by Erica Rue
“Please tell me you can start this thing,” Lithia said.
“Yeah, give me your manumed.”
Dione found a tuner app and played a B. She sang the lullaby one more time, all the verses, just to be sure. Beneath them, the engines powered up and the shuttle hummed to life. The controls would now respond to commands.
“Nice, Di,” Lithia said, settling into the pilot’s chair. “Let’s get out of here.”
With Victoria on board, no one took a shot at them as Lithia guided them from the hangar. The Ficarans hadn’t thought to lock them in until it was too late. They passed through the hangar doors with plenty of room to spare. They were out of the danger zone, but Brian was in bad shape, and Victoria would wake up eventually. Evy and the other girl were staring at her. Dione put a hand on Lithia’s shoulder.
“Thanks for coming to get us,” she said with a serious sincerity she rarely used with her best friend.
“Well, I wasn’t about to let you stand me up,” Lithia said.
“Hi, Evy,” Dione said, giving Evy a warm smile. She turned to the unfamiliar girl who was still pale and shaking. She extended a hand. “I’m Dione.” It was amazing how much like Lithia the girl looked.
“This is my cousin Cora,” Evy said. Cora nodded at Dione, but left her hand unshaken.
“Will you two tie up Victoria?” She would check their work later. That seemed to help Cora, who focused on the task.
Meanwhile, Dione checked on Brian. He was waking up, but he looked terrible. She gently touched the bruise by his eye, and he groaned as he straightened himself against the bulkhead.
“Anything broken?” she asked.
“Maybe a rib or two,” he said, “but I’m probably fine. Colm’s a real jerk though.”
“You did antagonize him,” Dione said.
“I just inquired after his daughter.” Brian played innocent. “Nothing wrong with that.”
“You’ll have to tell me that story sometime.” Dione laughed, and Lithia joined their conversation.
“Any thoughts on where to go? I don’t want to take this baggage all the way with us,” Lithia said, nodding toward the still-unconscious Victoria.
“We could leave her at the coast,” Brian said. “We have some shelters there, and it’s a manageable trip to get back.”
“Then maybe we should leave her somewhere else a little less manageable,” Lithia said.
“We don’t want to hurt her,” Dione said.
Lithia laughed bitterly. “She had a gun pointed at you a few minutes ago. I sure as hell want to hurt her.”
“It’s… complicated,” Dione said. Lithia hadn’t seen what it was like for the Ficarans.
“You say that like I care. She was going to shoot you.”
“Probably not fatally. She still needed something from me.”
“Whatever, we’ll figure it out once we land. Brian, can you give me some directions?” Lithia said.
“Directly south from the settlement,” he replied.
“How far?”
“Stop when you see water.” Brian grinned at Lithia. She looked at him for a second, then laughed. The tension that had been building relaxed.
Dione helped Brian into the copilot seat so that he could monitor the external cameras and tell her where to set down when the time came. She was probably imagining it, but she thought he had leaned on her just a bit more than he needed to, and his hand had lingered on her shoulder just a little too long. Victoria had been right about her feelings for Brian, so maybe she was right about how Brian felt. Even though she had a million other problems, she couldn’t stop thinking about the night in the smuggler’s den, parsing his words and actions until she wasn’t even certain what had really happened.
Dione shook off the distraction and went to check the ropes. She was struck by how peaceful Victoria looked. Minutes ago, this woman had been willing to kill Brian, and Dione didn’t doubt that she meant it. The thing that bothered Dione the most was that she understood Victoria, mostly thanks to her conversations with Brian. She couldn’t fault her for being a good leader, for her willingness to sacrifice one person in order to save her people.
Dione couldn’t help doing the opposite. She would give up everyone else to protect those she loved, at least when there was a chance. A wave of sadness washed over her as she remembered Professor Oberon. Whether it was loyalty or folly, she didn’t know, but there was a part of her that admired Victoria. How close had she been to helping Victoria and dooming an entire city full of people she had never met? Full of people who were loved and would be missed, like Evy and Cora.
