Starfall: A Starstruck Novel

by Hiatt, Brenda

  All of which made school that day surreal. While the Grentl inexorably deployed their deadly satellites around our planet, everybody went to class like any other day, worrying about trivial things like tests and who was going out with whose ex. When Bri asked me at lunch if she could nominate me for Homecoming Court, I looked at her like she was crazy.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Homecoming, dummy. It’s this weekend, remember? Rigel’s a no-brainer, like last year. As his girlfriend, you’ve got a shot at knocking Trina off the Court. Deb and I can get the signatures and run your campaign. Molly will help, too, won’t you?”

  Molly did a very slight double-take, then grinned. “Oh, yeah, of course! You’d be great, M.”

  “You two sure seem preoccupied today,” Deb observed, looking from Molly to me. “Is anything wrong?”

  “It’s that Government project,” Molly instantly replied. “We’re kind of behind the curve on it. I think we might have been a little too ambitious with our topic.”

  She went on about all the research we still had to do, leaving me free to continue my intermittent—and worried—silent conversation with Rigel about the Grentl issue. Not that either of us had any new ideas…but how were we supposed to think about anything else right now?

  More than ever, I wished I didn’t have to go to such great lengths to hide the truth. Rigel, Sean and Molly could at least let down their guard at home, while I always had to be super vigilant to avoid rousing Aunt Theresa’s always-ready suspicions. It wasn’t fair.

  So it was a relief when Molly called my house right after school, asking me to come over. Again using our Government project as my excuse, I wrote a note to Aunt Theresa and headed to the O’Garas’, where Molly greeted me with a slightly strained smile.

  “What’s up?” I sensed discomfort from her, but not the fear I’d more than half expected.

  Instead of answering, she led me straight up to her room. “Sean’s not home yet, and I thought it might be better to show you this when he’s not around,” she said, plunking down in her desk chair while I perched on the edge of her bed.

  Glancing around, I noticed that the houseplants she’d reclaimed from Heather after our return were already starting to droop. Not that I’d ever mention it, since her brown thumb was a serious sore spot for Molly.

  Quickly, I averted my gaze from the plants. “What did you want to show me?”

  In answer, she turned to her laptop, clicked to a website and typed in a long, complicated password. “This.” She handed me the laptop.

  On the screen was the front page of the Echtran Enquirer, a secret online newspaper of sorts, though both Sean and Molly had told me it was often more like a weekly tabloid than real news. This week’s headline read: “Sovereign Emileia Rekindles Forbidden Romance.”

  Groaning, I started to read.

  According to an exclusive interview granted by Gordon Nolan, who traveled with the Sovereign to Nuath last spring and back to Earth with Rigel Stuart a month later, the two teens have recently resumed the relationship both previously swore they had ended.

  The article went on to detail how Rigel and I had spent every available moment together since my return to Jewel—which totally wasn’t true—and how our flouting of tradition had the potential to undermine both Nuathans’ and Echtrans’ confidence in the new government. It included comments like, Sources close to him say Sean O’Gara is taking her defection rather badly, and Rigel Stuart’s parents pleaded with him not to pursue this ill-advised romance. Gordon claimed to be deep in Rigel’s confidence, saying he’d done his best to point out how important it was that Rigel and I stay away from each other, for the good of the Martian race.

  The article concluded, No one seems to know how Rigel Stuart’s memory came to be restored. Gordon speculates that it was never erased at all, that his supposed amnesia was simply a ruse to play on the Sovereign’s sympathies. Our sympathies, of course, are with Sean, who is again a victim of the Sovereign’s poor judgment in dallying with a non-Royal. We must hope this story will ultimately have a happy ending for all of us, unlikely though that now seems.

  “Ugh!” I exclaimed, pushing away from the desk. “That awful woman. Gwendolyn Gannett seemed so nice when she interviewed Rigel and me last fall, and then Sean and me last spring.”

