Crooked Stars
A Shades Universe Novel
Rock Forsberg
www.rockforsberg.com
Copyright © 2020 by Rock Forsberg
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organisations, and events portrayed in this story are products of the author’s imagination.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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For the ones taking action
Boxed
I am Daler Tait, a head in a box.
They took away my sight, my hearing, my feeling, and my body. But I got to keep my brain—a fully operational CPU with a nerfed IO.
Stored in a small box deep inside a monolith of a building in Spit City, I serve a sentence—of how long, I don't know. I could remain here forever.
I never thought it would come to this. I am a reputable businessman, but the law seems to think otherwise. The law—what a joke! FIST won the battle for Spit City, so they get to decide.
For sure, I’ve done my share of wrongs, but that’s all history, and nothing to do with why they locked me up. It’s not because of what I did, but what they think I know.
I'm bored out of my mind alone in this existence. I have no company, no dialogue, and no entertainment. My thoughts are my only reality. They say people lose their minds in this state, but I’m still sane. Maybe.
It doesn’t matter much anymore. It is difficult to tell how long I’ve been here. I cannot measure time, nor have I news from outside the box. I only know I haven’t always been here, because I remember.
I remember being a child in Runcor. I remember my parents and my brothers. I remember my girl, Tiana, and I remember how we rebuilt my father’s empire. I remember it all.
My memories are all I’ve got—
Bugger!
That was the jolt again.
The shock tells my wetware to focus, to remind me of my condition. The nerfed IO has this one-way shock tube that every three hours pings a stroke of pain to the insides of my cranium. It makes it impossible for me to drift off into a long, peaceful sleep in my otherwise numb darkness.
Now that I know I'm awake, let me take the path into my memory, and start from the beginning, like I’ve done many times already. Every time makes it a bit easier, and that’s why I feel I’m on the cusp of finding something new, something that I might have missed, and something that will change everything.
I feel like the poet, who wanted to be alone but needed company. As if I have the choice. It’s all here.
Part I
Chapter One
They dragged me into a fancy ball against my will. It was something to do with my father’s company, Runore Inc, giving a lot of money to support the welfare of people in Runcor. The Luzasand town hall flashed with glimmering holo-lights, and people wearing fancy suits. Even I wore one because I had just turned sixteen and my mother gave me no option.
My father shook the hand of the mayor of Luzasand, Willen Puissance. He was a sturdy man like my father, and together they were the most powerful men on the planet. I knew little about politics, but I knew his son, Marc, who was the same age as me. Unlike his father, he was a small fellow who never seemed to go out much, and avoided my gaze as I sneered at him.
My mother poked me to behave, as my eldest brother, Usher, then twenty-six, followed my father in shaking hands with the mayor.
Father had become older, and he was already removing himself from the active management of the company. I wanted to succeed him, but as the youngest, my chances were slim. He had already started grooming Usher to take over the family business before I had even started school.
Just watching my father talk with the important people made me stand up taller. His presence exuded virtue and made me want to be a better version of myself. Perhaps it wasn’t only me, perhaps that’s how he had grown such a successful firm.
My mother glanced at the time and snorted. ‘He’s late.’
She referred to their middle child, Sander, who had just turned twenty. He also worked with the family business, but I was sure he had his sights somewhere else. To me, my brothers were already men, whereas I was just a boy.
While standing back with my mother who, just like me, was happier observing others than being the centre of attention, my eyes caught sight of a gorgeous woman.
It took me a moment to realise it was Tiana, a girl in the same school and the same class as I was, because in her oyster silk gown she looked different. I had always thought of her as one of the guys, and now I wondered how a simple piece of fabric and a hairdo could have turned her into that. When her round eyes atop a broad smile caught mine, I flushed.
I swallowed, thinking about what I would say to her, but her father ushered her away, and she left me with a quick wave.
I let out a sigh of relief, which turned into a sigh of disappointment; I wondered why, because she was just a girl from my class, who now pulled me into her orbit like a star.
‘Finally,’ my mother said.
I turned. Sander walked through the entrance in a smart suit like every man, but his had blue highlights that made him stand out from the crowd. Beside him, a tall, beautiful woman—who must have been a celebrity—held his hand and smiled at the cameras. Sander smirked and led her through the press of the crowd towards us.
Mother frowned. ‘You’re late.’
‘Mom, lil’ bro,’ he said and tousled my hair. ‘This is Celestia.’
Mother responded by faking a smile and extending her hand, and I, by blushing at the latest gorgeous creature at my brother’s side.
Sander grinned at me. He seemed to enjoy the situation.
Mother leaned closer to him as if smelling his face. She jerked back and said, ‘Have you been drinking?’
He laughed. ‘Just a few, nothing to worry about. Right, dear?’
Celestia pulled a smile that made me melt inside. Mother wasn’t impressed, and her frown deepened.