“Is she secure?” Lithia called back to her.
“Yes,” Dione replied. For the first time since the Ven attack, she felt truly hopeful. They had a shuttle again, and they knew where the Icon was, thanks to Zane.
Zane. She had never checked in.
“Lithia, can I borrow your manumed? I want to call Zane.”
“I already told him we made it. Just wait until we land. I want to talk to you first.”
What was she afraid that Zane would tell her? Had Bel…
“Is it Bel? Is she?” Dione couldn’t say the word.
“No, she’s alive, but not responsive. Don’t worry, I’ve got the meds. Once we drop off Victoria, we’ll head to the Icon. Zane has its location.”
Despite the good news, Dione’s hope was waning. If it wasn’t Bel, what was wrong? A dark fear crept into her thoughts as she cycled through what it could be, and settled on the most likely reason. She hoped she was wrong.
39. DIONE
Lithia set them down near the coast just before the grass faded into sand. Once the shuttle door opened, they could hear the ocean. The salty air quickly permeated the shuttle.
The first thing Dione did once they landed was hug Lithia. She pulled her in tight, and Lithia, who didn’t really like hugs, squeezed back. For all Lithia’s jokes, she must have been worried.
“I’m glad you’re not dead,” she said.
“Ditto. Thanks for coming through back there. Where did you get that shuttle?”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t recognize Nate!”
“Nate?” Dione said. Then she remembered. “Shuttle N-8. No way.”
“That mess I was flying is the same one we came down in. The Aratians patched him up with the forced help of Ficaran techs, but it was like using a fig leaf to cover up—”
“No need to add imagery. I get it.” Dione grinned. Lithia was back. Relief flooded through her. Her best friend was back.
“We need to talk, Di,” Lithia said.
Brian could take a hint. “I’ll keep an eye on things here,” he said.
“Me, too,” Evy said, taking up position next to Brian. Cora, who looked a little sick, stayed seated. Maybe all this flying didn’t agree with her.
They stepped from the shuttle and walked down to the beach. They were close enough to see and hear the ocean, but no evidence of the southern island was visible. “How’s your ankle? You seem better.”
“The Aratians have some magic tea that patched me up. It’s barely sore.” The breeze caught Lithia’s straight black hair and sent it billowing behind her. Dione’s hair, now short, blew in her face. Even physics was playing favorites.
“What’s wrong?” Dione said, once they were out of earshot.
“There’s a Ven ship here, the one that attacked us, but it’s holding position.”
Dione shivered as the wind picked up. She knew it. The minute Lithia wouldn’t tell her on the shuttle, she knew.
“Why isn’t it moving?” Dione said.
“Zane thinks it may still be damaged and that it’s making repairs.” Lithia looked up at the sky as if she was trying to see what was going on up there.
Dione closed her eyes, but she couldn’t think. She kept imaging green monsters tearing through the Ficaran square. “What do we do?”
“We go destroy the Icon, or find its off switch or whatever, then go cure Bel. Zane’s been w
orking on a plan to take care of the Vens.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know, but I’m just as curious as you.”
They called him to find out.
“Zane, we made it,” Dione said. “Lithia’s got the meds, and we’ve got a working shuttle.”
“Good, I’ve got the coordinates for the Mountain Base where the Icon is. Sending them now.” Lithia’s manumed buzzed.
“What’s your plan for the Vens? Lithia told me they’re here.”
“I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way to make the space station explode.”
Dione and Lithia exchanged a look.
“And how’s that going?” Lithia asked.
“Not good. There are no explosives on the station, and I’ve found no evidence of a self-destruct protocol. It was a long shot to begin with,” he said.
“No giant red button, huh?” Lithia said.
“What? No, that’s ridiculous.”
Dione could hear the confusion in his voice. He wasn’t very good at picking up on sarcasm.
