Elysium Shining by Desert Willow

Category: Sci-Fi Gender Change, Transgender

Characters: Male to Female, Teen (13-19 yrs)

Status: In-Progress

Published: 2019-04-14

Updated: 2019-06-20

Packaged: 2019-06-23 20:39:21

Chapters: 61

Words: 175,557

Publisher: tgstorytime.com

Summary: A young man from modern Earth ends up on a ship bound for many light years away, after an accident that turns him into a female of an alien race. Now Zoey must embark on a journey of identity, belonging, love, and family.

Story Notes: After a long wait, I finally get to begin posting chapters.

Chapter 1

His forehead and eyes stung in equal measure. He wheezed. It had been a long night, but at least the world wasn’t burning. His breath came, and, for a moment, each new one felt like the first. Each breath felt so right, even if his chest was heavy. Dylan concentrated on those breaths for a time as he became more aware of everything at a slow, steady rate.

“Doctor,” a soft, male voice said, “the patient is gaining consciousness.

A more seasoned voice, belonging to a woman still unseen, said, “That’s good, young laeknar. How are her signs?”

“Most wounds have recovered fully, but a few burns and lacerations remain to be mended completely. I am showing minor trauma at this stage as well, with possibility of diminishment.”

“She needs time then, but we’re making good progress. Use the tranquilizer – 5cc.”

Dylan attempted to protest, but it was hopeless as soon as something small touched his arm. He couldn’t even see it. Before his vision faded away, only a single bright light was fully visible, and even its outline turned to black as whatever entered his system took hold.

***

Das’ithrios walked past the sliding door into the dean’s office. Strange; he still had no idea what this was about, but Das’ithrios came regardless, expecting an earful for something he didn’t know was wrong.

Once he was a comfortable distance from the dean’s desk, Das’ithrios said, “You wished to see me, sir?”

Dean Paen slid a sealed folder across the desk. He said, “I have been informed that you, like your parents, are to be informed of the contents within this document. I have been given less than half a page of information, but information classified top secret is being given to your family.”

“I’m not sure I understand, sir.”

“I’m not sure any of us will even after you read this. You have been requested to board a shuttle bound for the Marslou. Apparently it involves a young woman that appeared and is receiving care from the laeknir aboard. I am not to take any sort of ‘no’ for an answer; the shuttle leaves in a little under three hours.”

Das’ithrios peeked inside the folder. The Marslou wanted him and his family aboard because of someone they’d found? The last he heard, because of the news stations, was that the interstellar peacekeeping ship was investigating a dangerous plot involving the insurgent cultists.

He was curious to see if anything immediately visible inside the folder could give him an idea as to what this was all about, or if this was some sort of joke or test. There was a photo of what appeared to be a woman on a medical bed, but Das’ithrios couldn’t yet make out her appearance aside from light-skinned ankles; not without extracting everything from the folder to get a better look.

The dean cleared his throat.

“Ah, yes, sir,” Das’ithrios said. “I’ll be on my way.”

***

Dylan opened his eyes and breathed in the pleasant air again. The breathing sensation no longer felt new, which was a shame. His chest still felt weighted, however. At least his head felt normal.

Normal . . . He ran a hand through his hair to find that it was much longer and softer than he remembered. It was also not the same color as before.

Someone in a uniform, unique to where he was but comparable to other people in the room, walked over to Dylan as he sat up with a start. The weight on his chest shifted. He looked down the gown he was wearing and barely saw the mounds of flesh that were there. They were small, but there was no denying what they were, given their shape and how sensitive they felt. There was no denying what else was different, either, despite not looking down that far. He wanted to believe that this was a dream. It had to be one, but this change was as palpable as it was real.

He breathed. His breaths became harder and shallower. One more person walked over to him who then rested a hand on his shoulder.

What had happened? How did any of this happen?

Imagery swirled and blended before him. Dylan saw his prior exit from his uncle’s house as he went for a walk. He saw three thugs in strange gear inside of a convenience store. There was a fire and then an additional combustion. Pain and darkness swallowed him whole, and now he was in an unfamiliar room, his body numb aside from a growing chill. Every time he sought warmth, the images of that fire returned.

The pattern of torment went on until someone came and wrapped a soft object of some sort around Dylan’s backside and stood before him. It was a man with hair the color of rosewood, eyes shining green beyond their sad expression, and ears pointed at the end like some fantastical being. The young man used his hands to rub Dylan’s forearms though the blanket.

“It’s OK,” the rosewood-haired man said. “Everything is fine now.”

His calm words brought Dylan back into reality, or wherever this was. Dylan looked around the room now. Nearly everyone had the same pointed ears while a few did not. The man who had aided him mere seconds ago was the only one who seemed to be wearing an entirely different attire from the others.

Dylan said, “Who . . . ? Are you Vulcan?” He swallowed as his voice sounded much softer than expected.

Everyone in the room glanced at one another. One person scratched their head.

The man who had aided Dylan through his shock said, “Who is this Vulcan you speak of? Are you not Il’lyse?”

Dylan gathered this was a hospital of some sort—given the light colors and the machine monitoring his vitals through a series of wireless bands—even if the design of the room was well beyond his imagining. He took a moment to marvel at the bands on his smoother, more slender arms and legs than he could remember having until now. Another such band sat on his head with the aid of what he could only guess were hairpins on either side when he felt them with his fingers.

A door slid open. The door’s sound was similar to sands falling through an hourglass, and then that hourglass coming down upon a solid surface. Two more people with pointy ears walked in. The woman’s face put her easily in her twenties, if Dylan was going by human standards, but strands of gray flowed among her rosewood hair. The man standing with her only had brown hair, but it was clear that they were together as they grasped one another’s hand.

“Is she?” the new woman asked. “Could our daughter have returned to us?”

The world was on the verge of spinning again. Dylan fought off the sensation. He realized that he needed to speak up. He needed answers as much as everyone else.

Dylan said, “I’m sorry. I don’t even know what is happening to me. My name is Dylan Wilde. Unless this is some strange joke, I’m from a world called Earth. What happened to my body? And how is it we’re all speaking English?”

He was met with dead silence, surrounded by so many stunned faces waiting for another ball to drop.

Chapter 2

Planet Earth. Das’ithrios looked at the new pictures taken of the planet where Dylan had been rescued. This revelation was a far cry from the catalog of suggested names, let alone “sG2Vn3 – p3cD.” Now Das’ithrios only looked up at the large screen in the waiting area of the Medical Bay, musing over these other names, in an attempt to distract himself from the arguing going on in the next room.

Behind him, the young woman who resembled his sister sat on a sofa against the adjacent wall. Her expression was one of a traveler lost in a sea of stars, if the stars each resembled a thought so far out of reach. Dylan once again rubbed the tip of her ear while looking in the mirror that rested upon the coffee table.

The young woman used to be a man until she appeared on this ship. There were so many changes she now had to become used to, at least until they reached a facility equipped to change her back. She spoke their language, save for an unknown number of words at that moment, and needed an explanation as to how that was possible. Much was explained, more than Dylan could absorb, and far more than she could explain, herself.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “You must hate me right now.”

Das’ithrios responded, “Hardly. Things are complicated, awkward . . .”

“And painful? I think your mom said something about your sister returning. I look like her apparently, and yet she’s gone, from what I can tell. How long ago did she leave?”

“It’s been two revolutions of your Earth’s orbit, whatever you call it. She died. It was a terrible accident.”

“Two years? How old was she?”

“Curious. Well, I suppose we were both about nineteen by your reckoning; ‘years,’ you call it?” Dasos was sure he heard or read the word somewhere before, but the alliances of planets in the known galaxy elected to use the expression he was more familiar with.

“Both of you? Are twins common among your race? Or ours I guess?”

“No, it’s not common among Aelfs at all.”

“I can’t even imagine losing one sibling. I never had any brothers or sisters. Having a twin, though? That has to hurt more than dying, yourself.”

“It did.”

They fell silent and stared at the table, which was metallic with two panels on top that were filled with glass plates. If the level of awkwardness were a tangible thing, it might have been able to break the same piece of furniture under its weight. The shouts in the next room sure added to it.

Then Dylan did something Das’ithrios didn’t expect from anyone other than his long-lost sister. She grasped her waist with one hand, extended the other, palm-side up, and aimed a remark at the direction of the door to the other room.

“Someone’s passionate as fuck in there,” she said.

Das’ithrios chuckled, not really paying attention to the ship’s crew member that had walked into the room during that moment. However, the new visitor made a highly audible and familiar gasp. He looked over, and saw an old friend staring right at Dylan.

***

Dylan saw the woman who entered the room. Instead of pointed elf ears, she had a pair of elongated, hairy ones like a rabbit. Had it not been for those, Dylan would have sworn she was looking at a human from eastern Asia.

The rabbit woman shot expressions at Das’ithrios and back at Dylan before saying, “She looks so much like Il’lyse.”

“That she does,” Das’ithrios agreed.

“I had heard rumors about the patient here, but I had no idea. I hadn’t really come down here until now. It couldn’t be, though, could it?”

“No, and I’m not sure an ensign should be here right now. Tonny, what are you doing here?”

“That’s Tong-Chang, or Ensign Leezu. I’m on assignment, silly.”

“I don’t mean what you’re doing on this ship. I mean here, now. This section of the Medical Bay was cordoned off by the Marslou’s security.”

“Yes, like I said, I’m on assignment. I was assigned to Admiral Fjorfolia and his wife, among my other usual duties. The Lady Fjorfolia needed me to check on the admiral, but his cellular communicator is turned off. She didn’t give me a reason that I could share with anyone but her husband.”

“Well, I guess you’re out here with us unless you want to head back and wait for us to complete a few Delta Warp Thrusts, because something tells me they’re still going to be arguing for a while.”

As soon as he said that the door to the next room opened. Das’ithrios and Tong-Chang stood immediately at attention, their arms poised for what Dylan guessed was a salute. She wasn’t in the military, or anything resembling it, but she summoned enough strength to her legs to join in on the gesture. She stood up straight and brought her right fist to her left shoulder.

“Oh, at ease,” said the bunny-eared gentleman that was first to walk into the corridor. His outfit marked him as someone of a great position and rank. “At ease, everyone, especially you, young lady.”

Dylan nodded to him and relaxed more than the other two people in the room so far. As she did so, several others spilled through the doorway including Das’ithrios’s parents. The way that the young man and his parents smiled to one another made Dylan envious of them for having that much. Would she have the right to yearn for a place among them? She didn’t know. The man called Admiral Fjorfolia, who stood before her, and Dylan didn’t think he could give that answer either.

Admiral Fjorfolia looked up and down Dylan’s barely dressed form, and left to right, before nodding and turning to Tong-Chang.

“Was there something you needed, ensign?” he asked.

Tong-Chang said, “Lady Fjorfolia has a message for you that I am to share on our way back to your quarters, sir.”

“Oh, that will be fine. We will be along in a moment. Now then, ladies and gentlemen, I expect good news by the time we return to either Elysium IX or the nearest space station, and prepare to part ways. That is, unless, you have any objections in leaving this ‘Earth’ behind?”

He and others in the room were looking at Dylan. She shook her head at them, despite reservations. The lack of protest surprised even her until she thought about it. What did she have to go back to?

“You don’t have to be so brave,” the admiral said.

Dylan said, “I’m not. This seems like the best thing to do. That’s all.”

“The best thing, really? Would that we had this insight for the past hour or more. What brings you to this conclusion?”

“I have no real family on Earth, sir. My mother is a con artist who’s escaped prison on two occasions. Her brother is supposed to be my guardian, but he sits at home, watches television all day and night when he isn’t working at a lumberyard, and berates me for trying to have a decent education. My father is a scientist, but once set his apartment on fire while trying to care for a baby doll in preparation for trying to raise me; hence custody was given to my uncle.

“When I was transported onto this ship I think I was supposed to have died. Aside from a few friends, I have no life waiting for me back on Earth. I just . . . I’m alive now, but not in my old body. How did this happen?”

The admiral said “Oh, you have my sympathies. We are still looking into the cause. You have my word on that.”

“Back home, back on Earth I mean, there are stories like this. So many of them are impossible, maybe all of them. Never once did I imagine I’d wake up in a girl’s body instead of the one I was born with.”

“You were a boy? Well, if the laeknir all agree with the necessary assessments, I’m sure they can help you if you so choose to change back once we’re back in our own system. Our top laeknar here will need to run a few tests on you over the next couple weeks. Oh, that was in general to monitor your health given the nature of where you come from and how you came to us.”

“Luck-near, huh?”

Admiral Fjorfolia laughed with a fist over his mouth. He walked back toward Tong-Chang, and stopped for a moment.

“Captain Druvvin,” he said, “I return your ship and its presence to you. Ensign, you may lead on.”

Das’ithrios whispered to his parents a moment later, but his mother raised a hand to stop him. His father said something about including her, nodding to Dylan. The three of them joined around her, and they sat on the sofas.

The older gentleman said, “Before we say anything else, I want to apologize. You might have heard some muffled shouts and screams from inside the other room. One of the topics up for discussion is whether or not you are a spy, our daughter, or somehow both. Both your testimony and the circumstances suggest a negative to either count, but we are still reaching that agreement.”

“I’d be double-oh-crap as a spy,” Dylan remarked. The trio around her glanced at her hand gestures and back at her face. “What?”

“Are you sure you’re not Il’lyse?” the mother asked.

“I’m really not, I’m sorry.”

“No, I suppose not. A mother is supposed to know her own child. I will say you look too much like her, and you have a few of her mannerisms down as well. I swear the universe is playing a cruel joke on me for something I don’t understand.”

“Das’ithrios told me there was some accident that took her from all of you. Would you mind if I asked what it was?”

“You may. She had a rebellious streak, like any teenager might. One day, she stole a shuttle to go on a date with someone we didn’t approve of, but there was a storm. She tried to take shelter by the largest asteroid she could reach. The shuttle was obliterated, and no one could save her or the man that was with her. We spent many weeks in denial over it. Some days that denial comes back to haunt us.”

“I should probably avoid you then, huh?”

“No! Oh, you poor thing.” She hugged Dylan. “You look like her, but you’re someone new. This has to be so hard for you; it’s so unfair.”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’m still in shock.”

“Your adrenaline will pass. You will feel like garbage soon, but when you do we’re going to get better together, you understand?”

“Not sure that I do.”

She pulled out of the warm embrace. “We’ll figure this out. You’ll need a home and some goal in your new life.”

“I was studying a lot about history and archaeology in my old life. I can only imagine how different things will be now.”

“We’ll see.”

“I guess I’ll need a new name too.”

The family trio looked at Dylan curiously. She suspected that this expression was going to be a common thing for a while. There was a whole society of people unaware, or unaccustomed, to Earthlings.

She said, “Where I come from, Dylan is a boy’s name. I don’t think there’s a girl equivalent.”

The father of the bunch said, “Is this a common thing among Earth Humans?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do they split your names between boys and girls? We’ve only met one other world that does this, and it wasn’t human.”

“Wait, other humans? Worlds? God, I have a lot to learn, don’t I?”

Chapter 3

As the next two days passed, Dylan learned as much as she could about her new life, and the ship that carried her there, all while contemplating a new name.

While she did so, Dylan was ruled as being not a threat to the ship, and was allowed to wander a set number of corridors so she could practically relearn how to walk. Her legs needed the exercise after some time being bedridden, and also her new center balance needed the practice. One kind soul was all too happy to provide Dylan with a couple changes of clothes her size for her to borrow for a while. That saved her from wandering around in the medical gown, her backside exposed for the whole universe to see.

The Marslou was manned by a hundred crew members, not counting the four ensigns who were present for a field credit for their academy, nor the admiral who was visiting on this leg of the ship’s tour. Of the main hundred crew, more than seventy were Aelfs, the same as Dylan had become. About twenty were called Ginserei, with the bunny ears. A few were humans from a planet she hadn’t learned about yet. Dylan practiced to herself silently by familiarizing the numerous faces, and identifying who was what, as she passed them in the hallways, though this went faster than Dylan had expected, now that this new reality of hers had settled in.

Her attention turned, finally, to the walls of the ship interior. In the rooms that she should explore Zoey saw flattened surfaces with rounded corners. The hallways had sections of wall along the far right and left sides, separated by short dividers, that curved outward. The central corridors of all three floors—as Zoey learned to call them while aboard this craft—curved outward on both sides when they ran front to back. Regardless of where she was on the ship, the hallway walls used one major design. It was cream colored except for the singular gray stripe that ran through the length of the whole ship. This stripe was tall in that it started at her chin level and went down to Zoey’s underbust. Along the curved walls there, too, was a golden leaf overlay painted against the dividers, but only on one side. If Zoey were blindfolded and led to one of these hallways before being left there alone then she could look across the sections of wall to find that overlay. Then she would know that the bridge was in that direction, or that the residential area went the other way.

Each day the outfits were simple and neutral in case Dylan decided to go back to being male, or in case her tastes required wearing things not found on this ship. Tong-Chang made a joke about some items Dylan could wear, but she couldn’t catch the Ginserei’s meaning.

About two days into the trip since her awakening, it was time for the next medical exam. By this time, Dylan had learned the differences between “laeknar” and its plural form, and how “doctor” was the title reserved for the chief or teacher among several fields of study.

“What about nurses?” she asked the laeknar examining her eyes that moment.

The laeknar adjusted the light being shone by his ocular device said, “That word doesn’t sound familiar to me. The closest I can think of is ‘nourish,’ and we laeknir usually handle a patient’s dietary needs without the aid of our doctor. It’s only when we need advice, or for someone with the authority to sign off on procedures and medications, that the doctor in charge is called on specifically.”

“That more than answers my question, I guess. Ack! That light stings.”

“Your Aelfen sensitivity is present.”

“Sensitivity?”

“Yes.” He put the ocular device back on its tray. “That last light operates on a wavelength that is slow and steady enough not to make most races feel blinded by mere exposure to it. Some animals react to it out of light sensitivity, as do some people who spend copious amounts of time in dark places. Aelfs, though? You lot see a quarter of a second ahead of most of us, so the light appears more intense to you than it actually is.”

“I thought light moves the same rate for everyone.”

“It does. Aelfs like us, however, have a minor affinity for the theoretical fourth dimension when it comes to your five senses. Think of it like the drawing of a person, and that person was able to see a few millimeters off the surface of the paper. When that side of your senses comes out you’ll be peeking forward into time by one quarter of a second. I’ve heard longer might be possible, but no one has proven it.”

“You know, with all of the crazy things I’ve seen lately, I’m going to take that with a grain of salt.”

“A grain of salt? That must be an Earth thing.”

“In some places it is.”

“Well, it looks like your body is recovering from the trauma of the incident that happened a few weeks ago.”

“A few weeks!”

“Yes, didn’t anyone tell you? You were in a comatose state for nineteen days. Oh . . . Oh, I’m so sorry. I thought someone would have told you by now. I don’t have the full report of everything that occurred, but you were brought in here badly damaged and then nourished back to health over that time.”

“Did I already have this body by then?”

“Yes. I was there when you were brought in. Pictures were taken when you were initially identified by your appearance, your teeth, and your DNA. You’re a perfect match to that other person, which is why her family was contacted and summoned to meet us here.”

Dylan examined her hands at the thought of being a perfect copy of that girl. She turned one over and paid a mind to her fingertips.

“Did you compare my prints to hers as well?” Dylan asked.

“What prints are you referring to?” Their fingers were the same as any human she met, ridges and nails among other characteristics, and yet the question was an odd one.

“Never mind. It’s probably not important.”

“Let’s see, you are up walking around the ship each day, you’ve developed a healthy appetite in a short amount of time, nothing is deteriorating as far as we can tell, but we’ll keep monitoring you to rule that out as a possibility, and your cognitive abilities are sharper already than your senses.”

“Great, so when do you need me to check in again?”

“We just have one more question for you first. Have you started exploring yourself or feeling any urges?”

“What now?”

“I know, you’re a young woman, and your sex life isn’t the first thing you probably want to talk about, but it’s still a health matter. If you never feel anything, ever, then we may need to advance our examinations into the area.”

“I’m not sure if you’re doing a crappy job coming on to me, or if you’re saying I can’t ever have sex.”

“Neither. We only want to make sure everything is working properly. It’s probably too early to tell anyways.”

“I haven’t really had the time to think about such things. Is that all I need to look out for now, is the need to touch myself?”

“Masturbation, menstruation – yes, those things. You’ve been in the body of a woman for a few weeks now, after all.”

Dylan blushed and thought for a moment. Was she attracted to men now too, was it still towards girls, or both? Or could it be neither? More than that, how far was Dylan willing to go with anyone?

“Do you offer options for birth control?” she asked.

***

“Zoi’ne,” she said to her new friends. “What do you think? You can call me Zoey if you like.” After days of listening to names around the ship or random recordings of given Aelf names, she found the one she liked most.

Das’ithrios said, “I like it. Zoi’ne it is. I mean, as soon as you let someone know with the legal authority to recognize your new name, it will be yours to keep.”

“Cool.” Zoey ignored the odd glances she was getting, as was now common whenever she used an Earth expression. Now if only she knew enough older expressions from there for the sole purpose of playing with people. “So where are we headed, Das?”

Tong-Chang snorted, and said, “I am heading to Cargo Hold Two to perform a daily check on the stores and inventory.”

“Do you expect things to magically restock as we fly through space nonstop?”

“That would be cause for concern. We have to make sure nothing new appears or vanishes that can’t be accounted for.”

“Like Aelf girls from an uncharted planet?”

“More or less. You were found in Matter Transference, by the way, so that greatly reduces the odds of finding that here.”

As the others walked on, Zoey had been given pause. “You have transmats? Wait, wait, wait . . . transmats, as in teleporting matter from one place to another?”

“You catch on quick. Fine, I guess you can come as long as you both promise not to touch anything. You do have that security clearance for the time being, and nothing too crazy or delicate is expected in Cargo Hold Two.”

Zoi’ne wasn’t too sure how best to respond to that, or if she should even try. So the Aelfs followed the rabbit with the strangely sexy butt. Dylan was never much into butts back on Earth, as a young man, but this view as a girl was answering questions Zoi’ne never thought to ask.

Her attention and train of thought were interrupted by the sudden sound of Das’ithrios clearing his throat. He then went on walking nonchalantly like nothing happened.

“Somebody still likes this view, I think,” Tong-Chang chimed. She shot a glance at Das’ithrios before ducking into a room with a double sliding door.

He said, “Huh? I wasn’t even, I mean . . .”

Moments later they were looking at crates containing such items as blankets, jackets, and emergency food rations that had all been sealed in air-tight packages. There were reusable cups and enough water, Tong-Chang stated, to feed a full crew and ten guests for about week.

Another box opened to reveal strange looking rods with slits on one end and single buttons on the opposite sides.

“We thought so,” Tong-Chang said. “These should be in the first room, not here. I’ll let the captain know that I found our missing palisticks. I have no idea how or why they ended up here, but at least we still have them.”

Zoi’ne asked, “What are palisticks? I’m not sure if they’re microphones, glorified clubs, or fancy sex toys.”

Tong-Chang covered her mouth one second, her cheeks puffing out. Then she threw her hands back down and her head upward in a roaring laughter. It took her a few seconds to calm down so she could answer.

“No,” she said, “you probably don’t want this inside any of your holes.”

Das’ithrios, who had a hand over his face, said, “That was one mental image I could have done without.”

“The slits emit electricity meant to stun or paralyze someone when you touch them with the end of the stick. You can also charge the emission and launch it at someone, if you know what you’re doing, but then you’ll drain the power source, and also risk doing serious damage to your foe.”

“Security personnel often carry these when protocol calls for it. All things considered, having them in an unexpected place like this is careless at best.”

“That’s right. You should have done your semester credit here with me. He did miss one thing though,” she directed back at Zoey.

Zoey said, “What do you mean?”

“It’s also good for subduing ex-lovers when they annoy you enough.”

Das’ithrios nodded slowly and took a few steps back, one by one. Once again, he carried on nonchalantly like nothing was said or done, but now Zoi’ne thought she knew better already.

Rather than prodding him about it, Zoi’ne glanced away and let her eyes fall on another container in the far side of the second Cargo Hold. It appeared to be a large, black suitcase with green and yellow arrows running down either side of the handle in single vertical stripes.

“What’s that box there?” she asked, pointing at it and tilting her head.

“What one?” Tong-Chang said.

“The black one with the arrows. I think this is the second time I’ve seen one of those.”

The Ginserei swiped against her digital clipboard and flipped through a number of pages that Zoey wasn’t sure she could attempt to count at this angle.

“I can’t seem to find anything except for a few medical supplies that call for a case like that. Those cases have serial numbers on them and are all in the Medical Bay right now. This one does not.”

“What does that mean?” Zoey asked.

“This shouldn’t be here. We’re a long way from any supply station or planet.”

“I saw one on Earth.”

“You what?” Das’ithrios and Tong-Chang both said.

Chapter 4

Some time ago...

Dylan stormed out of his uncle’s house. Going for a walk usually calmed him down, but how much longer could he last living with that asshole? Dylan was seventeen and applying for as many colleges as he could get into, as far from this place as he could flee. So far no one responded.

There were a few places that he frequented during his walks. This time, he passed the park and reached the convenience store a quarter of a mile past that.

As far as he knew there was a strange car on the other side of the store, which collided into a wall. The store was still open. Dylan couldn’t care less about anything that moment. So he went inside to grab himself a bag of funyuns to enjoy as his mind cleared and blood cooled down a bit.

A few voices were shouting at one another in the distance. It sounded like two of them were using novelty toys of some kind to alter their voices.

He snapped out of his anger-fueled haze when the top rack on the aisle exploded. Dylan’s ear was ringing, but that got his attention at least. Earth to Mr. Wilde, he thought, you have something pointed at you that tore a hole in your favorite junk food.

One of the masked individuals shouted at him: “Get on the ground, and tell yourself we were never here!”

The threat was still less than convincing, and yet Dylan found himself doing what any reasonable person might do when held with the unknown. He crouched and turned. However, he grabbed a few snack-sized bags of Cheetos on the way down, and then sprang back up in the other direction, towards the cold beverages.

Dylan chucked the bags at the two goofs in their weird, charcoal and brown outfits. They shot at him in response and blew open two of those bags. Now they had a little more color on their costumes. He hoped this also meant some Cheetos dust found its way inside of their masks to screw with breathing a little bit, but it wasn’t likely.

A third costumed weirdo, who was badly wounded on one side, took this opportunity to try and wrestle one of the other two. From this angle, Dylan could also see inside the vehicle crashed into the corner of the shop, where a unique black case was sitting. The costumed weirdo who wasn’t preoccupied took one more shot at Dylan.

He ducked out of the way instinctively. However, one of the glass doors of the frozen goods exploded behind him as he tried to hurry away from that spot. There was no telling yet how much, if any, glass hit Dylan.

It took a moment longer for him to realize that he was, in fact, moving closer to the danger like some sort of idiot. Dylan refrained from kicking himself when he turned the corner and saw one of the pistol devices a few inches from his face.

“Just stay down,” the distorted voice whispered. Something about it sounded soft, almost pleading.

Suddenly, one of the armed assailants rammed into the one who pointed their pistol at Dylan, and he fell backward with the same person, both of them smashing through another glass door with a loud bang. There was blood, and the masked weirdo somehow got off of Dylan in a blurred instant. Everything spun and went cloudy.

As he got up, the store took on a decidedly orange hue and obnoxious brightness. Two of those masked creeps were gone, but one remained trying to reach the vehicle. The remaining individual had a crimson trail behind them for a few feet.

Finally the store clerk was visible. They were on the ground with a pool of blood below them. Flames were reaching them. There was only one person left that Dylan could hope to save now, so he limped to the one crawling and reaching for the large object he just realized was a spaceship.

“No time. Everything . . . to explode . . .” Their voice became clearer despite also growing more pained.

Dylan reached down and made every attempt to help this stranger up. The mask had fallen off, but he couldn’t get a good enough look at the man’s face.

“Just do it,” he said.

Then everything jolted, turned red and white, and then to nothing.

***

Present Day

Captain Druvvin paced back and forth behind his office desk. A frown accompanied his face as he considered the whole report that Tong-Chang had provided.

Meanwhile, Zoi’ne couldn’t help but feel nervous. How was the man of undeniable authority going to treat the news that something so alien, by Zoey’s reckoning, was at a convenience store on a lesser developed planet?

“This revelation reeks,” the captain said after a long silence. “It’s more than enough that our technology landed so close to primitive hands, if you will excuse my phrasing. It’s worse that unknown materials requiring this case might have been involved in your side of the recent Matter Transference incident. Now you three tell me that one extra case is on our ship with no sign of registry. Furthermore, the odds of this revelation coming to light would have been reduced, perhaps cut short, had the palisticks not been misplaced in the last twenty-four hours.”

She never did get to enjoy that bag of funyuns, either. Would she be the greatest villain of galactic history if she tried to re-introduce them?

The captain said, “I can’t even take solace here, as I no longer know if my own ship and crew might have contributed to making this incident happen. I can, however, hope that the first cryogenic case and its contents were destroyed utterly, or that this is somehow the same one delivered into our serendipitous custody. Either way would prevent a real disaster for your home planet, as well as for us. Ensign, you have done well to report this to me before touching the case. Miss Wilde, I commend you for bringing a fuller testimony before me. We will examine this case momentarily, and you’re otherwise free to go.”

“Thank you, sir,” Zoey said.

“I ask that you do not pry into this unless you can remember anything else that might help. Most especially, do not repeat this to my communications officer. He has been revising our journeys into grand adventures with puns for titles, and I can see the man calling our whole trip ‘The Wilde Mystery.’ Now, if we are done here, I will need a scalding hot shower.”

“When you are next available, sir, might I have a word regarding my legal name?”

“Perhaps. I have a long list of duties to look over and sign off on, all while taking the helm of this ship. Don’t be afraid to ask this young man’s parents, since they too are captains, or the admiral if he is not too busy. Now then, you are all excused.”

It was a moment later, when the trio returned to the corridor leading away from the Bridge, that Zoey picked up their conversation. “They’re captains?” she asked.

Das said, “One of them just retired, but yes.”

“What was that like, growing up under them?”

“If you take a class on contemporary military or trade history, you will reach an entire chapter about a negotiation that was going sour until a married couple took over the hailing frequencies with one of the most asinine arguments ever, and how that quarrel resulted in the entire dispute being resolved. All I can say is that I am so sorry.”

***

Das’ithrios led Zoi’ne into the guest quarters where he and his folks were staying for this trip. She had told him that she had nothing else planned for today, and now she stood at the entrance looking uncertain about something that Das couldn’t read, just looking at her.

“Come on in,” he said, “it’s fine. I’m sure we have something here to pass the time that you might like.”

Zoi’ne said, “That’s nice of you. I just . . . I don’t know.”

“Well, if anything’s wrong, I hope you are able to trust me enough to let me know.”

In his attempt to look in Zoey’s eyes and be sincere, Das felt again like he was talking to his long lost sister. But, that was what Il’lyse was – lost. He looked away and considered what he was even doing for a second.

He said, “We have books, most of them digital. I don’t know how familiar you are with our lyurunics.”

“I don’t even know what that is,” Zoey said. “Come to think of it, I’m not sure if I’ve seen your alphabet, or letters.”

“Oh, OK. You use a different word for it. I think. If we’re lucky then hopefully some of it will be familiar so your time will be a little easier. Let’s try something else, though.”

“What else have you got?”

“Do you have video games where you’re from?”

“You’re kidding, right? I almost grew up on video games if not for my uncle being against my having any game systems of my own. What kind of games do you have?”

“Good question. Let me see what ones my mom brought with her.”

He turned to the monitor in the main room. It curved inward with the wall it was mounted within, and had a few simple buttons on the left side. Das held down the confirmation button and tapped the plus sign to fully activate the monitor. Then he navigated the options and found that his mother’s game data was missing, as were her movies and contact list, but her own information was in the temporary storage since she was still listed as an active user.

Das hoped that she wasn’t too busy, wherever she was, and then selected the option to call her from the monitor. A trio of chimes sounded once, a second time, a third time, and then cut off halfway through a fourth when the sound of air followed.

“Hello?” his mother’s voice said. She didn’t bother with the video this time.

“Hello, Mom,” he said. He glanced at Zoey to see her face and measure her reaction to this level of technology. She looked pleased and accepting of it from what little he could tell.

“What’s up, Dasos?”

“I’m showing Zoey around, and was hoping to find one of your games since I didn’t bring any of mine.”

“Who’s Zoey?” Oh, right. His mom didn’t know yet.

Zoey said, “It’s me, Dylan. I decided on Zoi’ne for my new name.”

“Already?”

“I’ll also need something done to make that my official name instead of just some alias or whatever.”

“That has a certain level of permanence. We can talk more about this in a couple hours. We’re at the ship’s Recreation Hall finishing another game, and then I’m treating Aerak to a Daxin-Ginserei massage since they actually offer it here, and the man has yet to try it.”

Das heard his father muttering, “Will you please stop trying to kill me?”

“Oh, live a little, my love.”

The banter made Zoey giggle silently. She clearly had no idea what it was like to live with these two for so many years, not that it was bad. It was just a sort of constant that no one fully adapted to without going mad.

“In any case,” said Das’s mom, “I can send one of the game files over. The permission will last you both more than long enough for us to get over there after we’re done here. Ah, Zoi’ne was it? Hold on a second.”

Their voices could be heard on the other end of the call, but hardly any of the words got through clearly. The pause was brief enough, however.

“How would you like to join us all for dinner tonight?” Das’s mother asked. “Aerak tells me he feels like cooking, so I asked him if he minded company being over. He’d actually be happy to cook for one more, if you’ll join us. Plus it’ll give us a chance to get to know each other better.”

“That sounds wonderful, thank you,” Zoi’ne said.

“Great. I’ll hang up now, but I’m sending something over right away. I hope you both like it.”

As soon as the temporary game file began to copy over, making it good for about a day before needing another permission or else a more direct link to the source, Das recognized the title that hovered over the progress bar at the bottom of the screen. It somehow didn’t surprise him that his mother had such a recent game release.

“What’s Crash of Jovians III?” Zoey asked.

Das said, “It’s only one of the most over-the-top series of fighting games. We’re on a spaceship, and we’re about to throw planetoids and relatively smaller ships at one another.”

“Wait a minute. How do you have ‘Jovian’ in your language?”

“Huh?”

Chapter 5

It took a while for Zoey to learn the controls in this game just enough to last a solid minute or longer against Das’ithrios during every match. She wasn’t as practiced as he was with the characters or environmental effects, but this game was the most fun Zoey could recall having for some time.

At one point, she managed to beat him, and Das denied ever dropping his guard or losing on purpose. Yet, it was enough to build her up and try even harder since beating him was possible. It was doable.

Comparably, the graphics on this game were only so much better than what Zoey saw on Earth. Another generation or two of game consoles, from the time that she left, would have caught up to what she was seeing on the monitor. At the same time, she wasn’t sure that the medium needed any more improvement.

“So how advanced are these games, anyways?” Zoi’ne asked.

“What do you mean?” Das said.

“How can I put this? The video quality is amazing, better than humans have on Earth, but it doesn’t look more than ten years ahead.”

“It’s probably the diminished returns on pixels and polygons. Our game companies peaked a couple centuries ago on those, and decided to focus on stability, fluidity, and the actual content itself. Then companies proceeded to come and go as long as they could afford to be in the business.”

“That sounds better than how things were going when I left home. Are your games sold in their entirety, or are they broken up with pieces locked behind pay walls?”

“They’ve been whole and complete for close to two hundred years now. I only heard bits and pieces about what happened, but maybe Mom can tell you more. I mean my mom. She took a course in technological history for pre-space expansion.”

“Cool, I might do that. History is one of my favorite subjects.” Zoey and Das nodded as they finished and started another match. The match was nearly over when she leaned in closer to Das. “So who or what was Jove?”

***

Zoey volunteered to help by putting plates on the dining table since she felt that it was the least she could to show her generosity for being here with the family. The utensils were basically the same that she grew up with on Earth, with the biggest difference being how the fork had three prongs instead of four and the soup spoons looking more like miniature ladles with curved, plastic handles.

She didn’t know yet know Aelfs, or anyone else in this society, displayed the utensils, so Zoey imitated what she remembered from her old life: napkin to the left of the plate with the fork on top of it, knife to the immediate right of the plate, the main spoon next, and then the soup spoon on the farthest to the right. With hope this setup would have been inoffensive to her hosts, but something told her they wouldn’t have minded as long as it worked.

Meanwhile, Das was suffering mostly defeats against his mother at that fighting game. Zoey could picture her beating the members of her crew at just about anything, and still looking like quite the winner when the rarity came that she lost.

Keft’aerak looked more or less like he was in his own little world when cooking required his attention, and very much like the family was his world when he had the time for it. Given how masterful he was at the kitchen area, it was hardly any wonder that he could do the latter as often as he did.

He looked at Zoey and said, “It’s a funny thing, you know. Back when I was attending the academy most ships still hired on official chefs for the entire crew. You might have seen one or two security personnel around a captain or admiral, but a chef was guarded by two or three at any time.”

“That’s interesting,” Zoey said.

“I was schooling to become a communications officer when, in my third revolution, I was assigned to a ship called the Tyk Jarl where I befriended one of the last great chefs to serve that duty on an official level. She taught me so many things during my downtime, even quizzed me on it. As a prank she once sicked all three security guys on me the same day I was to try and make something for the whole crew.”

“Oh wow, what happened then?”

“She was told there wouldn’t be any security posted to protect her for about a week if she tried that stunt again. She called the captain’s bluff. Oh, and I was lucky that the good captain walked into the room when the security was on me, because apparently the chef was such a known prankster, and the captain a formidable gambler. Instead I was allowed to cook a full meal for the six of us, and the chef made more for the rest of the crew.”

“Amazing.”

“The captain told me, ‘Ensign Thalassas, you show some real talent at communications and cooking, but I better not see you anywhere near my daughter.’”

“And then you married her,” chimed his wife.

“Yes, and every person who served as security on that ship attended.”

“What? They were basically my family.”

Zoi’ne laughed with one hand on her waist and another starting on her brow before dropping. She was not expecting to hear about family history like that, and yet she also had to admit that it was funny.

When the laughter passed, Zoey noticed that Keft’aerak tilted his head and was looking at her curiously. Then he turned back to the food and continued to stir the pans.

Moments later the food was served. Bon’sinne nodded at the arrangement of utensils. “I like this,” she said, “but no soup.”

“Crap, I’m sorry,” Zoey said.

“It’s no problem, dear. I don’t mind since we’re learning about where you come from. This is how you do your eating implements on Earth, right?”

“In some regions, it’s the less formal arrangement. There are some social circles where they have ten to fifteen utensils, one for every bite-sized portion of a larger meal. It’s kind of odd whenever I think about that. Weirder still, they only use five to seven from the whole lot.”

“I think, in some of our histories, we’ve also had rich societies as . . . dedicated to showing how rich and polished they were. That sounds about right to the sort of thing they would do for their gatherings.”

“Did you have an eccentric rich person launch a land-based car into space to promote their brand?”

“I’m not so sure about that one.”

Keft’aerak said, “I’m sure you have some stories about Earth’s attempts at space travel.”

Zoey said, “I might, but hardly any are as entertaining as one man playing golf on the moon, unless you count the many works of fiction Earth has about space travel.”

“Golf? What’s that?”

“Man swings club to hit a ball, man chases after ball, man repeats until ball enters a hole, and sometimes another man provides dry commentary in a low, soft voice guaranteed to make the mightiest caveman fall asleep before the next club can be swung.”

Zoey took a bite of the roasted meat and noted how much stronger the flavor was than chicken, despite being so similar in color.

“What is this, by the way? It’s delicious.”

“The meat was synthesized to emulate coyaturns, a type of bird. I roasted it with some seasoning and pineapple juice. Those were actually found on the ship, waiting to be bought and used. I’m glad you like it. I’m sure the meat would have been even better with real coyaturns, but we’re a bit far from anywhere that allows hunting them.”

“What other meats can be synthesized?”

“There are lots. One of us can probably tell you about every animal catalogued by the machine. It made for a great advance many years ago, but only recently it was made as good as it is now. The raw ingredients turn out better than the finished products, however.”

“I haven’t been able to use one yet, but that’s good to know. I guess that’s on my list of everyday things I have to learn, too.”

Everyone in the family nodded at her. There was so much that Zoey still didn’t know, and much of that she probably didn’t know about. She thought about it as she ate. What was the first, or next, thing she needed to learn? What was something so basic for everyone else that would help her?

“I need to learn how to read,” she said. “I knew how to read in English back on Earth, and a tiny bit of other languages there as well, but only if they used the same alphabet.”

She recognized the confused glances she was getting from her hosts, and explained, “That’s what Earth Humans call letters, or lewd runes or whatever you call them.”

Das chuckled and said, “Lyurunics.”

“Yep, those. While we were playing that game earlier I think I recognized some of your letters, assuming that they make the same sounds. I’ve seen some around the ship too. Other than that, I don’t know. I feel like I should since it would help me as well as everyone else.”

Just then, Bon’sinne burst into tears. Everyone else set down their forks and knives, and looked at her. Zoi’ne felt her heart sink and wondered what, if anything, she did wrong.

“I’m so sorry,” Bon’sinne said. “I’ll be fine. I just . . . This isn’t fair, to any of you, but I miss Il’lyse so much. Part of me keeps wanting to see her when I look at you. Part of me wants to hear her when you speak. You share some of what we knew and loved about her, but that only makes it so much harder.”

Zoi’ne reached out and place her hand on Bon’sinne’s, in spite of the hurt those words brought. She said, “I know I can never replace her. I would never hope to. If I may ask, if it might help, would you be willing to tell me what she was like?”

“Maybe later. You’re too kind trying to cheer me up. I’ll be fine. I don’t know why I’ve been like this lately. If you still want to know later, maybe I can tell you.

“I’m looking forward to it.” Zoey wasn’t entirely sure why, but that was the truth.

***

The craft flew at high speeds while keeping its distance and avoiding detection. The leader of the Kroke Team checked on the pilot and fuel levels. Their stiern-boat could last two more days before needing to be picked up by their allies. Where was the signal?

The team’s leader folded her arms. This mission was edging closer to failure with every passing hour. It didn’t help that she was on edge for the last few weeks either. The Hulda’fi needed that cryogenic case. Recovering it was the Kroke Team’s main purpose out here.

As soon as the insider signaled them, it was go time.

Suddenly, she saw it. A light flashed and drifted away from the Maslou. There was no time left now for anyone to investigate the source of that light.

“Kroke Team, let’s go boys and girls.”

Chapter 6

Zoi’ne turned upon the bed and realized that she was awake again. Around her was the smaller room that she was staying in during this trip, rather than the vague dream that now faded into nothingness without a shred of memory. She remained at the point of figuring out if the dreams were fading, or if this was the dream now. The same sensation had been going for the last few days.

The holographic tinting inside her window remained dark. It was one of the few settings she had learned until now. She swapped to the digital clock setting to check the time, and had to remind herself that this ship ran on twenty-five hour days. Despite Zoey’s gripes about doing even basic math after waking up, she figured that only three hours passed since going to bed.

She got up to grab a glass of water, the window’s effect still set to the Maslou’s time-keep. Zoey straightened out the nightgown that Tong-Chang lent her, and then walked to the miniature station in one corner of her room where an empty cup and pitcher of water awaited her.

As soon as she grasped the handle on the water pitcher, though, the ship shook hard enough for Zoey to lose her balance and collapse. Zoey caught herself on the counter out of instinct, reducing her fall.

At the top of the walls, before the ceiling, was a black strip about the width of a finger. In a strange sense of double vision where the secondary sight appeared a fraction of a second later, Zoey twice witnessed the strip turn yellow in places. The yellow spots proceeded to glide in one direction around the room.

Logic told her to stay put and let the ship’s crew handle whatever was going on. Deep down, however, Zoi’ne already knew that she needed to put on a simple change of clothes and find the Thalassas family. She grabbed a pair of pants, a hoody, and a pair of slip-on shoes, and changed quickly as she headed out the door. Whatever was going on or needed to happen next, the wonderful people she ate dinner with this evening were just the right people to figure out what to do.

The larger suite in which the family was staying was a few doors down on the other side of the corridor. Zoey tapped the main button atop the array found next to the door, but neither saw nor heard any response yet.

Meanwhile, in the distance, she could otherwise hear the sounds of combustions.

***

Das thought he heard a ringing sound. It brought him out of a state of floating bliss and into a groggy stupor. As soon as he noticed the shifting lights of a yellow alert, he sat up in bed and found both of his parents rummaging through their packs.

His mother was first to extract her gun. She said, “Dasos, dear, you can probably go back to sleep.”

“Says the woman carrying her defense weapon,” Das remarked.

“We’re just preparing for the unlikely. Someone’s at the door, by the way.” The ringing sound repeated when she said that. “Why don’t you check the door for us since you’re up?”

The door’s tone repeated again and again more frantically as Das approached. He switched open the locking mechanism. The door slid open, but faster than that Zoey went from looking off to the side, down the corridor, to practically tackling Das.

“Look out!” she screamed as she landed on him.

Something fast and hardly visible struck the doorway. It was strong enough to blow a hole in one side.

In the chaos, Dasos’s parents whispered something that sounded like codes of some sort. His father said, “Both of you get down.”

He barely got a look at them before crouching down on the ground, taking Zoey with him. His parents aimed their sidearms at the doorway. At first there were faint footsteps, then nothing. The door tried to close. The upper track screeched in pain. Then again – nothing.

“It’s them,” Zoey whispered. “It’s them, it’s them, it’s them.”

A figure leapt into the doorway in a crouch. Their outfit matched no one else on the ship, and they wore charcoal hoods and strange masks, with yellow eye pieces and beaks over their nose and mouth.

Before Das could ascertain any more than that, his parents fired their weapons. The invader got a shot off, but it found only the ceiling, putting a dent in it. The masked individual fell back, no longer able to respond to anything.

“Is that a Hulda’fi?” Das asked.

His parents confirmed as much in varying words that he wasn’t really listening to. He got up and looked at the rebel lying on the floor. Das had only read about these guys, and seen low quality pictures, until now.

But Zoey? She saw them once. These were the folks she saw back on Earth; it had to be. What were they doing there?

Zoi’ne said, “Is everyone alright? I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do when I saw the yellow lights.”

“You’re fine, dear,” Das’s mother said. “We probably would have gone looking for you if you hadn’t.”

“Who are those guys?”

The ship’s alarm sounded. The lights changed to orange. Captain Druvvin’s voice came over the intercom without skipping a beat.

He said, “Battle stations! Everyone report who is presently able. The rest of you stand by for further orders. Please make sure any guests or family are in a safe place.”

“I’m going to help them,” Das’s father said. “This isn’t my ship, but it’s the least I can do with these Hulda’fi running around.”

“Come back to me when you can, my love,” said Das’s mother. “I’m going to secure the escape craft just in case. We don’t know what tactics they’re using here, or if they’re after anything.”

“Agreed. You two?” He looked over at Das and Zoey.

Zoey said, “The last time I saw these guys, my old life ended. At least I think it’s them.”

“You saw them on Earth?”

“It might have been different ones. The three on Earth didn’t have bird beaks over their mouths. Wait.”

Zoi’ne knelt by the Hulda’fi raider and looked more closely at the mask. Das wanted to tell her to be careful. They didn’t know if the person on the floor was unconscious, dead, or simply faking it.

She removed the Hulda’fi pistol with enough care to pick a plush animal toy from a sleeping toddler, and then did the less careful act of waving it sideways in Das’s direction. He grabbed it, his heart clenching harder than his fists around the strange weapon. Luckily, it didn’t go off, and neither did the person lying on the ground get up.

“It looks fastened to the mask,” she said, “but not built in. I don’t see how to remove it, either—ah!”

The Hulda’fi lunged at her with their hands at her neck. Das and his mother called out to Zoey as she and the raider rolled out of the doorway into the corridor.

***

As they wrestled against one another, all of a sudden, Zoey could hear the distorted and pained voice of someone laughing.

“So long,” her new foe said between the laughs. “I’ve waited for this. I must kill you—”

Zoey punched at her attacker through this person’s attempt to strangle her. Striking the mask hurt her own hand as well, but she hoped it worked enough to stun this person. Then she wasted no more time and pushed the masked assailant off of her with her legs.

Then they screamed out when something nearby pounded against the surrounding air with a loud thud. There was Das pointing the strange pistol at its previous owner, breathing heavily. His eyes filled with trying to figure out what he had just done, despite knowing the answer already.

Now there was a corpse next to Zoey in a contorted position. She slid over and lifted the mask while this person faced down. The lifeless eyes of a male Aelf stared across the floor. His face looked so young, but how could Zoey tell?

She looked up at Das and said, “Thank you.”

“Of course,” he said. “That was dangerous.”

“I’ll be more careful. I think I needed this so I can understand better what all of this is about.”

“How much can you make out from that?”

“That’ll take some time, at least. Let’s get going.”

Back at the door to the guest suite, Bon’sinne was tinkering with a device that reminded Zoey of cellular phones back home. It looked like a holographic list hovered above the phone, and she scrolled down it swiftly before making a selection and walking back deeper into the suite.

“Can I help you, Captain Thalassas?” asked Captain Druvvin.

Bon’sinne said, “I’m hoping to hear how else we can help, Captain. We’ve taken down one of the rebels invading your ship, and I’m about to make my way to your escape crafts to secure the area.”

“I’m not sure securing the escape crafts will be necessary.”

“I’ve read reports to the contrary. Consider it the least I can do.”

“Very well. If you must know, we have been yanked out of Delta Warp. Five of my crew have been picked up as missing by the ship’s sensors, as well as two dead. These rebels are zipping back and forth across the ship. It’s clear that they are looking for something. I fear it may me the object that I had an ensign relocate for analysis before she went off to report to the admiral and his wife for the night, and she’s among the ones missing. The primary energy shield is down. We are now trying to detach the rebel craft, but need to send some of my men and women to do so manually.”

“This does not bode well.”

“I am well aware of the situation. If you wish to secure the escape crafts then you may also wish to take your family to Shuttle Re since it’s the closest to your suite. We will be reaching red alert in five minutes. Captain out.”

Zoey said, “Tonny’s missing.”

“What?” asked Bon’sinne.

“Tong-Chang was assigned to taking care of the admiral and his wife when she isn’t on other duties.”

“Well, I’m heading to the escape craft. We will need to hurry so we can keep things orderly over there.”

Keft’aerak re-appeared from wherever he was hiding, now wearing plainer clothes instead of pajamas. He said, “I’m ready to go. I’ll go help with detachment. If those rebels are clever and want something on this ship then they will be guarding the area.”

“Lover, please take care, and come back to me. You two are with me.”

There was a grunting sound by the door. Das shook himself out of his daze and wiped a hand across his face. After a deep breath he said, “I got your back.” Then his body quivered for a second.

His mother nodded at him knowingly. Her frown spoke volumes of someone who wanted to comfort their child after some trauma, but there was no time. There was so much more still to do.

So much more to do . . .

Zoey said, “I need to check on Tonny. I need to find her.”

“No,” Bon’sinne said, “you need to come with us.”

“I’ll be careful. Go on ahead; I’ll catch up.”

“The ship’s captain requested that I take my family to the escape craft. That includes you.”

Zoey’s heart shook. If she had somehow forgotten about that organ existing then that was reminder enough for a lifetime. “Don’t. Don’t make this harder on me than it already is. I’m sorry.”

She ran off toward the other guest quarters. She couldn’t take this, any of it. Bon’sinne called out after her. Zoey couldn’t take this at all.

Chapter 7

The residential area of the Maslou was split into three main areas. Where the Thalassas family stayed on one far side, the admiral’s guest suite was on the opposite side of the residential area.

Zoi’ne ran in short bursts, and ducked behind corners of the walls or protruding doorways to check for any more bad guys suddenly appearing. The last thing she needed was for another of them to get lucky and spot her.

While crossing the second section, Zoey spotted the first of three members of the ship’s crew when she realized that, at a heightened alert, they might have questions about someone wandering around like this. She had to be extra careful or risk being shot by the good guys. Another pair of crew members ran past her toward the end of the section.

A second passed, and then a moment more. They gave no sign of having seen her.

In the third section, one of the Hulda’fi rebels stood looking up and down a corridor at a T-intersection. The figure grabbed their mask beak and shifted like some sort of infectious laughter. They went poof, and vanished. Zoey could have sworn she saw them grab something at waist level.

For a moment she wondered where that rebel invader went. It took as long to realize that she hadn’t moved yet. The admiral’s quarters was so close, but it might as well had been on the other side of the universe if Zoey let herself remain distracted by every caution or thought.

Zoey darted for the next spot, and then the corner after that, until the target door was in view. There was no sign of the security that was meant to be posted here. For that matter, where was the security meant for the Thalassas’ quarters?

Focus. You can think about it later.

She made a dash for the door and pressed the main button on its panel. No response came. Zoey slammed her hand palm-first into the panel. Not that she was expecting differently, but no response came with the door.

The door opened suddenly. It was the first thing to catch Zoey off guard. A fraction of a second before it finished opening, Zoey got a glimpse of her second surprise – a masked rebel stood waiting for her.

Her split second peek into what was in front of her allowed Zoi’ne to dodge to the side, and attempt to smack at the rebel’s hand that carried the pistol. The pistol went off without hitting her. She took this chance to clench her fist and strike at the rebel’s face.

Unfortunately she forgot about the mask the other person was wearing, as well as the mask now hanging from within her clenched fingers, which took for of the punch than the raider did.

“Whoa, whoa,” the raider exclaimed, their voice distorted and arms raised. They looked up and down Zoey’s figure; she glanced past them to find someone on a bed beneath a single sheet. The raider looked at the person, whose features Zoey could not make out, and then laughed. “Well, now, it looks like someone’s planning to have a little fun. Naughty, miss, but she’s all yours.”

Zoey wasn’t sure if she had any argument for or against that, or if she should even try. Instead, she watched as the raider took a deep breath and touched something on their belt. The raider vanished instantly in a puff of multi-colored dust, leaving the way open. This gave her a couple opportunities, including a moment to shake off the stinging sensation in her hand that she used to punch earlier.

She stopped the door from closing and then ran in. Tonny’s face became visible to her as Zoey entered the room. She grabbed the Ginserei’s shoulders and sat her up on the bed.

“Tonny,” Zoey called. “Earth to Tong-Chang, wake up.”

As her friend groaned and only just pried her eyes open, Zoey noticed the full extent of how naked Tong-Chang was underneath the single sheet. The cloth slipped past her bust, revealing even the black tuft of hair that ran part of the way down her chest.

Tong-Chang whispered, “Lyssa,” her eyes still not quite open. She pulled herself closer to Zoey and proceeded to kiss her on the lips. Zoey’s first reaction was to flail her arms for a moment before setting them back down on the bunny girl’s shoulders.

So many questions, Zoey remarked internally.

Once Zoey pulled herself free, she said, “Tonny, wake—“

Then her friend’s eyes shot open wide. Tong-Chang put her hands over her mouth and gasped audibly. Her eyes darted to the light strip below the ceiling, and the panic set in right as the color changed to red.

Tong-Chang said, “Shit, Zoi’ne, I’m so sorry. We have to get out of here. Please don’t tell anyone about this. I beg of you.”

“We can talk about this later,” Zoey said.

“Nice top, by the way.” She pushed herself off of the bed and stumbled toward a chair with her ship uniform hanging over the back. As she caught herself and breathed, it was clear that Tong-Chang wasn’t fully awake yet, despite the adrenaline that helped get her up.

“I must have dozed off right after I came here,” Tong-Chang said as she put her clothes on. “What’s going on out there? Where are Admiral and Lady Fjorfolia? And what’s that you have there in your hand?”

Zoey said, “I haven’t seen or heard from your charges. The Maslou is being attacked by a group called the Hulda’fi. This is one of their masks. I swiped it from one that tried to kill me. God, he was intent on killing me. Another one just a moment ago saw me and let me through.”

“What happened to the one you took the mask from?”

“He’s dead. Das killed him.”

By now, Tong-Chang was on one of her boots, but the mention of Das taking a life made her stop. “How is he handling that?”

“I didn’t really have time to ask. I came here as soon as I heard you’d gone missing like a few others of the ship’s crew. The captain said you moved that one thing, and it’s possible these guys are looking for it.”

“Then we better make sure they don’t tear this ship and its crew apart looking.” She stood up and grabbed her phone-like device, which had a different design than the one Bon’sinne was using. She clicked a button twice and spoke into the object. “Sir, Ensign Leezu reporting for duty.”

“I’m glad to hear it!” said Captain Druvvin, his voice loud enough to not require a speaker option on any phone. The tone also put a grimace on Tonny’s face.

“I’ll file my report later, sir. Do you know if the case is still secure, and how is the Engine Room?”

“So far the Engine Room staff appears to be unmolested in their attempts to restore our shield, weaponry, and means of propulsion. Did you pick the secure place I suggested for the mystery cargo?”

“I did, sir.”

“Good, I will send a security team there at once. You are to aid them in any way they ask.”

“Yes, sir. What should I do with Zoi’ne, Captain?”

“Is she with you? I thought she was with the Thalassas?”

“I think she saved my life, sir. That will again be on my report.”

There was a bang sound, and then silence. Zoey and Tong-Chang turned a corner in the residential corridors when Captain Druvvin was able to speak again.

“Change of orders, ensign. Escort our guest to the nearest escape craft. If you see another of these skid-visitors, shoot to kill. Captain out.”

It disappointed Zoey that she couldn’t be more useful. At least she saved her friend, she thought, but there had to be more. She about resigned herself to needing to head to that escape craft, wherever it was, when a sound came from the mask that Zoey was holding.

She held it up to her ear. A young woman said, “Kroke Team, I believe we found it. All available hands to Deck One-Eleven, Starboard side, and take it toward the Engine Room.”

Laughter followed, and numerous voices all said, “Yes, sister.”

Zoey dropped the mask down and held it with both hands, hoping that one of them covered the mouth piece. Tong-Chang gave no words, but her face asked plenty to what just happened.

“They’re headed to Deck One-Eleven, Starboard side, followed by the Engine Room,” Zoi’ne repeated. “There are so many of them.”

Tong-Chang said, “The two are close. It sounds like they found our hiding place.”

“You should inform the captain then and warn him. Which way is Shuttle Re?”

“Follow me.”

They turned one direction, and immediately bowed out of sight when one of the masked raiders appeared behind them, shouting “Hey, you!” in their direction. Tong-Chang posed behind the corner in a defensive position and waited.

The raider ran their way and met with a series of blows they did not see coming. Tong-Chang pulled loose their gun and shot the raider with it. Then she dropped the pistol and shook her hand without giving the fallen raider another glance.

“Those things suck at short range,” she said.

“Those were some nice moves, though,” Zoey said.

“No, I was only tenth in my class at the academy, but thank you. This was my good hand too. I guess I won’t be doing any dexterous work for a bit while my hand’s a mixture of numbness and pain.”

***

Das stood guard in the hallway by the emergency shuttle entrance as his mother guided the admiral and his wife aboard. The shuttle was large enough to fit ten people. Six were now present, including three who could pilot this craft.

“Is there still no sign of Zoey?” his mother asked.

“Not yet,” Das said.

“What was she thinking? Look out.”

One of the masked raiders appeared. Das responded to his mother by shooting the faceless assailant with the geiru blaster taken from another one earlier. His mother also shot her own gun at the raider.

“Do you really think of her like family?” Das asked.

“I do,” his mother replied. “She shines in her own way. She shines, and she needs a home and family.”

“I miss my sister as much as you do. What you’re saying is complicated to say the least.”

“Is it? Why should it be complicated, Dasos? I’m not trying to replace your sister. Perhaps Zoi’ne was a sign. We kept on telling ourselves that we need time, but time only goes faster. Maybe Zoi’ne was the sign I needed.”

“Mom, it’s OK.”

“What? Here she is.”

Zoey and Tong-Chang ran toward Shuttle Re, not really slowing when they looked down at the fallen Hulda’fi. Seeing the both of them safe took a weight off of Das’s shoulders that he tried to tell himself wasn’t there.

Both of them stopped at the entrance to the escape shuttle. Zoey and Das’s mother stared and nodded at one another in silence for a time.

“I’m sorry,” Zoey said.

“You’re fine,” Das’s mom said. “It looks like you found Tonny as well.”

“Where’s Keft’aerak?”

“He’s helping the ship’s crew. They’re trying to detach the Hulda’fi boat from atop this ship.”

“Is that anywhere near the Engine Room?”

“Perhaps; I didn’t catch that detail. Why do you ask?

“If it’s not then they’re up to something. I’ve seen enough television shows to know where this is going.”

“How do you know these rebels are going there?”

Zoi’ne held up the mask she took. “I heard some girl talking to the others. She said something about a Kroke Team?”

Das felt himself suddenly go pale, and the heavy sensation return in force. His mother had a similar reaction to this name.

“What?” Zoey asked. “Do these guys rock the world of hitting colored balls with hammers?”

“The Kroke Team,” Dasos’s mother said, “is among the elite forces of the Hulda’fi rebels. The fact that we’re alive right now tells me that they’re toying with us, even if we killed a couple. They’re after something.”

“In that case we definitely need to head to the Engine Room and stop them from doing too much damage.”

Throughout the discussion, Dasos pinched his brow and found himself thinking about it. He wasn’t assigned to this ship for his class credit at the academy, and yet he felt a duty to it. His father must have felt that sense as well. Listening to his mother and friend throughout this argument about whether or not to do anything made Dasos realize he couldn’t let Zoey risk her life.

“I will go,” he said. “The both of you stay here and wait for any others in need of flight.”

***

Soror Valide, the leader of the Kroke Team, shot down a second consecutive officer aboard this ship. This one wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t going to move or attack any time soon. Shame; she had hoped that a ship so impressive in its renown would have made things more fun for her.

Now two of her mates were grabbing the black case. The next step was getting it onto her craft and calling for the withdraw. Then they could warp out of here toward the pick-up point, and let these fools destroy themselves for all it was worth.

After all, the only option the Maslou had left was its own self destruction. The thought made her giggle.

Chapter 8

Smoke lined the air as he progressed toward the Engine Room. There were bodies on the floor as well. It was difficult to tell who was actually dead and who was only taken out of the fight through heavy injuries. Dasos only ran onward.

Luckily the stairwell was clear, heading down to where he was to find his destination. None of the raiders were present as of yet, but Das could hear them fighting some of the crew.

One Hulda’fi rebel combusted into being in front of Das. His Aelfen foresight gave him time to react before the rebel could turn to face him. Das came in with a kick at their knee, a grasping of the rebel’s head, and using his foe’s masked face to ram the nearby wall. Das chose to do this without killing again if he could. So he yanked off the mask while the rebel was still stunned, and then he immediately punched her in the face before fully registering that this particular member of the Kroke Team was a Ginserei woman.

Great, I’m sure Tonny will appreciate that so much, Das thought as the woman fell to the ground.

He spotted the device on the belt that Zoey had mentioned before Das ran this way. Das yanked at the item to no avail since it was sturdy as it was looped onto the belt rather than tacked on loosely. He was distracted enough by it that the woman managed to turn and punch him in return.

Das fell back and landed on his hands. One hand touched something solid. He quickly scanned his peripheral without taking his eyes off of the Hulda’fi, and Das found one of the crew members sitting against the wall, bleeding, and the object that Das was touching was the pistol issued to members of security.

The rebel charged at him. Das picked up the pistol and fired at waist level. The Ginserei flinched. By the timed she looked down, stunned, the device on her belt was scorched and no longer working. Her face shifted into anger.

“Don’t,” Das said. “Just stay down.”

His words fell on deaf ears, however, and the unmasked rebel leapt at him. The gun in his hand went off again. The laser pierced the woman before her body collapsed on top of Das. This made twice in one evening that he took a life, which was something that the academy never trained him for.

He pulled himself out from beneath the dead rebel, and walked the rest of the way to the Engine Room. His ears rang. His face felt hot. The fighting went on, but he couldn’t hear it; or hear himself.

Within seconds he looked upon his father’s face. It grew more panicked as something hit Das in the side of his chest. The ceiling light swing around Das’s face and drifted away. So, so far away from him.

***

Zoey took her mind off of things by further examining the mask she held. She found a pressure release mechanism inside, near to the nose. It didn’t quite detach the beak from the front of the mask, but it allowed for movement with which Zoey was able to twist the additional feature. It came off after twisting the beak close to half of a circle in one direction.

Green dust burst from the beak and dissipated at once from being so little. She gave it a whiff and noted a few scents hinted together before taking it far away from her face.

“Zoey,” Bon’sinne said, “what do you think you’re doing?”

“Not sure yet,” Zoey said. “It smells a bit of some exotic flower and dried seaweed.”

Zoey looked inside the beak and saw a surface with holes the size of a pen tip. She deduced that the scent came from there, whatever it was.

Meanwhile, Tong-Chang sat to the side with a device in her hand. She had removed the belt from the fallen rebel and laid it on the ground next to her. She prodded it with a set of pins that she kept in a small tool pouch.

“This is amazing,” Tong-Chang said. “Terrifying, but also amazing. It might explain how they’re getting around. It would take a really stupid state of a smarter mind to make that theory work!”

“Uhh Tonny?” said Zoey.

“What’s up? Oh, sorry, I just get excited when I see pieces of technology like this.”

“What is it?”

“From what I can tell it uses an advanced matrix similar to our transmats, as you put them, but navigation is random without the right, or dangerous and wrong, mindset. The trigger takes an anchor or axis to even work at all. I heard theories as to what can make this access, but the best so far has been a computer virus that adjusts a system’s frequency to match your level of compatibility induced by the state of mind.”

“I’m not sure I get it, but OK then?”

“These Hulda’fi have been getting around the ship with this if you’re right about what you saw. They had to make the ship into their own hub, or else they’d have teleported outside and died.”

Zoey handed her the beak. She asked, “Could the contents of this be responsible at all? It smells weird.”

“I’d have to take that into a lab to have it analyzed by someone more experience in chemistry than I am. Wait, you smelled it? H-how do you feel? Please tell me you aren’t out of your mind.”

“No more than usual.”

Tong-Chang’s eyes widened, and she stood up suddenly with the salute seen around the ship. This prompted Zoey to turn around and see a young woman in uniform carrying a baby.

The officer said, “Um . . . At ease, ensign.” She limped toward the shuttle with her baby in both arms.

Bon’sinne had stood in stunned silence for a while, and quivered at the mouth as she looked at the Aelf officer and infant. Finally she approached the younger woman and said, “Here, let me help.”

She guided the officer into the shuttle and acted as support so the young woman would not have to put much weight on her bad foot.

“What happened, Lieutenant Junior?” Bon’sinne asked.

The young woman said, “How? Oh, right. It was nothing fancy. I twisted my ankle really bad when running to my baby. It'll be fine. My fiancé will have a laugh when this is all over, though.”

“Congratulations. Where is he now?”

“He’s detaching the enemy ship as we speak. Thank you, Captain, you’re too kind.”

Bon’sinne walked back out of the shuttle once the officer and her baby were settling down inside. Her hand shook, and she whispered something over and over about a mother and child.

Zoey put a hand on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I can’t,” Bon’sinne said. “So many years of an impressive career, and I just can’t.”

Seeing a heart so exposed, so vulnerable, and so broken was never Zoey’s strong suit. As Dylan, he tried making quips and wisecracks, he tried being entertaining, but it never worked. Zoey wanted to run away again, but the woman before her needed someone more than anything. Zoey was that person.

She pulled in Bon’sinne and wrapped her arms around her. For the first time in her life, new or old, Zoey felt like she was doing the right thing. Suddenly she understood why her birth father gave up trying to raise her, and how unlike the man she really was. She met a family that cared. Her father would have wanted Dylan to have something like that. The family that came for a girl that wasn’t really their daughter; the family that still reached out to her because she had nowhere to go.

Was that really how easy it was?

“Yes you can, Mom,” she said to Bon’sinne. “I don’t know what happened, but yes you can. I bringing them back right now.”

Then she broke away, and made a run for the Engine Room. This family needed to be made whole.

***

“The other boxes have serial numbers, Soror Valide,” said one of the others.

“We have the right one then,” Soror Valide said. “Send it to our stiern-boat at once, and head on up. It’s time we got out of here.”

“At once, sister.”

Two of the Hulda’fi set the case down in the middle of the Engine Room and used adhesive to fasten a transfer beacon to the top of it. The black case glowed every possible color and then vanished.

More of her brothers and sisters grabbed their devices and exploded in their respective puffs of smoke. Soror Valide nodded to the rest and reached for her belt when a familiar voice shouted from the next room.

“That was my son!” the man said.

Her team of Hulda’fe knew well their creed, “We gather, for there is murder,” and she wasn’t about to deny it. However, she walked past everyone teleporting away. She turned through a doorway to find a man fighting against the last few of the Kroke Team singlehandedly.

Soror Valide knew the roster well, but saw no sign of this man. He was so full of rage, but there was no question as to whom he was.

His gun ran empty after hitting one last Hulda’fi. He shifted into martial arts without missing a second beat. Once upon a time, Soror Valide wanted to spar against this man or his wife. However, the Kroke Team’s best knew how to fight dirty, and he eventually fell with one opponent still standing.

Then a girl screamed, “No!”

***

Several members of the ship’s crew, including a couple of the laeknir, were helping their comrades off of the ground even though the fighting was still happening. When Zoey got closer she saw the all that was left of the fight was one man against a couple of Hulda’fi, and then only one. Keft’aerak was even more amazing than Tong-Chang.

Her pride and wonder was cut short when she recognized one of the bodies on the floor. Zoey ran to Das’ithrios and crouched over him, telling herself that he wasn’t dead. The closest thing she had to a brother couldn’t possibly be dead.

Zoey lowered her ear to his chest. Heartbeats reached her ears a split second before contact, and the chest rose with all the strain of trying to lift all that it could handle. Das needed help, and he needed it now. The laeknir weren’t fast enough, and the palistick on the floor next to Das wasn’t going to help at all. She felt so powerless here.

Then her own heart stopped at what she saw next. The rebel fighting Keft’aerak managed to break his arm and push the man down upon his knees. The rebel raised an arm for what might have been a final blow.

“No!” she screamed.

She dove and rolled forward. In one motion, Zoey managed to grab the palistick, hold the charge button, and throw the weapon at the Hulda’fi, who was too focused on their own target to turn and move.

The palistick spun in the air. There was no telling at first which end would hit where. In a miraculous first for Zoey, it struck the rebel in the neck. The rebel took a step back and grabbed their own throat before falling to the ground. Zoey had the satisfaction of watching the asshole hit the floor twice.

It wasn’t over, nor was it enough. One last rebel entered the room, their gaze focused entirely on Zoey. She noticed a few black bands wrapped around this rebel’s outfit, and the remains of a familiar discoloration on their chest from when Zoey was still on Earth. Other, minor differences could be found on the outfit compared to the others, but it didn’t matter.

“What?” the rebel asked. “Who—?”

Zoey screamed and ran at this person. This nightmare needed to end. There was only one person she blamed for it.

***

Soror Valide knew this face and hair too well, but who was this woman now charging at her? Who had this impossible face of hers? Soror Valide had another beacon on her, and was prepared to use it to get that answer in the safety of her own craft.

She blocked the mystery woman’s first blow with a stranger ease than normal. Her secondary sight was working overtime, seeing everything in slightly longer intervals than it did on most days. Where a few people around the room suddenly moved and then didn’t, and back and forth, this raging woman assaulting her never once deviated from was she was about to do.

That was when Soror Valide began to repeat what her best teachers of hand-to-hand taught her years ago. The new aim here was to subdue and bring back this person.

First she caught a punch and chopped the girl’s elbow without using too much force. Breaking it would have caused heavy trauma. Soror Valide continued from this position to punch the woman in the face with the backside of her free hand. She then freed her left hand and closed her fist for a quick jab into the girl’s torso.

The other girl coughed and kneeled. She tried so hard to scream or to breathe. She then got back up and proceeded to move in three directions at once. A fourth, unseen move proved to be the truth as the mystery woman managed to lift Soror Valide up from between her legs. Before she could move against this attack, Soror Valide felt her body fly through the air in reverse and then hit the ground.

She quickly picked back up a defensive position as the other woman charged at her. This time there was only one attack that she went for, and Soror Valide was ready for it. She caught the incoming kick and threw it aside, leaving the second leg open for the open-palmed punch to the side of the knee. She thought to deliver another closed fist to the stomach, but Soror tackled her opponent and reached for the device inside her harness.

All of a sudden, the world flashed and spun. Something powerful hit Soror in the side of the mask. It stung and burned. She looked past the woman she just fought and covered what she found to be an open space in her mask with her hand.

***

It took Zoey a second to realize that the Hulda’fi was no longer on top of her after a loud, yet dull bang. She sat up, still angry but also frightened to what else this rebel was going to do to her. Zoey was clearly outmatched.

She did, however, hear someone lay claim. “She’s mine,” the angered voice shouted.

Zoey sat up and saw the other person doing the same while everyone else in the room was busy trying to get away. That strange mask now had a hole in it, revealing a stunning green eye until the rebel covered the hole with her hand and looked toward one of the corridors; Zoey wasn’t sure what direction it was anymore.

There was Bon’sinne. She trained her gun on the Hulda’fi and said, “That was just a stunning blast. The next five will be killing blows if you don’t get the fuck away from my family right now.”

Down the other corridor Captain Druvvin arrived with a couple more officers with their weapons ready, and the head laeknar stood behind them with a medical kit.

The rebel shot a strange glare through her mask’s opening at Zoey while her hand grabbed something in her harness. It was anger still, but also fear. Seconds later she glowed and vanished before anyone else could get near her.

“Cleanse our system at once,” Captain Druvvin commanded his officers. “Ensign Leezu will be here shortly to aid you. Doctor, save who you can. You, give me a hand with sealing the roof before we’re sucked out.”

One of the officers grabbed a kit lying on the ground and followed the captain into the room. Crackling and suction sounds boomed as they got deeper inside. Then came a deafening silence until only one person’s sobbing caught Zoey’s attention.

Bon’sinne held her son’s hand, and was crying.

Chapter 9

His eyes and ears reopened to the world around him. All the smells of a clinic found his nose as well. He felt as though his body was dragged through a field of hot volcanic rock. The white and green interior, and the sounds of medical devices, confirmed what he knew.

Das’ithrios sat up slowly, and the head laeknar approached his bed. His chest still ached, as well his muscles felt drained of energy.

Zoey sat by the bed too. Rather, she slept with her arms and head upon the mattress. There was a book beneath one of her hands; opened a fair way into the book’s thin page count.

He looked back up to the laeknar and said, “What happened, Doctor?”

“A foolish young man got himself shot and almost killed,” the laeknar said. “At least you’re awake now, and you’re recovering. Your sister here refused to leave your side.”

The privacy curtain between Das’s bed and the next opened. His father smiled at him and stood up. The man’s arm was in a soft cast.

“Hey, you’re up finally,” Das’s father said.

“In a manner of speaking,” said Das. “Is your arm OK?”

“It’s fine. I just need a few more days of therapy and it’ll be as good as new. We all thought we lost you, you know. You were one of the lucky ones.”

Das dropped his gown after prying the front collar with a thumb and checking his body. As far as he could tell, everything was still there that was supposed to be there. Then he wondered if Zoey would have appreciated him making a joke about still being the same gender.

As if on cue with his train of thought, Zoey murmured in her sleep, “You’re such a butthead.”

The doctor said, “You should be up in a couple more days, Das’ithrios. As much as I’m happy to help, I’d also appreciate it if your whole family made a habit of not ending up in my medical facilities.”

Keft’aerak nudge Zoey on the shoulder to wake her gently. All it did, though, was prompt another murmur in her sleeping state.

“Funyuns are friends, what?” she said.

Das and his father exchanged a look and laughed silently. They weren’t entirely sure what that was about, but Zoey was definitely mid-dream.

The main door opened to allow entry for Bon’sinne. She walked in carrying a couple cups, and she smiled at Das upon seeing that he was awake.

“Excuse me,” Keft’aerak said as he walked toward his wife. Food and beverages were generally not allowed past that door, and so they went outside to the waiting area.

Zoey stirred from her slumber at last. After staring at Das for a couple of seconds through squinted eyes, she jumped up and gave Das a hug. The weight of her body put pressure on his chest, which hurt a fair deal, but he allowed it for now.

“Don’t go jumping in front of shit like that,” she said. “I finally had something I never thought I’d have, and you damn near took it from me by dying.”

“I’m fine now,” Das said.

“Having siblings is the worst thing ever, and I love you.”

This was definitely not a conversation he was prepared to have. Siblings? What in the cold, infinite beyond did he miss in the time that he was out?

The doctor cleared her throat. “I’d also prefer if your family didn’t try killing one another,” she said.

“Oh crap,” Zoey said, pulling away from Das. “Sorry about that. You’re still healing.”

“Yes, Mr. Thalassas, you’ll be here a while like I said. Mending your body was thankfully nowhere as difficult as some of our more recent cases.”

“Like me.”

“I wasn’t going to mention it, but yes, Ms. Wilde.”

The old surname made Zoi’ne flinch. Das was still impressed that she accepted her current gender as easily as she did, even though her experience with it was so far limited.

The doctor said, “I understand we’ll be touching down on a trade and rest station tomorrow, and will be there for a while. Mr. Thalassas, I believe we will be able to release you during the second day, in case you have any notions of wandering around that often seedy place.”

“Which station is it?” Das asked.

“Natt Grans. I tell you this so you are less likely to get yourself in any trouble that requires my aid. This goes for both of you.”

Well that was certainly interesting. Das wasn’t expecting to see or hear of that place during the entire trip. Natt Grans had an odd reputation. As a whole it followed the laws agreed upon by Elysium IX and Ginserei, and it functioned well as a supplier and garage when ships needed it. There were varied accounts, some more exaggerated than others, regarding how dirty the place was, or how much crime existed there. There also existed rumors that the Hulda’fi went to Natt Grans from time to time without doing any harm to the area, but no arrests were ever made.

Some of Das’s classmates talked about going there during their weeks off to have some fun. He never could tell whether or not any of them were serious.

After the head laeknar took her leave, Das looked down at the book on his bed, which had now closed without Zoey’s hand in the way. It wasn’t a terribly advanced book, but it wasn’t as low in reading level as anyone could get.

“How’s the book?” he asked.

Zoey said, “It’s fine, though I’m at a loss whenever it mentions some animal or plant that I don’t know. At least I got a hang of most of the letters now.”

“How long was I out?”

“Two days, why?”

“That just seems quick in picking up our ‘letters,’ as you call them.”

“It helped a little that some of the letters are similar to the ones I’m used to. Dad helped a couple times while we sat here waiting for you to get well enough to wake up. He’s been very patient with me. D-did I say something wrong?”

A tear rolled down Das’s cheek. He could hardly believe everything that had happened in the past week. Now he had a sister again. How did that make him feel? Dasos wish he knew exactly.

“You’re OK,” he said. “I’m glad you’re learning so fast.”

“So am I. I’m glad you’re awake now too. Now I can finally do things I missed out on when I was younger, like tease you about your haircut or whatever it is that siblings are supposed to do. I don’t even know.”

“What’s wrong with my hair?”

***

Bon’sinne picked at Zoey’s hair, examining it. “We should buy you some better conditioner,” the older woman said. “We can do that at the store when we find you some clothes of your own.”

“You don’t have to go through all the trouble,” Zoey said.

“Yes I do. Hopefully one of the stores of Natt Grans has what you’ll need. If you have any questions about how or why to pick out certain things, I’m expecting you to let me know.”

“Yes, mom.”

The intercom aboard the Maslou came on and made a chiming sound that reminded Zoey of a single xylophone key. The captain spoke to everyone.

“Friends, comrades, colleagues,” he said, “I would like your attention. First of all, it is my distinct satisfaction to let you all know that our commander and his team will be waiting for us in Natt Grans. I’ve received the signal from them not one hour ago.”

Cheers from the crew echoed through the extent of the ship that Zoey could hear. The only difficult thing about it was trying to tell if everyone was happy to receive good news for once in recent days, or if this commander was simply that popular among the ship’s crew.

Captain Druvvin said, “I have informed him, as well as those in charge of the station, that we are in need of repairs, supplies, and the rites of interment for so many men and women, most of whom served with us. As such, I invite you all to come as we say goodbye to them.

“Furthermore, I will press upon you all that while we will be on leave from the ship during the next couple days you will represent this crew and the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance. I must ask that you continue to wear your uniform outside of this ship.”

This time, the captain’s announcement left much of the crew within earshot groaning.

Then the captain chuckled. “My apologies. This does not include when you sleep or bathe. It is also not mandatory that you do when you are off duty, but carry on as though you wear it in spirit.”

A few people gave an unenthusiastic “yay,” while the rest remained silent.

“Thank you, everyone. Captain out.”

The intercom was taken over shortly by the members of the crew currently manning the piloting stations. They used more terms in quick succession than Zoey could catch or understand, for the most part.

“Setting trans-matrix to run in 30.”

“Adjusting shields and applying compression in 20.”

“Port side clear and ready to dock in 10.”

“Contact in 5-4-3-2-1.”

Plastic and metal popped somewhere. There was silence aside from the distant sound of fading vapor. Bon’sinne rubbed Zoey on the back as they waited for something from within the ship’s Hearth Hall.

Captain Druvvin said, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the edge of the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance.”

His announcement was met with the loudest cheers Zoey heard since the pep rallies she was forced to attend in high school. This time, the cheers were noticeably full-hearted.

“Let’s go,” Keft’aerak said while standing up.

They walked from the large room toward one of the two docks that opened on the left side of the ship. Several members of the ship’s crew made it there before the family trio that was able to leave the ship today. Many waited still until Captain Druvvin arrived. Members of the crew saluted him, and he beckoned over to the family trio to follow him outside of the ship.

Gravity bound from Zoey’s body as she entered the wide rectangular tube to the unknown. She could still walk, but something told her that running and jumping was out of the question for now. The dock opened to a bridge illuminated by neon and similarly bright lights beyond it. Three men and a woman stood on the bridge, with one man being the only one who wasn’t in uniform.

The uniformed individuals and the ship’s captain saluted one another.

“Permission to come aboard and rejoin the crew, sir,” said the man in the middle. He was a remarkably handsome fellow, and Zoey couldn’t believe she was actually thinking such a thing.

Captain Druvvin said, “Granted, Commander Consilius, lieutenants. You, sir, must be the man in charge of the docks here. I thank you for seeing us on our arrival.”

The man he spoke to shifted his long coat and nodded. He said, “It’s not every day we get to see the famous Maslou bless our docks with its presence. I too had to see this for myself; you mentioned the need for repairs?”

“Quite so, I’m afraid. A few of our doors and walls need fixing, as do the roof over our main Engine Room and the entirety of one of our Matter Transference chambers – the first one.”

Thinking on it, Zoey never once saw the transmats since coming aboard this ship, let alone the room in need for repairs.

The coated man said, “Yes, that’s what your request said before you came in. It also listed the supplies you need. Am I to assume any order to the list?”

“Yes, it’s listed in levels of priority. If I may remind you, we have thirty-nine people in low-level stasis in need of their rites before their decomposition sets in. We will require this before any supplies you are able to sell us.”