  Molly nodded sympathetically. “Because she wanted the story. But I don’t think Gwendolyn cares who gets hurt if she thinks it’ll make a good headline. Mum says she’s already applied to be a reporter for the new official news outlet Mr. Stuart is putting together.”

  I snorted. “I’ll have to tell him what a terrible reporter she is. Most of this crap isn’t even true!”

  “I know. But she’ll claim she just reported what Gordon told her—which she probably did, though with her usual snarky little asides.”

  Molly was right that I should be way madder at Gordon, who’d obviously used Gwendolyn to get back at Rigel and me. He’d been shipped off to Montana last night, but it looked like he’d managed to wreak some havoc before Cormac nabbed him.

  “How many people really read this thing, anyway?”

  “Um…kind of a lot. I mean, most people know it’s sensationalistic and all, but other than MARSTAR or messages from friends, it’s been about the only way to get Martian news here on Earth.”

  “Great. Just great. Like I needed this on top of everything else.”

  “I know. But hey, in the good news department, Bri and Deb got enough signatures by the end of today to put your name on the Homecoming ballot.”

  A sour laugh escaped me. “Oh, sure, the popularity contest I don’t care about winning. Maybe I should have taken those two to Mars with me to help me get Acclaimed last spring.”

  Molly giggled. “Can you just imagine their faces if we told them the whole truth about you?”

  Thinking about that lightened my mood. Slightly. “So, is there any other news I should know about? Has your mom heard anything from Kyna or the Council?”

  “Not that she’s mentioned to me.”

  After that we really did do some work on our Government project, since I hadn’t been lying about us being behind on it. Tomorrow the class was taking a half-day field trip to the State House in Indianapolis and we were supposed to have questions on our topic written up for legislators or their aides to answer.

  As soon as I headed home I filled Rigel in on that stupid Echtran Enquirer article.

  I know. Dad showed me when I got home from practice. It won’t be like Nuath, though. You’re already Acclaimed so the worst they can do is call us bad names, right? Anyway, we have more important things to worry about now.

  He was right, but the idea of people blaming Rigel—again—still upset me more than I wanted to admit, especially to him. One more thing for me to fix, assuming we survived the Grentl attack Friday night.

  I checked my omni again when I got home and found a long message from Shim that had just come in. Most of it was about the Grentl issue, updating me on which Nuathan and Echtran Scientists he and Kyna believed might help us come up with a solution. He seemed confident they’d be able to do so, making me wish I could talk to him in person to gauge how he really felt. Kyna would be contacting me shortly, he said, to arrange for me to share the details of what I’d learned from the device with those Scientists.

  At the end of the message, he added that the news about Rigel and me being back together had reached Nuath and was creating a bit of a sensation, now that the networks had picked it up.

  “If nothing else, this should serve as a useful distraction while our Scientists determine our most effective counter to the Grentl’s plans. But please don’t let it distract you from what needs to be done, Excellency.”

  The message ended and I glared at my omni as though it were at fault. What was with these supposedly-advanced Martians and their ridiculous addiction to gossip? Maybe once the news about the Grentl broke—which both Shim and Kyna seemed sure it would—that would finally shi
ft their focus to something a little less trivial.

  33

  Influence quantity

  At the sound of the doorbell, I shook my thoughts free of stupid Nuathan gossip and stuck my omni back in my pocket before leaving my room. When I came downstairs a minute later, it turned out to be Molly at the door.

  “Hey, M! I was just asking your aunt if you can please come help with the junior class Homecoming float this evening. Three of the people I had lined up just bailed on me, so we really need you. They’ll call out for pizzas, so at least she’ll get dinner out of it,” she explained to Aunt Theresa.

  My aunt smiled at Molly, then raised an eyebrow at me. “I hope this means you two finished that project you were working on this afternoon?”

  “We did,” I lied. “Can I go help?”

  “I suppose so.” Aunt Theresa seemed to have as hard a time saying no to Molly as she did to her mother.