“She’s kidding. Keep trying. We’ll head to the Mountain and disable the Icon.” Dione was worried.
“We could always try to program the Icon to only shoot Vens,” Lithia said.
“I already considered that,” replied Zane. “If it can’t even destroy a shuttle, what chance does it have against a Ven ship? Besides, I found something up here to suggest that the weapon’s AI doesn’t allow the weapon to operate at peak efficiency.”
“AI? What else do you know?” Dione asked. This was news to her.
“Not much, just that the Farmer installed the AI, but it wasn’t able to stop a Ven scout ship that came here decades ago,” he said. Dione and Lithia had both heard all about the “demons that fell from the sky.” That scout ship must have been it.
“How do you know all this?” Dione said.
“I think I found the Architect’s audio logs. Apparently she was a researcher here named Samantha. She ended up working against the Farmer, who she called Jameson. He was a terraformer, too, but he left during the evacuation, according to the records.”
“Maybe he came back later,” Lithia said.
“And brought the AI with him,” Dione said.
“Possibly. Maybe you could bypass the AI and directly control the weapon,” he said.
“And you think we’ll be able to control it with more precision and accuracy than an AI?” Dione asked.
“I don’t see a lot of other options.”
“Point taken,” she said.
“Hurry,” Zane said, ending the call.
A sense of dread was creeping up, but Dione pushed it back. Time to regroup. And confess.
“I told Brian everything.”
“Including your major crush on him?” Lithia said. She was smiling, but Dione thought she detected a hint of irritation in her voice. Was Lithia mad that she had told him, or mad that she had gotten to spend some time alone with him?
“Stop it. No, I don’t.” Dione rolled her eyes and tried not to think about their kiss. No need to tell Lithia just yet. “I mean, he knows about Bel, the Vens, and the space station.”
“How’d he take it?”
“I don’t think he gets the scope of just how big the universe is, but that’s not really easy to grasp. For anyone. He knew we were holding something back, and I think having a dad who didn’t believe in any of their myths or superstitions primed him to understand.”
“I didn’t tell Cora anything. She thinks Zane and I have called her on some mission from the Farmer. They have a myth that the Farmer will return with more colonists, and that there will be a harbinger of his arrival. That’s us. She’s not gonna last, though. We need to get her home ASAP.”
“And Evy?”
“Evy hasn’t said anything, but she’s not exactly a model Aratian child. By her parents’ standards anyway.” Lithia paused. “Di, there’s something else I need to tell you. The reason I had these coordinates, the reason I used your dad’s access—”
“You don’t have to tell me,” Dione said. She wasn’t sure how deeply she felt it, but it was true. Lithia didn’t have to tell her anything. The argument of two days ago seemed ridiculous now, given everything that had happened.
“You need to know. It’s because I was looking for my grandma.”
“What?” Dione said. That was not the answer she’d been looking for.
“Not Nana. Grandpa Min’s wife. My dad’s mom.”
“I thought she died,” Dione said. “The way he always talked about her…”
“She might as well have. She left him and broke his heart, and I wanted to find her. So I got Zane to help me find all the potential coordinates from colonizers at that time, even the unlikely ones, like this planet. But she came here. She had a life here, a family, before she died.” Lithia paused. “Di, Cora is my cousin.”
Dione didn’t know what to say. “Are you going to tell her?”
“She already knows. Her father, the Aratian overlord, or whatever, thinks I’m making it up. They think I somehow faked my DNA, which they can test, by the way, and altered my appearance. Zane told her to trust me, though, and it’s worked out so far. Apparently because we have communicators, we must have gotten them from the Farmer.”
The genetic lock in the Forest Temple made sense now, but it should have been keyed to the scientists, not the colonists. No one could get into those rooms, according to Brian. She had an idea about why it was keyed to Lithia, but she had to double-check first, before she said anything.
