The Starlight Fortress

by Fiona Rawsontile

  She saw inquiring gazes from people, but she couldn’t elaborate on the details. If Sterling’s idea succeeded, it would be more effective than any weapon they had invented. However, there were practical issues she didn’t dare to bring up. When the fortress turned on its artificial gravity in future battles, all the ships and planes that happened to be in its vicinity needed to have the compensation program installed in their missile-launch systems to make corrections. Would her allies trust her enough to let her mess with their ships? She doubted it.

  “I have a question,” Matthew said. “What if Pompey uses Geneva’s son as a hostage?”

  She heard a soft chuckle from Charlie. “You mean, when we are surrounding his palace?”

  Matthew blushed. “I’m just trying to take precautions. If nobody believes we could make it, why bother?”

  “Pompey wouldn’t do that,” Owen said. “According to our information, he has secretly appointed his little stepbrother as the heir.”

  “Oh …” Suppressed exclamations spread across the room, and Geneva felt her back stinging with people’s gazes. Why would things always go this way? It was supposed to be an international military meeting, but last time it was all about her marriage, and this time, her child.

  “Then there’s an easy solution,” she said stiffly. “Sunphere will stay away from the operation.”

  “Let’s not look at the issue this way,” Jonathan said in a conclusive manner. “We belong to one inseparable community and our futures tie together. The enemy wouldn’t be any happier to see us fighting one another for things with remote possibilities. Anyway, let’s come back to more details of the operation after the break. Now I’d like to remind you about the wedding in two weeks …”

  The wedding! Geneva pressed on her forehead as she remembered Edwards’s wedding. Yes, six months ago she received the invitation from Artorna. She almost forgot!

  “If any of you couldn’t attend the wedding, please have someone in your family as a representative.” Jonathan continued. “Even though Artorna is unlikely to offer us direct help …”

  My fault, Geneva said in her head.

  “Still, it’s important to befriend them. Please send me a list of attendees early next week. For security reasons, let’s plan on traveling together.”

  * * *

  The dinner banquet proceeded in a festive atmosphere. Whether the allies were going to dispatch troops or not, this time they were the banker of the game, and that felt good.

  “You think we can trust those colonies, Charlie?” Sitting in a corner with the newly engaged couple, Geneva asked. She was glad to have their company tonight, for everybody else acted weird to her. They would chat softly when she was around, and cast wary looks at her every now and then. Once she entered the earshot, they would quickly raise their voice and start a new topic.

  “It’s not about trust,” Charlie said as he peeled an orange carefully. “It all depends on how well our interest agrees with theirs. If they want independence and our intervention helps them, there’s no reason for them to betray us.” He handed the orange to Stella and looked back at Geneva. “You were with Pompey for a while. What kind of person is he?”

  Geneva leaned back on the couch and exhaled. “Certainly a tough opponent—he knows how things usually turn out, yet he himself is highly unpredictable. I have a bad feeling that he knows exactly what we’re planning to do. However nasty the rebellion is, I’m sure he’ll be prepared for our visit.”

  What she didn’t say was that Pompey was also a proud man, like Charlie and Sterling, who would never use disgraceful means to achieve his goals. To some people this might be a silly and useless philosophy, but Geneva didn’t think so. True wisdom only comes from great minds. For example, men who keep their promises are far more difficult to deal with than those who don’t.

  “Enough about the war, okay?” Stella made a forthright interruption. Geneva had expected her to behave more ladylike after her engagement, but she didn’t.

  Charlie smiled at his fiancée and obediently changed the subject.

  * * *

  Later that night, Geneva and Stella left the party and entered a roof garden. After a few steps, they heard an angry voice coming from a bench. “It’s all over the news! Now the whole country is laughing at you. And me! Seriously, I wish you were lying in the hospital with your gang. At least people would think of you as a … Hey! I haven’t finished!”

  Seconds later, a plump figure left the bench and headed to the entrance.

  “Uncle,” Geneva called softly.

  Lloyd stopped abruptly with a phone clutched in his hand. The buttons on his black tuxedo were about to pop out at any minute. Still trembling, he managed a quick smile at the two women and left for the inside.

  “Poor guy. Is this about the school fight?” Stella asked after they stopped in front of the fencing. The water traffic was difficult to discern at night, except the largest river flowing away from the palace. “Who’s the other boy?”

  “One of my officers’ son,” Geneva said in slight dismay.

  Calvin and Oakley’s son went to the same college. Recently they had some issue over a girl, and apparently the young Oakley was winning. Last Saturday when they encountered each other in a bar, Calvin’s two friends went ahead to give the “arrogant bloke” a lesson, but ended up badly beaten. Calvin only had some minor bruises, but everybody knew why he was spared. For this reason, Lloyd and Oakley had been acting unnaturally on the trip here.

  “Maybe I should send Calvin here to learn karate from you,” Geneva joked. Her eyes involuntarily traced the boat lights on the river, watching them slowing down in the distance, and eventually joining the stars above the landscape.

  “He doesn’t love me, Geneva.”