  As we headed to the curb, where Mrs. O’Gara waited in their minivan, I turned to Molly apologetically. “It’s great to get out of the house again, but I’m really not sure I should go. I’m expecting to hear from Kyna any time now, asking me—”

  “I know. To give the Scientists all your info. This is your excuse. Kyna’s already at the Stuarts’ house—she flew in from D.C. this afternoon and is staying there—so I guess she’ll be one of the Scientists asking you things. And Mum says the Council will convene there afterward, too.”

  I blinked at her. “Oh! Um, okay, then. Let’s go.”

  Ten minutes later, Mrs. O dropped me off at Rigel’s house. “Are you really going to go work on the float?” I asked Molly as I got out.

  “Yeah. All the cheerleaders have to. Trina’s heading up the junior class float, and you know how she is.” Molly made a face. “She’ll probably keep us at it till midnight. Hope you really do beat her out for Homecoming Court.”

  The second I rang the Stuarts’ doorbell, Rigel opened the door and pulled me into a welcome kiss that lasted until approaching footsteps made us break apart. Combing my fingers hastily through my hair, I turned to greet his parents—and Kyna—with a slightly embarrassed smile.

  “Hi! I, uh, made it. So, how are we doing this?”

  “The others are conferencing in,” Kyna responded with only the faintest answering smile. “It’s as well you could come so quickly, Excellency, as we have rather a large number of questions we’re hoping you can answer.”

  Following her to Mr. Stuart’s office, I stifled a sigh and heard Rigel mentally echo it. No more alone time.

  On the big flat-screen monitor on the wall of the office, two men and a woman were already conversing with each other. Not quite as futuristic as the holograms the Council used, but still pretty cool. At my entrance they all bowed to me, then introduced themselves as Kathleen, a NASA xenobiologist, Patrick, a NASA astrophysicist like Kyna, and Arthur, a NASA aerospace engineer.

  Three chairs were positioned in front of the monitor. I moved to the middle one. “Wow, is there anyone who works at NASA who isn’t Echtran?” I was only half joking.

  “We are rather disproportionately represented,” Kyna admitted, taking the right-hand chair. “Though we still comprise barely five percent of the staff. Shall we get started?”

  I nodded and sat down, not sure what to expect. Rigel took the chair on my left, at which point all the Scientists, Kyna included, proceeded to pepper me with questions.

  “The Grentl satellites—you said there are seven hundred twenty of them?—at what height will they take up their ultimate positions?”

  “Are they manually controlled by beings on the mother ship, or are they on an automatic sequence?”

  “Do they have any sort of armor or shielding? What sort?”

  And on and on and on. The Scientists seemed both surprised and gratified by the level of detail I was able to provide. So was I. Apparently I really had absorbed everything the Grentl themselves knew, judging by the way I was able to quickly respond to every single question the Scientists threw at me. Except one.

  “Are you certain they have not, or will not, deviate from their original plan?”

  “Like I said before, I really don’t think they will, but no. I guess without contacting them again I can’t be absolutely positive. Do you…want me to do that?” I cringed inwardly, though Rigel silently assured me he’d help again.

  “Not yet,” Kyna said. “If we are able to come up with anything that looks like a viable defense, however, we may ask you to do so closer to the scheduled time of their attack, as a miscalculation of even minutes might be extremely important.”

  “So…is that it for now?” I’d been answering questions for almost two hours and felt a little like I had after doing back-to-back press conferences in Nuath.

  “Unless there is anything else of importance you can recall?”

  “I don’t think so. But then, I didn’t realize I knew half that stuff until you asked me,” I admitted.

  “The rest of the Council will be arriving shortly,” Kyna said then. “If we should come up with more questions later, I’ll let you know.”

  Rigel took my hand. “C’mon, M, you need a break before that meeting starts—and something to eat.”

  I brightened immediately, both at his touch and the thought of food. “Sounds good to me.”