Thirty-nine people dead. Twelve of them were those rebels who attacked, but the Maslou’s crew was kind enough to honor them after death. Five more among the crew were either dead or just missing, as the working transmat had apparently been used mere seconds before a virus infected the ship’s systems.

The commander walked to the Thalassas trio while the other men continued to talk, and while more members of the crew walked past and into the station proper. He said, “It is a pleasure to see you, captains. I was not expecting to see you here.”

Bon’sinne said, “Business has a habit of taking us into unexpected places.”

Commander Consilius turned his gaze toward Zoey’s eyes. They were soft and penetrating, and her senses deep down were saying to look away. She couldn’t, however. Her heart socked the inside of her chest in protest.

“I wasn’t aware you had another daughter,” he said.

“I, uhhh . . .” Zoey said. “It’s a long story. My name is Zoi’ne.” She neglected to use any surname. No surname seemed right, or even relevant right now.

“Well, Zoi’ne, it is a pleasure.” The took her hand and kissed it before heading into the ship.

Zoey felt as though her face was burning up. Had the man done that not one month ago, Dylan would have strongly consider decking him in that beautifully handsome face. She exhaled deeply and fanned herself with one hand.

Her new mom lipped at her, “Stop it.”

“That’s new,” Zoey said. “I say we should go now.”

Keft’aerak, who only smiled like something stupid happened that he could have prevented but failed, said, “Yes, let’s go get you some new clothes.”

Chapter 10

Sealing holes in ships mid-flight was a simple enough business as long as the holes were not too big, and also that the ship had the right tool for the job. First a pole was inserted with a circular stopper built in. The tip then released a metallic dome to cover the other side of the hull, and someone needed to open the necessary ports in the stopper to inject a pasty adhesive.

This was done by Captain Druvvin and one of the officers as they waited for the surviving engineers to solve the issue with the ship’s systems. Once everything, including the shield, was back online and under the crew’s control, the adhesive was allowed to dry. The Maslou and everyone onboard was fortunate that the Hulda’fi left them alone once they fled with the case they sought.

Now the seal was being removed. The noise reached the medical bay where Das sat up with legs crossed, surrounded by five members of the crew from different stations or divisions. Their faces were rife with panic and worry as the crew members looked upward and away for a moment. Das knew better, however.

He smiled and folded his hands over the small table provided to him now hanging over his bed. The noise calmed after the lighting flickered a few times. The noise wasn’t too bad at least just noticeable this distance from the Engine Room.

“Lady and gentlemen, I need you all to roll your drives.”

Das tapped on an icon on his gaming pad, and the map sitting on the foot end of his bed sprang to life with holographic images of mythical beasts. The crew members sitting around him laughed nervously and pressed upon their own pads to emulate dice rolls.

At least he was having a good time.

***

Out of the times that she was naked in the past six days, this was the first time that Zoey felt squeamish or timid about it. She was in an allegedly private stall, but she was in public. She had seen things on Earth, too, that didn’t help her in the slightest.

Bon’sinne assured her before Zoey stepped inside that she would be fine, and that Keft’aerak was grabbing a few pieces of underwear to hand her momentarily.

Lights beamed at her from the wall at various angles all of a sudden. Harmless lasers traced circles and lines around her naked form. Hips, waist, bust, and underbust; Zoey held still to the best of her ability that was disadvantaged by the surprise.

The walls around her changed to resemble a white and beige interior of a house during a day time, all of them appearing further away than they actually were when Zoey tapped a knuckle upon one. One wall retained its mirror, but it seemed as though the item sat on a fixed stand rather than against a wall. The adjacent door of the fitting room stall took on similar colors, but turned instead into a gray interface with letters, numbers, and outlined diagrams for Zoey to pick through.

It was a good thing that she was learning about the alphabet used by this space-aged society she joined, but trying to combine that knowledge with words she didn’t know was going to be rough. Worse yet, her experience with the names of clothing types, let alone women’s clothing, was certainly lacking given how she lived for the last seventeen years. Zoey doubted any of her two ex-girlfriends back on Earth could help her now.

Her eyes welled up from suddenly being overwhelmed. Then came a knock on the door.

“Zoi’ne,” her new father said, “I’ve brought you some briefs and a bra that I just bought. Bonny recommended that you try on the same size that Il’lyse wore.”

“Thank you,” Zoey said, her voice weakened. The thought that she was even the same height and size as Il’lyse barely even registered in her mind. If anything, the small offering from her dad touched the surface of all that she was feeling right now.

“Are you alright in there?”

“Can you get Mom please? I really don’t know what I’m doing.”

“I’m right here, dear,” Bon’sinne said. Why don’t you put on the underwear first, and then I’ll come in to help you?”

Zoey opened the door enough to accept the bag full of briefs. She wasn’t sure was the bag was made out of, but it didn’t feel like plastic. It was at least easy enough to open, and it contained eight pairs of briefs instead of the six that she was used to as Dylan. They all had different colors and patterns as well.

She grabbed one and put it on. The material was a vast improvement over the disposable pairs that the medical bay had given Zoey, because of how soft and properly fitting they felt.

Next came her first ever attempt at putting on a bra. Pretty much the only thing she could figure out on her own was on to get her arms through the straps and barely cover her small boobs. Trying to hook together the back seemed all too quickly like a task meant for rocket scientists, and Zoey was ready to either walk around like this forever or never wear bras for as long as she lived.

“I’m ready for your help now,” she said, opening the door so Bon’sinne could step inside.

Bon’sinne closed the door and pressed a few selections on the interface. A warning came up: “You will be monitored via heat sensors to prevent inappropriate behavior. Please confirm to proceed.” She pressed another button on that warning to make it go away, and a soft chime followed.

She looked as Zoey’s bra and exhaled heavily. The humor could be heard in her breath as she helped Zoey remove the bra and instruct on how to wear one the right way. This included figuring out how to adjust the bra straps, a couple methods for fastening the backside, of which Zoey decided she preferred the one where she could do it in the front and slide it around, moving the flesh in place, and then finally comparing the correct bra strap adjustments to lengths on her fingers so Zoey could fix that on bras that had just been washed. The lesson rather appropriately introduced Zoey to a world in a couple brief minutes she never thought she’d know.

With that lesson learned and her first bra in place, Zoey learned how to navigate the interface. It doubled as a search function for the types of clothing available in the store, and could send a note to the registers to ask about ordering specific sizes or colors if necessary. Bon’sinne sat in the corner of the stall and let her try it out for a few outfits, making minor suggestions in regards to color matching across multiple articles as well as her hair and eye colors.

Something about the color matching made more sense now than a month ago, but Zoey still didn’t want to worry too much about it if she could get away with a few simple outfits.

“Some professional advice I can give you,” said Bon’sinne, “is that on most days you can reuse a pair of pants from the day before.”

Zoey said, “Cool, that might help with the laundry.”

“Most days. That’ll change when you have a period.”

Keft’aerak could be heard in the entrance of the changing rooms as he said, “I’m going to go browse the store now.”

“You do that, honey.”

However, Zoey coughed at her own awkward pause. Then she continued looking through her plethora of options.

Each time she found an outfit that she liked, Zoey pressed the “Try it” button in green. The lasers would return, but this time she felt a strange sensation as though warm cloth covered her body. She was wearing the outfit.

“Whoa!” Zoey said the first time it occurred.

“Do you like that?” asked Bon’sinne. “That will last until you swap out your choice of projection, or until you try to walk out of here. Then it will dissolve.”

“How often do people walk out totally naked?”

“Often enough. Dasos did it once when he was five, but I don’t think he cared back then.”

Seeing the pieces of the outfit on the interface was one thing, but it was a new experience to examine herself in the mirror on one wall. Zoey saw herself wearing these clothes while standing inside the simulated home interior. She noticed options on the interface to change the time or location, but she left it alone and basked in the appearance of the first new set of clothes.

The second outfit was just as simple. Like the first one it was both functional and casual without looking lazy with her selections. Bon’sinne nodded to her and made note of where to find those pieces of clothing in the store. Both outfits took one pair of black shoes that stopped at her ankles.

Strangely, when she came to think about it, the shoes in this store rarely had the longer heels that Zoey both dreaded and expected to find. It was a relief, but also odd.

On the third selection, Zoi’ne decided to dip her toes a little into the more formal wear that was decidedly more feminine as far as she knew. The venture ended with a skirt going down to her knees, a pair of boots with a couple centimeters higher heels, and a longer sleeve shirt.

Zoey was nervous, however. Was she really ready to wear something like this? Never in her years as a boy did she think that she would wear the same sort of clothes as the girls did.

She put one hand over her eyes and pressed the button.

Chapter 11

Natt Grans wasn’t known for being the cleanest or best-kept of places in the galaxy, if Das’s secondhand knowledge was anything to go by. Many of the eateries in the station barely reflected this if only for being pubs with cracks along the exteriors, and there being stains in places that Zoey could not identify if she tried.

Her parents led her through the commercial areas of the station as they sought out a place to eat. Zoey volunteered to carry her new clothes during the trip. The new clothes sat in a pair of packages hanging inside the shopping bag. She wanted to wear any of the attires now, but Bon’sinne told Zoey that the clothes should be washed first, just to be on the safe side.

Most of all, she wanted to actually wear the last one she had picked out. Zoey almost couldn’t believe that.

Keft’aerak opened a door to a restaurant as if expecting to find this particular one. Bon’sinne rested a hand upon Zoey’s upper back and nodded at her toward the door with a smile.

The front of the building was rounded and off-white with pink and orange tones, not counting the glass that made up the windows and door. The burgundy roof also bowed at the top, but came down the two sides more directly.

Zoey stepped inside with precarious pacing as she looked within. Two broken chairs and matching table were far off to the side, leaving a cluster still of other polished wooden tables through the modest eatery. A couple of those tables had been taken already, while a tan-skinned Aelf was wiping down a third.

The Aelf looked up at the family trio and welcomed the new visitors to this place.

“Hello,” said the young waiter. “Please sit wherever you like.”

“Is Aren in?” asked Keft’aerak.

“He should be. Who might I say is asking?”

Another tan Aelf walked into the room from the kitchen. His apron had a fair share of stains on it, telling Zoey that this man was more than likely here a while. The man wiped his hands on a towel and scanned the room.

The cook noticed Aerak instantly and said, “Now there’s a damned pirate if I haven’t seen one.”

Bon’sinne sat down nonchalantly like the sort of person expecting this interaction. She pulled up a seat next to her for Zoey to sit, but Zoey wasn’t too certain about doing that just yet. What was this pirate talk about?

“It takes a fool of the sea to know another, old friend,” said Keft’aerak.

“Friend!” the cook scoffed. “When was the last time you tried my cerveza and told me about your travels? Fah! Just sit down and enjoy yourself. I’ll be back out with your meals.”

He discarded the towel and went back into the kitchen with a roaring laughter.

Aerak joined his family at the table, and the waiter came quickly with coasters that he set upon the surface with quick precision and three menus.

Great, more reading and trying to figure out what things mean, Zoey thought.

Keft’aerak must have read her mind or something, because he leaned over and said, “Pick anything at random; it’s all good. I can explain what it is later.”

It was some time later, within moments of food reaching their table, the cook from before came out without his apron on. The man brought four small glasses, all chilled from sitting in a freezer for a while, and two bottles with labels reading “Cerveza Casa del Aren’oro.”

Bon’sinne giggled at the glasses and said, “One of us is underage, Aren.”

The man just shook his head with a smile at first. Aren’oro said, “I’m only young at heart, capitán. Besides, your daughter here is what now? Twenty-one? That’s plenty old enough.”

“She’s seventeen.”

“That’s close enough. What’s your name, señorita?”

Zoey answered, “It’s Zoi’ne. How—?”

“How did I know you weren’t Il’lyse? Save for what happened to her, I can always tell people apart, no matter how much they look alike.”

At that moment, Bon’sinne swiped a bottle and drank it down until it was empty. Aren’oro only pulled up a fourth chair and let her continue to drain the whole beverage.

“Zoey dear,” Bon’sinne said when it was done, “you can have the one glass.”

Aren nodded at her and said, “It’s been a while. How’ve you all been? What brings you all to my spec in the galaxy? And where’s Dasos?”

“All of those are good questions.” Damn, she never once lost her composure after downing that beer whole. That was one of the more impressive things Zoey ever saw, and the last week had been a ride.

The amount which they told Aren’oro was limited.

“We were taking some much time off,” Keft’aerak said, “or were planning to when there was an accident far off from here. I can’t really say what happened, there, but it was time to bring Zoey home.”

“I never even knew you had a second daughter,” Aren said.

“We fully expect a lot of people to say that. It’s more complicated than anything Bonny and I faced in our careers until now, but we’re happy to introduce her to everyone.”

Zoey wasn’t sure what to say or think about this version of events as it was being told. She just sipped away at the beer between bites of her fabada.

“The Maslou was involved in helping us,” Bon’sinne said. “Then we ran into some trouble with the Hulda’fi on the way here, so we figured now would be a good time to drop by. We’d have had to double back later if we waited.”

Keft’aerak said, “Right, about five or six months at the earliest; I have another mission I need to return to as soon as I’m able. I’m sure my commander is doing fine for now, but I really must get back.”

“We’ll get to Elysium IX in time, lover.”

“I know, my darling rosentre.”

Zoey imitated a gagging reflex in Aren’oro’s direction. He only chuckled at her.

***

Forty caskets laid in a room. All but one filled with bodies, and the last carried five service pins to represent the crew members lost and unaccounted for.

The young woman with the baby, who waited at the escape craft for her fiancé, cried for the love of her life was in one of the caskets.

Zoey thought to Dasos, who watched this service on a monitor with their mom. He was almost assigned to the Maslou as an ensign to the security personnel. The ensign who was brought on, along with two other officers in that division, were now among the missing. She could only begin to fathom what was running through his mind right now.

Captain Druvvin walked up to the podium and said, “We gather today to honor man and woman, friend and foe. Our friends before us served in life what the stars may sing as bringing peace. Our foes fought for a freedom none of us understand, and many of us pay for.

“This terrible tragedy saw risks too great, and a cost too high for a single soul to bear. It is for this reason that we must bear it together and live. Faltering to the noise of death disservices every person here and every other person left behind. We stand here, at the final door to eternity so that we may offer them to the cosmos, from dust to burning star, from world to endless horizon, and from this life to the last. Let these forty-four souls know respite and autonomy.”

He took a step back and turned to the caskets. Captain Druvvin saluted, and everyone else followed when Commander Consilius called for it. Zoey made a point to stand up straight and press her fist to her shoulder, though no civilian was expected to salute as well.

Music played now. One by one the caskets were led into a chamber where they were let free into space, five at a time. Once the second group was departed, the young officer from earlier fell to her knees, and Tong-Chang was there to help her.

Once the funeral was over, Admiral Fjorfolia and a platinum blond Aelf, who Zoey could only assume was his wife, approached her and Keft’aerak. Zoey tried not to gaze too hard at the Lady Fjorfolia, but it was difficult not to notice that she was the first blond Aelf that Zoey had seen so far.

Lady Fjorfolia, however, did look Zoey over from ear to ear with a knowing, aristocratic smile. She said, “You must be this Zoi’ne that I have heard about. I am sorry that we missed one another, even as my husband and I waited inside that escape pod during the attack.”

“Um,” Zoey said, “how do you do?”

“Ho-ho, I am as well as can be expected. As for you? This must all have been a traumatic experience for you. Our estate will not be far from the capital of Elysium IX, should you decide to come pay me a visit.”

“I appreciate the offer.”

The admiral shook Aerak’s hand, their gesture being one of grasping one another’s wrist, and he said, “I wish we had caught up some more, Captain Thalassas. We are boarding a shuttle this evening to head back home earlier than the Maslou. I would be amiss if I didn’t extend an invite to you and your family.”

Keft’aerak said, “Thank you, sir, but my son is still recovering from his wound during the attack. He is a grown adult now, but we came this far on a family affair. We will be returning as a family, or I would be waiting around for my ship to pick me up without them all by me.”

“Oh yes, I suppose it wouldn’t be right to break up your family now. Well then it has been a pleasure to see you all on this ship, however brief as it was. It’s time that we took our leave. Farewell. Remene, my dear?”

The Fjorfolias locked their elbows together and walked away in one direction. Tong-Chang escorted the woman she was helping toward the ship.

***

She eventually made it back to the Medical Bay with one of her newly bought and cleaned sets of clothes. Sure, Zoey had borrowed clothes from a few people around the ship during the last several days, but now she wore something of her own. She actually was wearing a girl’s attire. It was a strange and unique feeling in its own right, made even more so by there being a handful of people present.

One of the laeknir approached her and said, “Hello, Zoi’ne. Is anything the matter?”

“Not this time, thank you,” she said. “I’m visiting my brother is all.”

“That’s good to hear. He’s right this way as you can see.”

Zoey nodded to the laeknar and walked past him to Dasos. He appeared to be typing something on a pad.

“Hey there,” she said. “Are you working on anything fun?”

Das’ithrios looked up at her to answer and stopped. He looked at her up and down wide-eyed. Zoey felt her heart starting to sink the longer the silence went on.

“You hate it,” she said, tugging at her top.

“No, I don’t,” Das said. “I’m just surprised to see you in something that nice. How much did it cost?”

“Mom and Dad didn’t say, not that I know how money works around here yet. We went to a store in town, and they let me pick a few outfits out. Why, does this look expensive?”

“Money? Well, anyways, maybe not expensive. I’m glad they’re helping you out a little as we figure out how you’re going to live your new life, and support yourself.”

“Support myself as in making money and paying for things?”

“There’s that word again. I feel like etymologists and linguists would have a long day ahead of them if they talked to you with your little Earth phrases.”

“I’d probably drive them nuts trying to figure them out, and how our languages are so similar.”

“You’ll want to read up on Plau’s Theory someday. It’s a favorite among scientists and philosophers regarding the subject. You’ll also want to be careful how deep you go in reading about it, because it spawned a lot of debate that has actually resulted in a couple bar fires.”

“Something tells me I should blame some college kids trying to sound smarter than they actually were.”

“It was three professors and a groundskeeper at one of those fires. I couldn’t tell you with the other one.”

They nodded at one another for a moment before Zoey once again asked, “What were you working on?”

“Oh right, this thing! It’s for a final essay for one of my classes at the academy. Since we’re in Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance territory, I was able to message my two professors, and one sent me a short list of topics and related questions. It’ll be due a day or two after we get back to Elysium IX, depending on how quickly we get there.”

“That sounds like a fine way to spend however long we have to go.”

“It should only be about six and a half billion kilometers to go before we get home.”

“So you’re telling me you have time to take a break.” Her left hand was on her hip, and her right out to the side. “If we were back on Earth I’d say to climb out of bed already so we can get a pizza.”

“A what now?”

“I . . . honestly don’t know what I was expecting, bringing that food up.”

Now Dasos was laughing incredibly hard. Zoey wasn’t sure she ever saw the young Aelf laugh like this. A few laeknir and patients looked their way briefly. One head that Zoey saw peaking around a curtain was Tong-Chang.

She said a few words to whomever was behind the curtain still—Zoey imagined that it might have been that young woman officer with the baby—and then strolled over to Zoey. Her strut caused a number of conflicting thoughts to creep into the back of Zoey’s mind, but she shook it off as her friend came closer.

Zoi’ne said, “Hey, is that one officer alright? I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“She’ll be fine with time and rest,” Tong-Chang said, “This whole thing is tough on her, but she’ll be OK. I also needed to ask one of the laeknir something else for my own sake. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“I’m glad.”

“So, I understand you went exploring in the station today. Did you go anywhere fun?”

“Sort of. Our parents took me clothes shopping, as you can see.” She raised her forearms and twisted her hips.

“You’re looking good.”

“After that we went to a local restaurant owned by a friend of mom and dad’s. We wanted to bring Das along, but may go back tomorrow when he’s out of bed.”

Das said, “You went to Uncle Aren’s? Damn, forget this sitting around waiting to walk.” He lifted himself up.

Tong-Chang said, “Is that all you did before the rites of interment happened? I kind of hoped you went out and looked at places like the hotels and chapels around the station.”

“What’s special about those?” Zoey asked.

“The hotels are great for couples who come out this far on vacation. The chapels cater to several dozen faiths, including many from fictional shows or novels. Really, this station is great for kidnapping ex-boyfriends and getting hitched.”

With a loud thud, Das’ithrios collapsed on the other side of his bed, just out of view.

Chapter 12

“That’s one way of getting released early,” Zoey said as she escorted her brother toward the suite that their parents were staying in. Das was wearing the medical gown and a pair of disposable underwear.

It was a good thing that he still had a couple changes of clothes of his own packed away in here.

“So where are Mom and Dad?” he asked.

“They’re helping Aren’oro with fixing something in his kitchen since he didn’t want to pay for it himself.”

Das barked a laugh as he entered the restroom with a handful of clothes. “It’s probably one of the fans inside his walk-in refrigerator. One of those two things keeps breaking down. I always thought it funny that it happens around the time my . . . our parents visit him.”

“Where I come from? That’s probably drugs.”

“I doubt that. Did they say when they would be back, or when to meet them?”

She checked the main clock as she answered. “They said they would pick me up for dinner in about two hours from . . . a little over an hour ago. I’m sure you’re more than welcome to come along now that you’re out of the Medical Bay sooner than expected.”

Once Das left the bathroom he finished pulling down his shirt. Zoey was able to note that her brother was at least fit, but she felt nothing more than simple appreciation that her brother took care of himself. Das sat on a chair in the dining area to put on his shoes when he continued the conversation.

“They should still be at Uncle Aren’s, right?” he said.

“Is he really our uncle?” asked Zoey.

“No, he’s just been a close friend of the family since Mom and Dad each had a turn arresting him for minor offenses. He aided a small-time smuggling ring, and he once got in a bar fight when he was only sixteen. They both tried separately to turn his life around for the better, and he introduced them to one another in an attempt to get away. Well they knew of one another beforehand, but it didn’t stop him from trying.”

“Let me guess, sparks flew between them before they settled their differences in bed.”

“Drinking game, actually, but don’t tell them we know that.”

“They did become disgustingly loving and sweet towards one another when we had cerveza earlier; especially Mom.”

“You had alcohol today?”

“Only a little. Why the frightened look on your face? I feel fine.”

“I’m just trying really hard not to imagine what you’d do if you were drunk.”

“Look, the last time I had any alcohol I kissed my ex-girlfriend right in front of my then girlfriend. Then I had no girlfriend because no amount of explaining was good enough for either of them. I didn’t drink anywhere near enough today to feel a buzz.”

“Do you . . . ? No, never mind.”

“Let’s get going. If we hurry we can make it to Aren’oro’s place before our parents leave. I have my cell-comm in case we miss them.” He waved a now familiar device in the air.

“You mean your cellphone.” Zoey grinned at Das, and he shot a narrow glare at her.

***

The station as a whole was two moving rings interconnected with tubes that doubled as elevators at points. The raised platforms for those stationary tubes—buffered from the spinning rings with moving conveyors and escalators—ran parallel to trains with more platforms of their own.

Zoey saw them and rode one twice earlier in the day, but she still couldn’t wrap her head around all of the motion working together as well as it did. She didn’t even want to start thinking about the fake sun above her, or whether or not she was right in referring to its position.

She and Dasos passed the lower gravity garage space where the Maslou was docked behind a physical, transparent barrier, and they turned toward the nearest train platform. Das took a lift up to the platform without saying that he was still in a little pain in the chest when he stood.

Once they sat in the first train that came their way, the false sky turned orange in a simulated sunset.

Das said, “It’ll be safe to look up soon. Just as soon as we pass the second ring we’ll be able to see the central reactor and light filters.”

The train, however, moved away from the ring overlap that he had pointed out. It barely moved any faster than the ring’s rotation around the central reactor, so his point still stood in how much longer they had until evening hours. Still, it amused Zoey to see this happen.

The fake sky once again turned to its sunset orange as Zoey and Das left the platform near the street of eateries that she visited earlier. This time, however, Zoey was not being led around by Keft’aerak and Bon’sinne, so she tried to remember which way was which.

She could have had it, she figured as Das beckoned the right way a couple times.

Zoey opened the door to the restaurant and held it for Das. Their mom was immediately present and giving them a look like they did the most bizarre thing she witnessed in ages.

“Hey Mom,” said Das.

“It totally smells like someone lit up in here,” Zoey joked. No such smell was apparent, but she had to see the look on Bon’sinne’s face.

The modest crowd of people filling up most of the seats were the ones who gawked at her, instead.

***

Bon’sinne set down another emptied bottle with a different brand and label. The family sat at another restaurant, one that was as outdoors as the station could allow, while they ate dinner. Laughter passed her lips before Bon’sinne could speak up.

“Is that what you thought we were up to?” she said.

“The thought crossed my mind. I wasn’t going to judge, but the idea was amusing.”

“The plant you’re describing went extinct on Elysium Prime before the place became damn near uninhabitable. I only wish I could try it, since it was declared legal after the last known specimen burned with the lab that tried to protect it. You’re telling me that, in all of the galaxy that we’ve explored so far, Earth has it or something similar?”

“It’s also illegal in most places there. How are you so chill with the idea of it?”

“It’s all really complicated and simple. People make bad decisions for bad reasons, and we Aelfs realized how mistaken we were with handling kannabael and other substances only too late. We didn’t even get to catalogue the whole plant for synthesis. So here we are, with one less experience to enjoy during our short lives. One hundred and seventy revolutions average life expectancy; what a joke!”

Bon’sinne grabbed another bottle of beer and began draining it. Aerak tried to put a hand on her should and say something, but she brushed his hand off.

A moment later, Captain Druvvin came to their table with a coffee mug in his hand. He smiled and said, “Good evening, everyone. It’s a pleasant surprise meeting you here.”

“Hello, Ren’baek,” said Bon’sinne, a slur weighing ever so slightly into her voice.

The captain cleared his throat. “Mister Thalassas, I see you’ve made a speedy recovery. That’s good.”

“You aren’t taking him away now?”

“I really think you’ve had enough, love,” Keth’aerak said.

“You’re right, darling, I have had enough. The good captain here has told us in the past what he plans to do with Zoi’ne here.”

Captain Druvvin said, “I thought I made it perfectly clear that standard protocol involves sending people back to their worlds the way they came if they’re not ready.”

“You can go ahead and try.”

Their voices were getting louder, or their words were simply hurting more and more for Zoey to hear. As her parents and the captain continued their heated discussion, Zoey decided that she wasn’t going to keep listening to this. So she slammed her fists on the table and shouted at them.

“That’s enough!” she said. “You’re all trying to decide things for me without talking to me, and I’m sitting right here. I’m right here. The last thing anybody needs is for you all to be making a scene.”

Lots of people in the open restaurant were looking their way now, particularly at her. She was the loudest, Zoey only now realized.

“You need to calm yourself and sit down young lady,” said Captain Druvvin.

Then she slapped him.

Zoey didn’t even realize she was about to do it until the deed was done. Every uniformed person, and her parents, looked on in shock. The captain, however, stiffened his lip, nodded at her, and then walked away.

While her mom gave her a wordless glare that said she was in trouble, Keft’aerak said, “You really shouldn’t have done that.”

“And do what?” Zoey asked. “Sit here having an anxiety attack as you all decide what to do with me?”

“We already lost one daughter,” Bon’sinne said.

“So you keep reminding me. I’m not her. Who am I really? Who do you see when you look at me?”

“We took you in. We clothed you.”

“At what cost? At what point do I begin?” Neither of them had an answer for her. Zoey shook her burning eyes at them and left the table. She wanted to get as far away from this family as possible.

Then a man’s arm grabbed her by the arm. It hurt long enough for her to turn around and swing her fist. She stopped it when she saw Das standing there.

“Don’t go,” he whispered.

Zoey said, “I have to. Please let go.”

He did. His saddened expression burned in her mind as Zoey fled into the night, neither knowing nor caring where she ended up next. If she woke up as Dylan, she might have welcomed it.

Chapter 13

The air rumbled above, within the primary ring. A voice rang out across the intercom system.

“Good evening, everyone aboard Natt Grans Alpha,” said the voice. “This is Councilor Khao. The weather pattern scheduled for tonight has been triggered an hour earlier than intended. We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope you all can stay dry.”

Mere moments passed when light rainfall came down upon Zoey. She wished she had the hoody with her tonight. More than that, she wished she knew where to go. She messed up, but there was no way she could go back and say that. There was no way that they would listen to her, was there? She didn’t know, and her hands shook after realizing what she had done.

Zoey walked from tree to tree in hopes that the leaves might shield her from the rain as she tried to think about this. The station was a big place, and now she had to figure out what to do until this nightmare ended.

She reached a series of buildings that stood two or three stories tall, as was the general height limit of buildings in this station. The doors and windows gave a sense that each of the buildings had their own compartments. Zoey scanned the area and saw the sign that called these buildings hotels.

She needed some place to rest, and some place to dry off. Zoey didn’t have the money to pay for one room, however.

What was she going to do?

“Zoi’ne?” said a familiar voice behind her.

Tong-Chang stood with an open umbrella in one hand, and a bag with a single package in the other. She raised her hand with the bag in it and brushed half of her fingers outward. She made the motion again and mouthed out a “come here” toward Zoey.

Zoey approached her friend—she was her friend for real, she hoped—and joined her beneath the umbrella. “What are you doing here?” Zoey asked.

“I was going to grab a room,” Tong-Chang said. “I thought about joining some of the crewmates, but right now’s probably not a good time.”

“Did you need to be alone?”

“It would have made things less awkward. Oh no, Zoey, what’s wrong? Where are the others?”

“I think I fucked up. Things were good, too good, but then they started arguing. Captain Druvvin was there. I slapped him, and then I ran off, again.”

Her friend wrapped an arm around her. Tong-Chang felt warmer than normal. She guided Zoey toward one of the nicer looking hotels.

“Don’t worry,” Tong-Chang said, “I got you. Let’s get a room at least.”

“How can I ever pay for this?” Zoey said.

“You don’t need to. I had this before I ran into you.”

***

It was a love hotel. Zoey had no idea what to make of that as she entered the room and sat on the bed. The room actually felt clean, and the sheets felt plush and wonderful underneath her. She grasped at the comforter, thoughts racing through her mind before she could grasp a single one of them.

As the door closed, Tong-Chang set her bag down on a small table and then took a quick look by walking around the hotel room. Zoey looked about from the bed she sat on. It was so much nicer than anything she saw in her old life, and certainly better than the quarters she slept in on the Maslou. Yet, it didn’t seem fancy or grand, like some rich person’s suite.

“So it looks like we’re sharing the one bed,” Tong-Chang said. “I hope that isn’t a problem.”

“I didn’t bring any other clothes with me,” Zoey said upon sudden realization.

“Neither did I. I expected to have time to head back to the ship to grab some things, but listen to the rain now.”

Drops of water pelted the world outside the room. The room was warm and comfortable, not to mention dry, but the moment was an awkward one.

She never slept with anyone before, let alone naked. Zoey looked into Tong-Chang’s beautiful face and knew this was about to change. Every mental attempt to contain that change only made Zoey’s face feel hotter.

Tong-Chang giggled and grabbed her bag. She said, “I’ll try not to make this too awkward for you. I do, however, need to take care of something, so I’ll probably do it in the bathroom.”

“What do you need to do? Is it anything that I can help with?”

Her friend giggled and hesitated. “How much do you know about Ginserei physiology, or about us in general?”

“I don’t know. You have ears that remind me of the cute rabbits we have back home.”

As Zoey formed a relative size and size in the air with her hands from what she remembered of the critters, Tong-Chang felt behind her head where the tip of one of her ears poked out.

“You also have this equally cute patch of hair right here above your boobs. I’m not sure if that’s just you or your whole race, or how that works. Other than that, you seem . . . well, I guess ‘human’ isn’t the right word is it?”

Tong-Chang looked down in thought, her fingers tracing the line of thick, short hair that ran a couple inches down her chest. She set the bag down again and sat down next to Zoey, who had no clue as to what was running through her friend’s mind.

“So you did see it,” Tong-Chang said. “That moment was a little fuzzy for me, but you saw it. I guess I should be glad you didn’t see the whole thing. Oh, you don’t know what that means either. Right.

“First of all, I’m in my tangouchu. It’s what we Ginserei call a thing that’s supposed to happen every six months to six years, depending on the woman. For you Aelfs you have full cycles that last about three months that start and end in pain and blood lasting a few days. Humans have that for four weeks. For us, we only ovulate once in a long while because it is triggered by a number of factors.

“I’ve been overdue for the last two years. I started to feel hotter than normal since the day after that attack happened with the Kroke Team. My sense of self control diminished as well, making it harder not to feel consistently horny. When you checked in on Dasos today I was confirming this with a laeknar since I only ever felt this way when I was thirteen. I was treated medically back then so I wouldn’t lose my mind and risk death. The alternative would have been to become pregnant.”

Zoey gulped. She felt sorry for her friend if this was true; her hot friend that she tried to restrain herself around ever since Zoey met her.

“This sounds horrible,” Zoey said. “Or I think it does. Why are you here instead of Medical Bay?”

Tong-Chang said, “I brought what I needed in that bag over there. My plan was to lock myself in here and treat my growing needs over the course of the next day or so. I already informed the captain that, if needed, I might need a day or two to myself once we’re all back on the ship, and he knows not to send any boys my way since they’ll be so hard to resist.”

“Harder than the admiral, or his wife?”

Her friend became so wide-eyed as she gasped and put her hands over her mouth. “H-how did you know?”

“You were naked in their quarters when I found you that night. I wasn’t so sure if it was them or the one Hulda’fi that let me pass, but I think you just confirmed it.”

“Please, Zoi’ne. No one should know. No one needs to know that I was supposed to be on duty, but spent so many hours in bed with one, sometimes both, of them. It would be bad enough if anyone learned that I was in that bed, and no one would believe me if I said just how persuasive they can be. It would be the end of my career for sure!”

Zoey grabbed her hands gently. “Who would I tell, and why would I? I don’t rat out my friends.”

Her eyes were beautiful. Zoey’s poor heart agreed. Her mouth wished to agree with more than just words. She stayed herself, feeling her feverish, equally vulnerable friend in her hands.

“I’m so glad he had his tubes tied,” Tong-Chang said, almost whimpering.

“Too much information, but so am I,” said Zoey. “Is it wrong if I call you hot?”

“That depends on you. Would you do anything about it?”

In a moment that Zoey couldn’t chalk up to anything, because her mind was so clouded with elusive thoughts and stampedes of desire, she returned the favor that she owed Tong-Chang for the last few days. Tong-Chang didn’t struggle against it. She didn’t even break away except to take off her uniform top and strapless bra. The idea of mistakes drifted off into Outer Space.

***

Her friend was so warm without the comforter over them, but at least Tong-Chang wasn’t burning up now. As Tong-Chang pet her head gingerly Zoey used her shoulder as a pillow and ran a finger up and down the soft fur patch on her friend’s chest. Everything was calmer now, including the rain.

Zoi’ne got to know more of her friend’s body tonight than she ever thought would happen. Yet, as she stroked the line of hair, Zoi’ne thought about ex-girlfriends who shaved their legs and her own recent experience with it, and noticed something about that line of hair and its edges.

She leaned in and kissed the exposed side of it.

Tong-Chang gasped and said, “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“You shave here,” Zoey remarked.

“Don’t tell anyone. That’s a personal secret.”

“What, is there a military regulation against having too much hair on your chest?” Zoey knew already that shaved legs for both genders was advised because of regulation socks and boots, but only so many men and women of either race bothered.

“No, it’s nothing like that. I shave it to hide something I’m not proud of. I never really told anyone, not even my past lovers.”

“I see. Maybe, hopefully, you’ll trust me with that one day. I doubt I’ll be in any place to judge.”

“You’re too sweet. If I didn’t know any better I’d say you take after your mother.”

“Right, what mother would that be? The one on Earth never really cared about me. I don’t know if Bon’sinne really does either, not after I ran off.”

“I meant Bonny. She obviously cares about you.”

“She cares about Il’lyse.”

“We all did. I can tell you, in so many ways, that you’re not her. You’re similar in many ways, sure, but you’re you. No, really. Who was it that tried to bring the family together during the Hulda’fi attack? Who picked out your clothes? Who took the initiative to learn lyurunics so quickly?”

“I did all of those.”

“Il’lyse was reluctant to learn a lot of things the rest of us take for granted. Not everything, mind you, but she put off learning my actual given name until about ten minutes after she tried to propose to me, when we were fifteen. Stars beyond we were too young then. It was because she only wanted to dance about and enjoy life without anything, not even basic facts or details, get in her way. It was infuriating because of how smart she also was.

“But you? You move a lot like her. You challenge the words we use almost as much as she does, but only because you know different ones. When I learn more about you I’ll be glad to say more than that.”

Zoey quaked, and her eyes welled up with fluid.

“Come here,” Tong-Chang said, hugging her. “We can make everything alright for you. I’m sorry you’re having such a crisis so close to the start of your new life.”

“What if they don’t take me back?” Zoey asked.

“If that happens then something is wrong with them. If that happens then I’ll take you home with me.” She took a deep breath. “I’d offer you a place in the High House of Leezu. That would mean accepting my place there, though, and growing the rest of this.”

She indicated the fur on her chest. Then Tong-Chang said, “By now they’ve probably picked a new leader of our House from my dozen brothers and sisters. It’s most likely a man sitting on that seat, just like the emperor, and either one would have a say in where your place would be. I wouldn’t want them to take you from me, but accepting my place as heir means I would have to accept what they choose for you.”

“We’ll just have to make our own home then,” Zoey said.

“She would have said that too.”

“I’d have liked to meet her, I think.”

“Oh, let’s avoid those fights. You’re different from her, but you’re not the first to hit someone with authority in front of other people. Also, please don’t do that again.”

“No promises.”

Tong-Chang heaved suddenly and grew hotter. For a moment Zoey thought her friend was angry at her. One glance at her face, however, told a much different story. Zoey kissed her on the lips.

“Maybe we should grab your medicine soon,” Zoey suggested.

“We have tomorrow,” Tong-Chang said. Then they collapsed back on the mattress, their affections intensifying.

***

It took her about five minutes to figure out how to work the cell-comm. Zoey was told last night, during one of their sessions, that she could call for room service, as it would go to the account that Tong-Chang was using. So she browsed the short menu that came with detailed pictures and descriptions, and chose on something for breakfast.

She found something that looked like pancakes that were pinched together from four sides, and then stuffed with cream cheese and fruit; then drizzled with fruit syrup. Zoey asked the person on the other end for one of those and some eggs and bacon.

This sure does seem a little pricey, Tonny. I hope it’s really OK.

Zoey sat on the foot end of the bed again and gently rubbed Tong-Chang’s ankle, with its hair stubble only starting to poke out after an unknown number of days. Her new friend stirred, and all was right in the universe, Zoey thought.

Tong-Chang sat up suddenly, gasping for air. “Oh no,” Tonny said.

“What’s wrong?” Zoey said.

“I can’t feel it. Did you use the medicine on me while I slept?”

They both glanced at the bag, which remained as untouched as the package within it.

“But how?” Tong-Chang said. “No, he can’t be. He couldn’t! I wouldn’t be able. Oh no, no, no.”

“Tonny, you’re scaring me,” said Zoey.

“I’m not delirious. I can’t feel it. Zoi’ne, we need to get to the Maslou’s Medical Bay as soon as possible.”

“I had just ordered breakfast, but I think I can cancel it if I need to. Tell me what’s happening?; please?”

“My tangouchu passed too quickly. Either I’m about to die, or else I’m pregnant.”

Chapter 14

Dasos ran into the waiting room of the Medical Bay, expecting to have to enter one of the main chambers. If Zoey had hurt herself again, he had no idea what he was going to do.

He reached one of the doors when a girl’s voice called out to him. “Das,” she said.

Then he stopped in the middle of the opened doorway, looking back at the seating area of the waiting room. Zoey and Tonny were both on the sofa staring at him. Das walked over to them; no, he sprinted, his mild chest pain be damned.

“What happened?” Das said, kneeling next to them, hugging his sister. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Zoey said. “I’m actually not the reason we’re here right now. Why are you here?”

“Word got around that you returned to the ship and came this way. We were so worried about you. We feared the worst might have happened to you last night.”

“Tonny and I spent the night together. I’m so sorry for running off like that. I feel like such an idiot for doing that.”

A laeknar approached and said, “Ensign Leezu, we are ready to see you now.” She led a forlorn Tong-Chang into a testing chamber.

Zoi’ne wiped her eyes and groaned. She said, “We had to cancel breakfast and hurry on over here. At least they were able to confirm that she’s not in immediate danger.”

“What danger would she be in?” Dasos asked.

“You would have to ask her. I hurried the both of us over here when she told me something was wrong. I even asked the laeknir how long of a wait this was going to be, and if this was one of those cases where she’d be called into the room and have to wait another hour before the doctor or whomever arrives. You should have seen the incredulous look I got.”

Dasos sat next to her and found himself caught between a grimace and laughter. “That sounds awful. Why would you suggest such a thing like that?”

“Because things like that are common on Earth. I hate to think that this is all a dream in my comatose state after what had happened weeks ago, and I’m still waiting in the emergency room for a doctor to show up and give my uncle options that would make your skin crawl.”

“This isn’t a dream, Zoey.”

“Isn’t it? Everything seems so wondrous compared to what I grew up with. The past week, with obvious exceptions, have been so unusually good and right, and yet so often out of my control. If I am awake then what do I do with my life? What have I been doing except making brash decisions and running? If I’m not in some fantastic dream then why do I feel like everything turns into a nightmare at random moments?”

“Can I tell you a secret to solve all that?”

“What?”

“You slapped a powerful man when he needed it most. Every one of us felt it in a different way. I think Mom felt that someone slapped her, and she’s begun facing her own demons as a result. She’s having a hard time with that, though, because she doesn’t know if you’re fine or not. I hadn’t told her you were here, because I came running first thing. My chest hurts from doing that. The point is that we feel, every one of us.”

“Everybody’s so broken.”

“Some of us more than others.”

“Even that girl I saw. The one I fought from the Kroke Team? I think she was their leader. I saw a piece of her mask come off, and there was something there I didn’t understand any more than being broken.”

“You saw Soror Valide’s face? You fought her and lived?”

“What?”

“There are a couple accounts where the name of their leader was mentioned and recorded. Soror Valide was heard, and the name sealed away from most of the public. No one has ever actually seen her face before now except, presumably, her own people and you.”

“I didn’t see the whole thing.”

“Law enforcement can work with whatever you remember.”

“That might not be so. I barely saw it, and was dazed from taking hits to the face. Plus I couldn’t think straight since I was so angry at them for killing you.”

“I’m not dead.”

“Yeah, you look kind of dead to me.”

“Now you’re just being silly.”

Zoey sighed. “Do you really think Mom and Dad will forgive me for running off like that?”

“I think the real question is whether or not you trust us and know you don’t have to keep running. Let us do some of the running for you.”

“How much control will I have over my life, though?”

“As much as you need.”

“I should go see them after Tonny’s done in there. God knows I don’t feel ready for that talk, but I really should see them.”

“She’ll be fine. Tonny can take care of herself.”

“We both also kind of need breakfast.”

“Fine, I’ll pay for your meals. It’s the least I can do.”

“Under one condition.”

He groaned. “What is it?”

“Would you mind teaching me how money, or whatever you call it, works in this society of ours?”

***

The train was halfway full of people Zoey didn’t recognize when she got on it with Dasos and Tong-Chang. A few of them might have been having quiet conversations among themselves, but the rest seemed to be staring at wherever their own worlds were at the moment, which was something she did recognize from the public buses on Earth.

“By the way,” Das said, “where did you two sleep, and did you leave anything there?”

No real answer came from either girl. They only smirked at one another, knowing that the one thing they left was the package of medicine they weren’t telling Das about.

He simply said, “What?”

The trip took the trio to an inn, in a different part of town from the love hotel, that looked to be under repairs around a few spots of the building. Zoey wanted to stop to at least marvel at the number of holes that were boarded up, one being large enough to fit the front of a car from Earth if any existed around here.

Only there weren’t really any cars so much as automatic carriages that moved as quickly as anyone jogging on foot. At least that was the case in this ring of the station.

Her friends already reached the front door, Zoey realized. She hustled to catch up when her brother opened the door.

Breakfast ended up being the same thing for her that she ordered at the hotel, only now it was her own plate while Tong-Chang ordered her own meal. Das just had a cup of coffee since he already ate in his hurry back to the ship.

Tong-Chang had clearly been thinking about something when they made the trek to this inn. She told the siblings that she was fine when she came out of that examination room aboard the ship, and that everything was working fine. Das was only more concerned for her, but she told him she couldn’t say more than that. Not yet. During breakfast, it was clear that whatever was on her mind was weighing heavily on her. Zoey could guess what it was, but said nothing.

Zoey placed her hand on Tong-Chang’s. It sparked a smile from her friend, albeit a weak one. Zoey knew she would have to ask her about it later when they were alone.

Her brother darted his head between the two of them a couple of times. Das said, “I don’t believe this.”

“What?” Zoey asked.

“The two of you! If I didn’t know better I would assume the two of you are dating now.”

“Please don’t make a scene,” Tong-Chang said.

“I’m not. I’m just trying to figure you two out. I’m just trying to figure us out.”

“That was six months ago.”

“I was stupid for letting you go. So very stupid.”

“I’d like to talk about this another time, Das. I don’t even know what I want to talk about right now.”

“At least tell me what’s wrong. I want to know if I can help you in some way, because I care. Don’t try telling me that you’re fine. We were friends since we were children, long before we ever thought about dating. I know when something is bothering you; just never what it is.”

“I’m pregnant.”

Das suddenly turned pale and choked on his own ability to make words. A few passersby or neighbors from other tables looked their way and nodded at the young Ginserei.

“Until just this morning,” Tong-Chang said, “I was in the middle of my tangouchu. I had planned to lock myself away, without contact with any boys, and use the medicine I bought to help it pass without killing me. This morning it ended as I slept.”

“Tonny, I just don’t know what to say,” Das said.

“Neither do I.”

“Don’t leave me in the dark again, OK? I don’t know who the father is, but I’ll be by your side as long as you need me to be. And when you’re ready to talk more, we’ll talk.”

“Thank you. Both of you.”

“Hey, speaking of talking . . .”

Zoey turned her attention to a stairway, at which point it became clear why Das’ithrios picked this inn for them all to eat breakfast. Keft’aerak came walking down the wooden stairs, his eyes never once falling on the trio having breakfast.

She shot a glare at her brother and took a deep breath. He was right, of course. The sooner Zoey tried to make things up with her adoptive parents the better.

“Excuse me,” Zoey said, standing. She weaved through the tables and people to get to the counter where Keft’aerak had just arrived. He was asking the employee there something that Zoey couldn’t catch before she caught up to him.

The server wandered off to grab something. This was it; Zoey’s chance.

“Dad,” she said. Keft’aerak turned, surprised to see her. “Hi, umm, I think I did a dumb—“

He cut her off with a hug and a kiss on her forehead. “You’re OK,” Aerak said.

“I will be. Where’s Mom?”

“She’s upstairs in our room. I haven’t seen her like this in a while. I’ve been trying to comfort her and get her to eat.”

The server set down a transparent cup full of a thick liquid. It looked like a raspberry smoothie, which Zoi’ne remembered drinking a couple times as a little boy when he didn’t feel too well.

Zoey picked up the smoothie and said, “Which room is she in? I think I should be the one to do this.”

***

She pushed the door open slowly and stepped inside. Zoey found her mom sitting in a chair and staring out the window. The view was less than spectacular from here, but Zoey suspected that her Mom wasn’t doing this for sightseeing or looking out, so much as reflecting on more than Zoey knew.

Zoi’ne set the cup upon the table and kneeled next to Bon’sinne. The older Aelf woman inhaled sharply, but Zoey just hugged her, resting her head on her mom’s arm.

“I was so worried about you,” Bon’sinne said.

“I’m worried about you now,” Zoey replied.

“You have no idea how much of a wreck I am. I lost one daughter because she ran off and got herself killed, all thanks to what I did. I killed innocents when trying to deal with those Hulda’fi, because I was grieving too much to think straight. Now I push myself so hard on another girl, one I hoped to be my second daughter, until she too ran away from me.”

“No, Mom. I’m right here. The mistake was mine.”

“Their faces haunt me. That mother and child should have lived. Il’lyse should have lived.”

“Stop. If anyone should live right now it’s you.”

In truth she had no idea what Bon’sinne was referring to about the people she killed. She sensed that it hurt more than her mom was saying, but she had to help her through this.

Zoey handed Bon’sinne the smoothie and said, “You need to eat. Start slow. I can’t tell you how bad of a mess I made from drinking my raspberry smoothies too fast on certain days.”

Bon’sinne huffed and shed a tear. She tasted her smoothie. Then she said, “You like them too?”

“Yeah. I loved them when I was growing up.”

Her mom ran a hand against the side of her head, brushing fingers through Zoey’s own rosewood-colored hair. The whole of her pointy ear felt refreshingly exposed to the world.

“Did you find somewhere to sleep last night?” Bon’sinne asked.

“I did,” Zoey said. “Tonny helped me.”

“Oh, that girl. She’s such a good friend.”

“That’s what I gathered.”

“She’s certain trouble, though, so be careful around her.”

At first Zoey wasn’t sure whether or not to take Bon’sinne seriously, until her mom smiled at her. Then they laughed together. It was then that Zoey promised that she would stop running, and Bon’sinne promised to impose less as long as Zoey spoke up about what she wanted.

It was a better deal than Zoey could have dreamed.

Chapter 15

Zoey returned to the love hotel with Tong-Chang, as well as a change in underwear and shirt. Tonny let her take a shower first while they talked.

“I don’t know yet,” Tong-Chang said. “This pregnancy is a lot to think about. Ever since I left home years ago I always told myself I wouldn’t have any children. Now I wait to see how many are growing inside of me.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Zoey asked.

“It’s Ginserei anatomy. With my luck it will be triplets. It will be harder to hide this from my House back home. If my brothers and sisters could see me now they’d only laugh.”

“I’m sure you’re fine.” Damn, triplets?

“Hopefully it’s only one. Then would come the question of what I’ll do with him or her. I have eight weeks to decide if I should terminate it or not, or six more months after that if the babies pose any serious health risk, but the idea of that just scares me more.”

Zoey stepped out of the shower, dripping wet, and embraced her friend. “Hey, Das and I both said we’d be here for you.”

“Don’t remind me. If your sister was here she’d say the same thing, and then I’d feel so torn between the three of you.”

“You make it sound as though you had feelings for her too.”

“It was complicated. We were younger, curious, and a little irresponsible. OK, we were very irresponsible. I thought I had everything under control, and this would never happen, but now I reap the rewards despite only having five partners until now. She was my first, and I should have treated her more like our relationship would last.”

“True talk right now? I don’t want to hear about you getting it on with anyone else in my family. More than that I want you to learn from this, and live as a better person for it. If you don’t like the way you were then don’t be that way.”

“Listen to you giving life advice.”

“While hugging you in the nude in the middle of a love hotel on the far side of the known galaxy.”

“This room was a little overboard, wasn’t it?”

“Just a bit.” Zoey winked at her friend.

“I almost went a couple rooms bigger, too, and it’s all on my father’s yingbi.”

“His what now?”

“It’s what we call our currency on Ginserei. I’ve been using his yingbi to pay for little things just to spite him, and he hasn’t tried to stop me yet, though I did see a few small businesses either close down or redecorate over the years.”

“Why do you hate your family?”

“That’s the worst part. I don’t know if I do. At times I thought I did. The number one thing I do know is that I can’t ever go back there. My siblings can fight over that lifestyle all they like until one of them runs the House in our father’s place.”

“So you ran away and moved to Elysium?”

“I was trying to keep my head down and stow away to the Aelfs’ colony, Elysium VIII. I got on the wrong cargo ship, and one of my mother’s spies found me. I swear life is just a series of mistakes.”

“Well then, what would you say to hopping into the shower with me, and making the best mistakes?”

“If almost anyone else said that I’d drown them.”

Zoey kissed Tong-Chang on the lips and guided her into the shower stall. She gave her friend a look that said “Try me.” Zoey did not envy whomever was in charge of cleaning these places.

***

Soror Valide removed the patch from her eye while standing before a mirror. The others were either monitoring the stiern-boat or lounging together in a mass of flesh. She would join them if she were in the mood for it yet. If there were more of them present she would likely have been in the mood.

Both of her green eyes stared back at her in the mirror for the first time in days. By now the burn was gone, and the minimal scarring was clearing up. This would have to do.

She turned off the light and floated through the air toward the front of the craft. They got their package at a heavy price, and failed to retrieve someone. No one told her until they were back on the stiern-boat that there was a secondary objective to that mission. No one could confirm who the girl was.

That bothered her. Soror Valide was supposed to be the leader of this team. She was supposed to know everything.

Now they were a few days from reaching headquarters while towed by two other crafts the same size. Soror Valide observed the instruments and considered telling the pilot on duty they were relieved to be with their brothers and sisters.

Instead, she once again stared into space. The faces she saw haunted her. Who was that girl she saw? Who else lived or died in that attack?

***

The projection of fireworks against the station’s night sky looked almost as spectacular as the real thing. Dasos walked along the side of the street going in the opposite direction of last minute maintenance workers making sure the road was all ready for the coming parade.

His parents were on a street corner chatting with one another. Keft’aerak was now without the soft cast on his arm, since today was the last day of fracture therapy he needed. Das was feeling mostly better in his chest as well, though he skipped the recommended therapy.

Today was just a relaxing day. He visited Aren’oro for a while and picked up a case of the man’s cerveza to take home. Checking with Commander Consilius for interstellar customs was far quicker than he had expected, leaving him with more than half of the day to play any game he liked.

Tong-Chang and Zoey joined him for a while before they left to do their own thing. He made sure to tell them that this festival was happening tonight as the final rite and send-off for the crew members that fell a few days ago.

On his way out of the ship, Das encountered two men from the ship who came back from seeing a movie a friend of theirs wanted to see in theater. They took with them a placard of their friend’s accolades, and bought a third ticket so the placard would fill the one seat.

Tonight, everyone celebrated the lives that were, and the lives that will be, thanks to them.

Das joined his parents and they moved forward. The girls were waiting for them at a good spot to witness the parade, according to Bon’sinne. She didn’t say how she knew this.

The main road curved and split off at a couple points. At one such fork barricades were set up with wooden frames and tables on the side meant for onlookers; one direction of the road was cut off so as to direct the coming parade.

Zoey and Tong-Chang sat at a table, eating what appeared to be sandwiches from their leafy wraps. They spotted the trio that reached them and waved in their direction.

“Hi, guys,” said Zoey. “Are you feeling any better, Mom?”

“A little bit, dear, thank you,” Bon’sinne said. She sat down next to the girls, and Keft’aerak next to her while Das looked for a seat by them. “I’m still impressed that you were able to figure out our cell-comms, dear.”

“They’re a lot like the phones we have on Earth. There wasn’t that much to figure out. It was nice of you to invite me to come see this, though.”

“Of course, dear. I’m glad you could join us.

“So what is the story with this parade, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m sure none of us mind at all. You see, each major planet of the alliance has a wide variety of rituals, some older than others, involving the passing of friends, enemies, or loved ones. As part of the compromise on this matter, it was decided that the Rites of Interment would begin with the burial that you saw, allowing for cremation for those that prefer it. Everyone involved would be given about a day to perform their own small rituals if they had them. Then it all ends with a party to remember those people by as they had lived in their finest moments. Volunteers, in and out of the grieving, come together for this to sing and dance in regalia that you would not normally see them wearing.”

“That sounds so much better than anything I witnessed while on Earth. I’m sure a few cultures there have something like this parade, or any of the activities taken during the one day, but I never got the chance to see it.”

“Nothing beats travel for such experiences.”

“Reading about it is still nice, though. It would be nice to study a lot of things and go traveling on my own one day. How would I pay for that, though? And no, Tonny, we’re not using your money for that.”

“You’re going to spread those Earth words, aren’t you?” Bon’sinne smiled at her, and Dasos chuckled silently at the idea. It could happen.

When Tong-Chang whispered into Zoey’s ear, and Zoey giggled, Das felt a sting in his chest again. He should have handled things better by the time he and Tonny received their assignments away from one another. If he knew who the mystery sire was, Das suspected he would have decked the man.

Just move on, and don’t be an ass, he thought.

He said, “I remember you saying something once about liking history. Does that still hold true?”

Zoey said, “Yeah, it does. I’ve been so busy learning about the here and the now that what I know of your past is limited. Ask me about Earth history, though, and I can share some of the lies or conflicting stories they told, and the few offerings of truth that I could find.”

“I can think of a few doctors or lecturers at the academy who would be fascinated to hear that.”

After the second group of performers passed the barricade, the Marslou’s commander approached the family. He stood closer to the girls, to Das’s dismay. He heard about the man’s reputation with the ladies, in passing, and heard at least one rumor with the gentlemen as well.

“Good evening, everyone,” Commander Consilius said. “Mind if I join you for a bit?”

“By all means,” Keft’aerak said. “I was wondering about something, actually. I heard that you took charge of an investigation that took you and two other officers off of the ship while it moved further out in the frontier. How did that go?”

“We apprehended a violent member of the Hulda’fi and the weapons dealer they were doing business with. The investigation was completed on schedule within two hours, during which our ship was supposed to be chasing a smaller craft. Then the incident occurred that brought the Marslou to sG2Vn3 – p3cD and temporarily disabled the engines.”

“You mean the same incident that blew one of your Matter Transference chambers.”

“That is the belief, yes.”

“What was that bunch of letters and numbers?” Zoey asked.

“It’s what we’ve been calling Earth, Zoi’ne. We’ll have to tell you about the planetary designations sometime.”

“Oh, I see.”

The commander said, “Earth? That is a fascinating name from a fascinating young woman. I’d be happy to hear more sometime.”

She exhaled, her cheeks flared out, and fanned herself with one hand. “Down boy.”

“We will all have plenty to discuss soon, anyway. You’ll hear about it, captain’s orders, when we’re aboard the Marslou and heading home.”

“We should speak with Ren’baek before that,” Bon’sinne said. “Would you happen to know where he is now?”

“Good question. I believe he is busy with the ring’s dock master to confirm progress on repairs and supplies. I gave him my report on the latter not twenty minutes ago. If all is well then he’ll sign off on paying the costs. So it may be an hour or longer, before Captain Druvvin finds a quiet place to read.”

“Knowing him, he’s chosen his quiet spot. Thank you for the information, commander.”

Commander Consilius bowed and then walked away.

Everything was curious, Dasos told himself, but he decided to turn his attention to the current group of performers. Now was the time to enjoy himself. The questions he had would still exist in the morning.

Chapter 16

Zoey returned to the private quarters on the ship. There sat a box on one chair that contained some a few items and a note. At least two of the casualties from the attack had a cultural tradition to give their belongings to those in need. This box was a fraction of what they had onboard the Maslou. Zoey was here when the delivery was made, and she tried to argue that she didn’t need anything.

She lifted the hoody from the top of the few items sent her way. The note indicated that the previous owners insisted that Zoi’ne kept these things, so her argument failed.

The people here were too nice. Zoey hadn’t gone through these things yet, but she knew she would have to cherish it all while her new life was only beginning.

Looking at these things now, however, only made Zoey think about her own mortality. Had she died a few days prior, or even earlier than that, then she would have had nothing to her name. If she woke up again as Dylan then none of this would have been here. Zoey said, “I’ll go through this later,” and then dropped the hoody on top of the new belongings.

Her door opened then when Tong-Chang opened it from the other side. The sudden movement of the door made Tonny flinch in surprise. She stepped inside as Zoey only smiled at her.

“Did you forget to lock your door?” Tong-Chang asked.

“After the first night on this ship,” Zoey said, “I felt safe enough in present company that locking the door never really occurred to me. It’s like my own bedroom on Earth, rather than my own house. What was anyone going to steal from me?”

“What about the Hulda’fi?”

“If those weirdoes showed up again, I doubt a single door would stop them from getting in here.”

“That’s fair.”

Tong-Chang sat on the bed and tinkered with something that she had carried into the room. It was small like a pinky finger, but obviously mechanical in nature the more that Tong-Chang played with it.

“What have you got there?” Zoey asked.

Her friend said, “I decided to search the admiral’s suite since he and his wife left last night. If they left anything behind I wanted to set it on fire after all that happened, but I found this tucked inside the cushions of their sofa instead.”

“Again, I find myself asking what it is.”

“It appears to be a receiver that bypasses the ship’s internal system, so it can pick up radio signals from one end of the ship to the other. I’d need the sender to confirm this, but, if I’m right, then all that security or engineering would pick up is static akin to the Engine Room.”

“Do you mean like a bug or something?” Tong-Chang gave Zoey a now familiar look. “A microphone. You said something about a sender. Why would you bring that here instead of either Security or Engineering?”

“I was on my way there, but I wanted to see first if I could activate this, or if it has enough power for that. You know, while I came by to see you.”

“Tonny, what’s your protocol on this sort of thing?”

“Ugh fine! You’re right.”

“I just don’t want you to get in trouble since you care so much about your career.”

When Zoey had first pointed out that the device should have been taken to the right authority, Tong-Chang’s ears rose a bit. Now they sank below normal.

Zoey clasped her arm with Tong-Chang’s and said, “We’ll go together. How about that?”

***

Within a short hop or walk from the Engine Room was the main working station for the engineers and technicians. Since the ship was not actively going anywhere at the moment, only two of the engineers were present as they tested the instruments.

Tong-Chang called for someone in security to come to this work station so that the device could be reported and analyzed. However, Zoey saw no one coming when they arrived.

“Is something wrong, ensign?” asked one of the engineers.

“There might be,” Tong-Chang said. “I found something that requires attention, but no one from Security is here yet.”

Commander Consilius arrived seconds later. He stood in the doorway and nodded to everyone, his hands behind his back.

Everyone saluted, save for Zoey.

“Sir, I was not expecting you,” said Tong-Chang.

“Everyone not in this room has the night off, Ensign Leezu,” the commander said. “That should include yourself and Miss Wilde over here.”

“I was looking through the admiral’s quarters, sir, to see if he left anything behind. I was tasked with handling his or Lady Fjorfolia’s needs while you were separated from us.”

“Yes, I heard that this duty was added to your workload at their behest. That is some faith that he put in your ability.”

“The search turned up this device. I was examining it when I encountered Zoi’ne. It was then that I realized that it was the receiver of a one-way radio that was made to hide the signal behind the noise from our Engine Room.”

“That is some claim, ensign. You were able to identify such a thing on your own?”

“I wrote a thesis on communicative devices, sir. I am more than confident in my examination abilities but will gladly hand it over to be confirmed. The sender will need to be found, sir.”

The commander was clearly thinking about this. What was running through his mind – Zoey could not tell. Even in his contemplative posture the man looked attractive, and it was torturing Zoey to look his way.

When he nodded, Tong-Chang set down the receiver on the table with a bare minimum of force. The way she blinked and a grimace flashed on her face indicated that it was harder than she intended.

For that matter, Zoey was beginning to feel more strain than normal in her legs and shoulders.

Static broke out of the receiver as one of the engineers scrambled to press a few buttons on a console they were standing at. The engineer motioned with his lips a quick “sorry.”

The static cleared for the most part while the weight of everything lifted. Then voices came through the small receiver at a far superior quality compared to any laptop computer speakers that Zoey witnessed on Earth.

“Oh blast,” said Captain Druvvin on the other end.

Bon’sinne said, “I know, I’m the last person you wanted to see, especially during your personal time.”

“Must you two do this, now?”

“This is about our daughter, Ren’baek. We need to talk.”

One of the engineers asked, “Do we shut it off?”

“No,” said the commander, “trace its origin. The captains are in one of three places on this ship.” He shot a glare in Tong-Chang’s direction.

“Very well,” said Captain Druvvin. “What do you want to talk about?”

Keft’aerak said, “It’s about what you said regarding our policy for sending aliens back to underdeveloped worlds.”

“Oh, that daughter. She has certainly made a good impression on you, and to me as well despite last night’s little non-issue.”

“Non-issue? You threatened to tear Zoey from her new life and send her back to Earth.”

“You misunderstand me. Policy is clear what to do in a normal circumstance. In a normal circumstance we would now have to wait until the next ship heads out there to study the planet and its progress or deterioration. This, however, is anything but a normal circumstance. She is, however, not your daughter.”

“No?” Bon’sinne asked. There was another sound, like an object being set down upon a hard surface. “This document just needs two more signatures before it can be processed. We would fill the authoritative requirement, but we can’t since she intend to adopt her. The second would be her own in two spaces, to make her chosen name and place among our family official. That would be her choice.”

“This is foolish. You are talking about someone whom you have spent one week with instead of a whole revolution. You are speaking of someone whom was born a boy and forced into the body of a young woman – your real daughter.”

Everyone in the work station looked at Zoey. She only smiled through it and rolled her eyes.

Keft’aerak said, “She shows no sign of wanting to be a boy again.”

“No,” said Captain Druvvin, “not today. Not that we’ve seen in the past seven days. Who would be to say that she actually feels that way? Who could say what Dylan or Zoey will show in the next six to eight months? She is a good person, I can grant you that, but she is not Il’lyse.”

“You’re right about that.”

“Look, I truly am sorry. My brother was an ass; that was my fault. I took on Benedict as my commander to try and redeem my poor choices, but he is not my brother either. Redemption for what happened is steep. Here is my answer.”

One of the engineers said, “We have isolated the signal. They are in the Recreation Hall, second level.”

“Zoi’ne?” the commander called, but she ran.

Chapter 17

She practically flew up two flights of stairs and across the decks’ corridors until Zoey found the only room that was able to rival the Hearth Hall in size. She opened the door and saw her parents standing there.

It didn’t matter what the ship’s captain said to them. They were still her family.

“Zoey, what are you doing here?” Bon’sinne asked.

“There’s a bug in here, and I need to talk to Captain Druvvin,” Zoey said. “Would you wait for me please?”

“A bug?”

“Please, Mom.”

“OK. Don’t be too long. We have news for you.”

“So will I.” Zoey stepped inside the room for the first time since waking up in this ship.

It was designed to look like a cross between an indoor garden and the observation window for the facilities below. She could almost see how members of the crew would use the space below for exercises, playing sports, or receiving shoulder rubs in one corner.

Zoey turned her head toward the captain, who then saw her.

“Blast!” he said.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but someone has been listening to the goings-on in this room. The admiral, or his wife, was using a radio to spy on you.”

“I had a feeling someone might have been.”

“Tong-Chang found the receiver in their room.”

The captain took a deep, agitated breath and studied Zoey. “Is that all?”

“No, sir, I see a pair of ears in need of talking off. Ever since I got on your ship I have felt unwelcome by you. You have yet to explain to me how I even got on your ship, in this body, which is totally mine now and I love it, by the way. For that matter, why are the Hulda’fi rebels the way they are, and what did your brother have to do with Il’lyse? I need answers, just as much as I need the loving, overly caring people outside your door here. What the fuck, Captain?”

Captain Druvvin pinched his brow with one hand and closed his book with the other. He stood up from his chair, walking to the cabinet that looked like a microwave near the top. He put two mugs inside of the device and pressed a few buttons.

“Do you prefer chocolate or green tea?” he asked.

“Will it matter?” said Zoey. “I like either one.”

Two more buttons were pressed. “While we wait for this machine to make our drinks, let me make one thing clear. I do not hate you. I avoided you because of what your face meant to me. When you slapped me last night, the error I made only began to catch up to me in force.”

“Is that an invitation to slap you again, sir?”

“It is not. I would appreciate it if you did not revisit this action of yours.”

The machine chimed. Captain Druvvin extracted the cups, which Zoey now saw had fluid in them. The mugs had a silver sand texture to their design, as smooth as they actually were, and blue stripes close to the top. He set these mugs down on the observation table.

“Please,” he said, “grab a seat. Ensign Leezu, if you are listening still, you are to overload the device so it blows on our end. I will take that as a sign of cooperation.”

“The commander and two engineers are with her too,” Zoey said, sitting down.

“Ah, good. Enjoy the chocolate tea then. I had the last ensign in her position program it into the system. Now then, what I am about to tell you is not something I generally like to share, nor do I want it heard by too many ears.”

Something tiny popped atop one of the forest paintings that hanged on the wall. The captain nodded toward the direction.

“I trust only so many people,” he said, “but I may well trust myself least of all. My brother was a charming man, but a liar and good at hiding his faults in matters. Il’lyse fell for him. Bonny and Aerak asked their daughter to stay away from him, and they asked me to get my brother to back away. I made the wrong choice for the right reason.

“It’s my belief that young love should not be persuaded one way or the other. Well, my brother was only twenty revolutions younger than me, and I should have thought better of his age. Yet he went on wooing young women fifteen to twenty revolutions younger than himself until one day when everything went very wrong. He stole a shuttle and took Il’lyse with him. There was a magnetic storm, residual from a battle combined with some solar activity, and they were caught in it, never to be seen again.

“Bonny and Aerak blamed me ever since that day. It was my brother, and that was my battle, which I took so seriously compared to matters of family.”

Zoey said, “Wow, I’m actually sorry to hear that.”

“Our parents were among the first to die to these rebels. So I understand, to some degree, your desire for a functioning family in your life. As to the rebels themselves, none of us are sure. The Hulda’fi are made up of some part criminals and some part cultists whose desires are only matters of the flesh. They claim to desire independence from the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance, to which we have tried to be amiable and accommodating, even trying to find them suitable places to dwell that will not hinder our own way of life. Our best of intentions have only been met with violence, theft, and sabotage. Their criminal activity has been on the rise for the last twelve revolutions.”

“Have you tried tracking them down and making arrests in the last several years?”

“We have tried locating their hideouts and lairs, but they elude us. You have seen first-hand what one of their attacks look like. There may be a spy among us. It’s not you, not your new family, nor the three of my crew not aboard the Maslou when we were ambushed. Everyone else will need to be interviewed.”

“What about the admiral and his wife?”

“They are out of my reach, both literally and figuratively. This device that Ensign Leezu found will not be enough evidence to open an inquiry against them, as much as I would like to press them for what they know. I have my doubts regarding their involvement, however.”

Zoey finished her tea and set it on the counter. “How did I come to your ship, looking like this?”

“In our pursuit of a smaller craft, we pushed through what appeared to be a wormhole, though it may have been smaller than necessary for our ship. It affected our systems, and we were too late getting to sG2Vn3 – I mean Earth. We had an inside man among them. The building you were in was on fire and about to explode. His final words were in demand to beam you both aboard. I sent word through the closing wormhole as soon as I recognized your face. A few weeks later, here we are. Your new family has more information in the classified files handed to them, if you want more than that.”

“My family . . . You’re calling them my family now?”

“It was the least I could do. Go to them. I hope you will understand better when you see them.”

His face quivered. Zoey got up and took two steps toward the door when something dawned on her. She turned around and saluted; the Earth way, hand flattened against her brow.

“W-what is this?” Captain Druvvin asked.

Zoey said, “There’s something I needed to say since I awoke a week ago. Permission to come aboard, sir.”

The captain’s eyes watered, and he burst out laughing as though the poor man had finally been broken. He said, “That wasn’t necessary, Zoi’ne, but granted. Granted!”

She walked outside of the room and found her parents waiting against the opposite wall for her. Bon’sinne raised a brow toward Captain Druvvin’s direction and then smiled at Zoey.

“I guess he already approves of us being a family?” Zoey said after the door closed.

Bon’sinne said, “It surprised us too, dear.”

“OK. What do I have to do?”

Keft’aerak handed her a digital pad. He said, “This asks you for your approval on two things. One would be the final step in your name, and the other would allow us to jump several dozen obstacles to adopt you. You need only provide your signature if you know how to write it.”

“Right, signatures. I totally remember my old one.”

She skimmed the document as it was visible to her. There were no tricks, no sign of anything being taken away. Then she saw her full name at last, and it made her arms shake. Zoi’ne Thalassas; all she had to do was sign and Dylan Wilde would be no more. Did his Earth friends grieve him? Were his things given away? Was she truly ready to make this step?

With stylus in hand, Zoey hovered over the pad for a moment to think about it. This was really it.

In Aelfen culture, there was at least one name to mean “new life.” Tonight? After a whole week, she made that meaning truly her own.

***

The next morning was the last time she woke up in this hotel room. Zoi’ne almost didn’t want to leave, her naked body and Tong-Chang's still clinging together.

They checked out together and stumbled, half-awake, into the train headed for the dock. Zoey wore a new outfit that, Tong-Chang claimed, the Ginserei bought with her own money instead of her father’s. Dasos had apparently washed it for her last night and handed it over before everyone went back to their rooms that they paid for.

A number of dock workers saluted the crew as they boarded the Maslou. Zoi’ne boarded the ship and looked for a good spot to watch their own departure from Natt Grans when Dasos found her.

“Hey, sis,” he said. “Are you looking for something?”

“Just a good view,” she said.

Das led Zoey to the family’s suite where their parents were sitting on the reclining couch and watching the monitor. She saw that the departure was on there in four different angles.

“Nice outfit, Zoey,” said Bon’sinne.

“Thank you,” Zoi’ne said, “Tong-Chang bought it for me.”

As the ship drew further and further away from the station, Zoey could finally see how the two rings were interwoven with one another, their motion barely visible unless you looked at the outer edges.

The intercom chimed once the ship was accelerating and leaving Natt Grans far behind.

Captain Druvvin said, “Welcome aboard, everyone. I hope you had a restful two days. We will be home in an estimated six more days since all of our systems are fully functioning again. Now then, I have some less fortunate news. We will be conducting interviews with everyone starting at thirteen hundred hours. This will be mandatory for everyone except for Commander Consilius, who will be heading this task over the next couple days. I ask that you all be forthright, as I’m sure you will be. I refuse to believe that we have a spy among us, but recent events call for action and proper evaluation. Thank you all.”

Chapter 18

Three corridors led to the ship’s Bridge. Before the two outermost hallways reached the front of the ship, they curved further inward, leaving a pair of corner rooms that Captain Druvvin and his commander used as their offices.

Zoi’ne paced back and forth past the door on the starboard side. The placard on the side read “Commander Fons’benedict Consilius” in the Aelfen alphabet, which only became so familiar to Zoey as she looked at it periodically.

Being here made her nervous. Waiting for any sort of word from within filled Zoey with worry or concern.

The door opened, suddenly, and Tong-Chang walked out. She exhaled deeply.

“Hello again,” said the commander from his chair.

“Hi,” Zoey said in turn before directing her attention to Tong-Chang. “How did it go?”

“It went fine, I think?” Tong-Chang said. “He apologized for thinking the worst when I brought in that receiver and so quickly identified it. Then he just asked a few questions that he had for me about my time in the academy, as well as aboard this ship. We never brought up what I did for the Fjorfolias, but I think he suspects it.”

“Tonny, love, breathe. Breathe.”

Her friend inhaled and exhaled, and her body became less rigid. Had she pressed her ears against Tong-Chang’s chest, Zoey imagined she would have heard her heart soften. At the same time the attempted comfort gave Zoey some relief as well, knowing that her friend was alright.

Tong-Chang said, “Thank you for coming with me and waiting. It means a lot.”

“Of course, Ensign,” said Zoey. “Are you still on duty?”

“I am. I better head back down there. Why do you ask?”

“I was just wondering. My mom’s wanting me to meet her in the Recreation Hall in a bit, actually. She said something about helping the both of us while we’re headed for Elysium IX.”

“Did she say anything about what you need to wear?”

“Nope.”

“Go naked. Only kidding, of course.”

***

As soon as she entered the lower level of the Recreation Hall, Zoey saw that Bon’sinne had set aside a spot on the floor with a wide, but thin, mat. Her mom was brushing off one of the sleeves on a piece of clothing that was hanging off the side of a dummy.

Bon’sinne turned her way and said, “Hey, you’re a couple minutes early. Good.”

“What is this?” Zoey asked.

“Our family has a tradition on Aerak’s side, going back a few generations. Everyone gets to learn the basics of martial arts, and by ‘basics’ I mean enough to complete the second level in a few different forms. It just so happens that I care for it more than Aerak ever did.”

“He looked amazing from what little I saw.”

Her mom hummed. “Yes, I suppose he’s good enough at it. He just prefers stealth and hunting more. Everyone has their own preferences.”

“You make it sound as though you’re better.”

Despite her Aelfen senses, Zoey could barely see the fluid motions that her mom made. Bon’sinne effortlessly swiped the clothes off of the dummy and flung them at Zoey, which she had just enough time to catch within her arms.

Bon’sinne said, “When he isn’t enjoying a good tree climb or stealthy hunt against his buddies, your dad practices his cooking or reads old seafaring novels. Your brother plays a variety of tabletop and video games when he isn’t out running around a track. I too love some of those games, but am the most active in practicing martial arts; something I’ve fallen behind on in the last couple years and mean to rectify now.”

“What about Il’lyse?” Zoey asked.

“She liked to dance. It’s ironic, really, since she had a weakness in her martial arts that she never got over.”

“And that was?”

“Change into that gi and I’ll tell you after we practice for a while.” Damn, her smile could be devious if she wanted it to be.

After Zoey came out of the changing room and rejoined her mom, she was instructed on the stretches and basic starter poses over the course of forty-five minutes. Movements started slow and sped up periodically.

“So far so good,” Bon’sinne said. “Memorize these movements and you will do well as long as you desire to improve with it.”

“I guess it’s too late to run off now, huh?” Zoey said.

“Perhaps. You do have a habit of running forward before you think about the next step. I don’t really see you as the sort of person who runs away often. I do, however, know that you have gotten lucky so far. You dealt a couple surprise hits on Soror Valide, from what I understand.”

“Are you saying you plan to train me so I can take her down on my own?”

“No. I wouldn’t send you against that person if I can help it. My aim is to help you hold your own should the need ever arise. It is good exercise in general, as well. Let’s move on to something more practical.”

Bon’sinne smacked the backside of the dummy. Its arms and legs that were once still became animated, though slow.

“Pick a form,” she said. “And then choose: block, grapple, or strike. Choose well, and that will be the first building block in your basic training.”

What if she chose unwisely, Zoey wondered? The dummy came closer and closer. The dummy by itself wasn’t terrifying, but the pressure was still undeniable. She bought herself some time by stepping back once, twice, and finally a third when Zoi’ne shifted her arms into one of the poses her mom taught her.

Block, grapple, or strike.

The dummy only marched closer until it was in range. It swung for Zoey up high, but she already moved. She bent her legs further and punched the slow-moving dummy in the area where its stomach would have been. She was so sure of her strike that Zoey didn’t see the other arm coming from her side.

Zoey stumbled to her left and focused on getting back on her feet. She turned when she was able.

“Stop,” Bon’sinne said.

The contraption had its fist out, mere inches from hitting Zoey on the forehead.

“It’s perhaps too early to tell,” Bon’sinne said, “but with work on your forms and adding some defense to your right side will be a good start for the next few days. That will be easier than what I feared we would be working on.”

“What do you mean?” asked Zoey.

“You were curious about Il’lyse. We spent a year working on her legs, or trying to, before she avoided every lesson she could on the subject. Her head was in the clouds often, so she missed the ground she walked on more often than not.”

“I still have to wonder, why does a society so advanced have to fight as much?”

“That is a good question. The answer will have to come another day, however.”

***

She approached that door one more time today. Zoey asked herself why she came here, despite knowing the answer. She waited a moment in case anyone else was being interviewed by the commander.

How could she tell, Zoey realized?

Zoey knocked on the door and immediately realized how silly that was. She didn’t think anyone knocked on anything since leaving Earth behind. Zoey reached for the side panel when the door opened.

One of the laeknir recoiled in surprise of seeing her, and then nodded at Zoey before walking away from the scene. The commander just looked her way.

“Hi, Commander, do you have a moment?” Zoey asked.

“I just might,” he replied. “I finished early for today. Was that you making that sound on my door a moment ago?”

“Yes, I knocked on it. I’m not even sure why.”

“Well then, please, come on in and we can discuss whatever is on your mind, Miss Wi—Thalassas.”

“I see my new name is catching on.”

“Just as well, I am noticing that you are fully embracing it. I happened to have a few questions about your experience in all this, but it hardly seemed appropriate.”

Zoey sat in the chair across from him. She tried to avoid gazing right at him. “I came to ask you to interview me.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You were ordered to interview most of the ship’s crew, correct? I know I’m not one of them, but if you have any questions I can answer that would help you then it would only be fair.”

She felt his gentle, yet firm finger lift her head up by the chin. The commander met her eyes with his, and brushed a strand of hair back behind her left ear while Zoey took in a deep breath.

Commander Consilius retrieved an empty folder and notepad with a pen. It was then that Zoey realized that this interview was being conducted with paper and ink rather than anything with a digital interface.

“Pardon if my first question is a difficult one,” he said. “When you were transported to this ship four weeks ago you were unconscious, wounded, and in a body familiar to many people, but not to yourself. Before that you were a young man, a human, from the planet Earth, as you call it. How did it feel to wake up in a body of the opposite sex?”

“At first? It was shocking. I wasn’t sure what to make of it because it was so sudden to me, and not at all what I had planned or wanted. I felt everything in my body seize up in fear of all that was happening, but one young man, Das’ithrios, gave me the help I needed at first.”

“And now? Do you not wish to be a man again?”

“That is the strangest thing in all of this. I remember my old life, and the handful of good times I had with it, but that doesn’t feel like me anymore. I was afraid of what I would see the first time I looked in the mirror with this body, but all I saw was me. Not anyone pretending to be me, not some monster that had be trapped inside, but me. I re-learned to walk, made friends, and picked my given name after hearing the bottom half of a list of names a couple of times.”

“Just the bottom half?”

“I started from the bottom with the intent of working my way up. The one name stuck out for me. It also reminded me of the Earth name, Zoey, and that felt so right as I am now. Now I look in the mirror and neither see nor hear anything of Dylan Wilde. A couple nights ago, this realization hit me hard as I began to wonder who or what I even was. How could I accept this new body so easily? Why was everyone so nice to me when I didn’t even know who I was anymore, or were they molding me into some other person at the time? Then I saw a friend of mine in trouble of her own, and so much came clear.”

“How so?”

“Well, details, but I’m just as caring towards my friends as I have always been, only I fell in love with this one as well. My love of history when I was on Earth is still with me now, only here I have so much new history to explore. I have so many myths to learn and uncover that I don’t even know. I have a brother and loving parents now, unlike on Earth. I curse those rebels for almost taking them from me when I realized how much I wanted a family.”

“What of your more sexual experiences?”

“What about them?”

“Well, I understand that feelings and sensations all are different between men and women. Largely in Aelf culture it is acceptable to have relations with either gender, of course, and the Ginserei have this to a lesser extent.”

“I would be lying if I said I only like women. For the past week I tried not to think about it, and then, a couple days ago, I found that I didn’t really have to. There is a guy I have my eyes on who looks strong and handsome, and is a charmer when he wants to be, but I don’t know how my friend would feel about it.”

“Well, you are a beautiful young woman in any case. Your friend is lucky enough to have you.”

Her heart thumped again. There was a ravenous beast in her waiting the pounce on the meat across the desk, but she forced it down and tried her best to pretend everything was fine. “I really should talk to her about where we stand.”

“I would certainly be interested to know. In any event, what do you know of the Hulda’fi that attacked us?”

“They referred to themselves as a croquet team, I think. Their leader was Soror Valide, and I fought her. She got away after my mom shot off a piece of her mask. I saw a few of them on Earth, including I think her, before the building we were in exploded, and I was transported onto this ship.”

