Starlight's Edge (Timedance)

by Susan Waggoner

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  Contents

  Title page

  Copyright Notice

  Prologue: Last Day on Earth

  Chapter One: Departure

  Chapter Two: Arrival

  Chapter Three: Coexistence

  Chapter Four: Party Like It’s 3718

  Chapter Five: Lace

  Chapter Six: Meet the Parents—Again

  Chapter Seven: Lost Arts

  Chapter Eight: … And Found

  Chapter Nine: Eagling

  Chapter Ten: Screen Life

  Chapter Eleven: Neptune’s Trident

  Chapter Twelve: Heart Storm

  Chapter Thirteen: Three’s a Crowd

  Chapter Fourteen: The Truth of Consequences

  Author bio

  Copyright

  PROLOGUE

  LAST DAY ON EARTH

  “You don’t have to do that.” David came up behind Zee and wrapped his arms around her waist as she stood at the sink, washing out their cereal bowls. “Someone will come and groom the place after we leave.”

  “I know,” Zee answered, leaning back against him and, for a moment, losing herself in the encompassing warmth of his body. “But I don’t want to leave dirty dishes behind. It just seems wrong. The wrong way to leave—” Her voice caught. She couldn’t say the word Earth.

  David’s chin settled into the curve of her neck. “You can still change your mind, you know.”

  Zee set the bowls on the counter and turned to face him. “Never,” she answered.

  “Are you sure?”

  So many things in that one little question. Are you sure?

  * * *

  It seemed to Zee she’d always been sure about David Sutton, but that wasn’t true. The first time they met, when he was a patient and she was the empath sent to A&E to treat him, there had been an initial ping of attraction, followed by confusion when she discovered that he was one of the aliens from the planet Omura. But bit by bit, flashes of David’s goodness had come through, along with the way he could make her laugh and the way he was always there for her. The day her best friend, Rani, died, the only comfort Zee found was in the circle of David’s arms. It was a safe haven Zee never wanted to leave.

  “Are you sure?” David had asked when she told him that she would go with him.

  “I’m sure,” she’d answered.

  * * *

  And then he’d told her the cataclysmic truth. He wasn’t from the planet Omura at all. None of the supposed aliens were. They were time travelers from Earth, fifteen hundred years in the future. His mission, he explained, was to copy Earth’s literature and return to the future with it, for within the span of Zee’s lifetime, Earth would be devastated by a series of catastrophic meteor strikes. Much of the population would die, and humanity would struggle for survival in a period marked by starvation and destruction.

  Zee remembered the shock of it, the cold fear that knifed through her body, and the flash of anger—at David for keeping such a secret, at herself for loving him so deeply, at the meteors that were years away in the night sky, speeding steadily toward them. But even as she thought these things, Zee knew that she would follow David into the future, to the place he called New Earth.

  * * *

  “I’m sure,” she told him again now, and saw the light of relief in his gray eyes. Had he really doubted her? Or was he just as nervous as she was?

  David saw the car glide silently up to their building. “Looks like our ride’s here,” he said.

  Now it was Zee’s turn to show relief, although she wouldn’t really relax until they arrived at the H-Fax facility and she was scanned one final time and approved for transmission.

  “Let’s go then,” she said, swallowing the lump that had risen suddenly in her throat, the lump of knowing she would never see her family again.

  * * *

  At first, Zee had thought she might not be able to emigrate at all. David had explained that each would-be time immigrant had to be approved as an “Inconsequential”—in other words, someone who wasn’t vital in rebuilding civilization after the meteors. And David’s research had revealed that Zee’s name was on the list of Essentials.

  “That’s impossible,” Zee had said.

  “Your given name is Elizabeth, isn’t it? Elizabeth McAdams, daughter of Amanda and Guthrie McAdams?”

  David continued to read from the report. “Survived, along with her parents. Vital in rebuilding computer networks and pioneer of the concept of remote technology re-creation. Born early in the twenty-third century, probable redhead, small strawberry birthmark on left instep.”

  Something in his words penetrated the veil of despair that had engulfed her. Leaping to her feet, she repeated, “Small strawberry birthmark? That isn’t me, David! It’s my sister, Bex. She’s the one with the birthmark. And the computer skills.”

  David’s dark eyebrows drew together. “But it says Elizabeth McAdams, not Bex.”

  Now Zee was laughing. “It’s an old family tradition. All the daughters are named Elizabeth, then they choose their own nicknames. Zee and Bex are both nicknames for Elizabeth. My father’s mother was Lissa, her mother was Betty, and on and on, way back to the first Elizabeth McAdams. Bex an Essential! How awesome is that?”

  It was odd knowledge to possess, but it made it easier for Zee to leave her family behind. Yet deep in her heart, she still found it hard to accept that she would never see them again.

  CHAPTER ONE

  DEPARTURE

  There was still light in the sky when they reached the space elevator, a taut, immensely strong cable anchored above the atmosphere near the equator. Through the small porthole of the pressurized capsule that carried them up, Zee could see the last of the sun’s rays. Then they rose above the atmosphere and the light vanished, filling the porthole with dark space. Just above them was the object everyone on Earth believed was an Omuran spacecraft. In reality, it was H-Fax, the human fax facility that would destroy every cell in her body after copying its molecular data and sending it fifteen hundred years into the future.

