ensure that we had to spend all our time together? It was way beyond meddling.
“I know you’re upset, Dar, but you have to understand. If I hadn’t, people would have noticed that you were spending so much time together in private and assumed that you were..you know…”
“Mother!”
“What? I’m a mother. And as such, that means that I’ve had…”
“Mother!” I said again, more forcefully.
She rolled her eyes but continued on.
“It would have caused an enormous scandal and may have cost you your kingship. Other kings have been ousted for as much or as little. There is far too much democracy on Susohn nowadays. Since I’m sure you will be getting engaged and married eventually, there’s no harm done circulating the rumor now and confirming it sometime in the future. Your cousin’s wedding will be a nice public occasion to show that you are clearly together in a respectable fashion. The engagement announcement can be unofficial.”
“But mother…”
“Whatever your arguments are, they won’t fly, Darvish. You need to do this for yourself and for your country. Losing you now would be truly terrible for Susohn. Being a king is who you are, whether you remember or not. I’m afraid the crown never comes off, not even for a case of amnesia. Go wake Kenna up. The royal dressers will be there to do a fitting in an hour.”
“Mother, can you give me a minute to explain?” I protested feebly.
She cut me off again.
“Dar. No choice,” she said. “On the upside, you won’t have to keep sneaking around. You can share a bedroom.”
And she winked at me. I blushed to the roots of my hair. I didn’t want my mother thinking about me having sex. What I did with Kenna was private and not something my mother should concern herself with.
Sharing a bedroom!
What once would have sounded like a dream come true now only sounded like a torture sentence.
*
“Engaged?!” Kenna practically shrieked when I told her.
“Calm down, it wasn’t my idea!”
She began to pace around the room wildly.
“I thought your mother was done with her meddling but this, this is too much.”
“It’s not that bad, is it?” I said. Was it such a hardship to be engaged to me?
“Not that bad?” she said, looking like tears were imminent. “Not that bad? Do you know what it means to be engaged on Susohn?”
“Well, kind of. There was a briefing. Not really.” She cut me off.
“Being engaged means that you’re a couple. You’re going to get married — not that many engagements on Susohn are broken off. It’s a serious thing that couples do because they love each other. And REMEMBER each other! All the time. Not just a few seconds here and there.”
“Kenna,” I said, feeling the despair rising up in me again.
“No, Dar. You have idea because you don’t remember. You never proposed to me. We never even talked about marriage, really. You would be furious that your mother had done this to us. I mean, as if she hadn’t pretty much forced us into it in the first place after the fucking volcano..”
I had many question rise up, but they would have to wait till later. Kenna was going off the deep end. The guy with the medical condition would have to calm her down.
“But she was going to let us get engaged at our own pace. And now…Ooh!” She balled her hands into fists, walking back and forth in silence for a minute. I didn’t say anything, sensing that she wasn’t done. I WAS able to remember when to keep my mouth shut. Sometimes.
“You know everyone will assume we’re sleeping together, right?”
“Aren’t we?” I knew it was a stupid question on so many levels but it just came out of me. I couldn’t remember when to keep my mouth shut all the time.
“No. We were. We’re not anymore, remember?”
I didn’t say anything, thinking about last night.
She let the tears fall that had been shining in her eyes since I told her the news. She plopped herself down on the floor beside the bed, drawing her knees up to her chest and putting her head down on her arms. She was the picture of desolation and I felt terrible.
“We could get married,” I said, feeling that at least offering this much was the proper thing to do.
“No!” She lifted her head so that I could see her beautiful brown eyes, stormy and red-rimmed. “I don’t want you to ask me until you know what you’re doing, Dar.”
“I just wanted to say something.” I trailed off, not knowing what to do. We had said we weren’t touching in any way anymore. But I didn’t know how to comfort her. Words weren’t working. I couldn’t just leave her to cry alone. Not when I was here.
I sat down beside her and put my arm around her. She sighed deeply and dropped her knees so she could put her head on my chest.
“I thought we weren’t going to touch anymore,” she said.
“This is platonic,” I said, waiting to see if she had a reaction. She looked up me, a grin on her face. And inside me, something let go. She was smiling again. If only I could take her pain away so easily all the time, forever.
That’s when I realized that whether or not I remembered what had happened between us in the past didn’t matter.
Here. Right now. In the present. That’s all that mattered.
I was falling in love with this woman. And there was nothing I could do to stop myself.
KENNA
Fuck, I was so confused.
Dar had comforted me after I had been so upset about his mother leaking information to the press about us being engaged. Now we were sitting on the balcony of his bedroom since it faced west, watching the two suns setting in silence.