Sander glanced past us, and said to Celestia, ‘Hey, it’s Hurecan. Come, let’s greet them.’
And with quick smiles, they went.
‘Oh, Sander, what will you become…?’ my mother sighed.
From where I stood, Sander had it all. What about me? I wanted to get into the business so I could start learning the ropes; instead, my mother wanted me to continue school.
I glanced at where my father and Usher had been. They had gone, probably talking to some other famous people. The mayor was greeting new guests, and Marc Puissance gave me a sly glance from behind him. I looked away and said to my mother, ‘Is there anything to eat here?’
The party was in full swing, and I was bored out of my mind. I wasn’t interested in talking with people, nor did I want to stay with my mother like a child, so I went back and forth between the buffet and a cocktail table at the far ends of the room.
I had to go to the toilet, but there was a queue. Someone told me there was another one down the stairs, so I headed there. I went through a door to a plain staircase, which was also an emergency exit.
I walked down the stairs, seeing no signs for the toilet, so tried one door. It opened into a gloomy room, with faint light shining from a corner. I thought perhaps the toilet was there.
Walking towards the light, I heard a strained voice. Within a darkened corner, I found a man tied to a chair, his face bleeding. Two men in suits towered before him, their backs towards me. One of them hit the man in the stomach so hard he almost fell.
The sight o
f such violence made me yelp.
I realised my mistake when the men turned.
I stared dumbfounded at them. Sander and Usher.
‘You shouldn’t be here, bro,’ Sander said.
I nodded. ‘I’ll just get back…’
‘Not so fast,’ Usher said, freezing me on the spot with his authority. ‘You’re with us, all right? You won’t talk about this.’
‘Cos if you do, bro,’ Sander said, ‘it’s gonna be the cave shift for life.’
Our father used to send us down to the mines with the bots to do maintenance work in the deep, dirty underground. He insisted it had to be a person, that a bot wouldn’t do. It was terrible, so deep inside Runcor, I thought I would die in those small unlit corridors alone with simple bots with which you couldn’t even converse. The pressure coming down—
‘Snap out of it!’ Sander said. ‘We clear on this?’
‘Yes, we’re clear,’ I said.
‘Now go back to the party. We have some unfinished business here…’
It was a blur. I scurried up the stairs, and when I reached the door to the venue, I was shaking. I tried to calm myself with deep breaths, but my heart was still racing. I didn’t know if it was fear or excitement, maybe both. Still confused about what I’d just seen, I stepped out of the staircase, and wiped the sweat from my brow.
‘Hi Daler, how’s it going?’ Tiana said with a shy smile, making me jump.
‘No, nothing,’ I said, as I tried to calm down.
She gave me a strange look.
I deserved that. Worried about what I had just witnessed, I’d missed what she said. ‘I’m sorry, my brothers…’
She frowned. My brothers had a reputation.
‘That’s a…’ I said, looking for words, trying to change the topic, ‘…beautiful dress. You look nice.’
But it wasn’t just the dress. My thoughts got lost in her milk chocolate skin and black curly hair before the frown gave way to a smile that could have shaken kingdoms. ‘Thank you. You look manly in that suit.’
I took that as a compliment. ‘How do you like the party?’
She bit her lip. ‘To be honest? It’s the most boring thing I’ve ever been to.’
‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘Have you ever—’
I would’ve asked if she’d like to go see the Luzasand Eye with me, but Sander’s sudden appearance startled me. He rubbed a white handkerchief on his bloody knuckles, and while he tried to hide it, Tiana’s face told me she had seen it too. ‘Hey bro, we good?’
I nodded—what else could I have done?—as Sander slapped me on the back before disappearing back to the crowd.
‘That’s my bro, Sander,’ I said and feigned a chuckle.
She snorted. ‘I know.’
‘Tiana!’ someone shouted from behind her.
She turned and waved to her mother. ‘I’m sorry, I have to go. Catch you later.’
As I stood there, watching her go in that beautiful dress, I knew she was the one. I knew because those few moments with her had made me forget all my worries for a while.
Chapter Two
A few years passed. We never again talked about what had happened at the ball, and the whole incident faded to a distant memory.
I spent most of my time studying to finish school, and sometimes helping with the family business, which often meant maintaining equipment in one of the hundred or so mines our family had around the planet. It was great because it gave me a chance to get away from Luzasand and the daily grind in school, but it also meant that I got to spend time in a small box beside another sandpit somewhere far from civilisation.
I didn’t mind, because I wanted to get into the business, and take the family firm to the next level, make it an interstellar operation—not just something that operated in Runcor, as Usher and Father seemed to think.
Both of my brothers lived on their own, while I was still at home with my parents. Usher was busy with the operational leadership of Runore, and I didn’t see him much, even though he had a home in Luzasand. Sander, meanwhile, was slipping further and further away from the family, spending more time with shady folks off-planet. I rarely saw him anymore.