  David had warned her about the pain. “You’ll only feel it for a moment,” he’d said. “Then—nothing, until you’re recombined.”

  The cold of space radiated through the glass, and Zee turned away. David took her hand in his and did not let go, even when the elevator floated to a stop and a digitized voice said, “Docking initiated.”

  The fluttery feeling in Zee’s chest increased. She had officially left Earth. In less than an hour, the body and mind she inhabited would have died and been re-created somewhere in the distant future. What if she screamed when she felt the searing pain? What if the transmission went astray and she was lost forever? What if data was garbled and she got recombined in some horrible way?

  Zee’s pulse accelerated, even though David had assured her that accidents were “almost unheard of.” He’d explained everything that would happen and promised that, despite the pain and discomfort of transmission, she would look and feel completely like herself. Zee hoped so. She was nervous about meeting David’s parents, whom they were staying with for a few days before moving to the small apartment David had in central London. “I love you, Zee,” David had assured her. “They’ll love you too.” But Zee wasn’t so sure and didn’t know what to expect. Worse, she didn’t know what they’d expect. David had talked about his brother, Paul, a lot, and sometimes about his li
ttle sister, Fiona. But other than telling Zee he’d grown up in the suburbs of London and his father had once been a Time Fleeter, he’d said almost nothing about them. Had she already come between him and his family? Were they angry that he was bringing home someone from the distant past?

  * * *

  The digitized voice was speaking again. “Docking complete. You have now reached the H-Fax facility. Please pass through the scanners to your left, and have a successful journey home. If you are with us for the first time, please stop at the Medi-Booth for chipping.”

  The doors parted, and David led her into a large, round room that resembled a crowded hotel lobby. After passing through the scanners, Zee left David and headed for the softly radiating sign that said MEDI-BOOTH. Though David had told her they did transmissions in groups to conserve energy, Zee was surprised to see how many first-timers were in line with her, mostly women, but a few men as well.

  As she waited her turn, she thought of the other things David had told her about New Earth. For months now, she had tried to envision the world she was about to enter, but it was impossible. Food that created itself. Computers that carried on conversations. Men and women willing to explore distant time zones, never quite certain of what they’d find. Zee was leaving her comfortable, familiar world behind, and she was uncertain of what she’d find, no matter how often David tried to describe it.

  The line shifted forward, and suddenly she heard a familiar voice several people in front of her. Instantly, she was catapulted back to the empaths’ lounge in the hospital where she’d trained and worked. Feelings of discomfort, rivalry, and confusion flooded her, though she couldn’t immediately identify the voice. Without success, she craned to see over and around the people ahead of her.

  You are nervous, she told herself, imagining there’s someone you know here.

  “Please, stop crowding me,” the familiar voice said. “You’re practically walking on my heels, and I don’t fancy getting recombined with bruises on my heels!”

  There was a slight disruption as the owner of the voice stepped quickly out of line and then back in. In that brief moment, Zee caught a quick flash of a profile.

  Piper Simms! Piper, who’d been so jealous of Zee’s empath skills she’d often gone out of her way to trip her up. And now she was time-jumping to New Earth!

  Zee pulled quickly back into line, hoping Piper hadn’t noticed her. Piper would be the only person she knew on New Earth besides David. But after all that lay between them, did she even want Piper to know she was there? Before Zee could decide, the line moved forward and Piper disappeared into the Medi-Booth.

  Zee waited until, finally it was her turn in the Medi-Booth. A technician fired a microchip into the base of her skull with what looked like a power drill, but hurt far less than a drill would have. When she emerged, David was waiting for her, but Piper was nowhere in sight. Zee breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Can you understand what I’m saying?” David asked.

  Zee realized he was speaking the swift, whooshing language she’d heard him speak twice on Earth, once when he’d mistaken her for a fellow New Earther, and again to Mia, his research partner. Only now did she realize the language was English, spoken so rapidly words seemed to almost swallow one another.

  “I understand,” she said, surprised to hear herself speaking in the same rapid style. The chip wasn’t just an identity tag, it would also help her make the transition to New Earth. The fact that she could both understand and speak New Earth English proved that it had already begun to interact with her brain.

  “Pretty cool, huh? The chip picks up whatever language is being spoken around you and translates it both ways.”

  “It’s amazing,” Zee said, still getting used to the sound of her new voice. Then she noticed the air had a slight acrid quality to it, like someone was burning paper.

  “What’s that smell?” she asked.

  “Oh, uh, yeah.” David hesitated. “They started transmissions while you were getting chipped.”

  Zee realized the burning smell must be the residue of human cells. It made her feel a bit sick to think about, and she couldn’t help wondering if she was inhaling a molecule of Piper.

  “Come on,” David said, taking her hand. “No sense waiting. Let’s go.”