“Once we get out of here we can find a way to come back. Maybe we can renegotiate this planet into the Bubble, or—”
“No. I don’t know what I was thinking. I want nothing to do with these crazy people.”
Dione didn’t respond. Lithia might change her mind later, but if Dione pressed her now, she would only become more resistant to the idea. Time to change the subject.
“We have to tell Brian the Vens are here. He deserves to know,” Dione said.
“What about Victoria?”
“She wouldn’t believe us anyway. I’ll talk to Brian. You can tell Cora and Evy where we’re going.”
***
Brian headed toward Dione. He was straight out of the vids, his dark hair unbound like a mane in the wind, his eyes fixed on her. She wanted him to kiss her again, and for a moment, she thought he would, but he stopped short, leaving a gap between them. She could always kiss him first.
“I heard you wanted me?” he asked. Dione blushed. He was doing this on purpose. She could tell by the smile on his lips. He didn’t expect her to do anything. Her heart was racing. She would blame all of this on the adrenaline from their escape, even though she knew that it wasn’t the reason. She would be sad to leave him.
“Yeah, we’re leaving Victoria here, like you said, but I wanted to make sure it’s safe. We don’t want to hurt her.”
“My people are probably already on their way. They think you’re all Aratians and that I’m a traitor.”
“I know.” Dione looked down. “I’m sorry. I never wanted that to happen.”
She felt him take a step closer, and when she looked up, she was staring straight into his brown eyes. Her instinct was to look away, but this was probably the last moment they would have alone. She wanted to remember his face.
“You know I made this choice, right?” he said. “And I don’t regret it.”
Dione didn’t think. She kissed him, and felt his arms wrap around her waist, filling her with warmth. When they broke apart, Dione’s heart was beating fast. Brian smiled at her.
“What will happen to you?” She was worried about him.
“I don’t know. I’m just hoping I can cash in a favor or two from you before you leave.”
“Anything I can do to help, I will.” Dione looked back to the shuttle. Lithia was still inside with everyone. She didn’t imagine that was very fun.
“Are you sure Victoria will be safe if we lea
ve her here? We’ll leave food and water, of course, but no weapons.”
Brian paused before answering. “The coast and plains here are pretty tame, especially if she waits to be found. But Victoria isn’t likely to stay put.”
“Would she take it as a show of good faith?”
“Victoria holds a grudge better than anyone I know,” he said, “but she’ll at least be confused. She doesn’t understand that you’re not really her enemy.”
“I don’t think leaving her here could make things worse,” Dione said. “We’re heading to the Mountain Base. Apparently the Icon is controlled by an AI.”
“A what?”
“Artificial intelligence. A machine that’s programmed to think like a human.”
“That’s terrifying,” Brian said.
She opened her mouth as if she were about to speak, but then closed it again.
“What is it?” he asked, eyes intent. “What don’t you want to tell me?”
There was no avoiding it. She had to tell him. “The Vens, the so-called demons, are here.”
Brian frowned. “They followed you?”
“Probably. But we’re working on a plan to stop them.”
He looked down, frowning, but he didn’t say anything. Over his shoulder, she could see Lithia waving to her.
“Lithia’s calling us over. Let’s go,” she said. She was responsible for leading death to his planet. How could you forgive that?
The two met Lithia at the shuttle entrance. She pressed her fingertips against her temples.
“Victoria’s stirring,” she said to Brian.
Brian knelt by Victoria, who was propped against the bulkhead. A bruise was beginning to darken her forehead.
She looked confused when she opened her eyes, but only for a few seconds. Then she straightened and glared at Brian.
“Listen to me, please,” Brian said. “Dione and Lithia never wanted this to happen. They are just trying to save their friend.”
“You can’t be that naïve,” Victoria said. “They’re Aratian spies. They even showed up with Aratian nobility. I don’t care what they’re trying to do. I’m trying to save our people. Even your father would be ashamed of you, and he was the most selfish man I knew.”