I was close to graduating from the Premier Learning Institute, and the next logical step would have been the Academy of Virtuous Knowledge. My mother wanted it for me, but instead of spending another two years in school, I wanted to go full-time with the company: to help steer its direction, not just clean the dirty robots. I knew what my father would think, but unless I confronted him and asked, I feared I would lose my chance.
One day, before the final exams (for which I was supposed to study full-time), I went up to the headquarters of Runore, to the top floor corner office.
I didn’t go unprepared. I had spent months working on the side on a presentation about the strategy we should take: I had gathered data and research about the geological composition of planets in the neighbouring systems, demand forecasts for Kolver (our main product), market trends, and the competitive landscape. I included a data visualisation of material and cash flow on a revised business model. I had spent a lot of time on making it just right and was proud of my accomplishment. My message was clear: unless we took aggressive measures to expand, our competitors would get to capitalise on the opportunity and our playing field would become smaller.
My father’s secretary, Jo, greeted me with a smile. Her real first name was Joannine-Nennine, but perhaps because she was so fast, she had no time for the rest of her name. I had also heard she was fierce to unannounced visitors, but to me, she was always kind, and let me go through. Jo was an actual person, a long-time employee and family friend, while I heard most offices had robots in the same position.
I opened the door to my father’s office. Abundant wide windows showed the Luzasand skyline in front of the never-ending desert. My father stood with his back to me, looking out the window, contemplating.
‘Dad,’ I said.
He turned around. ‘Daler.’
He walked towards me with a concerned expression on his face, the same I would find on my face whenever I looked in the mirror worrying about something. Of my brothers, I believed I resembled him the most. Like me, he was short and stocky—not fat, but he had some meat around his bones. His hair was thin, and he shaved it off to be bald. Two extra chins appeared when he looked down at me. ‘Shouldn’t you be studying?’
‘I am studying.’
‘No, you’re not. You’re here in the office talking to me.’
He led me to the sofas in the corner. I sat down and pondered my words. I must have appeared even more nervous than I thought, fiddling with my fingers and looking down at my shoes.
‘I have some ideas about the business.’
He raised his brows. ‘Tell me.’
I pulled up my hand terminal and swiped my presentation up on the big screen. The beginning was difficult, and I stuttered at first, but my father listened patiently, and I got into the flow of talking through my ideas about what we should do. I showed him the data visualisation and was hoping for some kind of reaction, but he just listened.
With the table of best potential planets on the screen, I said, ‘I think we should expand to Regnar immediately.’
That’s when I got the first reaction: a grunt with a squint.
‘It’s close by,’ I said, and swallowed. ‘An easy pinch away, and it has a similar composition to Runcor.’
‘Do you think I haven’t considered the options for expansion? We studied Regnar years ago before you were even born. Yes, it has Kolver, but first, the quality will never be the same as in Runcor, and second, the society is not stable. I don’t want to take my business to someplace controlled by criminals.’
He was probably right about the quality of the Kolver. ‘But it’s under the Dawn Alliance, too.’
‘In name it is, but do you really think they have control? They don’t.’ He said it with the tone that meant, I’m telling this to you, son, because I know—and there’s
no way for you to convince me otherwise.
‘OK,’ I said. ‘What about Persevero?’
He snorted. ‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘I’m not having this discussion; both Nestor Alegua and Dr Darius are known throughout the galaxy for their geological expertise, and I trust their evaluation,’ he said, and stood up. ‘What’s behind this?’
I hesitated, but somehow gathered the courage and spilled it out. ‘I want to be part of the business. The real business, like Usher. I have ideas, I want to do more than help robots to clean other robots in this sandpit.’
His face turned grave. ‘Clean, fine-tuned robots are the core of this business. If you don’t understand it, you have no other business here. Usher has paid his dues, and he has ten years more experience than you do. I can trust him to do the right thing.’
I swallowed. ‘You don’t want me in the business?’
He tapped my shoulder and, with a softer tone, said, ‘I will not be here forever, and I hope one day you and your brothers will succeed me in this business. You, Daler, resemble me when I was younger, you know that?’
I had an idea, but asked him anyway, ‘How’s that?’
‘You took the time and effort to craft the presentation. You took action; you put in the work to get what you want. That’s how I was when I was young. Sometimes it got me what I wanted, and sometimes it didn’t, but I never failed: I believe that as long as you learn from your mistakes, you can never fail.’
As I nodded in silence, I found myself standing taller.
‘Your presentation was insightful,’ he continued, ‘but there is so much you don’t understand yet. You’re ambitious, and that’s good; as long as you stay humble. Because there’s always someone more powerful than you—and if you are the most powerful one, there’s a thousand just below you with the sole purpose of taking you down.’
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