I just couldn’t wrap my head around everything that was going on. Having the real Dar with me for a few minutes, with all the depth of our relationship because of our shared experiences was heaven.
But then there was this other Dar, who was some guy I just met and liked and slept with and was dating. There was something about being with him that was simple and easy. And he was so kind and gentle. There was no sense of Dar the king.
It confused me that I liked him too. He was different from the real Dar somehow. I felt like I was betraying Dar by falling in love with this simulacrum.
I closed my eyes, shaking my head. It was so fucked up. Dar looked over at me as I shook my head. He gazed at me for a moment, his eyes lingering on my face.
“Kenna,” he said softly, entwining his fingers with mine. I felt a tingle when he touched me.
I bit my lip.
“Yeah?”
“I believe that if we overthink things, they get too complicated.”
I nodded.
“But this…” he said, holding our clasped hands up between us. “This is simple. And this…” He gazed into my eyes. “This is easy. And this…” He leaned in and pressed a chaste kiss on my lips. “This is how it’s supposed to be. Us. Together. W
e belong together, Kenna.”
And as he said those words, I saw the transformation in his eyes.
He was back.
“And nothing in the universe is going to tear us apart,” he said, an expression of awe and joy on his face. He couldn’t believe what he was saying.
“You…” I searched his eyes, not wanting to say it. To jinx it. “You…”
He nodded.
“I remember everything.”
DAR
Kenna cried and cried when we woke up the next morning and my memories were gone again, but it was different this time. I didn’t remember our conversation, but I had written it down, and reading my notes was helping with my short-term memory. She and I had discussed the alien problem and we had some new ideas.
After she fell asleep in my arms yesterday, I made a note to myself that shocked me when I read it this morning. I didn’t know if I should act on it or not, and the thought of it was burning in my mind.
I pushed it aside. I needed to be alert today, not mooning over Kenna.
We were having a meeting today with my mother to decide on our official course of action in response to the alien attack on our people.
Kenna squeezed my hand as we approached the meeting room.
“If you need a memory…” she said, tapping her temple. “I’ve got it all in here. Don’t let your mother tell you no, okay? Be confident. You’re the king, remember?”
I stood up straight. Yes, I was the king. Although I didn’t feel it, I would have to fake it until I felt it again.
Who knew if or when my memories would ever come back completely?
“Mother,” I said, going around the desk to kiss her. Kenna made a graceful Susohnnan curtsy. She looked so beautiful when she did that, it was difficult to think of anything else. But I shook it off.
We had a mission here today. To convince my mother that our idea was good, or get her to agree to it, even if she thought it was a bad idea.
“Darvish.” She smiled at me. “Kenna, you look lovely today.”
“Thank you, Sarallia,” she said, bobbing her head.
They exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes. I couldn’t stand the small talk and I soon found an opportunity to introduce our idea.
“Mother, Kenna and I have been discussing the problem of Wormhole 87 and the alien race.”
“You have?” she said. She didn’t really have a reaction because she did not truly see me as her son. I was no one to her, really.
What she didn’t know was that I had been myself for a few hours last night. We had decided not to tell her unless we had to. Based on the engagement fiasco, we weren’t sure how much she could really be trusted.
“We have decided that our best course of action is to send a ship and follow the next droid ship that comes through. We must have information about our enemy. We need to get Mana and Jared back. They are an integral part of my team of advisors now and I can’t rule without them.”
My mother snorted at this point but I ignored her, continuing on.
“Kenna and I will be aboard a ship that will go with the exploratory space craft and our ship will be the base. We are hoping that the new technology that the Mirallaleyans recently developed to communicate between galaxies will be enough for us to keep communication lines open with the exploratory vessel.”
“Wait. You’ve got the new Mirallaley technology already?” my mother said, eyes widening in shock. I nodded. “But that’s not being released to the general public until next year.”
“That’s right,” I said.
“How did you get hold of it so soon?”
“Jared’s got a lot of contacts,” Kenna said.
“He negotiated with them for over a month and the first shipment just arrived yesterday.”
“Hm,” she looked reluctantly impressed. “But you won’t be endangering yourselves, of course.”
Her voice went up at the end as if it were a question but it was more of a command.
“Of course not. We will merely accompany the ship that will actually go through the wormhole.”
She nodded, satisfied.
“I agree. We need to know who or what we are up against. We don’t have enough information to act intelligently.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Kenna, let’s make our preparations. Mother, I’ll send you our requirements for the ships and crews so that you can arrange it.”
“Certainly,” she said, looking pleased that the decisive, commanding son that she knew was back.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her I was acting.