Commander Consilius only looked at Zoey like he was buried beneath more than he asked for. He set his pen down and only marveled at Zoey for a time before he could ask for any more details on all of that. In the end, Zoey only told him what she could, which was apparently more than he was expecting.

Chapter 19

As Zoey entered the residential area of the ship, she noticed Tong-Chang walking into one of the quarters. Zoey dashed toward the door, careful not to be too heavy on her footfalls. She caught the door before it could close, and then peeked in.

“Knock, knock?” Zoey said.

There were three beds just big enough for one person each, in addition to the basic facilities for a modest dormitory. Tong-Chang was the only person inside, however.

Tong-Chang looked her way and smiled. She said, “Zoey, hi.”

“Is this where you sleep?” Zoey asked.

“It was supposed to be. It’s one of four Cadet Quarters. I haven’t used it much since Admiral and Lady Fjorfolia requested me to assist them during their stay. Now it’ll just be two of us ensigns in here.”

“You’re more than welcome to come to my room if you want.”

“I will definitely keep that in mind, but tonight will be fine on my own. How are you doing?”

“It’s complicated. I was talking to the commander for a while when I realized I needed to ask you something. What are we?”

“What do you mean?”

“We made love, Tonny. Before that we were friends. You admitted yourself, once before, that we’re still learning about one another. So what are we? Girlfriends?”

“Would such a thing bother you?”

“No, but it would be good to know.”

“I’m not sure there’s a good term for what we are right now. I certainly have no plans to have sex with anyone at the moment, and if I did then I might go for you again, unless you decide you want something more than this, whatever it is.”

“Somehow that doesn’t help me feel any better. God, this is so complicated.”

“That would be my fault. We were both vulnerable and needed something, anything, that night in the hotel. Then we kept going until sometime the next day. Now what I feel for you is kinship and adoration, like with any friend, or maybe more. I wish I had the words for how sorry I am, but I need time.”

“As do I. You’re definitely one person I don’t want to lose in my life; one friend I think is worth the effort. I owe you, and my family, for so much.”

“Don’t mention it. They helped me as well when I met them after I cut myself off from my relatives. Perhaps one day you will be able to pay forward that kindness. Besides, I know I’m not the only person you’ve had eyes for.”

Zoey blushed and averted her gaze.

“Yeah, I’ve seen how you look at him,” Tong-Chang said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Zoey.

Tong-Chang leaned in closer and whispered in her ear. “I hear Commander Consilius has satisfied every partner. You’re more than welcome to try him out yourself.”

“Tonny, stop.”

“What? It’s your life; your brand new life. Don’t cheat yourself out of living it because you found one thing that you liked at the beginning.”

“Now who’s giving advice?”

Her friend just gave her a peck on the lips before turning back to her own things. Zoey wasn’t sure how happy she was with this entire conversation, and yet she couldn’t help but shake her head in amusement at Tong-Chang.

***

Dasos was sitting in the Hearth Hall at one table. He held a book with one hand, and used his other to type out notes on his digital pad. His typing hand swapped between index cards that he designed as part of a puzzle-based filing system. That was one of his pet projects back in public schooling, was making that filing system.

Sometimes he thought about refining the system that he developed a few revolutions ago, but he never got around to improving what little he knew about programming since he made this system of his. Now, for instance, he needed to concentrate more on reading through a couple reference books and finishing his final essay for class.

Suddenly, Zoey sat down across from him at the table. She pressed her chin down atop her folded arms and looked up at Dasos as though she wanted his help with something.

“What’s up, sis?” he said, pausing his progress on the current book he was on for yet another time during this trip.

She said, “I need advice.”

“OK, what kind of advice?”

“I’m just so confused right now. I think I’m in love with Tonny, but she’s in total friend mode right now. Then I have the dumbest feelings for someone else every other time I see him, but I don’t really want to pursue them. What do I do?”

“That’s something I’m not so sure about. I loved her too, myself. I still do, I think. Tonny probably needs time, as you do. If you feel the need to jump some poor guy’s bones then I’m not going to stop you, but I will ask that you be responsible about it. Oh, right, you said you didn’t want to pursue him. Have you tried talking to Mom and Dad about this?”

“The last thing I need is to risk having them talk about their own sex lives. They’re probably doing it right now.”

“I see your point.” For over twenty revolutions Dasos was blessed with never picturing his parents having sex. That was several revolutions where he narrowly avoided the thought when Dasos learned about the act, and how babies were made. Somehow, now, talking to his sister changed that in an instant.

He pressed his head against the table and did his best to flood the imagery out with other thoughts. His groan was an audible one.

“Sorry,” Zoey said.

“Have you tried talking to the man in question?” said Dasos, his face still against the table.

“Sort of. I asked him to interview me like me did with the ship’s crew. He was so professional about it that I thought it was helping. Then came the end of it, and—“

Dasos lifted his head with a jolt. “Wait, you’re having these feelings for the commander?”

“Not so loud. Fine, yes, he’s the first man to make me feel so damn flustered. I’m trying not to be. It just doesn’t seem right, you know? Maybe I should ask a laeknar if this is a side effect of the injection they gave me.”

“What injection?”

Zoey turned bashful. “Birth control.”

“Talk to Mom.” This was officially one of the strangest conversations he ever had in his life.

***

Zoey breathed heavily. She changed positions and shifted her pace, again and again. At least the daily exercises that her mom assigned her were helping to keep some things off of the top of her mind.

Her mom was doing the exercises as well while they stood a few paces apart on the mat. Bon’sinne wasn’t breaking a sweat at all, unlike Zoey.

“You’re focusing too hard, dear,” Bon’sinne said.

True, Zoey was starting to dream about Tong-Chang and the commander in separate instances. She was trying to think only about these exercises than those dreams. It was morning. She only had a piece of fruit before coming here, so the dreams were still quite fresh.

“Just trying to push away last night’s dreams,” Zoey said.

“Journals are better for that,” Bon’sinne said. “What kind of dreams are you having?”

“They’re the kind of dreams I’m not really comfortable talking about.”

“Ladies!” called a manly voice, “Do you mind if I join you?”

Zoi’ne knew that voice without turning around, and she locked up in the middle of a change in pose. Her cheeks began to turn red as well. Zoey was quite sure that her mom saw this in a short glance before Bon’sinne turned to Commander Consilius.

Bon’sinne said, “We were about to finish up the exercises for the day and do a round each on the dummy. Would you be willing to emulate level zero for my daughter, Benedict?”

He said, “Sure, I’d be happy to help.”

As they got into their places, Zoey saw her mom playing with some controls on the backside of the dummy. The commander stretched his limbs and neck, which exposed a few of his muscles for Zoey to see.

While watching movies or reading books on Earth, male elves were often depicted as effeminate in their looks. One major difference with the Aelfs was so clear in how chiseled and handsome the commander looked in his own gi.

“Get ready,” Bon’sinne said. She only gave a knowing smile with no indication to what was about to happen.

I hate Mom. I hate Mom. I hate Mom.

“Begin,” her mom said.

Commander Consilius took his first step forward. He moved slow, but his arms and hands moved through basic positions with every new step he took.

Zoi’ne ran forward with the first form she had. Knowing which hand the man wrote with, she bowed low and caught his right arm with her own. Then she punched his right side with a closed fist, used her right to perform another hit to his chin, and then turned with an attempted form shift to deliver an elbow to the commander’s chest.

He caught her elbow with a wince. Before Zoey could finish her form shift, she fell back upon the mat with some force. In a flash she was pinned by the arms, and the commander was on top of her.

“Someone has some frustration to work out,” he said.

“Enough,” Bon’sinne said. “Thank you for that, Benedict, but please get off my daughter before you wish you were one.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He got up with a smile and extended a hand toward Zoey.

Frustrated was right, as she found that some part of her wanted more. Zoey lifted herself up, averting her gaze from the commander. She was so done with today, wanting to crawl under a blanket and let the remainder of it all go away.

Her mom tapped her shoulder and whispered gently. She said, “That was a good try, dear. Why don’t you go take a shower and join Aerak and me for breakfast in a bit? He’s making omelets and bacon.”

“Sure, that sounds good,” Zoey said.

Her mom then faced off against the dummy. It was at a much higher level, but then again so was Bon’sinne. Had Zoey been in a better mood right now she would have stayed to watch.

***

It was after breakfast when Zoey went for a walk around the main corridors of the ship. She actually felt refreshed for once like she could tackle a whole day of new challenges. She had some more reading to do, for sure, but right now was definitely her daily exercise time.

She barely reached the edge of the residential area when she saw the commander stepping out of his quarters in uniform. He had a few bruises on him, at least one not being her doing.

They made eye contact, and her heart stumbled.

“Hello, Commander,” Zoey said.

“Good morning, Zoi’ne. I see you’re talking to me again. This is always a pleasure.”

“I owe you an apology. I took something out on you that, well, it kind of is your fault but you can’t help it.”

“Well, I do have a few hours before I need to resume my interviews for the day, in case you wish to sit down and talk.”

“Just talk?”

“It’s sort of a specialty of mine. If there’s something I can do to make your time here easier on you then I’ll be glad to listen. A beautiful young woman like you shouldn’t have a care in the galaxy.”

“Oh stop!” She raised her hand at him ready to slap the man, but she came to a stop short of his grand figure. She rested her forehead and hand on his chest, wondering what she was even doing. “You’re so difficult.”

“I’ve been told this before. Then again, it’s not every day that I try to resist pursuing someone because her parents might actually kill me and court martial my remains. Your mom already proved that today.”

“Did she?”

He rubbed the bruise on his face that Zoey had nothing to do with. Zoey rested a hand upon it as softly as she could manage. She wanted to make that up to him. She wanted to make up a lot more to herself. Then the two of them pressed their lips together.

Oh, Earth to Zoi’ne. What am I doing?

The commander wrapped one arm around her waist and hit some buttons on the side panel of his door, at which point the two of them staggered inside.

Chapter 20

Soror Valide took over navigation for her stiern-boat while the other two continued to tow it sides by sides. By now their own fuel was running half empty, which was still more than the Kroke Team had to work with.

There was an icy planet before her. It had an atmosphere with all the right gases for breathing, but it was simply too cold in most places around the globe.

After a month it was good to see this frozen rock again.

Dereskoo often had its share of craft of satellites patrolling it, so the trio of stiern-boats flew in close with their stealth cloaking. Anyone with a good eye could still see them, but most forms of detection would see no better than another rock aimed for the surface of this planet.

Soror Valide pulled a lever. Her craft, and the others, extended a series of mechanical limbs and shielding to block out the flames as their combined form made the descent.

Her brothers and sisters were secure already. Some echo in her mind wanted her to rush forward with the rest of the team poised to fall in the rear of the stiern-boat. The same echo wanted to open the hatch on them.

When did she ever get so violent towards her own brothers and sisters, or towards anyone?

Everything around her shook and heated up. She could feel forces push and pull. Still, the systems and craft’s integrity held together. Any moment it would be time to pull up and find the designated cave entrance.

The stiern-boats slowed their descent. She moved the lever again and activated the engine. This craft still had enough fuel to enter the nearest port. She had to move fast.

Then the other crafts dropped hers. The thrusters kicked in before the stiern-boat touched the ice below. It sank, however, breaking the thin ice and submersing into water. Yes, the craft had enough power and fuel. It could jet out and crash into the two stiern-boats that gave Soror Valide her ride.

Off to the side, she saw an opening in the wall of rock and ice. With the sound of metal plating creaking, she grinned at the opening and navigated the tunnel.

She re-emerged from the water inside a subterranean cave. There was a landing spot set aside for the incoming stiern-boats, which was adjacent to a garage for repairs.

Once the craft was landed, Soror Valide said, “We’re home, boys and girls. We will disembark in five minutes.”

Soror Valide shut down everything but the ventilation system designed to aid in air pressure within their craft. The others moved their cargo into position while they waited, and acclimated to the planet’s gravity.

The chamber they were in was beneath a mountain. A short series of doors awaited the Hulda’fi as they progressed to the next location on foot. The other side of either door was made to blend in with the surrounding walls so as to prevent detection in the event that their headquarters was ever found.

Beyond the second door they were outside again. Rather than a field of ice and snow there was a garden lined with walkways of gray stone and rows of clover. Instead of stormy weather there was synthetic sunlight radiating from three solar lanterns near the edges of the dome’s floor, and a forth one in the ceiling. All of the walkways led to a manor.

The manor was impressive in size and design. After a long month of being away, it was the best thing Soror Valide had ever seen. She directed the others ahead of her with the cryogenic case, and then just stood for a moment to take it in.

It was a moment to soothe her soul, but the weight remained as only seven people walked ahead of her.

Soror Valide clenched a fist and went inside. She followed the case past clusters of brothers and sisters, mostly sisters, until they came to a lounge standing two stories tall.

“Where is she?” Soror Valide asked. “Where is the Lady Tunderek?” Her voice raised and echoed into the manor.

Then she saw her upstairs where the fake sunlight met with the shadow. Lady Tunderek sat in her chair, smoking from a pipe. The woman stood in her glimmering gown that dragged across the floor, and she crossed the upper floor toward the stairs where she gazed upon her children.

“I am here,” the Lady said.

“We’ve brought back your case.”

“Ho-ho, you have proven yourself again. So much trouble over a few simple packs.” She proceeded down the steps, retaining every ounce of air about her that everyone in this manor cherished.

“You could say that. One of our own betrayed us. We picked a fight with those Hoshi-Lacartan hounds aboard the Marslou and took more than double of them that they took away from us. Our loss was heavy, yet we also failed to retrieve someone I wasn’t told about.”

“Ah, you are still seething. Such was a terrible price, I agree.”

Lady Tunderek examined the exterior of the cryogenic case after she motioned for it to be set down upon a counter. She opened it and closed it again upon seeing the contents, her eyes wider than a moment prior.

“I, for one, am willing to say two out of three isn’t bad,” the lady said.

“I saw someone,” Soror Valide said, pulling back her hood and revealing her hair and ears. “She had my eyes, my hair, my everything.”

“You did? Yes, I saw her as well.”

“Who was she?”

“Does it matter? What is in a face? Look upon mine and ask yourself if you see the couple of centuries or more behind it. Look at your own, and ask yourself what your revolutions have mattered to you. Who that girl was that you saw doesn’t matter.”

The Lady came in close to Soror Valide, her hand undoing the utility harness around Soror Valide’s torso in a fluid motion.

“That girl and my family . . .” Soror Valide said.

However, she was silenced before another word could get out. The Lady pressed her lips into her own. She had some idea as to what was coming next.

When Lady Tunderek pushed her back, and Soror Valide fell across the coffee table and into the sofa, her brothers and sisters all laughed. Lady Tunderek waved her hands for everyone else to stay back before she dropped the top layer of her robe and climbed onto the sofa with Soror Valide.

She was right about what was coming. She was powerless to stop it. What she didn’t know was if she wanted to try.

Images from that attack plagued her mind. Seeing people she once knew attacking her, and seeing people she now knew falling to her feet.

“You seem to have forgotten just how special you are,” the Lady said. “I think it’s time to prove it to you.” Her free hand slipped down Soror Valide’s side. Another used an edge atop one ring to cut open the Hulda’fi suit.

This was so familiar by now. She accepted it.

***

When she collapsed, she let out the strangest utterance of exhalation and sound to pass her lips in recent memory. Two hours of her life were just blown with such passion and ferocity that the universe could have it.

Zoey turned her head toward the commander, who was catching his breath and recovering faster than she was.

I did this. I actually did this with a man, and it felt so damn good. At first Zoey asked herself why she had never done this before in her life. Then she remembered exactly why, and let it go.

“Now what?” Zoey asked.

Commander Consilius said, “Normally I’d offer you a drink and some music, and then go from here, but I need to get ready for work again.” He got up and grabbed his clothes.

“I’m sure you say that to all of the girls. At least you were a gentleman and used protection.”

“If I didn’t then I wouldn’t want to think about what’s out there waiting for me. Before you ask, no, I never really thought about settling down and having a family. Men and women in my position have a hard time being in one place for very long. I’d hate to think what would happen to some poor kid if I had one.”

“My mother on Earth was constantly on the run from the law. My father was never around either. Being alone sucks.”

“Now you have a mom and dad who defy the odds for their children. I honestly have no idea how they do it.”

“Maybe you can ask them one day.”

“Perhaps. Anyways, lock up when you’re done in here. You know how to do that, I’m sure.”

“Main, one, one, hold main; one of the officers told me once, like a week ago. Maybe I really should start doing that.”

There was one last “Wait, what?” glance from the commander before he put his second shoe on and went to the door.

“I’ll see you around,” he said.

***

Zoey walked into the upper level of the Recreation Hall with a book in hand. It was a new one to her, as well as at a higher level than the last couple that she was tasked to read. It also had an interesting summary, unlike the last couple of books.

Her dad didn’t know she grabbed this one yet.

Dasos was up here instead of hanging out inside the Hearth Hall, and Captain Druvvin was in his corner reading as well. Zoey waved to her brother and bowed to the captain before finding a seat.

“I see that you have been making good progress with your reading ability, Miss Thalassas,” said Captain Druvvin.

“Thank you, sir,” she said.

She opened the book, excited for once to get started. It was a series of tales and songs written by traveling musicians during the Ranemao Wars of Ginserei history. It opened with the final poem written by one of the musicians in the final days of the seventh war, when his beloved people terror like never before.

The second war had begun when the door opened again. This time is was her dad who walked in with a book in his hand. He stopped halfway across the room when he could see the book that Zoey had in her hands. Keft’Aerak looked at the book he brought in, a smaller and possibly simpler one by comparison, and then again at the one in his daughter’s hands.

“Well OK then,” he said. “I guess I need to find you some higher level books to read.”

Zoey giggled as the other men chuckled. She said, “May I make a request for more history books?”

“You may. What are we going to do with you when we get home, I wonder?”

“We’ll think of something, I’m sure.”

“Alright, I’ll see what else is available on this ship for you to read. Oh right, and son? Your mother has requested your presence tomorrow morning for their exercises. Apparently Bonny broke one of the training dummies.”

There was an audible groan coming from Captain Druvvin.

“OK,” said Dasos, “I’ll be there.”

Chapter 21

As the days passed, Zoey remained occupied with learning bits of history, becoming familiar with reading the letters used by this society, and practicing the basics of martial arts. Her dad found two more books for her to try out, of which she read most of one before the final day of the trip. Her mom added to her exercises and routine.

“Congratulations,” Bon’sinne said when two days remained until they got home, “you have reached the first level on your first two styles.”

“Neat,” Zoey said. “Does this mean a new belt?”

“A new belt? That’s an interesting idea. It must be an Earth thing.”

“I guess. What do the other known worlds do to show advancement?”

“I’ve heard that the humans of Lutoume signify progress as students by adding colored bands to either sleeve. Ginserei and Aelfs generally skip out on such show, and only test ourselves, or each other, when it is called for.”

“Damn, no different colored belts then.”

Das said, “I’m almost curious to see this.”

During the last few days of the journey Zoey and Commander Consilius only made love one extra time. The more that Zoi’ne read her books and exercised the more she gained control over her urges and feelings.

Closer to the end of the time, Commander Consilius met her in the Hearth Hall where Zoey was having lunch.

“Good afternoon, Zoey. We haven’t done anything in the last couple days.” he said.

She said, “No, I don’t suppose we have.”

“How would you like to get together sometime? Maybe I’ll treat you to some dinner in my quarters.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to make something more serious between us. Ask me again tomorrow and we’ll see.”

Zoi’ne paid a visit to the Medical Bay after that. She asked if there was anything wrong with her since she felt less inclined to have sex like she previously was. They asked about how frequently she was having it, how many partners, and the birth control they gave her, before running a pair of tests.

Their conclusion was that Zoey was still quite healthy. In fact, her body chemistry was more balanced and her mind was a fair deal stronger than it was when she first awoke aboard the Marslou. She was still able to feel arousal, but it just wasn’t happening.

She went on to share this with Tong-Chang that night when she visited Zoey’s room.

“Who was the lucky man?” Tonny asked. “Was it Commander Consilius?”

“Oh, will you stop?” Zoey said.

“Are you going to make me?”

Zoey tackled her friend onto the bed. The Ginserei screamed out when it happened. Tong-Chang laughed and grasped Zoey’s sides. Zoey huffed in amusement and leaned in closer, her eyes locked on her friend’s.

“You confuse me so much,” Zoey said.

“Do I really, though?” Tonny said.

“You’re beautiful, and I want to just love you. We don’t need to do more than that; just love.”

“Then tonight? Let’s love. Tomorrow, love some more, and do more when it comes, every day we can.”

They kissed and caressed in one another’s arms. Zoey felt good with Benedict, but with Tong-Chang she couldn’t be any more right. Since then, Tong-Chang spent the remaining nights with Zoey in her room.

The final morning came at an earlier hour than Zoey was expecting. Her eyes remained heavy as she sat up and saw her girlfriend putting on her undershirt. The extra tug that Tong-Chang gave her shirt to fit it over her bosom made Zoey smile.

“Good morning,” Zoey said.

“Hey,” Tong-Chang said, “I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“I don’t think so. What time is it?”

“It’s five hundred hours. The ensigns are expected in the Bridge in full uniform.” She slipped on her jacket.

“How come?”

“It’s our final grade for the class credit. The captain writes out reports alongside the heads of our respective departments. Stars beyond, I’m nervous.”

Zoey climbed out of bed and grabbed the pants hanging off the end of the mattress. Her underwear was on the floor, and her shirt was closer to the door. She proceeded to get dressed as Tong-Chang walked over to give her a peck on the lips.

“You don’t have to get up,” Tonny said.

“Nonsense. Let me see you over there. I’m sure your report will be glowing.”

“Glowing? I’m going to guess that’s a good thing.”

As they headed out the door, and Zoey grabbed her shirt to put it on while in motion, she gently scratched behind Tong-Chang’s ear. The Ginserei gasped, but her hands didn’t quite reach her mouth. Her face read as one of surprise and pleasure, blending further into the latter, for the few seconds that Zoey massaged her head.

They took a while to walk to the Bridge. Zoey and Tong-Chang entered through the central door. Zoey stood back as the Ginserei stood closer to the front of the room. Captain Druvvin turned her way briefly to smile and nod at Zoey, and then back to the frontal view of the ship into the stars.

It took a moment longer for the remaining three ensigns to line up. The commander called for a salute. Everyone in the room saluted towards the captain, who in turn saluted to the three ensigns. He stepped forward with three folders.

“It takes merit to stand where we do,” Captain Druvvin said. “I said this once before, six months ago, when these young faces joined our company. The Elysium University is a pride of our alliance and a prestige for education; its Academy a great honor for anyone wishing to be part of the alliance. The true test is to be on the field.

“We have lost comrades, and they will never be forgotten, the parts they played. Every one of you who stands here today has served our crew as an equal, still learning and always ready to be better than the day you joined us. As you depart from our company I hope you take this with you into the end of your diplomas and the start of your careers.”

He handed them each a folder. Each folder varied in how thick they were, and it appeared as though Tong-Chang’s was the biggest among them. Her eyes flashed wider.

Captain Druvvin grabbed another folder, which was thinner than all of the others. He turned toward the back of the Bridge and said, “Normally that would be all. However, this past month has been anything but normal. Once in a great while there comes a moment of great honor when someone makes an impression. Miss Thalassas, I am glad you could come.”

The captain lifted his free hand and beckoned to Zoi’ne to approach him where he stood. Her heart suddenly beat so much faster as eyes around the room fell on her. She swallowed and moved down and forward until she stood within arm’s length of the captain.

He said, “In a time of crisis, you came to our aid against the rebels. You show potential that you have only begun to tap into, such as your initiative to learn our writing and our history. Our time was short, but I am honored to bestow upon you this official recommendation to follow in the steps of these ensigns and, perhaps one day, work for our alliance.”

Before her, Zoey saw the captain handing her the folder. She grabbed one corner of it, nodded to the captain, and said, “Thank you, sir.”

The crew present around the Bridge clapped. It died down when Captain Druvvin raised his hand.

He said, “The four of you are dismissed. We will be due to reach Elysium IX in eight hours. Thank you for your service to our ship and its crew.”

***

Zoey and Tong-Chang ate light, sharing a bowl of fruit, before returning to Zoey’s guest quarters to snuggle for a couple hours or less. They decided to eat breakfast proper with the rest of the Thalassas family that morning before everyone had to finish packing their things.

Of course, for Zoey packing all of her things meant the box she still didn’t look through and three of her four outfits.

“Only three?” Tong-Chang asked as they cuddled upon the bed.

“Well it’s not like I’m walking off this ship in the nude,” Zoey said.

She drifted unconscious for some of the time. The alarm in her window’s clock pulled her back into reality like a rabid beast dragging her senses across a jagged pavement. How was this more tiring than when she woke up at five in the morning?

Zoey quickly changed her shirt, folded her clothes, and put them in the box before she grabbed it and left the room one last time. She carried it to the suite where the scent of breakfast stormed her nose.

“Hi, guys,” she said. “It smells good in here.”

“Thank you, Zoi’ne,” Keft’aerak said from the kitchen area.

“Tonny is on the way. She just had to grab the last few things from the Cadet quarters and put it all back together in my room.”

“Your room?” Bon’sinne said. “So is she the one you’ve been spending your nights with?”

“Umm yes?”

“That’s fine. You kids just be careful not to do anything dangerous or irresponsible.”

“Strangely accepting of you. Thank you?”

“I’m not going to judge who you fall in love with for your first time.”

“I actually had relationships on Earth, not that I’m going to talk about them much at all. Oh, right, I accompanied Tonny to her thing this morning, on the Bridge, and the captain gave me something.”

She set down the box finally and dug the folder out of the side of it. Zoey handed it to her mom, who took it gingerly. Bon’sinne opened the folder and read the document inside of it. Her eyes and mouth competed for how wide they could go for a moment before they lost the race instantly to her arms.

Zoey couldn’t have been more glad to have the air squeezed out of her so suddenly.

“That man has gone mental,” Bon’sinne said, “but this is wonderful news. I have no idea how easily we’ll afford putting a third child through university, but this is good.”

Dasos said, “Way to go, sis.”

The door opened then, and Tong-Chang asked, “What smells so delicious?”

Breakfast was plentiful for five people, even if Zoey and Tong-Chang didn’t have their fruit earlier. They had muffins and eggs with a side of diced potatoes. Everyone had a tale to tell around the table as they all listened and laughed. Keft’aerak basically won the conversation with a story about how he boarded a warship after he disabled the weapons and grabbed the most elaborate, frilly captain’s hat he could find; and how it took him an hour to convince the crew that he was the law authority rather than a rival pirate gang that was their better.

Yet more time passed. Belongings were packed. The room was tidied up, and Keft’aerak helped Zoey secure the top of her box of belongings. The family was together as they trailed behind one another toward the dockside of the ship.

“We’ll be taking a shuttle down,” Bon’sinne said. “Most of the people leaving are taking the Matter Transference. I hope that’s OK for you.”

Zoey said, “No offense to anyone, but I think I’ll be avoiding any transmat for a while, considering how this whole thing began.”

“I suppose that’s fair.”

“I never did see the file on how I was found.”

“Maybe later, if you’re up for it. Tonny, dear, are you coming down with us, or are you teleporting down?”

Tong-Chang said, “I would appreciate the lift, thank you.” She waited for everyone’s attention to be turned away to whisper in Zoey’s ear. “Baby reasons.”

When the time came, voices filled the intercom again as crew members on the Bridge called out their systems. They shifted velocity and direction, established something that they called an “orbital matrix,” and connected successfully to a craft in Dock Number Two.

The Thalassas family moved onto the shuttle and strapped into their seats. After the better part of two weeks that she could remember, this was the first time that Zoey had ever been on a space shuttle. It seemed like it should have been quite the downgrade, yet it wasn’t. It was like comparing a bowl of ice cream to playing in the snow for a couple hours.

She sat there in reduced gravity for a while as the pilots of the shuttle awaited their signal. Once the shuttle detached, she felt even more weightless. Zoey was suddenly glad that her things were not flying around inside the shuttle, as the box remained tied down with everyone’s bags or cases.

Zoey expected it to get hot inside the shuttle as plumes of flame jetted past, outside. It didn’t, however. The descent into the alien planet’s atmosphere took about thirty seconds before the shuttle decelerated, and then a few more minutes before it touched down on the ground.

Here she was, many light years away from Earth. Zoey was on another world. She tried to look out the nearest window to get a better look. She had to know what it was like.

Bon’sinne giggled her way and said, “Zoi’ne, we’ve arrived. Welcome to Elysium IX – the world that shines.”

Chapter 22

The sounds of distant water flows, birds chirping, and soft air currents came first. Zoey had closed her eyes upon touching the ground for the first time. There was a crisp aroma in the air that she could not define. She opened her eyes and saw pavement beneath her feet at first.

The landing strip was as solid as Zoey expected, though it looked like flat pebbles remained level to the concrete, all no larger than the eraser on a pencil and no closer together than if she set a shoe between the colorful pebbles. Her eyes trained upward to a series of wooden trellises coated in vines before a pair of walkways that led through a building without stepping indoors. Three booths there were manned, the people waiting on the new arrivals.

As they walked through, her parents flashed sets each of cards and papers, and the Aelf in a new uniform that Zoey had not seen yet waved the whole group through. One of the three people at the booths eyed Zoey for a second and turned away.

On the other side was a parking area with cars totally unfamiliar to any model Zoey had seen before, and yet their shapes were undeniable. The spaces were being patrolled by a pair of airborne drones flying overhead, though Zoey wondered how much they saw with the metallic covers and trees that were in place.

She looked out at the distant tree line and tall grass on the other side of the forked road. Many of the trees looked like the ones back on Earth, but a few seasoned her view with leaves of sky blue or flowers of crimson.

“Oh come on,” said Keft’aerak, who was looking on his cell-comm as he faced a stationary device sticking out of the planter by one row of cars, and the rest of the family caught up to him.

“What’s wrong?” asked Bon’sinne.

“The prices went up on all three salir companies.”

Zoey said, “What’s a salir?”

“It’s a public car that we can ride, dear. The driver works for the company that owns it. Apparently the fares are higher now. I wasn’t aware the drivers needed higher pay, or if the fuel cells became more expensive.”

“That sounds like a cab on Earth.”

“A cab? Zoi’ne’ dear, I’m envisioning you walking into the university campus and giving the language majors a meltdown with all of your Earth words, and little to no context given.”

“That would be amazing.”

“I have to admit that it would. Please don’t do that. Aerak, my love, just pick one so we can get to our house. We can worry about the prices later.”

Tong-Chang stepped up with her own cell-comm out. She said, “Allow me. It’s the same address as before, right?”

“You don’t have to do that, Tonny.”

“Yes I do. I’ll just call it my own way of telling Father I’ve returned here. He may or may not appreciate that. Ah, here is the conversion for yingbi and burras, and done.”

Zoey’s parents folded their arms at Tong-Chang as they tried to read her. She just smiled at them.

Then Tong-Chang said, “Sorry if cutting in like that was rude. Oh, I have some explaining to do, don’t I?”

It was here that Tong-Chang told everyone that her father was royalty, and she came to Elysium IX with two of her mother’s servants, not with her legal guardians as she had claimed ten years ago. Her mother sympathized with her wish to renounce the throne and helped Tong-Chang leave the palace.

The salir—the cabin space behind the driver was more than long enough to fit five passengers and their luggage—arrived and let everybody in while Tong-Chang told them about how she had access to her father’s finances, but only took small amounts from it over time. No payments were ever stopped, and no one ever came to stop her. She actually didn’t like using his yingbi as long as she could help it. She said it was less about the risk of anyone finally coming and more to do with being able to make her own purchases, which was why she was dirt poor when the Thalassas met her.

“That actually explains a lot,” Keft’aerak said. “Thank you for being forthright about this. I guess we need to open up as well about what we had done.”

Bon’sinne said, “Huh? No we don’t?”

“She has to know. You see, Tonny, when we first heard about your guardians, I did a little digging because something was suspicious, and we were concerned for you. I found nothing to indicate that either of you were a danger with the exception of a single yellow flag. I don’t know if you were aware of this, but one of them . . .”

“They were both spies,” Tong-Chang said. “I knew. One was retired, and the other only trained but never given any missions to far-off lands. I knew, and I still sneaked out all of the time to meet Il’lyse or Das’ithrios at an arcade at night.”

Das cleared his throat. If this was all true then Zoey had a feeling she would have fit in with the three of them. She could almost picture it happening, and she was just as close to socking her brother in the arm for never brining her along.

He looked at Zoey and said, “What?”

Bon’sinne said, “Fine, I’ll tell you what I did after we get home. I hope that’s OK with you, Tong-Chang.”

“How many brothers and sisters did you say you had, Tonny?” Dasos asked.

Tong-Chang said, “Eight brothers and three sisters, by the time I had left. I was the second daughter of four, and the fifth oldest of all of them.” She sighed heavily. “Or the first of three on the day that I was born. I really didn’t want to picture carrying triplets.”

She leaned sideways and let her head fall against Zoey’s shoulder. Zoey brought up what she could of that same arm and stroked behind the Ginserei’s ear.

The car drew closer to a towering city with noticeably clean air above it. Zoey only began to make out some of the detail around the buildings when the vehicle turned left into a neighborhood, or similar community. There were red brick walls with lanterns atop different intervals, but no gate barring anyone from getting in or out. The trees did not stop casting shade over the sidewalks and pristine streets. Behind, the tips of the few skyscrapers could barely be made out through the vegetation.

Each plot of land contained a larger house and one or two smaller ones still fit to live in. A moment passed before the salir pulled up over a cobbled driveway. There was a large house with two smaller ones.

As they got out of the car, Tonny finalized her payment for the ride. Zoey stacked Tong-Chng’s bag over her box and joined her barely in time to see the number “3,760” with a symbol by it that Zoey didn’t know, but suspected to be the yingbi sign.

A black prompt popped up with a line at the bottom, which Tong-Chang signed. She placed her hand against the remaining black space, and it appeared like a black light passed though Tong-Chang’s hand. The prompt and previous screen both slipped away from view. At first there was nothing. Finally one last screen appeared before Tong-Chang handed the pad over to the driver.

The girls caught up with everyone at the front door to the larger house as the car drove away.

“I like that you still use wheels with your space travel,” Zoey said.

Tong-Chang snorted and said, “Wheels work very well and efficiently. I’m sorry if you were expecting hover technology all over the place.”

“Suddenly I’m reminded of those little ice cream dots. Now I want those little dots.”

Bon’sinne opened the door and said, “What is ice cream?” Her head turned slowly, letting the idea sink into Zoey’s mind. Then she just grinned and stepped inside.

“This is the most dystopian future ever.”

Her mom just laughed and laughed on her way to a control panel to turn off the alarm that was ringing through the house.

The interior was spacious and wonderful without looking like a blatant waste of resources were put into it. Every hallway or room within view of the entry way was just large enough to house a family comfortably.

Zoey noticed that the house was quite clean considering that no one lived in it, presumably, for several weeks. She also realized then that everyone else was taking off their shoes at the entrance, and she was standing in the middle of a hardwood floor with her own shoes still on.

Once their things were set down, and everyone else was finally comfortable, Bon’sinne walked into the living room with a note in her hand.

She said, “It looks like I need to head to the store to get more food, soon. Sut’hout bought out almost everything I had in the refrigerator except for a few fruits and vegetables that are now spoiled. I can do that tomorrow.”

“Who’s Sut’hout?” Zoey asked.

“He is a graphic artist that lives in one of the bungalows outside. I asked him to help out with cleaning this house while everyone was away, as well as to look at the kitchen to see if there was anything he wanted to buy to keep it all from going to waste. I’m glad he did, though he chose to leave the money on the counter instead of letting me deduct the cost from what I owe for his help.”

“A graphic artist, really?”

“Yes, really. He actually designed the cartons used by my ice cream brand of choice a few years ago.”

“His sister serves on my ship,” Keft’aerak said. “I almost called it a small world when I found that out. Sut’hout likes the quiet of living alone, though, not counting his skeelo.”

Zoey had only just opened her mouth to what a skeelo was when she heard a scratching and whining outside the front door of the house. Unless her ears and Earthen memories deceived her, she knew all too well what that sound was.

She hopped up and opened the door as quickly as she was able, albeit just a crack. The snout and ears were different from the breeds back on Earth, if by a small amount, but it was exactly what she expected by the now welcome noise.

“It’s a pupper!” she announced, opening the door wider and crouching to meet the dog that was equally happy to see and smell her. “Hi. Are you a good boy or girl? I bet you are.”

“And we lost Zoey,” Dasos said behind her.

A darker skinned Aelf poked his head out of the door of one of the smaller houses. He looked about until the man saw Zoey petting the dog.

“Now there’s a face I shouldn’t be seeing,” he said, coming closer to the house.

Bon’sinne stood by the door and said, “Good afternoon, Sut’hout. Thank you so much for taking care of our house while Aerak and I were both away.”

“I’m happy to help. Is that Il’lyse?”

“This is Zoi’ne, actually. It’s a long story.”

“My skeelo seems to like her. I guess she heard everyone coming while I was listening to some music. I thought my door was locked, but I guess not. So it’s Zoi’ne, right? Where’ve you been all this time?”

Chapter 23

Zoey’s hand trembled where it rested. For once she wasn’t sure if this was such a good idea, or how to proceed tonight.

Her girlfriend pressed her own hand on top of hers and said, “It’s alright. We can do this another time. You don’t have to push yourself.”

“No,” Zoey said, “I need this.”

In her hands was the file folder that her dad handed her because she asked for it finally, more than a month after the incident occurred. She knew what happened from her perspective as Dylan, and she knew a few things about the rest.

She opened it. There were hard-copied pages, pictures, and something resembling a small plug without a cord. She guessed that it was akin to the thumb-drives on Earth.

Tong-Chang sifted through her things to find a digital pad and earphones. She handed them to Zoey and helped her navigate the folder options once the storage device was tacked to the side of the pad.

“Let me know when this becomes too much for you to bear. I’ll be right here,” Tong-Chang said.

Zoey nodded. She grabbed the pages and photographs, took a deep breath with her eyes squeezed shut, and then pressed on the first icon.

***

“This is the Marslou Journal, signed Captain Ren’baek Druvvin, on date: Sixteenth of Trejemane, Allied Revolution 225. At the time of this recording we are positioned at an anomaly believed to be a wormhole, more than ten gigameters beyond the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance limits. It remains open, as though it calls to us, but we know not for how long, nor the destination.

“What we do know are the maximum size, for which we made adjustments by detaching our escape shuttles, and that a band of criminal insurgents belonging to the Hulda’fi used this anomaly as a means of escape. Our shuttles will hang back as we enter at the next window, predicted to be any moment now. The sooner we can bring these rebels back to face justice for their crimes the better.”

“Sir,” called a man in earshot, “it has dilated.”

“Yes, Lieutenant. Let’s move in.”

A flurry of static and sounds of metal warping racked the next few seconds of the log. Suddenly, it stopped, and then new sounds broke through the recording.

“What the—?”

“Pull up, all of you!”

“On it, sir.”

“Directing systems, preparing matrices at your command.”

“Shield readings are reconfiguring. Rebooting may be required.”

“The Marslou is turning, rising . . . atmospheric skipping is a success.”

“Very good, now where are we? Could this be the Hulda’fi headquarters?”

“Checking now, sir.”

“It can’t be. Sir, we’re more than twenty-three light-spans and five hundred tetrameters away from Natt Grans.”

“Confirmed. The planet below us is sG2Vn3 – p3cD. Do you wish us to complete the coordinate matrix and send someone down to investigate?”

“Negative. Put up cloaking at once. We do not know how advanced they have become, or how dangerous they may be, since the last expedition came within orbit. Perform a scan on the planet up to three kilometers below the surface for any signs of our Hulda’fi friends.”

“Sir, I have spotted a stiern-boat. It is fleeing for the anomaly.”

“Follow them.”

“The anomaly is drifting away from the planet now, sir, and it is shrinking. At its current speed it could collapse in the next three hours.”

“I’m picking up a message, sir. It appears to be one of our radio frequencies from the surface, and it’s using an encryption recognized by the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance.”

“Open it at once.” Disdain dripped from Captain Druvvin’s voice. Static cracked, and he went on. “This is Captain Druvvin of the Marslou. Identify yourself.”

A new voice, weakened, said, “The Marslou? Great, this is Sergeant Mangchi of the Stellar Rogue Battalion. I have no time to talk or explain. Agh, dammit! I’m dying down here if you want to teleport me to your ship.”

“Sergeant, I am confident in your ability to remain in hiding until we can come back, but we must catch—”

“No time. Everything’s on fire, going to explode. Someone here with me. Agh, no! Just do it.”

There was strained pause before the captain said, “Captain to Matter Transference One. Can you get a lock on our man down there?”

Another voice said, “I’ve tracked the signal to two people in great danger. They are in close proximity to one another. The matrix is ready and holding.”

“Bring them up.”

***

The audio recording ended there. The next file listed on the drive appeared to be a separate format that Zoey guessed to be a video instead. Her heart beat fast.

If she was correct then the following video was going to show the moment when she appeared on the Marslou for the very first time. One alternative running through her mind was that it would have been Dylan, but how would that have made sense?

Furthermore, what happened to this sergeant that teleported onto the ship with him?

“Are you alright?” Tong-Chang asked.

“I think so,” Zoey said. “I don’t know. I’m just numb right now, but I need this. I need to know.”

“I know, but like I said, don’t push yourself.”

Zoey tapped the video file.

***

The scene was from a room with two dark pads on the ground, both circular. A pair of transparent tubes circled each pad in opposing directions in a slow motion. While both stopped, the technician in the room pressed a series of buttons, and one of the pairs of tubes picked up again at a quicker pace.

The pad underneath glowed light blue and dark purple. It all appeared to routine to the technician as he nodded at the device.

Suddenly, sparks shot through the air and caught the technician’s attention. His face turned to panic. More sparks appeared in thin air around the outside of the active tubes. The room warped in hues from one side to the next.

As the coloration returned to normal, the technician shouted into a microphone before another set of sparks popped beside them. The technician fell back and grabbed something from a case mounted on the wall. It was a pair of gloves and some goggles.

The technician went back to the console, working feverishly at it. The inactive tubes cracked and broke down. Everything died down, the lights included.

Light returned mere seconds before the door opened. Captain Druvvin and Admiral Fjorfolia walked in with two laeknir and a security officer. Their attention turned to the pad that was active until now, the tubes also gone.

Two bodies lied on the pad. The ground around them was coated in glass and scorch marks, mostly, but pools of blood flowed from either body now. Among them, a man in a charcoal suit raised his upper body and looked at the other person, who appeared to be wearing other clothes bloodied and torn.

It was a young woman. The man shook his head in shock and fell over.

***

“Oh my god,” Zoey said, “it’s me. How did this happen?”

Tong-Chang said, “Well, maybe the next file will tell you? The only thing that I remember from that day was our power source acting strange when that discoloration passed through the Engine Room and work station. The rest of the ship saw nothing, and we saw no damage down there.”

A flashback shot through Zoey’s memory of that day. She still recalled the events as she told Captain Druvvin, but there was more.

“I think I felt a pinching sensation,” she said. “When I tried to help that guy up at the convenience store, something stung me in my side. It was so forgettable, though. You’re right, I should open the next one; it’s an audio file.”

***

A woman’s voice opened this time. She said, “This is the Marslou Journal, signed Laeknar Veran’uvia Saludalta, Doctor in the Field of Medicinal Studies. The date is still the sixteenth of Trejemane, Allied Revolution 225. I have with me Captain Druvvin and our surviving patient.”

“Confirmed,” said the captain.

“I regret to record that an hour ago, at seventeen thirty-seven, we lost a young man claiming to be Sergeant Mangchi from severe injuries too grave to recover with our instruments. His appearance and DNA, as mentioned in my previous log, suggest that he might have been who he claimed to be, only younger by an estimated ten to twelve revolutions.”

“We have sent word to the Allied Army and their division, the Stellar Rogue Batallion. They can neither confirm nor deny their man was anywhere near sG2Vn3 – p3cD, or that he had any involvement with the Hulda’fi, but they will notify us upon our return if they require all of the information we have. They have given us permission to inter the body.”

A deep, nasal exhalation followed from the doctor. “Our second patient, whom we are tentatively calling Miss Sidiras, remains in stable condition for the moment, though wounded in several places across her body. Half of these wounds could easily have killed her if left untreated. The captain suggests that she may be one Il’lyse Thalassas. We have no DNA of the young woman on file, but we were able to compare her to three living relatives.”

“With the little time we had left before the wormhole collapsed I was able to send a request that the Thalassas family join us at their earliest convenience. Admiral Fjorfolia sent his own request in tandem. We have a long thirty days ahead before we reach Elysium IX, and it is estimated that this young woman will awaken before that time.”

“If she is indeed Il’lyse then she will want her family to be with her.”

“If she is a member of the Hulda’fi then I will have no choice but to place her under custody. We have placed a few belongings in a bag to be further examined at a later time, but they do not appear to contain any weapons that can be used against us, nor did there appear to be any identification on her.”

“We have a code blue. Laeknir to me. Miss Sidiras is having another seizure. Sir, if you will excuse us?”

***

Dasos and his father were playing a game one on one when they heard Zoey screaming out in pain. Both men stood up from the sofa and ran for the bedroom they gave her. A crash sounded from the room the closer they got.

Once he opened the door, Dasos saw Tong-Chang standing to the side with her hands to her mouth, clenched this time, and Zoey sitting on the floor, crying into the mattress.

“Zoey,” Keft’aerak said, “what happened?”

When Dasos crouched down to try and comfort her, Zoey said, “This is all too much. I just stared death in the face, and it told me I don’t even matter.”

“Who said you don’t matter?” Dasos asked while Tong-Chang joined them on Zoey’s other side.

“Death. You know? Oh, fucking . . . This is so maddening that I’m referring to made-up figures from Earth. I have all these memories and desires tied to who I was before everything blacked out with a flash of flame. I saw this new body appear instead of my old one. I heard the captain and doctor talking over me like I was some piece of meat. I had no idea just how close to death I was, or the seizures I had that made recovery that much harder for them to achieve.”

“Zoi’ne, you’re alive now. You’re safe.”

“I don’t know if I actually am. I don’t know if I died and this is my afterlife. None of this makes sense, and I want it to. I listened, watched, and read all of this in hopes that I could understand things better, but I’m no closer. Simply believing is not enough.”

Keft’aerak lifted a small pouch from the floor. Judging from the shift in its weight it had something inside that they couldn’t see without opening it.

He said, “I asked about the belongings they found on you. I guess they never told you about it.”

“No, why?” Zoey said.

“If you had something from your old life would it help you feel any better? It may not bring you answers that are beyond me on a grand philosophical scale, but it might give you something. Anything.”

Their dad extended his arm, offering the pouch. Zoey took a look at the bag and delicately pinched it. She opened the zipper and looked inside.

“Oh my god,” she said. “I feel so dumb right now. I should have looked at my things in greater detail. I passed this bag off entirely until now.”

“What is it?” Tong-Chang and Dasos both said.

“One is my old house key back when I lived with my uncle. This one I could have done without.”

She set the metallic key down on the ground and reached into the bag for the next. It looked similar to the digital pads used by most people their age, but smaller. The screen was cracked, but that was easily fixed.

“This was my phone.” Zoey huffed. “Of course there’s no power left in it. I used to call my few friends on this, and talk to my girlfriends on it late into the night. I doubt my old service provider have any signal this far away.”

Her phone joined the key on the floor. Zoey was beginning to crack a smile again by now. Then she laughed when the last item came out of the pouch, and she let the sack drop on the ground. The item was folded, fastened with two buttons, and had sections of green and gray along the surface.

“So I still have my wallet, I guess. Strange; I never used to mind how it looked. I was going to buy myself some Funyuns when this whole thing happened. Look at this.”

She extracted a few green slips of paper-like material and metallic disks of varying, small sizes. If Dasos had to guess then this was the currency Zoey used on earth; her “money.”

“Twenty-three dollars and thirty-four cents; down to every penny. I made fifty last Winter doing yard work for some of my neighbors. I was going to find a job once I had an eye-D. God, if I had one already, how would Captain Druvvin and that doctor have talked?”

“Eye-D?” Keft’aerak said.

“Identification. You have those, right?”

“That makes loads more sense than what we say, actually.”

The garage entryway opened and closed. Bon’sinne called out to everyone.

“Dinner’s ready. Come get something to eat.”

When Dasos answered that they would be right there, Zoey leapt up and gave Keft’aerak a hug around his neck.

“Thank you so much, Dad,” she said.

“It’s alright” he said. “I know you’re still adjusting to your new life, and part of it is grieving over what you lost. Some of it also amounts to the trauma you went through. That takes time.”

They all got on their feet and left the room. Zoey resumed the conversation when they turned the corner for the stairs.

“How did you get to the Marslou when you did, anyways?”

Keft’aerak said, “My ship flew us most of the way there. Bonny and Dasos joined me by shuttle, and . . .”

Chapter 24

Soror Valide ran her fingers against the wooden beams of the handrail. It was perhaps the most interesting thing about the stairwell leading into the laboratory.

A single older gentleman had his back to her. He moved a few pieces of machinery about and returned to his board where the man spent so much time working on two long formulas. He was probably going to perish of old age before he perfected this project, but he refused to seek anything as novel as treatment for the aging process.

His funeral, Soror Valide figured.

“You heard about our success, I suppose?” she said to him.

The guards showed no sign of caring, but the old man stopped moving. He turned toward her.

He was a human male, claiming to be in his fifties though his hair and face suggested at least seventy for others of his ilk. Then again, this human was not from Lutoume. He appeared in the frigid wastes outside by accident, and by serendipity he was found and nourished in time.

“Yes,” the man said, “I heard you established a wormhole, but that it made a huge mess. I heard that it didn’t close when you needed it to.”

Soror Valide rolled her eyes. She said, “We also haven’t found the culprit behind launching the Lady’s medicine toward Natt Grans.”

“That’s a shame.”

“We found a spy, though. I made sure to kill him and leave him on that rock we landed on. What was it you called the place? Oh yes, Earth.”

“Y-you set foot on Earth?”

“I thought of you when I was there. I set it on fire as we left. Now don’t look at me that way. Assuming your people aren’t too busy flinging feces or bombs at one another for the pettiest of reasons I’m sure they had no problem putting the flames out.”

The man huffed. Then he turned forcefully back to his work. Soror Valide didn’t want to admit it, but some part of her did feel bad for teasing the human like this. She nodded and reached behind her for the object secured to her backside.

She spotted the guards turning her way. Please, if she was here to harm the man then she would have killed all of them by now without hesitation.

Soror Valide waved a bag in front of her so they would see it at least. The guards glared at one another.

“Speaking of trips to far-off lands,” she said, “I brought you a little gift.”

“I tire of your foolishness,” the man said.

She tossed the bag over his head and bounced it off of the board. He looked down at it and took a moment before kneeling down to pick up the item.

“Enjoy your Funyuns,” said Soror Valide, heading to the stairs. “I understand you missed those.”

***

Zoi’ne stirred awake in the early hours of the morning. Nothing in particular woke her, but she became lucid enough to hear a shower running. In the past month the only showers she heard were her own or a couple of Tong-Chang’s.

Not only was Tonny still asleep next to her on the bed, but the humming that Zoey heard from the shower was a man’s voice. It was Keft’aerak. Something about his humming was reminiscent of pirate shanties that she heard in cartoons and theme parks as a child.

She giggled silently toward the general direction of where the shower was coming from. It wasn’t long until Zoey drifted back to sleep.

Later into the morning Zoey took a walk through the upper floor of the house while Tong-Chang showered and Dasos made himself some breakfast. She stopped at a closed door where she knew a bedroom had to be, but hadn’t seen any of it yet.

The handle turned without any noise. The door itself was as quiet. Once it was open, Zoey thought for even one second that someone could have been waiting for her. No one was there. All there was inside the bedroom was a bed, a pair of posters that indicated rock bands, an empty desk, and an ovular rug over the carpet. It had to be her room.

Zoi’ne closed it again and went downstairs to find her mom tapping away at her digital pad.

“Good morning, Zoi’ne,” Bon’sinne said.

“Hi.”

“There is food in the kitchen if you would like to help yourself to some breakfast. Let me know if you don’t know what or where anything is.”

“Sure, I’ll take a look.”

The cabinets inside of the kitchen were wooden frames with glass centers. Zoey had seen that much before, but she never got a good look at their contents until now. Dishes and cups were set up in neat, organized stacks, as expected. It was so much of what Zoey would have expected from any well-stocked kitchen.

On one shelf she saw three boxes that were plainly obvious as to what they contained. Zoi’ne tipped them over one by one to get a better look before grabbing one that looked promising.

“Cool, you have cereal,” she said.

“What’s that?” her mom asked.

Zoey presented the box from the kitchen’s entryway. “It’s cereal. This one looks decent.”

“You refer to your auxes as some kind of series?”

“What? No, it’s named after a goddess of grain, Ceres.”

“Huh. It was an old god of growth for us. Anyways, you can help yourself to a bowl of that. There’s a new carton of milk in the fridge. Do you have a different word for that as well?”

“Nope.” Zoey opened the refrigerator door and found two cartons inside a tray attached to it. One was opened and marked at the top with a pen.

She grabbed a spoon on her way out of the kitchen with a bowl of cereal in hand, and saw Dasos had finished his meal already. Her brother just sat at the dining table and waved at her, so she sat with him.

“Where’s Dad, by the way?” she asked.

Dasos said, “He left early to take a transmat up to his ship. Mom drove him to the port a couple hours ago.”

Bon’sinne said, “Aerak had time to set things down in his quarters and enter briefing with ranking members of his crew. He should be calling any moment to let me know they’re heading out.” Her cell-comm rang, and she wasted no time turning on the television screen on the wall. “Talk about timing. Hello?”

On the screen the bridge of a spaceship appeared. The crew began singing, and Keft’aerak turned to the screen to join them. Zoey recognized the melody as the shanty that her dad hummed earlier. She broke out laughing.

“This is why I married him,” Bon’sinne said.

Keft’aerak said, “We’re off for now, my darling. I’ll be home again in a few months.”

“Try not to do anything too crazy while you’re out there, my love.”

The ship’s crew laughed as the screen went black again. Bon’sinne let out a bemused sigh. She got up and joined her kids at the table, even though Zoey was the only one still eating.

Dasos said, “I got a call from my roommate last night. He’s moving out in a hurry before the next week because he got one of those job offers that’s a ‘take it or leave it’ sort of deal. It’s on the other side of the continent.”

“So you need a new roommate then?” Bon’sinne said.

“I’ll have room for someone, but ‘need’ is a bit of a strong word for it, at least for the next few months.”

“Good to know. Hopefully you’ll have a new roommate for your condo soon so you can pay us back for it. Meanwhile, Zoey, we need to figure out your situation still. Elysium University in Trullwick is a big deal. You’re more than welcome to go there, but we’d have to pay for that one. I’m not sure how many burras we have available; I’ve been trying to calculate that this morning actually.”

Zoey said, “Too bad my money from Earth won’t help.”

Footfalls echoed from the stairs. Tong-Chang came down the steps with her clothes on and a towel wrapped around her head.

She threw her arms in the air and said, “Breakfast party!”

“Someone is in a cheery mood this morning,” Bon’sinne said.

“I checked my grades while getting dressed, and I earned top marks this semester. My mother’s servants also messaged me to let me know that they fixed the doors at our residence, so that’s one less thing to worry about when I get back.”

“Are these the same doors that you broke as a teenager?”

“That was only one of them, and only because they went overboard with the locks to try to keep me from sneaking out at night. It’s a simpler door now. Anyways, mind if I have a bowl of auxes? That looks good right now.”

“Help yourself. How is the heiress Lanfen, by the way?”

Tong-Chang stopped in place a couple steps short of the kitchen. She turned to Bon’sinne with panic in her eyes, and then went into the other room to grab her breakfast. Once she returned with a bowl and sat down her face shifted to one of expectation, wanting.

Bon’sinne said, “I worked for the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance for twenty-five years, as you know. In that time I traveled to and from Ginserei on a few occasions. Let me be perfectly clear that I was not expecting to learn as much as I did when I asked about House Leezu, or about their customs regarding succession.”

“Did you learn everything about me?” Tong-Chang asked.

“Not quite. I learned that it was not uncommon for members of a House to leave behind their royal stations, though they often kept the name until marriage demanded otherwise. I learned that most Ginserei who do so are of age and don’t carry the mark of royalty. I learned, from the heiress herself, that she helped her second daughter leave that moon, but was expecting only as far as the fourth moon.”

“So was I, actually. She has a bad habit.”

“She gets turned around easily.”

“Yes, and my mother didn’t even realize her servants and I were on the stiern-boat headed for Elysium IX until we were a few hundred megameters away. That was a strange conversation after we landed.”

“Heiress Lanfen told me you never call. I had to show her a picture that we took of you spending time with my own children just to convince her that you were alright. She told me that she gave you something of your father’s to use in an emergency if you ever needed to fly back to Ginserei.”

“I’m surprised they didn’t take you hostage in an attempt to negotiate my forced return.”

“They aren’t like that, Tonny.”

“Sure they’re not.” Tong-Chang shoved the biggest spoonful of cereal in her mouth that she could, her face almost pouting with spite.

“Uh-huh. I’m not going to force you to do anything, but call your family sometime. You might be surprised.”

“And you let me believe I got away with my lie?”

“Aerak and I figured you were going to tell us the truth sooner or later.”

“Stars beyond, I can’t believe this. I feel terrible for lying, but I thought it was necessary. Can you forgive me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive. Now then, when you have all finished your breakfast and brushed your teeth we’ll all head into town. I need to drop the two of you off at your homes.”

“That’s not all.”

“What else is there?”

“I’m pregnant, and revealing the sire’s identity will mean the end of my career with the Allied Peacekeepers since he is of high rank and I was technically supposed to be on duty when it happened.”

“Oh honey.”

“I know, I fucked up big time. I can’t even tell my family or they’ll fly me back to Ginserei. I’ll be lucky to still have my name after that.”

“Why do you tell me this?”

“You have me spilling my secrets now. I almost wish it was with your son, but that was too long ago.”

Dasos turned beat red and coughed.

“It wasn’t going to be Il’lyse; that’s for sure.” Then she went silent, and Tong-Chang raised her hands to her mouth like one more sound could set off a bomb.

Bon’sinne pursed her lips for a moment. Afterward she said, “You slept with all three of my children. You’re pregnant and telling me this when I am still getting over what I did eleven months ago. You know, Tonny? If I didn’t love you like you were a daughter of my own I would probably strangle you right now.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m so sorry.”

With a growl, Bon’sinne walked away from the table and up the stairs.

“This is so awkward,” Dasos said.

“It is,” said Zoey.

Chapter 25

Trullwick was a grand city, in Zoey’s eyes. She had never seen a city look so clean that even the dust on some surfaces was inviting. Every so often she spotted a plaque or statue she wanted to examine. Tall bushes and trees provided some level of shade for the sidewalks. The crosswalks on major streets were reinforced with a system of short, light energy fields that all vehicles adhered to in addition to the stoplights above.

In one neighborhood there was a wide park with a waist-high hedge maze and a fountain on either side of the maze. The roads only had one lane per direction, not counting the room made for emergency parking—and the signs indicated the allowance of cars that had broken down—as well as bicycles on the outer sides of either street.

Bon’sinne pulled her car into the parking structure at one corner of the neighborhood. There was a security station posted at the entrance, but no one charging fees; Zoey looked and saw the same sort of situation at what she believed to be the other exit. The same investigation bore a sign warning that, between certain hours, the only cars and bikes allowed needed stickers to prove relation to the nearby buildings.

“Here should be good,” Bon’sinne said as she stopped the car in one of the available spaces. “OK, Dasos, would you like any of us to walk with you to your condo?”

“I’m good,” he said, “but thanks, Mom.”

Dasos gave everyone a peck on the cheek or forehead, and then got out of the car with his sack of belongings. He gave them all one last wave goodbye and walked out of sight.

“Tong-Chang,” said Bon’sinne, “your guardians, or whatever you want to call them, are due here in a bit, right?”

“One of them,” Tong-Chang said. “We might be about half an hour early.”

“Well, it’s nice out today. What do you say we go for a walk in the park for a little bit? I think we did enough sitting for the better part of the day.”

“Sure, that sounds good.”

“It does,” Zoey said. “Let’s go check out that maze I saw.”

The air, even inside the parking structure, once again held a crisp fragrance. Zoey wasn’t sure where it was coming from. It was pleasant, though by no means overbearing.

She entered the park with the others and saw that the maze was a simple one with an entry or exit one either of the four sides. Navigating it was still a must, and it lifted her soul to go from one end to another.

Zoey crossed the maze toward one exit and came back to the opened center where there was a concrete bench molded into the general shape of a lotus flower. She could see people from the surrounding shops coming to this spot to relax, though no one else was here but herself and the other women who came with.

Someone left a book sitting on the bench recently. The lack of water damage told Zoey that it was abandoned only recently, without any rain or sprinklers having a chance to reach it.

“I wonder who left this?” Zoey said as she picked up the book. It was paperback and thicker than her thumb. She opened it to a random page and let her eyes fall on a descriptive, steamy paragraph about male anatomy and the main character interacted with it.

As red-faced as she was, Zoey wanted to hide it behind her back to take home for later, rather than continue reading while her mom and girlfriend were both looking at her.

“Well now,” Zoey said, “if no one comes to claim it then I may have to rescue it from possible water damage.”

“What is that one?” Tong-Chang asked.

Bon’sinnne said, “It’s a smutty romance novel. I had a couple members of my crew who were into that sort of stuff and traded their collections with one another.”

“Oh really? I had never read any of those before.”

“I have. When those two officers brought aboard a trilogy starring a crew of seafaring pirates I took it upon myself to confiscate their reading material for a week.”

“Bon’sinne, you cheeky woman you.”

“Then your mother caught me reading one of them, and that was how we met. She apparently loves those books.” She cleared her throat and averted her gaze.

Tong-Chang’s face read as someone who officially heard way too much of the wrong kind of information about another person they knew. Zoey resisted the urge to giggle at her forlorn expression.

In the distance, an Aelf woman with black hair came out of a shop wearing a matching dress and wide-brimmed hat. She came closer, making it easier to see the sunglasses that she wore, or the cardigan she pulled from her toke bag.

The woman slowed as she entered the maze, not because she needed to concentrate on it but rather because she saw the three ladies in the center of it. Tong-Chang turned her way and then waved at her.

“Hello, Laeknar Saludalta,” Tong-Chang said.

The doctor reached them, studying the trio. She said, “I was not expecting to see any of you so soon.”

“Oh!” Zoey said while holding out the book, “Here you go. I’m assuming this was yours and you were coming back for it.”

“That’s some assumption, Miss Thalassas. You didn’t read any of it, did you? I mean, not that it matters since—”

“Please take it from me before I bring it home.”

In a flash the doctor grabbed the book and clenched it to her chest. Then she regained her composure and slipped the book into her bag like it never existed.

“So what brings you here?” Zoey said. “I thought you would still be on the Marslou.”

Doctor Saludalta said, “It is true that my work requires me to be on the ship, but we are docked here pending a number of

debriefings, reviews, and possible reassignments. You may recall that we lost a third of our crew in one night, which means that those positions will need to be filled. You may also recall that the appearance of a certain someone threw our protocol out into oblivion. Our government bodies and admirals will be busy for quite some time.

“Meanwhile, I decided now would be a good time to visit a few friends, see the old sights—”

“Read smutty novels in public,” Zoey said.

“I still have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I still won’t judge. If my mom and girlfriend weren’t here then . . . Scratch that. Hi, how are you?”

Her mom muttered, “Nice save.”

“Truly?” said the doctor. “Some of us in the medical field are a little perplexed for a couple of reasons. For one thing your case was theoretical at best in works of fiction until you appeared on the Marslou with a different body than the one you left your home planet with. It’s all that I’ve been able to do so far to keep ranking colleagues from calling you in to open studies on the matter.”

Zoey said, “A little peace and quiet is appreciated. Thank you, doctor.”

“Oh it’s just ‘laeknar’ right now since I’m not teaching anyone. We’ll see how that goes in the coming days.”

“Fair enough.”

“Secondly, we picked up a disturbing sample during the trek home. We have a medical procedure that allows us to reverse a person’s age considerably or change their anatomical gender. It has been high among our crowning achievements in medicine since it was developed close to three hundred years . . . revolutions ago.”

“Go on.” Zoey smiled, seeing hope that one of her Earth words was catching on.

“When it was developed, however, it came at a terrible cost that we never discuss out of shame, but at least have the sense to bring it up in medical studies on a level that I can teach. It involves a substance that we now synthesize from base atoms and molecules, like you have seen with some meals or ingredients on an industrial level. The sample that we found is the original substance. There is no mistaking it. However, it shouldn’t even be possible. The original substance and its manufactory were both outlawed after ten long revolutions of war and the sort of crimes that society doesn’t just bounce back from.

“We help people now, with the procedure that we have and the synthetic material, and even then with limits since it now takes more. If someone sought the procedure even once they have to be damned sure. They have to be warned that once a dose has been administered to change the body in any way it will take more the next time, and the time after that, with every single use of the procedure carrying higher risks of death.”

Tong-Chang said, “Wait a minute, when did we acquire this sample? Throughout our return home I was given charge of all inventory on the ship, and I don’t remember us acquiring any— Oh. Oh, no way.”

“If you are guessing it had anything to do with that case you found in the Cargo Hold then you would be right.”

“The Hulda’fi took it the night after we found it.”

“There were three packets in there. I’m only glad that Hulda’fi never returned for the one I took. I had a smaller container that I kept cool with frozen carbon dioxide. It was the perfect solution.”

“Dry ice?” Zoey said. “How cold does it need to be kept?”

“Plenty cold. It needs to be colder than plain ice as you may call it, or it will spoil in less than a day. It can’t be frozen, itself, either or it will become useless. Now? We have enough left over to treat up to five patients who will never see half of the first timer risks. We could treat them now. We could try to catalogue it more accurately than what we have. It will probably be destroyed like the most evil thing incarnate.”

“When will it be cast into a magical volcano from whence it came?”

“Sorry, what?”

“Earth thing. Thank you for telling us all of this.”

“Of course. Just don’t share it with anyone. I tell you only because you are part of this, somehow, and you are sworn to secrecy about the past month of the Marslou’s travels.”

“Can I really not tell anyone that I’m from Earth?”

“You could try, but only if it makes sense without giving away the rest. Now then, what are you three up to today?”

They shared with her the details of their trip into town. Dasos was up in his condo. The girls were relaxing for a bit before one had to go home, and then the other two would have to figure out what to do with Zoey’s education or employment. She had received a letter of recommendation from Captain Druvvin, but that only meant so much right now.

Laeknar Saludalta stood there for a time and actively thought about something unknown to the others.

She said, “Have you applied there yet, at least?”

“We have not,” Bon’sinne said. “I was going to ask Zoey during lunch if she wanted to do that today.”

“If you do that and get in to do the assessment tests they have there then you will at least have your foot in the door. I say this because the ranking officials of our governments and military are discussing what to do about everything. Seeing you in the university system, trying to get in, might win a few favors. Some of the aristocratic types enjoy being impressed. Do this sooner rather than later and you may even see a financial record in your name since you’re basically a new person without much of an identity.”

Bon’sinne said, “I never took you for a political type.”

“No, I try not to be like my father and grandfather. Great Laeknir, both of them, but better talkers. If my father was still alive he would try to talk me into going into the annual masquerade that’s coming up, I think, tomorrow night. In fact, it would impress them if a mysterious young lady from Earth were to arrive. Now I wish I hadn’t deleted my invitation.”

“How would she get into such an event?”

“She could have been one of my ‘plus two.’ It’s a shame, too. I understand one of Ginserei’s delegates will also be unable to attend.”

Then Tong-Chang squeaked, one of her hands clenched over her mouth. Her other hand navigated its way through a contact list in her cell-comm. She brought it up to her ear.

“Hi, Mom?” she said. “It’s me, Tong-Chang. Can I ask you for a huge favor?”

Chapter 26

“Next?” said a receptionist behind the counter.

Zoey approached with her mom beside her, and the document in hand that Captain Druvvin had given her. They were in the main building for the Elysium University in Trullwick.

“Hello,” she said, “I’m here to apply for attendance and take the assessment test.”

It was odd to Zoey to apply anywhere in person rather than online at a computer. She wasn’t sure if this was an Elysium thing to be here now, doing this, or if it was simply convenient to go this route.

The receptionist said, “We appear to be out of applications at the moment. I’m sorry.”

“Nope, you’re not,” Zoey said.

“Excuse me?”

“I may not know about you personally, but I know where I come from, which is nowhere as beautiful nor as elegant in its organized efficiency, places always have copies of applications by law. It’s actually one of the big, dumb plays made where I’m from to say you have none, to maybe send people out to grab an application from somewhere else, and then go from there. Hello, my name is Zoi’ne; may I have an application please?”

At first the receptionist was aghast by this display, but then they opened the drawer next to them and dug through some papers until the receptionist placed an application on the counter before Zoey and directed her to the next person once it was filled out.

“Thank you,” Zoey said, walking away.

She and Bon’sinne sat down so that Zoey could fill out the information, at which point her mom asked if that was true what Zoey said about places on Earth lying about applications like that. Some did. They claimed it was to test people before they turned anything in, but the level of truth behind that claim was an unknown.

Zoi’ne Thalassas signed her name, careful still to use the letters used by Aelfs and Ginserei. She wanted to tell herself that it was becoming habitual now. Bon’sinne handed her the necessary information such as their home address.

While writing down the information that she had, Zoey came upon the question regarding previous education. “Mom,” she then whispered, “what do I tell them?”

“Say anything,” her mom said. “Nobody checks with previous schools anyway; only that you filled that section.”

Right. So Zoey entered her old high school information and hoped for the best. In her mind she was seeing the university’s administrators making a long distance call to Earth to see if she ever attended.

She stood in line for the next window, which took twice as long to reach as the previous line did. It was about this time that she noticed a few people glancing at her as long as Zoey was not looking directly at them.

It’s like there’s something on my face. Oh, right, some of them might have known her.

This held true, more than likely, for the receptionist at the second window. The Ginserei sitting there went pale and stuttered for a moment while trying to speak.

“I’m not her,” Zoey said.

“Sorry?” the receptionist said.

“Here is my application for attendance, and a letter from the Marslou’s Captain Druvvin recommending me. You’ll find that I am not my sister, I hope.”

“Oh, stars beyond, what a relief. You look so much like Il’lyse. It’s uncanny.”

“Believe me, I know. I can’t seem to get out of her shadow no matter where I go. So how long will I need to wait to be allowed to take the assessment test?”

“Well, the application fee is five hundred burras. Once you pay that we can process this on a preliminary level and let you into the testing room within ten to fifteen minutes.”

“Oh wow, five hundred burras? Hi, Mom, good timing.”

Bon’sinne joined her then and pulled out a card that Zoey had seen a few times by now. “I got this much, dear. It’s five hundred, you said, right?”

More time passed until Zoi’ne was called in. Without fail, she walked into the room and immediately saw computers that looked to be from more than a decade ago, or at least this was what she imagined it would be when compared to the digital pads that so many people walked around with.

Just to sate her curiosity on the matter, Zoey whisper to the university staffer that led her in. She said, “By the way, how old are these computers?”

The staffer led her to a table and said, “I think we had this model here for the last ninety-three revolutions. They still work perfectly fine. So here is your application number. The assessments will test your general knowledge on language, mathematics, and other subjects for up to forty-five minutes in total. Please budget your time well. We will have more questions for you when you are done. Good luck.”

They left Zoey to her testing. Each subject started simple and worked its way up, as was expected, but she allowed only five minutes per subject at the beginning. Each section had an option to hold progress and swap to another one.

Only six areas were tested so she spent the remainder of her time on literary comprehension since she felt the one was in the most need of time to think about her answers. Unlike testing that she received as a child, however, the blurbs and related questions actually seemed to be written well enough. About here was also when Zoey saw an option to flag a question or paragraph in case she needed help.

Her timer reached zero finally. A message popped up on her screen saying that results were being calculated. It prompted Zoey to add any opinion on the tests if she had one, but she just declined and waited.

And waited.

An Aelfen man walked to her desk. He appeared a little older, as well that he needed more exercise than whatever he was getting with his job. The man said, “Zoi’ne Thalassas? Please come with me.”

He led her to the rear office of the testing room where there was a single table with a chair on either of two sides. In the far corners were fake trees made from what appeared to be crystal or glass. The office otherwise was clean and basic.

Zoey took a seat without prompting, and the man joined opposite to her.

“Before we get started,” he said, “why Elysium University? Why this particular campus?”

“My brother and sister went here,” Zoey said. “My brother still does. I’m figuring my life out, and so many people have been suggesting this place for me.”

“You’re not related to Dasi’thrios, are you?”

“I am. Why?”

“No reason. Now, let’s see. It says here that you went to a school in a place called Nevada? I’m not familiar with this country.”

Country? Zoey burst out laughing so hard.

She said, “It’s not a country. It’s a state; a whole region on the west side of the United States.”

“United, uhh . . . ?”

“That’s a country on the planet I grew up on called Earth. Lovely place; I don’t recommend it.”

“Just so you are aware, we are a university that doesn’t take kindly to falsified data.”

“Cool. Oh, but you probably know Earth by another name. What was it again? I think it was sG2Vn3 – p3cD.”

The man rolled his eyes. “Cute, but no one lives there but a bunch of primitive buffoons who couldn’t do more than shoot their own garbage into space.”

“Satellites, actually, and many of the humans there aren’t so bad. Go ahead and read Captain Druvvin’s letter recommending me to come here. He mentions the planet at least once in the whole three pages.”

Her new adversary in this discussion narrowed his eyes at Zoey. It was clear he didn’t believe a single thing that she said about Earth, but at least he wasn’t explicitly asking how she came to be on Elysium IX.

Another man ran into the room and said, “You have to see this. Whoa, it’s so huge.” Zoey didn’t look right at the new man that entered, but she was already tempted to ask him about the waves he liked to surf.

“Not right now,” said the interviewer.

“Like, that planet off in the frontier? The one surrounded by deposits of metal that they’ve been firing from their own surface? It has a name now – it’s Earth. Whoa, right?”

“I’m in the middle of something here. Would you please leave us alone for a moment?”

Zoey said, “He can stay. This is hilarious.”

“How did you know this name, Miss Thalassas?”

“I grew up there. I can’t really tell you more than that as far as how I got here, but here I am, and there’s your name for it.”

“Fine, moving on. Your application also indicates that you have interest in the academic field of History. What do you like about this subject?”

“It’s great for seeing patterns of where a people have come from, and where they’re likely to go again as long as nobody with power to change things is knowledgeable about such lessons. Take, for instance, Emperor Nero.”

She spent a few minutes talking all about what she learned about the Roman Emperor on Earth, who lived thousands of years ago—and then interjecting that years was what people on Earth called revolutions—and committed several despicable acts in the name of his own ego, with his endgame being that Nero wanted a monument even at the cost of Rome burning. He saw himself as an artist until the moment he died.

“And learning from examples like this,” she said, “as well as the signs leading to it, can help us prevent the same kind of mistakes from repeating. We just need people who care enough about these things.”

Her interviewer just looked at her like Zoey set fire to all of his belongings and kidnapped his dog. The man slid the paperwork across the table and looked up at the other man in the room.

The interviewer said, “Make sure this is fully processed. I’m going to need a moment.”

“Can do. You should see this Earth thing though.”

“Zoi’ne, you can go now. I think you’ll do just fine here, assuming you can pay for it.”

She stood up and walked out. On her way back to the main lobby Zoey passed an office where news about sG2Vn3 – p3cD, or Earth, was playing on the television screen.

“How did it go?” Bon’sinne asked her.

“I think I made a good impression,” Zoey said. “Now what?”

“We have a while to go before tomorrow night. I need to pick out a dress for the occasion, as do you. Before that, let’s grab some lunch, and then some ice cream. I know a good place.”

***

Soror Valide swung the maroon cloak over her new suit. Her fingers outline a few contours of her body to tug and adjust the suit if needed. The Lord and Lady of the manor wouldn’t have minded her borrowing the cloak, would they?

Once the door opened she walked forward with a key in hand. She felt the need to go out for a while.

She had just touched the hatch to enter the stiern-boat when one of her brothers called out to her.

“Hey,” he said, “where do you think you’re going?”

“A private ball,” said Soror Valide. “Would you like me to crash both of yours?”

“No need to get testy. I’m just curious why you would go somewhere alone when there’s party enough all around? The Lady Tunderek will be curious as well. She might even insist on coming with you, may she be blessed.”

“That’s quite enough, child,” said a familiar voice. Lady Tunderek and her husband entered the hangar wearing their own fancy clothes. “You should be playing with your brothers and sisters. So go, wreak havoc with them.”

The more they stood there the more that Soror Valide found herself not liking this particular young brother. Then he bowed and said, “Yes, great Lady. Hallowed be the Tunderek.”

Lady Tunderek and her husband smiled through their beaked eye masks and boarded the stiern-boat, which was decorated differently from the others. Soror Valide went in after them and took a seat in the bridge area.

Fuel was plentiful. Judging by the time the planets were drawing close enough together that the full trip would take only three hours. Soror Valide set the course for Elysium IX and activated the liftoff.

“When was the last time you went out the ‘normal’ way?” Lady Tunderek asked.

“I can hardly remember, hallowed Lady,” Soror Valide said.

“Nope, not tonight. You will be addressing us by our more social names. Wouldn’t you agree, dear?”

“Oh yes,” her husband said, “we can’t have anyone being confused during the ball, can we?”

The stiern-boat left the hanger through the large door and into the courtyard. It flew into the port off to one side that stood opposite to the hangar, and then the port let them out into the frigid airspace.

All systems continued to check out while the craft made for escape velocity. One of the patrols in the upper atmosphere passed them and did nothing. Before long, they were free of Dereskoo.

“You fly well, young lady,” the gentleman on the ship said to her.

“Thank you, Admiral Fjorfolia.”

Chapter 27

Zoey had spent so much of the past day learning how to put up her hair and do her makeup. This was something she had never done before. The biggest saving grace for her first time was the mirror in her mom’s room.

It projected laser outlines inside the mirror’s surface. These outlines gave Zoey visual aids for every step along the way. Still, she needed more practice. She needed more time than she had to get it right.

She was growing frustrated with her hair and make-up as the night of the party drew closer. Any moment Zoey was going to break down into tears.

Bon’sinne stepped in behind her and rubbed Zoey’s neck. She said, “I’m proud of you, you know. I’m not sure I would have handled everything as well as you did.”

“Thank you,” Zoey said. “Can you help me, though?”

“Tonight? Of course. Why don’t you go get changed, and then come back so I can help you?”

“OK.”

They both rented their dresses for the evening after Tong-Chang sent specifications as to what to look out for. Zoey remembered standing in the dressing room for a good, long while as the system cast the image of the dress around her form, but she had not worn it yet.

Staring at the dress hanging in her room, she filled with trepidation. It was the same sort as when she first tried a few rollercoasters, when she experienced her first day of school, and especially the moments before she first had sex with a man. This dress was a bigger milestone to her than the feminine outfit she picked out in Natt Grans.

She slipped out of her casual clothes and put on each and every piece of the dress, taking a deep breath ahead of many such parts. A few pieces, such as her stockings and matching fingerless opera gloves, just begged to be slipped off by some unknown lover.

Once the final skirt dropped, hanging from her waist to the floor she walked from one end of her room to the other, and back again, while twisting to examine herself. Walking in a dress was going to take getting used to. Wearing one remained an unknown.

Zoey walked out a crept towards her mom’s room. This dress didn’t give her a lot of leg room to take wide steps, so she had to roll her feet sideways. She had no idea what Bon’sinne would say upon seeing her like this. Was Zoey even ready to be seen in this way?

She poked her head forward into the doorway where she saw her mom putting her own hair into a braid. Bon’sinne picked an emerald green ribbon to match her eyes, and tied the bottom off on the braid. Her dress that she had on wasn’t quite as complex as the one Zoey was wearing, but it was just as beautiful.

“Come in, dear,” Bon’sinne said. “Let me have a look at you in your dress. Don’t be shy.”

With a reserved nod Zoi’ne stepped forward. For a moment, while no part of her dress was necessarily bushy, she felt an instinct to squeeze through the doorway.

Bon’sinne only smiled at her and stood up. She examined the dress that her daughter was wearing, and Zoey swore that her mom was about to shed a tear over it.

“How does it feel?” Bon’sinne asked.

“What do you mean?” said Zoey.

“Is it too tight anywhere? Do you feel like taking a single step forward will trip you?”

“Well, no. I think I can walk in this. I’ve never walked in a dress like this before.”

“You haven’t?”

“I only became a girl a month ago. Ah, well, this isn’t something most boys wear on Earth. I don’t exactly understand it myself, but I think they’d only be laughed at. Are we going to see men wearing outfits like this at the ball?”

“We might. There’s nothing against it, but it’s also not very common. We may also see women wearing a formal pair of pants. People wear what they like to wear, dear, as long as it’s appropriate to the occasion.”

“Like Dad showing up dressed like a pirate with an opened jacket, his chest all sticking out to show how ‘manly’ he is?”

“I think I’d like that. Now then, please sit down over here and I’ll help you with your hair and make-up. Let’s see, we’re using more subtle colors, yes?”

An hour later a car pulled into their driveway. Zoey and Bon’sinne mounted their ways into the backseat, in which Tong-Chang sat in a dress of her own. The light was on long enough for Zoey to see the plum-colored fabric with ivory shapes and trimmings.

“Hi, look at you two,” Tong-Chang said.

“Good evening, princess,” said Bon’sinne.

“Please don’t. You can still call me Tong-Chang. In fact, I insist. Really.”

“I’m only playing, dear. I know better.”

“Stars beyond, it’s bad enough that I’m really doing this, but it’s worth it if it helps you. Speaking of which, how are you, Zoi’ne?”

Zoey said, “I’m fine. I just so not used to sporting a dress like this, you know?”

“For what it’s worth I think you’re gorgeous in it. Oh, and allow me to introduce our driver. This is Bolin, the younger of my mother’s trusted servants. Bolin, you have probably seen my friends’ mom, Bon’sinne Thalassas?”

“It’s a pleasure, Bolin,” said Bon’sinne.

“This is Zoi’ne, my girlfriend.”

“Um, hello,” Zoey said, though Bolin barely acknowledged that either woman was there.

“I’m not sure he believes me. Members of royal Houses don’t really have same sex or interracial lovers, you see. It’s one of the reasons I left. That, and I wanted to pursue my own dreams in life.”

“So what’s going to happen now that you’re talking to your mother again?”

“Well, she was surprised to hear from me, or that I would agree to play the part of our House’s delegate this year. She said that the only thing anyone would know was that there was a representative here on Elysium IX already. Then, I think, Mother hinted that my father was OK with recent purchases that I made. So I don’t really know. He might send someone.”

“To do what?”

“I don’t even know. High House Leezu hasn’t exactly been known to be predictable, except that we would be formal about it when our intentions are revealed.”

“Formal, really?”