  He led her to a stairway she hadn’t noticed before, a smooth fold in the wall that turned out to be a kind of glass escalator. Staring down through the glass, she couldn’t see any machinery at all. The glass steps seemed to move upward of their own accord, depositing them in a large, circular room like the one below. Half of the room was ringed with what at first seemed to be a series of low, curving benches that disappeared into a larger, curving tube that encircled the other half of the room. Then she saw that the bench was slowly rotating, and that it wasn’t a bench but a conveyor belt. People were lining up to lie down on it; each long seat was in fact a kind of cradle. Once they disappeared into the tube, people did not come out.

  Zee was suddenly terrified. A cold chill gripped her stomach. “I—I don’t know if I can do this.”

  He put his arms around her. “The first time is scary. This part is, anyway. The before part. The actual transmission isn’t as bad as waiting for it.”

  Zee straightened her shoulders and looked straight into David’s gray eyes. As always, the connection was there, that special spark, strong and immediate. “You’re right. Let’s go.”

  David got on the conveyor belt ahead of her. The idea of transmission and the pain it entailed still scared her, but knowing David had just gone through the same thing would make it easier.

  “See you soon,” David called back to her. “In about a millennium and a half.”

  It wasn’t a great joke, but Zee smiled anyway. If anything went wrong, that was what she wanted David to remember: her smiling.

  But nothing was going to go wrong, she told herself as she lay down on the conveyor. Everything was going to be fine. Still, her heart was beating hard and her chest felt tight. The belt inched forward slowly, an agonizing snail’s crawl, giving her imagination time to envision all the things that might go wrong. What if she couldn’t adapt to life on New Earth? What if she’d been wrong to think the love she and David shared was strong enough to bridge any gap?

  After what seemed an eternity, she advanced into the dark tube. At first she could see nothing, and her only sensation was movement as the conveyor continued its slow crawl. Then she began to sense bursts of light exploding somewhere in the darkness ahead. She lifted her head for a better look, but before she could see anything, a domed glass shield lowered over her. Like the lid of coffin, Zee thought with a shudder. After a few moments, the shield began to glow with tiny pinpoints of light, like a night sky filled with more stars than anyone could count. Their light obscured the outline of the shield, and for a moment, Zee imagined they actually were stars, dancing millions of miles above her head. Maybe what she’d thought was a shield was actually a window. No, for the pinpoints began to pulsate, and their color changed from white to blue to violet. Zee gasped at the soothing, unexpected beauty of it.

  Suddenly, the lights exploded and a searing pain ripped through her, so intense she couldn’t breathe. But before she could register the full force of the pain or experience the panic of suffocation, her molecules crumbled into a handful of dust, were swept away by a burst of pressurized air, and the twenty-third century into which she’d been born went on without her.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ARRIVAL

  She was cold. A needling, cramping cold that enveloped her entire body, like the white fog that clouded her vision. For a moment, she couldn’t remember where she was or where she had just been. Then her memory banks kicked in and she thought, I didn’t make it. I must have died.

  But her fingertips were warm with the pressure of someone squeezing them. You’re fine, an answering voice said. Just remember what I said—be bold with your life, Zee.

  Ellie Hart! The elderly patient she’d worked wit
h as an empath at the Royal London Hospital. The only patient who’d become a true friend, and who had died months ago.

  “Mrs. Hart?”

  “No. No, it’s me, Zee.” The pressure on her fingers increased, but the voice wasn’t the same. Zee struggled to a sitting position, and the white fog receded.

  “David!” She tried to stand but fell back.

  “Easy,” he cautioned. “The first time can leave you a bit dizzy.” He took her other hand and drew her slowly to her feet, then folded his arms around her, warming her with his body.

  “What…? Where are—” But even as she tried to formulate the questions, she remembered. “We’re on New Earth, right?”

  As if in answer to her question, the same digitized voice she’d heard before said, “The Alliance of World Democracies welcomes you to Transport Base One. You are currently on Level Seven. The London ghost is departing from Level Three tonight. The New York ghost has been delayed due to undersea tectonic activity and will be arriving at Level Four in thirty minutes. Please proceed to check-in. The time in Reykjavik is 19:10, Friday, May 6, 3718.”

  “Why did they give the time in Iceland?” Zee asked David as they moved along with the crowd.

  “Because we’re in the Atlantic Ocean, just south of Iceland.”

  Zee’s face fell. Iceland was almost twelve hundred miles from London. It seemed her journey had just begun.

  “Another trip?”

  “Don’t worry,” David said, looping an arm around her. “The ghost will get us home.”

  “The ghost? Is it like a vactrain?” But even the vactrains they’d used in London couldn’t have gotten them home tonight. “How long will it take?”

  “Counting pressurization and deceleration? We’ll be in London in about twenty minutes.” He grinned, clearly enjoying the look of surprise on Zee’s face. “Just one of the wonders of New Earth you’ll come to love.”

  “I hope you’re right,” she murmured.

  She’d spent months trying to picture New Earth, and now realized she’d failed completely. The scene before her was so different from anything she’d imagined that she had the dizzying sensation of looking into a constantly shifting kaleidoscope. Doors seemed to open out of nowhere. Curving stairways banded with soft blue neon light hung from the levels above. Without walls or visible support, they looked like spirals of ribbon.