  He led me to the kitchen, where both of his parents waited. Almost immediately, I noticed a slight tension from both of them.

  “Is, um, something wrong?” I asked uncertainly.

  After a second or two of awkward silence, Mr. Stuart blurted out, “I, ah, don’t suppose you’ve read the latest Enquirer?”

  “Molly showed it to me this afternoon,” I admitted, suddenly understanding what I’d sensed. “And I’m really sorry. I had no idea Gordon would be able to get in touch with that reporter. Most of what he told her wasn’t even true.”

  Dr. Stuart quickly said, “You have nothing to apologize for, Excellency. But this is likely to make things a bit…difficult, especially for Rigel.”

  “Has someone actually hassled you guys already?” I asked indignantly.

  “Only a few nasty emails,” she assured me. “Nothing threatening. Of course, this is an extremely minor matter compared to the, ah, other one. We just thought you should be aware, in case it should escalate.”

  When Kyna joined us a moment later, I figured it was a good idea to let her know about that stupid article, too, as well as those emails Dr. Stuart had just mentioned.

  Rather to my surprise, she just waved a hand dismissively. “Consider the source. I always expected Gordon Nolan to do something underhanded. I’m relieved it turned out to be so relatively innocuous. Unless name calling progresses to physical threats, I recommend you keep your focus on the more pressing matter of the Grentl for now. We’ll deal with any personal or political fallout from malicious gossip later, if necessary.”

  In other words, if it still mattered by next week.

  Realizing she was right, I turned my attention to the two slices of leftover pizza Dr. Stuart had just set in front of me.

  * * *

  “I’m still not certain telling all of our people is the best course.” Malcolm frowned worriedly at Kyna. “You’ve said yourself, many times, how crucially important it is that we keep them from learning about the Grentl’s existence and their continued ties to Nuath. If it would have caused panic before, why should you think it won’t now?”

  Kyna had begun the meeting with an overview of what she and the other Scientists had learned and the very preliminary conclusions they’d drawn. Now she reiterated the most pertinent one.

  “Don’t you understand? Within a day or two, our people will realize something is out there anyway. Personally, I would far rather tell them the truth than placate them with some elaborate lie that will make them less inclined to take necessary precautions. Once they are made to understand the nature of the threat, I believe our people can be trusted to take appropriate action to safeguard themselves and perhap
s the Duchas around them, as well.”

  “Kyna is right.” Mr. Stuart spoke more forcefully than he’d yet done at a Council meeting. “Already I’m picking up chatter between three or four of the most extensive Earth-based telescope arrays, which means we also need to bring a few Duchas space programs into the loop on this, along with the heads of state already discussed.”

  Connor looked anxiously from one to the other. “But there’s still a chance a solution will be found, isn’t there?”

  “We’ve already begun running simulations,” Kyna assured him, though I could tell she considered a solution unlikely. “Meanwhile, it’s essential that nations, cities and individuals around the globe do whatever is possible in advance to minimize the potential devastation. With enough cooperation, we may be able to keep casualties far lower than they would otherwise be.”

  Mr. Stuart nodded. “If critical systems can be taken offline and power grids shut down before the EMP, that would decrease our recovery time substantially. But convincing so many municipalities, even whole countries, to take such drastic steps will require a higher degree of candor than we have been in the habit of practicing.”

  “Are you suggesting we inform the Duchas at large about our existence?” Breann was clearly aghast. “We’d risk having our people put in containment camps…or worse.”

  “No, no,” Kyna quickly replied. “The common folk are by no means ready for such information. Our hope is to convince those leaders who already know about us to spread word of a fictitious impending solar storm so appropriate measures can be taken for the safety of their people. And ours.”

  Though it was obvious the Royals still had reservations, none voiced further objections.

  “That’s settled, then,” Kyna said with grim satisfaction. “Our next order of business is to decide which details will be shared, both in the announcement to our own people—which I recommend the Sovereign read aloud—and with the Duchas heads of state.”