“Yes.” Tong-Chang lifted a cloth bag to her lap and opened the top to reveal a bottle of plum wine. “With Father’s Yingbi I bought my dress and this offering to our hosts for the evening. It is a family custom to present this as either a cool drink or as a bludgeon at the whim of its recipient. I have also bought the three of us our masks.”

She revealed them in a separate bag. Each mask covered the eyes and top of the nose, but then stopped part of the way down. Bon’sinne was the first to pick one.

“I haven’t worn one of these since before either of you were born,” Bon’sinne said, raising the mask to her face.

The destination was in a lavish nightclub on the far side of Trullwick from the Thalassas residence. Every car was stopped short of the curb where they were searched from the outside by guards. Bolin pulled up to the checkpoint, and Tong-Chang rolled down her window.

One guard shined a light into the car. Zoey used a hand to block some of it as the illumination passed across her face.

“Do you have an invitation?” the guard asked.

“Yes, I certainly do,” Tonny said. “I am Tong-Chang II, second daughter to High House Leezu of Heudee, Ginserei Prime. These wonderful ladies are my ‘plus two;’ Zoi’ne and Captain Bon’sinne Thalassas. You should find me on the list, or would you care to see my identification?”

The guard flashed the light over Zoey again and squinted at her before taking the light away. He said, “Move along.”

As they pulled up Tong-Chang said, “That worked well. I haven’t used my full name in eleven revolutions. Besides, the guards and bouncers don’t really need to see the invitation as much as the usher will. Are we ready?”

“What if I say no?” said Zoey.

“Then I’ll have to say me too. Let’s go in. Thank you for the ride, Bolin.”

As the ladies slid and climbed out of the car, Zoey thought about one of the names she just heard. She remembered Heudee as being one of the major powers named during the Ranemao Wars in the book she read aboard the Marslou. She considered asking Tong-Chang about it, but what about it? That conflict would have been long before Ginserei took to the stars.

Tong-Chang carried her bottle of plum wine as they walked to the front entrance of the club.

***

I do not believe this.

Soror Valide looked on from a distance through her ball mask. She saw three women coming closer to the club whom she never thought to see again so soon.

The one girl, who now put on a mask of her own, it was her. Soror Valide clenched her fist in anger.

Chapter 28

“Introducing Her Highness Tong-Chang II, second daughter to High House Leezu of Heudee, Ginserei Prime, and her two guests Zoi’ne and Captain Bon’sinne Thalassas,” said the usher, who managed to say everything without pause for breath or crack in his stone face. The fate of the wine bottle that Tong-Chang handed him became unknown.

The ladies walked further inside. Zoey took Tong-Chang’s arm and rubbed it with her free hand as they progressed. She didn’t want her girlfriend to have a breakdown over hearing a title at the front of her name. Doing this also distracted Zoey from thinking about the attention she might have been getting about the dress she was in.

She soon witnessed Admiral Fjorfolia talking to two other gentlemen next to an hors d’oeuvres table.

He said, “That was when she cracked the chassis, and . . . Oh! Excuse me, gentlemen; I will be one moment.” The admiral strode a few short paces towards the ladies and greeted them. “It’s a pleasure to see you all again. I was not aware of your royal status, Your Highness.”

“I try never to talk about it,” Tong-Chang said. “It is good to see you, Admiral Chan-Yeol. Might I ask where the Lady Fe’remene is? I Would have thought she was here with you.”

“Oh, my wife is having a little chat with a server she recognized. Who knows? Perhaps our estate will see an addition to our many employees. Zoi’ne Thalassas! You have certainly come a long way, haven’t you? And, Captain?”

“Retired,” Bon’sinne said.

“Nonetheless it’s good of you to adopt her when you did. The times are only going to get rougher soon, I’m afraid, so giving this young lady a home is brave of you, if I may say so.”

“I appreciate that. We are working to enroll her at the university here.”

“Is that right? When do you mean to apply there?”

Zoey said, “It already happened, sir. Yesterday I filled my application and gave them a letter of recommendation written by Captain Druvvin. They assessed me then as well.”

“Oh? Well, I can’t have the good captain outshine me, can I? I’ll speak with the dean as soon as I’m able. We can get you in a little faster. What do you intend to study?”

“History and archaeology, sir.”

The admiral grunted. “Oh, this was a fine talk, but I must be getting back to this story I was telling, if you’ll excuse me.” He bowed out of the meeting and turned back towards the pair of gentlemen that he was speaking with a moment earlier.

Tong-Chang swiped a glass of, presumably, champagne from a passing tray, and then she drank down half of it. Zoey hoped that she could hold it together tonight.

“So,” Tong-Chang said, “I guess the plan is to find people and mingle?”

Bon’sinne said, “Just think of me as your bodyguard against any unsavory types. Otherwise, I’ll be having myself a good time while we’re here.”

“That’s fair. The question is what do we say? ‘Hello, rich person, my girlfriend is from another world and needs money to afford college?’”

“To be honest,” Zoey said, “that sounds like a better plan than I would have had if I stayed there. Hey, I’m going to grab something from the table. I’ll join you in a moment if you want to go forward.”

“We won’t be far, love.”

Zoey grabbed a few appetizers from the table, and put them on a plate the size of her hand. It was good to see something similar to shrimp, but then she wasn’t surprised by this after being away from Earth for over a month.

Past the table, and below a safeguard rail, was the dance floor. Only a few couples were down there making use of it just yet, while everyone else stood and talked away from the space. Zoey saw Aelfs and Ginserei chief among those who were around, along with five humans and two from another race she hadn’t seen before.

Their masks hid their upper faces but not their pink skin. She thought she saw something behind one of their necks, but Zoey’s eyes might have been playing a trick on her from this distance.

Likewise, her double vision effect raised. Zoey saw, for a moment, people moving before they actually moved by twice as long as normal compared to when she let this effect go. She pulled it back in and controlled her vision to be singular.

To her side Zoey saw a woman wearing a dark gray suit and a cloak that covered her hair. Her eyes were better hidden by her mask than most people had it here.

“Don’t make a scene,” the mystery woman said, trying to make her voice sound lower than whatever it really was.

“I won’t if you won’t,” Zoey said, passing all temptation to imitate her.

“What are you hoping to accomplish, being here?”

“I came here hoping for a little help if I can get it. It’s difficult for me to afford, well, living or going to school. What does it matter to you?”

“It shouldn’t, but you escaped my grasp once before. You belong here less than I do.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

The cloaked woman said nothing and walked away. Zoey shook her head rapidly. Who did that person think she was? What did she even mean by escaping her grasp? Again, she tried to shake the memory from her mind.

Zoey joined the others as they walked down one set of steps toward the round dining tables. Instead of sitting down among those tables, they met with a bunch of delegates who reached out randomly to say hello to them.

“Your dresses are beautiful, ladies,” said a human delegate among the group.

“Thank you kindly, sir,” Tong-Chang said to him.

“It is a pleasure to meet you,” Zoey said. “I had seen a few humans on the Marslou, but I can’t say I talked to any from Lutourne until now.”

The human said, “What other humans have you spoken to? Ha-ha, I am only kidding, of course.”

“Sure, certainly. It’s only that I grew up on Earth. The humans there have their differences, I can only presume.”

“Grew up on Earth? Ha! That’s a good one. What’s their number one export, if they have one?”

“If they did it would be porn, probably. You name it, and they probably imagined it to its most erotic extreme.”

“Is that right?”

“Maybe. I haven’t really studied trade within the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance, so I don’t know who exports what yet. History is more my thing anyways, and I would love to learn more.”

“This delightful young lady is really selling the idea of coming from this ‘Earth’ place, isn’t she?” He directed the question toward everyone in the group in general.

Bon’sinne said, “She is exactly as she says she is. Our second daughter stands before you now, but she was raised on a less developed planet surrounded by humans. My darling husband and I were led to believe that we lost Zoi’ne until recently when the Marslou was fortunate enough to find her. I cannot go into the specifics, of course, but we were more than happy to bring her back home.”

Hearing this conversation play out reminded Zoey of her mother on Earth. What was worse was that they were expecting sympathy in the form of money. The idea hit a sore spot deep inside of her stomach.

She looked away for a brief moment and saw that cloaked woman from earlier walking into the back room. Zoey wondered if following her would have been better than what she was doing with these people now.

“Yes,” said one Aelfen lady, “I seem to recall hearing something to that effect. Captain Thalassas, I believe you retired a revolution ago, after the incident at the Allied Medical Institute, or the loss of your first daughter another revolution prior? This miraculous recovery of your second one must be very nice for you.”

“We can’t hang on to every tragedy forever,” Bon’sinne said. “Some of us have to try harder than others to see any peace in life. So yes, it’s good to have this wonderful young woman join us.”

“Come now, Captain. You make this sound like a fairy tale rife with redemption.”

“Indeed, I have played better games with better character. You can try that fairy tale for yourself, if you don’t mind.”

The aristocratic woman turned her nose upward at Bon’sinne and considered her for a moment. Then she walked off. Another woman in the group chortled silently.

The second lady said, “My apologies for the Lady Pisti’s behavior. She tries using anything she knows about new people as a means to exert dominance. It has worked at least once on more than three quarters of the people here. Many of us do not blame you, Captain, for what happened that tragic day.”

Bon’sinne said, “I’m grateful, I was when I submitted my form for an early retirement, but I blamed myself for it. She might seem insufferable, but she was right that the loss of Il’lyse weighed heavily on me when I made my mistake.”

“Cheers then.” The other woman lifted her glass and drank. “Now then, Zoi’ne Thalassas, young Lady of Earth, what was it like living on that planet?”

“That’s hard to say,” Zoey said. “I lived as unimpressive of a life as I could for seventeen years.”

“Years?”

“It’s what revolutions are called in one language there. I could give a couple more out of the dozens or more on Earth, but that was the one I became most familiar with.”

“Fascinating. Now how did you and your mother get to know this young Highness, here?”

“She is studious, and happened to be on the Marslou on our trip back to the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance. We befriended one another easily before I knew of her heritage.”

“We’ve done more than that,” Tong-Chang said. “My family may not like this very much, but here we are.”

The Aelfs in the crowd nodded and grunted in acceptance. The one other Ginserei pulled at his collar.

“You dare against our holy taboos?” said the Ginserei.

Tong-Chang said, “It has long been my belief that taboos and traditions should be tested with the change of the times, and matters of love and companionship among the High Houses have yet to be probed and measured since the alliance was formalized; perhaps before that. We accepted ourselves to be superior while more common folk intermingled and lived better lives.”

“That is a foolish mindset.”

“Time beats any rock, Hallowed Cousin. Look no further than Admiral Fjorfolia. He is best judged by his actions, not the blood running through his veins.”

“What of Earth, then? How might Earth feel about mingling with other races?”

Zoey rolled her eyes and groaned audibly. Her reaction took the delegates by shock. Then she said, “It really depends on where you go, or whom you talk to. Some are sincere in their claims to be against it; some are adamant against the idea but will copulate with a neighbor, in secret, whose skin color is different than their own. On the other extreme, some will anthropomorphize anything they can find, and are shameless in their intentions. And I do mean anything.”

Before the Ginserei delegate could respond, there was a scream towards the entrance. Zoey turned and saw a few dark gray figures in hoods and masks entered the club laughing.

Zoey grabbed Tong-Chang again by the arm and looked to Bon’sinne. She whispered, “Mom?”

“Get her to safety, dear,” Bon’sinne said.

“Right. Come on, Tonny.” They picked up their skirts and weaved through the crowds.

Some of the people were trying to get a better look at what was happening at the entrance, but Zoey wondered why the bunch of other people weren’t trying to make it to the back room. Then she saw the Hulda’fi guarding the way there.

When did this one get here?

She took a deep breath and remembered her basic training that Bon’sinne gave her on the Marslou. The skirt wasn’t going to do her any favors, but Zoey sprang forward.

The Hulda’fi was not expecting the strike so suddenly as Zoey socked them in the stomach and followed it up with a few more punches. She threw the rebel attacker toward everyone else and led Tong-Chang into the door as one of the Hulda’fi by the front entrance spoke out.

“We heard there was a party,” the invader said. “We’ve come to liven things up!”

Suddenly, as Zoey was closing the door, she heard Tong-Chang say, “Look out!”

A Hulda’fi was behind her, and the rebel made a swing for her with a palistick.

Chapter 29

She caught the Hulda’fi attacker by the wrist, but only managed to reduce the full impact of the palistick. The pain from the end of the device sent a shock through Zoey’s whole system.

Something hit the attacker in the head. Zoey stayed lucid long enough to take this short opportunity to fight back. Her low level of combat training was more than enough as Zoey punched and kicked her opponent before crushing their arm on a table. The rebel collapsed, their palistick rolling on the surface of the table.

Tong-Chang reached for the palistick and seized it. Zoey scanned around the kitchen they were standing in to see if there was any sign of additional Hulda’fi in here. She should have looked for that one earlier.

“Let’s drag this one up against the wall here,” Tong-Chang said. “It’ll be out of immediate sight of the door if any one of the other Hulda’fi comes in here, and then we can keep watch over this one.”

“I was hoping to go outside through the back door,” Zoey said.

“That’s way too dangerous. We don’t know how many more of them are out there.”

“All the more reason to go look. Besides, I saw someone else walk this way. What if she is in trouble?”

“What if she’s one of them? OK, no, wait, that’s a stupid question. These rebels would never come here, or at least not as one of these delegates.”

“I still think we should check, and make a break for it if we can. Then we can call the police, or whatever it is you call law enforcement around here.”

Tong-Chang grit her teeth, and then tapped the rebel’s shoulder with the slit end of the palistick. The Hulda’fi showed no response aside from a groan from the depths of their apparent blackout. She took the mask off and tossed it aside.

“I got this,” Tong-Chang said. “You can go look, but please be careful.”

“I’ll be right back,” Zoey said, turning for the rear exit.

“Wait!” Tong-Chang fumbled her hand through the top of her dress before undoing two buttons at her shoulder and reaching inside. She extracted her cell-comm and handed it to Zoey.

“I’m almost afraid to ask.”

“If you make it out there, and it’s safe, the reception should be better than in here. Save yourself a trip and call the Trullwick Police. The direct line should be on my contact list. What are you waiting for?”

Zoey kissed her on the lips. “I’ll be back.”

Beyond the back door was an alley. A few lights existed, posted above doorways and between windows along the neighboring building, but the rest was pitch with the dark of night.

As she opened the door only barely, Zoey heard the sound of something falling. She needed to get a better look at what the sound was. She slipped through the ajar door and looked in the direction of where the sound came from.

Two bodies laid on the ground, and another figure loomed, bent over one of the bodies. It was the cloaked woman from earlier; her back turned to Zoey. Zoey’s double sense kicked in again, making crickets echo half of a second before they chirped in actuality.

She pressed a hand against her forehead and tried to shake off the effect again. “Hello?” she said to the woman.

The woman turned her head and stood. Zoey couldn’t make her out in this blackness. The other woman, however, said, “Who are you? Really.”

“I should ask the same.”

Once Zoey stepped closer to the other woman, and out of the light, her eyes adjusted to the point where she could identify the bodies as fallen Hulda’fi, both traumatized and unconscious. The woman completed her turn toward Zoey and was holding one of their masks to her face.

An echo of the woman’s voice ran through Zoey’s mind then, you escaped my grasp once before. Pieces began to fit together, but begged to be fit with more that Zoey simply did not have available, but somehow she knew this person.

“Soror Valide,” Zoey said. “It’s you, isn’t it? But then, why would you have brought down these other Hulda’fi?”

“Clever girl,” the other woman said. “I’m impressed that you know that name. Was it before or after they gave you all that was mine?”

“What are you talking about?”

Soror Valide stepped closer to where a light source could reach the mask over her face. She lifted the mask and pushed back the hood of her cloak, finally revealing her hair to the world. Even in the dark, Zoey could make out the rosewood hair and familiar eyes. She saw these, and more, when sitting in front of the mirror.

The face was so familiar and so obvious, but it was all so, so impossible. The only other person who should have had this face was dead.

“You!” Zoey said.

Il’lyse said, “Are you enjoying my life?”

“Your life? I’m trying to live my own. I was living my own until you came to Earth and took away everything I knew.”

“Earth? You were on that planet?”

“Then I woke up in this body and tried to accept a new life of my own, but I keep finding your shadow. People keep comparing me to you, even when they say nothing, and it’s your fault.”

“You can have it. You can take it all for all I care. I don’t have time for this.”

Il’lyse turned and walked away. However, Zoey wasted no time catching up with her and throwing her hand onto the other woman’s shoulder.

The Hulda’fi woman batted her hand away with one hand and came at Zoey’s face with the other. Zoey parried the blow. It triggered an exchange of punches and blocks, during which Zoey was almost certainly losing.

She blamed the skirt of her dress, but really she knew better. Il’lyse was the better fighter, even if Zoey were in more abled garments for a fight.

Zoey felt herself being flung in one direction, but then she tripped over the skirt of her dress. She used the momentum to dive forward onto her hands and kick at the side of her opponent’s leg, causing the other woman to stagger. Then Zoey collapsed and heaved.

“Stop this,” she said.

“Why in the cold, infinite beyond should I?” Il’lyse asked.

“Because of your family; our family.”

“The Hulda’fi are my family. They’re the only family I’ve needed.”

“You’re wrong.” Zoey pointed to the two fallen rebels. “Is that what you do with family now? Murder one another?”

“These idiots had it coming. Stay out of this. Our Lady Tunderek can deal with them. She can discipline them. Then we will be whole again.”

“Have you gone mad? What about Mom, Dad, or Das’ithrios? Do you know how much you hurt them?”

“I don’t care.”

“Well you should! They still love you. You’re dead, and they love you. You’ve been gone all this time, and yet your bedroom remains like you never left.”

“Yeah, right. You probably slept in it as soon as they opened that door for you.”

“Never once. Sister, please.”

“We’re not sisters. I told you, the Hulda’fi are my only family now. When Dasos fell that night, I felt . . . I felt nothing.”

“Don’t lie to yourself like that.”

“Lie? Where was your truth when your mom shot me?”

“You were wearing a mask, and she didn’t know who you were. You were under the influence of some drug inside that beak, too, so who knows what you did or didn’t see? Il’lyse, what happened to you?”

“It’s Soror Valide now. That is the only name you need to know of me. Now stay out of my way, or I will be the one who kills you. You can tell them I joined my real family if you wish.”

She stormed off and left Zoey on the floor. Zoey edged on tears, not wanting to accept this. She couldn’t. She picked herself up, lifted her skirt, and charged at Il’lyse.

“Soror!” Zoey said.

Il’lyse didn’t turn in time. Her hesitation allowed Zoey to tackle her from behind, or rather Zoey wrapped her arms tightly around her sister’s neck and upper chest.

“I really don’t understand you,” Il’lyse said.

Zoey said, “I don’t understand myself either, but I’m your sister now, whether you realize that or not. Be safe, OK?”

“You idiot.” Soror Valide broke free of Zoey’s hold, spun around, and kicked her in the stomach, sending Zoey flying back on the ground in pain. “There’s nothing safe about stealing a stiern-boat from my brothers and sisters, and that’s precisely what I mean to do. Until next time, whatever your name is.”

She was gone in seconds. Zoey had to catch her breath before she could even respond.

“Zoey,” she said quietly. “It’s Zoi’ne.”

Where’s that phone? I need to call the police.

It took moments to find it. The alley was dark, and there was no telling who else might come to attack her. Her hands shook as Zoey sought the number that Tong-Chang told her to find, and her lungs quaked as the phone rang.

“Trullwick Police Department; Officer Fredur speaking,” said the voice on the other end. “How can I help you?”

“The Hulda’fi are here,” Zoey said. “Please help.”

***

Zoey limped into the main hall of the nightclub, Tong-Chang walking with her with one arm wrapped around her waist.

The Hulda’fi were being carted away by men and women in uniform. One officer, in particular, looked all too familiar. Dasos was taking notes from a few witnesses. Meanwhile, their mom stood close enough to look on with pride.

Her look of pride washed away when Bon’sinne turned and saw Zoey, whose dress was dirtied and damaged, and her body looking half as bruised as it felt.

“Zoi’ne,” Bon’sinne said as she closed in. “What happened?”

“A certain you-know-who was out back. She wasn’t too happy to see other Hulda’fi in the area, and even less happy to see me. I think I got a few hits in on her, though.”

“Who? Do you mean Soror Valide?” Her voice dropped to a whisper. She didn’t want too many ears to overhear that name, Zoey guessed.

“Yes, her. God, I’m sorry about the dress.”

“The dress can be mended, dear. I’m glad you’re alive. Why was that bitch even here? For that matter, why did any of these Hulda’fi pick tonight to come to Elysium IX? We always thought it was too risky for them to try it.”

Dasos drew closer to their little gathering. He gave Zoey one of the most concerned, bewildered expressions she had ever seen another person give her.

He said, “Do I need to ask what in the cold, infinite beyond happened to you?”

“Don’t you start,” said Zoey. “Since when were you a police officer anyway?”

“It’s my field credit for the academy program. I had to put it on hold when we left for the Marslou. I had only resumed my post when we got a call from a frightened young woman saying the Hulda’fi were here.”

Zoey raised a hand. “Less frightened; more beaten to a pulp and trying to hold it together. I came in contact with another of them, only she didn’t like the rebels who came here. We ended up throwing more punches and kicks than I can count before she left. Soror is one hell of a fighter.”

“Soror Valide? You’re kidding.”

“I wish I was. She used me for a punching bag, and then she took off saying she had a boat to steal.”

Dasos pressed a pair of fingers over his ear where a piece from a radio was sitting. Faint sounds from it reached Zoey.

He then said, “Well, that corroborates with that. We sent a few patrols out to track any remaining Hulda’fi, and they found a stiern-boat taking off. It left a handful more rebels, all in worse shape than you, lying on the ground. In fact, they match the two we found in the alley.”

“That would be her,” Zoey said. “It sounds like she did us all a favor.”

“Perhaps, but there is protocol, and a ship will be hailing her to surrender or be shot down. Hey, are you sure you’re alright?”

In truth, the prospect of hearing about Il’lyse being shot down or detained made Zoey’s heart sink. If only there was more that she could have done for her sister without giving herself away, or the secret she decided to keep.

“I’m fine,” she said. “I was hoping for a rematch one day, even if I half to train half as well as Mom.”

Bon’sinne rolled her eyes, and Tong-Chang groaned at Zoey. Neither of them were going to let her fight Soror Valide again if they could help it, she thought.

Dasos, however, chuckled for a moment. He said, “I heard that you took down one of the rebels, Mom.”

“Did she?” Tong-Chang said.

“I heard them say they came here to party,” Bon’sinne said, “so I challenged them to a little dance. It’s not my fault one of them accepted, thinking she could lay a hand me. The same one tried one attack after another. Her form was horrible.”

“This is why I was careful not to misbehave around your children, Bon’sinne.”

“Ho-ho!” said a woman coming close to them. “I should have come and said hello to you all sooner.”

“Good evening, Lady Fjorfolia,” said Dasos.

“To you as well, Cadet Thalassas, Captain, Highness Leezu, and all-of-our new favorite – Lady of Earth, Zoi’ne Thalassas. Word spreads quickly, you know.”

“I’m sorry, Lady Fjorfolia, but I am conducting an inquiry here.”

“Don’t let me stop you. In fact, I’m sure I can add to any answers you may need from these ladies.”

“I have one question remaining. Your Highness Leezu, and Lady Thalassas, you were both in the kitchen, I understand. Were you both responsible for the Hulda’fi we found tied to one of the tables in there?”

When Zoey had returned to the kitchen earlier, she saw that Tong-Chang had found a few devices with power cords, and was in the process of tying the rebel they had taken down to the corner leg of one table.

Tong-Chang said, “Yes, I tied him up. I always wanted to try something like it with my last boyfriend.”

“And now I’m done, thank you.” Das’ithrios took his exit from the group with considerable haste.

Lady Fjorfolia said, “Ho-ho, you do have a devious side, don’t you? No matter. Imagine my surprise when I heard your names earlier. I was expecting the head of the High House of Leezu to come this time. If I didn’t know better I would think the three of you came seeking favor of some kind.”

“If we’re being completely honest?” said Zoey. “We came here because of Tong-Chang here, and she agreed to come here because I need help. I don’t know how I will ever pay for my schooling, or support myself, since I grew up on another world.”

“Is that all?”

“Once we were actually here, though, I wasn’t sure what we were doing, or how we would do it. I hoped we wouldn’t come off as con artists, before long.”

“Ho-ho, my little Earthen Lady, that’s the biggest secret, isn’t it? Many of us are con artists as far as the law will allow. It’s a good thing we can agree to certain laws to keep ourselves from going absolutely mad, or no one would be able to afford working for us. Tell me, have you checked your account to see what you have?”

“What account?”

“Your identity is a new one. With every new identity in the system there is at least one account, government mandated. Even a special, recent case such as yours should have one by now.”

“Her account is brand new, though,” Bonsinne said. “It wouldn’t have enough burras in it to buy a sandwich.”

“Wouldn’t it?” Lady Fjorfolia laughed. “I wouldn’t be so sure. Take a look when you get home, or tomorrow when the mail comes if you don’t yet see what I mean. Enjoy the rest of your evening now.”

Then she sauntered off, leaving Zoey confused enough to wonder if Il’lyse took a hammer to her skull while she wasn’t looking. Zoey spent the rest of the party sitting down and trying to recuperate. More people said hello to her, and her mom and girlfriend socialized, but she was not in any condition to get up again so soon, as much as she would have wanted to dance with Tong-Chang.

Once the delegates started to leave, Tong-Chang led Zoey and her mom out through the front exit. Zoey spotted the Lady and Admiral Fjorfolia entering their own craft in the distance. A cloaked figure stepped out of it to guide them in. It was the same maroon cloak that Zoey saw before.

Soror Valide, wearing a party mask rather than a Hulda’fi one, looked her way. From this distance it was possible that Zoey only imagined the other woman nodding at her. Then Soror Valide stepped into the stiern-boat, the door closing, and flew away with the Fjorfolias onboard.

Chapter 30

Soror Valide kept the stiern-boat steady on the way home. Her entire encounter with that girl left Soror Valide with more questions than answers, and so many of the answers she did have went against everything she knew to be true.

At least the band of troublemakers among the Hulda’fi were being dealt with, their stiern-boat on autopilot until its eventual capture or destruction.

Lady Tunderek said, “It’s a shame about those brothers and sisters of yours. Our numbers are great, and yet I knew many of them as misfits who had not yet earned our full trust.”

“I was thinking as much,” Soror Valide said.

“Were you?”

“Among other things. How many brothers and sisters were able to see our home, but how many of us were allowed to see the way there? Now, thanks to an insider we have with the Trullwick Police, we will see what little they can remember.”

“Ho-ho, you make this sound so matter of fact and lifeless. Our methods are not without merit, you know.”

“I’m aware, Lady Tunderek. Until the Hoshi-Lacartan allies are ready for us we must keep our home safe from invasion.”

“The safest home is the one undetected. It’s one of the oldest tricks learned in our days as hunters and gatherers. This truth continues to serve us well, don’t you think?”

“That girl was there.”

“What girl? Oh, yes. I understand that someone roughed her up a good deal.”

“We had a little chat.”

“Some chat,” the admiral said. “I’m kind of liking Zoi’ne, though, so try not to kill her; not yet.”

Zoi’ne? So that was her name. For some inexplicable reason this brought relief to Soror Valide. Why would it, though? The girl could have used the name Il’lyse for all Soror Valide cared. The whole thing was more vexing than she needed.

Once more, she gripped her hands more tightly.

***

Zoey put the dress back on its hanger. It still needed to be cleaned and mended in places, but she couldn’t help that now. She was about to wash up and go to bed.

Her mom, who was downstairs, said aloud, “Zoi’ne, could you come down here for a moment?”

“I’ll be right there,” Zoey said.

She crossed the upper floor towards the stairs. Already she could see Bon’sinne down in the living room browsing through an assortment of sealed envelopes. As Zoey descended she saw some canister resting on the back of one of the white sofas, which was opened from the middle.

“What’s that?” Zoey asked.

“This,” said Bon’sinne, “is from our evening parcel system. I don’t know how you received mail on Earth, but here we have a service that delivers starting at dusk. Usually, a few pieces of mail will only go to the community mailbox, assuming that it is delivered as a hardcopy rather than electronically. However, if there is either a modest package or priority message involved then the Parcellary will consolidate what they have already going towards to same address and fit it neatly inside one of these containers to be dropped off inside the courier nook outside the front door.”

“That sounds complicated. On Earth, our postal service sets out in the morning, delivers by nightfall, and everything goes into the same mailbox unless it’s a large parcel. On the other hand, most of the mail we receive are coupons and advertisements for various places of business.”

“We get those electronically. Ever since we left Elysium Prime there’s been a heavy fine in place to deter companies from stuffing our mailboxes with so much paper and ink. Everything else you say Earth does is little different. Remind me to show you the courier nook some time, or how to work these canisters.”

“Right. So, you needed me for something?”

“Yes, thank you for reminding me. You, young lady, are the reason we got one of these tonight. The Bank of Union Elysium has sent you something.”

“A letter for me? I thought hardly anyone knew I’m here.”

“They had time since your new name was processed a week ago. This is one of the major banks that overseas an Aelf’s finances from the moment a birth has been recognized and properly celebrated. Your case is more special and complicated than that, as you know, but perhaps they processed your new identity and set you up with something. Here.”

Bon’sinne handed Zoey an envelope. It was thick, stamped with a seal, and adorned with silver edges. Zoey took a moment to marvel at the seal, which depicted an archer standing over what looked to be trees, from what she could tell of a seal no larger than her thumbs pressed together.

She opened the envelope. Zoey nearly expected something strange or alien to her as she looked for the opening, but the letter was like so many on Earth. Inside of it was a document spanning five folded papers. A message from the bank awaited her at the front of the stack of papers. It said:

Salutations, Zoi’ne Thalassas.

Enclosed is your new finance account with the Aelfen people of Elysiums V-IX. As per regulation with the Birth Rights Act of Allied Revolution One we have added a supplementary amount of Aelfen Burras to your new life.

We have, furthermore, adjusted the amount according to the circumstances of Net Case No. 2250316-318, as detailed on page four, within. All tax codes have been waived accordingly for the duration of this time, and interest is secured until such a time as you see fit to part with our banking firm.

It went on in greater detail, but Zoey flipped over to the second page to find the first statement of her account. Her eyes widened at the numbers she saw as her focus darted up and down the page trying to find the right one. There was no way that the one at the bottom was right.

“Is something wrong?” Bon’sinne said. “I know we don’t give our children much to start with, but at least you have a few burras now to your name.”

Zoey had to force out her breath when she replied, saying, “It’s over three hundred thousand.”

“What?”

Her mom took the papers and read them over. Zoey saw her pay for a few things, such as ice cream from a place that listed its prices between twenty-five and fifty burras for a cup. The amount she saw here was phenomenal.

“I don’t know who did this,” Bon’sinne said, “or how, or why, but this is too much. Three hundred seventy thousand? That would cover two whole revolutions at the most expensive schools in the known galaxy, and that includes the best dorms and food. The university here might last close to double that.”

Zoey sat down. She needed a moment.

“Holy crap, that’s so generous,” Zoey said. “How, though, or why? This whole thing seems crazy to me.”

“I admit that it does, but I’m reading through this to see what I can find out,” said Bon’sinne.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful. It’s not like I’m going to go out and blow it all on a lifetime supply of raspberry and caramel ice cream; tempting, though, as that may be. For one thing I want to know who-all I should thank for this opportunity I have.”

“That’s more than understandable. Well, here, it says that, due to your circumstance being so unusual, your account was made retroactive and placed in an experimental lottery system for misplaced victims in need of recompense. With interest that made up most of what we have here. Your entry and aide were approved by the Saludalta family. It also says here that you have until the thirtieth of Fiardemane to accept this money or else it goes back into the system.”

“What day is it now?”

“Right now? For the next few hours still it’s the twentieth of the same month, so you have ten days to decide what you are going to do with your life, so you can support yourself someday, and whether or not to accept this amount.”

“I definitely want to go to college. I meant to do so when I was on Earth, and it looks like I have a perfect chance to do so here. Close to four years, though? How long would I need?”

“It generally takes four to five years for a first degree. With this many burras you could cover most of that comfortably. Well, as comfortably as sharing a room with someone you don’t yet know might be. What?”

Zoey contemplated a moment. “Does it have to be a dorm room?”

“Not if you can find a better arrangement that’s near to the campus. I love you, Zoey, but commuting from here every day to get to or from class is going to cost you in both time and money very quickly. That’s assuming Elysium University accepts you into their program, of course, but this is something for you to think about.”

Zoey considered her options for a moment, and the solution was as quick as it was simple.

***

Das’ithrios lived in a condominium with two bedrooms. The main flooring was tiled with a black marble pattern. The doors and cabinets were made with polished red oak. Posters of action heroes from both movies and video games adorned one wall that was otherwise cream-colored.

Damn, he thought, observing his own condo now that his old roommate was already closed to finished moving out. I guess I will need to replace the few throw rugs he owned.

He stepped into the kitchen to enjoy a late breakfast. The calendar on the wall, which currently depicted a band of ursine-owl bards performing around a bonfire, reminded Dasos that today was the twenty-first of the month.

“I should put an ad up today for a new roommate,” he said to himself.

“Did you say something?” asked his roommate from another room.

“Nothing to worry about, Auin. I’m thinking to myself out loud again.”

Heil’auin entered the living room with a box in his hands. He said, “Packing up is taking less time than I figured. I may also be taking off sooner rather than later.”

“Are you sure you don’t want my help carrying anything?”

“No, thank you. A couple buddies of mine helped with the larger items while you were at work last night. I think you’ve met them before.”

“I might have.”

“Anyways, I’ll be back up soon. I have one more box after this one, and then I can send my things off to Cape Youtsen.”

Dasos opened the door for Heil’auin and nodded to him as the man headed outside. He could catch the man’s footsteps moving further away until they stopped, and another came close.

“Y-you’re her!” Heil’auin said loud enough for Dasos to hear when the door was nearly closed.

“Hello,” said a girl whose voice Dasos only knew too well. What was Zoey doing here unannounced?

“I heard you were dead.”

“Wrong sister. You must be his roommate. Is he in right now? Sorry, I don’t have a phone, and this was sort of meant to be a surprise visit.”

“He is, but he’s indecent right now.”

“Oh yeah?”

Dasos stopped chewing on his breakfast and looked down at himself. Sure enough, he was barely wearing any pants. He was willing to bet that his finger-length hair was a mess too.

He took his plate with him into his room where he changed that real fast. Zoey called out to him from the condo entrance as Dasos gave his shirt its last tug, and he straightened out the bunched pant leg on one side of his pajama pants before stepping back out into the living room, feeling as though he was forgetting something.

“Good morning, Zoi’ne,” Dasos said. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

She said, “No, and I suppose calling ahead might have been a good idea. Mom only laughed when I said I wanted to come here without saying anything to you first.”

“She would. Anyways, welcome to my place. Come on in, have a seat; I was eating breakfast when you got here.”

Then it hit him. His egged toast and bacon remained on the foot end of his bed, rather than in his hands.

Dasos walked to his room and said, “Excuse me a moment. So what brings you this way?”

“Well,” said Zoey, “I wanted to ask you something, assuming that the university accepts my enrollment, and also that you don’t have a new roommate picked out already. What would you say to the idea of me moving in with you, and how much would it cost me per month?”

“That’s quite the question. Going to the university here isn’t cheap, you know.”

“I think I can manage.”

“How much do you have? I mean, no offense, but you’re kind of new to this world, and we don’t really accept Earth currency, as interesting as that might be.”

“The Bank of Union Elysium provided me with an account that I mean to accept today after I’ve finished visiting you here.”

“Accept? What do you mean?”

Chapter 31

“Zoey, what?” Tong-Chang said.

Zoey passed the campus bookstore when she spotted Tong-Chang, and then immediately sprinted towards her to give her girlfriend a hug.

“I got accepted,” Zoey said. “My mom got a message on her cell-comm while I was talking to Dasos about possibly moving in with him. The university asked if we wanted the acceptance letter to be sent to her digitally or to me physically.”

“That’s great news,” Tong-Chang said. “How are you going to pay for it?”

“Do you know that thing where we receive a few burras after birth? Well, they adjusted a few things for my case, and now I have more than enough to cover three years’ worth of expenses. It was enough, to go somewhere even more expensive and rent out a dorm for a two year period. Crazy, right?”

Tong-Chang, whose hands were up to her mouth, nodded. “You are so lucky. I’m happy for you.”

“Thank you. I’m on my way to meet with the dean, Mister Paen, I think it was. What about you? What brings you here?”

“Shopping for books for next semester. It’s early, I know, but I figured I would at least check the editions and serial numbers on the books so I can see if digital copies can be found elsewhere for cheaper.”

“Does the bookstore sell only physical copies of the books, or does it also do digital ones?”

“It offers both. When you figure out your schedule and all else for your first semester I’ll gladly show you all of the tricks that Aerak taught the three of us.”

“Three?”

“Oh, right, I’m so sorry. I meant Dasos, Il’lyse, and me. That seems to have got you down. I really shouldn’t have brought her name up.”

“No, it’s fine.” Zoey was sure that her lie was obvious. Was it right for her to hold back from Tong-Chang?

“You’re going to have so many people compare you to her while you come here, too. She isn’t even . . . you know.”

“About that. I need to talk to you sometime about what happened last night; when we both have time alone I mean.”

“Was it something I did?” Concern grew on Tong-Chang’s face.

“No, you were gorgeous and wonderful. We’ll talk when we can be somewhere more intimate than out in the open like this.”

“O-OK, lover. I’m trusting you that it isn’t anything too terrible.”

“I’m hoping you will be able to tell me, but it’s kind of a secret. You’re my girlfriend, though, so I feel like you’re the first person who needs to know.”

“Oh, secrets. Please be careful of those around me. Your mom is one of three people I ever met who could pry the truth out of me with a glance; and you saw how spilling one secret caused me to spill a ton of them.”

“Fair point. Still, we’ll talk later. I have to get going to my appointment with the dean.”

***

“Hello, sir, you must be the dean,” Zoey said. “I’m sorry if I came at a bad time?” She glanced at another young Aelf in the room.

“Not at all,” the Ginserei dean said, shaking her hand. “It’s a pleasure, Zoi’ne. Yes, you do look like your sister, don’t you?”

“I get that a lot.”

“Certainly, I can imagine. You are your own person here, so you needn’t worry too much about such comparisons. Ah, this is Aur’gott, a resident assistant here on campus. He’ll be taking you on a tour of the grounds to show you around since no one remembered to show you around the last time you were here.”

“That’s fine. How do you do?”

Aur’gott said, “I’m good. I’ll be right outside when you’re ready to begin.” He walked out of the office, cheerful.

Zoey, too, put on a cheerful face, though she was unsure who was hiding more at the moment. “So, what now?”

Dean Paen said, “How well do you know the Fjorfolias?”

“I imagine not enough, honestly. Why do you ask?”

“They appear to have some interest in you, as well as a couple other new students. I must admit that my trust in them is rather limited, but they have good eyes for talent or potential. Judging by your assessment test results I can see that as well.”

“Thank you, Mister Paen.”

“Now then,” he grabbed a few papers from his desk, “I have here a few possible courses for you to consider as you register for your classes. If you have further questions regarding what something is, or how a course might best work for you, we have counselors better suited for that. However, given your interest in History and Archaeology, I am hoping that either of these will suffice as a roadmap to your graduation.”

“This sounds highly structured.” She accepted the papers and looked over them briefly.

“Perhaps, but they also offer a level of flexibility. We recommend a period to relax your brain every semester, and to exercise the body. Alternatively, you are welcome to dig right into a full-time commitment on your studies if you think you can handle it. The idea is to grow and learn, not to die on the inside.”

“Understandable. I had a friend in college on Earth who told me he felt worked to the bone, and he was only taking it easy on his first semester.”

The dean tilted his head. “Interesting. Did you not go to this college yourself?”

“I was in the midst of applying to a few places, both in terms of college and for work, when the Marslou found me. It was difficult, though, because of my ears. I didn’t want to raise any suspicion with these things on a planet surrounded by so many humans.”

She didn’t like lying about this, but at least she was able to say she was from Earth. That small comfort made it easier to tell people that, yes, she was an Aelf all along and only hiding as much as she could get away with.

“Right,” said Dean Paen, “I suppose that makes a little sense. Now then, about your living arrangements – will you need to take up residence here on campus? Or will you need to buy into a meal plan while you are here?”

“No, thank you,” Zoey said.

Dasos said yes to her moving in. The amount he asked for, monthly, didn’t sound too bad either when she tried to convert her old Earth money into burras in her head. She recognized, however, that getting a job for a handful of hours per week would still help.

As for food, well, she could afford that. Getting a job might help with treating herself to things as well, such as possibly taking Tong-Chang out to lunch or dinner.

The dean was marking something down on his digital pad. He asked, “Do you have one of these yet, by the way?”

“I do not,” said Zoey. “I don’t even know where to look.”

“We offer rentals in the student store. You can also buy simpler ones for cheap in many stores around the city. Your brother can probably show you where to go. If you choose to rent one then it will be added to your tuition for that semester, and you’ll be able to use it for up to seven months from the day you check it out, or thirteen for two semesters, and so on.”

“Cool, I will keep that in mind.”

“If you were renting a dorm room for six months then that would also have been added, but we’re not going to worry about that or meal plans. Now then, as for the next question . . .”

***

Following a few more questions, Zoey went to have her picture taken and identification issued. She was expecting to hear that the process would take seven to ten days for the card to be mailed to her, but Zoey was told to come pick it up after an hour.

Aur’gott led her around the strikingly beautiful campus where she saw the separate divisions where various classes were taught by subject. The library stood like a castle with only one story above ground, but the building went down into subterranean levels. Two walkways led to their respective dormitories, and the walkways rejoined halfway at a gymnasium, the top floor of which looked like an elaborate tree house. All around, it seemed as though a team of artists designed the entire place and barely agreed to a vision for it.

“Are you allergic to felines?” Aur’gott said.

“Felines?” said Zoey. “Oh, no, I’m not allergic to cats. Why do you ask?”

“What’s a—? Never mind. Anyway, we have quite of few of them that wander around here. They often scrounge for food, and will approach a student if they seem friendly enough, and then run off as soon as they’re fed.”

“That’s good to know.”

“Before I show you inside one of our dormitories, do you have any questions?”

***

Zoey turned from her bed when she heard the knock at her door. There was Tong-Chang, waving at her.

“Hey, Tonny,” said Zoey.

Tong-Chang said, “Hello, Zoey. You said you wanted to talk in private?”

“I did. Come in.”

When Tong-Chang walked over and sat on the guest bed, Zoey checked outside and closed the door. Everything that she needed to say suddenly gained more weight than a boulder. How was Tonny going to take any of this?

“You’re scaring me a little,” Tong-Chang said.

“Sorry,” said Zoey, “it’s just that this isn’t easy. None of it is. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t tell anyone about half of it, but the other half may or may not depend on coming out with it. Neither side is easy.”

“That makes so much sense.” Her tone shifted and danced across sarcasm effortlessly. “What does this have to do with mentions of Il’lyse, or anyone comparing you to her?”

“Promise me you won’t go crazy when you hear this.”

“Zoey, please. What is it?”

“Tong-Chang.”

“Fine. I promise that I can keep my composure through whatever it is you need to tell me, and I will keep it secret as long as you need me to.”

“She’s alive.”

“Pardon?”

“I don’t know how, but it’s Il’lyse. She is Soror Valide. We fought one another twice. Every time we come close to one another my Aelfen sensitivity to time magnifies. She thinks that her only family is the Hulda’fi, and I don’t know how to help Il’lyse the way she is now.”

“You are a terrible comedian, love.”

“I wish it were a joke of bad taste.” Zoey lifted her shirt to show the bruise left over from the recent fight. “This came from Soror kicking me in the stomach. She only did it after I hugged her and told Il’lyse to be safe; before she went to steal that stiern-boat.”

“That stiern-boat was shot down as it was exiting Elysium IX’s atmosphere. If what you say is true then she’s gone for real now.”

“She wasn’t onboard when that happened. I don’t know, maybe she rigged the craft to fly up without her?”

“It’s possible, but that’s silly. How would you know that she survived by not even being on that thing?”

“I know because I saw her as we were leaving the party and waiting on our ride back home. She entered another stiern-boat belonging to someone at the party as though she belonged with them.”

“That would suggest that one of the delegates, or their guests, is associated with the Hulda’fi. Do you know how crazy that sounds?”

“I expect it to only get crazier. You remember the device you found in Admiral and Lady Fjorfolia’s quarters, right? And you spent a fair deal of time with one or both of them.”

Tong-Chang shook her head slowly. “You can’t be serious.”

“I saw them enter that same craft with Soror Valide. The worst part in all of this is that I don’t have any proof of what I saw or heard, nor do I know what would happen to Il’lyse if this gets out. I really don’t know what to do, and I hate it. Ever since last night, during my encounter with Soror, I’ve felt like I was going to break down again; like it’s still a matter of time. I can’t . . . I can’t . . . !”

Her body went numb and mixed of hot and cold. Tong-Chang wrapped her arms around her and rocked her back and forth as they sat on the bed.

“We’ll figure this out,” Tong-Chang said. “I promise.”

Chapter 32

Zoey walked into the condo with the same box as was now the norm for all of her belongings. She set it down on the counter and walked to the window overlooking the park with the hedge maze. It was a simple emblem on the ground from four floors high.

Its serene air and presence reminded Zoey of the nerves she held within her. Since her talk with Tong-Chang she managed to hold herself together and recover little by little. Still, a run through the park was tempting if it would have helped.

Her focus on the park was interrupted when she heard Dasos clear his throat.

Dasos said, “I talked to Mom a moment ago. She agreed to cutting what I owe her in half for the next month if I helped you with acquiring a bed.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Zoey said.

“Of course I did. I can’t have my little sister sleeping on the floor when it can be so easily helped. We can go shopping a little later. First, I should set some rules since the two of us are going to be roommates.”

“Fair enough.”

“It will fall on you to clean your own room regularly, such as using the diffusion cleaner on the carpet. We have one in the hallway closet that you can use. You’ll see what it is and how to use it.”

“I wonder if it’s anything like the vacuums on Earth.”

“Second, I generally ask that shoes be taken off at the door here. My last roommate had a stool to sit on while you take them off, but he took it with him, as well as the couple of rugs we had in here. Now, you don’t have to keep the shoes there like Mom and Dad have it, but try not to trek the dirt and grime from outside all over the floor.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. What else?”

“You get to be the one who washes the fridge and kitchen sink at least once every two weeks. We generally clean our own dishes or put them away when they’re dry. Before you ask, yes, we have a dishwashing machine, but the thing is loud so I use it as a pair of drying racks until I can replace it with a better model.”

Zoey burst out laughing at that one. It was one of those things that was totally the same in an advanced civilization so many light years away from where she grew up.

“Sorry, yes, that’s fine,” she said.

Dasos rolled his eyes and said, “You are welcome to have one or two guests over, but try not to be loud about it. I know how Tonny can get at times, but try to be mindful if she ever comes over.”

One of her hands held on to her waist, and the other arose to the side. “Wow, dude, how many times did the two of you have sex with one another?”

“As awkward as that question is: twice. I’m not even going to ask about the two of you. Also, what’s this ‘dude?’”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m not sure I can explain that one if I tried. Are there any other rules?”

“Yes, please no adult channels on the living room monitor. Tonny once played a prank on me by doing that when Dad was supposed to get back to me on something, and he was able to see what it was that was paused in the background. She had it muted and everything so I couldn’t tell until it was too late.”

“She has a devious side!”

“When Il’lyse was around it was endless torment between the three of us. I think the three of us were disciplined together in school more times than there are stars in the known galaxy. Naturally we were called in on a couple occasions that neither of us had anything to do with.”

“Didn’t the three of you run off at night to go to some arcade?”

“That we did. I actually wish you were there with us back then.”

“Yeah, right. I’m the kind of person who runs forward into action with barely any forethought, and then sometimes goes in the opposite direction than intended. If I tried following the three of you to the arcade I probably would have found my way into the universe’s loudest broom closet and get you caught on the way there.”

Dasos laughed. He stepped into the kitchen and grabbed something that Zoey couldn’t see at first, but it was small. It wasn’t long before he brought it over and handed Zoey a key.

“Here’s your copy,” he said. “Don’t worry about paying for the first month. Now then, let’s find you a bed.”

***

They found the public trolley system that ran a loop through a few city blocks, with the university on one end of it. The stop nearest to them was a four minute walk from the park. They boarded a passing trolley, at which point Zoey saw that they didn’t have to pay anything.

Many of the passengers carried bags with a digital pad, and sometimes a book or two of similar height and length. At least one was musing over the ceiling, which was decorated with an abstract art.

At a few points below the image were signs that said, “Your donations help us maintain these vehicles and the streets they run on.” An address was listed below that, and it reminded Zoey of the internet on Earth.

Now that she thought about it, Zoey never once browsed the internet, or anything like it, since waking up in this body. What was it like on this world?

Zoey and Dasos got off in the middle of a shopping center. Stone setts and cobblestone planters lined the walkways, and lanterns hanged from the series of diagonal poles overhead. The buildings on this street never exceeded two floors in height.

Dasos whispered, “We used to call this street ‘Arcadia,’ when we were kids.”

“Did you?” said Zoey.

“Our favorite arcade still sits down the road one way. The best places for pies and comics were back the other way, though I think the restaurant is still there with a new name and owner. We found so many fun little places to hide through here too.”

“Again, loudest possible broom closet.”

“To be fair, it took seventeen rotations to find you.”

“Now you’re being cheesy, and I love it. So where’s this bed place we’re going to?”

“It’s no far at all. Come along.”

The store was across the street from the arcade that Dasos mentioned. Zoey almost wanted to run over and see the inside of it, but feared that her joke about the broom closet might come true by some twist of fate.

Inside the bedding store Zoey saw more designs for ornate bedframes than she ever thought she would find, with a third of them on display and the rest in a catalogue.

Simple, Zoey. Keep it simple.

She followed Dasos into a room with sample mattresses. Zoey pressed into a few of them with her fingers. One was hardly any better than sleeping on the floor, and another offered nothing in regards to resistance against her fingers.

A salesperson came and asked if they needed any help. Dasos declined, but then turned to his sister. He said, “Are you more of a side sleeper, or what?”

“I don’t really know,” Zoey said. “It’s not like I pay a whole lot of attention to what position I am in when I’m not awake. Just about any position is fine, I think.”

“Well, let’s try a few out and get a feel for what works best for you.”

Zoey prodded a bunch of mattresses and sat on a couple. The differences between them were so minor that she fell backward against the second one she had tried. Why was mattress shopping as difficult as it was?

Her brother joined from the other side of the mattress sample, so now they both lied across its width, staring up at the ceiling.

“This one’s nice,” Dasos said.

“This one smells of popcorn,” said Zoey. “Please tell me this world at least has popcorn.”

“Clearly we stuff our beds with it, and chomp on wool when watching our movies.”

“Of course you do. How could I have not realized this sooner?”

They shot glances at one another and chuckled.

“Mind if I ask you a question about the other night?” Zoey said.

“What’s that?” said Dasos.

“What exactly happened, during and after the uninvited guests showed up? Like, what became of them once they were all in custody?”

“Good question.”

“I hope it’s not anything confidential. I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble sharing anything.”

“No, it’s nothing like that. They came in, like you saw. The bouncers and one attendee were bound and injured on their way into the club. Mom played one of them into trying to fight her on the dance floor, where she took them down with disturbing ease. Some vigilante in a cloak knocked out a bunch of them at their stiern-boat, and then took off separately from it. We spent a few days trying to get answers from them, but they’re either really good at their silence or are really dumb.”

“Did you ask them about their leader?”

“We’ve tried. Every time we manage to capture a Hulda’fi alive we try to get a name. All we do know is that they’re a cult that worships one woman – the same woman for longer than any Aelfen lifespan I ever heard of. It doesn’t make any more sense than that. They started small and detached from the rest of the alliance. Lately they’ve become larger, more daring, and sometimes violent.”

“Lady Toon-derek?”

“What was that?”

“I asked a certain someone why she turned on the ones at the club. She mentioned a name. I think it was Lady Tunderek. Maybe I heard her wrong.”

“That’s not a name you should say out loud,” said a woman sitting on the neighboring mattress.

Zoey and Dasos looked over at her and saw the laeknar, Veran’uvia, looking at them. Zoey sat up hurryingly, her head feeling the shift of gravity in her bloodstream.

“Laeknar Saludalta?” she said. “What are you doing here?”

Veran’uvia said, “Please, Zoey, call me Veran. I heard from a few acquaintances that you were at the party, and that you met with her again.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I also heard that you won the experimental lottery that my grandfather helped pass. Congratulations.”

“You told him about me, didn’t you?”

“Whatever do you mean? I’m a random passerby at the moment. I happened to see two young people that I know, and I figured that slipping in here to see what you’re up to might be a good idea.”

“Now you’re watching us. Why?”

“Again, young Lady of Earth, I don’t have the slightest clue what you’re talking about.”

“I think I like you better when you’re treating patients.”

“Yes, so do I. Being in the public life can paint a target on my back because of this side of myself. I would put the blame on my father, and his father before him, but we each made our own choices. I can’t tell you how glad I will be to be back on the Marslou in a couple days. We’re taking our newly reformed crew on a simple mission that should take three months at most.”

“Then you can tell people all about their conditions and treat them, rather than deny anything, but I suppose you don’t know about that either.”

“Not entirely accurate, but I see you are learning as fast as Captain Druvvin and Commander Consilius both say you do. Congratulations on getting into the university, by the way.”

“Thank you.”

“Tell me something, Zoey. Do you still have any seizures, or mental breakdowns? My laeknir under me should have asked about that.”

“The last breakdown I had was about a week ago. I almost had another one since, but I’m doing fine now. Why do you ask?”

“My grandfather had a theory that also crossed my mind. It can’t be possible, of course, but the whole of the science and medical communities thought the original synthonectar would never be seen again. Never you mind. As long as you aren’t suffering due to something internal that you can’t control I suppose that all is well.”

Dasos said, “OK, what do you not know about that you aren’t telling us?”

“Now, now, we can’t have the both of you prying this out of me. There’s too much speculation and hearsay, besides, but if we’re right then Dylan was injected with something unrefined and dangerous. I cannot, in any level of honesty, say that I know about this one. Then again, I cannot confirm or deny that there is a target on my back the longer that I remain here.”

“If you fear for your life then it’s my duty to get you somewhere safe.”

“What a generous thing for you to say, but I still don’t know what you’re talking about. I should go, actually. There is one place where I know plenty, and perhaps being there would be best for me right now. Until next time, young ones.”

Veran’uvia picked herself up from the mattress and took a long way around the store to get out. Her words and behavior were certainly odd. Zoey and Dasos shrugged at one another before getting up, themselves.

Not a moment later Zoey heard a loud bang outside of the store, followed by some screams. She ran out to see what had happened, but all she could find were Aelfs and Ginserei who seemed to be looking in a particular direction. Veran’uvia was nowhere to be seen.

***

Soror Valide awoke suddenly. The wildest dream came at her with everything it had, knocked her conscious, and then went running into the sunset, never to be seen or remembered again. Now she was in bed with a brother and few sisters, all as nude as she was, but each one still sleeping.

This was the second time in recent weeks that she woke up from a dream that she could not recall. Soror Valide got out of bed and walked toward the door. She needed to go out and clear her head.

She opened it and caught Lord Tunderek passing a threshold in the distance. He was humming happily to himself.

That was a sign of good news, but what was it?

Chapter 33

It was a cool Elftemane morning of revolution 203 when a pair of twins, one boy and one girl, were born to a pair of Aelfs working for the allied military. The captain and commander coming up for a promotion of his own weren’t ready for one child, let alone the two. They still tried. They still loved.

They chose the names for their children. One was inspired by a forest rich in bloodstone deposits in the soil. The other was named for their mother’s favorite oak tree standing in defiance in the middle of a chain of small, sunny islands.

Soror Valide adjusted her combat suit. A simple walk around the manor wasn’t enough, and tonight she was going to borrow one of the stiern-boats. The coast was clear.

She stepped inside the craft and took the pilot seat. Her hand twitched for a moment before she activated the controls and left Dereskoo into the oblivion of Space. She didn’t know how soon she might return.

Elysium IX raised its security detail patrolling the area around the planet’s orbit. Had the stiern-boat been lighter in color or ill-equipped to handle cloaking Soror Valide would have needed to rely on chance and patience. Still, she found a good opening to reduce detection for when it came time for entry.

The Thalassas moved to the southern hemisphere of Elysium IX, from the space colony Elysium VIII, in the summer of revolution 209. The children made and lost new friends over the revolutions that followed. The parents were home maybe once in a few months each, either visit lasting for a week before they had to ship out again.

In the search for lasting child care centers between school hours, the twins met a Ginserei their age by the time they were ten revolutions of age. They quickly took a liking to her, and she to them, as they shared in trickery and mischief.

Il’lyse was the first to realize that her new friend held secrets from everyone. She would spend at least a revolution finding the best way to pry it from her.

Soror Valide landed in an inconspicuous, shallow ravine in the forest. She knew this spot. It was another life, though.

She wandered away from the spot, passing the last remains of the hidden clubhouse she helped make with her brother and best friend.

It wasn’t far to her destination from here. There was the rock where Tong-Chang confessed a few secrets to her. Tong-Chang was a princess who ran away from home, like a dream or fantastic book. She was confused about her feelings for both boys and girls. Both of these were revelations that meant nothing now. The clubhouse where they kissed revolutions later meant nothing.

Closer to the road was a tree where Il’lyse tied up a boy from school and stole his first kiss while he was blindfolded. Then she spread rumors in school that the forest was haunted by a beautiful ghost that stole children’s souls. The boy never bothered her again.

The trio, as they grew, slipped in and out of the back of the housing track. Soror Valide came upon the outer storm well.

The first escape was treated like a prison break that they saw so much of in broadcasted shows and movies. They took to the bushes at night and scaled the wall going out to the drainage field. One time, the gate leading into it was open. Tong-Chang lost her footing on a storm drain she forgot about, but Das’ithrios caught her.

During the day, they practically ran the street by the Thalassas’ family home. When they were younger their games were like with any other children. As they got older, they were less about this street and more about other places. Sometimes, in her adolescence, Il’lyse danced in the yard while Sut’hout played some music on his speakers.

Her fist refused to clench. She felt it wanting to as she stood on the backside of the property that she grew up on. Soror Valide felt every fiber of her being want to clench. Yet it did not happen.

She treaded the grass where Il’lyse and Dasos learned how to defend themselves in a fight, and the spot where Tong-Chang joined them for three whole lessons before deciding that such skills were not her thing.

The back patio led between the dining room and the side door of the garage. Soror Valide turned for the former, but she stopped when she remembered the light. She looked about, but saw that it did not come on.

Soror Valide checked the wind chimes once she found them. They were one of the same low-volume chimes as when she was little.

Their mother used the top of the wind chime to hide a copy of the house key. The key opened any one of four doors, including the slider that led into the dining room. There were three chimes that she kept in rotation in the back side of the house. The wind chime in use was a clue.

“Lyssa, dear, do you know the passcode?” her mother once quizzed her while Il’lyse was small enough to be held in her arms. “Which wind chime do I have up?”

The seconds were counting down fast. The panel contained two rows of five buttons plus a master button on the side. The ten buttons were numbered, each with a few lyurunics. What was the wind chime outside?

Ten seconds remained. It was the bird one.

Seven seconds remained. 1-3-7-2, and then the master.

Five seconds lingered after the beeping stopped, and then the timer faded away.

The house was dark. No one was home. Of course no one was here except for Soror Valide. Her parents were always working. How often did they even come home to their kids?

Bon’sinne popped her head up from behind one of the sofas. She was playing a hiding game with Dasos and Il’lyse when they were toddlers. They weren’t as enthused by it as Bon’sinne had hoped. She sighed and drew closer to the chair they sat on

The family sat at the table where Keft’aerak regaled them with tales of naval soldiers turned to a life of crime and adventure.

Keft’aerak took turns with his own children, and once with Tong-Chang, trying to teach them how to cook. Il’lyse dropped a pitcher of tea. Keft’aerak consoled her without once raising his voice, and he checked her for any cuts before cleaning the tea and glass shards from the floor.

Upon the lower steps of the staircase, Bon’sinne sat with her daughter and helped her tie the laces on her first pair of dancing shoes. Bon’sinne kissed Il’lyse on the forehead and said she was proud of her, finding something she liked and taking part in it.

Further up the stairs the two of them argued. Il’lyse was older now. She was visiting home and telling her mom about her new boyfriend she met in college. Bon’sinne did not approve of him. Il’lyse cried out that she didn’t know why she bothered to visit, and that her mother would never understand. Then Il’lyse slammed her door shut.

Tracks were visible in the upstairs carpet. Soror Valide followed where the foot prints went. The traffic almost never reached the one door in front of her, as opposed to the other rooms up here. Even the guest room saw more foot prints.

She felt the trepidation like a bungee cord threatening to yank her back across the stellar system. Soror Valide turned the handle with one hand, and pushed gently against the door with her other one.

The only signs she could see of anyone coming in here in the past few weeks was someone using the diffusion cleaner on the floor. The bedroom was pristine; it was whole and hers.

Soror Valide walked inside of the bedroom. The posters and pictures she had framed, in another life, were all here. One of the pictures on her bed stand showed the four Thalassas posing on a stage with a rock musician who pressed one finger on top of Il’lyse’s head. She was small back then, and often slipped into places where she didn’t belong. In this case, she walked past security at this concert and met the musician, who had the heart to entertain his new guest until her family arrived.

Her family.

***

Two revolutions ago...

Il’lyse took over the control of the shuttle they stole. Cold, infinite beyond, she never did anything like this before in her whole life. Her heart raced, and she laughed. She could only laugh through her panic. Running away for a while was the right thing to do, right?

Maybe then her mom would finally understand. Maybe then her ideas of life and love would be fully recognized.

A ship gained on them by the time Il’lyse and Buska’vild reached the asteroid belt. Buska’vild told her that they would be able to lose the Allied Peacekeepers on their tail if she flew into it and used one of the rocks for cover.

She did as he suggested, and he handed her a small box. It looked like one of the gadgets Tong-Chang had been toying with when they last had lunch together.

They received a call from the ship. The written message that was attached to it said, “Lyssa, answer me!”

It was her mother’s ship. There were dozens of ships in service to the Allied Peacekeepers, and it had to be her own mother coming after her.

Il’lyse remained silent. She didn’t know if she was more angry or afraid right now. She was tempted to open the line of communication and tell her mother to shoot them already. All that Il’lyse wanted was to spend time with Buska’vild and his friends that she met once in Natt Grans.

Meanwhile, the stiern-boat sensed activity coming from a distance. It was high in magnetism and radiation. The storm lashed out from the system’s star, but it had to have taken an age to get here. It was gigameters away, and then hundreds of megameters away.

One last, desperate message went out to the craft Il’lyse was on before the ship raised its shields. A tear went down Il’lyse’s cheek before everything turned black with splotches of fading crimson.

She regained her senses aboard another ship. It wasn’t full of military personnel. Instead, everyone wore the same one-piece suit with charcoal and brown all over, their hoods were down for many of them, and all of them wore the same mask.

A Hulda’fi took off their mask and nodded to Il’lyse and her boyfriend. It was one of his friends. They were escorted from that point to the bridge.

“Ho-ho,” said the light-haired Aelf. “Our honored quests are here, husband.”

The man was none other than Admiral Fjorfolia. He said, “I’m glad. Welcome to the Hulda’fi, young lady. I understand you are quite special.”

“What’s happening?” Il’lyse said.

“For starters, your old life is over, child, unless you wish to explain to your mother out there why you ran away, or why you are on my ship, having somehow survived the destruction of the boat you were on.”

“I don’t want to talk to her. No, not now, not ever.”

“Second, we are testing the cloaking fields on my ship, the Hastig Silver. I was about to report to your mother the news that we witnessed exactly as she did.”

“Will I ever see my brother again? Or my best friend?”

“Time will tell, but I am hoping you will see these, and more, as your brothers and sisters. Lady Tunderek, if you will escort our guest? I’m hoping you will enjoy your stay.”

“It will be my pleasure.”

Her strut exuded sex and presence. Lady Tunderek guided Il’lyse toward another chamber, during which time she dropped her robe in the corridor. One of the Hulda’fi scrambled to pick it up and take the transparent, light cloth elsewhere.

In the new chamber, several more Aelfs and Ginserei, most of them girls, were afflicting pleasure on one another without much clothing present at all. The articles Il’lyse did see were different than anything she had experienced so far.

“Come join your new brothers and sisters,” Lady Tunderek said, pushing Il’lyse forward gently before lifting her top and shoving her into the hot flesh.

Il’lyse took more and more of it all. She wanted her family more than ever. This was a mistake. No, her old family was a mistake. She got lost in the time she spent in that room, lost forever in the reaches of Space, and was reborn from this flesh as Soror Valide.

***

Present Day

She screamed out, trying and failing to turn over the bed. It was heavy. So she grabbed the first light object she could get her hands on.

“This isn’t me!” Soror Valide said, chucking the lamp across the room. Then she nabbed the next item, and the one after that. “This isn’t my life. Get out of my head. You were never there for me when I needed you. Never!

“I hate you. I hate!”

Cold, infinite beyond, she didn’t. She wanted to. She needed to make this easier on herself. But she couldn’t.

Her room was a mess, and Il’lyse fell to her knees. Her eyes flooded. In seconds she had rolled onto the bed, her arms around her knees, and she cowered from the world that remained cold and silent towards her.

Before she could ask herself how tonight could be any worse the front door opened. Someone stumbled inside and laughed. It was a woman; it was Bon’sinne.

“What? Hello?” she said from the house entrance. There was a mild slur in her voice. “Zoey? Dasos? Eh-heh . . . Aerak, my love, are you home already?”

Il’lyse picked herself up. She couldn’t let her mom see her like this. No, Bon’sinne stopped being her mom two revolutions ago; she just couldn’t allow herself to be caught.

She opened her window. The footsteps were coming closer. She bound for the darkness, ready to roll when she landed upon the ground outside. Soror Valide realized only too late that she left her mask behind. It could be replaced, but it was a mistake she could have done without.

Then she fled, cursing at herself.

Chapter 34

Zoey stretched on her way toward the kitchen. The monitor on the far wall of the living room was playing the local news on low sound volume. Dasos stood at the kitchen counter, swiping up and down against his digital pad.

“Good morning,” she said to him.

“Morning, Zoey,” he said.

“How was work last night?” She grabbed a box of cereal and a bowl to pour it in.

“We got called to Mom’s house. Somebody broke in. We don’t know how they found the spare key, or got the passcode on the alarm in one try, but they tore up one of the bedrooms and left through the window. The only clue we have so far is the mask this person left behind.”

“What kind of mask?”

“It was the kind that the Hulda’fi use.”

Was it Soror? It couldn’t have been. “Is Mom alright?”

“She’s shaken up a bit. She came home after a night out with a few of her friends, and noticed that the alarm didn’t go off despite her inebriation. She heard the window open and then rushed into Lyssa’s room—sorry, I mean Il’lyse—where several items had been tossed.”

So it was her. Why now?

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Dasos said. “Mom will be fine. She might change the locks and key, as well as the scheme for the alarm passcode, or she might sit in wait for the person responsible to come out again and make them wish they hadn’t.”

“She has a bit of a scary side, doesn’t she?” Zoey asked.

“Don’t all mothers? I kid. Anyways, how well did you sleep on your new bed?”

“Well enough. I’m surprised that their warehouse was able to deliver so quickly. I was expecting a couple days, or to have to spend hundreds of burras to make it happen.”

“A friend of mine works there. His father runs the place, so he was able to do me the favor.”

On the news, the station revealed a picture of Veran’uvia in relation to the incident that happened the day before. No one else was injured or directly affected, but she was missing with only a single splatter of blood being present.

The shooter had been chased down, but collapsed before anyone could reach him. Their gun was taken away for analysis, but the alleged assassin died from taking poison while on the run. The Trullwick Police were working to uncover his identity.

“Does this happen often?” Zoey asked.

Dasos said, “No. Even with the increased Hulda’fi activity this rarely happens. Accidents and disputes? Sure. Not shit like assassinations or terror; not since the alliance formed.”

“I wonder what had happened to her.”

“As far as any of us know, she went into the arcade and then vanished once she turned a corner. I’m curious if she was transported somewhere. I would ask Captain Druvvin about it, but personnel aboard the Marslou, and their mission, are classified and out of reach until the mission is complete. We won’t know if our doctor is among them until they get back.”

“Then I guess the only thing left for me to do is live my life and go to college. Why does the mundane sound like such a disappointment all of a sudden?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. Oh, speaking of college, are you ready for it?”

“I should be. I’m still missing one of those digital pads of my own. How much do they cost?”

“A basic one that can last you a few years or more can run you five thousand burras. There’s a store that sells them on the other side of the park if you want to spend more than you did yesterday on more clothes.”

“Hey, don’t judge me.”

“I wasn’t.”

“I can’t be wearing the same four or five outfits every single week. Besides, I have no idea if that hoody of mine is going to last as it gets colder out.”

“You say that now, and then you start off your second semester trying to pay for tuition with boxes of extra clothes.”

“Oh you!” Zoey jabbed at her brother’s sides with a playful level of roughness.

He laughed at her.

***

The walkway outside of the condo only ran most of the length of the car park only a stone’s throw away. Zoey and her brother resided in one of four units on the fourth floor. On every floor the units were separated by a gated hallway for maintenance workers to get in and fix numerous systems.

Opposite the condo doors along the concrete walkway were trellises that reached the ceiling. They were the first barrier that separated the condominium building from the parking garage. More than that, they were aesthetically pleasing and blocked some of the sunlight with the vines that covered them for their entire spans, though there was an opening in the middle of it all.

Zoey heard the sprinkler system activate in the planters and looked their way as she passed them. She wondered for how much longer these vines would be watered with it being the second month of autumn.

The support pillars came with benches jutting out of the rounded bases, in case anyone wanted to sit outside. Zoey considered the idea for when she needed to read something for class. On a day where it was nice out she would have to try it.

An elevator stood between the condo building and parking garage. Stairs ran on one side as well, though they didn’t always connect with the car park as the elevator did. The elevator on the other end of the maintenance hallway did not connect to the next building over, however.

She checked once already, to her brother’s amusement.

One thing that Zoey had not done yet as take the stairs to the roof of the condo building. She knew that there was one more level of units between her and the top, but she simply had not explored up there as of yet.

Zoey had only set foot on the landing of the stairwell when hard, rapid footfalls sounded from the steps below. She was on the way down there, but now she wondered if she needed to move out of the way.

Then Tong-Chang appeared, toting a digital pad under her arm. She stopped next to Zoey and caught her breath. She then thrust her arms outward, displaying the digital pad in greater detail. It had a note on it.

“My password is ‘Swimming_Bird33,’” it read.

“Tonny, what is this?” Zoey asked.

Tong-Chang said, “Someone throw a rock at our apartment window last night. This note was attached to it. Stars beyond, Zoey, you were right.”

“What do you mean?”

“That note is Il’lyse’s handwriting. This was her personal computer. She’s really alive, isn’t she?”

“Yes, she is.”

The digital pad was remarkably similar to the one that Tong-Chang used, unlike the different models that Bon’sinne or Das’ithrios used. Zoey held the soft button at the top of the left side and waited a moment. There was no response.

“It’s been a couple years,” Tong-Chang said. “That probably needs to be charged. I brought a power cord with me so we can look at this.”

“I was about to go to the store and browse what they had there.”

“That’s it, though. You don’t have to now, and I’m glad I caught you. Il’lyse was of the mind of letting material things go to people she loved to do with as we please, should anything happen to her. If she’s alive then it’s hers. Yet, she gave me this password to use as if I should still keep it.”

“Tonny?”

“I’m sorry, I know I’m rambling a bit, but it would please me to give this to you. You’ll need one. I need to see if it still works once we charge it.”

Zoey escorted her back toward the condo. They passed Dasos, who was on the couch starting up what looked to be a game. He looked their way curiously before Tong-Chong waved at him.

Her room was notably empty with the exception of the bed and a few small items such as the alarm clock, a wooden rack with three scented candles inside of glass jars, two picture frames with nothing in them yet, the keepsakes from Earth, and a few books stacked in the corner that depicted the major myths and philosophies of Elysium and Ginserei through the ages.

The box that the smaller items came in was now gone, and the clothes hanged in the bedroom closet along with the iris purple hoody from the ship.

Tong-Chang extracted a rolled, thin cord from the small pouch she often kept at her side, and then she searched around the room. She made for a small plating on the wall closest to the bed. Zoey had wondered if it was an electric outlet since it was different from the ones she saw on Earth. Tong-Chang pulled back a sleeve on one end of the cord using only her thumb, she pressed it against one of the four round ports on the plating, and then twisted and released the presumed plug.

She sat on the bed and plugged the other end of the cord into the digital pad directly. Tong-Chang laid the pad upon the mattress.

“Give it a moment, and we can boot it up,” she said. “This is a nice bed set you’ve picked out, by the way.”

“Thank you,” said Zoey.

She had chosen a black, blue, and pearl gray. The comforter combined these with a silhouette of a flowering desert plant, which reminded her of where she came from coming in from two opposing corners, while the blue ran down the middle length-wise and faded seamlessly into the gray on either side. The sheets and one pillow were the same shade of gray, while two of the pillow cases were blue with black petals or leafs in one corner of either case.

A moment later the bottom quarter of the power supply’s port flashed yellow a few times, and again seconds later. The flashing stayed on periodic repeat while the digital pad was plugged into the wall.

“You can try it now,” Tong-Chang said, smiling.

So Zoey tried again to boot the device by holding down the button. It loaded up its system, which Zoey admitted was more impressive than what she saw on Earth. She tapped into the keys on the interface once the digital pad asked for the password. The one provided by the written note worked.

Tong-Chang put her hands over her mouth without gasping as she often did. She nodded at the screen, her breath quaking. “It’s really her,” she said.

“It really is,” Zoey said.

“Part of me wants to punch that face of hers.”

“Please don’t. It’s kind of mine too.”

Tong-Chang laughed. “You’re definitely you, though. No one else I know mumbles random nonsense in her sleep.”

“Who talks in her sleep?”

“You do, you nut. If you don’t believe me you can activate the voice recorder on this thing before you go to sleep next.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

Did she always do that. Zoey had no idea. It wasn’t like her uncle on Earth gave a damn enough to check on Dylan in his sleep, nor did Dylan ever go to any sleepovers.

Zoey browsed the operating system on the portal computer in her hands. It had all of the college student amenities, plus what appeared to be a game she never saw before.

“What is this ‘Artifice Squall?’” Zoey asked.

“That’s a tactical roleplaying game,” Tong-Chang said. “It is a game about factions of dancers, musicians, and painters as they compete for praise, but ultimately face off against this one group of megalomaniac art critics. It’s one of the few games Il’lyse ever really showed interest in playing.”

“Didn’t you three used to go to an arcade a lot?”

“We did. She was happy to get away from the house and spend time with Dasos and me. It was that head-in-the-clouds mentality of hers. We all loved her for it. This, though?”

“It’s like she’s a different person now, from what everyone tells me of her.”

“Maybe.” Tong-Chang lifted the top side of the digital pad. “I’m starting to think there’s more to this than we know.”

***

Soror Valide treaded from tree to tree, bush to bush, while looking out for any sign of a trap. There was no one visible in the forest around the ravine. She thought for sure someone would have come this way in pursuit of her.

The stiern-boat remained in the ravine, untouched save for the leaves that fell upon it.

This was a mistake, she told herself.

Go back, go back home while you still can, another part of herself said.

She opened the door on the craft’s dockside. It only flipped up and down so far before the top and bottom portions of the door struck dirt and rock, and then struggled to go any further. Soror Valide squeezed in before the door closed. She could feel the side of her boot catch in the top and bottom, forcing her to tug herself free before the door sealed.

Freedom was hers, she thought. Soror Valide made for the pilot’s seat and pressed a few buttons in sequence to activate the stiern-boat. Only then did she someone coming. The newcomer shot a laser blaster at the protective glass directly in front of Soror Valide. Had the glass not been made to withstand a few such blasts she might have been killed.

The newcomer came into view in time for the craft to lift into the air. Soror Valide held out a hand to obscure her face once she saw her mother. It was unknown if Bon’sinne recognized her or not, but the stiern-boat’s sensors detected a bunch more shots coming at the underbelly of the craft, to no effect.

Can I ever truly go back now?

Soror Valide winced heavily and then flew away.

***

“Oh good, there’s an interactive calendar,” Zoey said. “That should help.”

“Do you know the current date without it?” said Tong-Chang. “I’ve been wondering about that for a while.”

“I knew it was the twenty-fourth of . . . something. It was the twenty-third of March on Earth when I left, but the days are an hour shorter there than here, not to mention that the year is also eight days shorter most of the time.”

“Most of the time?”

“Leap years.” Zoey explained to Tong-Chang about how, on Earth, a day was added to the shortest month to compensate for the quarter of a day extra each year had, once every four years.

“Elysium IX’s calendar must be so bizarre to you. Ginserei Prime and Dee Su might as well if I ever got around to telling you about those two. Probably for the best; I wouldn’t want you thinking I was thrice as old as I am.”

The Aelfs had twelve months as Earth did, but with thirty days in each of them, an additional “day of transition” between most of them, and a two day holiday between the twelfth and first months. Birthdays were celebrated according to solstices and equinoxes, depending on whether their date of birth was two months prior or one month afterward.

Zoey, according to her new records, was listed as a north-summer birth, or south winter, which was fitting since Dylan’s birthday on Earth was almost the middle of July.

She vaguely recalled the first few times she awoke as a girl and was asked such things as her date of birth, having additionally to explain that July was the seventh month where she was from. Zoey wondered if Bon’sinne or Keft’aerak heard about this and adjusted for their own calendar.

She needed to ask them at some point.

“Ugh, Mom!” Dasos said in the other room. “Why do you do this?”

Back out in the living room, Dasos was talking to her on the cell-comm. Zoey looked at him curiously as he pressed his fingers over his brow.

“I understand that,” he said, “but going after her was risky. We don’t want you getting hurt. Yes, Mom. Yes. Mom. I was planning on getting that fixed today. Yes, she’s right here. Would you like to talk to her? OK, I love you too, here she is.”

Dasos handed her the phone.

Zoey held it to her ear and said, “Hi, Mom. What did you do?”

Chapter 35

Eight more days passed. Zoi’ne continued to prepare for her first day of college while they came and went. During that time, Tong-Chang asked if she could borrow Zoey’s old phone since her own classwork and new job were going to be light enough where she wanted to work on a side project.

“What kind of project? Zoey asked.

“Oh, you’ll see” said Tong-Chang

Tong-Chang also offered to examine the monitor in the living room, and Dasos relented. Apparently she offered to help once before when the two of them were dating. He reminded her that the last time she touched it was when she played that prank on him.

Zoey wasn’t sure yet if it was a good idea to start looking for a part-time job since she never experienced the college life before. She had only heard about it. Tong-Chang and Dasos made it seem simple enough, but then again they were on break until the semester began.

“What do you think I should do?” she asked her dad, whose ship was temporarily in range.

Keft’aerak, who appeared on the wall monitor, said, “I think that’s admiral of you, to be honest. How are you doing with your recovery from the trauma you had?”

“Trauma? Oh, you mean from seven weeks ago. I think I’m OK now. I haven’t had any more moments where I felt like breaking down.”

“In that case, Zoi’ne, I don’t see a problem with trying. If you can find a place that needs you for a dozen hours or so a week then you can test those waters while you get to know your limits better with college.”

“Is there some sort of minimum wage here, or anything?”

“The last I checked there was a minimum pay of a hundred and fifty burras per hour.”

“Cool.”

“A quarter of that is deducted by the government.”

“That much?”

“Wait until you make what I do. You’ll swear it was pirates.”

The weekend before classes started, Tong-Chang had her first prenatal exam at the clinic. Zoey accompanied her since it felt like the right thing to do. The receptionist checked with Tong-Chang’s identification and let them in swiftly.

It was too early to tell for certain how many babies were growing inside the Ginserei, at least until the next visit in a couple months, but the morning sickness that had started for Tong-Chang was normal. The laeknar handed her a list of foods and beverages that were best during the first few weeks, by which time the nausea should stop or come down considerably.

“Thank you for coming, love,” Tong-Chang said while they waited for the trolley back towards the condo.

Zoey said, “Of course. I can’t even imagine what this is like, but I am right here for you.”

“Bolin doesn’t even know yet. This morning was the first time he witnessed my morning sickness, and thank the stars beyond I was able to tell him I had a laekar appointment today.”

“You really don’t want him or your mother knowing about your pregnancy, do you?”

“No more than you want to tell your family that your sister is still alive. Only, in my case, it could mean the end of this freedom I have been enjoying for over a decade. Oh, it gets even better. Many shaving creams on the market don’t agree with our skin when we Ginserei become pregnant, so don’t be surprised if I start growing hair in places, especially since it’s going to be getting cooler around here.”

“What places would that be?”

“Oh, around my wrists, my ankles, and that spot on my chest. That last one is going to be a bother.”

“There’s no one else at this stop if you want to tell me about it now.”

“I still haven’t?”

“No.”

“You see, have you ever heard of royal markings?”

***

Soror Valide struck blows at both training dummies. Neither one was turned up too high, but having both made things better for her. She could take both. Her nerves depended on taking both of them.

One of her sisters walked into the room and said, “Only two dummies?”

“You can always join them and make three,” Soror Valide said.

“Some of us are uneasy, sister. You ran off without a word last week. When you came back you spent every day exerting yourself against these things instead of spending time with us.”

Il’lyse screamed—it started deep down and worked its way out—and then roundhouse kicked the dummy closest to the other girl in the room, knocking down even closer to her. She went on to punch the last standing dummy in the lower torso three more times before grappling it to the ground.

She shot a glare at the other girl, who went wide-eyed and darted for the exit from this dark training room.

Why did I bother going? What does that place even matter to me anymore?

***

“So what exactly do we do on a ‘day of transition?’” Zoey asked while eating a late breakfast with her mom, Dasos, and Tong-Chang.

Bon’sinne said, “It’s another day, really. It’s treated like an extra day if a due date falls right beforehand, or similar if some event is planned for the day afterward. It’s meant as a practice in leniency at least twelve times a year, so that we Aelfs don’t become so stuck-up or callous like we were some seven or eight centuries ago.”

“How does that work?”

“Well, imagine having a deadline or starting date, as is the norm with life, and then you miss it because some little thing broke that takes all day to repair. By all rights we should take such dates seriously and plan accordingly so that nothing is done at the last minute, or nothing goes unfinished that is important, but sometimes we need the extra day. That includes those of us who are in charge of making decisions.”

“It seems weird that you would dedicate a day between months for that instead of having a dozen of them with thirty-one days each.”

“Save for that day extra? Yes, we considered that, but we remembered something most important about our people’s culture. We’re all lovers of art more than of trade. It’s mainly for our alliance with other races that we strengthen the latter. If we want the extra day then, against the cold, infinite beyond, we will take that extra day to finish or get started with pretty much anything, or to slack off entirely.”