*
Two weeks later, Kenna and I stood on the bridge of the exploratory ship that would go in search of Jared and Mana. We were looking at Wormhole 87 out the view screen. It was beautiful with a spiral shape and swirling colors.
But I held no illusions about it. If not properly stabilized, it would destroy a ship in a fraction of a second.
Wormholes were new technology that we knew almost nothing about and could be very, very dangerous. You were taking your life in your hands when you used them for travel.
We were inspecting the ship and then we would transport back to our vessel to watch it ship go through. I was entrusting the search to Captain Dor’lin, a good friend of mine who also served in the Susohnnan army.
“You should probably beam back, Dar,” Jakk said.
“Yes, are you ready, Kenna?”
“Can I run to the bathroom really quickly?” she said. “I’m afraid to be transported with a full bladder.”
I chuckled and Jakk watched her run off the bridge.
“She’s sweet and beautiful. Where did you find her?” he said.
“Long story,” I said. “A very long story. Suffice to say that I’m a lucky guy.”
“You sure are,” he said.
“How is Larka?” I said, forgetting my manners. I should have asked about his wife when we first met.
The Susohnnan rules were so complex, I could barely keep them straight.
He frowned.
“We’re so good. I think we may get divorced,” he said.
“Divorced?” That was serious. Nobody got divorced on Susohn. “Oh, Jakk, I’m sorry.”
“She’s not happy anymore and I guess neither am I, though to tell you the truth, I don’t know what happened, exactly.”
I clapped him on the shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” I said again.
“Thanks, Dar,” he said. “But you should get your little lady and get over to the transporter. Wait a second. What the hell is that?” he said. Something huge had appeared on the view screen.
“Oh fuck,” I said, fear filling my body. I remembered that shape very clearly. “It’s one of the alien ships.”
He ran to his station, yelling orders to his crew.
“Dar, get out of here!”
I grabbed Kenna, who had just returned and we ran for the transporter room together. When we got there, the male Susohnnan on duty motioned for us to stand on the transporter pads. We positioned ourselves and waited. And waited. I glanced at him.
“What’s wrong?” I said.
“They’re trying to get a lock on all of us. It’s interfering with my beams. Shit. There’s no way I’m going to be able to transport you, right now, sir. I need to protect all of us right now.”
We returned to the bridge.
“Jakk, we can’t transport right now,” I told him.
“We’ve got a bigger problem on our hands,” Jakk said, standing very still and staring at the view screen. Kenna and I turned to look. I heard her gasp and cover her mouth with her hand.
The view screen didn’t show one alien ship anymore. Now there were hundreds. I looked at the wormhole and saw that there was a ship coming through every few seconds. I wondered how many people these ships could transport. Jakk’s voice broke into my thoughts.
“What did you say those ships were for, Dar?”
“They’re slave ships,” I said, feeling Kenna come up beside
me and take my hand, pressing herself against my side.
“And how many did you think one ship could hold?”
I looked at Kenna.
“Twenty million,” she said, her voice dead.
“And how many ships would you estimate are out there right now?”
“Two hundred,” I said, seeing where this was going.
“Two hundred times twenty million,” Kenna said.
“So the ships we can see now would be able to hold four billion people.” Jakk turned his head to look at me, his eyes scared. I had never seen Jakk afraid — he was as tough as they come.
“And there’s more coming through every few seconds,” Kenna added, her voice small.
“That seems like enough to enslave the entire galaxy.” Jakk said softly.
“I think that’s what they’re planning on doing.” I said.
If we couldn’t stop one ship, how were we going to stop hundreds?
Part 4: Destruction
DAR
“We have to stop them,” Jakk said, staring at the alien ships that filled the sector near the wormhole.
“We can’t,” I said, “Look at them. There’s nothing we can do.” I felt fear pooling in the base of my stomach. Life as we knew it in the galaxy was over.
“Then we need to run. Where can we go where they won’t be able to transport us? Wait, let me ask Mo.”
Jakk activated his com unit.
“Mo, what sort of field would a planet have to have to prevent us from being transported off of it?”
There was silence, then Mo responded.
“One that reverses its magnetic field every few seconds,” he said. “Or one without an atmosphere.”
“Did everybody hear that?” Jakk said, looking nervous as another ship came through the wormhole. “What planets have fluctuating magnetic fields or don’t have atmospheres?”
I shrugged. I certainly didn’t remember any, I was suffering from memory loss. Then I tried to look pensive. I was supposed to be myself and Dar the king would certainly have been trying to think of an appropriate planet.
Mo listed off three that were too far away and one that was controlled by the Virans — out of the question. A few other crew members made suggestions but none were suitable hiding places.