  It took Geneva a moment to realize what her friend had just said. “Stella! Tell me you were kidding!” She turned to look at Stella, but couldn’t tell her expression under the hazy starlight.

  “As remote cousins we saw each other often,” Stella continued with a detached voice, as if she were talking about someone else. “When did I start having feelings for him? I can’t remember. He’s seven years older than me. He had many girlfriends before I was allowed to date. It never bothered me since I could tell he wasn’t serious. Then he went to college and met his pilot girlfriend …” She paused and took a deep breath. What she was going to say next must require some courage. “They came to my birthday party when I turned sixteen. For a while I thought that was the last birthday I would ever have.”

  Unlike Geneva, Stella had a happy family. That was probably the first time in her life when she couldn’t get what she wanted, Geneva thought.

  “Then I tried to make myself hate him.” Her voice became stiffer. “I was rude to him every time we met, and I had a feeling he knew why I acted that way. I just hoped life would eventually move on without him. But I failed, after these many years. I have to be with him, even though I know he’ll never forget about her.”

  “It’s understandable that he still misses her,” Geneva said as she thought of Mason. “She died under his supervision. He must’ve felt guilty, and … useless.” Yes, useless was how Sterling felt about himself. “But it’s unfair to say that he doesn’t love you. Everybody could tell he does. And he should be grateful that he has you. Otherwise how boring would his life be?”

  “Boring?”

  “Yes! If he were to write a book about his life excluding your part, I wouldn’t want to read it.”

  Stella chuckled, with tears still on her face.

  “And one day when you two have kids, when you have to worry about their behavior and school fights, she will fade out from your life.”

  “I hope so … How about you and Sterling? Where is he?”

  As Geneva briefly described the recent family tragedy, a question crept up her mind and made her uneasy. How would it affect Sterling? He was very close to his foster parents, and unlike a blood-related relationship in which people sometimes took eve
rything for granted, he always felt he should somehow pay them back.

  And since she became a teenager, she was constantly told to beware of men with ulterior motives. Sometimes she wished he were one of them, though. She’d rather let him take advantage of her, if that could bring her assurance. If that guaranteed his stay.

  Yet she was never assured.

  Chapter 25

  Until Sterling arrived at the hospital and stood in front of Crystal’s bed, he could not believed what he was told. A car accident? That couldn’t have happened to his parents! He remembered when he first learned driving as a high-school junior, how Crystal was constantly worried, yet she tried not to call him when he was on the way for fear the phone would distract him. He was amazed several times by the accuracy of her estimation when he received her call right after he reached the destination. He had never worried about his parents’ safety, as if they were immune to bad things, as parents.

  For a week, he was busy with Harold’s funeral arrangements and Crystal’s recovery plans. Her right leg was damaged so badly that it had to be truncated at the knee. He was grateful that Larissa came back from Artorna to help. She had always been close to Crystal and was more adroit in dealing with care and emotional things than he was. On the day of the funeral, he was surprised by the large number of people that showed up. Harold knew a lot of people because of the school, but the majority of attendees were Crystal’s friends and coworkers from the local area, Artorna, and even countries in the RA. Immersed in grief, he was also proud of his parents and wished he had cared more about their life.

  * * *

  On the day Crystal came home from the hospital, Sterling took her to the best restaurant in town, the one he went to with Harold and Geneva. Crystal said she wasn’t in the mood, but he insisted. He had never taken his parents out, thinking there would be endless time ahead for him to do that, until it was too late.

  “How’s everything going with you and Geneva?” Crystal asked after they finished eating. “I’ve heard different versions of the story from the media.”

  Sterling shook his head. He didn’t know how to answer.

  “You finished your mandatory service, didn’t you?” She leaned closer to him. “If things don’t work out as you have expected, maybe you could consider coming home? The war isn’t going to end soon. I’ve lost your father, if … Oh, I can’t imagine …” She dabbed her eyes with the napkin.

  The waitress came over and picked up the bill folder from the table. Somebody spoke loudly at the entrance. Sterling’s gaze followed the man and his gaily-dressed wife to their table, while his fingers randomly drew out cards from his wallet and put them back. Another important figure? He thought of Geneva. Sometimes he wished she were an ordinary woman. “Mom, have you and Dad ever thought about moving back to Sunphere?”

  Crystal seemed unprepared for the question. After a while she said, “We missed home terribly in the early years, but as the school gradually came into shape, we stopped thinking about moving back … What’s that, a picture?”

  He looked down at the table and saw a picture of four people under the wallet, the picture that contained several important members of the Ragged Wealth, including the old man with the familiar face.

  He handed the picture to Crystal. Her eyes widened. “Where did you get it?”

  “You know these people?”

  She studied the picture carefully and her expression relaxed. “One of them looks like an old friend, but they aren’t the same person.”

  * * *

  Pathway Silk Road was closed to the public on the day the royal flotilla came through. The trip was pleasantly noisy as the wedding guests from the five royal families crowded in Matthew’s ship. Matthew brought his whole family because he and his wife were good friends of Edwards’s parents; Rainprus, Ribbon Islands, and Treagium only sent over their younger generations, as the monarchies were busy preparing for the impending operation. In fact, Geneva would have asked Calvin to represent her if he weren’t carrying bruises on his face. Given the embarrassing episode that happened during Edwards’s visit three years ago, she didn’t expect her presence to be appreciated. Yet if she didn’t show up, in the future it would be more difficult to mend the relationship of the two countries.