“What would have happened if my classes started on the first of the month, tomorrow, rather than the next day?”

“That probably depends on your instructor. I know a few like to play pranks on their students and say that everything has been canceled, and they have to re-register for that one lesson before the end of the day. The main office has a basket of carrot flavored lollipops for the students who fall for it.”

“Carrot flavored?”

“Nobody wants carrot flavored sweets.”

“Uhh... Carrot cake? Wow, OK, I need to figure out how to make that sometime. That might be hard if the nearest recipe is over thirty light years away from here.”

Everyone continued to stare at Zoey like she spoke an alien language that not a single one of them was prepared to interpret.

Slowly, though, Tong-Chang raised a hand and said, “I might like that, I think.”

***

It was the morning ride on the trolley, on the second day of Femtemane, when Zoey reviewed her class schedule again. She signed up for the classes herself about a week prior—using one of the course recommendations handed to her and barely getting into the one optional class—but she had to double check.

Today was the first of three days in the week that she had two classes – General Complements I and Martial Arts I. The first of them was a course designed to polish written and oral language, research and critical thinking skills, and basic history; all depending upon the students’ needs. The latter was her choice of physical education for the semester, and had only the one slot left when she took it.

Please, no one send super ninjas after me for taking your spot. I’m so sorry.

In the two days between her main three, Zoey had Hoshi-Lacartan History and Geography I, and tomorrow she had her first ever job interview at a bakery within walking distance of the condo.

As predicted, several people looked her way when Zoey walked into her first class at ten in the morning. She took in a deep breath of the air in the classroom and smiled before taking a seat somewhere at random. She ignored everyone she could, though one Aelf girl caught her eye.

The mystery girl was the first person Zoey saw, since leaving Earth, who dyed their hair a dark color or used enough makeup to remind Zoey of the Goth girls she went to high school with. Some part of Zoey wanted to ask the girl about it, but then the instructor walked in, and the lesson began.

He was a pink-skinned gentleman with three eyes instead of two. As his left and right ones sat a little further apart, the central one was in the middle of where his brow would have been if he had one. Suddenly, Zoey realized that this was the first time she saw one without a mask covering his upper face.

“Bottom of the morning, to you all,” the instructor said. “Simmer down. Yes, you may notice that I do not check on your attendance like other professors might, or how any of your instructors did while you were in public schooling. I do, however, examine your quizzes, your primary assignment that will be assigned later, and your capacity to ask for help or advice should you need it. These things alone will tell me plenty about how serious you are in coming here regularly. Now then, my name is Doctor Evrahn. Do you have any questions before we begin?”

The class lasted its entire seventy-five minutes for the day. Zoey felt as though, despite her disadvantage from living so far abroad, she understood the material covered better than a third of the people in that room, if marginally. Doctor Evrahn nodded at her when she was only able to answer a fraction of the question about a short story they read today; all that she missed was rooted in an Aelfen history she did not yet know.

She asked him where she might find the missing information, and he suggested a few books easily found in the library.

Outside of the classroom the Goth Aelf called out to Zoey, saying, “Hey, wait up.”

“Hello,” Zoey said.

“You’re that Thalassas girl, right?”

“It’s Zoi’ne. What’s your name?”

“Zoi’ne, huh? That’s a unique name. Uou can call me a lot of things, but I guess Bu will do, for now.” Looking at her more carefully, there was some resemblance to her that Zoey couldn’t put a finger on.

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“You’re so nice, too. Well then, I wanted to know if I could show you a good time at some point.”

“Thanks, but I think my girlfriend is more than enough of a ‘good time.’”

“Oh well, I suppose we can’t win them all. If you change your mind then let me know.”

Bu walked away, shaking her butt from step to step. Zoey only shook her head and took off for the other direction. She was hungry, and there was a sandwich cart that looked more than appealing to her.

The sandwiches were wrapped in a type of leaf that remained unfamiliar to Zoey. She bought one and took it to a bench that was built into a short concrete wall, with clovers, a few trees, and a couple patches of flowers on the elevated terrace behind that wall.

A few bites into her sandwich, Zoey caught something small and furry approach from the corner of her eye. She turned her head and spotted a cat with mostly long hair staring right at her face from within arm’s reach.

It mewed.

“Really now?” Zoey said.

It mewed again.

“Didn’t somebody already feed you?”

Again it mewed at her, only sitting this time.

“I can offer head pats if you want.” Zoey took another bite of her sandwich without taking her gaze off of the cat.

The cat cracked one last mew in her direction and ran off.

Then she heard someone giggle from another direction. It was Tong-Chang, who then sat next to Zoey and joined her for what was left of her meal.

“So have you met any cute boys yet?” Tong-Chang asked.

“How am I even supposed to answer that one?” said Zoey.

“I’m only teasing you.”

“You mean like you did the last time I hooked up with anyone else?”

“Yeah, you really reached for the stars with that one. I’d ask what got into you, but I think we both know the answer to that one.”

“Tonny.”

“Nope. Guess again.”

Zoey huffed and shook her head at her girlfriend, and then took another bite out of her sandwich.

“Do you have any idea yet what you’re going to do about your baby?” Zoey said.

“I’m still thinking about it,” said Tong-Chang, “or I’m supposed to, but I don’t know yet. What if it’s triplets, and they all have his face? Will I be haunted by that mistake so long as I live?”

“That would definitely be complicated. We’ll come up with something, though. We have to.”

Early into the afternoon Zoey walked into her Martial Arts class and sat outside of the mat like everyone else was doing. At first she only drew a few curious glances while people were chatting and waiting.

Two people walked in from the back office. Zoey recognized her mom right away. The other individual was an older Ginserei man with three strips of hair running down his chin. Touches of gray and white flowed with his mostly black, with the exception of the last couple inches of the man’s ears; those were very much gray.

“Rise, my students,” said the older Ginserei, his palms lifting into the air below his waist.

Everyone who wasn’t already standing now did so, and everyone faced the two people in the middle of the room.

“I see some of you are dressed already for your first lesson,” the instructor said.

Zoey glanced down and saw the gi she was wearing at the moment. Her mom lent her one without a word a couple days ago, when Zoey mentioned that she enrolled in this class. Zoey folded it and packed the gi in her bag so she could change before stepping foot in this wing of the gym.

The instructor said, “That is good. The rest of you take note. If you take part in the Hoshi-Lacartan Academy program, or not, dressing the part in your intent is always good. But, that is enough of my personal philosophy. Welcome to Martial Arts, one. Some of you will assume to become masters like my new assistant and myself by the end of the semester. You will be wrong. Some of you will assume that we will dive immediately into practical training. If you are wearing a gi, and you have set foot on a mat at least once in your lives, then you will be half right.

“I am Su-Jin Paen, no relation to the dean here. Do not be afraid to throw a punch at me on his account, when the time does come. My assistant is a former pupil of mine, and perhaps my better.” He paused to brush his shoulder with one thumb. “She will aid me this semester, and potentially take over for a few of my times. I am aware of the rumors that I am and old man on the cusp of retirement. To that, they would be right. My friend here is a promising candidate to replace me. I will let her introduce herself in a moment, but you will call her sensei as you do with me.

“Now then, who here can answer truthfully, with a show of hands? Who among you has achieved the first level already?”

In the crowd of students, less than half wore a gi. Two without a robe lifted their arms in the air. Many of the others who did wear a gi raised their hands. Zoey considered for a moment and raised hers, noticing a moment later that her mom was now smiling like a devious prankster, ready to spring a trap.

Chapter 36

Everyone who claimed to have achieved that first level in their martial arts training gathered on one side at Sensei Su-Jin’s behest. The others made room for them and stood around other edges of the mat.

Zoey’s mom took a step forward and said, “My name is Bon’sinne Thalassas. Some of you may well heard of me, and some of you have not. I am a former captain, now retired, from the Allied Peacekeepers. After a year of leaving that career behind me I decided it would be a good idea to help an old friend while I seek a new career of my own. You will find that I am not a pushover, not even to my own flesh and blood.”

Earth to Zoey, your goose is cooked.

“Now then,” Bon’sinne said, “we are going to be testing these fine men and women to see what they know. When we are done with this we will move on to stretches and then give you all fifteen minutes to change if you have a gi handy. You will be expected to return here and stand ready then, and your lesson will begin. For many of you it will be your second today. More on that as we continue. Are we ready?”

Sensei Su-Jin asked the first student their name. Once he learned it the instructor pointed toward Bon’sinne on the mat with his fingers all extended and joined, save for his thumb. The student stepped forward.

“Um,” this student said, “shouldn’t we be practicing on dummies?”

“Dummies are for the next lesson in a couple of days,” said Sensei Su-Jin. “My assistant here will only be using up to the second level in skill so as to not hurt anyone.”

“Only second, Sensei?”

Bon’sinne placed her writing hand behind her back, smiled, and then beckoned wordlessly with her left.

The student started with a spin kick to her right, but even Zoey could spot the lack of structure in the boy’s posture. Her mom flipped around and tapped the boy’s head with her left hand, causing him to fall. The dojo filled with hollowed roars from the audience. The boy got back up to try another attack.

He swept for Bon’sinne’s legs, but she stepped over it with all of the ease of someone going up a single flight of stairs.

After that the boy went for a punch. Had he been faster he might have caught Bon’sinne off-balance. Instead she backhanded the boy’s punching arm and grabbed his other one in passing. She kicked the back of his leg with minimal force, and used her body weight to push down on her student’s back while still holding his arm.

“Second!” The boy said. “I thought you were second level?”

“Oh, I’m certainly higher than this, but I only used the second level on you. As for your own performance, how long ago did you achieve the first level?”

“Eight months ago.”

Sensei Su-Jin clapped his hands twice, each thunderous as they struck one another.

Bon’sinne released the boy and offered without speaking to help him up. This student returned to the sides with the rest of the class. The remaining first levels shifted uncomfortably except for Zoey.

Their instructor must have seen this. He asked Zoey, “What is your name?”

She said, “It’s Zoi’ne Thalassas.”

Her name got a lot of attention from around the room as though her rosewood hair and emerald green eyes weren’t enough to grab it before. Zoey could hear mumbles and whispers, but not a word of what was being said.

Zoey swallowed hard. She could feel her own nerves creep up on her and try to swallow her whole; some corners of her mind picking up and getting ready to fly.

One foot I front of the other, Zoey took her first pose. Both women stood in defensive stances, circling one another and each looking at the other with an inquisitive look. Who was going to go first? Why wasn’t Zoey breaking down? What was the real reason her mom was here?

In an instant Zoey shifted stances and moved in. She caught a twitch in Bon’sinne’s smile as Zoey lunged forward. Zoey took her mom’s hand and pulled with her right, and then she aimed her left for the shoulder.

However, her mom must have anticipated this. Bon’sinne used her forced forward motion to spin and roll against the punch. Zoey realized only a second too late what her mom was doing as she felt a leg strike behind her own from behind.

Zoey bent her knees and shifted her center of gravity down lower. Her mom’s leg swept from her calf to her knee, and Zoey used this, or tried to, to catch the attacking leg with her own. Unsure of her success, Zoey used her arms to grapple her mom and either push or pull her down to the mat while in motion.

She stumbled horribly, but she heard her mom scream out in surprise. Bon’sinne fell to the mat. OK, so she wasn’t some overpowered super weapon of a woman; Bon’sinne could be beat. By extension, so could Soror Valide.

Hopefully.

Bon’sinne chortled and said, “Someone is being inventive. Someone has also been practicing.”

They both got up and resumed another stance each. Zoey took in a deep breath and lunged forward with a flurry of punches, not a single one of which was meant to land. She watched for an opening in her mom’s defense. There had to be one. Her mom, too, was trying to watch her, see what she was doing.

Zoey then kicked with one foot, thrusting straight out with it, towards her mom’s lower torso. Her mom caught the leg, but coughed. Zoey’s foot managed to lay some impact in her flesh.

“I’m so sorry, Mom,” Zoey lipped at her.

“Keep this up,” Bon’sinne said, “and I may have to use third level techniques before we’re done.”

“Oh God.” Zoey tried to pull away, but her mom really had her foot in her clutch.

“So about the other day.”

Again, Zoey tried to pull away, but this time she used the limited momentum to spring against her free leg and throw a punch in case the movement alone didn’t push against her mom. Zoey bent her knee at the last second.

Then her mom caught her arm and Zoey found herself swinging through the air. Even after she hit the mat Zoey tried to place which direction was which.

“Are you sure you were at home with Dasos, and not in the woods?” Bon’sinne asked.

“I’m positive. Why?” said Zoey.

“Perhaps I was seeing things. Never you mind.”

Sensei Su-Jin clapped his hands again, and Bon’sinne helped her daughter up off of the ground.

“She was far, and she was behind that glass,” Bon’sinne said. “Maybe the light played tricks on me. Maybe I didn’t sleep very well.”

Did her mom see Soror Valide in the forest? There was a lot that Zoey didn’t know or realize fully, but she was glad that neither woman was hurt. She also noted the irony as Zoey was here to try and defend herself against her sister.

“Why Martial Arts, dear?” Bon’sinne said. “You could have picked anything.”

“Could I, though?” Zoey said. “Being here is sort of a family thing.”

“I suppose you’re right. We can talk more later. Why don’t you go join your classmates?”

Zoey bowed to her like she had seen done so often in film while growing up. Her mom raised a brow, cracked a smirk, and then returned the bow before Zoey walked away.

The instructor chuckled, his deep voice carrying through the dojo. He said, “Last chance for you all. Do you still claim to be first levels or better?”

Only then did Zoey realized the level of alarm or anxiety in the eyes of the students on one side of the room. A third of them returned to the rest of the class, and Bon’sinne’s wicked smile returned.

So, Zoey deduced, that was the ploy all along.

I think I see where Dasos and Il’lyse got it from.

The remainder of the students were tested and either sensei nodded in approval of most of them. Only two, it turned out, weren’t quite what they claimed to be.

Yet no one called them a liar. No one accused them of never once setting foot on a practice mat.

Sensei Su-Jin said, “First and foremost, and this will be true of any study, you can know many things. You can think you know. Until you put it in practice, and continue to train with it, your knowledge will not matter. Some of you may well have picked up a level of technique, but your bodies will tell another tale. The true purpose of this class is to keep your body fit, and to hold you to this discipline. The best of all knowledge is tested, and the worst is only accepted. In this class, your ability to learn and perform is your only test. That will be all on that lesson. You now have fifteen minutes to change if you are able.”

That was a rough introduction to the class, Zoey thought as she pulled her head back, eyes closed, and ran both hands across the top of her hair. If this was how it started then how was it going to end?

She knew what to expect a quarter of a second before she opened her eyes again. Her mom was waving a bottle of water in front of Zoey’s face, the sound of it now sinking in.

“Thanks,” Zoey said as she took the bottle.

Bon’sinne say next to her with a bottle of her own. She said, “I was surprised when you told me you were taking this class.”

“I was surprised to see you here. You never said anything.”

“Didn’t I? Perhaps I only told Dasos, or maybe I thought I did, like I thought I saw that girl’s face. I wanted so much to know why she was at our house. Aerak wasn’t too happy either that I ran after her like that.”

“Maybe she was scared. I know this will sound strange, but I’m glad she got away, as much as I’m glad that you weren’t hurt.”

“What if it was Soror Valide? No, scratch that. Someone like her would have used the stiern-boat’s weapons on me as she flew away.”

Zoey stroked her shoulder with one hand. Her mom really wasn’t ready to know the truth. It didn’t even make sense to Zoey, for that matter.

“So,” Zoey said, “is this where you and Dad met?”

Bon’sinne laughed. Then she said, “No, not here. We were in the university on Elysium VIII when that happened. This dojo does look like the one we both trained in, however. The two of us were bitter rivals back then.”

“Indeed you were,” said Sensei Su-Jin as he approached. “I remember two promising students, a young man in his first revolution and a woman in her second. The young man was only there at first because of family tradition. The woman picked it at random.”

“Who knew we would take the second class the following semester, or the third when I returned from my field credit?”

“I also remember you both showing up hung over one morning. Exactly half of your friends set you up with the same hotel room the night before.”

“Oh, don’t remind me.”

“This isn’t going where I think it’s going, is it?” asked Zoey, trying really hard not to connect the dots.

Sensei Su-Jin said, “I often assign pairs at that level to train together, with a different body part joined by a cord per lesson. Pairing the two of them together was always so much fun to watch. This, of course, ended when the two of them finished the class.”

“That night was the first time he topped me in anything,” Bon’sinne said casually.

“Mom, no!” Zoey said.

“Naturally my father wasn’t pleased that I started dating Aerak, or that my mother was making wedding plans behind all of our backs. That was a fun surprise, visiting Elysium VII’s Grand Amphitheatre and finding our families there. The sunsets on that station were stunning, despite the sun being fake. I tried to argue with my mother over it, but failed to find any good reason not to marry him if the man wanted it, himself. Aerak then told me, within moments before the sunset, that he had planned to propose to me as the false sun passed the threshold overhead.

“We married that evening. Rather, I asked him to put on the most outlandish disguise he could find and steal me away from the large crowd. He did, in a way. I pictured Aerak swinging in on a rope and taking me to a more private chapel, but he swung in and gave his vows, putting me very much on the spot. Fine, yes, I really adored that man then, and I still do now.”

“I must admit,” the instructor said, “I was expecting the same from the both of you. That you both stayed made the event my first time witnessing Aelfen ceremonies. Then again I also expected to see Il’lyse or Das’ithrios in here when you moved to Elysium IX after they were born. Your family tends to enjoy proving me wrong from time to time, ever since the first time I taught a member of the Thalassas bloodline.”

“You never did tell me what Keft’aerak’s grandfather did.”

“No, I didn’t. So now you have a second daughter that has managed to fill the role of my fourth generation teaching the martial arts to your family. I look forward to more surprises.”

***

Das’ithrios patted down the uniform he was wearing with an adhesive roller. He didn’t own any pets, but animal hair still managed to get on it from time to time. However did feline hair get all over the place?

He walked into the kitchen to grab his water bottle when the door opened as swiftly as it unlocked.

Zoey came inside looking like nothing was wrong whatsoever. She spotted Dasos and dropped her bag before striding over to the rectangular counter and setting her hands down upon opposite sides of one rounded corner. Her eyes and pursed lips told Dasos that he had some explaining to do.

“Das,” she said.

“How was your first day of class?” he asked, wondering all too suddenly if he should make for the door as it was closing behind Zoey or for one of the shut windows behind himself.

“Did Mom tell you that she picked up teaching Martial Arts at the university?”

“If she did then I missed it.”

“I ended up sparring against her in front of the whole class.”

“Did she go easy on you?”

“Now I’m special when I wanted to live a simple life. What am I supposed to do with that?”

“No offense, sister, but you were special to us since we first met you.”

Zoey threw her hands up and grunted before walking off to her room at the end of the hallway. Dasos sent a wry smile her way and left for work.

Chapter 37

Soror Valide sat in the comfortable chair and propped her head up on one of her arms. Her mind was going numb from her listening to the old human rant and ramble for too long to even try to count. The man went on and on about theories and quantum mechanics and other things Soror Valide couldn’t catch.

One of his devices on the table popped, sparks flying out in a sharp arc. The old man groaned when he saw it.

“Bah!” he said. “It would be nice if I had an assistant who understood your own technology better than the lot of you do. I could finish this and go home, maybe. Bah! Maybe I’ll find somewhere else that’s even better.”

“Yeah right,” Soror Valide said. “The Lord and Lady said they were working on it. They found someone promising, but the mystery person got away from us while my team was out.”

“Promising, yes. I heard from the Lady herself about it. Promise doesn’t do me a whole lot of good in aiding both of our interests.”

“Maybe my team can help if I knew who we’re going after. I should ask Lord or Lady Tunderek.”

“That I can help you with. It was some Ginserei woman who goes somewhere call Elysium University somewhere. Tong-Chang, I believe.”

“Tonny? Where did you hear that name?”

“From them; I told you that. Here I thought you were one of the smart ones.”

Soror Valide hammered the side of the chair and stood up suddenly. She charged at the man and punched him, knocking him down on the ground.

“You do not lay a finger on her. I . . . I . . .”

Cold, infinite beyond she still cared about anyone in her old life. How could she possibly do that?

She crouched with a sigh and helped the old man up. She said, “I’m sorry. I don’t even know why I did that.”

“Do you even know why you do anything? Like sit around here listening to me go on about every little thing that goes wrong?” he said.

“Not lately.”

“You remind me of a woman who tried to kidnap me and use me as her husband at some rich person party in a golf club resort. I was just stupid enough to go along with her scheme. I almost wound up in prison for that stunt, and hoped never to see her again.”

“So you do have a fun side.”

“Please. I found out eleven months later that she had a son while awaiting trial for several cons, and I was expected to try and raise the boy. That didn’t go very well at all. On a bright side, at least that woman can’t bother me from here, not unless she finds my old lab and figures out how to do what I did.”

“Are you sure you want to go home, though?”

“At this point, what even is home? You lot seem to want to know how I got here, and so do I. Meanwhile, what’s waiting for me back on Earth?”

***

Her next two classes were back-to-back, with half of an hour in between. Zoey grabbed a quick lunch afterward before heading for the trolley.

Tong-Chang caught up with her and held her hand, saying, “Look at you, wearing your nicer outfit.”

Indeed, Zoey was wearing the semi-casual dress that her parents bought her on Natt Grans. She didn’t often wear this one despite actually wanting to. Once she had picked it out that day, all notions of dread went away, but then she never once had a reason to wear this blouse and skirt until today.

“I have a job interview in a bit,” said Zoey.

“Oh, where at?” said Tong-Chang.

“It’s that Super Cake place near our condo.”

Tong-Chang inhaled sharply. “The Super Cake Pros? Stars beyond, they make the best muffins ever.”

“Do they?”

“Their cupcakes are good too; amazing even. Please tell me you know what cupcakes and muffins are.”

“Yeah, Earth has those too. I once made chocolate cupcakes with powdered sugar on top, and brought them into class. The teachers freaked out about the sugar, and I was suspended from school for a couple weeks when they realized what it really was. They told me I was too careless. I was only six, and the lady babysitting me thought those cakes were a good idea, which was why she helped me make them.”

“What did your teachers think it was?”

“Something dangerous. I don’t even want to talk about that, or what my uncle did when he learned about it. The thing that shames me most about that memory is wishing he’d fall into a wood chipper at work.”

“Oh, Zoey.”

“I’m so glad that I’m no longer there. I’m glad I got to become someone better than that. It’s let me meet someone as beautiful and wonderful as you are. It’s given me a family that I can call my own. Now, hopefully, this job will let me enjoy giving back to the world, you know?”

***

The interviewer was a handsome young man, half Aelf and half Ginserei so his ears were a little shorter and pointier, but still as fuzzy, compared to others among the Ginserei race. Zoey mused how this was not the case with the admiral, but she put it out of her mind as best as she could.

Halves get less hair on their body, including their chest, Tong-Chang’s voice echoed from back when she had told Zoey about the emblematic lines of hair that her kind get.

“Carrot cake, really?” said the interviewer.

“You’re not the first person to ask me about that,” Zoey said. “I wish I was able to retain a recipe after all these years.”

“Years?”

“Sorry, revolutions. That’s an old habit of mine.”

“That is fascinating. I don’t think any of us thought to try and put carrot in our cakes. Perhaps you will have to figure that one out while you work here with us.”

“Wait, I get the job?”

“Of course you do. Yours is probably the best application we received in the past couple revolutions, and I have no doubt that you grew up in a faraway land.”

“I’m not too sure how to take that.”

“It was meant as a compliment.”

“Where I’m from, it sounds like another way to tell someone they’re way too bizarre.”

“Bizarre makes the best art.”

Zoey and Brach’geros looked at one another for a moment, the latter doing so with seemingly closed eyes and Zoey with a plain expression upon her face.

“I didn’t exactly help, did I?” said Brach’geros.

“If you weren’t cute and endearing I would have walked out by now.”

“Please don’t do that. Finding someone to fill this spot is hard enough. Also, I’d feel sorry if you did that.”

“Do you not do emotions very well?”

“Nope, or attractive girls. Forgive me.”

“Well now you’re putting me on the spot here. I’m not used to this sort of thing. Let’s not make it too awkward when I all that I need is a job.”

***

Tong-Chang was laughing way too hard at this while they sat on the couch facing the monitor at the condo. Zoey tried to tell her girlfriend about the interview, and how the point was that she scored the job, but Tong-Chang laughed and laughed, and then laughed some more.

“It’s not that funny,” Zoey said.

“Yes it is,” Tong-Chang said.

“How though?”

“Out of all the boys in the universe you fall for someone as socially inept as that guy.”

“I have not.”

“Fine, fine, but I still think it’s hilarious. Zoey, my love, I trust you completely, and am happy that you found a job as quickly as you did. I know you’re not going to run off with anyone at the drop of a hat, but I want you to be happy. Now it looks like the stars above are playing some joke on you. How can you not laugh at that?”

“Maybe because of the couple times I had sex with Benedict before we officially became a couple?”

“Does that really still bother you?”

“It does. I don’t know how you can let me do whatever with any guy while we’re together.”

“Not any guy.”

“Tonny, have you forgotten what happened the last time you slept with someone other than me?”

“No. From what you told me about the Hulda’fi attack, I’m glad you found me before they took me somewhere away from you, or away from the rest of your family.”

“Except for Il’lyse.”

“Right. Stars above, how did she end up in a violent sex cult like that? I have so many questions for her. Still, I’m not saying you should go out and bang everyone you can, especially not like the Hulda’fi apparently do with one another. I’m only saying that I love you, and I would understand if you wanted more manly attention. I’m actually touched and grateful that you’re not wanting to do that.”

“I love you too, Tonny. When I start getting my paychecks I’m so going to treat you to something nice. I will figure out what that is when I’m more familiar with everything.”

The sounds of hard-hitting, rapid footsteps reverberated outside. Dasos burst through the front door in a huff.

He said, “Is Tonny here? OK, yes, good. I’m glad you’re here. I couldn’t catch you on your cell-comm.”

“What’s wrong?” Tong-Chang said.

“Somebody raided your apartment. Only Bolin made it, but he’s unconscious right now. A laeknar is looking at him.”

“Only Bolin? Wait, does that mean—?”

Dasos nodded. “I am so sorry.”

Tong-Chang pressed her hands to her mouth. “I’ll have to let my mother know. We’ll need details. What happened?”

“As far as we know, it was a group of people. They wrecked your bedroom, whoever they were. It was suggested that they were looking for you, or something you have. I don’t think it’s safe for you to go back there.”

“You might be right. I’ll have to talk with Bolin when I can, and then our landlord. Do you have any suggestions to where I can spend the night?”

Zoey did not hesitate. She lifted Tong-Chang’s hand to her heart and said, “Stay with me, with us. She can do that, right Das?”

He nodded. “Of course,” Dasos said. “Tong-Chang, you’re almost like a sister to me. Let me know what you want brought over from your apartment. I’ll inform my captain that you’re staying at a friend of yours, and grab whatever you need.”

“Thank you,” Tong-Chang said softly, her voice quivering. “What do we do if someone comes here looking for me?”

“Our policy would be to provide you with a new identity and disguise, or rather send you through the proper agencies to make that happen. A second option would be to send you back to High House Leezu.”

Zoey said, “That’s a terrible idea. What if it’s the Hulda’fi. Worse, what if it’s the Kroke Team coming after her? They would intercept and take Tonny before she reached Ginserei.”

“That’s too much conjecture. For now, let’s allow her to stay here. We’ll sort out the other details later. Whatever we do plan it needs to happen within the next two months before my field credit ends with the Trullwick Police, or else any favors I need to call will be that much harder.”

***

In the ground floor below her the Lord Tunderek paced about the rows of brothers and sisters who failed in a recent mission. Soror Valide watched with interest, curious as to why her team, what was left of it, wasn’t sent out to do the job.

“Oh, you are forgiven,” said Lord Tunderek. “In the grand scheme of things I cannot condemn you for this mistake. She will turn up sooner or later. I see nowhere that she can run, and our insiders will see to that.”

The brothers and sisters raised their hands and said in unison, “Hallowed be the Tunderek.”

“You may return to your usual activities. Go now.”

“Hallowed be the desires of flesh.”

One, sometimes two, at a time the gathering dispersed. Lord Tunderek nodded without looking their way. Then his gaze lifted towards Soror Valide.

“Do you not require us then?” she said.

“Not for this one,” said Lord Tunderek, “It was good of you to test the planet’s defenses when you did. Now, however, I fear that this weakness will soon be covered, lest we launch a full assault.”

“Hallowed Lord, will you require a driver soon? I suspect there will be more that I can put to the test, or examine, should you have me.”

“I have greater faith in what we have left. You have a team still to lead as well, but very well. I may consider you for the next time I go to Elysium IX on business.”

“Hallowed be the Tunderek.”

Soror Valide bowed to the man below her. She then left the room seeking names, answers. She knew now that there was much that the Lord and Lady were not telling her. She served them, utterly, and yet she chose to be more than their plaything, blind and obedient to their lack of word.

Chapter 38

The first week of college went on for Zoey.

Tong-Chang moved in with her and Dasos. Dasos had explained the situation with the precinct captain, who thanked him for keeping it quiet. The captain told Dasos to find someone that he could trust to help with the move. That was when Dasos called on a friend of his from a circle of gamers he met in college.

“Did the captain say why?” Zoey asked Dasos while his friend was carting a dresser up to the condo.

“He said that he had reason to believe there was a mole in the police force,” Dasos said, his voice quiet. “He doesn’t know who it is, and he was reluctant to tell me about it.”

“A spy?”

“Yes, and we don’t even know for whom, not for certain. He only suspects that it might be the Hulda’fi, but has less proof of that than the idea of there being a mole in the first place.”

“So that’s why you hired a titan of an Aelf who looks like he benches mountains for the fun of it?”

“He’s a trusted friend, and is always happy to help. He’s also surprisingly good at playing Wormholes & Wyverns.”

“Is he now?”

“I keep telling him he should try for acting, but his heart is in his . . . sculpting.” Dasos let out a perplexed exhalation before returning outside to grab another box from his friend’s car.

On her first day of work Zoey was quizzed on various things regarding baking times and temperatures, the measurements of ingredients used, and basic sanitization while she learned, mostly, how to help out with removing cakes and muffins from the oven, how to decorate them, and how to work the register. It was far more than she expected to learn in a six hour period.

Her second day of work was when Brach’geros handed her three shirts to cycle through and clean each week. All three were the same faded shade of turquoise, with gray sleeves, and the words “I am a Super Cake Pro” on the front.

Zoey put one shirt on and said, “This makes my boobs feel bigger than they really are. How does a simple shirt even do that?”

Brach’geros said, “I haven’t noticed.”

“Sure you haven’t. So how often are we expected to wear these?”

“As often as you like. Your apron covers it, so the company headquarters are lenient about it. They also only expect them back if you work for less than two months. So you probably have nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing except my girlfriend poking my boobs when she sees me wearing this shirt.”

“W-why would she do that?”

“It’s all part of her playful side. When she isn’t planning a prank on someone she’s either teasing me or the like. Have you ever been with anyone like that?”

“I uhh . . . I’ve never been with anyone.” He cleared his throat, and their awkward moment was saved by a customer walking in.

She helped close the bakery that night and then went home to find Tong-Chang on the floor of their room with the parts of a device over a towel. It took Zoey a moment to recognize the pieces of her phone’s chassis.

“I thought you were going to give that back in one piece,” Zoey said.

Tong-Chang said, “I will. Putting this back together will be the easy part. Right now I’m now marveling at how retro this technology is, and yet, advanced in a couple features we never considered with our cell-comms until we implemented holograph technology to replace the old screens. I think I can work with this. All I need are the right chips and similar pieces, and then you’ll have a cell-comm of your own, except it won’t be the same design as what the rest of us use.”

“I’m honestly surprised no one is flying over thirty light-years from Earth to stop you tampering with that thing.”

“People from Earth would do that?”

“Some companies might.”

“That has some shades of Ginserei before we met the Aelfs. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

“Suddenly, war breaks out between the alliance and Earth over a single phone, or the first call I make since coming here.”

Tong-Chang laughed. “Yeah, right. Given what little you told us about Earth’s space travel? Any smart business would know when to cut their losses. My people weren’t smart enough when we had colonies on the next moon, Dee Su. Someone fled there with a bill to pay, and one of our nations dragged that person back to Ginserei Prime to pay the bill and related fees. Our cozy little moon as a whole had to pay more than the one person did when it was all said and done.

“Compare that to more than thirty-nine light-spans of weaving through various matter across the galaxy, for a planet that has yet to master its first colony, and that’s not counting the state of affairs for Earth Humans in regards to politics and global concerns. So if someone has a sixth sense reaction to my tinkering with their device from this singular fraction of Hoshi-Lacarta, and wants to spend their whole livelihood on a rocket that can’t even reach the end of your old stellar system, then they can be my guest. Maybe I’ll replicate a needlessly large version of this thing and leave it at the edge of the system, only for them to see it by the time Earth’s people can get there on a manned craft, but by then it will be my grandchildren or their children waiting to make that galactic delivery, because mocking an underdeveloped planet from so far away is so much cheaper and easier for us by comparison. Right, like any sane or smart business would come after me for enjoying their work.”

“Damn, Tonny, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this.”

“I’m sorry. Oh, leave it to me to rant over something so asinine.”

Zoey sat down next to her and rested a head on her shoulder. She said, “If anything, I think it’s sexy of you when you express yourself. More importantly, I think it’s a good thing if you’re able to tell me whenever something is wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Tonny.”

“Fine, yes, you’re right. I love you, and love the idea of living with you, but I feel like I’m hiding for some reason that I have no control over. I haven’t felt like this, this bad, since I tried running from my mother’s servants after we got here. All I ever wanted was to live my own life.” She huffed. “How’s that for sexy?”

Zoey turned Tong-Chang’s head toward her and gave her a kiss on the lips. She said, “How’s that for a mood setter?”

“Come here, you.”

They rolled away from the makeshift work space, and spent the rest of the night loving one another passionately.

***

Her third day of work was the last day of the weekend. Zoey walked in groggily before the start of her shift. Brach’geros was supposed to come in later, but their boss let Zoey know that the young man had to call in sick.

“Oh no, I hope he’s OK,” Zoey said.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” her boss said. “You aren’t coming down with anything, are you?”

“What? No. It was a long night – a good kind of long.”

“So it won’t impact your ability to perform?”

“No, I’m waking up. See?” She exercised her best smile for her boss. He grunted and walked back to the kitchen.

Less than seven hours later she found herself walking down the second floor hallway of the college dormitories. Zoey had a package in her hand containing a cranberry muffin.

She read the note that she taped to the top of the package one more time, and found the door. Zoey knocked.

After a moment, it opened. Brach’geros looked at her with a raised eyebrow, his body shrouded in a bed sheet. “Zoi’ne?” he said. “What are you doing here?”

“I was just curious to see how bad it was that you had to call in sick today,” she said.

“Did the boss tell you where I was?”

“He only told me you were on your fourth revolution here, and that you stayed in the dorms somewhere. Your mom called to place an order for herself, so I asked her where I might be able to give you a cranberry muffin if you wanted it. I think she thinks I’m your girlfriend or something, because I knew what kind of muffin you like.”

“I wish I were so lucky.”

“Come on, I’m sure plenty of girls think you’re charming or good looking.”

“Every one of them taken and not interested.”

“Nonsense. So here’s your muffin. I hope you’re able to eat it right now.”

“I should, thank you. I’m exhausted between work, school, and this really attractive girl who’s entered my life, and I really must be tired if I’m saying that out loud.”

Zoey giggled. “Well, at least you get points for not comparing me to my sister. See you on Thursday.”

She walked away, her work buddy and immediate supervisor asking her what a Thursday was as she left earshot. She chose to whisper a random tune rather than turn back and answer.

***

Doctor Evrahn stood before his class and said, “Every planet has a history.”

It was the middle of the second week. Some of the other students were barely paying attention when first the doctor spoke today.

He said, “For some planets, the meat of our history lies in great works of fiction dating back centuries, or millennia. For some others, many of which we are yet to encounter, that same sense of history as we know it lives on in the present.”

The doctor raised a white box with a red symbol on top of it. Zoey could have sworn that this was something from Earth.

“Once in a while,” Doctor Evrahn said, “one of our survey teams breaks protocol and brings home a souvenir. I have here an item from a survey of sG2Vn3 – p3cD.” The begrudging nature of his deep breath that followed could be heard a few rows into the seats of the classroom. “Earth. We make a point never to chat with the locals, but this is one of five items I will have on the front desk until the twentieth.”

He set the kit down next to four more relics from other worlds, presumably, that had been visited by the alliance over the years.

Then he continued, saying, “Your primary assignment for this class will be two fold, three if you count your research. Each and every one of you—no, this is not a group assignment or I will deduct from your grades—I will have you formulate and write about anyone one of these five items here. You will choose one, and then choose your format of story so long as it is a minimum of two thousand words.

“This can be turned in any time between your midterm exams and the second last week of class. Be warned, however, that you will be scheduled upon turning in your written draft, and then you will be asked to read or perform your project before the rest of your peers. The full project will be worth seventy-five percent of your total grade.

“Now then, do any of you have questions regarding this assignment?”

Zoey did not raise her hand or have any questions, unlike most of the class. She sat there and smiled at the relics while she listened. Ideas churned in her head like the dual rings of Natt Grans if they moved at a neck breaking pace.

***

She was wiping down the front counter at work when a police car pulled up to the sidewalk outside of the bakery. Dasos got out of the front passenger seat, which Zoey only now spotted through the vertical blinds. Her brother walked into the store, at which point the two other customers noticed him. They went back to browsing the selection before them.

“Hello, welcome to the Super Cake Pros,” Zoey said.

“I was wondering when I would catch you here,” said Dasos. “I’ve come for the usual for my partner and me.”

“Is this anything like where I come from, and you’re now feeding into an old stereotype?”

“If, by that, you mean this place has good coffee then yes. I’ll take two of those.”

Zoey snorted to herself and grabbed the two cups to dispense the current stock of coffee that was brewing.

“So,” Dasos said, “Mom tells me you achieved the second level yesterday during class.”

“I can hardly believe it myself,” Zoey said. “She told me I can stop holding back with my Aelfen senses, because I would have hit the second level sooner. I told her that feels like cheating unless I’m fighting a certain someone we know.”

“Here, the rest of us take that edge for granted. Good job on learning that so quickly. I almost have to wonder if you’re driven by something, though.”

“You and Mom both. Anyways, here are your coffees. That will be fifty burras.”

Dasos proceeded to pay by inserting his card in the side of the device when he said, “Mom wants us to go to dinner with her tomorrow. A couple of admirals will be there with their wives, including the Fjorfolias. She said Tonny was invited too.”

“The timing might be odd. I’ll have to ask Tonny.”

“Agreed. Well, take care with work; I won’t keep you any longer.”

He grabbed both coffees and returned to the car.

***

Tong-Chang hated the idea of staying alone for the night, but she told the siblings to go have dinner without her. She had work to do, and the suspicious timing of the Fjorfolias asking her to dinner in public was one risk she was going to do without.

So it was seven people at one dinner table. Zoey felt as though everyone there had some secret or trap waiting for other people at the table. On top of that, she felt like she was being watched from all sides while their party dined in the middle of a fancy restaurant.

“Pardon my asking, Admiral and Lady Fjorfolia,” said Zoey.

“Oh, please,” the admiral said, “we’re all friends here. Call us Chan-Yeol and Fe’remene.”

“Yes, sir. I noticed that your driver or bodyguard isn’t here this time, or was that not what she was?”

“Ho-ho,” said Fe’remene, “she is indeed in our employ, but she was too busy with other tasks, I’m afraid. We simply could not bring her along this time. Was there something of interest between the two of you?”

“No, Lady Fe’remene. I was just curious was all.”

“You have an eye for these details, Lady Zoi’ne. I think you may be a natural for high society. You could come to our manor sometime and I’d be glad to teach you what you really need to know.”

“I’m flattered, but this isn’t for me.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Speaking of naturals,” the second admiral said, “I still find it to be a shame that you retired, Captain. Someone with your talents could have made the rank of admiral by now.”

Bon’sinne said, “Let me know when such a rank opens and maybe I would consider coming back, just so I can retire again.”

“Your family of upstarts, I swear.”

“What can I say? I have my reasons for leaving.”

“I’m aware. I was the one who read that report and letter of resignation. It was a dreadful tragedy, but I tell you again what you must have been told many times in the past revolution. No one high up blames you for what happened.”

“That’s only one person in this room who does, then. Had I been in a better state of mind I would have made a better call. That one Hulda’fi would have gotten away from the clinic, but there would have been more survivors, more innocents spared.”

“Now I hear you teach at the university.”

“Yes, sir. Someone has to teach our children that mistakes can and will be made, and that it’s up to them to be more of a sound mind going into the decisions we make. Someone has to keep that incident from ever happening again, because putting me back in an active position to lead starships is the reverse of that.”

During that time, Zoey sensed someone watching her more directly rather than watching the table she sat at. She looked around the room, and saw a woman shift her sunglasses and turn towards a door, her rosewood hair flashing for an instant before she was gone.

“Excuse me,” Zoey said, getting up. “I have to use the ladies’ room.”

It couldn’t have been who she thought that was, but Zoey happened to actually need to use the restroom. She also needed to get away from the Fjorfolias for a moment, because, compared to any restroom in the universe she could imagine, Fe’remene especially made her feel filthy.

Zoey walked in and saw only one other person in there, her feet appearing in one of two stalls. Zoey rolled her eyes and stepped into the other stall. Her own footsteps echoed half of a second before her feet touched the ground.

Once she sat in the other stall, Zoey said, “I hope you’re not planning to make this awkward.”

“Awkward?” said Soror Valide. “I’ll have you know I do have standards. It’s you I’m worried about.”

“Sure you are. Soror, why are you here? Or how are you here? The Fjorfolias said you couldn’t come.”

“Never mind that. If you must know I borrowed someone else’s craft without asking, and I intend to give it back before I return home. I can almost see Daso’s face if he knew the number of crafts or vehicles I’ve stolen in the last two revolutions. Almost.”

“He doesn’t know yet. Neither do Mom or Dad, but it’s only a matter of time.”

“So she didn’t see me then?”

“She isn’t sure what she saw. I got an earful or two about it, asking me if I was in that forest.”

“I really didn’t come to talk about that.”

“Tough. I want to know what you were doing that night? Visiting the house and then fleeing?”

“I have my reasons. I don’t need to explain them. You know what? Fine. Why haven’t you told them I’m alive?”

“It’s your secret to keep. I don’t rat out my friends.”

“We’re not friends.”

“No, we’re sisters. That makes it so much worse.”

Soror Valide sighed in heavy disapproval. “Is she OK?”

“Who?”

“Tonny. I didn’t see her at the table. Is she OK? Is she safe at least?”

“She’s feeling a little cooped up, but she’s fine. Tonny’s the only other person who knows, by the way. She misses you.”

“As long as she remains herself.”

“What?”

“It’s nothing.”

“What do the Hulda’fi want with her?” Zoey sat there expecting Soror Valide to blow her off.

“She’s a primary candidate for solving one of our biggest problems. We have a scientist from Earth trying to stabilize wormholes on command, but he needs better equipment. Tonny might be clever enough to make it work. There are others, but she’s the first choice.”

“How do you have a scientist from Earth?”

“Never mind about that. I can’t believe I’m about to ask you this, but keep her safe. Can you do that?”

“I fully intended to.”

“Good.”

“It’s not easy, though. She needs to go out for class. She wants to be able to get a job soon. We can’t even talk to the police about setting up protection, because we don’t know who to trust. If you really cared about her you would do something to help her.”

Soror Valide pounded on the partition separating their stalls. A moment passed before Zoey heard her sister shuffling her bodyweight. Then she saw a slip of paper beneath the wall.

“Give this to Dasos,” Soror Valide said. “Let him know. Tell him I’m sorry.”

“You really should tell him yourself,” said Zoey.

“No, I can’t. I can’t face anyone right now. Just take the paper already. It has the name of one of our insiders with the Trullwick Police. I love my family, the Hulda’fi, but I cherish Tonny, and I hate spies. I love them. I love.”

Her voice seemed to trail off like someone less sure of their own words or where they were the more they said them. Soror Valide got up and walked out of her stall.

Zoey hurried up with what she was doing and attempted to give chase, but Soror Valide was gone in an instant before she was out of the stall herself. Zoey swore silently and examined the paper she held.

Chapter 39

Soror Valide said, “I will need to speak with him in private for a moment. Wait outside.”

Her two sisters standing guard looked at one another for a moment. Soror Valide wondered if they would willingly defy her, or if they were ordered against anything she might say, but then her sisters nodded to one another and again to her. Both of them made their way up the stairs.

Once they were out of the way, and she could hear the door slide close at the top of the steps, Soror Valide sat on the couch. She felt the weight on the planet come down with her, and she pressed her hands down across her face.

“I was near about to go to bed,” Doctor Wilde said to her.

“I did a thing,” Soror Valide said. “I don’t know how long I have here.”

“What sort of thing? Why tell me? I thought you Hulda’fi types always confided in your Lord and Lady.”

“This thing I did goes against them. I sneaked around and gave up information on one of our own. I did it to protect an old friend of mine I haven’t spoken to in two revolutions. That isn’t my life now. What have I done? Why do I care? W-what?”

The doctor proceeded to hug her, her face now pressed against his chest. His hand hesitated before eventually patting and rubbing her backside.

He said, “I have never been very good with emotions, but I hope this helps.”

“I shouldn’t be like this,” Soror Valide said. “I’m the scourge of the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance. I lead an elite team to do difficult, often dangerous jobs for the Hulda’fi. I shouldn’t be going off to Elysium IX like I have been. I should never have gone back the first time.”

“I’m still afraid of you if it’s any consolation.”

“Don’t patronize me, old man. I could kill you where you stand and make my pending punishment more severe.”

“No, no, I don’t think either of us will come to that.”

“It’s only a matter of time before that girl gives the note to someone of authority. That means our hallowed Lord and Lady. I did not think this through. She deserves my old life more than I do. When they see the note with my writing on it, I’ll have nothing.”

***

A cool breeze groaned outside of the trellises as Zoey and Dasos walked back to their condo. She tried not to think about such things as the Fjorfolias asking her about her schooling, or about Tong-Chang.

“Thank you for not giving away Tonny’s location tonight,” said Dasos. “Even where we were, there was no telling who was listening. I think a few of the servers might have been watching and listening.”

“I think it runs deeper than that,” Zoey said.

“Do you? I would be curious to learn what you know, if that were the case.”

“Once we’re inside and settled down I will tell you.”

She grabbed her key and unlocked the door to their home. Her brother only looked at her plainly.

Inside, the only light came from the living room monitor, which was playing the news on mute. There was a story going about someone’s private stiern-boat going missing for several hours and then turning up not far from where it started, from what Zoey could read on the news header.

Tong-Chang was on the couch, asleep, with her digital pad in her hands. Her head rested on the reclined backside of the sofa.

Zoey smiled at her and ran a finger through Tong-Chang’s scalp before kissing her on the Ginserei’s dainty nose.

“Hm?” said Tong-Chang. “Oh hi, lover. Did you just get home?”

“We did,” Zoey said. “You might want to be awake for this.”

“For what?”

Meanwhile, Dasos grabbed one of his last beers that he bought from Natt Grans and set it on the counter. It was now or never, before Dasos opened the bottle.

She fetched the slip of paper from inside her shoe and handed it to her brother. It was smaller than her hand, but she suspected it to have a greater impact than every punch she had ever thrown in close to eighteen years.

“What’s this?” Dasos asked.

“I encountered her again. She wanted me to hand this to someone of authority.”

Dasos regarded her before looking at the note. Zoey was glad that he thought nothing of where she hid it. He looked at it intently before giving it a humored huff.

“This reminds me of Lyssa’s writing.”

“Yes,” Zoey said.

“Where did you get this?”

“I was in the restroom. Soror Valide handed it to me herself.”

Tong-Chang gasped and said, “Stars beyond, you’re telling him.”

“I wanted to tell you sooner, but it’s her.”

Dasos inhaled sharply, his face growing angrier. “Do you think this is funny?”

“No. Not in the least.”

“I don’t mind most pranks, but this is going too far if you mean make it seem as if Il’lyse is alive. This is a good officer you are indicating!”

“It’s her, Das. It’s really her. Soror Valide handed me that note because she still cares about you and Tonny.” Zoey reached out to him, wanting to put her hand on his shoulder.

He withdrew. “Don’t! Don’t.”

“She wanted me to tell you that she’s sorry. There’s a lot I don’t believe, coming from her, but this I do.”

“Lyssa?” His hands shook with the note in hand. He fell to his knees. “Why?”

Zoey kneeled and finally placed a hand on him. “I don’t know. I think it involves the Fjorfolias, but there’s not enough evidence. If you take this note to your captain then maybe he can at least do something about this officer, and we’ll have helped Tonny in some way.”

Tong-Chang got up from the couch and joined them. She said, “Did she say why they’re after me?”

“She said something about stabilizing their wormholes, and that they have a scientist from Earth. It didn’t make any sense to me, but she said there were others the Hulda’fi could turn to if they couldn’t have you. I think she hopes this will set them back in their efforts to find you to the point that they make plans for someone else. She only wants you to be safe, or so she says. Dasos, brother, please say something to us.”

He groaned and left for his room, leaving the unopened beer on the counter. He still had the paper, however.

***

Inside of the police station, the captain was talking to a pair of officers regarding an assignment that, Dasos was bound to admit, was not his business. Dasos marched over to them. He knew one of the two officers as the one mentioned by that note.

“Ah, good morning, Thalassas,” said the captain. “You were not expected until this afternoon I believe.”

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything too important,” Dasos said. “Captain, I’m going to need a word with you in private.”

“I was on my way to my office. Join me. Gentlemen, you are dismissed.”

Dasos and the police captain walked through the halls of the precinct. In one room there was a couple filing a report, possibly about a missing son or daughter. That happened too often of late. If the note tucked away inside of his belt pouch was any indication then Dasos was beginning to suspect a dark pattern involving those insurgents. Cults were a nasty business as it already was, but for so many of them to potentially be kidnap victims was appalling.

The station housed many men and women in uniform, but not one of them was truly equipped to face this growing situation.

Within the captain’s office was an air purifier to keep down the dust and sweat smells. The captain stood in attention in the middle of the room, nodded to a few points around him, and then turned on the machine, which ran silently.

“Close the door, will you please?” the captain said.

Dasos obliged without question and waited for the captain to be seated before approaching his desk.

“Now then,” said the captain, “what does this seem to be about?”

“You recall my report about my sister fighting Soror Valide at the masquerade a few weeks ago?”

“Of course. I have it on good authority that your sister is learning martial arts at an exceeding pace, as well. What about it?”

“Last night, Soror Valide found her again, allegedly.”

“Is that so? It sounds to me like Zoi’ne has already made an impression with the wrong people. Was your sister hurt?”

“That is the strange thing about this, sir.” Dasos brought out the slip of paper and placed it on the desk. “Soror Valide, if it was indeed her, gave this to Zoi’ne to give to someone of authority. I checked the writing, sir, and it’s not Zoey’s or anyone else we know to be alive.”

The captain examined the note. It had the name of one man, an account number, and the words “Insider, Trullwick Police” written on the bottom.

“You say Soror Valide gave us this?” the captain said. “This is a serious allegation, but it lines up with the little that I know. I’m curious to why the infamous leader of the Kroke Team would become a turncoat, and now of all times.”

“Zoi’ne isn’t entirely sure herself, sir,” said Dasos. “She thinks Soror Valide might know Tong-Chang, and want her to be safe and sound.”

“That might confirm the Hulda’fi being after your friend if this is true. There are too many pieces missing from this big, nasty puzzle of ours, however. Very well, I will investigate this account and put a covert watch on our man. If this checks out then I will call you in to help with further investigations. It will shame me to have to do this, but the consequences will be far worse for all of us if I do nothing. We will act accordingly should anything come of it. Thank you, Cadet Thalassas. You are dismissed.”

***

It was the weekend, but Zoey was in a basement level of the college library. She sat at a computer with nothing resembling the internet on it, but it held massive database of articles from the planets and races of the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance.

Today, before work, seemed like a good time to research the Fjorfolias or the Hulda’fi to see what she could find about either one, or both. The trail on the latter was longer than Zoey could presently see, but she was only getting started. From what she could tell, the rebels had humble beginnings, cut off from the rest of society, for many years.

The current article she perused, however, was about Chan-Yeol being the first half-Aelf, half-Ginserei, to ever reach the rank of admiral. There was a picture of him looking barely any younger, and next to him was his wife of thirty revolutions, no children of their own, who looked no younger than Fe’remene did today.

Zoey studied the article, looking for the date when this article was published, or the picture taken. She was interrupted in an instant, then, when her old phone dropped into view.

She looked up and saw Tong-Chang waving the device. It looked brand new now.

“It’s done, love,” she said.

“You fixed the screen,” Zoey said.

“Oh, I did more than that. You can now charge it through any of our power outlets; I even tested the new charger so it has some life in it. The battery is new, and can last more than a day or two like your old one did. Now, my only question is if you want to join your mom’s comm service, or mine?”

“Comm service?”

“Yes. You already had some rudimentary parts doing the same sort of thing as our cell-comms, but working separately as if each function was its own thing. Right now, without joining any service, you can still communicate with most devices, but you won’t be able to do much, no matter how good you are with programming or computer code.”

“I remember you telling me about that when I started using Il’lyse’s old computer. Sorry, I still haven’t figured out what I want to do about that. I’ve been busy.”

“You’re fine, love. Now then, what are we researching?”

“A little bit of everything. Look at this picture of the admiral and his wife.”

“He was so young. Lady Fjorfolia, though, she looks exactly the same. How long ago was this?”

“I was about to find out.”

“Oh, look at the serial number on the article. The last nine digits should tell you the date. Look at the first five of that set, and the two lyurunics before it, and you’ll get the year in relation to our alliance.”

“That’s good to know. It says, ‘Al-Re-0-0-1-9-2.’ She hasn’t aged at all in the last thirty-three years.”

“Or more. Star beyond, I know a lot of people, other Aelfs included, who’d love genes like that. There isn’t even a spot of gray on her blond head.”

“What’s this line here about them not having any children of their own?”

“I think there were rumors that they adopted a few boys and girls, but no one was able to prove anything, one way or the other.”

“The obvious suggestion here is that their children, if they adopted any, are the members of a now-violent cult. I don’t have substantial evidence of that, but—”

“Enough. I don’t want to hear any more about them. We have our lives to enjoy. I have at least one I have growing inside of me. I don’t want to think about such villainy if I can help it. I don’t want my babies, however many there are, to know of the awful things their father did. I don’t want them to haunt me like this.”

Zoey took her into her arms. She looked angrily at the couple on the screen, and she comforted Tong-Chang.

Chapter 40

Three Weeks Later

In the southeastern corner of Trullwick was an apartment complex with a view of the bay and one of the docks. Two men from the police department entered often, but nothing good ever came out of it.

It was a chilly evening, closing in on hour zero. One of the two men entered the building to confront his buddy. Both men were present, and both men were arguing about the state of their business when the full force of the Trullwick Police Department came down on them. Their accounts had been frozen the afternoon before the meeting, after a painstaking investigation.

Now Das'ithrios watched both men being taken into custody from the other side of the street, and he wondered if his butt was also freezing as the night pressed on. The men mattered less to him the closer they got to the detainment vehicle.

"Exemplary work, Thalassas," said the captain, who approached him.

"Thank you, sir," Dasos said.

"This ran deep. It shames me to know that any of my own officers could have been taking money or orders from the insurgent cult. If you were working for us full-time, Thalassas, then this would have earned you a promotion."

"It's been a long month, sir. Perhaps now we can see about offering some small protection to Tong-Chang instead."

"Your suggestion has been noted. I will see what I can do now that we know our efforts will no longer be leaked into whatever bowels these men once reported to."

"Did we not find the source of their orders or pay?"

"We found space junk that served as proxy relays broadcasting mixed signals. The best that the Allied Peacekeepers can do at this point is deactivate the lot and keep one eye on a few locations in case someone comes to reactivate them. The best that we can do is interrogate these dishonest men. Fitting; it's a garbage case leading to even more refuse."

***

Soror Valide passed the room when she heard Lord Tunderek yell out and kick over a piece of furniture. The two sisters and one brother in the room cowered to one side.

"Both contacts!" Lord Tunderek said.

"It is so, darling," said the hallowed Lady from elsewhere that Soror Valide was unable to see yet.

"Their accounts are frozen, so we can't even take it back. How did this slip under my radar?"

"I cannot say. It is not the end, by any means."

"No, but we have lost valuable eyes and ears on police activity. As we speak, more accounts are freezing across the Elysiums and Ginserei. All I can do in public is watch them and congratulate those forces on their good work as they bring the hammer down on every mole. Now we will lose track of so many prize-worthy technicians throughout the alliance's territory. The one we wanted most will not be joining us unless she comes here of her own volition."

Deep down, Il'lyse was brimming with joy and poised to jump and dance with it all. Her outward appearance remained cold and firm. "Tong-Chang, you mean?" Soror Valide said, announcing her presence.

Lord Tunderek turned toward her, furious. Then he sat and let his anger go.

"You were not supposed to know," he said. "Not yet."

Soror Valide kneeled before him. "I confess to looking, because you told me nothing. I am sorry you could not take her."

"She could very well have been your sister, your second in command in all that you wished to do with her. Perhaps we played our hand too strong when we did. We cannot make the same mistake again."

"No, hallowed Lord, I don't suppose we can."

"Rise, daughter. I have a job for your team. We must act now, and swiftly, before we lose this chance. You will go and fetch someone for me."

Lady Tunderek smoked up above, perched on the wooden handrails that had been carved to resemble hawthorn. She said, "Not all is lost. We still have one girl on Elysium IX ready to strike at a moment's notice."

***

Dasos sat outside the bakery with a cup of coffee in one hand and a muffin in the other. It was the last day of the chairs and tables being out before they were put away for the colder months. A patrol car passed by him. Like clockwork now there was a car passing around the park every forty-five minutes at night, and once every seventy-five during the day.

Suddenly a Ginserei woman approached him. She said, "Oh, excuse me, might I have a seat here with you?" She carried a handbag the size of her fists combined, but showed no sign of having done business around here despite her formal attire.

Wow, she was hot. Focus, Dasos. he smiled at her and said, Please do. What brings you to a place like this if not the baked goods inside?"

"I might like the view. It's better than the embassy."

"The embassy?"

"Oh, yes. I arrived from home last night. I came here on official business. I have to say I was not expecting to like so much of what I see."

"I might know a place with a better view."

"Do tell."

***

Why did she remind him so much of Tong-Chang? At least that was a distant, fleeting thought in his mind while the two of them made a mess of his bed. He warded the thought and enjoyed this woman by her own right.

"This was most unexpected," the Ginserei woman said once the two of them had calmed down a considerable amount.

"You're telling me," said Dasos.

"You're such a gentleman, too. I'm not in my tangouchu, so there was no risk, but you did the gentlemanly thing regardless." She giggled at him.

"I still think it would be nice if you told me your name."

"That shouldn't be important now. Today will have to be our little secret."

"I'm not the biggest fan of secrets."

"At least some part of you was, until now. Perhaps if we give it enough time you can be again." She wiggled her hips as they snuggled. "Alas, it probably isn't meant to be. My people will wonder where I am soon, and we wouldn't want there to be another incident."

Her cell-comm rang. The Ginserei's purse sat outside of the bedroom on the tiled floor. "This was some timing." She gave him a peck on the cheek, and he let the woman slip out from beneath him.

Cold, infinite beyond, he thought while holding himself up with his arms, is she an ambassador, or what? Dasos collapsed and flipped over on his back. His bedroom ceiling offered no answers, but he stared regardless. Nowhere did he find any regret for what had happened, either.

In the other room the ringing stopped, and the Ginserei said, "Hello. Yes, I told you I am safe. That last call was two hours ago."

Two hours? He remembered her talking on the cell-comm when they rode the elevator up to the fourth floor, but Dasos never kept track of the time past that point. He wondered if the woman outside did during all of that time.

"No, I have not, she said. "Stars beyond, you sound like my father sometimes. I'm heading back now." The Ginserei entered Dasos's room, her cell-comm closed. "I am sorry I have to leave you so soon. My people are so insistent. If fortune smiles on you then perhaps we can meet again."

"It would be a pleasure," Dasos said. "Would you like me to get dressed and escort you down?"

"I do hope nothing comes of the recent incidents between our peoples. No, you have already done enough. My people will probably have traced my location to this building, and they might not want to see you, should anyone be waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs." She gathered her clothes and few adornments, and put them back on one by one.

"What incidents? I thought everything was fine this morning when Ginserei agreed to look into every person who did business with the same bank?"

"That was a foolhardy decision, and remarkably business oriented for you Aelfs. How do you know this much, and not of the arguments that arose between our people?"

"I work for the local police department. It was our investigation that triggered the broader scope; largely mine, actually."

"Oh? Well I will have you know that it if the search on our end turns up anyone working for the Hulda'fi then the punishment is death. This is not to be taken lightly."

"No, it's not. I loathed every moment that I dug into this case. I refused to believe that one of our own officers would be spies for the rebels. The captain and I confirmed two."

"Now men and women are being detained across the alliance territory who should be working to uphold the law. Good work, lover."

"Lover?"

She kissed him again on the cheek. "I should hate you, but I think this taboo thing is kind of fun. Take care."

Then the Ginserei woman strutted out of the room.

***

Zoey twirled the two keys on her ring while walking to the condo door. The water had stopped already in the planters, she realized. It was both a shame and an uncanny sort of beauty to see the plants wither like this in Nevada. She wondered now if the plants she grew up with were simply always the same, or if her perception of them changed with this body.

She was a few paces short of the door when it opened. Zoey expected to see her brother, but it was a Ginserei woman she didn't know who walked out. Zoey might have caught a glimpse of her at work when Dasos was sitting outside, but she wasn't too sure given the distance and obscurity from the blinds.

The Ginserei woman stopped and looked up and down at Zoey. The cool breeze wafted her plum fragrance, as soft as it was, at Zoey, while they stood close to one another. She said, "Yes, I do see some resemblance."

Then she walked off without another word.

Someone knocked on the bedroom window that came before the entrance to the condo. Dasos opened the window, his chest clearly bare. He said, "Sorry to ask this, but since you're home would you mind, maybe, kicking my pants into my room and shutting the door for me?"

Zoey sighed, and she went inside their residence. Both her brother's pants and underwear were indeed on the floor outside of his room. She, however, skipped to the door and looked at her brother with a narrow glare, a hand on her hip, and the other in the air. At least Dasos had a blanket going up to his waist.

"Who was that?" she asked.

"Someone I met at random that might be an ambassador to Ginserei; I'm not sure which region or house. What, are you going to gatekeep my love life now?"

"So you met her and the two of you decided instantly to have a go before you knew anything about her?"

"It's more like one thing led to another, and it all happened very fast. How quickly did you and Tonny hook up? Or that commander?"

"Not the point. I want to be sure you're not getting yourself into trouble."

"Honestly, I don't even know. I kind of like her, as strange as that sounds. So is that a no on helping me with my pants?"

Zoey rolled her eyes and kicked the pants toward the bedroom door as if she was making an attempt at playing soccer. The pants, and the underwear along with them, stuck against one side of the doorway and swung partway in. Ignoring her brother's gratitude, or her own internal thought about needing to work some more on her aim, Zoey went to her room to change her shirt and shoes.

"Where's Tong-Chang, by the way?" Dasos asked from another room.

"She's working on a group project for class," Zoey replied. "Tonny said they're researching and organizing right now, but next week it'll be early rehearsals for their class debate. Her project is something to do with the ethics of advanced biomechanical engineering."

"OK, that sounds fun."

"Yeah, right." She walked out of her room, changed, and saw Dasos grabbing a drink from the kitchen. "Now I have to hurry over to the university and help Bu with an assignment of our own."

"Bu?"

"Yeah. I told you about her, right? Aelf girl who dyes her hair dark colors, and wears matching eye shadow? She needs help understanding the historical context of something we're reading for General Complements. I needed to change into a cleaner shirt and shoes that are more comfortable than we wear in the bakery's kitchen."

"I think I've seen her on campus. Then again, there are a few others who do that with their appearance."

"There are? Anyways, I'll see you later, Dasos."

When she got to the campus library, it took a couple minutes to find Bu sitting with a few other people Zoey presumed to be students that she hadn't met yet. They had been chatting with one another when Zoey joined their group.

Bu nodded to her, but kept on talking about the latest episodes of a long-running franchise that no longer resembled the spirit of the first few series. It was contradictory against the given lore, they all agreed. It abandoned the ideas set forth by the original shows and novelizations.

"Are you ready for me to help you with class?" Zoey asked Bu.

"Thank you, no," said Bu. "We were actually about to go out instead to have a little fun. You're welcome to join us."

"I had a long enough day at work. I think I'll pass." She tried not to sound bitter for having her time wasted like this, but Zoey watched as the group of people got up and left.

Zoey sighed and pulled out her digital pad to read one of the books on it. At least she had a quiet place to do that. A few pages passed into the time she spent before someone joined her at the table. First she saw the book on the anatomy of four-legged mammals as the man set it down. Then she looked further up and saw Brach'geros, who then shot a smile at her.

"Brach, hi," Zoey said. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

Brach'geros said, "I almost wasn't. My dorm mate had to leave town for a few days, and then I suddenly remembered the amount of reading I needed to do for a paper for class, due before our next lab assignment. Then I saw your friends leave you. Sorry, I wasn't sure if approaching you was a good idea."

"They're not my friends. One of them is a classmate, but she blew me off."

"The choices we make."

"Yeah. Speaking of which, you never did tell me what your focus of study is."

"It's veterinary medicine, with applications for wildlife. Mind if I join you?"

Chapter 41

She awoke in bed with her lover. Zoey kissed Tong-Chang on the forehead, who grumbled as Zoey climbed out of bed. She had to eat breakfast and get ready for class. Her girlfriend was supposed to get up in an hour from now as well, but would also be waking up in a moment to join for breakfast.

Sighing at the time, Zoey told herself that at least it wasn’t one of her two days of History and Geography where she had to awaken at a “too damn early” in the morning.

Zoey checked her phone for the alarm, in case it was set, as she walked out of her room. Tong-Chang had found it odd that Zoey had alarm settings on her phone, but to Zoey it was a norm she had grown up with, as opposed to holographic clocks built into some windows or mirrors.

Her routine bordered on the mundane most days. The laundry was in order, so she didn’t have to clean a load today. The weather forecast on the phone still had no idea where she was, but it predicted—thanks to a friend of Tonny’s tampering with its programming to recognize the satellites in orbit—cold weather outside, which justified going through the condo’s walk-in closet, rather than the parallel hallway, to grab her iris hoody.

By the time she exited the closet through the second door, she typed a message to her brother and prepared to hit send if she didn’t see him outside of his room by now, or at least hear him in the restroom, which sat between the closet and his room. Zoey canceled the message upon hearing the toilet flush, and then considered typing a new one if she didn’t hear the sink running afterward; not that her brother was forgetful with washing his hands.

Dasos walked out of the bathroom and said, “Morning.”

“It is,” she said.

How often had they shared that exchange in the past month? Zoey never cared to keep track. Instead, she walked into the bathroom and brushed her teeth since it was her brother’s turn to make breakfast this morning.

His digital pad sat on the closed tank on the backside of the toilet, and it hadn’t gone to idle mode yet, let alone turn black. There was a list of groceries and other items on the screen. Zoey almost spit her toothpaste at the pad when she saw condoms at the bottom of the list.

Well, at least he’s responsible.

There were plenty of grocery items listed for three people to last them for a week or longer. Tong-Chang helped pay for those and their combined utilities each month, now. When she did so one week earlier, after Tong-Chang mentioned something about picking up a new part-time job once she was able, because the pay she had received during her field credit wasn’t going to last too long.

The full scent of omelets frying and buns warming reached Zoey by the time she left the bathroom. Dasos was setting out three drinking glasses as well.

“I’ll get the drinks,” Zoey said. “Which kind of juice are we having this morning?”

He said, “The usual; beats.”

Zoey shot a glare at him. “Water from the bathroom tap for you then.”

“Ha! Seriously, though, orange juice will be fine. Is Tonny still asleep?”

“Give it a moment. You might want to grab your computer from the bathroom before that, though.”

Tong-Chang said from their bedroom, “It’s OK, I don’t feel sick this morning.” She entered the bathroom seconds later, holding a hand to her belly. “Oh look, someone left his porn on.”

“And it’s too late.”

Dasos said, “All we need now is for Soror Valide to pass by our window in a giant robot, and announce to the world that she’s come to rule us all. Then I’d call this another family morning.”

“How does that even sound like something she would do?”

“We never told you about Lyssa’s fascination with the concept of giant robots, have we?”

“No, but now I’m interested.”

“It’s a funny story, you see—”

“Oh, Dasos, you dirty boy!” Tong-Chang said from the bathroom.

“Cold, infinite beyond! You better not be subscribing me to anything again.”

Zoey smiled at first. After a moment she said, “This is the first time, I think, I heard you refer to Soror Valide as a member of our family.”

“I still don’t know if it’s true. I don’t know how it could be. Mom saw the vessel explode when Il’lyse was on it. The only other witness in the area was Admiral Fjorfolia from his own ship. If she is still alive, though, then I invite her to kick down my door and steal a plate for breakfast.”

“Maybe someday I can talk her into doing that. Though, I might have to beat her in a fight before she listens to me.”

“I might have to ask her how she became the way she is now.”

***

It was a robotics convention. Soror Valide could hardly believe that the trail led here, but this somehow made her feel more giddy inside than recent missions that the Kroke Team had taken.

“We can make a scene, boys and girls,” she said to her team, “but no unnecessary death or destruction.”

Causing a scene was hardly an issue. People from four different races scuttled to the side and out of the way when Soror Valide strolled through the convention center like she owned the place. She was in her element, so she might as well have. All that was missing was some dance music and she would take advantage of it.

Two of her sisters intercepted a male Aelf who wore a yellow band on one arm, a headset on the opposite side of his face, and otherwise similar, but casual, attire akin to everyone else in the building. He was a security guard, but right now he was lucky to be in other company. There was no need for him to report the Hulda’fi being in the area.

There were bound to be more security personnel, of course, but Soror Valide and her team were trained to handle worse situations than this, one way or another.

“I love it when security can be so laxed,” she said, her voice entering the radio within her mask.

“We’ll still keep an eye out for them,” said the one brother who wasn’t waiting on the stiern-boat.

“Of course. Even with those of us remaining after the Marslou we can take what we want, when we want. Does everyone know who we’re looking for?”

“Affirmative, sister.”

Her eye twitched for reasons unknown to her. She chose not to let whatever was affecting her bother her as Soror Valide looked from one model machine to another. Some looked simple and quaint, as if they resembled a memory from older times before these four races attempted space travel. Many of the models were her height or shorter.

One, and only one, was truly worth her attention. It stood seven meters tall and was surrounded by a protective barrier. A few revolutions ago, Il’lyse would have done her damndest to wrap her body around one leg of the giant robot, and try even harder to steal the thing while everyone was watching.

That reminded her of a funny story when—

“Soror Valide,” said the brother from before, “the target should be at Oh-two-hundred.”

She glared briefly in the direction that she believed her brother to be in, her eye twitching, and then looked toward the indicated direction he gave her. There were two Aelfs, one little boy and an older gentleman who wore a scientist’s coat, standing by the corner of the room.

The boy was wearing a visor and a set of sensors on his hands. When he moved, the robot inside of the field performed accordingly.

“It works so well!” the boy said, removing the visor and sensors after a time.

“That it does,” said the older man. “We made quite the team. I’m sure you will surpass me one day.” A couple of Aelfs walked to the boy and the scientist, wary of Soror Valide’s presence. “Hello. Is something wrong?”

Soror Valide waved at them and shook her head and turned it at the large robot, but kept her eyes and ears on the group.

“It takes all kinds, I suppose,” the scientist said, noting the Hulda’fi in the area. “As I was saying to your son here, he has a natural gift with the field of mechanical engineering and related sciences.”

“We’re so glad you think so, Doctor Rakendaya,” said the woman among them.

“Please, call me Valkoi’ves.”

“But that’s our son’s given name. That would be confusing.”

“Very well, I see your point. Still, I think it’s something for you all to consider as he grows and finds purpose in his life.”

Purpose. Right. What purpose did Soror Valide have before the Hulda’fi took her in? She listened on, so intrigued by this conversation that she held her command for her brothers and sisters to act.

The man who hadn’t spoken yet crouched down to the boy’s eye level. He said, “What do you think, son? Does this seem like something you want to do someday?”

Valkoi’ves, the younger, said, “Maybe. I don’t know yet.”

“Of course. You’re still so young and have many revolutions ahead of you. When you do figure it out, let us know.”

“That’s right, Valkoi,” said the mother. “Whatever it will be that you decide you want to do with your life, know that we believe in you.”

Hearing those last few words sunk into Soror Valide as deep as combat knives and other objects that had once maimed her flesh; maybe deeper. She shook the feeling, before thinking about it, by doing the first thing she could think to do.

Soror Valide barked a laugh, and then laughed some more. She could feel the attention of so many people fall on her, but she didn’t even anymore. She turned her head toward the family and scientist. She felt some regret for what she was about to do, by taking her target from everyone and everything he thought he loved and adding to her own family. There was a reason for coming here, and she was about to act upon it.

“Bring the noise, boys and girls,” she said to the radio channel. Yes, it was show time.

Guns went off, and people screamed. The Lord and Lady never said the Kroke Team needed to be discreet this time. So Soror Valide was going to live this moment to its fullest extent. After the past couple months she owed it to herself to indulge in the insanity.

She said aloud, “Listen up, everyone! I am Soror Valide of the Hulda’fi, scourge of the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance.”

“What is she doing?” the brother near her said over the radio.

“You can add to that ‘the bane of bad mothers,’ and ‘the bitch who takes your children away.’ Every one of you will tell the story to the assholes who raised you and made you what you are today. That is, if we let you live.”

More screams sounded. The small group she witnessed earlier huddled next to the protective field, with the exception of the scientist who was fumbling with the hand sensors.

“Here, let me help you with that,” Soror Valide said as she dashed forward and swiped the device.

She slipped the sensors over her fingers while Valkoi’ves, the older, stepped back in dread. Soror Valide felt the tingling sensation against the backside of her hands for a second before she moved them and tested the movements of the giant robot.

In little time at all, the robot rammed its right shoulder against the barrier and punched it with its left hand. Soror Valide laughed while this happened.

“Wait until you see the fun we can really have,” she said to the boy.

“No, don’t hurt our son,” the father said. “I won’t let you.”

“Hurt him? You misunderstand me. You are the Vartiya family, correct?” Soror Valide slipped off the sensors and dropped them at the boy’s feet. She then grabbed the doctor by his shoulders while grabbing a box from her harness. “You, Doctor . . . Would you be a Vartiya if your life depended on it?”

“Uh, yes? I think so?” said Valkoi’ves, the older.

“Good. Brother! You have two to bring aboard.”

They teleported away from the convention center and into the stiern-boat. She directed the doctor to sit as Soror Valide approached the brother who sat up front. The sisters and other brother appeared inside the craft as the pilot activated the engines and Soror Valide sat next to him.

Her brother who had teleported aboard said, “Have you lost your mind?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m doing better than you are, thank you,” she said.

“That man is not our target, and you know it.”

“Sure he is. He’s a doctor of mechanical engineering by the name of Valko’ves. He’s exactly the man we need for this, and the one we were entrusted to find.”

“Send him back and pick up the boy.”

“You really think I have it wrong, or that you can order me around, don’t you? Tell you what, check the computer inside that case down there. I have the details of this mission written down so we can solve your little issue.”

“You check it yourself, Soror Valide.”

“I am the higher sister, aren’t I. You are closer to the computer, and we’re leaving the atmosphere now as we argue about this. Either follow my orders and check it, or sit down and shut up.”

The brother growled and huffed before grabbing the case. What he didn’t know was the lie that he was in for. The pad was an older one, broken internally, and it had something taped to the back of it. He noticed the latter in seconds because of its weight.

Soror Valide pressed a series of buttons inside of the bridge compartment while the brother behind her detached the small box—a beacon for matter transference—from the computer. She removed her mask and stared at her brother, who attempted to drop the item as soon as it lit up.

With a final button press it was too late. The brother was teleported outside, into the top of the atmosphere.

“Does anyone else wish to test my judgment?” she asked everyone else on the stiern-boat.

No one protested, and most of her sisters averted their gazes. Their new scientist looked at her with fright and confusion. Then their craft left the colonized moon behind and picked up speed for home.

***

Dasos pressed his hand over his face after he read the news from his personal computer. Il’lyse, please tell me you’re really alright.

He set his empty beer mug down and walked to the table on the other side of the pub where his buddies were waiting for the fun to begin. It was game day for them, at the start of the weekend. Everyone could make it this evening, making it a larger group. However, as he drew closer, there was one more person sitting among them who had been chatting with the boys and one girl. This new Ginserei made two.

She smiled at him with the awe of surprise when the two were able to see one another’s face. It was the woman from before.

“Oh,” she said, “don’t tell me you’re the game master of this little group as well.”

“Sometimes I am,” Dasos said.

“You are even more talented than I thought. Would you care if I joined you this afternoon?”

“That depends if you’re up for some Wormholes & Wyverns. We’ve been at this campaign, on and off, for over two revolutions, and are coming close to the end of the second last major arc of the story.”

“Even better. I would be honored if you would have me. I don’t get much of an opportunity to play back at home.”

“If you wish to join, at least for this afternoon, then I will need a character sheet from you in the next ten minutes.”

“Easy enough; I have plenty of unused characters to draw from.”

“And, for game mastery reasons, I will need your given name in case it becomes necessary later.”

“Stars beyond, is that all you need?” She giggled. “It’s Shungdi. Let me check my computer for one of my many characters I never had the chance to play until now.”

“Well then, Shungdi, welcome. I’ll bring you up to speed with the events so far.”

***

“Your rehearsal went fine,” Zoey said to Tong-Chang as they came closer to the condo. Her girlfriend was nervous performing in front of people, so she comforted her as best as she could while they walked. They had plans for tonight.

They slowed by Dasos’s window, which had its curtains closed. The sounds of a woman moaning in pleasure managed to reach their ears, and both girls laughed to one another in silence.

Zoey opened the door and said, “Let me set my things down and check for the movie times. Then we can go.”

Tong-Chang said, “You really don’t have to pay for this one, love.”

“Yes I do. Maybe I should have looked this up sooner so we don’t have to listen to them.”

“Who is that?”

“I’m assuming it’s the same Ginserei girl he met a few days ago.” Zoey wasted no time to browse the movie theater’s site on her personal computer. The film that Zoey and Tong-Chang wanted to see started in forty-five minutes, with the theater being in Arcadia.

“Another Ginserei, huh? I always knew he still thought of me,” Tong-Chang said in jest.

“You’re funny. Come on, we can catch the next trolley and make it into our seats by the time the previews are over.”

Chapter 42

The lanterns’ lighting outside of his window poked through a slit in his curtains that was no wider than either of his pinky fingers. The light hardly illuminated any part of Dasos’s room, but he didn’t need it.

Shungdi rested on his shoulder, her eyes now closing to catch up with the fact that she had already dozed off. He was unsure if she held up a bed sheet to conceal the strip of hair on her chest or to help stay warm, but her strength failed her, causing her to loosen her grip on the cloth.

Zoey and Tong-Chang came back from wherever it was that they had gone, but both girls were being quiet as they drew close to the condo and entered it. Heil’auin, he remembered, was rarely ever this quiet when coming home, much to the dismay of two of Dasos’ girlfriends at the time of him living here.

Now one of those girls was dating his little sister. The universe was the oddest of pranksters, sometimes.

Dasos waited until he could no longer hear the girls, as silent as they were being, and then poked Shungdi in the nose. He was expecting her to awaken first, if anything, but the Ginserei woman bit his finger while she slept.

Luckily she didn’t bite down too hard, but Dasos was still going to feel her teeth for a few minutes after she let go. If he had used his Aelfen double vision he might have seen the bite coming, for that matter, and avoided the chomp in the last fraction of a second. Instead he lied there musing at the woman and her strange reflex.

“Ack!” She said upon opening her eyes and letting go suddenly. “Sorry, that’s an old habit of mine from my brothers all trying to play pranks on me in my sleep.”

“Those must have been some brothers.”

“Oh, yes. They often laughed at how hard I tried to become better than them at everything. One of their favorite pranks was to try covering my face with honey or bits of fruit, because of the gnats and mosquitoes we’d get in the warmer months. I made a habit of thwarting them by eating the things before they could touch my face.”

“While in your sleep?”

“Yes. Then we were separated for our education, and the one brother who stayed with me was nothing like that. I must have kept this silly reaction of mine ever since I was little. My question is why did you try touching my face just now?”

“I thought your nose was cute. Surely you had past lovers who thought the same thing?”

“N-no. Not even five revolutions ago during my first tangouchu. I was treated for it then, like other girls where I am from. I wanted so much for a boy to touch me in all of the right ways since back then, but I never had the chance to meet anyone who was willing until I came here. Too many were frightened to try it, you see.”

Dasos cleared his throat as he realized what she meant. Then again, she wasn’t the first girl whose first time had been taken by him. The other one communicated the fact beforehand, was all it was.

“Should I have told you?” Shungdi said.

“It might have been nice to know,” Dasos said. “What if I had hurt you because you weren’t ready?”

“We would never have gone this far. Don’t go developing serious feelings for me now.” She kissed him. “I like our taboo affair the way it is.”

“You call it taboo. Does that mean you’re in a High House?”

“I see you are familiar with this custom of ours. Sadly, yes. If my people were to learn about what we have been doing, games aside, then it may not bode well for either of us.”

“I also know the history behind the fairy tale, where a Ginserei prince fell for an Aelf who was a thief, and it was their love and their twin children that sparked our alliance.”

“Don’t romanticize them the way that tale does. She was still very much a thief, and the former prince never returned to power.”

“What are you, really?”

“No, don’t ruin this for us; don’t you ever.”

He pulled down the sheet a few centimeters, and used the same finger to retrace the thick line of hair that matched Shungdi’s scalp and wrists. Her hand came to stop his, and they clasped together. Dasos kissed her on the neck.

“I really must go soon,” she said. “Maybe I should go now so I don’t fall asleep here overly long. If my people don’t see me back at the embassy before twenty-four-thirty then we will have another incident.”

She had to climb over him to get out of bed. Once she was on top, the sheet fell off and she shivered. Shungdi lifted the sheet back up and took it with her to her clothes on the floor. The chill in the air reached Dasos, but it barely affected him. He watched his lover move underneath the haphazard tent she had made around herself, while still standing, and put on her clothes.

“It’s getting a little cold in here,” she said.

“That’s Hyettemane weather for you, at least around the bay here,” Dasos said.

“If things weren’t the way they are I might hold you accountable by using you for warmth the whole night. Oh, some part of you likes that idea, I see. Here’s your blanket back.”

She dropped the sheet of linen on top of Dasos, revealing her fully clothed body.

Shungdi said, “I guess I will see you around, if we’re going to be keeping this up. Tomorrow I have business to attend to. W-Why are you getting up?”

Dasos turned his body, flipping his legs over the side of the body, and pushed himself up. He wasted no time wrapping the same sheet around his waist.

“Let me escort you to the door,” he said.

“For a moment there I thought you were going to start an incident in the middle of your own bedroom,” Shungdi teased.

“Maybe later, when our people aren’t arguing with one another.”

“Stars beyond, you’re serious. My business here may be over by then, so I’d have to come back to see you try it.”

“Would you?”

Shungdi kissed him on the cheek and practically glided out of the front door, which Dasos then realized he was already holding. She slipped out of view before long, never once giving him an answer.

***

“She’s become a loose cannon,” Lord Tunderek said in the next room. “If the man she found wasn’t reliable for this task I’d end her, myself.”

Soror Valide leaned against the other side of the wall, by the door. The voices on the other side were faint, but she did her best to make them out without making a noise. She kept an eye out for any brothers or sisters who wandered through this late.

Lady Tunderek said, “Ho-ho! After all of the work that we put into her?”

“It wasn’t the same as many of her brothers and sisters. She was a special case,” said Lord Tunderek.

“A special case like this one has its uses. There is one more I see for her. If you are still displeased with the girl when it is over then you can eliminate her. I understand things are lining up perfectly now. Before the end of the month we shall see.”

Soror Valide pushed her body away from the wall. Her feet stood close to the middle of the carpeted corridor that her prints did not set anywhere suspicious, as there was plenty of traffic along the middle of the carpet but not along the walls.

She turned and fled silently toward the basement where the two scientists slept and worked. Neither one was awake now, nor did she intend to return to her brothers and sisters upstairs. Soror Valide lied down on the two-seater sofa where it was far less comfortable than any bed in the house. Her sleep was restless and brief.

***

Bon’sinne walked into the bakery while Zoey was restocking the plates. Zoey welcomed her, more surprised that this was the first time she had seen her mom come here. She wondered what the occasion was.

“Zoey, dear,” Bon’sinne said, “it’s good to see you.”

“Likewise, Mom,” said Zoey.

“I haven’t been in here in a good, long while. Do you still have raspberry muffins available?”

“No, we don’t, since they’re out of season on this side of the planet.” Zoey raised a finger and walked to a white board. She picked up a marker and drew a line under the column made for raspberries; it was the third line. “But, since you’re a new person to ask, we’re keeping tally. Once enough demand comes for raspberries the boss will be more than happy to order synthesis be done on them, and then we can make more. I’ll be glad to let you know if or when that happens. The muffins will be available for a week then, or else we’d have to wait a couple months for shipment from far up north, or buy from the store when they’re nowhere as good.”

Synthesis, while available and fantastic for replicating foods, was expensive due to material reservation and priority given to medical supplies first, and restaurants or cafes second if they could afford it. Zoey twice asked around about the process and got an answer she didn’t understand about atoms and molecules being pieced together in a safe manner.

The idea of atoms coming together through manmade means reminded Zoey of what she learned in history classes on Earth, and the devastation such devices wrought. She wasn’t ready to think about how this society handled their atoms or molecules with care to make something as simple as saline solutions.

“Well then,” said Bon’sinne, “have you figured out your carrot cake recipe yet?”

Zoey said, “Not yet. My studies and class assignments come first.”

“Drat.” Bon’sinne ought to have known that, and maybe she did more than Zoey could read.

For the past few weeks her mom and Sensei Su-Jin had her working on speed and endurance more than additional technique, saying that learning more moves would come after midterms were over. For now, the class was mostly exercise, and one rather tempted Zoey wanted to look up more techniques for martial arts on her own if she wasn’t already busy with other obligations.

At that moment, Brach’geros walked out of the kitchen with a fresh batch of pear muffins. It was one of two batches being baked. The one with pecans was still inside the oven. They were restocking in time for lunch when more people were bound to come.

Learning about Brach’geros’ namesake was an fascinating tale for Zoey. There was a cliff on Elysium Prime that overlooked the crossroads between three nations that were bitter rivals, often violent, over who had the better artists or agriculture. For many centuries the cliff watched over the Aelfs like a reliable old man pointing them home, no matter how many wars had passed. So he was named for that cliff, not having seen it nor knowing if it still stood to this day.

He said, “Oh, hello, Captain Thalassas.”

Bon’sinne placed both knuckles on her hips. She said, “Retired. It has been an age, Brach’geros.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She turned to Zoey again. “He is a little older than Dasos or Il’lyse, but they went to public school together when we moved here sixteen years ago. I remember seeing him around our neighborhood when they, and Tonny, were up to their shenanigans.”

“They made me think the forest was haunted. I never went back there since that happened.”

“Now what are you up to?”

“I’m studying veterinary medicine at the university. I hope to one day go out to other worlds and be responsible for taking care of wild animals.”

“That is a noble cause. I think my husband would appreciate that, with his love of hunting.”

“He limits himself to controlled environments with a permit, right?”

“Of course. Aerak has even made calls on a multiple occasions to have animals rescued. There was an accident involving a family of kyaeris, and then there was a time where someone was poaching off the edge of a hunting zone; Aerak undid the trap and stayed an extra day to catch the poacher.”

Zoey said, “A family of kyaeris, you said? I’m trying to remember what that is. Oh, right, they’re called deer on Earth. Never mind.”

Bon’sinne giggled at her. “I guess I will settle for one of the butter cakes today, and a cup for jasmine tea.”

“Sure, I’ll get those for you. That will be eighty burras.” She prepared the cup of hot water, and a tea bag from a round container, when her mom proceeded to pay for her selection. Brach’geros handled the register. “By the way, Tonny has a thing on the 27th. She’s at the forefront of her team for her class’s debate.”

“Oh, good for her.”

“She wanted to know if you wanted to come watch with us that afternoon. It’ll be a couple hours after we get out of Martial Arts.”

“You said the 27th? Oh no, I wish I could. Your dad and I made an arrangement for that evening. He’s due to be in range for the evening, so the latency between video feeds will be minimal. We were going to have as close to a candlelit dinner as we can get without teleporting to one another.”

“Why do you not teleport then?”

“Well, he’s still in the middle of a mission, and will thus need to pick up speed and hurry along if the mission calls for it. It’s happened a few times before, for either of us. When work calls it calls.”

“Good luck then, Mom. I hope you two have a wonderful evening.”

“Thank you, dear.”

***

A couple nights later, the sun had been setting while Zoey sat in the living room of the condo. She had her sister’s computer in her hands and was working on her ever-growing research paper that might have gone above and beyond the requirements set by Doctor Evrahn. She had gone so far; how much further could she take it?

It continued to amaze her, actually, how this device was more powerful than any desktop computer she had seen on Earth, and yet it never once overheated during the warmer months she was here. The battery and motherboard remained cool. Charging it once every one or two days was still a must, though.

The door to Dasos’s bedroom opened. Zoey had forgotten that her brother had company inside his room since they were quiet until now. The Ginserei woman walked out, and Zoey waved at her. This must have been her third time here, and Zoey still didn’t know her name.

Zoey got up and crossed the living room. “Hi, I don’t think I caught your name.”

“He never told you?” said the young woman who appeared to be closer to the same age as she was. “It’s Shungdi. You must be his younger sister, Zoey.”

“That I am. I should ask if he’s a good boyfriend to you, if only so I don’t pester him about it later.”

“What, hey?” said Dasos from his room.

Shungdi giggled and said, “It isn’t quite like that between us. We keep running into one another is all. Today I wanted to tell him off about a kidnapping that happened this morning, involving a Ginserei child and a group identified as being Aelfs. He asked me a few very fair questions, and then I came to my senses not ten minutes ago. Don’t ask me about the hours in between.”

“Mind if I check something?” Zoey asked.

“Check what? What are you doing?”

Zoey pressed the back of her fingers on Shungdi’s forehead, and then against one of her forearms. She then said, “Maybe I’m wrong about that. Never mind. I feared for you for a moment there.”

“You are an odd one.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Still, I would appreciate it if you did not reveal so candidly how intimate your brother and I have gotten as of late. It’s taboo where I’m from.”

“Are you from a High House then?”

“That I am. I’m glad you are aware of this custom of ours.”

“My girlfriend told me a fair deal about it. She’s from Ginserei, actually.”

“Girlfriend? Wait, so you and one of my kind who’s also a girl? Stars beyond, that’s more than enough for me.” She let out a nervous laugh. “So, if I may ask, where is this girlfriend of yours now?”

“She is rehearsing for a debate on the 27th. She doesn’t like being anywhere near the center of attention when she can help it, but she’s leading her team for class.”

“Oh! I love debates.”

“You do?”

“It’s one of my favorite things. I suppose you might think I am the odd one now. I once debated with more than half of my family for seven consecutive hours about the ramifications of law for the ruler’s sake versus law for the people. By the end of it they were too exhausted to go any further. How long is this class debate set for?”

***

Weeks later, people who came in attendance to this series of debates filtered into the amphitheater to watch a handful of topics being discussed by university students. Tong-Chang’s group was up first tonight. She had told Zoey the night before that she was nervous, but Zoey gave her the confidence boost she needed.

After a recent string of bad news across the alliance territory, and growing unrest between all four races now, Zoey wondered if anyone was here to see reason and sanity prevail for one night. She wondered how many people hoped to see current events or issues discussed when these students spent the past month or longer researching other topics.

More than likely, however, many people attending were bound to be friends or family members of those performing upon the stage. The amphitheater appeared to be more packed than she had come to expect for this kind of event.

“It’s too bad Mom couldn’t come,” said Dasos as they picked a seat close to the front. They lucked out in that regard.

“Yeah, but she and Dad really wanted their dinner date to happen tonight,” said Zoey. “I’m glad you were able to come, Shungdi.”

Shungdi said, “Yes, thank you for inviting me. This should be fascinating. It’s a little warm in here, though, don’t you think?

“It feels fine to me. Dasos?” She watched him wave it off.

“How very odd. You know what, though? I’m not sure I’ve seen your girlfriend or asked for her name before.”

“I could have sworn I told you. It’s Tonny.”

“Oh, that’s right. You’ve said this much a couple times, but Tonny doesn’t sound Ginserei, or even Aelfen. I’m not sure yet if she’s real, or if that’s her actual name.”

“Good point. Her given name is Tong-Chang.”

“Tong-Chang?” Her voice trailed off into some unknown plateau of thought.

The students participating for the first round for the debates came onto the stage and took their bows. Tong-Chang was among them, wearing a sweater that hid the fact that her belly was growing.

“Tong-Chang of High House Leezu,” Shungdu said.

“How’d you get that much? Do you know her?” said Zoey, giggling at her for a moment.

Seconds later, Tong-Chang stepped closer to Dasos and Zoey to wave to them personally and blow kisses their way. She stopped when her eyes fell on Shungdi. Her hands raised to her mouth, and her eyes bulged. Her skin turned ashen. She heaved. Tong-Chang’s head shook.

Shungdi then said, “Hello, sister.”

Chapter 43

The two siblings stared incredulously at Shungdi. Zoey felt the entire weight of her body press against her seat as she leaned back. Shungdi smiled on, unflinching.

“You are of High House Leezu?” Zoey said.

“It would have been nice to know this sooner than later,” Dasos said.

Shungdi said, “I apologize. I suppose I could have told you, but the information was sensitive, especially given everything that has happened of late. As such, protocol demanded that I keep as much silence as possible, including the reason I came here. I understand if this upsets you, and I’m sorry.”

Meanwhile, one of Tong-Chang’s classmates walked to Tonny an comforted her. They talked to one another. Tong-Chang’s classmate looked toward the trio and back to her. In moments she was calm again and ready to go for her debate. The moderator, their class doctor, asked her if she was alright, as far as Zoey could tell with her limited and unimpressive ability to read lips. Tong-Chang nodded, her eyes closed as she took a while to breathe.

The moderator stepped forward with the microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “I welcome you to Elysium University’s semi-annual Live Debates in Trullwick. Tonight we have for you six groups, three discussions, presenting.

“Before we begin, every one of us, regardless of place of birth or gender, extend our condolences to the families reeling after travesty that befell Natt Halvaegs. There can be no hurt greater than losing the ones we love, or to be betrayed by those whom we thought we could trust. Tonight, here in this bastion of life and knowledge, we call you all family.”

There were nods and applauds around the room. It wasn’t anywhere near able to undo the devastating explosion that had racked one of the rings of the station situated halfway between Elysium IX and Ginserei Prime, but it was a satisfactory comment.

The moderator said, “As for our first topic tonight we have a discussion on the ethics of advanced biomechanical engineering. As technology grows, and new ideas are tested, we find ourselves asking important questions in regards to whether or not such developments are worth pursuing, if laws should be updated, or if all caution should be interred toward the cosmos. Our two groups will explain their positions.”

He raised a hand toward Tong-Chang’s table. She took the microphone and said, “My name is Tong-Chang Leezu. Our position here is that . . .”

***

When Tong-Chang stepped out of the designated door for performers, into the surrounding hall of the campus amphitheater, Zoey spotted her on the verge of having a breakdown. Zoey called out to her from across the room and ran to her, giving her a tight squeeze and warm embrace.

“You did great,” Zoey said.

“Thank you, love” Tong-Chang said, “but what is she doing here?” She pointed toward Shungdi, who walked over to them alongside Dasos with a cup of iced tea in her hands. “I thought the two of you would never do a thing like this to me; never once in a million revolutions.”

“We didn’t know she was your sister. Both she and Das started having this thing one day, and we both kind of befriended one another without her telling us which High House she belonged to.”

“Really now? So was that you we heard getting it on with Dasos one time?”

Shungdi said, “I’d appreciate if you didn’t tell anyone, least of all our family.”

“It’s not like I talk to them very often. I barely talk to Mother. I’m the last person who would tell any of them that you’re getting it on with an Aelf, not to mention a boy who’s been more family to me than our actual brothers ever were.”

“That hasn’t exactly been their fault, Tong-Chang. You really should contact the rest of us more often. In fact, that is why I’m here.”

“Well, you’ve contacted me. You can go home now. Please go home.”

“Father is dying, sister.”

Tong-Chang stood there, raising a finger and preparing to fire a comeback or retort that wouldn’t come. She shook her head and walked away, toward the nearest exit. The rest of their group followed until they were all outside and Tong-Chang finally stopped. She held her hands over her ears.

She turned and said, “Dying? How?”

“We aren’t entirely sure,” Shungdi said. “A couple of our brothers suspected poison, which might have made sense if you looked at most of his symptoms alone. But there are more of them, and this has been ongoing for the last four months. Poisons aren’t exactly known to act this slow. Some of us thought he was ill until the day after the masquerade that you had attended in his place.”

“His place? Shungdi, Father never sets foot off of Ginserei.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. He did it once five revolutions ago, hoping to find you, but he was called away on business so often that he never got the chance to ask around for you before returning home. An admiral called him away for business every time he set foot outside of the embassy. For a few revolutions after that he represented our nation at that annual masquerade, and it broke his heart that he could not go to this one since it was on Elysium IX. Mother tells me that, had you not called and offered to take his place, his health might have deteriorated faster.”

“Don’t you dare. He never showed love for me when I was still on Ginserei.”

“He was strict; he still can be. Yet he can be kind and a romantic. Every time you used his yingbi, he suspected that you were alright, but he investigated the locations on each occasion to be sure. He bought two of those locations and made them better, but we don’t know if you had ever returned to them.”

“That was him? How could he? How can you defend him?”

“The owners needed help, Tong-Chang. They needed lots of money and better management. He stepped in and changed that, for you. He did it so that you could have somewhere better to go. As a bonus, the investment made our family back the yingbi with profit, earning him favor from the emperor. It’s favor he hopes will continue to serve you one day.”

“Stop it.”

“He loves you, and wants you to take over as head of the family. I was unsure of the decision at first, but then I saw you tonight. Above all, I wish I didn’t terrify you so, but you turned that fright around when you were on stage. You performed admirably. Well, no, I also wish you’d tell me why you’re wearing that sweater. Are you not as hot as I am?” Shungdi sipped on her iced tea. “It’s summer.”

“No, it’s not.”

“It has to be. I’m burning up.”

“We’re in the southern hemisphere, and it’s winter. Shungdi? Hey.”

Shungdi collapsed on the ground. She looked at her tea and chucked it into the night. “Poison,” she said. “I have been poisoned.” Her eyes widened, and both Zoey and Dasos crouched after her. Her body radiated with such heat.

Zoey said, “How long have you been feeling warmer than usual?”

“It started yesterday, I think. Why? Do you think it wasn’t the tea? Stars beyond, do I have what Father has?”

“Do you feel anything else? Numbness? Nausea? Anything at all?”

“I feel pride for my family, and the ongoing enjoyment of this taboo affair I’m having. It’s insatiable. Maybe I’m liking that a little too much, but I don’t see how that’s relevant. Why do you ask?”

Tong-Chang whispered, “Oh no.”

Dasos said, “Yeah, I’ve seen this before. Should I take her to the nearest hospital, Tonny?”

“No,” said Tong-Chang, “that won’t be necessary. Take my sister to wherever it is that she’s staying.”

“That would be the embassy.”

“Of course it is. Zoey, you may wish to come with me, but it’s up to you. I need to buy something from the pharmacy.”

***

“No, not here,” she said in a state of delirium, “it’ll make a scene. We don’t want another incident.”

They neared the Ginserei Embassy in the heart of the city of Trullwick. Shungdi stumbled every few steps while Dasos held her up by her waist. He could now see two men in Ginserei suits—complete with yellow and red pins on their collars to represent the world they hailed from—standing in front of the gate, and then the woman in front of the main doors. The three of them turned their gazes to Dasos.

One of them reached for a palistick at his waist. Dasos considered for a moment if he could take the Ginserei man in a fight. For one thing he did not know the combat abilities of either of these guards. For another, starting a fight with any of them, for any reason, really would start an incident.

“We need help,” Dasos said. “We need to get her to her room immediately.”

“You will halt,” said the guard holding his palistick.

“There’s no time for that. I’m Cadet Thalassas with the Trullwick Police, and the son of both Captains Thalassas with the Allied Peacekeepers; one of them retired. I’ve come with Shungdi of High House Leezu during a time of need. She needs medicine, which our sisters will be along shortly to deliver.”

“Unhand the princess at once. We canot trust you with her, nor whom you claim to be until we take her to safety. Leave now, and we will not report this.”

The man took a step closer and stopped. He raised a hand to one ear, as did the other two guards. The woman by the doors said something that Dasos could not hear. Then she nodded and opened one part of the main entrance.

Bolin stepped outside.

***

As Tong-Chang purchased the medicine she needed for her sister, Zoey checked her phone again for any messages. There was no word yet from Dasos. She looked up from her phone and saw the pharmacist retrieve the container. She was curious to the fact that this medicine did not need a prescription, and that it was over the counter.

“So do you really not need a note from a laeknar?” Zoey said softly.

“For this?” said Tong-Chang. “No, we Ginserei handle this medicine the same way as most allergy medicines, or how Aelfs do the pill form of birth control. They look at my identification, check the system for any flags for abuse, and then sell accordingly. I’m glad that I was able to return the last dose I bought, or there would be a flag on my record with this transaction now.”

“I’m still getting used to that.”

“What?”

“Natt Grans is about six light-spans away, and yet we can communicate with the station from here as easily as two people on Earth can call one another from across the globe. What?”

Tong-Chang smiled. “You used ‘light-spans’ instead of ‘years.’ I think we might be starting to rub off on you.”

“Maybe a little.”

The pharmacist set the small box down upon the counter, and there was a visible label on this one instead of when Zoey had seen the container of the same size on Natt Grans. The words “Remedial Douche” appeared below the given name of the product, and below that was an image of a Ginserei woman’s silhouette frolicking in a field of flowery hills.

“Did you need any verbal instruction on its use?” the pharmacist asked.

“No, thank you,” said Tong-Chang. “I won’ t be needing any sort of concealment retainer, either.”

“Very good. Would you like a bag?”

Tong-Chang tapped on her book bag that she had brought from the condo unit, which happened to be located around one corner from the pharmacy. The pharmacist nodded and then wished the girls a good night before calling on the next customer in line.

Finally, Zoey’s phone buzzed. There was the message on it from Dasos. He was waiting for them inside the embassy, and gave her the address in case they needed it.

***

Dasos gave her a glass of water. Shungdi sat up against the pillows of her bed as she accepted the drink. Dasos was grateful that she was lucid now, if barely and also pouting toward the opposite wall instead of looking at him.

“I’m still waiting,” she said.

“They will be here any moment,” said Dasos.

“Not that; I mean about your accusation. I am not, in any way, experiencing my tangouchu. I simply refuse it.”

“It doesn’t work like that.”

“And what would you know of this?”

“Eight revolutions ago my best friend collapsed after saying for over two days that she was too hot. I thought I did something wrong, and I freaked out. In my panic I called for an ambulance, and my friend was taken to the laeknir, who had to separate us for long while. One Laeknar explained to me all about these symptoms after I waited a good portion of that time, and what it means to experience this condition. Another one gave Tonny her first ever treatment. As far as I know, I saved her life that day, or else there would have been serious damage to her brain and heart functions.”

The blood pressure and feverish temperatures were too high for a Ginserei body to endure for long periods.

Shungdi turned her hard gaze on Dasos and replied, “It has been five revolutions since I underwent my first, and only, tangouchu. The royal laeknir treated me before it had advanced. I was fawning over a boy in one of our rival houses when it happened, and the same laeknar told me that the reason we experience such a thing because we wish to mate. My parents never once punished the laeknar for saying this, so it must be true.”

“No, I doubt that,” Dasos said. “Biology doesn’t care what we do or don’t want.”

“Maybe not Aelfen biology.”

***

The guards standing before the entrance to the embassy barely gave Zoey any sort of glance, but one looked in Tong-Chang’s direction for a brief moment, saying “Highness” before dipping his head her way and then averting his gaze.

The one word gave Tong-Chang pause. She tilted her head and inhaled deeply before stepping further into the grounds. Zoey followed her inside. Bolin waited for them. He bowed courteously before Tong-Chang walked to him and slapped the man.

“Did you know?” she said. “Did you know she came for me, and say nothing all this time?”

Bolin said “I apologize, Highness. I did what I could to hide your whereabouts from her. She must be craftier than I anticipated.”

“You still could have warned me.”

“That was my gravest error. I should have, and I beg your forgiveness.”

“You’ll have it if you lead us to her.”

“Right away.”

He guided them up two sets of stairs where the already ornate building achieved a fancier and more intricate design than it had previously. There was more art depicting the Ginserei flag—red and yellow separated with a waved line that was white—as well as landscapes that beheld a massive planet in the sky.

They turned into a hallway in which all of the doors were on one side, and two more guards stood outside of one of them. The guards looked their way.

One guard said, “It . . . ? Lady Tong-Chang! You honor us.”

Both guards kneeled as the trio approached the room. Zoey had known by now that her girlfriend descended from a High House of Ginserei, but that much meant that she was a noble from a family that lorded over their land and honored their respective deity. This, though? Now she suspected that the High House Leezu was a bigger deal than most on their planet.

“Rise, both of you,” she said. “I am here for my sister.”

“At once, Your Highness,” said one guard when both of them got up. The guard who spoke opened the door.

“You can go now, Bolin. Thank you.” She didn’t even look back at the Ginserei man who was bowing her way before Tong-Chang entered the room.

Zoey braced herself for something extravagant before stepping into the doorway, given how the third floor of the embassy looked. However, the appearance toned down to that of an expensive, but small and cozy, hotel room.

Dasos and Shungdi both said, “Good, you’re here!”

“Do I even want to know?” Zoey said, looking between the two of them.

“I’m not in my tangouchu, sister,” said Shungdi. “This is stupid. Why would I be when there’s no desire for it?”

Tong-Chang said, “Desire has nothing to do with it.”

“Oh, and did you fall for some laeknar’s lies as well?”

“They never lied to me. I should know.” Tong-Chang dropped the box upon the mattress. She wasted no time pulling up her dress shirt and sweater, revealing the bulge from over two months of being pregnant. She said, “I didn’t want this, but here we are. It was my choice to lay with that man, but this child’s father is dead to me. I don’t even know what to do with my baby. So don’t you dare sit there and tell me that a tangouchu comes down to desire.”

Her display left Shungdi stunned. Shungdi gaped at her. She lifted an arm and reached out to Tong-Chang.

“You’re pregnant?” Shungdi said.

“I am,” Tong-Chang said, drawing closer. Her sister was able to touch her belly now. In fact she caressed it with a gentle, trembling hand.

“And you didn’t love the father?”

“He, and his wife, were the biggest mistakes of my adult life. This child doesn’t have to be. At the same time, you do not have to die; not out of stubbornness for what is happening to you right now.”

Shungdi lifted the shirt and sweater higher, revealing the hair on Tong-Chang’s chest. Shungdi gasped. The emblem that the hair had made was full, more triangular than a thin line. There also were short arms curving down from the top, one on either side of the shape.

“You should be leading our High House,” Shungdi said.

“Get someone else to do it,” Tong-Chang said.

“There is no one else! You are the only one of us with the full emblem growing on your chest; the only one of Father’s children. Tong-Chang, why do you hate us all so?”

“I don’t hate you.” She pulled down her shirt with sudden force and winced. “I hated the lifestyle that came with being there. I hate what our family represented to me when I was a little girl, young and more foolish than you can imagine. I hate that this emblem grows on me instead of my brothers or sisters; I thought it was a mistake.”

“Our goddess, the lady of the plum orchard, would never make such a mistake, sister.”

Tong-Chang leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. “No, she wouldn’t. The mistakes are our own. Please don’t make one you won’t even have the chance to regret. I will hate you for it if you do.”

“Yes. Yes, you might be right. Please leave me. I need to speak with Das’ithrios before I do this.”

“Thank you, Shungdi. Dasos, take good care of her. Zoey?”

Zoey nodded, hoping she understood what had occurred. She bound an arm of hers to another of Tong-Chang’s, and they walked out of the room. Zoey rested a head on her shoulder once they were in the hallway and the door was closed.

“What now?” Zoey asked.

“That is a really good question,” Tong-Chang said. “I’m remembering the time I told you that life is a series of mistakes. Do you remember that?”

“Vaguely. I don’t remember when, or what brought it up.”

“Neither do I, not in great detail, but I’m beginning to rethink that. It’s hard for me to say, thanks to Dasos and Shungdi. Maybe I have a lot to think about.”

“I do remember one thing, though.”

“What’s that?”

“I suggested that we make the best kind of mistakes. Maybe those mistakes are actually our triumphs. Right now, I’m feeling triumphant enough to eat a frozen yogurt or two on a cold winter night.”

“Perhaps, but let’s wait for your brother to get done talking to my sister. Then I’ll be happy to treat you.”

***

Dasos sat on the bed next to Shungdi. He said, “You hurt me, you know.”

“Did I?” said Shungdi.

“When you believed so adamantly that desire was the cause of what your body is going through right now, and you said there was no reason, no desire, I felt the short end of that like the time that I was shot by one of the Hulda’fi. I felt it like the moments before when I had killed two of them.”

“Oh, I see.” She gave him a kiss on the lips. “Perhaps my sister and I were both right after all.”

“Shungdi, please.”

“What? I want you. I don’t know if I want to bear any children right now, but I do want you.” She leered at the box that Tong-Chang brought in and left on the bed out of Shungdi’s reach. “I trust you more than you know, too.”

“It’s complicated.”

“It really is. Please stay with me tonight? I don’t want to be alone for this.”

Dasos reached for the box and pulled it closer to where Shungdi sat. He was sure that there were directions on how to use this medicine. Then he felt her warm hand on his. Then her lips on his.

***

The sound of Shungdi crying out pierced through the door. The guards looked at one another with raised brows.

Tong-Chang exclaimed, “Oh, stars beyond. There’s no hope for those two. You two stay posted. Zoey, let’s see if the frozen yogurt place is still open at this hour.”

“Yes, let’s,” Zoey said.

Some talk that turned out to be, but this one sound coming through the door was something she wasn’t going to stick around for. Both Zoey and Tong-Chang left the embassy to the night, and also Dasos to his choices.

Chapter 44

Her black hair had always been soft when Dasos ran a hand through it. Shungdi had dozed off within moments after the medicine was applied in the bathroom, and her fever was coming down as she slept on the bed in his arms. He tried not to think about the medicine, or what exactly the fluid was doing, but he knew it was working.

Shungdi groaned after a time had passed. She said, “What time is it?”

“I think it’s past one in the morning,” Dasos said.

“I wish most contraceptives weren’t so toxic to us Ginserei. Maybe I could have saved you the trouble, and you’d be home.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

She huffed. “So you and Tong-Chang were friends for so many revolutions. I’m amazed the two of you never hooked up.”

“We did. It didn’t end well. When she was assigned to the Marslou, and I wasn’t, I heard ‘long-distance’ and freaked out. My first girlfriend had to move away to another planet, and she was taken by the Hulda’fi. Then there was my twin sister, who we lost two revolutions ago. I couldn’t handle it. Tong-Chang and I argued far worse than we should have. Then it was over.”

By now Shungdi’s eyes were on him. He swore he could see sympathy in her eyes in the night lighting.

“You’re still friends now, though, right?” she said.

“We made up a bit, yes,” said Dasos. “Then she entered her current relationship with Zoi’ne. There’s no telling how long that’s going to last, much like I have no idea how long we are going to last.”

“The two of us? Das’ithrios Thalassas, you are a clever Aelf, but you couldn’t piece together that I was Tong-Chang’s sister based on certain clues.”

“In hindsight? You might be right. You have the same eyebrows, and you share this tiny spot inside the tip of your right ear. It’s so subtle, but I see it.”

“Hey, don’t go spilling all of my secrets.” She brought a hand up to rub the tip of her ear, and a smile formed on her face as Dasos went on.

“There’s that fragrance you like to use, too. Sure, putting it together as a remote possibility was something I could have done, but I chose to get to know you the longer we spent time together. Now I know of your love for debates, as well as your enjoyment of tabletop games that you barely got to play with other people back on Ginserei. Now I know that you are Shungdi, one of the three daughters of High House Leezu that isn’t Tong-Chang.”

“Third; I am the third daughter. Perhaps you know too much about me, come to think of it.”

“I’d be honored to know more than this. The time we spend together is proving to be wonderful.”

“Oh, you’re right. Yet I will have to return home eventually.”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s agree to enjoy the time we have remaining. I plan to be around at least for another game session of yours, or two. If being in a long-distance relationship doesn’t work for you then we don’t have to commit past the here and now. I may have to come back for you one day.”

“What about your taboos, or the growing unrest between our peoples? That’s what I want to know.”

“One complication at a time, lover. If our sisters can tell all caution to fornicate the nearest star then maybe the two of us can make this work with the time I’m here.”

***

Zoey stretched and began her routine for the earlier mornings that she had to get up. She grumbled over the hour, and again at her phone’s reminder about midterms being this week.

At least this means I have next week off for the holiday.

She grabbed her hoody and her cereal. The apartment was dark since the light outside was mere moments past the first light of dawn. Behind her, Tong-Chang had also gotten out of bed, except she didn’t need to so early this morning, as far as Zoey was aware.

“I’m going to make the call,” Tong-Chang said. “I’ll need to use the wall monitor for this, if you don’t mind.”

“What call?” said Zoey.

“My father.”

“That makes sense. Do you need to be alone, or what?”

“I’ll feel better if you sit by me.”

Zoey nodded to her and found the light knob on the lip of the wall between the living room and the hallway. The knob was similar to circular switches Zoey had seen on Earth for raising and lowering light settings, but the dial was moved by sticking her finger inside of a dip in the surface and then forcing the round plating either direction. She raised the lights around the room so that she and Tong-Chang could be seen by the person they were about to call, since the morning sun had not yet crested behind the taller buildings to the east where the majority of windows were facing.

Meanwhile, Tong-Chang navigated the options on the monitor from the remote access on her digital pad. Zoey sat next to her, doing her best to finish eating her bowl of cereal before the signal went out across several relay satellites to reach a moon in the neighboring system; the moon being four light-years away.

The video came on with a person standing in a room with a heavy saturation of sunlight coming in from one side.

“You have reached High House Leezu,” said the person that answered.

“Hello, little brother. This is Tong-Chang, the second. Is Father available?”

They waited for a response. With their advanced tools and satellites, Zoey had been told some time ago that there was a delay between Elysium IX and Ginserei Prime, and that it could take up to forty-five seconds for a message to be received this way, or over the phone. Seconds indeed passed, and the Ginserei on the screen gaped for a moment, placing a single hand on his mouth, before there was finally a nod.

“Yes, right away,” he said. “I will send you through to his room.”

“Thank you,” said Tong-Chang, but then she winced and whispered, “Damn it, habitual manners. My brother won’t hear that by the time it gets to him.”

It was eleven seconds to a light-year for these signals to travel, compared to the eight minutes and seventeen seconds, on average, that the nearest sun’s light took to reach Elysium IX. Zoey couldn’t begin to understand how the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance managed to beat the speed of light, especially not when she had woken up minutes ago and was a few bites from finishing her cereal.

The feed moved to another room in which an older Ginserei man lied in a bed that had been elevated on the back end. He looked upon the screen with reserved, but apparent, judgment. Zoey might have slurped her milk before the man smiled.

“Father, hello,” said Tong-Chang.

He turned an eye at Zoey, and then back to Tong-Chang before saying, “I have long awaited the day that I would see my second daughter’s face again. Would that the circumstances were better. Are you well, Tong-Chang?”

“I can hardly say, anymore. Shungdi found me last night. She said that you are dying. Father, is it true?”

“Unfortunately it is so. I see that the stars beyond our mortal coil have granted me time to look upon you at least once more before I go.”

“You were a terrible father.”

“You may be right. Being any sort of father to a dozen children is difficult on its own. Running our lands and assets made it near impossible without becoming an ass. I can hardly apologize for the time that I never gave, but I had hoped that the businesses I acquired and aided served your needs better than I had in the time that you lived here with us. I had hoped that you could understand my intentions, and one day forgive me for my shortcomings.”

“Our own laws and taboos are unjust.”

“Laws can be rewritten. You should know this better than anyone if you’ve been taking your studies seriously.”

“Yes, but how long can any change take for our people? It took many centuries of recorded history for us to allow young girls to be treated for their first tangouchu, and even then only most of our nations agreed to do this. When I had left Ginserei Prime at least one nation held to its old practices. It also took us until a century after the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance formed to let our commoners intermingle with other races or enjoy same sex relationships.”

“I’m well aware. Some will argue that our culture as a people is dying as a result of these changes. My lifelong friend, the emperor, agrees with me that our culture was in need of new life. These changes you mention served to show the flaws and weakness in our old ways. High House Leezu will need a strong leader soon who can ensure that the right changes transpire through our codes of law and identity. Will that be you?”

Tong-Chang looked at Zoey, and they grabbed one another’s hand. Tong-Chang squeezed tight. She said, “Father, this is Zoi’ne Thalassas. She is my girlfriend. If no one will accept that then I will be unable to lead. They won’t listen, and I will not stand the lot of them. I won’t even consider talking to such outdated fools.”

“That is precisely the sort of attitude and spirit we need to rule our family. You will not be alone. You will have their ears in a bind as long as you remember that. So, young woman, you have won my daughter’s heart, have you?

“It would appear so, sir,” said Zoey.

The head of the Leezu household hummed for a moment. “I do believe I see your shining spirit. We now edge on darker times with all that has been happening of late. Be the beacon that she needs right now and you will have my blessing.”

“That’s incredibly foreboding, sir, but I think I can handle that. And why are you laughing?”

Tong-Chang had been chortling as silently as she could get away with. She said, “If at any time I can’t see you in the dark then I can trust that you’ll talk in your sleep so I can find you.”

“I do not.”

“Yeah, you do.”

“Ladies,” said her father, “the two of you are a welcome sight for wary eyes, but I must rest. The laeknar still believes he can beat this illness of mine in time.”

“Hopefully he would be right. Hopefully, he’s not the same laeknar who told my sister a falsehood about the tangouchu.”

“Falsehood? I should ask of this the next time we speak. Carry on, my daughter. May the lady of the plum orchard continue to guide you.”

“You as well, Father.”

The two of them each pressed their hands together underneath their chins and bowed their heads. Then the monitor went black. Tong-Chang held the pose for a while, her eyes closed. Zoey wrapped her own arms around her, unsure if this was what Tong-Chang needed.

***

Dereksoo was a frozen wasteland around its surface, with constant blizzards in the warmer regions under natural circumstances. There, too, were small caves in the icy rock formations that contained gases far too cold for any living person to touch for long. The Hulda’fi had proper gear available for entering this climate for short lengths of time without issue, but those gases were dangerous against the jackets and other garments.

In one rock formation ninety minutes’ walk from the hidden dome, that some of the Hulda’fi were blessed to call home, there were no less than five such caverns. One of these was safer than the rest. This hid away another entrance to somewhere important to them as a family, and as a rebellion.

Soror Valide entered the facility through a series of doors meant, first, to stay the elements outside, and then to provide some minor security from the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance. It was one last precaution in case they found the place.

Chemists and technicians among their number worked to make the drug that smelled of hibiscus and seaweed. Lady Tunderek smoked this on the regular, while her children were allowed to partake in it whenever they went on the offensive.

This was also where Soror Valide and her kindred at the manor went when any of them needed to see a laeknar. Twice she had to come here before, feeling ill for days afterward before she was released back to their home base. Twice did she bear puncture scars in her lower abdomen. No, she was not here to go through that again. Still, it was a laeknar who approached her this time, even though Soror Valide had come here a few times in the past two weeks to help the workers in any capacity that she was able. The laeknar must not have known this yet, she figured.

The laeknar stood half a head shorter than Soror Valide did, and she looked forty revolutions younger now than she did the last time that Soror Valide had seen her. The transformative procedure had served the woman well. She recognized an opportunity to ask, sardonically, if the woman was experiencing any of the known side effects, but such sarcasm was never her style.

On the other hand, she could hardly remember how or when she became spiteful towards her brothers and sisters.

“Welcome, sister,” said the laeknar. “I was not expecting to see anyone today. Ah, wait, you’re the helper, aren’t you?”

“I am,” Soror Valide said. “Anything to keep my mind busy that helps our cause is anything worth doing.”

“That is noble of you. Let me ask them where they need you today.”

As the laeknar left to confer with a few of the chemists and technicians, Soror Valide observed around the main room of the facility. Above the conveyor belts and machines sat cameras in the ceiling and guards pacing the upper walkway. She counted on all of them seeing her during her visits. She was going to prove to the Lord and Lady of the manor that she was their bad girl; good when she needed to be for their sake.

“Soror Valide,” said the laeknar. She beckoned with her left hand. Her pinky was there now, as opposed to the previous times that Soror Valide had seen her.

“Where do you need me?” she asked the laeknar.

“We lost our lone human sister in Natt Halvaegs. Luckily, the work she had left to do for this facility was minimal and out of the way of everyone else who’s hard at work. Well, I say minimal, but we are nearing the end of our work.”

“So this should be quick then.”

“It might be. Have you never worked as a dishwasher before?”

“I can’t say I have. I know that wasn’t what she did, though. She did something with the bookkeeping we have and making sure everyone on Dereskoo is accounted for with their meals and hygiene.”

“Yes, that’s exactly right. She left some books unstamped, but there will be more when the big mission comes. I can’t wait to shape the whole galaxy to our whims and desires. This will surely please the Lady Tunderek!”

“We’ve all waited long, I agree. For our Hallowed Lady.”

“For our Hallowed Lady.”

Once they reached the back office of the facility the laeknar left Soror Valide to review the books. This was an easy task compared to investigating the records locked within the manor while no one else was watching. It didn’t take long for her to find or understand the designated pattern used for the spreadsheets and forms.

She stamped a few papers and put one book in the tray for outgoing deliveries. The Hulda’fi never stored anything on a digital device because that was easier to track than records kept in local spaces on hardcopy. With the outgoing books stacking in the outgoing tray Soror Valide found herself realizing exactly what went in or out of the vicinity of this planet.

Soror Valide had suspected most of these things, of course. She had done a level of extensive research before coming here to find work to do. But now? Now she knew the fuller extent of the food, water, medicine, and other materials that came and went in such places as this facility, the dome, and numerous craft that watched the planet.

Synthesis of food or supplies wasn’t done on Dereskoo, though falsified records told anyone watching that the heat signature from this spot came from these necessities being made a safe distance from the manor. This much she knew. She was also aware of the weekly sleigh rides between the facility and the manor, as well as the shipping route between the planet’s surface and Elysium IX. The latest delivery happened yesterday.

With the records she had seen in the manner, and the work she did on other days around this subterranean building, Soror Valide guessed how much of that was being sent here until now. Now she had the precise numbers at her fingertips.

During the last couple weeks, she had also learned more than she wanted about the truth behind Lady Tunderek’s favorite drug, or the substance that her children were allowed to partake in on certain missions. She learned what happened to many unborn children belonging would-be mothers across the known galaxy. What she did not figure out, however, was where these children came from since there was no record of there being a mission to steal from expecting mothers. It couldn’t have been her sisters, either, since an operation of this volume counted on more sexual activity than the Hulda’fi had outside of their own. Every brother initiated had been ordered to have his tubes tied, if not removed, by penalty of death if they did not comply.

Even Lord Tunderek had his tied, they were told.

Then there was the cryogenic case that the Kroke Team had brought back to the Lady on Dereskoo. It contained two packets of genesis nectar, something that was not supposed to exist anymore except in an inaccurate, low-grade, synthesized form. This facility was making it in abundance, and then using much of it to make the drugs that the Lady and all combatant teams used. When she had learned about it, the revelation made Soror Valide sick to her stomach. But she trusted Lady Tunderek. She could not let this go, despite trying to regain favor.

If they love me again, if I’m useful, then I cannot be discarded by them, right?

One of the chemists that had been handling a test tube of fluid screamed out and combusted, suddenly. The alarms sounded while the chemist flailed her arms and tried to scramble to safety, severe panic bursting from her lungs.

The fire extinguishing system sent in a set of drones that sprayed within a radius around the chemist and her work station. The flame retardant entered the sample that she had been working on, and it caused another reaction when a loud bang shook the facility. More screams followed.

Yesterday a shipment had come to the planet. Yesterday, Soror Valide took on a covert task of her own to replace several items aboard the sleigh, and making sure that it could be traced back to another one of her sisters, if anyone at all.

Today she was fleeing the scene as a would-be victim. She aided the sisters that she could and guided them out of the building, everyone grabbing their cold weather gear on the way out. It would be a while before the accident was investigated. If Soror Valide was lucky she would be chosen for the task, and then she could make herself appear to the Lord and Lady as more reliable.

She rode with the laeknar and one surviving technician back to the manor using one of their electric sleighs. It was faster than walking back, for sure, but Soror Valide was happy deep down. She did something no one else would. She did something that felt right while proving herself to the Tundereks.

Lady Tunderek greeted them in the garden, her pace quickened. She proceeded to ask what had happened. The shock and horror on her face was so delightful to Soror Valide. It should have hurt more, but it brought joy that she had not felt in ages; joy that she had to hide until after the Hallowed Lady stumbled away.

Then her husband arrived and frowned. His stare scrutinized the three Hulda’fi who had returned thus far. “What has happened, daughter?” he said to Soror Valide.

“I don’t know for certain, Hallowed Lord,” Soror Valide said. “I would be more than happy to investigate for you.”

“Another time. We have plenty of everything that we need for the coming days. We will take priority for the days ahead.”

“Days, sir? That hardly seems like enough.”

“Your scientist friends downstairs are confident that they have figured out what they need. You should gather your things, Soror Valide.”

“You mean—?”

“It’s time to put our greatest undertaking into action. It’s time that your brothers and sisters stepped into the shadows and prepare to strike. You, your team, and seven other teams, have been assigned to Trullwick on Elysium IX.”

Suddenly the bliss she felt resembled two ships colliding into one another. There had to be more that she could do; there had to be. But what?

***

Dasos left the embassy when the sun had been up for over an hour. Light shone behind him after he had turned right from the front gate. He needed to review his notes and check a paper for class one last time before heading back to the university to take a midterm exam. He had three hours to work with.

He traveled west and south past a few street intersections until he reached the boulevard where the nearest trolley station was. Further to the south was Arcadia, still brimming with more memories than he could count.

Immediately to his other side was a woman staring right at him. She wore a long, white coat coming down to her knees, the breeze blowing the fabric softly. A matching hat and a pair of sunglasses adorned her head, but Dasos recognized her.

“You?” he said. “I thought you were dead, or worse.”

Doctor Saludalta responded with a simple smile.

Chapter 45

Two months ago a woman had vanished from the stretch of Trullwick Boulevard known to the Thalassas family as Arcadia. At least one assailant was believed to be after her for reasons unknown. All that was left behind of the laeknar, in the public eye, was her blood on the ground.

Today she stood a kilometer north of that spot as if no such injury or pursuit had ever occurred.

Dasos said, “I take it you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about.”

“In this case,” said Veran’uvia, “I know more about it than you do. The Hulda’fi wanted me eliminated for something else that I can’t say I know about. I had contacted Ren’baek about it, and he gave me an emergency beacon for material transference. We used the opportunity to lead as many of them as possible into the open before I took my leave, apparently dead or missing. I saw the opportunity as well to speak with you and your little sister. It was after my apparent death, two months ago, that we were able to investigate who it was that was after me.

“Our efforts were nearly sabotaged for good, but we found a spy among our new crew members thanks to the efforts of one police cadet here in Elysium IX. However, we knew that whomever is in charge of those rebels had something planned, so we made it seem like the spy was doing her task until last night when we returned home. So here I am, visiting friends for the next few days.”

“You know, don’t you? About Il’lyse, I mean.”

“I had my suspicions until now when you asked about her. Now I regret to say I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“They’re all planning something big, you know.”

“We better enjoy ourselves in the meantime. Get yourself a nice lover if you have to. Spend time with those you care about. Let the rest of us handle it.”

“Enjoy; right. It’s midterms week.”

“You poor thing, but you do have a love life, do you not?”

He twisted his lips and leered at Veran’uvia while the trolley came to a stop next to them. He said, “I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about.”

***

If it wasn’t for the calendar on her digital pad Zoey might have lost track of what day it was by the middle of midterms week. At least that was what she told herself.

Her first two tests that she had to take were simpler than expected after all of the studying she had done, yet Zoey couldn’t help but feel cheated by the three questions in Hoshi-Lacartan History and Geography that weren’t at all covered in class. When she turned in her exam for the history class, the doctor noted in a low, quiet voice that Zoey had changed her date format to one he was familiar with.

She had learned on Earth to put down the numbers for month, day, and year, all separated by a line. In any Elysium, and some stations, writing it started with the year and worked its way down to the day, with each number separated by a colon. As she wrote down the date on the General Complements exam, “225:6:29,” Zoey came to the revelation about her inability to keep track of the present without the computer, thanks to the stress of her tests and studies.

Zoey spent so long looking at so many other dates and reading all of the relevant stories about those times, that she was surprised that the actual date wasn’t somehow way off from what it really was.

The General Complements exam was a written one, consisting of five short essay questions. Two questions at the start were a paragraph long and needed to be matched in their lengths to be properly answered. The remainder were one or two sentences that wanted half a page to articulate Zoey’s understanding of the reading material.

When it was done, Zoey was among the last third of the students to turn it in and leave. She spotted Bu working on her own still, and yawning as if utterly bored by the whole thing. Rolling her eyes, Zoey walked to the front of the classroom, where Doctor Evrahn sat and read on his digital pad. She placed her test booklet on the table.

“Doctor,” she said quietly, “when would you like for me to come back to turn in my class assignment?”

Her instructor turned his middle eye her way and said, “Technically this exam will be over in fifteen minutes, though you do have until the end of the semester to get it to me.”

“It’s ready, I think.”

“Well then, Zoi’ne,” and now all three of his eyes were on her, “if you believe it is ready then you can message it to my campus mail, or hand it in, once I have left the classroom to carry these tests to my office. Since no one else, that I know of yet, will have turned in their assignment I will probably schedule your presentation for after I review everyone’s scores on the day of transition. Be warned.”

“Let’s do it then.”

“No hesitation from you? My goodness.”

She ate lunch before heading to Doctor Evrahn’s office. There was a hallway that connected his classroom to another one, with a single office room in the middle of one side, and tinted windows to the other. Inside of the office the room was partitioned left and right for two instructors.

Somewhere in the last nine weeks Zoey recalled hearing that many offices were like this, and some of the professors merely worked as well together as they did because they needed to, given their adjoined spaces. Doctor Evrahn was chatting with an older Aelf man from across their mutual barrier full of wooden shelves, pictures, and random knickknacks.

“I don’t think they’ll make it halfway past the season,” the Aelf said. “I’ll wager two hundred burras on it.”

“Make it two-fifty,” said Doctor Evrahn.

“Yeah, right. I’d take the bet if I didn’t need that last fifty to buy tickets to go to next the game with my boyfriend.”

“When are the two of you ever getting married? It’s been five revolutions.”

Zoey almost felt sorry for having to interrupt the two of them, but she knocked on the divider between them. Both men looked at her. She dug her short story out of her bag and waved it while grimacing at Doctor Evrahn.

“Here it is,” she said. “I hope you don’t mind my paper being three thousand words instead of two.”

“Miss Thalassas,” said Doctor Evrahn, “pardon the irony in this question, but do you have a life?”

“Honestly, that’s hard to say. Why?”

“Most of my students are too happy to put off that assignment as long as they’re able, and even then do as little as possible with it.”

She handed him the copy of the document with ten pages of a single short story and sources used. Zoey, of course, had chosen the first aid kit from Earth to write her short story on.

“I figured I might as well get it out of the way since the idea for that story was so fresh in my head. It went longer than I planned, though,” she said. “If anything I toned it down a bit in length.”

Doctor Evrahn flipped through the pages with considerable haste, allowing him to finish his motion in under three seconds, and huffed at one point. He said, “’It was an emergency for sure, but no glass nearby was worth breaking.’ Does this world still have breakable glass for every other emergency you can think of?”

“For quite a few of them, sir. How fast do you read?” Her question was met with a laugh from the other professor.

“I’m about average for my people. It’s as easy to us as that fourth dimensional double vision of yours is for you. I still take my time with exams and essays, however. You’d be surprised at the answers you’re sometimes given; it’s headache inducing.”

“That reminds me; I don’t see very many of you around in the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance.”

“That’s because we Metouka rarely leave our own stellar system. There might be a hundred of us who actively participate in this alliance by living with our colleagues and friends. After recent events, maybe less. The hundred of us never really take a daily census. As far as I know I’m one of two that lives on this planet, though I know a couple delegates who visit from time to time.”

“Are you all reclusive, or what is it, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“It’s more like the vast majority of us prefer to stay where our carnivorous diets are more agreeable. Not even Lutoume enjoys meat as much as we do.”

“Some places on Earth might.”

“More humans.”

“They had a whole fad diet around eating meat. There are places that serve steak the size of your body.”

“At what cost I wonder? Oh well. The day after tomorrow, after I have gone over everyone’s exams, I will have you recite your story in front of the class. I do still have to check your work for spelling or grammatical errors, which didn’t look too serious from what I saw already, but bring out your best speaker for this and the remaining eleven weeks will be a cinch.”

“No pressure.”

“I expect no less from a Thalassas. Truth be told I’m still waiting for your older sister to make an entrance and finally give us her own demonstration.”

“That would be a sight.”

“As long as it isn’t interpretive dance. I remember telling her it’s a speech class, among other things. Well now, I should prepare for my next class. I will see you in two days.”

***

During Martial Arts the students were allowed to test for their next level if they felt ready for it, but the main purpose for exercise persisted. Zoey timed out for a break when she took down a training dummy in third succession today in a personal record time. Next was going to be her endurance exercise.

“Keep up the good work,” her mom said, keeping an eye on the students in case they needed help with their own exercises.

“Thanks, Sensei,” Zoey said.

“How many exams do you have left this week?”

“I have a second test to take for Geography tomorrow, meaning I can sleep in an hour or more since Tonny is done with her tests until the day of transition. That same day I’ll get to present my short story for Doctor Evrahn’s class.”

“It’s not an interpretive dance, is it?”

“It is not. Did she really say she might do that?”

“We still wonder if it was a joke or not. It was quite hard to tell with that girl. She was always unpredictable.”

“Even in martial arts?”

“Even when fighting. My Aelfen senses and trained reflexes helped me so much when I taught her as much as I did.”

“Raising her must have been fun.”

“Between her and Dasos? It was difficult when Aerak and I were home for them. Add Tonny to the mix, and Aerak’s parents were at wit’s end all too often. Mine too, for that matter. I really should invite them to dinner sometime. The problem is explaining to them that we have a second daughter now. What about you? Do you have any plans for the next week?”

“Well, Tonny’s little sister is in town. I have also been gathering ingredients to make a large pizza or two. So I’ll probably celebrate the end of midterms with a quiet dinner between the four of us. Well, as quiet as she and Dasos will make it.”

Bon’sinne looked at her, her mouth hanging open, like she was in the midst of trying to form the right question.

***

Shungdi was pacing outside the condo door when Zoey got home from college. She appeared slightly frantic, and there was a paper in her hand.

“What’s wrong?” Zoey said.

“Zoi’ne, hello,” said Shungdi. “Oh, I shouldn’t have come.”

“Again, what’s wrong?”

“Well, I received an urgent message from Ginserei saying that I must leave here no later than the first of next month, or I will trigger another incident between our two peoples. I knew I would have to leave soon, but this is so sudden and forceful. I have to see to my duties to High House Leezu, but, well, here.”

She handed Zoey the piece of paper. It turned out to be an envelope once Zoey could see it up close and was holding it in her hands. Her brother’s name was written on one side.

“Make sure he gets this,” Shungdi said.

“Why don’t you tell him yourself?” Zoey said.

“I thought about that. I thought about all of the time we have spent together so far. Almost every time we met for any reason ended up with the two of us, well, you know.”

“Getting it on like a pair of rabbits?”

“What are . . . ? Never mind. I’m trying to avoid that right now because seeing him will make it harder to leave than it already is. I can’t risk being around Dasos right now. Please tell him I’m sorry.”

“I hate telling him a girl is sorry who handed me a note to hand to him. You still have three days, you know.”

“Yes, I know.” Shungdi headed for the elevator. “I know how you Aelfs are with your sense of time. This doesn’t feel right, but I must go. Until we meet again, Zoi’ne. I hope the times will be better by then.”

Zoey took one more look at the envelope in her hand when her friend was out of sight. She shook her head and went inside the condo.

***

“Work is slow today,” Zoey said.

Brach’geros said, “It usually is about this time until early next week when we get to make large orders for seasonal parties. Maybe it is a little slower today, come to think of it. I know of a couple regulars who haven’t shown up today or yesterday that aren’t students from the university.”

“What do we do when it’s this slow and quiet?”

“I usually have a book to read, or my personal computer handy to watch an old show. Like, there’s this classic from half a millennium ago about a time traveling space alien.”

“You know something? I think Earth has something like that too.”

“I’m sure a lot of planets had something like it. Watch all of the missing episodes be buried on a moon once lorded over by a bunch of space pirates.”

“Those damned pirates; always saving things.”

The two of them shot a glance at one another, and then laughed for a while.

***

Oh God, what am I doing?

Zoey now stood in front of the class to give her oral presentation of the story she had written for the primary assignment. Sure, only twelve other students were present today, but she now remembered the stage fright she once had doing book reports at the age of twelve.

Come on, Zoi’ne, you got this. You did a practice speech before a fuller class a month ago.

“Right,” she said, “here goes everything. This may seem cheap to those of you who know me, or who’ve at least heard rumors about where I’m from, but I wrote a story about this little, white box here.”

She indicated the first aid kit that had been returned to the table in front of the classroom for the purpose her presentation. Like some of her classmates she had gotten to see what was inside of it without taking anything out of the white container.

Her story was about two men whose car broke down in the middle of a desert. One of them had experience with car problems, and swore to the other that he could fix his buddy’s vehicle. However, as the man went out to look under the hood, a venomous snake bit him that had been hiding behind a rock.

The driver fumbled his first aid kit and dropped its contents all over the ground. Luckily, everything was neatly packaged in air-tight containers and readily labeled for him, save for two quarters.

Why two quarters, or coins amounting to five burras? The kit happened to be an old one, dating back to a day when payphones were a thing in most populated corners of the world. By now they had cellular devices, though running low on battery power after half a day of doing nothing with them, so calling for emergency responders from several hours’ travel no longer required those quarters.

Next to the coins, on the ground, was the snakebite kit that the driver now had to use on his buddy.

Zoey went on and on about the items as they were brought up in the story. Many of her dozen classmates contorted with dread at a number of the things she said, as if this underdeveloped planet full of humans was a grotesque experience for anyone who was a self-respecting Aelf. Bu, however, held a devious smile, looking on at Zoey for the whole of her story.

When she was done telling her story, Zoey bowed, and the doctor clapped.

Doctor Evrahn said, “Top marks. You see, class, Miss Thalassas here could very well have chosen to make up everything in her story, but she went as far as to find and list sources on the last page to show feasibility for everything said here. Not all planets shine as Elysium IX does today, and even Elysium Prime had its share of questionable or dark eras. You can believe what you will, or guess what you like, but without the proper levels of research you are doomed to look like a greater fool than her two main characters felt by the end of the story. Thank you, Zoi’ne. Everyone, class is dismissed until the tenth.”

One man exhaled audibly and was among the first to leave. Most of the students went through main door, while the doctor left through the other door to reach his office. The hallway door closed after him, making Zoey one of the last four people inside the classroom.

Bu said, “This Earth of yours is fascinating. I wonder what would become of it if someone were to take it over.”

“The Allied Peacekeepers would stop any such interference, Buska,” said one of the young men who stayed behind.

“From over thirty light-spans away? Come now.”

An explosion sounded outside, somewhere in the distance where Zoey was able to hear it. She tried to pinpoint the direction with her ears, but it was too late. The two men in the room reacted to the surprise as well. Bu, however, continued to use one desk as her seat and another as her foot stool. She twisted her smile again.

Then, as the door opened, she said, “Someone is playing my tune.”

Four Hulda’fi marched into the classroom. The men cowered back away from the door that the insurgents entered from, but Bu laughed. Zoey stood by the table, feeling the last emotion she had left for these rebels – apathy.

“Buska’vild, what are you doing?” said one man.

“My job,” said Buska. “I’m a recruiter for my brothers and sisters. And speaking of sisters . . .” Buska stormed across the room toward Zoey. She swung her hand in the air at Zoey, who blocked the incoming slap with ease and punched the girl in the face. Buska screamed out. “You should have joined us weeks ago,” said Buska. “You would be so much happier with us already. No matter, we can make you happier when this is all over.” The end of her words doubled by half a second.

The door opened again, and one more Hulda’fi entered the room.This one wore a black band on her left arm. Zoey stared at her right in the masked face, knowing who it was.

“Somebody in this room gets to die today,” said Soror Valide.

Chapter 46

There was a Ginserei girl in the distance who shouldn’t have been there. Dasos stretched his eye sockets a couple times in rapid succession and looked again, but the girl had already gone from his view. He wanted to put it out of his mind like any sane person, but working with the police for a while told him to check it out. Being a game master of some repute for several revolutions told Dasos that going after her was bound to lead to an adventure all on its own.

Maybe he needed the distraction. After the note that he had found sticking inside his door a couple days ago, something like an investigation was sure to keep his mind off of the hurt he felt. Dasos headed toward the campus administration building where he had seen the mystery girl. If this took a mere few minutes then at least the excursion was better than nothing.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw someone approach. He had turned his head when he recognized Tong-Chang.

“Dasos,” she said, “I’m glad I finally caught you.”

“Hey, Tonny,” he said.

“Oh, I know that tone.”

“What tone?”

“We dated for a while, remember? We were also best friends before that. I know when something is eating at you. My sister must have said something really stupid in that letter if you sound so spaced out and unenthusiastic.”

“It’s still in the trash at home if you want to read it.”

“Yeah, right, like I’m going to dig through two days’ worth of trash when you can tell me about it. Look, I know our relationship ended on a bad note due to our own stupid things that we both said, but I wanted to say I‘m sorry, for all of it.”

“Thanks.”

“So why are we headed this way?”

“We? Well, I think I saw someone who shouldn’t even be here. I was going to look to be sure.”

“So vague and mysterious.”

“Tonny.”

“How do you recognize someone that doesn’t belong on this campus when there are so many people who attend this university?”

“She was a hazel-haired Ginserei. They’re not so common here in Trullwick. She reminded me of my ex that moved away and was attacked by the Hulda’fi.”

Tong-Chang stared at him for a moment before she said, “How many of your ex-girlfriends are Ginserei?”

He stopped in place to make a witty retort, but then he thought about it for once. Dasos had five girlfriends in his life so far, with one being an Aelf out of the whole lot. This also counted Shungdi among the remaining four. Was that what she was?

Suddenly, the third floor of the administration building exploded. The sound of it was deafening; even disorienting. Dasos knew what floor, or which two windows, were destroyed because he had been looking up at it when it happened.

The screams in the distance were faint. He was unsure how near or far they were, because his ears needed to recover after the explosion that had gone off. His doubled senses went off while he tried to recuperate. Dasos saw Tong-Chang hold her hands to her mouth and look around them in all directions.

Dasos could have sworn then that some of the screams were howls of laughter. Two individuals appeared within seconds. They wore the standard charcoal and brown suits with hoods and masks that the Hulda’fi were known to wear.

***

“Soror, what is going on?” Zoey asked.

Soror Valide said, “What does it look like? The time has come, at last, for us to strike. You have no idea how long we have waited to make this happen, or the efforts we made to afford this perfect moment.”

She had stepped closer as she spoke. Buska drew towards her and caressed Soror Valide from the side, her hand drawing an intimate outline across the curves beneath the Hulda’fi suit. Soror Valide looked sideways at the other girl. Then, before anyone could react, she backhanded Buska across the face and knocked her back. Buska landed by the front row of desks.

“Consider that my ‘thank you,’” Soror Valide said, “for bringing me into the fold two revolutions ago.”

Buska laughed and said, “That is some appreciation. Have you no shame or love for me? We used to be so close.”

“That was the old me. You left me to be initiated by our brothers and sisters. You are lucky that I don’t order you to be stripped and beaten for that.”

The other Hulda’fi in the room pointed their guns at Soror Valide. Buska laughed aloud, her wail obnoxious.

“You forget,” Buska said, “you might command the Kroke Team and have some special favor from Lord and Lady Tunderek, but I am still your superior in every way.”

“Not quite. So these four are the stragglers you’ve convinced to stick around here after class so we can do for them as was done for me? The boys can come. This one stays put.”

“That’s not up to you. In fact, I may kill one of the boys, here and now, so I can prove who’s in command here.”

Soror Valide growled, and then said, “I see your body modification procedure hasn’t done your temperament any favors, or were you always this way?”

Her question made the other Hulda’fi across the room laugh. Buska smiled and curtsied, her expression full of wicked defiance. Zoey saw her move before it happened. “Get down,” Zoey said to the two men in the room, but she was too late to save one of them. Buska had already grabbed the gun from one of the rebels and shot one of their classmates.

The girl cackled.

Zoey winced, and hoped that, by some miracle, the pistol had missed any vital organs, or that someone could come and save the man who was shot before it was too late to treat him. She grit her teeth at her sister now.

“Soror,” said Zoey, “you don’t have to do this.”

“Yes I do,” Soror Valide said. “In time you’ll understand it as well as I do.”

“What about Das and Tonny? Will they understand?”

“Everyone will.”

“And do you want them to? Do you expect either one of them to accept it? Soror, please, you’re an idiot if you expect me to believe it.”

Buska laughed again. She said, “Soror, Soror! If you only knew how pathetic this sounds. Maybe you were right; maybe I should have killed Zoi’ne.”

“Sister, help me. Help everyone.”

Soror Valide focused on Zoey and grabbed something from her harness. She held out her clenched hand, which held an item that Zoey could not see. Soror Valide shook her head. Something clicked in her hand and she threw it behind her. There was a burst of light and darkness. Zoey felt Soror Valide tackle her, and her body hit the floor in a flash. Hulda’fi pistols sounded, as did a number of distorted shouts from the other side of the room.

When Zoey attempted to gather her surroundings she spotted the last surviving young man from her class crouching and reaching for the hallway door. Soror Valide had tucked herself and Zoey behind the main table, and she looked toward the door as it opened. The older sister threw something else from her harness back at the source of distorted light. Crackling sounds followed.

They ran for the other side of the connecting hallway. Doctor Evrahn appeared and guided them through the door at the end. He closed it once they were inside the opposite classroom.

“It’s madness outside,” Doctor Evrahn said. “What I want to know is who is this Hulda’fi in our midst?”

Soror Valide walked to the door going outside and said, “It doesn’t matter. We don’t have time. The others will be coming here next from both sides. Zoi’ne, you are on your own. Don’t you dare ask me for help a second time.”

Then she ran out of the door opposite to the hallway, never once looking back at anyone inside this classroom. Zoey dipped her head. She took a few seconds to curse at herself before heading to the exit. She beckoned for everyone else who stood inside the classroom—there were five people including the professors and one other student that she had run here with—and held the door open for the whole group.

“I’m going to have a serious talk with her later,” she said. “Come on, it isn’t safe here.”

***

Both Hulda’fi charged at Dasos and Tong-Chang. They were either giving chase or meaning to attack up them close. Either reason for the charge was a mistake. Dasos took one down with ease, and he saw Tong-Chang bring the second one down as well. She entered a defensive pose while standing over both of them.

He looked up again at the windows that had blown out. The woman that Dasos had seen earlier was looking down at him. It really was her, but it couldn’t be. Chinda grinned at him, and swung herself outside of the busted window, scaling down the side of the building.

Chinda landed and said, “It’s been a while. You never call.”

“What happened to you?” Dasos said.

“I was liberated and found a new purpose in life. I can help you find that same purpose; both of you. My brothers and sisters will always welcome more. The Lord and Lady will welcome you with open arms.”

“So the same that happened to Il’lyse then.”

“No. Unlike that bitch I’m going to live by the end of the day. Her usefulness to us has run out. You don’t ever need to worry about her again.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh?”

He charged at her for an assault of his own. Her eyes widened as Dasos made his first swing. Chinda, however, parried his blow before it could land, turning and striking the back of his legs with one of hers. Dasos used the momentum to backflip and grapple her upper body with his legs. He let go. Chinda grunted a second later when her body hit the floor. Dasos had no idea how or where she picked up some fighting moves, but she was too dangerous to let go.

“Thank you for confirming she’s alive,” he said.

They both got up and entered their choice poses. Chinda said, “You Thalassas are renowned for your little tradition with the martial arts. How far did you ever go, I wonder?”

No answer; his eyes turned cold and met hers.

“Oh, that’s right,” she said, “you were always more of a runner than a fighter. You took up Track and Field. You never stood your ground or learned how to protect yourself and others.”

He still said nothing. Now his pose changed as the two of them circled this spot.

“Say something, already!”

Dasos held his pose. Staying here, as he was, felt right for the moment.

“Your loss. I guess I will have to kill your girlfriend.”

She only ever resorted to threats when she was at wit’s end. Dasos knew this all too well from their time together.

In an instant, Dasos smirked, and then he charged in and faked out Chinda with another palm strike that was easy for her to dodge. His other hand was ready, though, and one of his legs slipped between hers so she would be unable to try tripping him. Dasos grappled the woman and brought her down to the ground face-first. She did her best to struggle, she screamed a thrashed, but Dasos held her.

“I’m placing you under arrest,” he said.

Tong-Chang said, “Well done, Dasos. Now then, would you two like another go, or will you stay down?”

The two Hulda’fi who wore masks stood up quickly. They had attached beaks to their visage before doing so, and both of them touched the devices on their belts. They teleported in blasts of smoke the second after that.

“Oh no,” Tong-Chang said, “they’re doing that again.”

On the edge of their earshot, the modulated laughter from those masks became more intense and maniacal.

***

Zoey checked her pockets with a series of hand pats, but her hoody and phone weren’t with her. They must have been back in that classroom with her book bag and computer. She led her small group across the campus without these things, wishing she had her phone handy for an emergency like this one. Her group crouched and used the cover of trees or bushes to stay out of sight of the Hulda’fi. They didn’t go far before Zoey saw that the Hulda’fi were teleporting around. That was going to make it harder to stay out of sight.

“How are they doing that, I wonder?” said Doctor Evrahn.

“My girlfriend probably knows more about it than I can tell you. We’ll have to be more careful, and quiet as well.”

“No arguments here. Do you know where we’re going, however?”

“To find someone who has a better idea as to where to go. If nothing else, I think my mom would be a good bet. Nobody in their right mind ever messes with her.”

Maniacal laughter echoed from distant rebels.

“See?” Zoey said. “We’ll be totally safe.”

***

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Soror Valide felt perplexed by what she had done for that girl. She wanted acceptance and favor from the Hallowed Lord and Lady. She wanted for Tong-Chang and Das’ithrios to be safe. That damn, stupid girl had to go and ask her for help, calling her “sister.”

She stormed across the campus, ignoring her brothers and sisters who were now teleporting around like gnats that had discovered how to manipulate space and time. None of them seemed to be attacking her. Not yet.

Around one corner was a group of innocents trying to hide. They were outside of one of the dormitories in a patio area that was surrounded by bushes on all sides. The group consisted of three children, a resident assistant judging by the vest he wore, and a half-Ginserei, half-Aelf. Soror Valide could have sworn she knew his face. He spotted her looking around the corner. Distress spread across his eyes and mouth for one brief moment.

Then one of the Hulda’fi appeared behind the group. The rebel’s laugh rang out through that mask.

Soror Valide ran forward, saying, “Look out!”

“Huh?” the Hulda’fi said. It was all they could do before Soror Valide unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks. With one last punch, the rebel collapsed. Realizing what she had done, Soror Valide looked around to see if there were any witnesses to this act; any brothers or sisters. Only the group she had rescued saw her.

“You saved us,” said the resident assistant.

“Shut up,” Soror Valide said. “I don’t even know what I’m doing. What are you doing out here?”

The other man said, “We saw these kids belonging to two of the professors. We had to save them. We don’t know where to go now.”

She fought the urge to scream. “Find a place cut off from the university’s inter-server. That is how they’re getting around. Go now.”

“Wait, why are you helping us?”

“I told you I don’t know.”

“Aur’gott, do you know any such place on campus? I will need you to lead us there if such a place exists.”

“Yes, I think I know the place,” said the resident assistant. “I hope they haven’t blocked it or done any worse, though. Thank you, whoever you are. Brach’geros and I will take the kids there now.”

She knew that name. How many revolutions had it been since she heard it? How many since she saw that boy’s face. It couldn’t have been him, could it?

Soror Valide kneeled to meet the kids’ eye level and said, “Don’t you worry. You will be safe. You, Brach’geros, take good care of them, or the lady of the haunted wood will come for her revenge.”

Color faded from his face by a shade or two as the man with shortened Ginserei ears looked at her in surprise. Ha! So it was him.

The group scuttled along, seeking sanctuary someplace that not even she knew about, and Il’lyse could have sworn she knew all of the cool places to hide around here. Something in her chest felt right about this, but it made even less sense. Damn it, this whole mess was going to drive her crazy.

***

“There she is,” Zoey said.

Her group stopped a stone’s throw from the marker sticking out of the ground that told everyone they were nearing the gym. Between the marker and the building were a few thin trees, among which Bon’sinne and Su-Jin were fending off more than half a dozen Hulda’fi that had made the mistake of trying to fight them. Bon’sinne was clearly faster and stronger in the moves that she used, but Su-Jin flowed between his attacks in a manner that Zoey had never seen before, not even in movies. The man was far more fluid than she thought possible for any living person to achieve.

One Hulda’fi saw Zoey and her group, and then ran for her instead of continuing their failed assault on the martial arts instructors. When the rebel got to her, Zoey used their momentum and her body to flip the attacker into the air. She quickly turned and kicked the falling rebel in the chest, knocking them back further from herself, and they hit the ground. The moment that the Hulda’fi stopped moving, Zoey placed a hand on her hip and the other in the air, staring at the person that she had brought down.

“Here I thought I was the one who leaps before she looks,” Zoey said.

The Hulda’fi that she had knocked down got up again on their knees using one hand. They looked Zoey’s way and touched the device on their belt. Zoey released her doubled senses and listened. The echo before the sound came from behind and above.

As the insurgent she was fighting vanished from one spot, Zoey turned and slid away, readying a defensive stance. The Hulda’fi reappeared, attempting to come down on her, but she was ready with a palm strike to the face. Zoey caught the beak between her fingers. She pushed forward. Her own force slammed this adversary’s body on the ground as easily as she had done with a training dummy on a few occasions.

Zoey yanked the mask off of the Hulda’fi rebel, and tossed it behind the bushes near her. The Aelfen woman on the ground was out cold now.

“Wait, I know her,” said one of the students who came closer.

“I’m sorry to say this,” said Zoey, “but chances are that any one of us knew all of them. I think they were taken from us and brainwashed.”

“All of them?”

“Zoi’ne!” her mom called from the distance. The Hulda’fi that remained behind by this point had also been knocked out. Zoey could also see the weapons scattered on the ground now that she could approach her mom.

“Holy crap, Mom,” said Zoey. “The two of you are awesome.”

“In two weeks we’ll teach you to disarm your opponents as well. I see you found a nice little group here. Why did you bring them this way?”

“We need to get them to safety. I brought them all to you since you might know better than I do on this matter.”

Bon’sinne made a slow, deliberate glance at Doctor Evrahn, who shrugged. She said, “There’s a place, assuming that the people running the area upstairs are smart and decide to turn off the inter-server relays. If these rebels are using the same method to teleport around as they did on the Marslou then our best bet will be the bunker beneath the main plaza.”

“I had no idea there was anywhere underneath.”

“Two thirds of the people who come here typically don’t. It’s bad oversight, not telling all of the right people about the emergency bunker. We should all head there now. Suffice to say that class is canceled for today.”

“Mom, my things are still in class.”

“Things can be replaced, dear.”

“I’ve been using Il’lyse’s computer all semester. It’s in my bag. I need to grab that at some point.”

“Why do you have her things?”

“She had left it at Tonny’s before took off with . . . Oh, crap. It’s Bu.” Her sudden revelation made several people look around anxiously. No, she wasn’t around where they stood, but Zoey felt like her sister’s ex hit her over the head with a baseball bat and was laughing at her for taking so long to think about it. “She was him. Oh my god, but why is she here?”

“I’m not sure what any of that means, but come on. Let’s get to safety. The Allied Peacekeepers should be handling this now.”

Zoey was deep in thought, trying to think about what else she missed in the past couple months, while her mom took the lead.

The main plaza wasn’t far. At the heart of the campus, the main plaza housed the student store, a pair of outdoor seating areas with a roof over them, an indoor lounge for when the weather was too cold for the outdoor seating, and the central hub for all of the food carts when they were not in use. Now, the students and professors alike were clamoring for this haven.

Before Zoey could reflect on how easy it was that everyone was able to make it here without Hulda’fi interference, or how many people came when the bunker wasn’t common knowledge, several more of the Hulda’fi appeared and charged at the crowd. No one among the students and college staff looked prepared to fend for themselves, and they were too far away. If only she could do something for them.

A man behind her put a hand on her shoulder. She was at the rear of the group her mom had been leading, so she didn’t know who was there while the rebels attacked the innocent before her. She didn’t know if it was friend or foe, but what she saw ahead told her to expect the worst. Zoey grabbed the man’s wrist and turned, ready to strike if needed.

Chapter 47

“Ugh!” said a sister over the masks’ radio “It looks like Soror Valide has betrayed us. We were fighting these two instructors when she came along and struck one of our sisters down like she was a low level dummy.”

Soror Valide stopped where she was. She said, “That wasn’t me.”

“Oh shit, you’re still on this thing? Get off, you traitor.”

“It wasn’t me. If you saw someone who has my face then it was probably Zoi’ne. Watch out for her. I will deal with her if I need to.”

“We’re changing frequencies now. So long, Soror Valide. We’re all glad to be rid of you.”

She stood on the northern side of the main plaza now, and she heard the vicious cackles of her brothers and sisters off in the distance. Why did her kindred change over to new frequencies so readily? Why did any of this have to happen?

Soror Valide tightened her fists. There was no turning back. If she tried to return to Dereskoo now then she would be killed. It seemed as though no one was willing to believe her. This whole thing was a disaster. She tried so hard to get on the good graces of the Lord and Lady, she really did. She tried to set up other sisters for the blame on a few acts.

Damn her. Damn that Zoi’ne. I’m going to kill that girl when I see her next. All of this is her fault.

***

She turned suddenly. Her arm muscles lax and ready to ball up for a strike once her fist could land. The man who had come from behind caught her with his second hand. She then saw her dad’s face.

“Whoa, Zoey,” said Keft’aerak, “I’m one of the good guys.”

Zoey eyed him up and down and beamed. She said, “How do I know you aren’t an elaborate copy made by the rebels?”

“For starters take a look at this.” He pointed toward the main plaza where the people had gathered.

A dozen figures that Zoey hadn’t seen before appeared between the Hulda’fi and the people who were trying to get inside of the plaza. Unlike the insurgents they did not emerge through puffs of smoke. Twice their sizes in their space had warped as though the air tried to consume light until the light retaliated and burst out. The air returned to normal, and what remained were the men and women of the Allied Peacekeepers.

The Peacekeepers had their pistols and palisticks ready. The Hulda’fi were split between those who saw the interlopers and stopped, and the fools who kept running for the crowd of civilians. The latter were struck down in a brutal instant. The others ran off or teleported away

Keft’aerak said, “We have five ships in orbit around this planet, and another two each for Ginserei and Dee Su. Admiral Fjorfolia was the lone man unable to spare any of his crew at the moment. He said it was something to do with an attack on his home, so he has people there protecting it.”

“Or, you know, maybe he’s their leader,” said Zoey.

“That’s doubtful. Let’s not share that idea with anyone else, either.”

Zoey hugged her dad. “It’s good to see you.”

Bon’sinne said, “Do you think the underground bunker will fit everyone, or will we need to evacuate civilians up to the ships?”

“It might be wise to bring a few people up,” Keft’aerak said. “We don’t know yet how many of them there are, where they were hiding, or how they’re getting in or out of our barricades. If we do bring anyone up it will have to be soon, and fast, or else the affected cities across the known galaxy will be locked down, with no one allowed to get in or out for a while.”

“Take Zoey back up with you then.”

“What? Mom!” said Zoey.

“How long do we have before you have to teleport back up to your ship, love?”

“Long enough,” said Keft’aerak, “to help these people either get down below or off of the campus, assuming anywhere else in Trullwick is safe. That shopping district the kids used to love is also under attack. The Ginserei Embassy in town has been hit as well.”

“Damned goblins, these rebels. Alright, let’s move quick.”

The rest of the group had been sitting quietly or conversing among themselves, but that ended when Bon’sinne announced that they were moving again. Some of the Peacekeepers regarded Zoey in particular as they joined the hundreds of people trying to get into the plaza. She ignored their gaze and turned her own attention to the upset people in the crowd.

One person that she heard contemplated leaving, or whether or not coming to the main plaza was a good idea in the first place. Another wept for a friend that had died in their arms a few minutes prior to coming here.

Both of her parents went to a door on the side of the student store’s exterior, and then they proceeded to help the students and professors into it. Zoey couldn’t see what was behind the door without getting close and congesting the in-going crowd, but the taller heads that she spotted went down before leaving her field of vision.

Well, it is an underground bunker, they said.

She went around the plaza and pointed the way toward the door for anyone who needed it. Apparently most of these students had come this way because they saw other people coming here, and more fled the campus entirely who survived. Zoey shook her head, trying not to think about how many people died today, or who had been taken away to be recruited by the Hulda’fi.

Inside of the front entrance to the student store, she found a few people arguing with one another. One of them was Brach’geros, as he and one other that Zoey barely recognized as the resident assistant were trying to tell the worker inside to shut down something that she hadn’t caught yet.

Zoey drew near to see if she could help. She heard the store employee say, “I’m sorry, but we must keep our relay open at all times in case of an emergency. It’s our policy. Please go down to this bunker of yours if you really think it exists, but I’m also telling you that it doesn’t.”

“What’s going on?” Zoey said.

Brach’geros turned and said, “Zoey, oh hey. I’m glad you’re safe. Listen, we need to get downstairs, because someone told us we need to get away from the inter-server for some reason.”

“That last part makes sense. The Hulda’fi will have infected the school’s system with a virus of theirs, and they’re using the affected system as a hub to teleport all over the campus. I’ve seen them do this once before when I was on the Marslou.”

“What, really?”

“According to Tonny they can only teleport within range of the relays. Who told you to get away from the inter-server?”

“It was someone who was dressed like these rebels, but I think she called herself the ‘lady of the haunted wood.’ We’re in here trying to make sure that the relays can’t reach anywhere down there.”

The resident assistant said, “From what I understand there is a layer, about ten centimeters thick, of lead sandwiched between sheets of titanium. I haven’t the slightest clue if that’s enough to block this signal, but I wanted to be on the safe side. This person won’t allow it.”

“I told you,” said the store employee, “there’s a policy in place. I can’t let anyone shut down the relay or it will cost me my job, or possibly worse.”

At that moment, the lights turned off. The humming of air purifiers ceased. Even the desktop computer monitors went out. After a brief moment the emergency lights came on around the inside of the store. The blackout made the store employee take a step back, his head shaking and his hands stroking his scalp with force. Zoey wanted to tell him this wasn’t his fault.

Suddenly there was a scream in the middle of the crowd outside.

***

They had been holding Chinda captive when two Allied Peacekeepers appeared by them, both of them Ginserei. Tong-Chang told the uniformed pair that she had to get to the second basement of the library, and that she requested the aid of a technician who was good with diagnostic systems.

“Our first priority is to get you to safety,” said one of the Peacekeepers.

“We’ll all be a lot safer if I can turn off the inter-server, and your best tech person can rid the entire system of the virus that’s infecting it right now before it retakes full effect. We need to stop the Hulda’fi from teleporting everywhere.”

“That is not our call. If you had the authority to make that order then we would gladly obey.”

Uh-oh. Dasos saw the look of desperation and anger in Tong-Chang’s eyes. She was about to do something that she really did not want to do. The one question that was left was what, exactly, that thing was, but that question didn’t last long at all. She hoisted the front of her shirt, past her bra, to reveal the patch of hair on her chest. Dasos took his eyes off of her, but he remembered when it was a single, narrow strip instead of its current shape, though he had once suspected that Tong-Chang shaved around the edges, if simply to maintain it out of cleanliness.

It was a mark of royalty, however. The Ginserei present all saw this patch of hair, and the two Peacekeepers kneeled before Tong-Chang set her shirt back down.

“You!” said Chinda, who was bound and unable to move. “You’re royalty? Since when?”

Tong-Chang said, “Hear me. I understand your loyalties and orders under the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance. You have every right to observe them. I, however, am heading to the library with or without you. I am requesting your aid, no more.”

“Yes, your Highness,” said one of the Peacekeepers.

They called down a technician who could do software better than Tong-Chang could, as her strengths were in the hardware rather than code. One of the Peacekeepers transported away from the scene with Chinda. The new group left the administration building for the library once the technician had arrived.