  She received a call from Oakley before the ships entered the pathway.

  “We need Captain Presley to come back as soon as possible, ma’am.”

  “Is that related to the gravity project at the fortress, sir? I heard our engineers are almost done with the compensation program.”

  “Yes, it’s all finished, and the virtual test went well, but nobody could unlock the full program unless we have the fingerprints of Admiral Howard or Captain Presley.”

  Geneva frowned. “I thought the lock had been voided before Captain Presley left.”

  “The newer version was, but our engineers found a bug with it and had to go back to an older version, which still has the lock in it. Besides, Admiral Silverman doesn’t know much about the project.”

  “How is Admiral Howard?” she asked. The admiral had been sick for a while and was back to Sunphere. Rear Admiral Silverman was currently in charge of the fortress.

  “I heard they scheduled a kidney surgery for her in the next couple of days.”

  “All right. I’ll try to get hold of Captain Presley,” she said without much confidence. She still hadn’t heard anything from Sterling. Maybe he had decided to quit.

  * * *

  They arrived at Artorna ten hours later and stayed in a hotel that was reserved exclusively for RA’s royal guests. On the following morning, Geneva was woken up by constant knocks on the door. She hastily dressed herself and answered the door.

  “Turn on the TV, Geneva!” Stella strode in and began looking for the remote control in the living room.

  “What happened?”

  “The Hunglevians had an encounter with one of the Central Fleets when we were on our way.” Stella turned on the TV. It didn’t take her long to find a channel that was discussing the newly escalated colonial rebellion. “My father called Charlie this morning. He’s planning on sending our fleets to the RB in twelve hours.”

  “What?” Geneva said. “Can’t they wait for us to come back?”

  “I don’t know the details. Charlie will be here in a few minutes.”

  It turned out that Hunglevia had just seized control of Pathway Trawtle. Of course Thyphol had been trying to take it back since then.

  “My fleets are not ready to dispatch in twelve hours!” Geneva knew she shouldn’t yell at Charlie but couldn’t help it. “Not in twenty-four hours!”

  “You can take your time,” Charlie said calmly. “We don’t know how much longer the Hunglevians could hold it. We are ready to send over two fleets for consolidation.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t have a good feeling about this whole thing, Charlie. I understand if they lost the Trawtle, we would have a hard time breaking into their system. It’s just … If you had met Pompey in person, you would understand why I’m worried.”

  “It’s always safer not to do anything—safer for the moment. In the long term, we couldn’t sit there passively and wait for the enemy to attack us at their best time. The opportunity may never come again. If we let it go simply because we are awed by one human being’s potential, there’s no need to fight anymore.”

  She looked at him helplessly. His reasoning sounded right, but she knew he still wanted revenge on Thyphol for his girlfriend’s death. She remembered the words William once said to her: Freedom is not about what people disallow you to do; our desires and personality set most of the constraints for our choices. She wondered when one had a strong desire of revenge, would he be capable of making the right choice?

  * * *

  At the wedding reception Geneva asked Matthew if they could advance their departure time. Matthew was quite reluctant, saying that his wife and daughters had plans with Edwards’s mother on the following days.

  “Yo
u can ask them for a communication room,” he said with the type of eagerness usually found on people who enjoyed helping others. “Then you can direct your fleets from here. Technology! And you might even get advice from them. I know Admiral Huang is a really good commander.”

  Should’ve brought her own ships! Geneva scowled at him for a few seconds and walked away without another word. She passed by several round tables and headed to a balcony. She had left a message on Sterling’s home phone but wanted to call him one more time. Before she reached the outside, she had a rough impression that a man’s gaze was following her. Then she stopped dead at the entrance of the balcony upon hearing a playful voice calling from behind, “Aunt Geneva!”

  Until this moment, everything going on around her, however convivial and resplendent, had not left even the faintest memory as she was distressed by the rush military action and the failure to reach Sterling. Now the whole world suddenly came to her full senses. The cool night breezes coming at her face, the gentle music and clatters from behind, the lingering taste of the wine she had just swallowed in.

  She turned around stiffly, wishing that she just had an illusion because of the stress. But it wasn’t. Nobody could mistake that pair of long eyes, gentle yet wicked. The cozy atmosphere in which all the daring ideas were contrived. He sat at the same table with men who were dressed similarly, but something made him stand out, as usual. Yes, it was he, the biggest enemy of her solar system, the one smart guy who brought headaches to billions of people at his time, her son’s stepbrother and her first obstetrician, Emperor Pompey.

  “Geneva, you all right?” Stella stood a few tables away. She traced Geneva’s gaze to see what was going on, before she dropped her wine to the floor. “Oh my …”

  The smashing of the glass attracted people’s attention. Silence prevailed in the room as more and more guests shared the surprise. Some lady must have fainted based on the response of her husband.