Along the way, Dasos called his boss, who told him that the full police force was spread out across the city. The police captain said that many buildings were damaged and lives lost in this attack that had come out of nowhere. There was no telling where the Hulda’fi were at the moment, but it wasn’t looking good, be it in Trullwick or the other major cities across the Hoshi-Lacartan territory.

That meant a full lockdown was imminent for all cities impacted by this attack. Dasos knew about the alliance’s protocol because he had overheard his parents arguing one night about what to do about their children should such a thing happen while they were away.

Inside of the library, Dasos and the officer from the Allied Peacekeepers entered first and kept their heads low as they went in. Tong-Chang followed along with their technician, but they stopped in a nook in the wall while Dasos continued to investigate. A few bookcases had holes blown into them the size of his chest. Staring at one of the holes gave him flashbacks to the night when he had been shot and nearly killed. There, too, was one body on the ground that he could see; after Chinda there was no telling if this person was a student, a Hulda’fi, or both. The last sign he could find of the rebels being responsible for this assault was one of their pistols on the floor, away from the body.

The library was meant to be quiet, but this silence was as close to deafening as any that Dasos had heard in his life. The Peacekeeper pointed to the stairs going down, and Dasos nodded. Together they passed the first basement, leading their escorts down when it appeared safe, and then entered the second one. A pair of Hulda’fi were down there, standing by a room with a console and adjacent servers. Their masks were off, and the two rebels were more preoccupied with one another’s attention than guarding the university’s inter-server. Dasos rolled his head and eyes.

The boy among the pair spotted the Peacekeeper to one side. He pushed himself, and the girl, back against the wall. Dasos expected the two of them to lash out, but they acted frightened. He had flanked the duo from the other side.

“No,” the girl said when she saw Dasos, “don’t hurt us.”

“Don’t move,” said Dasos.

“No one was supposed to come,” said the boy. “We only agreed to be down here because it was the two of us all by ourselves.”

“Meanwhile the others are hurting countless innocents all over the galaxy. Sorry, but I don’t believe that you, alone, are harmless.”

“You’re wrong. Our brothers and sisters aren’t so dangerous. Our Lord and Lady wouldn’t allow it,” said the girl.

“I don’t know where you’ve been, but your kind have been harming others for several revolutions.”

“No, hallowed are the pleasures of the flesh!”

“Get on the ground, face-down,” said the Peacekeeper, who came closer from his side of the bookcases that were full of reference books and back-up storage disks for the periodicals. “Do it, and you’ll only be taken somewhere cozy. None of us want to hurt anyone we don’t have to.”

The girl obeyed by holding her arms to the side and bending her legs so she was sitting on her ankles. Her partner bent one knee while facing the Peacekeeper, but then darted sideways towards Dasos. Dasos grabbed the boy’s hand and socked him in the stomach. With an open hand Dasos followed up the hit by grabbing the boy’s chest and pushing forward. He slammed the young rebel’s body against the ground.

“Please don’t hurt him,” said the girl. “Brother, why did you attack? This isn’t us. We are not violent. We’re not!”

“Shut up, sister,” said the boy. “We take what we want. The Hallowed Lady says so. Hallowed are the Tunderek.”

Dasos shouted back towards the stairs, saying, “It’s safe to come down. Tonny?”

The Peacekeeper said, “You don’t know that yet.” He bound the girl’s arms and legs, and propped her against the wall.

“It’s safe enough. Tonny, where are you?”

Seconds later the technician appeared, but not Tong-Chang. He said, “The young lady ran outside.”

“She did what?”

“There is a utility box outside that operates the electrical power to the university. She decided that shutting everything down that way might be easier.”

With a shallow gasp, the boy said, “No, she can’t. You can’t let her do that. We need the servers and relays running. You can’t do this to us!” He flailed beneath Dasos like a fish, but Dasos stared past the technician toward the stairs.

Something dawned on him. He got up and ran when he realized the likelihood of what was about to happen if Tong-Chang succeeded, or what it would mean for her if she failed. He knew that the rebels used the relays’ infected signal, plus their mindsets that had been addled by the drug, to teleport around the area. Tong-Chang had no way of monitoring whether or not anyone was mid-teleport. She had no protection against oncoming shooters or attackers beyond her own fighting ability.

The number of steps to every stair, the signs asking for quiet within the library, the distance he had to run; none of it mattered in the slightest. Dasos ran until he turned the last corner outside and heard a woman scream in agony.

Tong-Chang sat next to the utility box—a structure that had been painted green with two orange stripes at the top—and held her hands over her mouth as she looked in utter horror. A Hulda’fi lied across the ground, reaching out to her. Their mangled body appeared to be in the process of collapsing from a sudden loss of weight. Somewhere between the Hulda’fi on the ground and where they started was everything that they had lost in an instant.

Dasos walked to his best friend and took her into his arms. He tried his best to avert her gaze from the dying rebel. She didn’t need to see the grotesque display lying across the clovers.

“I killed them,” she said. “I should have thought of this. I killed all of the rebels who were teleporting.”

“You did what you had to do,” Dasos said. “I’m so sorry, Tong-Chang.”

“I’ve killed on of them before, but how does it hurt this bad?” Her body quaked in his arms. “They’re horrible people, and it feels like this.”

“We’re not monsters like they are. We recognize the pain that comes with ending any life.” Meanwhile, the real monsters gathered in the distance. Several of them, more than he cared to count, stared right at them through their masks. He couldn’t see their faces, but he knew what to expect.

The Hulda’fi drew their weapons, some ranged and others not. Dasos took Tong-Chang and moved quickly. “Run,” he said. The first gun blast missed them and hit the utility box.

***

A single dead Hulda’fi lied on the concrete floor where the crowd of people had dispersed and the scream had sounded. Zoey looked at the body. The first thought to come to her mind was the transmat phenomenon that gave her the body she had now, and other thoughts gave chase through her mind, such as the many Hulda’fi teleporting around and the power going out without warning.

“Stay calm, everyone!” said Keft’aerak. He swiftly picked up his cell-comm and spoke into it. “We have some bodies down here that need to be moved due to the panic they are inducing. Material Transference One, can you take the one twelve meters from my position? Thank you. One more thing; we will have a few people transporting up to you momentarily. Please stand by.”

Zoey watched as a red sheen outlined the rebel body and the corpse was gone in a flash. She twitched in several places.

“Are you alright, Zoey?” her dad asked.

“I’ll be fine,” said Zoey.

“Good. My ship isn’t the gold standard of the galaxy like the Marslou, but we’ll be both secure and comfortable up there, aboard the Hav Svan.”

“O-oh, you’re taking me up there.”

“Of course. It isn’t safe for you down here. I’ll have Dasos and Tonny sent up as well when we find them.”

“I need to get my things.”

“They’re just things, Zoey.”

She shook her head. “They’re more than that. They’re keepsakes; my wallet and phone, Il’lyse’s computer. Besides, if we have time then I need to help find my brother and girlfriend.”

“I’m not sure I can risk that.”

“What about Tonny’s child?”

“Child?”

Bon’sinne set a hand on her husband’s shoulder. She took a moment to whisper in his ear, during which time Keft’aerak recoiled deflated. He hadn’t known about the baby until now, and this was one revelation he did not need amidst the discord all over the galaxy he was charged to explore and protect.

“So I see,” he said. He grabbed something from his side pouch and handed it to Zoey. “Find her, and use this. We’ll be able to calibrate the transmat to the three of you, her unborn child included.”

He pressed a box in her hands the size of her palm. She said, “I so hate the idea of transporting.”

“I’m aware, but you got this.”

Banging sounds echoed a distance away. Zoey looked in the direction that they came from. They were reminiscent of the guns that the Hulda’fi used, compared to the other ones that Zoey had heard in either life. Seconds later Bon’sinne flipped a pistol in her hands, activating it, and Keft’aerak checked his side where he had kept the gun. She looked out from the plaza where the Hulda’fi could be seen chasing after two people.

Zoey recognized Dasos and Tong-Chang as the two of them ran to the side. The Peacekeepers and Bon’sinne fired their guns out at the rebels, but they were far away. More shots missed than hit. Yet they kept firing. The Hulda’fi broke off again.

“We should pursue them,” said Bon’sinne. “This suppression fire, alone, is going to waste time and ammunition.”

“Agreed,” Keft’aerak said, taking his gun back gently. “Charge the Hulda’fi; take who we can.”

The Peacekeepers ran after the rebels with Zoey’s dad among them. Zoey looked out in the direction that her brother and girlfriend had run. It was towards the building where she had General Complements. She ran after them.

***

They entered a space between the library and a pair of classrooms, conjoined by a hallway with a series of windows on one side. The Hulda’fi were no longer following Dasos and Tong-Chang where they stood, but Dasos wanted to keep on moving. He did not want to take any more chances today. What if the Hulda’fi changed their minds and went after them again?

Tong-Chang stopped him with a tug of the arm. Her breaths were shallow and exhausted. She said, “Stars beyond, I shouldn’t be running with this baby inside me. It’s really tiring. Come on, we need to head back into the library.”

“Why?” Dasos said.

“I’ve thought of something while we were getting away from those rebels. I need to find a certain book real quick. It has to do with Zoey’s transformation.”

“Now? We can do that later when we don’t have every last Hulda’fi in the galaxy gunning after us. None of us wants anything to happen to you or your baby, in case you didn’t realize that.”

“Don’t you see? It’s because of what we did, and because of this pregnancy, that I know what to look for. If I don’t look now then there’s no telling when I’ll remember later on. Then it will bother me like some unseen pest buzzing around the room while I try to get anything else done.”

“Das! Tonny!” said Zoey when she turned the corner and caught up with them.

“Zoey, my love.” They embraced each other.

“Why were so many Hulda’fi after you like that?”

“I kind of shut down the power to the inter-servers by doing the same to the rest of the campus. I’m trying not to think about it. A few of them died, Zoey. Maybe more.”

“Yes, I saw.”

“I want to grieve them, I want to rest, but we have to get to safety.”

“Right. My dad handed me this box, whatever it is.” Zoey held up a device that was smaller than her fists. Dasos recognized it the second he could see what it was.

“That’s a transmat beacon. It can make a perfect matrix around the holder and let someone teleport you to them. Why would he hand you this? Wait, why is he here?”

“His ship, the Hav Svan, is one of several vessels up in orbit right now. He knows about your pregnancy, and handed me this so we can both be brought up safely. I don’t know. I hate transmats.”

Dasos said, “Then we should go. His crew will be expecting us.”

“I still have to grab my things. They’re inside the classroom over here. Did you see anyone go in or out of it?”

“I don’t think so. Tonny says she has to grab something from the library. I’m not a fan of either of you going anywhere.”

“Then let’s meet back here in ten minutes, or somewhere close-by if this spot is too dangerous by then. Tong-Chang and I will head up together. Das, are you able to contact Dad’s ship to have them bring you up?”

“I think my cell-comm is running low on battery power, but I can do that. This doesn’t seem like the best idea.”

“Let me know when a ‘best idea’ comes along.”

Zoey kissed him on the forehead, followed by Tong-Chang on the lips. She ran off without another word.

***

A team of Hulda’fi, the last of the Kroke Team, was running toward the plaza from the northeast, where the student lounge sat. Soror Valide asked herself what she was if not one of them. She sat in a tree, concealing herself in its bare branches, as her former brother and sisters came closer.

Lord and Lady Tunderek will hear of this. They will know everyone turned on me. They will accept me with open arms.

She jumped down upon one of the girls after they passed the tree. A few of them turned, but she was a beast to their mice, an armed ship to their shuttles, and a neutron star to their protostars. Soror Valide punched, kicked, and grappled her former brother and sisters in a fury matched by the force of a planet colliding with all of its moons and satellites.

For every one of them that fell, she felt for something, anything, within herself. There was nothing. This wasn’t enough.

The few Hulda’fi who had made it as far as the lounge met with a hard-hitting fate of their own. A single Aelf woman in a gi dealt some blows to them until the final boy and girls were all on the ground writhing in pain. Soror Valide saw her mom’s face and knew there was no more running away. Fear grabbed for her heart, but she kicked it as hard as she had done to her kindred. There was only one way to end this.

“That’s an impressive level of skill you have,” Bon’sinne said. “Who are you?”

The sole answer that Soror Valide gave her was by entering a fighting stance. She was a fourth level, the highest among the Hulda’fi as far as she knew. Her mom was a sixth level, Bon’sinne had once told her, many revolutions ago.

“Oh, it’s you,” Bon’sinne said. “Soror Valide.”

“Enough talk, and no more running,” Soror Valide said.

Her mom ran for her, and Soror Valide charged as well.

***

Zoey entered the classroom. The two rows of desks toward the front had all been knocked forward as if aimed at something that stood in front of the table, which stood where it was because it was stationary.

Her jacket and book bag sat further back, and on the other side of the room from the entrance. She took another step into the room before looking to her left.

Bu was aiming a gun right at her, as well as her wicked smile.

Chapter 48

“I knew you would be coming back for your shit,” said Bu.

Zoey said, “Why did you take Il’lyse?”

“It was my job. Woo the troubled youth, run away with them, and take them to Lady Tunderek to be blessed by her. It’s what I do.”

“Your brother blames himself for letting you turn out the way you are.”

“So, you’ve met Ren’baek? That pretentious ass never did know where his reach began and where it ended. I guess I’ll no longer need my alias. When my kin are done wreaking havoc across the alliance territory we will be able to take anything from it at any time. I’ll be able to enjoy more of those blessings instead of working all the time to add to our numbers.”

“But why Il’lyse?”

“She was troubled. She still is, though I understand she’s too broken and out of control. Now we have our eyes on someone better to replace her with. All you have to do,” Bu stepped down from where she sat and approached Zoey, “is say yes to joining us. Be our new sister, Zoi’ne.”

“I have a family, thanks.”

Buska laughed. “Some family. A father who is always away for work. A mother who was the same until she cracked and slew innocents, ending her dream career with the military. A brother who distances himself because running is easy. His twin sister who will die today, because the Lord and Lady have willed it. I understand two of your so-called family are fighting to the death as we speak.”

Her obnoxious laugh resumed.

***

Her mom was testing her. Soror Valide wasn’t giving the fight her all as of yet either. She wanted to find a weakness that she could use while the two of them fought. But, no matter how much she tried to extract from her mother’s fighting stances, Soror Valide could only see that Bon’sinne was holding back.

Soror Valide kicked for her legs, but then used her opponent’s knee as a stepping stone. She rammed her elbow down into her mother’s face. Her mother struck her belly first, however, and then flipped out of the way of Soror Valide’s elbow. The elbow had touched skin, but the impact never came.

Something swept her legs. It took her a moment to realize that her mom used a low spinning kick on her. Soror Valide had no means to keep herself from falling in the split second it took to hit the ground.

Bon’sinne stood over her, her expression grim.

***

Zoey threw a palm strike into Buska’s face, staggering her. The other girl never relented with her laugh.

“That’s enough,” Zoey said.

“It’s never enough,” said Buska. “People will always break, we can always take in more people when they need us, and we can break them some more. It was a matter of time before my kindred broke the universe.”

Buska came at Zoey with attacks of her own. She was fast and skilled, so much so that Zoey dropped the beacon from her hands so she could block and dodge, or punch, as much as she could. Zoey had to use her all of her training from the last few months to defend against every strike. She released her doubled vision to give herself a quarter of a second to react. Her opponent was as fast as Zoey was, and yet Zoey was aware of her own limits. It was a matter of time before her endurance ran out, fighting. She needed an opening, or else some strategy to beat Buska’vild.

As they fought, both girls weaved their legs in and out of one another’s stances in multiple attempts to trip one another. Both women drew closer to the hallway door. Zoey knew this of her surroundings despite having her back turned to it. Did Bu know or care about it, or the fact that the door was ajar? Zoey decided it was a good idea to find out. Zoey feigned weakness, leaning to her left. She hoped that Buska would take the bait with either a punch or a kick. Her free hand grabbed the door handle.

The other woman chose to go for a kick with her right. Zoey pulled back on the door with her left hand and used her right knee to bat the incoming leg toward the wall. With her weight she pushed back into the door to pin the leg, and then she spun around and thrust her elbow into Buska’s chest. The woman fell back and breathed harder than Zoey.

“Not bad,” said Buska. “We will make you better.”

“My answer is no,” Zoey said. “There’s something I said two months ago to the wrong woman that I say to you now.”

“What’s that?”

“Go fuck yourself.”

An angry beast showed itself in front of Zoey, feral and gritting her teeth. Buska pulled something out from her backside and pressed a tiny button on the side of it. The object had looked like a knife without a blade before, but now it came to life with a laser for an edge. The beast sprang forward.

Zoey leaned back to dodge and saw the laser edge cut a few centimeters into the door with ease. Buska flipped the knife and drove it down at her. There wasn’t enough momentum left to backflip for the good that would have done her, so Zoey crossed her wrists to block against Buska’s arm. Zoey turned herself and slipped out of the knife’s trajectory. In doing so she landed on her hands and saw that her right foot was resting between Buska’s legs.

She kicked upward behind one of Buska’s knees, withdrew her foot, and stood quick to grab the back of the other woman’s head. Zoey pulled it forward with all of her force, slamming Buska’s face into the side of the ajar door. Buska dropped the knife, but laughed again. Before she could chance any further retaliation from Buska, Zoey swung the door open and shoved the other woman behind it. She pushed it closed, turned the lock, and darted for her things.

Zoey grabbed her hoody and her bag with her things in it, and then she saw the transmat beacon on the floor next to Buska’s gun. Zoey had dropped the box when their bout began, but when did the other woman drop the weapon? She grabbed both items and left the classroom.

In the distance outside there were Peacekeepers engaged in a shootout around a building of classrooms. Was running to them a good idea? Zoey didn’t know.

Buska charged out of the exit of the neighboring classroom. A crimson line was visible from this far, running down from her nose to her lips. She gave her blood a lick, smacked her lips, and grinned at Zoey before running for her.

The beacon in Zoey’s hand might take a while to work, and Zoey didn’t want to leave Tong-Chang behind. The gun in her hand was fast, but she had never shot anyone before. She raised the weapon and fired. Her first blast hit a tree as Buska passed it. The force of the tree made the woman lose her footing for a split second; Buska kept coming. A second blast hit the ground at Buska’s feet. She screamed out and tumbled forward into the pit that Zoey had made.

“Stay down,” Zoey said, pointing the weapon at Buska and taking a slow, wary step forward. “Just stay down.”

“Yours is such a broken family,” Buska said. “Go ahead. Kill me. As soon as you pull that trigger you’re as good as ours. Let my death etch scars into the navel of your spirit. Let it break down all that you think you are. You are nothing; not yet.”

As she took more steps toward Buska, Zoey saw that the gun blast had torn apart the shoes and pant legs that Buska had been wearing, and her feet were now a bloody mess.

“Let it weigh you down to know that either your mother will kill your sister and then herself when she learns the awful truth, or your sister will end your mother and die regardless,” Buska said. “Know that every moment of happiness you thought you had is nothing more than a lie; a dream. Finish me.”

“Zoey!” said a man’s voice off to the side. “Put the gun down.”

“Do it. What is family, anyways?”

“It’s something you’ll never know,” said Zoey. “It’s what Ren’baek hoped to give you. You were never a good brother. You were the worst kind.”

She tossed the gun to her left. Zoey had to be better than this creature before her. With a heavy sigh that she felt down deep within herself, Zoey looked to the right and saw Commander Consilius walking closer with his pistol out.

He said, “Zoey, who is this girl, and why are you shooting at her?”

“That thing is Buska’vild Druvvin. She went through some procedure to change her sex. But don’t you be getting any ideas. She might kill you in your sleep.”

“But he’ll feel so good when I’m doing it to him,” Buska said. “So you’re the one, Commander Fons’benedict Consilius? Tell me, you alliance hound, how is my dear, old brother these days? Oh, that’s right!” She laughed again, her gaze fixed on Benedict.

“Impossible,” the commander said, regarding the creature in the ground directly. “You were in that craft when it exploded. If you’re still alive, then . . . ?”

“That old ruse! No one checked for the bodies. You better hurry, Zoi’ne, if you want to save your mom and sister from each other.”

Then she laughed and jeered at the heavens. Zoey didn’t need some foul beast to tell her she needed to run, but running was what she did. That laughter rung inside of her mind as she moved.

***

“You can do better than this,” said Bon’sinne. “If you take off that mask of yours then maybe you’ll breathe more easily.”

“Nice of you to care,” Soror Valide said. She used her hands to turn herself over, and followed it up by using her legs to propel her body up against her mother. Once she used the motion to lift herself into the air Soror Valide pushed herself back with a kick that Bon’sinne blocked with her arms. Soror Valide landed on her feet, and she said, “You should have shown this concern for your children; for your own daughter.”

Soror Valide pulled out the beak in her possession. She had been able to breathe fine with the mask on. She could breathe in the aromatic substance within the addition for her mask and still be able to fight without suffocating. In using the drug, though, her mind would crack, and she wasn’t sure that teleporting in this fight was worth the risk. With a quick thrust as though she were punching the air, Soror Valide released the beak in Bon’sinne’s direction and used the simultaneous gesture to enter an attack stance in preparation for what came next. She waited for her lifelong adversary.

Bon’sinne caught the beak. The force of its flight through the air caused a green puff of dust to break loose of the perforated barrier within the beak’s interior. From the current distance that Soror Valide stood from her mother it was hard to tell how much, if any, of the dust had been inhaled in the few seconds it took to dissipate. Tossing the beak was a gamble to see if the older woman would be affected by the nameless drug.

Brothers and sisters of the Hulda’fi referred to it as a taste of divinity.

Soror Valide sprang forward once the dust had scattered and settled. She moved faster than she had against any one, real opponent. Her arms were weightless hammers. She could do this. She had to do this. She had to prove this possibility to herself for once in her life.

Her mother matched her speed with every blow. However, Bon’sinne was using a breathing technique to prolong endurance. She was exerting herself in this fight. She was prolonging her endurance, and Soror Valide knew it. The two of them went for the same palm strike and joined hands, clutching one another by closing their fingers. Soror Valide gazed deep into her mother’s eyes, and her mother into the yellow eyes of her mask.

“What would you know of my children?” Bon’sinne asked.

“More than you ever have,” said Soror Valide.

“I raised two of them from birth.”

“And look how well I turned out!”

“What?” Her eyes opened wide.

Soror Valide pulled her mother forward with her right and punched her in the side of her ribs with her left. She moved on to the offensive; her mom had been reduced to a defensive stance that was too shocked to last. It was possible that Soror Valide had found the one weakness she was looking for, but it no longer mattered.

Twenty revolutions of pain, fear, and anger resurfaced with every blow, and all of it threatened to explode from her chest any second. She blamed this woman for every single thing; every cut or bruise she had, every school bully she had to deal with on her own, every day that she went home with only her brother to confide in, every loss she felt, and the time, that one time, when her mother was so close to her but did nothing to save Il’lyse. She tripped her mother, who tried to regain her footing, and Il’lyse yelled as she tackled her. They were on the ground. She wanted to tell off the woman beneath her for every bad memory she had, for every memory she never got to have, but those words wouldn’t come.

Instead she wrapped her hands around her mother’s throat and squeezed. There was something held her back, but what it was she couldn’t tell. Finally, she said, “You, why? Why couldn’t you love me?”

Bon’sinne struggled, one hand reaching up for the mask. She said, “Y-you can’t. No.”

Chapter 49

“No, I can’t,” she said. Il’lyse let go. Her mother gasped for air underneath her. Soror Valide wanted this, didn’t she? “I can’t. I don’t even know. What am I—?”

She raised her hands and stared at them. They shook. She killed for less than this. She had killed so many. How was her mother, the woman she blamed for her troubles, so different from the sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers she had taken from Hoshi-Lacarta?

As she stood up, another woman screamed and ran at her from the side. Her Aelf senses dilated.

***

She had never prayed before. In truth, Zoey never knew who or what to believe in, but was always quick to invoke the name she had been familiar with after so many years. Now, as she ran, she hoped that any being that existed out there could hear her thoughts. She hoped, above all, that she was not too late.

Please don’t do this. Please don’t let them die. Let me get there on time.

Fury rushed through her veins as Zoey drew closer to them. Zoey saw her sister with her hands on Bon’sinne’s neck. She had to save her mom. She had to take care of Il’lyse. Her sister stood. No, she couldn’t be too late.

“Earth to Soror!” Zoey said, ramming into her.

Once her shoulder crashed against Soror Valide’s form, she threw a single punch into her sister’s cheek. The impact threw her sister back, causing the infamous Hulda’fi to plummet.

Zoey bent down to examine her mom. Bon’sinne coughed and breathed. Good, she was alive. “Mom, don’t scare me like that,” she said.

Bon’sinne said, “Z-Zoey, she’s—”

“There’s no time. Let me take care of her.” She stood up, as did her sister.

“No, you can’t fight her. I can’t let you.”

She was going to hate herself for this later, Zoey figured. With her thumb on the device she pressed the activation button on the beacon. As soon as she saw the first light appear upon it, she tossed it toward Bon’sinne and then faced Soror Valide.

“Huh, what?” said Bon’sinne. “Zoey, no, you can’t!”

The red light enveloped her, and Bon’sinne was gone. She had been teleported to safety, Zoey hoped. Zoey didn’t have to go through with being transported anywhere, but she was here, facing off against the person who started this mad dream. Neither she nor Tong-Chang were leaving for Keft’aerak’s ship unless someone gave them another beacon. No, she wasn’t sure if she’d let anyone give her one.

“I’m not going to let you hurt her,” said Zoey.

“You should have left with her then,” Soror Valide said.

“That’s not happening.”

“Then you’ll die.”

Soror Valide was swift. She ran, jumped, and spun to kick Zoey. However, Zoey could see this coming, even if she had not trained to fight back. Zoey grabbed her leg before it could hit her and swung her further to the side before letting go. Her sister fell, but landed on her hands and wheeled around, allowing her to regain her footing. Soror Valide slid into another fighting pose.

“Stop it,” Zoey said. “No more fighting.”

“This ends when one of us dies,” Soror Valide said.

The older sibling came at her again, but with quick jabs that Zoey could bat away with her arm. Zoey struck with an open palm to her sister’s chest and then ran forward. She used her body to push Soror Valide back against the front windows of the student lounge.

“I don’t want you to die, Il’lyse,” said Zoey. “Your so-called brothers and sisters do. Buska told me.”

“Liar,” Soror Valide said.

“Your real brother wants you to come home. I want you to come home. We are your family.”

“What do you know about family? What do you know about having a home?” Soror Valide hit Zoey with her masked forehead and then pushed Zoey off of her. She came at her with more punches and kicks.

Something was wrong. Something was horribly wrong, and Zoey tried to figure out what it was while she blocked every blow with more ease than she had anticipated. This was a woman who had beaten Zoey on more than one occasion, and the first that Zoey ever met who had ever beaten their mom in a fight. Why was defending against her every move as easy as it was? One feeble attack after another kept coming for Zoey until Soror Valide fell to her knees. Zoey took a step closer and reached for her, only to be met with a pathetic backhand against her arm. Zoey thrust her open hand forward for speed, but grabbed the mask without resistance. She yanked it off.

Before her was Il’lyse, who was in tears – the sort of tears that came from a child that had been torn from all that they once knew and the shock finally wore off. “Finish me,” she said. “I’m nothing; have nothing.”

“No,” Zoey said.

“Zoi’ne, do it. I can’t anymore.”

“Il’lyse.” Zoey dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around her sister. “I’m right here for you.”

“Cold, infinite beyond what is with you?” She leaned into Zoey and returned the embrace. “Let me hate you. Let me die. I can’t. Why can’t I?”

Zoey had to trust that her sister wasn’t going to use this hold for an attack. No, Zoey did; she trusted her. Her sister was broken, and Zoey wasn’t going to let go until she was right again.

Above them, a machine hummed and screeched that Zoey hadn’t seen. She was reluctant to look up to see what it was. When she turned her head she saw and realized

that the sound was a stiern-boat hovering in the air and taking aim. It fired its weapons.

***

A corner of the library roof exploded. Dasos climbed the stairs with caution so he could get a look at what was happening. Through what was left of the windows below the impacted wall he could see that other blasts across the campus had occurred as well. There was a stiern-boat flying low outside. Its two cannons, one on either side behind a protective plate, took potshots in random directions while the craft itself maneuvered with an evasive pattern.

Dasos noted that the vessel moved slowly compared to what it would have been doing in outer space because it was using power to stay in the air. He wondered if the ships in orbit did not fire because of the amount of collateral damage they would have risked in doing so.

While he watched, he noticed a consistent pattern with the artillery, as well as a rhythm to the fire. The cannons alternated between each side, and the portside one had gone off. Dasos looked around the main floor of the library in and found the Hulda’fi pistol on the ground. He stepped outside with it and stayed out of sight.

Star. The student store was hit. The boat turned counter-clockwise.

Port. The blast hit the elevated terrace behind one wall, missing the bench below. Now the craft was turning toward the library entrance.

On his left side, the pilot’s right, Dasos took aim and timed himself. He fired at the target with his pistol. The starboard cannon went off. The blast from the Hulda’fi pistol reached the opposing shot as it discharged. The timing was perfect, too perfect, and it caused the starboard cannon to break apart along with the hole it blew in the side of the craft.

Huh, I think that was a natural twenty.

The pilot readjusted and took aim at Dasos. He knew which gun could go off, of course, but not when it would go off. He took aim, hoping that he would luck out again.

A pair of rockets flew in and hit the port side of the craft before it could shoot at him. Despite using his Aelfen sight, Dasos took the explosion as the sign to shoot before he realized what had actually happened. The engines in the boat’s rear growled with a heavy strain. Dasos stared at the pilot in the eye as much as he could, and he aimed the gun at them.

Before any more rockets could come the pilot landed the craft and shut it down. They raised their hands.

It was a while before the Peacekeepers came to arrest the Hulda’fi pilot. As they unmasked the Aelf and took her away, Dasos received a call on his cell-comm. He took it out and answered it upon seeing his father’s name.

“Hello?” said Dasos.

Keft’aerak said, “Dasos, is your sister with you?”

“No, but I was about to grab Tonny so we can meet up and have them transport to you. Why do you ask?”

“Your mother fought Soror Valide. We’re treating her for her wounds now, but Zoey gave her the material transference beacon and sent her up alone.”

“What? Zoey told me she was grabbing her things.”

“They were all in the main plaza by the student lounge. I need to know if Zoey is alright.”

“Oh no.”

From the distance he could see the lounge and adjacent seating area. The entire side of the plaza had collapsed and was now a burning ruin.

***

Il’lyse knew this campus well, and thought that she had learned a good deal of its secrets that were meant for emergencies. When the Hulda’fi fired upon them, Il’lyse and Zoi’ne dashed for the tables of the outdoor seating area. A second cannon shot hit the corner of the student lounge, possibly by mistake, before a third one demolished the roofing that hung overhead in the seating area.

Both girls sat beneath one table when the stiern-boat turned to fire upon other areas around the university. It moved away, giving them time to move if they had a place to go. Il’lyse pointed to the student lounge, where a hole had been blown in the front corner. Judging by its size either one of them could slip inside. Yes, that was the best place, Zoi’ne’s gaze be damned.

Il’lyse ran for the lounge, the other girl following, and she kicked away a shard of glass in the portion of the window that had shattered around the hole. The hole had taken up part of the window and a portion of the wall beside it.

“Get in,” she said. “There’s a hatch in the floor.”

Zoi’ne did as she said, and Soror Valide turned away from the window. She had no intention of leaving with this girl. She had no intention of staying alive. The galaxy needed one of them, and it was the younger girl. That much was clear.

Two of the Hulda’fi limped into view from the direction in which Soror Valide had beaten them to a pulp once already. She entered a fighting pose when she realized that the one to the back was whispering. Seconds later she could hear the stiern-boat returning to this area.

She wasn’t frightened by this. Soror Valide, for the time she had left, sought one last retribution against her betrayers. She leapt at the two Hulda’fi and pummeled her former sisters. She had turned to deal what she thought would be the final blow in her life when something grabbed her waist and yanked her across a blinding threshold. It was dark. Her body hit a flat surface that she couldn’t see, her sense of direction was at a loss, and Zoi’ne fell on top of her. The cannon blasts sounded and shook the world all around her. Then the student lounge collapsed.

Minutes passed. They were both lucky to be alive. At least that was what Il’lyse would have said if she was welcoming of such fortune. The girl who called herself her sister saw things different from her, and Il’lyse didn’t have it in her to argue with Zoey any longer. So she inspected their surroundings with a pounding headache.

Sections of a couple disconnected walls remained standing as well as a man with a broken back. Rubble surrounded the girls from the front half of the building now that it had been obliterated. Il’lyse couldn’t feel one of her legs. Zoi’ne was pressing her face against Il’lyse’s shoulder, which felt damp.

Il’lyse attempted to sit up, but the other girl pushed her back down on the floor. “Stay down,” she whispered.

Glass popped, combustions hissed, and a few distorted voices laughed from the other side of the barricade. Il’lyse didn’t see the ones who were laughing, but knew that they couldn’t see her or Zoi’ne either. The warped voices faded, but the flames grew in seconds. The fire had to have come from bottles that the girls in the Kroke Team found nearby, and then ignited, before throwing them at the rubble. They assumed that their former superior was dead, or close to it. That was the only explanation that Il’lyse could come up with.

The craft in the air had fallen silent as well, though she had no clue or guesses as to what happened with that one.

“You’re a fucking moron,” Zoi’ne said with her face still pressed against Il’lyse’s shoulder. “Why are my siblings as bad as I am at getting into trouble?”

“Why did you save me?” Il’lyse asked.

“I wanted a family my whole life. I wanted a real one. It’s thanks to you that I got to have one. But Mom, Dad, and Dasos? They’re your damn family too, whether you know it or not. I never once replaced you. I never wanted to be in your shadow. Why can’t you see that? Why can’t you see the family you’ve always had?” She lifted her face and stared into Il’lyse’s eyes.

She had no arguments to use against that, as hard as she tried. “Fine,” Il’lyse said as she turned her gaze away. “Take me and do whatever you wish.”

“Il’lyse,” the other girl said. She stood and checked the area outside. “Come on. There’s no telling if or when the Hulda’fi will come back. Didn’t you say something about a hatch in here?”

“There’s a secret tunnel that runs from here to a service tunnel beneath the street to the north.” She pointed to one corner of the ruined lounge. “That exit only opens on this side unless someone is so stupid that they’d bomb it and cave in the entire street.”

As she explained this Il’lyse sat up and removed the wood sitting on her right leg above the ankle. It was heavy and might have explained why her leg felt numb.

Zoi’ne searched for the hatch in the backside of the building, meanwhile. Judging by the sounds of the girl moving the rug over and shaking a thin, metallic handle, she didn’t take long to find it.

“You’re sure this isn’t a broom closet, right?” Zoi’ne said as Il’lyse slid closer to give her blood a chance to circulate through the leg.

“A broom closet?” said Il’lyse, bending a lip. She placed a hand on her hip and the other in the air. “Why a broom closet of all things?”

“Long story. This appears to be unlocked.”

“Great. I’m ready to go when you are—aah!”

She had attempted to stand. The sudden pressure on her right leg made it feel as though something long and sharp stabbed straight through her foot and up to her knee. The pain made her fall again. It was greater than any injury she had received or felt in recent memory.

Zoi’ne ran to her and looked between Il’lyse’s face and the right leg that the older sister was clutching. Zoi’ne pulled off the boot and slid the right pant leg as much as the durable material could let her, which wasn’t much. Frustrated, the younger girl fetched something small next to the burning rubble, coughing while she crouched to stay down low. Zoi’ne came back and pinched the material over Il’lyse’s knee with one hand. Then she swiped at it with the shard of glass in her other hand.

It barely had any effect at all, causing Il’lyse to huff at her. Il’lyse grabbed a ring from her harness that she had stolen from Lady Tunderek after the last time she used it on her suit. She used it to cut the suit around her knee. Her little sister pulled the fabric from her ankle. Il’lyse’s leg was bruised, but it felt as if that entire mound of rubble was actively crushing it from all sides. Cold, infinite beyond, Il’lyse wanted to die right now.

Seconds later she heard Zoi’ne pull something else from the rubble. In her hand was a beam of wood, and she walked toward Il’lyse with a soured face expression.

Yes, she was ready for this. Il’lyse spread her arms out to welcome the inevitable.

The wood cracked loud.

Chapter 50

“Wh-what are you doing?” Il’lyse asked.

Zoey had broken the piece of wood over her leg. The movies made it seem easier and far less painful than it actually was, and that was after picking a beam that looked suitable for what she was planning to do with it. She knelt down beside her sister and pressed the shortened lengths of wood against the sides of Il’lyse’s injured leg.

“I’m making a splint for your leg,” Zoey said. “It doesn’t look really bad, but it is probably broken. Hold these for me, will you?”

Her sister grabbed each piece of wood, allowing Zoey to use the severed pant leg and tie it to the top portion of the wood. She frowned at the bottom half since it wasn’t secure, and then she turned her eyes to the other leg. Zoey held her left hand out while tugging on the fabric with her right.

Il’lyse gestured with one of her own wrists. The ring was inside that hand. Zoey placed her left hand beneath it and caught the ring once it dropped. It took her a couple tests to figure out how to make the incision that she needed, and a moment longer to tie the second pant leg around the lower end of the splint. Once it was done Zoey felt as though she was forgetting some major step to this, but Zoey decided that she had done plenty until she could get Il’lyse some help.

“Now what?” said Il’lyse.

“Well, the passage out of here doesn’t seem all that narrow so I’ll hold you up on the left side to keep weight off of your right. Oh, wait, here you go.”

She removed her bag and then her hoody. She wrapped the jacket around Il’lyse so that her sister looked less conspicuous once the two of them were out in the open. Zoey crammed one of the boots inside of her book bag, and checked to see if anything in there had broken. The screens on her phone and computer weren’t cracked, but any further examination would have required her to take her things out of the bag and be thorough. Meanwhile, the fire was growing larger and the smoke becoming thicker.

Zoey slung the bag back over her shoulder while Il’lyse tossed her old mask and gloves into the pyre. She grabbed her sister, and took the steps down into the tunnel as slow as she needed to help Il’lyse get down there. The light from the world above didn’t go for long, and darkness awaited them.

“How’d you find out about this place?” said Zoey.

“I once hooked up with the student aid who used to work upstairs,” said Il’lyse. “It doesn’t look like anything’s changed down here in the last couple revolutions.”

“So you actually came down her?”

“Again, once.” There was a coy expression on her face.

“Was this before or after you ended up with Buska’vild?”

“That’s actually a good question, actually. I’m not sure I remember. Hopefully that wormhole I had opened in the classroom, back there, was enough to deal with her.”

“That was a wormhole? I thought they were unstable at best the last time we had a chance to talk.”

“Surprise. The technician I kidnapped turned out to be better than the Lord and Lady expected. We . . . they are using wormholes to get around the known galaxy now. Like I said, hopefully the one I opened was enough to deal with Buska.”

“It wasn’t. I ended up fighting her. She told me that you and Mom were fighting, so I came to stop you both after I was done with her. I don’t think she’ll be standing any time soon.”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Il’lyse stare at her. She was too busy looking forward in the growing darkness to guess what was running through her sister’s mind. They walked until Zoey heard a buzzing sound from her phone.

“Please don’t be Mom,” Zoey said.

“What?” said Il’lyse.

“I got a message on my phone, or cell-comm as you call it here. I kind of, sort of, did something I wasn’t supposed to with that transmat beacon. I was supposed to go up to Dad’s ship with Tonny using that thing, but I activated it and sent Mom up alone.”

Il’lyse chortled. “At least Tonny has a cell-comm that Dad’s crew can use to track her easily and bring her up.”

“You don’t know yet?”

“Know what?”

She thought about it for a second. “You know what? I’ll let you find out what I mean when you see her.” Then Zoey stopped. She tried to reach back into her bag, but couldn’t quite make it like she intended.

“What are you doing now?” said Il’lyse.

“Trying, failing, to grab my phone,” Zoey said. “It’s inside the smaller pouch of my bag next to my wallet.”

“I’ll get it. Here.” She plucked it from the bag and held it in front of Zoey. “Is this right? It looks like a smaller version of our personal computers.”

“That’s the one. Tong-Chang tinkered with my old phone from Earth and made it compatible with Hoshi-Lacartan systems. Now I need communication relays instead of radio towers. I guess the university’s inter-server going down doesn’t prevent this thing from working.”

“I wonder how many Hulda’fi died when the inter-server went down.”

“I’m not sure. I’m hoping Tonny doesn’t find out the exact number. It hurt her to learn she killed multiple people at once.”

“Tonny? So I see.”

The message on Zoey’s phone came from Dasos. It read, “Zoey, if you are alive, please answer.”

She typed her response, “I’m fine. I’m heading home. See you soon.”

As they continued down the tunnel Zoey held up the phone to light up a couple meters of floor in front of her. She pressed the home button once every minute so that the light wouldn’t go out. She didn’t check the battery, but she was positive that it had plenty of power to get them somewhere with better lighting.

There was a valve at the end of the tunnel against the door. Il’lyse stood back and let Zoey turn the handle, which opened the way out. The door swung outward. Both of the girls stepped out of the darker passageway to find a tunnel that was lined with lime green tiles and indistinct lights on its sides and ceiling. Zoey closed the door and saw what her sister had meant earlier by it only opening on one side. Once the exit closed it blended in with the tiles.

“Where to?” said Il’lyse.

“The condo,” Zoey said. “Dasos, Tonny, and I live there together.”

“The same one as when I left? This way then. There is a ladder that can take us up, not far from the trolley. What?”

“Ladders?” Zoey pointed down at her sister’s leg.

“I can climb without using the one leg. Come on. The sooner we get you home the sooner I can figure out my next move.”

“You can figure that out after dinner.”

Inside of the service tunnel there were scores of darker utility boxes and pipes, all with orange reflector rings, connected to points on the surface that Zoey couldn’t see from down here. They were laid separate from the sewer lines, which were labeled with warning labels that contained the words “refuse management” in big letters. The boxes and pipes that Zoey saw above the floor, however, were spaced in a manner that made her wonder if they connected to the street lights and crosswalk barriers.

When they reached the ladder Zoey climbed it first to open the way above to the street. She was reminded of the manhole covers on Earth, but this one was a rectangular opening. There was a lever and gear system in place to one side of the opening adjacent to the ladder. She activated it and descended.

“I think I got it,” she said.

“Easy, huh?”

“Too easy. I keep thinking I might be missing a step or two when things are this easy. Alright, you head up first. I’ll be right here in case something goes wrong.”

“Yeah, right. Watch this.”

Il’lyse pulled herself up with her arms, using her good leg to rest on each rung of the ladder. One arm went up, the second followed and then pulled, the left foot rested, and she repeated without her right leg touching any of the metal bars. She made it out of the opening in an impressive level of haste.

Remarking internally that her sister was a showoff, Zoey ascended the ladder’s height again. This time she emerged through the rectangle hole. Daylight greeted Zoey in its blinding glory now that she had returned to the surface from two tunnels.

Her sister sat a few meters away from her, which gave Zoey the room she needed to climb out of the opening. She wondered how to close it from this side, but nothing she could think of solved that issue. Zoey twisted her mouth at the thing and knew she would have to leave it alone for now.

“I am so going to love taking a shower when I get home,” Zoey said. She helped Il’lyse up off of the ground. “Thanks for not trying to run off.”

“With my luck?” said Il’lyse, “I’d hobble back to the condo if I tried that.”

They resumed the journey home, but they didn’t get far when a red car screeched and pulled over. A dog barked and panted their way from the front passenger seat. The driver was Sut’hout.

He said, “Do you both need a lift?”

“Suuto!” Il’lyse said.

“The whole world’s gone crazy. Get in.”

The girls shrugged at one another and moved toward the vehicle. Zoey opened the door for Il’lyse. Her sister had to spin on her left leg and across the edge of the seat in order to get into the car without further injuring herself. Zoey hustled around to the other side and entered the back passenger seat that way.

Once the car was moving again, Zoey said, “Thank you. We’re headed to Dasos’s condo. I don’t know if you know where that is or not.”

“I vaguely recall going there once,” said Sut’hout. “Come to think of it I believe the Allied Peacekeepers and Trullwick Police have organized a medical camp in that park across the street.”

“Why there, I wonder?”

“People ran scared from the university and surrounding areas. Those Hulda’fi have destroyed many buildings and killed more people than have been properly tallied so far, and that’s just in this city alone. There are other major cities on Elysium IX, VIII, Ginserei Prime, Dee Su, Lutoume, and Natt Grans; all hit like this in a single afternoon.”

Il’lyse groaned.

“And you, young lady,” said Sut’hout, “are you going to try telling me you’re a third sister from another planet no one has been to, or are you going to tell me where you’ve been for the last two revolutions?”

“I’ve been fucking shit up for everyone else,” Il’lyse said. “I tried doing so much for them and they still tried to kill me. They bent me to their every whim, and I was as disposable to the Hallowed Lord and Lady as their daily garbage.”

“That’s some weight you’re going to carry. Your folks think you’re dead, too.”

“Not for long. I still don’t know if I’m ready for them to see me, especially like this. Especially after all of the things I did, and might still do. I still think about doing more, and it hurts now. It actually hurts.”

“Hey! You’re the closest I ever had to a daughter. Don’t go beating yourself up over whatever kind of monster they made you into. You’re free now, and that shows that you’re better than the lot of them. It shows you don’t have to be a monster.”

“Maybe, Suuto. I don’t even know anymore.”

“Well, tell you what; since we have law enforcement around the front side of the condominium, I’ll give you time to figure it out by dropping you off at the back side of the building. How about that? When you have yourself figured out, let me know. I miss having my favorite little muse around when I am at work.”

His dog whined and shook. Zoey reached forward and gave it a rub on one side now that the remainder of the ride had fallen silent. It didn’t take long for them to reach their destination, and the girls got out of the car. Zoey helped her sister out, and they thanked Sut’hout one last time before heading for the elevator.

Zoey looked around every few paces that they traveled. When they were on the elevator and heading up, she saw a woman pass on the ground floor. It was Veran’uvia, and she glanced their way with no more than a nod. The elevator went up three floors, during which time Zoey was unsure if the Peacekeepers were being told about the two women up here, or if they were in the clear by some miracle. She aided her sister to the door of the unit that Zoey lived in when the footsteps sounded behind them.

Laeknar Saludalta caught her breath, and she carried a kit. She came alone, and her stare was focused and intent on Il’lyse.

Chapter 51

No one else was home yet. The laeknar stayed back and let her medical kit hold the door open while Zoey helped her sister inside. She thought someone else would have been here by now.

The girls had reached the living room couch that faced away from the front door when Veran’uvia followed them inside, grabbing her leather case on the way. She shut the door and crossed the black-tiled floor to their side of the room. Zoey laid her sister upon the sofa with her ears pointed toward the windows so that it was her right leg that sat next to the edge where the laeknar could get to it. Il’lyse lied back and folded an arm over her eyes.

“You’re sure no one else followed you?” Zoey said.

Veran’uvia said, “I’m positive. Until you are ready for your sister to come out in the public eye, if ever, we’ll chalk this silence up to laeknar-patient confidentiality. In other words I won’t have any idea what anyone is talking about.”

“You knew, though. You knew she was alive.”

“I suspected it until your brother asked me the same sort of question when I saw him a few days ago. Now then, before I get started, I’m fairly certain I once asked you and your family to stop trying to kill one another. The two of you fighting, your mother being treated for minor injuries; what’s next?” She brought out a handheld device that cast an indigo light along Il’lyse’s injured leg. “Did you forget to set her bones before tying this splint on her?”

“Set her bones?”

There was a sigh and a shake of the laeknar’s head. “Her tibia is fractured in two places as many centimeters apart. The fibula is cracked as well along the one side. I can mend this and keep the pain down, right here where we’re sitting, but there is ample damage here that she is going to feel sore and ornery once the anesthetic effect wears off.”

Il’lyse said, “Nothing says ‘full recovery’ like a murder spree in broad daylight. Ugh! Cold, infinite beyond, laeknar, go ahead and do it. I’ll be fine, I promise.”

“Promises from dead people, I swear.”

She put away her scanning device and pulled out a round wire with four round nodes along the ring. She flexed the coil with what appeared to be little or no exertion. The laeknar grabbed a vinyl strap and hooked it to one side of the device before she rested the four nodes against Il’lyse’s leg, encircling the bruised region; the splint came off next before she moved on. Veran’uvia slipped the vinyl beneath the leg and hooked it to the other side of the contraption.

“I can see you gazing at this with amazement there, Zoey,” said the woman who otherwise seemed focused on treating her sister. “I have a funny history tale for you if you’re interested, since it will pass the time while I work.”

“Sure?” said Zoey. Il’lyse raised her arm and looked with one eye as well.

“Centuries ago, before we Aelfs developed our space travel to a reliable degree, we had urban myths around Elysium about aliens who would show up and examine people at random. For some uncanny reason or another it was always the same test on the same kind of people.”

“What, you mean like anal probes?”

“Among other things. Good guess. Anyways, we discovered over the revolutions that these folks who were being abducted and examined were older men without much knowledge as to how science and medicine looked, because they spent so much time on their farms or ranches without venturing anywhere else in the world. We looked further into this phenomenon and discovered that their abductors were none other than their own loved ones, and the tests were their laeknir providing physical exams. The drug we used to use for prostate exams did not account for hallucinations. The men who thought aliens took them away were, however, under the influence of something to make them feel more friendly. So, really, the technology they saw from another world was no more than what was our then-modern technology, and those men never learned the wiser.”

Il’lyse said, “Have there ever been many cases of alien abduction, for real?”

“Not many.”

Zoey raised a hand and said, “Present company included.”

“That reminds me, Il’lyse, I will need to see your abdomen in a moment. It might confirm a suspicion that I have had for the last two months. That’s, of course, assuming that you still have the scars there.”

Veran’uvia poked her patient’s leg with a needle that was long and thick, the end of it sinking into the skin and muscle. She didn’t go too deep with the tip of the needle, but the puncture should have hurt. Il’lyse didn’t flinch.

“You’re leaving another one now,” Il’lyse said.

“This will heal in no time. Do you have puncture scars from another procedure?” said the laeknar.

“Yes. The laeknar working for the Hulda’fi said that it was meant to treat us for something she had caught early. She said it was necessary, and we all listened. I had it twice.”

“Did you feel sick afterward?”

“For a day or two each time. Why? What was it?”

“Let me see your scars and I’ll tell you. Furthermore, I’m surprised that you were allowed to keep your scars. If this procedure is what I think it is then they were foolish to leave this clue for everyone to find.”

“I can show you, but there’s something you should know.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m naked under this suit. Taking off the front of my stomach will be awkward, and it’s not like I can roll up the top as if it were a shirt. So yeah, if you need to see my scars, any of them, then I may need to remove more than you’re asking.”

“Completely naked?” said Zoey and Veran’uvia at once.

“I mean, I also have on a pair of pads strapped to my waist to hide my hips and gender, but we Hulda’fi never really wear underwear except when we . . . they feel like wearing anything at all.”

As her sister explained about the nudity, Zoey looked at the Hulda’fi suit for an opening, a seam, or anything of that manner. There were a few brown patches on the arms and legs. The garment as a whole started with the hood and neck, and stopped at the wrists and knees, but had no sign of opening anywhere unless she were to count the black band on one arm or harness on her torso that could both be removed with ease. It made no sense to Zoey, but the thing needed to come off.

Zoey dug through her book bag and found the ring that they had used to make incisions to the suit. She hurried back to the couch with the ring in hand and held it up.

She said, “Before I hand this to you I have two questions. How did you get into that suit in the first place? And what other scars do you have?”

Il’lyse said, “There are tools that are kept in Hulda’fi craft and sleeping quarters. These tools cut any fabric or similar materials like that ring does, but they can fuse such fibers together on a molecular level.”

“And your scars?”

“Being the scourge of the galaxy has its risks. Earning the favor of the Hallowed Lady is even harder. I wish I could tell you every little thing I’ve experienced, good and bad. I never bothered to have them removed.”

“Your suit, all of it; I want you to take it off.” She handed over the ring.

Her sister regarded her for a moment and took off the harness first before taking the ring from her. Il’lyse dropped the straps and pouches to the ground between the couch and table. She then looked at Veran’uvia as thought she were waiting for her to say or do something.

Laeknar Saludalta extracted the needle she was using and wiped it clean with a sanitizing wipe that she had ready. Her discard pile on the coffee table grew with the additional packet and cloth.

“Most of the damage has been undone,” she said, removing the circular device and turning the nodes. “Give it time to heal normally, and don’t put too much pressure on your right leg for the next two days.”

Il’lyse squeezed her eyes tight and pressed the ring close to her neck. She glided the ring through her suit. Zippers, in Zoey’s memory, weren’t as smooth as the ring that now made its incision from her collar down to below her waist. Her form was every bit the same as Zoey’s, down to the tiny freckles, curves, and size of areolas. With a nod at this one affirmation she was not expecting today, Zoey went to her room and grabbed both a shirt and a pair of briefs.

She returned and handed Il’lyse the underwear. “Remind me later to do a load of laundry,” Zoey said. “This is my last clean shirt, which I’ll hand you in a moment.”

The suit had come off while Zoey looked for the clothing. Laeknar Saludalta was now examining Il’lyse’s lower belly. She pressed two fingers below the discolored spots that she found.

“These Hulda’fi,” said Veran’uvia, “including the laeknar that works for them; how much genesis nectar do they handle?”

“More than I remember,” Il’lyse said. “They make it in abundance. What I don’t know is where the unborn children are coming from.”

“And these were your only two times receiving this procedure?”

“Yes. The last time was back in mid Andramane. What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You’re a smart girl, Il’lyse. You’re also a victim of a crime, of a law that has been in place since our alliance formed. Genesis nectar shouldn’t be in production, anywhere; not after the scale in which we made it ourselves.”

“I know that. I actually paid attention in history class, even though it wasn’t my subject.”

“Did you skip out on biology as well? You were in a sex cult with so many boys. You committed the act more times than I care to know.”

“Every one of those boys had their tubes tied or severed, or else Lord and Lady Tunderek would have had them killed. Lord Tunderek, himself, had his tied.”

“I doubt that,” said Zoey. “You can ask Tonny when she gets here.”

“What?”

“Veran, what is this genesis nectar?”

The laeknar said, “It’s the name of that substance that was in that cryogenic case. You remember it, I’m sure. It has been our theory, my grandfather’s and mine, that you had somehow been injected with an incomplete version of the genesis nectar before the malfunction with material transference. It fits. A procedure in Andramane would have been around the right time to see a batch made using Il’lyse’s unborn fetus.”

“I was injected with—?”

“With a sample of her D-N-Al, yes. That is my conclusion on the matter. I’m still uncertain of a couple of things, but now you know why you appeared on the Marslou looking like Il’lyse Thalassas over here instead of your old body. Now, you are certain that you have not been experiencing any seizures or mental breakdowns lately?”

“Positive. What about the father? How did I not end up like him?”

“I can only guess based upon the journal I had to pull a dozen strings for so that I could read it. No, before you ask, it’s not in any periodicals that you can find in public. I had to wave my family name around and sign more waivers for the one excerpt alone than I did to serve on the Marslou. The governments of the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance do not want for anyone to make more of it after the price in lives and freedom that Aelfs and Ginserei paid centuries ago. You can imagine the outrage and finger-pointing that arose when I returned the one sample of it. What I did read was that the genesis nectar requires a whole process of refinement in which the D-N-Al is carefully stripped down from the tissue sample after it is converted into a serum base. Seven times out of ten the dominant genes take longer to be dissolved, or else the mother and father go together. Judging by that my standing hypothesis is that your sister here outlasted the man who impregnated her.”

“Stop it,” Il’lyse said. “Shut up! I was never pregnant. The Lord Tunderek never lies to anyone. Never!”

“Sister,” said Zoey.

“No!”

She turned over and buried her face in the pillow. Her words that followed were muffled and broken. Along her backside were numerous scars from burns and cuts that Zoey had yet to learn about. Zoey rested a hand on her and rubbed across a stretch of her spine where the damage had been minimal.

Veran’uvia gathered her things and walked to the door. She looked at Zoey and said, “I have to get back down to the camp before anyone starts asking questions. I truly am sorry about this revelation. Not all answers are the ones we want to hear. It’s part of why I tell people I don’t know what they’re talking about. Goodbye.”

She let herself out. Now it was only the two sisters alone in their brother’s condo. Zoey rubbed a hand over Il’lyse’s when the older sister turned her head at her.

“Do you mind if I take my shower now before you do?” said Il’lyse. “I know you said you wanted to take one, but I feel like my whole body is going to wash down the drain by the time I’m done in there.”

“Yeah, go ahead,” said Zoey. “I need to check on the dough that I left sitting last night, as well as double-check the ingredients in the fridge.”

“Dough? Do you cook like Dad does?” Il’lyse sat up. By instinct Zoey was ready to help her sister to the bathroom, but Il’lyse waved her off.

“Not quite like Dad, but I cook sometimes. Dasos and I have been taking turns between breakfast and dinner, and tonight I was planning to make pizza by the time he got home from his weekly game night.”

“Pizza? Never mind. It’s good to know that he still does game nights with those friends of his.” She hobbled on her left foot toward the pair of doorways. Il’lyse stopped for a moment to look around and then point towards the bathroom.

“It’s where he met his last girlfriend, actually,” Zoey said.

“Really?”

“Sort of. They had sex before that, and refused to call themselves a couple until the day she dumped him with nothing more than a hand-written note.”

“I can track the woman down and teach her a lesson, you know.”

“I know, but I think Tonny gets the first privilege on that one since Shungdi’s her little sister.”

Il’lyse had entered the bathroom by now, but she poked her head out and gave Zoey an incredulous look before closing the door. “How much did I miss in the last two revolutions?”

Zoey walked to the door and leaned next to it so that Il’lyse could hear her better while the shower was running. She waited for the sound of water running. “You missed more than I did, that’s for sure,” said Zoey. “At least for that whole time, I mean.”

“Do you miss Earth?” said Il’lyse.

“I might miss a few people, or a few places that I never got to visit, but I think this world is definitely better than the one I grew up with. Even now with the madness going out there. It’s nice having an actual family.”

“Maybe I should find your Dasos and Tong-Chang. I wonder if they would take me in.”

“Our Das’ithrios and Tong-Chang are my Dasos and Tonny. The friends I had on Earth were chill, cool people who shared a few interests. We were together because we met in school, but I don’t know if we’d have stayed in touch with one another once that was over. This family of ours took me in when I needed support. I never had one back on Earth.”

“That doesn’t sound like the Mom or Dad I know.”

“You say that, but I know them better than that. Dad loves his adventures, and Mom loves being good at everything that she possibly can be. It tore her apart inside when you died, and it got worse a year later when a Hulda’fi showed up at a medical clinic in some space station – the Allied Medical Institute. She made a bad call in trying to deal with an unknown number of them. She blew up an escape shuttle leaving the maternity ward, thinking that it was three rebels and no one else.”

The water stopped.

***

Mom, what the fuck did you do?

“She told you this?” said Il’lyse. She wiped her face to do away with the water that dripped down from her hair.

“I had to look it up, because talking about it hurt her too much,” Zoey said. “She says that she made a mistake, and that she blamed herself ever since that day; that she would never have done it if you hadn’t died. She retired from the Peacekeepers over it. When I saw the article I couldn’t hold back my own tears. There was a mother with a newborn baby on that craft with the lone Hulda’fi. Evidence at the scene had suggested that the Hulda’fi who went there was seeking help, and the laeknir were too frightened to help her. That was when Mom showed up, and the girl fled, taking the mother and her baby hostage.”

A revolution ago there was a sister who felt nauseous in the morning, and had a number of growing symptoms besides. She had been sent to the facility on Dereskoo, but the girl fled. Soror Valide had been asked to track her down, but her sister with the Hulda’fi turned up dead within the day.

Cold, infinite beyond, Il’lyse wanted to believe that this story Zoey told her was another lie. She wanted to believe that Lord Tunderek was honest to her. She turned the water back on and repeated this idea to herself over and over. The Lord wasn’t a liar. He couldn’t be. But the idea, the truth, was more bare than her skin, and more far brittle than her right leg was at the moment.

She punched the side of the shower stall. If Il’lyse couldn’t believe the Hallowed Lord and Lady then who could she believe?

“Are you going to be OK?” Zoey asked.

“I don’t know,” said Il’lyse. “I don’t know what I’ll be.”

***

Dasos sent her another message while Zoey was preparing two kinds of cheese to be shredded. She checked her phone, which sat on the counter, and the message said that both he and Tong-Chang were on their way home. She nodded at it and then used her knife to make one last cut on the larger blocks of cheese. Zoey had arranged the two kinds that she picked out, still hoping that they were the right ones since the majority of cheese types had different names than the ones on Earth. Her plan was to shred a block of one and then the other, alternating them, until she made a blended ratio of the two cheeses that she could work with.

The machine on the counter that she and Dasos used on occasion was akin to the food processors that Zoey was familiar with, but with one major difference to the shape of the lid. She inserted the first block of cheese, ready to shred it, when Il’lyse hobbled out of the bathroom.

Il’lyse went to the couch, still naked except for the towel hanging off of her head, and grabbed the underwear and shirt from the sofa. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve made a bad habit of forgetting to take any clothing with me into the shower. It’s been a long two revolutions.”

“Just hurry up and put those clothes on, and we’ll be fine,” Zoey said.

“Right.” She pulled the shirt over her head first, her face showing displeasure to Zoey’s order. Il’lyse looked down at the design on the front of it at last. “I am a super cake pro?”

“It’s one of my shirts for work. Like I said, I need to do a load of laundry. There are spare towels in the walk-in closet if you want to wrap one around your waist.”

Zoey shredded the first block, followed by the second one. She glanced up and saw her sister doing as she suggested. She shredded the third block, filling the machine. Zoey poured the mixed cheese into a separate container when she suddenly heard rapid footsteps outside.

***

The city-wide lockdown had begun, and Trullwick wasn’t the only one from the sound of things. Dasos saw the camp set up across the street from his condo once he and Tong-Chang had arrived in the area. Trolleys were shut down, and he had to call a reluctant salir to drive them due to his concern for his best friend being tired.

At the street entry into the condominium he sent a message to Zoey saying that they were on the way up. There was no response from her, but he was sure that she was home. Dasos entered the ground floor corridor that led to the elevator and walked until he reached the lift. There was an Aelf woman standing inside, her back to Dasos, who was crying. She wore a white and green, sleeveless long coat, which was the norm for laeknir.

“Excuse me, laeknar?” Dasos said.

The woman turned. It was Veran’uvia again. She smiled, her tears still apparent, and said, “I need a new galaxy to live in. Too many ghosts in this one.”

“Tell me about it. Are you going to be alright?”

“Maybe. That depends on all of us, and whether or not we’re prepared to make the same mistakes over and over again. There were some things that cost us too much centuries ago, and it would appear that the wrong people brought it back.”

“My condo is upstairs if you need a drink or anything.”

“No, I came from there – your sister, Das’ithrios. She’s . . .” She stopped to press her hand over her face, and shook her head.

“What happened? Laeknar Saludalta?”

She stepped out of the elevator and seemed to ignore Dasos at first. Tong-Chang raised her hands to her mouth. Dread filled Dasos’s heart as well.

Then the laeknar looked at him and said, “Go to them. Go, now. I’ve had my fill of all this. Too many ghosts.” She walked away, heading for the camp and mumbling something that Dasos couldn’t hear with any clarity.

Them? What does she mean?

Tong-Chang put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Go on ahead. I’ll be right up. I don’t have it in me to run right now. Don’t argue; I’ll be fine. Go.”

He nodded to her, and took the stairs. He already ran more than he had planned to today, but the three levels of metal, wood, and concrete that sat above him, and soon below, were nothing. There was nothing but his heartbeat and whatever awaited him inside his condo.

If Zoey was hurt in any way he was prepared to burn down the whole building. If the Hulda’fi were involved then he was ready to hunt down every last one of them. These scenarios rushed through his brain until he reach the door. It was unlocked. That didn’t matter. He could have broken the lock with the force that he used to open the damn thing.

“Zoey!” he said.

Standing at the entrance to the hallway was a relief to his greatest worries. She looked back at him with a pair of emerald eyes, her expression somewhere between confused and annoyed. She then hobbled on her left leg, and Dasos could see that her right was bent, her foot not touching the floor.

“What happened to your leg, Zoey?” he asked while stepping further inside.

She shook her head at him, her lips curling down and eyes turning more sour. It was as though she was furious with him. Did he say or do something wrong?

“Wrong sister, Das,” she said, but from his right rather than in front of him.

He looked to the kitchen and saw another redheaded Aelf with the same green eyes looking his way. Two of her? No.

Go to them, the laeknar’s voice echoed between his ears.

Dasos dropped his belongings when the obvious slammed into his soul. He sped across the room. His heart felt as though it might erupt, and his eyes as thought they would put any supernova to shame. He raised his arms to feel her, feel anything, in case this stopped being real.

The young woman before him withdrew when his hands reached her shoulders. With fury in her voice she said, “No, I can’t. We can’t. This . . . I . . .”

She choked. As clear fluid flooded her eyes she shook her head one last time and plowed into her brother for the first time in many revolutions. All of her weight became his, and he held her without any intention of giving this woman back to whatever pit of the universe she had escaped from.

“Dasos,” Il’lyse said, “my sweet brother. I’ve done some terrible, awful things. They made me a monster.”

“You’re home, Lyssa,” he said. “Welcome to our haven.”

Chapter 52

Home. Haven. She had heard these words before, but this was the one time she accepted them. She needed them. She shivered as she let out a heavy breath, weighed by every decision she had ever made.

Il’lyse remembered the day when the three of them had made their clubhouse in the forest and called it their haven. Time and elements had done away with that place. Now this condo was theirs. There was Zoi’ne, too. She belonged here as much as Il’lyse did. For the first time ever, Il’lyse accepted this and smiled at her little sister. She was so going to have to make this up to that girl when she had the chance.

The front door opened again from its ajarred position. Tong-Chang walked into the condo and looked at her for a moment before closing the door shut.

“It’s good to see you, Il’lyse,” said Tong-Chang.

“Tonny, you butt, come here,” Il’lyse said.

Tong-Chang walked over and joined in the hug. This felt too real to be a dream, but too wonderful to be real. Cold, infinite beyond, Il’lyse missed these two people in her arms.

She turned after moments had passed, and put her hands on the Ginserei’s soft cheeks. Il’lyse said, “I heard about today—what you did, I mean. How are you holding up?”

“I was trying not to think about it,” said Tong-Chang. “It still pains me whenever I do. We left when the third death had been counted. Any more and I would have been too sick to stomach it; sicker than the mornings I’ve had with this.” She looked down and pressed a hand on her tummy.

Il’lyse was uncertain as to how she missed it earlier, but seeing the bulging belly made her feel as though her eyes might fall out of her head. Now it made sense what Zoi’ne had referred to a couple of times today. Her best friend in the whole galaxy was pregnant, and Il’lyse hadn’t been there for her until now.

“How long?” Il’lyse said.

“Since we reached Natt Grans,” said Tong-Chang. “As soon as we were less than a day from reaching the station my tangouchu had begun. I had bought myself some medicine for it, but I was too late.”

“Who’s the father?”

“I’d rather not say. The sire is dead to me. I don’t know what I’ll do if I’m ever assigned under him.” Her next breath was a strained one. “Stars beyond, how I wanted a career with the Allied Peacekeepers, and to be close to the people I care about most. I wanted to tinker with machines all day and not worry about politics.”

“Sorry, Tonny.”

Tong-Chang went to the counter where Zoi’ne was running more cheese through the electric grater, disrupting the moment that they were having. The younger sister made an inaudible apology for the noise she made with the device, but Tong-Chang snorted.

“You’re fine, love,” she said. The two of them reached over the counter and kissed one another.

If she hadn’t before then now Il’lyse felt as though she missed a lifetime of events in the time that she was gone. Her sister and best friend were a thing? Shw was going to need time to figure out how she felt about that.

“Right,” said Zoi’ne, “the dough is doing well, but I miscalculated what I needed last night and have enough sitting for two large pizzas. I have enough cheese here for both of them, so I guess that works out. I think I have enough sauce and toppings too inside the fridge, but it’s too early for dinner.”

“What, exactly, is pizza?” said Dasos.

“It’s sort of a flat pie with bread on the bottom, cheese on top of that, and extra stuff over the cheese. It’s an Earth favorite."

Together, the twins and their childhood friend burst out laughing among one another. Before Il’lyse knew it they were huddled on one side of the counter, Dasos and Tong-Chang in tears, and all three of them laughed.

“What?” Zoi’ne repeated.

“It’s just that,” said Tong-Chang, “you’re describing a food we used to eat a lot when we were little.”

“Yes, but we call it something else here,” said Dasos.

“I don’t know, ‘pizza’ sounds simpler.”

“That’s just great,” Zoi’ne said. “Here I was thinking that I somehow managed to introduce a new food to this side of the galaxy. Next you’ll be telling me that carrot cake exists with a different name.”

“Carrot cake?” said Il’lyse. “Who puts carrots inside of their sweets?”

“Earth does. If I had a recipe for it I would show you.”

“You Earth folk eat some strange things. I never even tried those Funyuns.”

She saw, out of the edges of her peripheral vision, both Dasos and Tong-Chang parted from her sides to look right at her. It must have sounded to them like she made up something random. Dasos looked up at Zoi’ne, whose gaze was a curious one.

“Funyuns, you say?” Zoi’ne said.

“Well yeah,” said Il’lyse. “You know what I’m talking about, right?”

“I do. I remember you blowing up the lot of them in my face when we were in that convenience store.”

That boy was Zoi’ne? Well, that was a definite twist that Il’lyse was not expecting. It surprised Il’lyse more than it should have, now that the truth was unraveling about the day that Soror Valide visited Earth. She remembered, that day, pointing her gun at the young man and not wanting to kill him. She had simply wanted him to stay down and not interfere with the confrontation she was having with that spy. There were days like that when Soror Valide had felt merciful, and Il’lyse was grateful that her encounter on Earth was on one such day.

“That was you?” Il’lyse said. “I’m so sorry about that. We weren’t supposed to be there. That unstable wormhole was only supposed to help us get away from the Allied Peacekeepers. It’s ironic, I know, since we ended up boarding the same ship that had pursued us. The Lord and Lady messaged us to wait for the chance, and their signal, to ambush the Marslou. I’m glad I didn’t kill you then.”

“Do you mean the Fjorfolias?” said Tong-Chang.

“That’s their social name. They go by that one when either one of them enters the public eye.”

“Stars beyond, I have so many questions. I think, perhaps, I should tell you all what I had looked up, and found, before we left the university.” She went to her bag on the floor and took out her computer. It was the same model that Il’lyse remembered, which didn’t surprise her, but it did make her smile. Tong-Chang brought it with her to the counter. “I copied some pages on here.”

“Pages from what?’ said Zoi’ne.

“I looked up an advanced book on the technical side of matter transference. It’s dry reading, and every engineer I have ever spoken to hates that book despite needing to know it from cover to cover. Text books, am I right?”

Everyone else snickered.

She said, “I looked this up after I shut down the power and those Hulda’fi died from sudden losses of half or more of their body mass. I then remembered about safety protocols that are in place for transporting people in general, versus teleporting women who are pregnant. For one thing, no pregnant woman should ever consider using it to terminate the baby, because it will certainly hurt her as much as being too risky.”

Zoi’ne folded her hands on the counter. Her full attention fell on Tong-Chang as she continued to explain.

“The short version is that there are extra matrixes that have to be put in place for pregnancies, which most of us were made aware in public school. What we were not told, however, was that the risks of failed precautions can result in either miscarriage or the fusion of D-N-Al. Similar precautions are taken for anyone who has been infused with the synthonectar for the first two weeks after the procedure has taken place. Now, Zoey, I remembered you saying once that you might have been injected with something prior to being transported to the Marslou. I looked at the pages relevant to all of this, and I wonder if you had something like that in your system when the incident occurred.”

Both Zoi’ne and Il’lyse looked at one another.

“It was an unrefined sample of genesis nectar,” Il’lyse said. “I didn’t even know I was pregnant. It couldn’t have been him, though. It couldn’t!”

“What?” said Tong-Chang.

“Tonny, was it him? Was it Chan-Yeol Fjorfolia?” Il’lyse braced herself for the answer, or tried to do so.

“Yes, it was.”

“No. It couldn’t be. He’s told us that he’s tied down there.” Her breath heaved, and her heart turned frantic trying to anticipate any lie. But this was Tong-Chang; she wouldn’t lie to her. Soror Valide once thought the same of Lord Tunderek, however.

“He used that falsehood on me, too. I wish he was. I’m sorry.”

Il’lyse pounded a fist on the counter. “Damn it! Why? This lie seems so obvious. I shouldn’t even believe in them anymore, but their words, their claims, grip me. Twice I’ve paid for it. If he were here now, would I dare pay for it a third, knowing what I do? Please tell me this is all wrong. I beg of you.”

“I can’t. Lyssa, were you impregnated by him too?”

“I think everyone was if this is the truth. I think, if you joined us when they tried to take you, your baby would have been reduced to genesis nectar, or worse.”

“What can be worse?”

“Fe’remene, or any Hulda’fi wearing a beak on their mask, could be smoking it as we speak. The nameless drug we were using was made from genesis nectar using other substances. I found out about this a week ago. I had no idea the Hulda’fi were actually making the nectar, let alone using it for this drug. I had no idea where they were collecting the tissue for it. There are hundreds, probably over a thousand, girls among the Hulda’fi. It’s a fraction of the scale seen before the alliance formed, but it’s still happening. The girls are still being used.”

“They have to be stopped.”

“I tried. I sabotaged the lab, and framed one of the other sisters for it, but I don’t know if it was a sufficient amount to do any real good. It didn’t even help me to earn back their trust or favor when I made sure to be seen as innocent on the camera. I don’t even know why I bothered doing that much. What have I been doing during the last two revolutions? I wish I knew. Cold, infinite beyond it doesn’t make sense.”

Dasos, who had his arms crossed while he listened through this, said, “Admiral Fjorfolia is a powerful person, and so is his wife. The worst of it all is that both every body of law enforcement will want you in their custody. I can try to get a recorder in here to make a statement, say that you are under my protective custody, but there is no telling what the Fjorfolias will do if all of this is true. I need time. I’m going to need time to think about this.”

He rubbed his head and walked to the couch, passing his things on the floor on the way so he could grab them. Dasos stopped when his line of sight reached an object that remained on the sofa. With a wince, Dasos moved the Hulda’fi suit to the far side of the furniture. Then he sat down and operated the wall monitor.

“I’m going to take my shower now,” said Zoi’ne, leaving the kitchen.

“Don’t forget about the laundry,” Il’lyse said.

“Damn it. Thanks, Lyssa.”

***

The problem with sitting down and thinking about what to do next was that the world still moved. Dasos loved playing games, especially Wormholes & Wyverns, but even then he saw the fickle nature of acting in turns, or taking time to think.

While he browsed the news stations one of his sisters went into the laundry room to wash her clothes. Tong-Chang removed that suit from the side of the couch, and then grabbed whatever it was that sat on the floor by Dasos’s feet. His other sister sat across the room behind him, but the distance in his mind could not decide if the stool she sat on was a few meters away or if it was light-spans from his couch.

Two thousand people had been counted among the dead in the city of Trullwick alone. A hundred of those lost were at the university, including the dean, Mister Paen. Property damage extended throughout Trullwick that was estimated to cost it in the hundreds of millions in burras. No one was transporting in or out. Calls were limited between bodies of law enforcement.

“Oh no!” Il’lyse said, “Those assholes destroyed Arcadia.”

The track broken, one trolley had tipped and smashed. Three major buildings in town were demolished. When the image on the news moved to the Ginserei Embassy, Tong-Chang gasped. The front of the building was in ruin, and the rest was on fire with the available firefighters trying to put it out.

Meanwhile, a correspondent on the news mentioned that a shuttle that had been heading to Ginserei from Elysium IX was lost. Its wreckage was found an hour ago.

He wasn’t sure how he was going to do it, but Dasos wanted to hit back at the Hulda’fi with everything he had. He wanted them to feel what everyone else did right now across the entire galaxy.

A pair of arms wrapped around him from behind. His sister said, “I’m so sorry, brother. I should have fought harder. I don’t know if it would have worked, but I feel responsible for this.”

“I don’t blame you,” he said. He turned to see that Il’lyse had taken the towel off of her head, revealing her hair that went down to her shoulders, as opposed to Zoey, whose hair went down to the middle of her back. “I told you you’re home now.”

“If I didn’t let Buska’vild fool me then so much of this wouldn’t have happened. Of course, then we wouldn’t have met Zoi’ne, would we?”

“No, we wouldn’t have.”

“That crazy girl has grown on me,” Il’lyse whispered, “but don’t tell her I said that.”

“Zoey has that effect on people, like you did. I have no idea what I would have done if she grew up with the three of us.”

“By the way, Il’lyse,” Zoey said from her room, “Doctor Evrahn told me you still owe him that interpretive dance for his class assignment.”

“What now?”

Il’lyse snorted and chortled, trying to hold herself back, and then she burst out laughing like a crazed super villain.

***

Zoey hummed to herself while she sautéed the slices of coyaturn meat with some garlic, red onions, and mushrooms. She added the basil leafs last before removing the pan from the heated portion of the stove. She had already prepared the dough with the best marinara sauce from the store that her dad could recommend and the cheese that she had handled earlier. Zoey grabbed the pan again, noting that the cheese had been added already, and she added half of the toppings from inside of the baking pan.

In the oven she head a special baking sheet that was meant for baking bread, for anyone who had a basic kitchen like she and Dasos had in their condo. She checked on the rising temperature inside the oven before turning to the counter.

Her sister watched her doing this with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

“I think I got this right,” Zoey said.

“You think so, huh?” said Il’lyse.

“This is my first try making homemade pizza instead of the frozen ones found in the store. You’re sure there’s something like this on Elysium? I didn’t see this when I went grocery shopping.”

“Earth freezes them?”

“It freezes a lot of things. It’s convenient and helps keep certain foods for longer. I’m almost surprised I don’t see extensive frozen food aisles here, come to think of it.”

“Sure, I can understand that much, but this pizza of yours? Please tell me you don’t microwave it.”

“I . . . plead ignorance on that.” She placed the first pizza inside of the oven and set the timer.

Zoey tied the bag inside of the trashcan. It stood as high as her knee did and was rectangular in shape. The condo building’s management owned it, like the one found inside every unit, so Zoey and Dasos had little control over the color of it on days like the last time they had gone out and grabbed an eggshell one from the contraption in the maintenance hallway. Tonight she hoped for one that didn’t need to be hidden in the compartment under the sink.

“OK, I need to take this out. The first pizza will be out of the oven in about ten minutes.”

“I’ll get it, love,” said Tong-Chang from the bathroom door as she walked out of it.

“Get what?”

“The pizza. You go deal with the trash and take your shower already.”

“Thanks, babe.”

Il’lyse shook her head in amusement. She was lucky that Zoey and Tong-Chang weren’t emulating how their parents talked to one another when they had alcohol in them. That might be too embarrassing, Zoey thought.

The trashcan wasn’t heavy, nor was it filled to the top for that matter, but it did have a few things in it that needed to go before the scent of it became unpleasant. Zoey carried the bin out of the door and walked to the maintenance hallway. She had thought that maintenance workers came through here when needed, and were the only people to do so, but her brother showed her what to do with the garbage after she had gotten confused and lost one day trying to find the dumpster downstairs.

It was underground, she had learned. Now, months later, Zoey knew to open the sliding, contracting gate and locate the system in the middle of the four-way hallway. Green lights and a sticker with downward arrows told her which box to insert the older bin. She opened the box and saw the instructions for handling this whole contraption. It came with a few warnings including a limit to the amount of weight the box can hold, and a number to call if there was an issue with the machine.

The box also came with two meters. One read the weight of the trashcan after she placed it in the correct spot and position. The second meter gauged the capacity that remained for the dumpster below. Both seemed fine to her, so she closed the box and pressed the glowing yellow button on this side.

As the mechanism carried her old bin down to the basement level, where it then flipped over and dumped the bin’s contents. Another box appeared on the other side of the machine in seconds with red lights and a sticker with upward arrows on the side. Once the motion stopped Zoey opened the lid and pulled out the dark brown trashcan that was available from the four slots.

A sticker inside the lid mocked her, saying “Please take one and pass me along.” She closed the lid and walked away, back towards her brother’s condo.

She thought she heard footsteps as she closed the gate. Zoey looked around, but saw no one. She continued toward the door when the footsteps became louder. Zoey turned. Three men in suits and sunglasses aimed their guns at her. She could not see their ears beneath the caps they wore.

“Don’t move!” one of them said.

“Drop your weapon,” another said.

“It’s a trashcan,” Zoey said.

“Doesn’t matter. On the ground, now!”

A woman with a commanding voice said, “Hold your fire.” She joined behind them without a gun of her own, but Zoey knew this visitor well enough to feel like the other woman had taken a shot at her. “Stand down, gentleman. We don’t need another incident.”

Chapter 53

Zoey crept her way into the condo, one foot after the other, with a grimace on her face. She didn’t want to alarm anyone about the number of armed individuals outside that had grown to a dozen men in suits. However, there was nothing that she could do about the other visitor other than try to deny her entry.

“What’s up?” said Il’lyse. Tong-Chang, too, looked her way.

“We have company,” said Zoey.

The other woman walked in behind her. Zoey saw her brother turn his head their way and stand, his mouth agape, when he recognized the person standing inside of the doorway. Clearing her throat, Zoey excused herself and walked to the kitchen to put a new liner inside of the trashcan. She looked back from her mindless task and listened with intent as the surprise guest closed the door and looked at everyone in the condo.

Her eyes fell on Il’lyse. “There are two of you?” Shungdi said.

“She’s the original,” said Zoey. “We call her Salsa Verde.”

“What?” said Il’lyse and Shungdi in unison.

Tong-Chang stormed across the room and slapped her sister. The sound itself was painful, and Shungdi’s ears sank. Shungdi raised a hand to her shocked face. The silence that followed, however short, was palpable.

“Don’t, ever, hurt him like that again,” Tong-Chang said while pointing a finger at her. “I will never forgive you if you do.”

With a nod, Shungdi said, “I understand. I’m sorry.”

“I thought you left already,” said Dasos. “For all I know you were on that stiern-boat that got destroyed during all of this discord.”

“I almost was. Part of it was because I stalled so I could read what Val’steen had written about your Wormholes & Wyverns campaign. Part of me wanted to stay here and renounce my royal station as Tonny had, and make up for the way I had chosen to part ways with you. I contacted Father about a stupid thought I had, and, before I knew it, I had taken too long and missed my ride. Today when everything happened with these Hulda’fi, I knew I wasn’t going home, and I had work to do to make amends to the two people here who matter most to me.” She bowed forward. “Forgive me, lover.”

“Shungdi.” His steps were slow and soft. When Dasos had reached her he lifted her chin until Shungdi stood upright again. “I think we’ve all had enough apologies for one day. I think we need stop looking at our wounds for a moment and look at what we are going to do next.”

Dasos kissed her on the lips and wrapped an arm around her waist. His sisters leered at one another before Zoey walked past Tong-Chang and smacked her butt on the way back to the laundry room. She heard Tong-Chang’s gasp, but she did not look back to see her girlfriend’s hand gesture.

Seconds later, however, she did hear Tong-Chang say, “Il’lyse, if I ever find you dating one of our brothers or sisters then you and I are going to have a lot of serious words over it.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” said Il’lyse.

“W-wait a minute,” said Shungdi. “You’re Il’lyse.”

“I am.”

“I heard you were lost in an accident. I thought that meant you were dead.”

“For the longest time I felt dead. The Hulda’fi made me one of them, you see, and Zoi’ne annoyed me enough times that I broke out of it. That’s the simplified, kid-friendly version.”

Zoey moved some of her clothes into her room from the dryer, but held onto a few articles before heading back toward the bathroom. She saw Tong-Chang looking her way, and Zoey pointed at the oven. Tong-Chang nodded at her.

“Shungdi, are you hungry?” said Zoey.

“Not right now, thank you,” Shungdi said. “Oh, crap, now I’m imposing on you during your dinner time, aren’t I? I’m sorry. This is not a good time for me to be causing an incident.”

“I need to know what’s going on with you and your friends outside.”

“They’re all bodyguards from the embassy. I can order them food when it’s time; myself as well.”

“In that case the first pizza should be out of the oven in a few minutes from now. If it’s alright with everyone else then you can have a slice of it, but your bodyguards are going to need something else since we won’t have enough for all of them. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to take my shower after a long, long day.”

“Understandable. Thank you.”

***

“What is pizza?” she whispered.

Dasos said, “That would be the Earth name for flat-bottom cheese pies. Honestly, the Earth name rolls off the tongue better.”

“Oh, I’ve actually never had one of those before.”

The other two girls in the room pointed at her and said, “Blasphemer!”

“My childhood was as strict as it was scheduled, and I never had the chance to try this pizza.”

“Damn,” said Il’lyse, “if I knew that then I would have tried kidnapping you so I could treat you to a pie. Whether or not you’d have been returned home safely depends on the specific Hulda’fi that would have come with, of course, but at least you’d know what you’re missing.”

“That’s . . . I’m not too sure how kind that is.”

Meanwhile, Dasos pinched his brow. He had heard that a group of Hulda’fi once raided a flat-bottom parlor eight months ago, but no one was taken or injured. Some of the group drew inappropriate images of sex organs on the furniture using neon markers that they had acquired, and they stole away with five large pies when the excursion was over. He shot his twin sister a wary glare, wondering if she had anything to do with it. Il’lyse placed a hand on her hip, and another in the air, with a silent “What?” aimed his way.

“Anyways, Shungdi,” said Dasos, “I’m surprised that you’re here.”

“I almost wasn’t,” she said.

“Yes, so you stated earlier.”

“It’s a long story. Oh! One second.” Shungdi opened the front door and poked her head and one arm out. “Could you bring the weird thing? No, the other weird one we found, with the strange design on it. That one. Thank you.” She pulled herself back inside of the doorway and closed it. Shungdi now held an unfamiliar device. “I should have brought this in sooner. Here, Tong-Chang, I know you love technology. Call this a peace offering.”

While Tong-Chang took the handheld object with care, Il’lyse took one look at it from her stool by the counter, and she was taken aback. It was smaller than her hands combined, whatever it was.

“Where did you get this?” Tong-Chang asked.

Shungdi said, “I will tell you in a moment. You see, yesterday morning I had finished reading the arc from Dasos’ campaign about the poisoned king when it made me think to call Father. We talked for a time when I told him that I had received the urgent message and was on my way home. You should have seen him then. He gave me this quizzical expression with what strength he could muster. He was unsure of the urgency but pressed on me why I took so long to board a craft headed home. I may or may not have divulged with him the details of how riveting your friend is with retelling the story of your campaign, Das’ithrios.”

“My little sister and her debilitating love of good books. I see that hasn’t changed since our early childhood.”

“Well, no. I wish more books on socio-legal studies were written to be gripping or entertaining as Val’steen retells events. Becoming an attorney would be a far more pleasant experience.”

“I’ll take your word for it. Please go on.”

“Right, where was I? Oh! I had brought up the recent arc that I finished reading when our call got cut off. I called Father again this morning when he said that Tonny and I gave him reason to look into his own matter, and that he trusted our few of our brothers to aid him in this quest. We were cut off again. This time, however, one of the men working for the Ginserei Embassy came into my room to inform me that we were facing an incident. We fled into the wine cellar when the building was attacked within seconds. I heard the stiern-boat outside when the cellar door shut.”

“There is a wine cellar beneath the embassy?”

“Yes, highest sister.” Her choice of words made Il’lyse’s eye twitch. Dasos wasn’t sure why it happened, but he knew he caught it. “Ginserei has many High Houses, and three of them worship a deity who overlooks a vineyard. A wine cellar was bound to happen. Before you ask I did not partake in the wine selection or bring a bottle with me, though perhaps I should have, given this occasion.”

Tong-Chang giggled.

Shungdi said, “Some of us escaped the cellar and chose to seek any aid that we could find. My first thought was for my escort and I to go to the pub where Dasos and his friends hold their game nights. The owner said he was closed due to family safety coming first, though he may open the pub tonight to help feed any displaced person who needs it. Then we left for here, but encountered a band of those rebels on the way. They had parked their stiern-boat amidst some vegetation. We dealt with them, save the one that got away, and I decided to take something of theirs from their craft in case reinforcements arrived before the police did. I grabbed the first important item I could find, and that device was it. I’m sorry I don’t know an adequate amount about boats and ships to know what is needed for them to function; though I do know that the latter have a multitude of stellar masts to coast within range of a sun. The reason I know that much because of a legal case that I had to read about in my studies.”

“I’m glad you made it here safe,” said Tong-Chang, “but how did you deal with those rebels?”

“We got the drop on them and tied them up. We are not in Ginserei jurisdiction or I would have had to sign the order to have them all killed. Do you want to know the worst part? I don’t know if I could do that.”

“I’m dealing with the ones I killed, myself, so I understand.”

“Tong-Chang, what happened?”

“I can tell you later. Now, though, I need to grab dinner out of the oven so that it doesn’t burn. I wish I knew what this device is, but it doesn’t look like any tool for the operation a stiern-boat.”

“Let me look?” said Il’lyse, “OK, one of those. The Hulda’fi keep these things in their sleeping quarters and often take one with in their stiern-boats for the longer trips they have to make. Also, yes, they do sleep, contrary to whatever you may be thinking.”

“So you know what this is, then?”

“Yes. It’s a portable cutter and mender for cloth, leather, latex, or whatever else you can think of that can be worn. It’s useful when someone has to go to the restroom or otherwise relieve herself, or himself.”

“No way.” The oven’s timer went off. Tong-Chang looked between the device and the oven before hurrying to the latter and grabbing a protective mitt. “I don’t know if the Hulda’fi have anyone this brilliant among them, but there was supposed to be a patent for a portable version of clothing menders. Fifty years—sorry, revolutions—ago it had been filed. Investors were happy and ready to pounce on it and make a ton of burras or Yingbi on it. Then the developer and blueprints all vanished overnight. No one in the field was able to take a crack at rebuilding it due to legal rights on the patent lasting far longer than they should have. I had researched this for my class debate, but none of the details made it in our arguments or counter-arguments when the night of the debate finally came. Speaking of counter-arguments; Zoey, my baby wants to eat this whole pizza now!”

The faint, muffled sound of Zoey’s forced laugh made its way past the running water and closed door.

“Is anyone else tempted to test this thing on the flat-bottom cheese pie?” Il’lyse asked.

“This thing can cut through the hardest leathers and we don’t know what has or hasn’t gone through it,” Tong-Chang said. “You want to test the cutter on a pie?”

Zoey didn’t take too long in the shower. She came out of the bathroom with her lounging pants and loose T-shirt on. She also had a towel wrapped around her head rather than draped over it. This was the first time Dasos had ever seen anything like it. Wait, where was her hair?

“You didn’t cut it yet?” she asked.

“Not yet,” said Dasos. “What did you do to your head?” The other girls laughed, and he felt like he was missing the joke. What was happening?

“I wish I had one of those rolling pizza cutters,” Zoey said. “Those things are great for this.”

“We have this thing,” Il’lyse said, indicating the device from earlier.

“That looks like a nail polish dryer, but for really tiny hands. I think I’ll pass on that. This dough slicer will have to do.”

She cut the flat-bottom cheese pie into ten even pieces and let everyone standing around the counter grab what they wanted while she prepared the second pie. Dusk had settled by the time the second dish had gone into the oven. Zoey said that it would be leftovers for tomorrow.

“So, Il’lyse,” said Shungdi, “I have a question for you, if you don’t mind telling us the answer. Is there any sort of ranking structure among the Hulda’fi? That has been one of the biggest questions that law enforcement has been trying to answer for an eon and a half.”

“I can tell you,” Il’lyse said.

“Oh! I was expecting you to say you couldn’t, like every other dead end so far.”

“Dasos, since you work for the police, I’m sure you’ll want to record this.”

“I do, until tomorrow at least,” he said. His field credit was due to end at the end of the evening of the first of the month. “Are you sure about this?”

“People need to know. They need to know a lot of things, but this is a start. After the things I’ve done it’s the least that I can do.”

He wasn’t about to argue with that, as much as he wanted to. Dasos grabbed a napkin and wiped the grease off of his hands as he searched the area around the couch for his computer. He brought it back to the counter while finding the voice recorder. It was one of his least used features on this thing.

“It’s ready,” he said. “Go ahead, Lyssa.”

She growled after her name had been said. Il’lyse set her plate aside and said, “The Hulda’fi have a few simple ranks among them. On the top, in more ways than one, is the woman they all worship called Lady Tunderek. Second to her in all matters but military is her husband, Lord Tunderek. I understand this current one is the third Lord of the Hulda’fi, as well as the most ambitious and cunning of them.”

“What of the Lady?” said Shungdi.

“She’s the one; their first and last. Don’t ask me how, but she’s been around since the final days of the War of the Galactic Expanse. She is an Aelf, like most of us in this room, but you wouldn’t know she is ancient by looking at her.”

“That is most unlikely. Anyone listening to this will think it is hearsay.”

“They might, but there is more. Directly beneath the Lord Tunderek are the head recruiter and the squad leaders, many of whom squabble over who has more rank or favor over the others. Only one dared to claim rank over me, and I understand from my sister, my real sister, that the bitch was arrested today with heavy damage to her ability to walk. Now that I’m no longer one of them, now that they all think that I’m dead, the remaining team leaders will be climbing all over one another. The rest are brothers and sisters posted in numerous headquarters, depending on where the Lord and Lady will it. Most times they listen. One night in recent memory a small group of them didn’t, and paid the price for it by my hand.”

“Soror Valide. That’s you, isn’t it?”

“I see the name got around. Yes, that was me.”

Shungdi clenched her fingers against the surface of the counter where everyone had been eating. Dasos turned off the recording.

“I should be at home studying law,” said Shungdi, “but I’m on an allied planet, light-spans away, breaking bread with one of the most wanted people in the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance.”

“Wanted, right,” said Il’lyse. “Almost everyone who knows about me wants me dead, or thinks I already am.”

“Do you think that makes this alright?”

“No. I know I have a long way to go to undo the damage I did for the Hulda’fi. I know that the things I had done near the end of my time with them won’t be enough. What I don’t know is what I can do, or what rotting in prison will do to help any of us.”

“How can any of us trust you right now?”

“I can’t answer that for my own sake. I haven’t been able to trust myself since I visited our childhood home two months ago. I can’t trust myself after how close I came to killing Mom. I need help.”

She looked down at her shaking hands. Her fingers twitched, closing at sporadic intervals before Il’lyse reopened them. Dasos wished he knew what words to use to comfort her. It was Shungdi who made the next move. She had exhaled deeply through her nose and then stepped over to Il’lyse. Shungdi rubbed her on the back, her face turned from Dasos so he couldn’t see it.

Suddenly, the living room monitor made a ringing sound. Dasos wondered who could be calling since more than half of everyone who had this number was out of town or in hiding which made them all unlikely due to the city-wide lockdown. Was it the police captain? His building’s landlord? It wasn’t any of the women in the room with him unless someone developed some sort of telepathic powers.

With any of them, that would be a nightmare.

He grabbed his computer. There was a flashing blue light on the top of the pad.

“Huh, my computer is flashing,” said Tong-Chang.

“Ours too,” Zoey said.

“Wait, so that one’s mine?” Il’lyse said.

Dasos realized at once who it was. He then answered the call with his computer before the last ring sounded, preventing it from going to voice messaging. There were two people who were on everybody’s contact list. That was the only possible way all of their computers would be lighting up while in range of the monitor.

The image came up on the screen. Both of his parents were standing before him through a monitor of their own aboard the Hav Svan. Dasos looked over to the kitchen counter and back to the screen. Zoey hurried over next to him. The monitor sat high on the wall so that the bottom of it was level with his sisters’ eyes. Its camera at the top was able to see the bottom of the two stools by the counter, but no higher than that unless Dasos adjusted the screen’s angle. Right now he wasn’t going to do any such thing.

“Mom, Dad,” said Dasos, “I wasn’t expecting to hear from either of you tonight. Are you both OK?”

“We’re fine, Dasos,” said Keft’aerak. “The current call volume being used by law enforcement is low, and the two of us have time before I’m to report for a joint meeting between ranking officials.”

“Zoey,” said Bon’sinne, “I’m so glad you’re alright. Why did you send me away like that?”

“You were in danger,” Zoey said. “I did what I thought I had to.”

“Yes, but you and that Hulda’fi I fought. It might have been Soror Valide. Who else fights like that, or wears those additional black bands?”

“It was her. It’s fine now, Mom.”

“I don’t want you fighting her again. I think . . . No, never mind. I’m glad you’re safe, dear. Is that Tonny with you in the background?”

Both Dasos and Zoey looked back. Their sister was the sole person by the kitchen who wasn’t returning her gaze.

“We have company, yes, including her,” said Dasos. “Tonny’s little sister is here as well.”

Keft’aerak said, “Really? Good evening, Highness Leezu. I wish the situation was more agreeable right now.”

“Likewise, Captain,” Shungdi said from the other side of the room.

“This might complicate things as well. Aelfs and Ginserei were at one another’s throats on the political level when the Hulda’fi struck. It was as though they expected this to happen and hit everywhere they could with a big hammer. If a princess of theirs is on Elysium IX during this conflict then it could be the final strike that breaks down the tree, as it were.”

“I agree, there have been too many incidents.”

“I should have stopped them,” said Il’lyse, her voice soft.

“Stopped who? What could you have done?”

Bon’sinne said, “Was that Tonny I heard? Is she OK? She sounds different.”

“No, I’m fine! No need to worry.” said Tong-Chang. Then she whispered , “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Who else is there with you?”

Zoey darted her head back and forth between the monitor and the kitchen. Her apparent panic was going to give their sister away if she wasn’t careful. Though, Dasos thought, their parents needed to know. What he didn’t know was what would be the best time, or method, to tell them.

“Dad?” said Zoey. “How secure is this line?”

“How secure could you need it? Tell us who your mystery friend is so we can say hi.” said Keft’aerak.

“Pretty damn secure, I think. There’s someone here you need to see, but there are people out there who shouldn’t see her. It would be really bad if they did.”

“Zoi’ne Thalassas,” said Bon’sinne.

“Please?”

Before anyone else could get another word in, one of the stools screeched. Il’lyse had backed up her seat and was getting off of it. The Ginserei sisters raised their hands to say something, but then withdrew, Tong-Chang pressing her fists to her mouth while Shungdi looked on with a frown. It was too late for them to do anything.

Il’lyse limped on her left leg toward the couch and placed a hand over the back of it. She climbed over the seat and settled down on the sofa between where her siblings stood. Meanwhile, Bon’sinne grabbed her husband’s wrist and made several attempts to breathe in the air.

“Aerak,” she said.

“I know, I see her,” said Keft’aerak. A single tear rolled down his cheek, and he placed his free hand over his mouth.

Il’lyse said, her eyes watering, “Hi, Mom; Dad. I think I fucked up.”

Chapter 54

“It was you,” Bon’sinne said. “My sweet girl, all this time it really was you.” Her hand caressed the side of her neck.

“Yes,” said Il’lyse. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I wish I hadn’t done that to you. I wish I could undo so many terrible things that I’m responsible for.”

“What did she do?” Dasos whispered to Zoey.

Zoey said, “She strangled Mom. She had stopped in the nick of time when I found them, but the damage was done.”

Keft’aerak said, “Your mom will make it. We’re all shaken or injured by recent events, but she’ll be fine once we’ve all had time to recover.” Bon’sinne shut her eyes and nodded, as if bracing for something that none of the siblings, or their guests, could see on the screen. “Lyssa, what happened two revolutions ago? Admiral Fjorfolia told us that you didn’t survive. Your mother watched the craft blow up in front of her eyes.”

Il’lyse said, “It was him. The admiral, his wife, and Buska’vild took me from you. Fe’remene fucked me, over and over, until I wanted more of it like all of their children in the Hulda’fi. They both convinced me that you had abandoned me, and that more than half of my memories of you were false. I fought it for so long, losing sight of where I began or where I ended. Even now I still remember my life like the Fjorfolias told me it was. Even now I still crave the touch of each and every one of them. Being here helps me, but I feel that abyssal edge behind my feet waiting for me to plummet.”

“You’re serious about the two of them being behind this. Il’lyse, you understand that we can’t just take action against the two of them. In better circumstances it would take us weeks to open an inquiry. Meanwhile, sooner or later, people will learn of your survival and your identity. They will demand justice, and there’s only so much we can do within the confines of the law.”

“So I’m fucked.”

Bon’sinne said, “Dear, no. We got this. If you bring me enough proof I will hijack every ship in the Peacekeeper armada, and fire everything we have on their home when they least expect it. If you keep fighting I will be there for you like I always wanted to be. You’re not alone.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I believe in you, Il’lyse.”

“What? How can you say that?”

“I say it because it’s true. I don’t know how often I have said it in the past, but I believe in you. You are our daughter. The Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance and the Hulda’fi alike can never take that from either of us. When you were little I was content to leave you alone as much as I did because I thought you were able to handle anything. You always shined bright, and can shine again. Be that beautiful daughter for me, Il’lyse. I believe in you.”

Those four words sank deep. “I don’t . . . I don’t know how.”

“You aren’t the only one who has made mistakes in your life. The cold, infinite beyond knows I did.”

“You mean like a revolution ago, with that girl you killed?”

“Among other things. I meant to say that I genuinely wish I was there for you more when you were younger, but yes I suppose that tragedy as well.”

“That girl, the Hulda’fi, was pregnant. I’m sure she was. I wish she knew better how to get help. I wish she didn’t need it. If she hadn’t been at that hospital, Mom, her baby would have been removed from her belly and turned into nectar.” Il’lyse parted her shirt from her underwear and towel that she still had on, revealing two marks that she now knew to be scars from that procedure. “Can you see these scars? It happened to me, and knowing the truth about them hurts worse than being dead. The only bright side to come out of these scars is that one of them gave me a little sister.”

Both parents had recoiled when they saw the scars and heard their daughter talk about them. Bon’sinne didn’t take long to become furious. Il’lyse had heard about her infamous rage while growing up. She thought she had seen the anger both times that her mother had shot at her – at Soror Valide. This was a dark inferno in comparison to those torches in the night. Were her fury any greater Il’lyse would have sworn she was staring at the heat of a black hole.

“We have to cut this short,” Keft’aerak said. “I have to go to the joint meeting in a few minutes, and this call can’t be open when it happens.”

“I’m going with you,” said Bon’sinne, not even turning her head or looking at anyone.

“Your retired status may keep you from the joint meeting.”

“Then maybe it’s time I call off my retirement and kick that asshole off his seat. Maybe it’s time I taught him and his wife what happens when you toy with too many lives. Il’lyse, Dasos, Zoey, I believe in all three of you, but I have one question for you. Do you believe in me?”

She had no idea how or why she was the first to do it, but Il’lyse said, “Yes.”

The others followed. Keft’aerak said, “We will talk again soon. We love you.”

“Wait.”

“Huh?”

“I would like to make a full, official statement. I would like for someone to ask me everything I know and record it. Shungdi, you’re an attorney, correct?”

Shungdi said, “I’m still a student. My first revolution at the Ginserei School for Trade and Law had finished when I hopped on the shuttle headed for here. The best I can do is ask questions with the direct supervision of a trusted law officer. You’re going to need someone to grant you legal witness and guidance.”

“Who’s going to do that, then?”

They both looked at Tong-Chang, who proceeded to flail her arms and shake her head in protest.

“Girls, Dasos,” said Keft’aerak, “If you do this within the next forty-five minutes then send the recording, and anything else you can, to Trullwick Police. They have the authority to forward it to our meeting. Il’lyse, good luck.”

***

The camera turned on. It had been positioned in the kitchen by the small window and was pointed at the rectangular counter so that anyone who sat behind it could be seen. There was a linen cloth over the counter now, after the space had been cleaned, and it was the color of the day-lit sky. A tabletop microphone had been set up in the middle of the counter.

Il’lyse was the first to sit down before the camera. She nodded to indicate that she was ready. Seconds later the recording had begun.

While Shungdi and Dasos stood out of view, they were two meters or less from the microphone. The former said, “I am Shungdi, third daughter to High House Leezu of Heudee, Ginserei Prime, and a student of the Ginserei School for Law and Trade. It is now nineteen oh-five, in Trullwick, Elysium IX, on the Day of Transition betwixt the sixth and seventh months, Al-Re 225.”

Dasos said, “I am Cadet Officer Das’ithrios Thalassas with the Trullwick Police Department, present for supervision as we conduct an interview with this person in my protective custody.”

“Thank you, officer. Now, can you please state your whole name for the record, Miss?”

“Yes, I can,” said Il’lyse. “My name is Il’lyse Thalassas, alias Soror Valide of the Hulda’fi.”

“Before your legal representative is introduced, do you give your full consent to this interview, and cooperation to the bodies of law to the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance?”

“I do.”

Tong-Chang sat down next to her on the left side of the camera’s view. She wore a gown that opened in the chest to show her hair and royal mark. She squeezed her eyes and took a deep breath before settling her chest and looking at the camera.

And then she said, “Hello, my name is Tong-Chang II, second daughter and heir to High House Leezu of Heudee. By the power and privilege invested in me, I hereby grant legal witness and guidance to Il’lyse. You may ask her your questions, hallowed sister.”

Il’lyse rubbed Tong-Chang’s wrist; another hand appeared from the camera’s left and patted her shoulder before withdrawing from view.

Shungdi said, “Let us start at the beginning. When did you join the Hulda’fi?”

“It was Auttondmane, 223, when they took me in. I lost track of the date before I had become active among them. I believe it was the following month when I remember taking on my first task among them.”

“How long did it take you to climb the ranks?”

“I do not remember. It was during the first few weeks when I fought against it.”

“Could you please elaborate on that?”

Il’lyse struggled and rocked on her seat. Tong-Chang placed a hand on her and whispered that it was alright. That she did not have to answer if it was too difficult.

However, Il’lyse shook her head and said, “I had been dating a man by the name of Buska’vild Druvvin. He convinced me to go on a trip, skipping school for a couple of weeks, to spend time with him and some friends of his that we had met previously on Natt Grans. There was a storm of stellar radiation and high magnetism that advanced on us when we hid among some asteroids. Our boat was demolished, but the both of us were transported to a ship manned by the Hulda’fi. I was told that our other witness to the devastation believed Buska’vild and I to be dead if no one got us out of that craft on time. The two of us, Buska and I, were then separated, and I was led to a room where several Hulda’fi were having an orgy. While the admiral, the Lord Tunderek, spoke to my mother to confirm my death, his wife, the Hallowed Lady over all matters of the flesh and time and beauty had her way with me.

“She, along with the few brothers and many sisters, as I would get to know them, made me their plaything, feeding me paltry amounts of food and water for days; weeks. For days I fought, hanging on to who I was. For days I fought, trying to stay alive after so many consecutive orgasms and deprivations. My own body betrayed me until my mind decided it was good. They told me I was theirs, that my old life was a lie, and I fought even harder against them. I fought and I fought, but fighting it was like a finger trap. You don’t know what it was like for me. I can go on about how hard I tried to keep fighting, to keep myself from wanting more. One little death after another I lost a piece of myself until I killed the first of many sisters.

“Then I was theirs. I was broken, surrounded by all of the wrong people, every one of which subjugated each other the same as they had done to me, and I would do to them in turn. They would say ‘Hallowed is the pleasure of the flesh,’ and we would all believe it because that pleasure was the closest any of us had to feeling alive. Once I was theirs I emerged from that room not as a daughter of the Thalassas family, but as Soror Valide, a deadly debutante and promising new leader of a team that the Lady Tunderek wished to put together.

“We went out. We sabotaged a military depot and killed two guards, disposing of their bodies to reduce any trace of our involvement, and went back to the primary headquarters to have more sex with each other and our kindred. The worst part was that I enjoyed every mission we went on, from that point, until three months ago when half of my team perished to retrieve a single cryogenic case. I didn’t know, in detail, what was in there until later. It’s possible, despite my rank, that the others in my team knew when I wasn’t told, but the ones I could reliably ask were dead. We got what we had assaulted the Marslou for, we went home, and we had more sex. Lady Tunderek sensed my trouble with those events and took me yet again for herself, saying that I needed to remember how special I was. You don’t know what it’s like, being reminded day after day that the only thing that matters is what the flesh wants, or that the flesh always wants it. Always. I broke free, and the want remains.”

“So I see,” said Shungdi. “We have a few specific incidents to discuss. First of all is the annual masquerade two months ago. You were there, correct?”

“I was.”

“For what purpose?”

“The Lord and Lady Tunderek requested that I come with them as their personal bodyguard and driver. There, they used their socially recognized names – Fe’remene and Admiral Chan-Yeol Fjorfolia. Both attended as delegates due to their power and status among the alliance.”

“But then the Hulda’fi attacked, is that not so?”

“It is. I was unaware of any such operation. Lady Tunderek later denied to me that she had anything to do with the attack that night. This was a rogue group who had not been blessed to come home on Dereskoo with the rest of us, as is the case for many brothers and sisters across the galaxy. Or so I was told. So I did the dutiful thing and punished my wayward kindred. In the alley where I had begun, I met my little sister for the second time; my real sister I mean. She called me out and told me I still had a real family to come home to. I wish I was able to believe her then.”

“There was another incident at a technology fair about a month ago, was there not?”

“There was, but there was more in between.”

“Please share with us.”

“I came home. Zoi’ne’s words haunted me while I tried to sleep, so I flew a spare boat to this planet, using our cloaking to slip in undetected. It was me and a ship-full of broken memories while I went to my childhood home. I found the spare key in its usual hiding place, deduced the passcode on the security system, and had a breakdown in my old bedroom. I fled when Mom came home. It left me wondering who or what I was after that. Then I sneaked away again after that.

“Tong-Chang was in danger of being kidnapped by my kin due to her expertise in technology. I used my stealth training to gather information that the Lord and Lady had locked away in their manor. Then I came here on my own because the Lord and Lady did not need me for their escort like they had for the masquerade. I knew that my mother and Zoi’ne would be having dinner with them so I trailed her until we met in private. It was then that I handed her a single name, with account info, that she could give it to someone of authority.”

“That would have been me,” said Dasos. “My sister is referring to information on one of our former officers, which was used to open an investigation. We arrested two of our own, and more men and women working for the Hulda’fi in some capacity were eventually apprehended across the territory.”

“It didn’t please Lord Tunderek at all to lose so many of his insiders. I had never seen him lash out in anger before, because he’s so calculating. Tong-Chang was safe, but the next target was chosen to replace her.”

“Are you referring to Doctor Valkoi’ves Rakendaya?” said Shingu.

“Not exactly, but you have the right time and place. I was supposed to grab the boy who was there, whose given name was also Valkoi’ves. He is a prodigy at all things technological. He would have been converted like so many among the Hulda’fi, but he would have been the one to help another man working for them to stabilize wormholes. The doctor that I took ended up being a good man for the job, which is how and why the Hulda’fi can get around with stable wormholes now.”

“Stable wormholes? That sounds like fantasy. Our best attempts thus far to make it a reality resulted in the delta warp drive and communication relays.”

“I’m aware. None of us thought such a thing was possible until a man from Earth appeared on Dereskoo by serendipity. He had been testing a machine he built when it sucked him through the galaxy and into the frozen wastes outside of the underground facility. We interrogated him for three days, running a check on his background in case he was a liar or a spy sent from Lutoume. The one human girl among us knew nothing of him either. His name is Doctor Ethan Wilde.”

The sound of another girl choking and coughing off-screen was then picked up by the camera. She said, “Sorry,” her voice faint.

“An Earth Human managed this? Is this facility you spoke of where the scientists worked to perfect wormholes?” said Shungdi.

“No, they worked in the manor basement. The facility that I spoke of is an evil place. When we girls develop suspicious symptoms we are sent there for the laeknar to run tests and extract a deep tissue sample. That was the lie. We were sick for days after it every time. I should point out, at this time, that the Hulda’fi who stay male are told to have their balls tied or removed. So far as I know, they all obey at the threat of death. Lord Tunderek, however, only claimed to be tied.” She parted her shirt and pants that she was wearing, and revealed two circular scars. “What they extracted from us was our unborn children.”

“Why would they do a thing like this?”

“The sisters who work in that lab use our samples to make genesis nectar. It is nowhere near the volume that is was made two and a half centuries ago, when Aelfs and Ginserei managed to wipe out half of our populations for the sake of this miracle medicine, but I found in my research that an average of fifty packets of genesis nectar are made every month.”

“Fifty!”

“And it gets worse. The same lab workers use the nectar to restore limbs on the injured Hulda’fi, yes, but they also use it on boys who are convinced by the Lord and Lady to become girls. I know there are transgenders in the galaxy who have a legitimate need for such a procedure, but these boys are driven by desire to please Lord and Lady Tunderek. I don’t know how many of them, if any, remember living as boys. Even still it gets worse. The vast majority of the genesis nectar is then combined with a species of seaweed that is harvested or synthesized, as well as numerous other chemicals, to make a nameless drug. We referred to it as a taste of divinity, because she smokes it all of the time. When teams are given missions of terror they are blessed to wear beaks over their masks to inhale it. It’s what messes with our minds and allows us to teleport at will.

“When I learned of this, when I learned that the Lord and Lady were unhappy with me, I decided to sabotage the facility and frame one of the sisters for the incident. The cameras at the facility saw me helping out around the place. It was my attempt to salvage my favor.”

“Helping out how?” said Shungdi.

“Sometimes I cleaned equipment. Sometimes I filled out paperwork. On my last day before the sabotage took effect, and I was called on assignment here on Elysium IX, I replaced the bookkeeper. She was our sole human from Lutoume that I had mentioned earlier. Before that day came she had been called upon to suicide bomb the second ring of Natt Halvaegs.”

“The human behind the incident of Natt Halvaegs was one of the Hulda’fi? Are you sure?”

“If I had the Lord and Lady’s records in front of me I could tell you more than that. I could tell you every incident, every plot device they stood behind. If you wanted to know why there was rising tension between the four races, only for the Hulda’fi to strike when it did, it’s because the Hulda’fi were behind it all in a calculated effort. Lord Tunderek planned it all.”

Il’lyse buried her head in her hands and sobbed. She said, “I can’t take any more of this. All I wanted was a week of fun, and what I got was a lifetime of asking myself what I did, or what memories of mine are even real.”

Seconds later Zoi’ne appeared on the right side of the camera. She put a hand on her sister’s left shoulder while Tong-Chang put another on Il’lyse’s right.

“I think that’s enough for now,” said Tong-Chang.

“Agreed,” said Zoey, “but I have something to add to this recording since I have some information pertinent to what has all been said. That’s alright, right?”

“This is unusual,” Shungdi said, “but we can allow it.”

Tong-Chang gave up her seat and stood behind the sisters as Zoey sat down on it. Zoey had in her hands a personal computer.

“Hello,” she said, “my name is Zoi’ne Thalassas, known in certain circles as the Lady of Earth. Over the past couple months I had looked up as much information as I could about the Hulda’fi, the Fjorfolias, and the name Tunderek since Soror Valide once said it to me. The article I found from when Admiral Chan-Yeol Fjorfolia was promoted suggests that his wife is more ageless than any Aelf. In a previous recording Il’lyse had mentioned that Lady Tunderek was older than the alliance.

“However, I found one article with that name, and it referred to a secret facility that was founded and shut down at the end of the War of the Galactic Expanse. It was home of the Tunderek Program and place where it was believed that super soldiers were being engineered. However, all scientists had been killed in a fire, and every test subject was believed dead. Rumors by the time of this article were that someone might have survived and gotten away, but there wasn’t sufficient evidence to support them. If what I found is true, and if Lady Fe’remene Fjorfolia is indeed this sole survivor, then it would place her more than a century past Aelfen life expectancy, and yet she appears to be without age, in addition to remorse.

“All of this is unsettling, but I believe, also, that there is a bigger game they are playing than what we can see. We have no way of knowing until it is too late. That is all. Thank you.”

***

The sleeping arrangement made for five people was not at all what Il’lyse was used to. She had lost track of the times in which she slept with no less than two other people at once, or the amount of noise she could hear both during and afterward. She had the couch to herself, which was plush and long compared to the last one she rested on. The condo was quiet.

Somewhere outside of the condo, the embassy guard camped where they could keep watch on the residence, the ways up or down the building, and the medical camp across the street that seemed to have calmed in its activity before everyone inside of the condo called it a night.

Dasos had offered his bed to either Shungdi or Il’lyse, but the Ginserei princess told him under no uncertain terms that he was neither sleeping on the floor nor leaving her alone. So they snuggled on his bed and slept.

In another room their sisters cuddled well past the time when Il’lyse had passed out. She stirred from her slumber in the middle of the night when someone tried and failed to sneak to the front door. It was Zoi’ne, who was putting on a pair of boots that Il’lyse couldn’t make out in the dark.

“What are you up to?” Il’lyse whispered.

“Crap,” said Zoi’ne. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m getting rid of something we don’t need. You can go back to sleep.”

“You aren’t planning to run off, are you?”

“What, me? Never.” They giggled. Il’lyse wondered how much of her reflection she saw in her little sister, but she was too tired to look further into it. “Lyssa, get some rest. When you’re awake you’ll be able to live your own life again. I promise.”

“Hurry back, Zoi’ne, but be more careful sneaking around. I might have to give you some lessons on that.”

“Right. I’ll be here before you know it.”

Il’lyse turned away and went back to sleep. She didn’t hear her sister after that. The morning light was the next thing to pester her by shining itself against her face. She stretched and got up from the couch. Her leg was still sore from the day before. Was a leftover slice of pie a good breakfast? It might be, but she didn’t go to the kitchen yet. Instead, she caught both sight and sound from her brother’s bedroom door opening.

Shungdi was the first to come out of it, though she went for the bathroom. Dasos spotted Il’lyse and walked into the middle of the condo’s main space.

“I’m glad you’re still here,” he said.

“Where would I have gone?” Il’lyse said. “I don’t have our sister’s freedom, you know.”

“Guys?” said Tong-Chang. She had stepped toward the living room through the hallway. “Where’s Zoey?”

“What do you mean? Isn’t she with you?”

With a few waves of her right hand in front of her face, Il’lyse let her Aelf senses become unfocused. Her hand preceded itself by a quarter of a second, but no more.

“She’s gone,” Il’lyse said. “Where would she have gone?”

From the bathroom, behind the closed door, Shungdi said, “Somebody cut their hair in here. There’s a bunch of it in the trashcan.”

“How much hair? How long?”

“I don’t know. Maybe fifteen centimeters or more? It’s more than Dasos ever has on his head.”

“Why would she have done that? Unless . . . no. Tonny, where did you put my suit?”

Tong-Chang pointed toward the walk-in closet and then opened the door that was closer to the living room. She probed the space with her head in so many directions at once.

“It was right here,” Tong-Chang said. “Wait. The mender is still here, and so is this.” She held out a black cord.

The pieces came together. The impact was greater than any punch or kick that Il’lyse had felt. Damn her injured leg; she might have gone off to take the fight to the Hulda’fi if Il’lyse was able. Running off in the night was her thing. It would have been a suicide mission, though. She would have gone in without any markings of a leader and gone down fighting. Zoi’ne wasn’t that stupid, was she?

When you’re awake you’ll be able to live your own life again, I promise.

“Oh no,” Il’lyse muttered.

Chapter 55

Dasos hurried out of the condo. Il’lyse had told him what she would have done if she were in Zoey’s place. He dialed the police captain on his cell-comm, but received no response. There had to be someone who knew where Zoey went off to.

“Wait!” Il’lyse said. She stumbled out of the door, putting on one of their sister’s winter boots over the pants that she was now wearing.

“You shouldn’t be out here,” Dasos said.

“Who’s going to recognize me as myself? Besides, you don’t even know where she’s gone, and I’m not letting you go after her alone.”

“What about your leg? It still needs to heal.”

Il’lyse hopped on her left foot with a ridiculous level of speed and jumped. She swung around when her arm hooked onto Dasos, causing him to stagger before Il’lyse positioned herself on her back. She then pointed forward.

Her energy was triumphant as she said, “To our sister!”

“I’m not carrying you the whole way, wherever we’re going,” Dasos said.

“She’s getting further away the longer we argue about this. Now let’s go.”

“Ugh, fine, but you’re in charge of typing the messages on my cell-comm while I support your legs with my hands.” He handed his device back to her with one land and grabbed the side of her side with another.

“Hey, it’s not my fault you only have two hands.”

Tong-Chang called out from the door, “What do I do?”

“Keep yourself and Shungdi safe, Tonny. If we’re not back by dinner the rest of the pie is yours.”

They moved down the stairs, and Dasos turned left from the stairwell away from the park. Already there were two directions that Zoey could have gone three if anyone counted the roof. It wouldn’t take long for there to be a thousand directions, let alone the distance that Zoey had gone in an untold number of hours. Dasos kept repeating to himself that maybe she got lost. Maybe she ended up in a broom closet somewhere like she kept saying would happen.

“Oh, look!” Il’lyse said, pointing to a police officer who was standing next to a motorcycle at one street corner.

“What about him?” said Dasos.

“See if we can borrow the bike. Then we can catch up to her faster.”

“You’re insane.”

“You’re listening to me.”

“That I am. Cold, infinite beyond, let’s go.” He jogged to the officer.

“Hi! Please let us steal your bike.”

“We’re not stealing the damn bike, sister. Good morning, Sergeant. May I please borrow your vehicle? It’s sort of an emergency.”

The sergeant stood silent for a moment. His stare showed no expression while he looked at them. Dasos returned a stare of his own with pressed lips, and he saw Il’lyse’s pout in the reflection on the man’s sun visor that hung from his helmet.

“You must be Cadet Thalassas,” said the officer at last. “I’ve heard much about you from the others.”

“Good things, I hope,” said Dasos.

“The answer is no.”

“My sister hurt her leg yesterday and we have to hurry. I can’t get ahold of the captain. Do you know any other way we might be able to get to where we need to?”

“Most of the department is working to round up the Hulda’fi, who have decided to gather on the corner of Eighth and Mahogany. We can’t spare anyone else, or their vehicles, who is on duty.”

“That’s where we need to go,” said Il’lyse.

Dasos said, “Have you seen the video that I sent the captain last night?”

“I have not, but I heard a few rumors about it,” said the sergeant, who raised his head a centimeter or two, his visor directed at Il’lyse. “I had heard that the both of you were to keep a watch on someone.”

Il’lyse said, “All the more reason we need your bike. It’s a long story and we’re in a hurry, like Dasos said.”

“If my bike should go missing . . .”

Dasos said, “Then I will write about it in my final report to the captain as being my fault. My shift isn’t for another nine hours or so, but let me do this.”

The sergeant clicked his mouth and grit one side of his teeth.

A moment later Dasos and Il’lyse got on the motorcycle. There were a few safety protocols beyond wearing boots, which the two of them each had covered in a less than impressive manner, but Dasos would have to deal with those later.

While they rode off, Il’lyse said, “Wrong sister, by the way!”

***

Here she was, once again in the thick of things without a plan. Zoey had stolen off in the early morning with the Hulda’fi suit that Tong-Chang had repaired for the sake of pictorial evidence. Zoey now crouched, with her hood up, over a rebel who had died earlier. The girl before her still had a mask and a pair of gloves.

She reached down for the mask when someone approached from behind. It was another Hulda’fi, who said, “You, are you ready to leave?”

Her first thought was to attack the one rebel, but she didn’t know their skill level or how long it would take. Zoey had no idea how many other rebels were around her right now, either. She was bad with rushing forward into things, but she wasn’t quite so hopeless as that.

How could she respond? In her normal voice? That was too risky because all of the Hulda’fi were bound to know it like they would have known her face if Zoey were to turn and look their way. She thought about doing a low voice like Il’lyse once did during the masquerade, but that too was risky.

Imitating several of the peppy girls that she knew back on Earth, including her first girlfriend, Zoey decided on a high voice that could make someone’s head hurt. She said, “Yeah, just about. I needed to replace my mask and gloves, you know?”

“Well hurry up,” said the Hulda’fi behind her. “We need to board the stiern-boat and activate the wormhole.”

“Got it!” She so didn’t want to talk like that the whole journey to wherever they were going. Why didn’t she come up with a plan?

Zoey put on the mask first, followed by the gloves. The world seemed bleaker through the lenses of the mask. Every detail was visible as far as her eyes could carry her vision, but a pale amber coated all of it like an awful movie from ten years ago. She passed her hand in front of the mask to check and be sure that her sense of smell wasn’t failing her, and there was no beak attached.

She stood and walked with the rebels who were present. One of them whispered something about it being cramped, but there wouldn’t be any time to play around. Zoey tried not to think about what they meant before she reached the two stiern-boats. When Shungdi had talked about her trip here, yesterday, she mentioned one craft being here, but nothing about a second. Zoey wondered for a moment if she came to the right street corner, which she had asked Shungdi about while they had prepared the kitchen space for recording Il’lyse’s statement.

Cars drove through the intersection, their sirens blaring. By now Zoey had taken her first step on one of the boats. Some of the Hulda’fi backed away from the craft and pulled out their pistols. The doors closed without them ever boarding, and the engine sounded.

Whatever happens, hopefully Il’lyse will be happy living my life for herself. Be free, sis.

The thought made her shiver. One of the Hulda’fi nudged her and said, “You’re fine now. Soon we’ll be home, and we can put yesterday behind us.”

Resuming her faux pep, Zoey said, “I know. Fridays, am I right?”

“Fridays?” The Hulda’fi who had spoken now scratched their head with a finger.

***

He slowed the motorcycle when they neared the police by the intersection. Dasos saw the officers shooting it out with an unseen number of Hulda’fi.

“Shit, they’re taking off,” said Il’lyse.

Behind a wall of hedges the first of two stiern-boats lifted into the air. If Zoey had come here like her siblings both expected by now then chances were that she was on one of the craft.

The police captain said, “Thalassas, what are you doing here?”

“Long story, captain,” said Dasos. “Did you see any of them with hair like hers?” He lifted a hand to point a thumb at Il’lyse behind him, and yet she outdid him by rising up and waving wildly.

“I can’t say. Did your sister run out on you, or did you discover that you have a third one somewhere?”

The sky groaned. The air distorted and twisted in a spiral until shadows and a few blurred colors appeared in the middle. The image held, and the edges flared with darkened hues from across the light spectrum. The first stiern-boat flew into the space, and the craft vanished. The air returned to normal in seconds after that.

Growling, Il’lyse hopped off of the bike and went to one of the police cars. She grabbed the radio and turned on the speaker system. One man asked her what she was doing, but she ignored him. Dasos grunted and got ready to ride in and sweep his sister toward shelter.

“Cease fire, brothers and sisters,” Il’lyse said. Her voice was more commanding than Dasos had ever heard from her in all of the years they grew up together. “Stop shooting. Stop fighting for the most vile lie we were ever told. No one else has to die today.”

The firing stopped. The second stiern-boat faced her while it hovered in the air. She took steps away from the car, still holding the wireless radio, to take the focus off of the officers who stayed behind the car. A few of the officers might have been impressed enough to let her keep talking.

“You call yourselves brothers and sisters,” she said, “but of what? You fight, but do you know at what cost? Do you know what so many of us have lost in the promise of pleasure?” She pointed at the boat in the air. “Help me find my little sister, alive and well, and I will promise you life. It sucks, it has moments void of pleasure or reason, but it is living. It’s real like my flesh and blood. Where is Zoi’ne?”

And then the stiern-boat fired its side cannons.

***

They were outside of a mansion surrounded by wide gardens and a pond on one side. The stiern-boat descended upon a spot on the ground where the vegetation was minimal. When it stopped, the portside door opened. Zoey exited the vessel along with the Hulda’fi who were there with her.

Admiral Fjorfolia stood at the entrance to the manor. He said, “Welcome home, children. Get your things ready. We leave here in seventy minutes.”

“Lord Tunderek,” said one of the Hulda’fi, “I do not understand. Where are we going?”

“Those of us who are ready will be boarding my ship. The Hastig Silver is waiting for us a megameter off from Natt Grans. The rest will have to stay here and defend this blessed home of ours from invaders who wish to take away our freedoms and pleasure. Your choice will be a noble one, should you stay.”

So the Hulda’fi were doing something with Natt Grans? Zoey wanted to stop them while she was here, but she was outnumbered with no plan. She had time, at least. Time to think; time to explore.

No, there was one person here that she needed to see. Zoey headed into the house and hoped to find the basement.

***

About five meters behind here there was a pristine sidewalk made from stone sets - was. It had exploded in a blaze behind Il’lyse, and she still felt the searing heat threaten to consume her clothes, hair, and neck. She remained standing.

She raised the radio to her hand to tell the idiots piloting that boat that they had missed her, but she was quick to realize that the handheld device in her hand had been severed from the car. The cord that once kept the two together so that no one would run off with the radio by mistake no longer fettered her to the car. The distraction, though short, came to an abrupt end when a pair of rockets to hit one side of the boat. A third projectile came after; it was smaller and left no explosion like the rockets had done mere seconds before. The sounds of the engines flickered while the stiern-boat continued to move over the hedge wall.

Il’lyse saw figures moving behind the wall before the craft dropped from the air, and one person screamed out for one short instant. They fell silent. Meanwhile the boat struggled with its power. This meant the shield conductors and weapons were offline while the craft sat where it impacted the ground. She tossed the radio back to the officer and stormed across the remainder of the street in anger. She heard the sound of her former brothers and sisters scrambling to do something about the door, but they were failing at it.

A single boat of this size held up to thirty people along with five days’ worth of provisions before it was too heavy to fly in the air in most planets with a level of gravity that was tolerable for the sustenance of life. Strip the provisions and the craft was able to hold five more people before crowding and air became the next issue. Il’lyse guessed the former to be how many people were on this stiern-boat. She guessed that was why it was difficult for them to operate the manual override for the door.

It hardly mattered. It mattered less than the officers who looked on in curiosity, or the ones calling after her to get away. She pressed a single index finger on the front window of the vessel and looked at a few of the Hulda’fi in their masked eyes. They could hear her if she spoke loud.

“Let’s try this again,” she said, “Where is Zoi’ne? Or do I have to go in there and ask every one of you personally?”

“I surrender!” a number of distorted, muffled voices said. She could see a few of them smack their neighboring kindred.

***

“Excuse me, hi,” she said as Zoey approached one of the Hulda’fi. The Ginserei girl she found had removed her mask, as did many of the others. Zoey went on, “I did a dumb and got turned around trying to find something.”

“Have you only now been blessed with this holy palace?”

“Uhh . . .”

“Not to worry, sister. Many of us were lost before we came here. What is it that you’re trying to find?”

“I am looking for the basement. I understand there are two scientists down there. I need to see them.”

“What? Oh. You’re that one. I had heard a rumor that they might be . . . oh, never mind. Take that door there, go forward two more rooms to the next hallway, and make a right towards the door next to the equine painting.” She got up close to Zoey. The girl proceeded to grope her butt with one hand, and fondle one of her breasts with the other one. “Don’t tire yourself out. Maybe tonight, when we’re all aboard the Hastig Silver, you can tell me about the Lady’s mercy you have given them.”

“We’ll see.” Don’t panic, Zoey.

“I look forward to seeing what you look like under your mask and without this suit of yours. I’ll catch you later, sister.” She headed back to whatever the girl had been doing before Zoey talked to her.

Zoey felt like she was holding her breath as she followed the directions given to her. She was breathing, but the weight of the air burdened her lungs. She wondered what would happen if she got lost or the directions were wrong, or what to do if she had too many witnesses. She found the painting once she was sure no one was looking, and Zoey exhaled deeply before identifying Fe’remene on it, who was in the nude, save for a sparkling shawl hanging behind her, on the painting.

The platinum blond Aelf posed in the sunset like a goddess riding on a horse. It appeared on the image as though the Lady Fjorfolia was beckoning for her onlooker to join her.

Shaking her head, Zoey entered the door by the painting and saw the stairs. The directions, in spite of how she got them, gave her a renewed confidence in what she was doing, but Zoey still had no clue as to what that was. She descended the wooden steps, expecting an echo that didn’t come; every one was a dull tap.

At the bottom she found a room lined with holed particle boards along most of the walls, all painted white. There was a large table with a machine and parts, and a smaller one with two wooden seats to the opposite side. A two-seater sofa sat flushed to the side of the stairs, and two matching chairs flanked the couch. Two more Hulda’fi stood guard down here, looking at Zoey rather than the door on the far end.

One man entered through the door grumbling. He was human. The man stopped to regard Zoey before an Aelf joined him from the same door.

Zoey looked to the guards and said, “Leave us. I have an order to deal with these two.”

She hoped it worked. She had no such orders. Yet, the guards nodded and went to the stairs. One said, “You’ve come a moment sooner than expected. We’ll be glad to be rid of these men.”

Really? “Wait, I am early; you are correct. There may be someone up there who’s pretending to be me – a spy. Would you mind dealing with anyone else who comes this way?”

“We would be delighted. We’ll even have some fun with them.”

Both guards laughed and climbed the only exit from the room that Zoey could see. If she had a plan then now would have been a good time for Zoey to learn what it was, for once in her life.

The human, Doctor Wilde, said, “So it’s true then. We had wondered if our hosts would finish us when our usefulness was over. I believe I owe you, Valkoi’ves.”

“Too bad I won’t be able to collect, Ethan,” said the Aelf.

***

The engines activated again. The stiern-boat lifted into the air with renewed energy and turned. There was no doubt that many of the officers wished to shoot it down due to what the vessel represented, but not one person fired.

Dasos looked back at the ten men and women in uniform behind him. A few of them were police officers, and the rest were some Peacekeepers who had remained on the ground last night and joined while the Hulda’fi were being detained by the street corner. Now they sat within the stiern-boat while Il’lyse piloted it. She was under their watchful eye, but she had also volunteered to take them to Dereskoo. They agreed with reluctance and reservation.

“How’s Heil’auin doing?” he asked one of the men from the Peacekeepers.

“My cousin? Auin was doing well the last I spoke with him, about a week ago,” said the Peacekeeper, who then grinned. “He did say his current roommate is boring compared to his last one though.”

“Compared to my family? I’m not sure that’s saying much.”

“Indeed. So how are we getting past the lockdown, topside?”

Il’lyse smacked three wide buttons in a sequence and raised a lever. Dasos had never seen her pilot anything for real until now, as opposed to the games they played as children, but here she seemed to own the pilot seat as much as their father owned the kitchen. Before he could pass the Peacekeeper’s question along in case his sister didn’t hear it, the air in front of the craft twisted and changed in color. The anomaly that Dasos saw a couple moments ago tore open again.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” said Il’lyse, “welcome to your first wormhole. Anyone caught trying to bail will be left behind at your peril. Sit tight and we’ll be on the other side safely before you know it.” She adjusted another lever.

“So,” said Dasos, “when did you get your permit to fly one of these things?”

“I never did.” She turned her head at Dasos with a stone expression, which turned into a mischievous grin. Without any glance forward she moved the boat into the wormhole. The lights flickered, and the engines rang.

During the pass through the surrounding threshold into the unknown Dasos felt his mind go numb and heart twitch rather than beat. When he shook his head to regain some clarity, he saw that others aboard the craft had done the same. They all looked forward through the main window and gasped at what they were seeing. Dasos turned his gaze that way and saw a blizzard.

“We’ve come to the right planet,” Il’lyse said, “but are flying in the wrong spot. I wonder why the wormhole sent us here and not the manor.”

Static broke through the radio, followed within seconds by a man’s voice. It was Admiral Fjorfolia, who said, “Irenid Three, welcome back to Dereskoo. I have a specific task for you all. My facility below you is in dire need of evacuating, this time for good. Your sisters within will be shutting everything down and packing all of the necessary equipment that can be moved. Irenid Three, you are to help them board. Those of you who are aboard right now are to find your cold gear inside and ride the sleighs there to our manor. You have fifty-five minutes. Do you know where to land?”

Il’lyse raised a finger and rotated her head sideways. She said, “Yes, Hallowed Lord,” disguising her voice.

“Oh, very good. See you then.” The static sounded again.

“I’m so going to need another shower after saying that to him. Now to find that entrance. If that facility is still running then they are making and utilizing more of their genesis nectar.”

One of the Peacekeepers said, “I don’t suppose we have time to check all of the holes amidst those rocks?”

“No need, and I wouldn’t recommend it. The gasses can kill you upon contact if you go in with as little as you’re wearing now. There’s only one safe cavern. It’s this one down here.”

She set down the vessel with ease. Dasos still had trouble parking his parents’ car when he had learned to drive, and here was his twin sister landing a space craft with precision and care. She was the one who had once crashed their parents’ car. Damn, Dasos had to up his game, he realized.

“Everyone,” she said, “how would you feel about arresting the Hulda’fi laeknar, scientists, and guard detail within this facility? I would blow up the entrance on top of them but our cannons are too low on ammunition to do any real good. Say yes and I’ll open the portside door, but you will need to hurry inside the entrance where it will be warmer. Say no and we’ll blast our way into the Fjorfolias’ dome where countless rebels will strike back with everything they have, and the genesis nectar below this rocky hill will continue to be produced. It might not be here, but you can bet it’ll happen.”

“We’re really on Dereskoo?” said one of the Trullwick Police officers.

“We are. I apologize for your lack of jurisdiction, but desperate times and all.”

A lieutenant from the Peacekeepers said, “Let’s do it. The Hulda’fi will not be expecting this. Let’s hit them hard before the main force of the Allied Peacekeepers arrives. Let’s make sure they can’t keep making this nectar with such a disregard for life.”

“Now that’s what I want to hear.”

***

Zoey pulled off her mask. She said, “I didn’t come here to kill you, or whatever it is they’re planning.”

“Ah, so it’s you,” said Ethan. “Shouldn’t you be off doing something fun with yourself, like preparing to leave for your Lord’s ship?”

“I came here to see you.”

“Touching. Sentimental value has never been my strong suit, I’m afraid. I could have sworn I told you this.”

“I have to get you two out of here. You’re in danger, and I thought coming down here to save you was the least that I can do.”

“Soror Valide has a heart?”

“Wrong sister, but yes she does.”

Ethan stepped toward Zoey and examined her. There was a sense that he was trying to figure out who this woman was and why she looked like Il’lyse, as well as why she cared. Zoey restrained herself from calling him her father.

“Nope, I don’t get it,” said Ethan. “Are you her twin?”

“Not exactly,” Zoey said. “Il’lyse is my older sister. She’s safe now.”

“Good. Good, she’s using a real name now. It’s ironic, you know. I gave up on trying to raise my son, but I think that woman was the closest I’ve come to trying to raise a child of my own. My son on Earth deserves better than me.”

“Dylan deserved better than his uncle.”

“How do you know that name? I’m not sure I ever shared it with anyone.”

“Never mind about that. Do the two of you have any means of getting out of here safely? Any moment the Hulda’fi who was sent down here is bound to come down here with the two guards that I sent away, and possibly more. I don’t know what I’m going to do about my own safety, but the two of you need to get out of here while these cultists prepare to make their next move.”

Both men looked at one another. The Aelf scientist rolled his eyes and moved to the device on the table.

“This is a mock-up of the model we built some time ago,” said the man called Valkoi’ves. “It shouldn’t work, as far as they know upstairs, but we rigged it with spare parts and this man’s skill with math and coding. Once we activate it the device will expend itself to open an unstable wormhole. Unfortunately we were only able to supply sufficient power and mass to travel as far as outside the atmosphere.”

“We were planning to tear a whole from here to there, and vacuum as much of this house, and everyone in it, into outer space,” said Ethan. “Our second plan was to open a wormhole to somewhere else on this planet. There is an underground laboratory that we were never allowed to visit during our stay here, and going there would be as suicidal, but nowhere as effective at hitting them back for all they’re planning to do with our work.”

“We don’t trust them with it.”

Zoey shook her head and said, “Idiots, both of you. These guys are planning to leave here in less than an hour.”

“That doesn’t give you much time to get away, does it?”

“It gives you a chance to hide under their noses. Go to their lab, now, while they are trying to leave. Then try to contact the Peacekeepers once they’ve arrived.”

“And what if they haven’t left yet, young lady. What if you are wrong?”

“How would you feel about destroying their genesis nectar?”

While Ethan looked at her with curiosity and confusion, the other man regarded her with a level of terror and anger that he hadn’t shown until now. Valkoi’ves came closer to Zoey, his eyes narrowing.

He said, “Genesis nectar, you say?”

***

The first chamber was locked out. Of course it was. Il’lyse followed everyone into the facility and asked the officers to stand back. There was a window here on the side where the people inside of the lab could see the visitors. She approached the reinforced glass and stared at one of the security guards with a smile. The girl on the other side turned pale.

The security guard switched her focus from Il’lyse to a shielded button and back again. It was a yellow one as wide as two thumbs, encased in a transparent case. She dove to flip the case. But it was too late. Il’lyse had slammed her hand on the green and black panel by the door, causing it to radiate a warm scan through her hand and then open the door. The Hulda’fi had not yet purged her from the system.

She heard the alarm sound once the guard hit the button. The door screeched. Men and women ran for the third and final door from both sides, though it was closed. The first door came down from the ceiling, locking the invaders in. Dasos, who had borrowed something from their travel companions, threw a concussive grenade at the second door and pulled Il’lyse aside. The blast came.

Then the air moaned, and the walls groaned. Something was coming. It wasn’t a security protocol that Il’lyse recognized.

Chapter 56

The window cracked. The hallway jolted. The overhead lights all blinked and sputtered. Once the half of the lights came back the air convulsed against the inside of the window.

A wormhole formed inside of the security station behind the glass, but there was something wrong with it. The wormhole pulsed in size, and the event horizon rippled. Two men hopped through it. One of them, who was a human, beckoned at the hole in reality. Seconds later the anomaly closed, and both men ducked for cover inside of the security station when two of the guards decided to come and investigate.

On the ground near them was the female Hulda’fi that Dasos had seen. She was struggling to get up, and groaned. He could hear her since the glass was broken.

“Hey, you two,” Dasos said to the men, who looked his way, “open the door for us and we’ll get you out of here.”

Il’lyse peeked over at them and said, “Doctor, hurry. I can explain later.”

The human gave Il’lyse, in particular, an odd glance before scanning around the booth and pointing to a button that the other man was close to. The Aelf among them dashed for it and hit the button. One of the Hulda’fi guards shot the man, blowing a chunk out of his left arm. He screamed and collapsed back into cover, at which point the guard who had been in there when this started got on her feet.

As the third door opened down, Dasos ran forward. He took out his second, and last, concussive grenade that he had borrowed from the Peacekeepers, and chucked it for the slow-moving opening. The grenade ricocheted off of the ceiling by the door and fell on the other side where the rebels were waiting. He ran back to the second door with a chuckle. He hadn’t activated the grenade, but the Hulda’fi didn’t know that. It was a gamble he had to take. Judging by how his sister peered through the window at an angle and shook her head at him with a smirk, he guessed it worked well enough to give the officers seconds, or longer, to get through.

“You’re such a dork,” she said.

“And what about you?”

“I’m an unstable psycho bitch still trying to make sense. Watch this. Hey, guard!”

Il’lyse got up and knocked on the window. With the same hand she balled up her fist and extended her middle and ring fingers. She thrust them sideways so the guard could see it. The guard looked repulsed by her rude hand gesture. Il’lyse got back down and looked her brother in the eyes, her expression as plain as a Natt Grans afternoon.

His twin sister was going to need help one day; that much was for sure. How much would change when that happened, though?

***

Zoey stepped forward through the wrecked room. That was merely an unstable wormhole that ripped through this basement. She had to stay back. She had to stay here and wait for her next move. In seconds, she knew she didn’t have to wait long. Feet, heavy and hurrying, tapped against the stairs above. Zoey put the mask back on and waited for the newcomers. There were three Hulda’fi who entered the room. The trio whipped her heads across the sight of the room.

“They’re so gone now,” Zoey said, returning to her false pep voice. “They were plotting some sort of silly escape. Ooh, you should have seen it. Things went all ‘murr’ and then ‘eeh,’ until a hole opened in the air. It ripped them from here while it was all open and stuff, after I messed with their makeshift machine they built. So now they’re in the middle of the frozen wastes, I think it was? I was never good at geography.”

In truth, Zoey was acceptable or more with the subject. It was the sole reason she knew that Dereskoo was supposed to be an icy planet with a stormy atmosphere. Now was a matter of the three Hulda’fi buying her story.

“Who are you?” said the one in the back.

“I’m, you know, the one who dealt with those guys,” said Zoey.

“We don’t think so. Who do you serve?”

“Who do we all serve? There’s this fairy queen, and we adore her. You know! We’d all die for her, or something.”

“You’re really strange. Perhaps we should take you to Lady Tunderek when she is done having her little chat with one of our sisters. Maybe she can make out who you really are.”

“Whoa, do you know how cool you sound right now? I wish I could sound like that.” Yes, she really did. Right now she felt like even her own brain cells were packing for a one-way trip to the other side of the universe. “Every time I try to sound all smart or awesome I end up doing a dumb. Ooh, I think I skipped breakfast.”

Two of the Hulda’fi bobbed their heads as if reaching some agreement with all that Zoey was saying, and Zoey thought she might have to ask them what that was if this went on any longer. The third one, who had been questioning her, raised a shaking hand to their masked face and pressed their palm against it.

“Seize her,” the one in the rear said.

***

The diversion had allowed the lieutenant and officers to go in strong as they entered the main section of the facility. While the combat suits and masks worn by the Hulda’fi could stand a stunning blow, to some degree, from the standard weapons of the Allied Peacekeepers, the guards posted here fell as quickly as they were hit once or twice. The Peacekeepers did the shooting, and the Trullwick Police officers, though few and far from home, bound the fallen security as soon as they could reach them. Guards had fled from their first defensive post by the third door. Some went into nooks that they could find on the ground level, some took to high ground, though one fell when a stunning blast hit them at the top of the ladder, and three stood at their station with two hostages.

Il’lyse spotted the ajarred door that led into the office for bookkeeping. It was harder to tell, between the distance and the gunfire, if there was anyone in there who was peeking through that opening, or if it was her imagination. Given what she knew she figured that plenty of Hulda’fi were hiding in there.

None of the police or Peacekeepers wanted her to touch a gun. They had been reluctant as it was to let her bring them here, and even then it was because she knew how to operate the stiern-boat while the rest of them knew nothing of piloting those craft. She wanted to prove useful. Once again, she came to realize, she was in the same building where she wanted to do as much. The Hulda’fi had wanted her dead when her usefulness was over, and soon the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance would want her brought to justice once she was done helping them. She ogled the Hulda’fi guns on the ground where the first guards had fallen, and she relented from her desire to pick one up.

Do the right thing, look better when judgment comes. Cold, infinite beyond, she dreaded the idea. The abyss behind her was almost comforting compared to whatever sentence awaited her. She felt the darkness calling back to her.

She turned for the security station where two of the Peacekeeper officers were in a standoff against the three guards. The way to those girls was clear. It was easy. Il’lyse treaded the concrete walkway. She glanced up and saw the growing fear and anger in their eyes as one of them shouted at her. Il’lyse didn’t bother to listen past the sounds of gunfire. She loomed closer and closer to the security station and raised her hands.

“Stand down,” she said, her voice calm. “None of you needs to get hurt.”

“Stay back!” one girl shouted at her. The guard’s pistol pressed to Doctor Wilde’s face.

“I have come to apologize to every last one of you. Who among you did I help to convert? Who among you did I kidnap? Who among you lost a child to this laboratory like I had done?”

“Ack! So it was true?” said Doctor Rakendaya, clutching what was left of his arm and seething in pain over it.

“Today that ends so none of us have to go through the pain. Not ever again. No one needs to repeat the mistake made hundreds of revolutions ago. Twice for me was twice too many. I didn’t get a say in it; the one girl who tried was killed for it.”

One guard dropped her gun arm to her side and said, “Soror Valide, what are you talking about?”

Il’lyse was close now. She could have risked these men’s lives further by leaping forward and using her hands to take down the guards. No, she needed something on her conscience; something positive. It sounded more and more like her sister, but there, too, was the echo of their mom saying she believed in Il’lyse.

She said, “Do you not know what genesis nectar is, or why some of us have been sick for days following our visits to the laeknar here? Chan-Yeol lied to us. He lied to some of us more than others.”

“No, the Lord Tunderek never lies. Do not speak such blasphemy.”

“I’ve told myself this same lie many times.”

“Stop it. You betrayed us. We do not listen to traitors.”

“I truly am sorry.”

Another guard dropped her gun; except this time to the floor. She said, “You’re supposed to be heartless. You’re supposed to be the one we fear most around here.”

“There are only three people here who need to fear me. Three people took away our choices, our identities, our lives, and subjected us to things we were never meant to know in our lifetimes. Two of them did it because we were vulnerable. They were the wrong people at the right time. Let me be the right person for you.”

“What about these symptoms I’ve been feeling lately? Sister Valide, do I go to the laeknar or not?”

“Not this one. Tell these men you need medical help. Don’t do what our sister had done a revolution ago. Don’t risk your life. If you don’t believe me yet then ask the laeknar who will help you. You might save another, if you so choose it.”

She thrust her hand forward, and the girl flinched. However, Il’lyse didn’t strike her. Her hand touched against the guard’s lower abdomen. She couldn’t remember the last time that she gazed upon anyone with kindness outside of her true family. There was no telling if she had succeeded this time or not, even as the girl fell to her knees and wept into her hands.

As the guard who held her pistol to the side went to embrace her Hulda’fi sister the third and last guard snarled at everyone. The third guard lifted her gun from the side of Doctor Rakendaya’s head.

“Traitors, all of you,” She said. Then she popped the end of the pistol into her mouth and pulled the trigger. Her headless body plummeted, leaving the remaining guards and injured scientist all in varying states of shock.

“Damn it,” said Il’lyse, averting her gaze from the security station. Her brother was there when she had turned.

“You tried,” Dasos said as the Peacekeepers went into the station. “You didn’t have to, but you saved most of them.”

“Of course I had to. You’re not the only one with a soft side. I don’t even know if this deed of mine will matter in the end.”

“It matters to me. Let it matter to you, sis.”

“Ugh, you really are a dork.”

Il’lyse buried her face against his clavicle and enfolded her arms around him. He was warm. There were few places in the universe left where Il’lyse felt safe, and this was one of them.

“Excuse me,” said an older gentleman behind her. It was Doctor Wilde. “You’ve changed for the better, my dear. I wish I was still able in my old age.”

“Don’t be hard on yourself, Doctor Wilde,” she said. “It’s thanks to you and my family that I have a soul left. Saving you was the least that I could do.”

“Yes, family. I’m glad you found yours, Il’lyse.”

“Where did you hear that name?”

“There was a girl who told me. She spoke weird and looked exactly like you. I think she was your—.”

“Zoi’ne! Where did you see Zoi’ne?”

“In our comfy little basement. She refused to step through the wormhole with us. I can hardly imagine what she’s up to now.”

She turned to Dasos with her eyes widened. “She’s here. She was on that stiern-boat. Shit, I have to go save her.” Il’lyse ran for the wardrobe full of cold weather gear. There was no time to argue over what belonged to whom. Everything in this cabinet was hers if she needed it.

Dasos said, “Lyssa, wait. What are you doing?”

“I’m finding Zoi’ne, and we’re going to put a stop to this madness. Don’t ask me how. Planning was always more your thing.” She slipped on a second layer of pants, a fur coat, and a cap that covered her ears. Damn it, she forgot the protective mask. She grabbed it. “Make sure you help these men in any way you can. At least one of them knows how to operate the boat outside. Doctor Rakendaya needs help, but it looks like one of the officers is bandaging him now.”

“She’s my sister too. I can’t let you go alone.”

“They’ll shoot you as soon as you’re spotted. At least I can try to get in and see Fe’rememe by myself. I don’t know yet how I’ll get to Zoi’ne and get the both of us out of there, but I’ll think of something. I always do.”

“That’s as much of a gamble as me saying I’ll lie low until reinforcements arrive, and you know it. I’ll help find her. Besides, you’re still in my protective custody, for the little good that’s doing either of us.”

“Fine, but you better suit up quickly. Hey, Lieutenant!” One of the Peacekeepers looked her way. By now the gunfire had stopped. Most of the guards were bound, but the people running this facility weren’t in her view. “That back room over there; be extra careful when you arrest those ones in there.”

“I know my job, Miss Thalassas,” said the man. “Where are you off to?”

“To save our sister. Tell the laeknar in there, for me, to eat the most radioactive, jagged space rocks she can find.”

“You’re not supposed to leave our custody.”

“I’m not supposed to do a lot of things.”

Without another word she hurried back to the security station and pressed a few buttons. Doing so opened a circular hatch outside where a bunker was located. It stored four sleighs at the moment rather than the five max that it could carry, and the ones that were present were being hoisted from the subterranean level to the surface by way of the lift at the bottom of the bunker. All of this appeared on a screen the size of Il’lyse’s head. She heard the sound of someone whistling behind her. It was the same lieutenant from before.

“I would not mind riding one of those someday,” he said.

“Tell you what, get some cold-weather clothes on in the next minute or less and you can ride one with Dasos and me. It’s self-propelled and holds up to three people at once. Each one should have plenty of fuel for multiple trips, but I see your men and women are preoccupied.”

“Do you really intend to go?”

“Do you intend to try and stop me?”

“As you said, my men are preoccupied. There aren’t enough of us available to keep you detained. I’ll say you gave us the slip.”

“Yeah, right, that’s exactly what I need.”

“Good luck.”

Il’lyse led her brother outside to where the sleighs were waiting. All of them were maroon along their bodies. The seats on the front and sides were black while the one in the rear and center was white. Now that she was bothering to look at this, it was clear to Il’lyse that the white seat was due to the Lady’s ego. She pointed to one and hopped into one of the black seats. A joyride on one of these might have sounded nice, but there were two main routes, plus an auxiliary one, programmed into the system to move the sleigh between dome and facility.

“How fast are these things, anyways?” said Dasos, his voice loud to counter the growing snowstorm.

“Walking to the manor would have taken us ninety minutes through the snow, which can get deep in certain spots if you’re not careful,” Il’lyse said as she activated the vehicle to move to the dome on the quickest route possible. “This will get us there in three minutes. Make sure you’re strapped in.”

“Now you tell me. Good thing I was on it. Was that the place you said that you sabotaged?”

“Yes, but it appears that they were quick to clean it up and resume operations for the last few days. I had swapped out a chemical they use for a poison I found with the same color and consistency, which caused a reaction when I was there last. I crammed the real chemical inside of the snow about a kilometer away from the dome. It was a few meters off the path of the second route, which the girl I framed likes to use.”

“That sounds like you actually planned this.”

“I tried. I feared that it wasn’t enough, or that I had messed up somewhere.”

“You aren’t going to be doing things like this to us, are you?”

“Not going to happen. I have harmless ones in mind for you, dear brother. Two whole revolutions worth.”

Despite being unable to see his face, she could see his gaze on her and could tell by the silence that he was mulling over some sort of payback. Il’lyse smiled. Hopefully, Zoi’ne was in a condition still to enjoy these sibling hijinks.

***

She had wanted to avoid any unnecessary combat. With these three Hulda’fi and their palisticks the fight made her exert herself further still. Zoey climbed the stairs as she warded off their assault. The narrow path of the stairs made it easier to deal with the Hulda’fi one at a time. One rebel she rammed into the wall and pushed back down toward the others. Another of them skipped past their kindred and rushed at Zoey. This was the faster moving opponent between the three, and more skilled as well.

Zoey let her senses go and kicked forward. The quicker insurgent caught her foot with both hands and pulled. Zoey saw it coming, and she gambled with a kick from her second leg. Her left foot crashed against the Hulda’fi’s head, knocking the mask off-center. Zoey had to catch a step in the staircase with her hands so as to reduce her fall, which happened with no issue, but the cultist still held her right foot. Using the base of the next step down, she pushed off with her hands into the Hulda’fi grappling her. She kicked hard with her left and pushed with her right. When Zoey felt her butt hit the stair she realized that the quick Hulda’fi had let go and was tumbling back down.

Not caring to assess the situation further Zoey pressed onward to the top of the stairs. There she closed the door and checked her surroundings. The door could swing out from the basement so having something heavy in the way was a good idea.

Through one open doorway she spotted a houseplant by the window that was inside a ceramic pot that might be as tall as her knees. From this distance it wasn’t easy to tell with much accuracy. She considered how long it would take to drag the plant to this door if it were heavy enough to do any good. The next second she heard a large object drag against the white tiles of the floor.

The Ginserei from before was pushing a couch toward Zoey’s direction. Zoey hopped out of the way, and the girl pressed the furniture against the door. Then she fell over on top of the sofa.

“What are you doing?” Zoey said.

“Helping you,” said the girl. “You’re really not one of us, are you? Neither am I. Or I wasn’t. I don’t even know.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I was a man before I joined. Belonging to a sex cult seemed like so much fun to me that I didn’t even fight it until recently. It took me five revolutions to realize that there is something wrong here. When Soror Valide broke, something about her struggle resonated with me, and now here I am.”

The Hulda’fi behind the door banged against it. The door was too tough for them to break with whatever they had, and the sofa was keeping it in place. The strange girl laughed.

“You’re Soror Valide’s sister, aren’t you?” The Ginserei asked. “I wondered if she had someone helping her fight this. I wish I did.”

Zoey said, “How did you—?”

“How did I know? I watched her most of all among the girls here. I had heard that someone aboard the Marslou and the nightclub in Trullwick succeeded in getting under her skin. I knew she still had relatives. That fake voice you used reminded me of her when she was initiated two revolutions ago. So you’re the one who made her crack? Thank you. You gave me hope. I have no idea what you’re doing here, or what you’re planning, but let me help you by sitting right here until the law shows up. Of course, you’re welcome to join me for a while.” She beckoned with a single finger, and bit her lower lip.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. There’s only one girl for me.”

“She must be a lucky girl. Then you better get going before I make you change your mind.”

***

The sleigh had stopped at the dome entrance. Il’lyse’s plan, if anything could be called one at this point, was to march inside and throw off her winter gear. Then Dasos could slip in behind the bright flora of the garden and sneak in that way. She tossed her cap to the right, the opposite direction that Dasos was likely to go. In front of her, a few Hulda’fi stood in shock as their former sister took off her protective mask in broad faux-daylight. Il’lyse dropped the mask, but threw her coat at them.

“What’s up?” she said to them. “Is the Lady Tunderek in? I have something that I need to say to her.”

They said nothing to her, even as she passed them toward the house. Her right leg started to feel sore again, but she wasn’t about to show that weakness. Let anyone who could see her believe that Soror Valide was as undying as their precious goddess. She spotted a couple of them wearing their masks and chatting out of earshot. Chances were, now, that everyone with a radio receiver set to the current frequency knew that she had returned alive.

Every sister and brother got out of her way as Il’lyse navigated through the halls of the house. No one wanted to fight her. She didn’t blame them.

The admiral and lord of the manor exited one door and saw her. He said, “She is seeing someone at the moment, but said she’ll see you too.”

“Great,” said Il’lyse. “When I’m done talking to her I’ll come deal with you.”

“Not likely.” He walked off in another direction, letting Il’lyse pass.

Out of the Lady’s favorite places around the house, this doorway led to one in particular. She is seeing someone at the moment, Chan-Yeol’s voice echoed. The thought of Zoi’ne in their grasp made Il’lyse worry. It made her angry.

She stepped inside and climbed the stairs to the second floor of the manor. Il’lyse knew the Lady too well, and could already hear her sultry whispers. The Lady loved to be in one of three seats she set up where the view of outside was pleasant, and where there was a persistant shadow over which the chair had been set up.

Another voice moaned and pleaded.

“Yes, I know,” said Fe’remene, “you said time and again that you’re innocent. But you were also careless weren’t you.”

“I was, Hallowed Lady,” said the other voice.

“Good girl. I now give you release.”

“Thank y—augh!” The other girl choked, and there was a thud on the floor.

Finally Il’lyse saw Fe’remene behind a series of wooden room dividers. On the floor next to her feet was a girl, naked and bleeding, with the splatter on the ground before Fe’remene. There was a knife in the Lady’s hand with blood on it as well, but she leered at Il’lyse and threw the weapon to the side.

“Ho-ho, look who decided to come,” said Fe’remene. “Is it the younger sister made by accident, or the older with all of the tenacity of a roach?”

“It hardly matters,” Il’lyse said, passing the opening in the dividers.

“Of course it does. I would like to know if I should convert someone brand new, or if I should remind someone old of her place before she dies in my hand.”

“You have no right toying with people’s lives.”

“Wrong. I have lived for over three centuries. My wounds heal faster than any other person unassisted. When the people who remade me refused to worship me, and instead demanded my obedience like some call center operator, I killed them and the others who would have been like me had their procedures been completed. If anyone has the right to demand fealty from all, if anyone is in a position to play with every other person in the universe, then it’s me.”

“No one has beaten you, you mean. I’m going to repay you for the day you took me from my real family. I will beat you.”

Fe’remene had been laughing. “Family! That is a preposterous word. It matters who you belong to, and nothing more. We had given you a place where you belonged for two revolutions. Ho-ho, I believe you have a sister approaching who agrees with me; or perhaps a brother. Come, do you not agree that her place is here?”

A Hulda’fi who dawned a full combat suit, with the mask on and hood up, had entered the room and now pointed a pistol at Il’lyse. It trembled, but the distorted voice that came did not. She said, “You shouldn’t have come here, sister.”

Chapter 57

“I can’t believe she’s back,” said a passing Hulda’fi.

The young man she had been walking with said, “I know. Here I thought Soror Valide died. Now she’s gone full-crazy.”

“Lady Tunderek will deal with her.”

Zoey stood there, blown away by what she was hearing. Il’lyse was here? Why? Il’lyse was supposed to be at home, living whatever was left of Zoey’s dream life. She was supposed to be free. Zoey needed to find her, and fast.

The room they were in was a long storeroom with an open door that lead outside toward the gardens. Both rebels were heading further inside rather than toward the exit to her right. So Zoey turned left after them. Neither of the rebels suspected anything was wrong while she walked behind them. In order the find her sister, Zoey needed the best way to ask for such information. Here she was approaching people who might well reject or attack so she could ask them something that seemed so simple. Was this how Brach’geros felt every other day?

“Is this the last one?” said the young man.

“It should be,” said the woman.

“Any one of us could carry this thing. You there,” he looked at Zoey, “would you mind taking this to the stiern-boat?”

There was an open crate on the ground; each dimension was past the length of Zoey’s shoe. Inside, at the top, she saw a tray with half a dozen of the small Hulda’fi pistols. Considering the size of the crate, she thought that, maybe, there were three more trays below it, and these rebels wanted her to move it for them.

Crap, what now? The craft outside was absolutely not the right way to go to find Il’lyse. Zoey said, “Actually, I was curious about something. I think my radio hasn’t been working right all morning, but did you say Soror Valide was back?”

“That wasn’t over the radio at all,” said the woman. “You missed a big one then. She walked in like she owned the place and went upstairs to see the Hallowed Lady.”

“I have to go see this.”

“Are you crazy? We’re leaving soon. Nobody in their right mind is going to get involved with Soror Valide.”

“Wait a minute,” said the man. He reached for Zoey’s mask.

Well, she tried.

Zoey grabbed his wrist and punched him in the face. She swept his legs while his balance was lost, and then she spotted the young woman darting for the weapons. Zoey grabbed her by the waist and threw her back away from the crate. She somersaulted over the fallen man’s reach, suspecting that he might try to grab her ankles otherwise, and then kicked the female Hulda’fi in the stomach.

While the woman was winded, Zoey turned to check on the man, who stood up. The rebels were separated, and at least one of them took steps backward. The girl’s eyes darted to the side. She was going to run for the door, possibly to get help. If Zoey went after her then the man would have been free to grab the guns or else get help, himself. Between the options she found the weapons to be the greater threat. Zoey charged at the man and hoped to be able to catch up with the woman before she caused Zoey too much trouble. The male Hulda’fi made a grab for the crate, but her assault against him made the man fall quickly. He was, in no way, trained to fight like she was.

She turned and saw that the other Hulda’fi had fallen on her butt away from the exit, apparently knocked back from the open doorway. Dasos walked in and looked around the room.

“Das?” Zoey said.

His gaze landed on the male cultist who had trouble telling up from down at the moment. Then he looked at his sister and said, “Zoey?”

“Grab her, quick. Let’s tie these two up.”

“Right.”

“I’d ask what you’re doing here, but Il’lyse needs my help.”

“We came here looking for you.”

“And I came here to give Il’lyse back her life! Now look at the three of us.” Zoey dragged the Hulda’fi man across the smooth floor to a corner of the room concealed by a stack of spare bricks. She noted the brooms in this corner and laughed to herself. The universe’s loudest broom closet, indeed.

“Lord and Lady Tunderek will have you both for this,” said the woman.

The two rebels were positioned back to back. Dasos used his two pairs of cuffs that he had on him to bind right hand with right hand, and left with left. He stood and said, “Now what?”

Zoey said, “They have guns over here. It’s the last of the supply that they meant to move onto their boat outside. Do you think you can deal with them while I go get Il’lyse?”

“Sure. I’ll come meet you both when I’m done.”

“Wait.” Zoey grabbed a pistol. “Let’s hope I don’t have to use this.”

She was certain that she saw a stairway or two going to the upper floor while looking around for the basement. Zoey ran into the room again where the Ginserei girl was still sitting. She had a better idea than to wander around for ages.

“Which way is the Lady?” Zoey said on her approach.

“Go left, right, forward twice, sharp right to the stairs, and make one last left.”

“Thank you!”

After more running and fighting than she had planned while wearing the stupid mask on her face, Zoey slowed by the end of the stairs, again hoping that she got the directions right.

She heard two women talking in the next room. Zoey entered the space where she found Fe’remene sitting on a chair, basking in duplicity between light and shadow. Where the light shined the Lady’s pink and white dress shimmered. Her devious eyes fell on Zoey as she walked behind the rosewood-haired woman in the room.

“Ho-ho, I believe you have a sister approaching who agrees with me; or perhaps a brother. Come, do you not agree that her place is here?” said Fe’remene.

In truth Zoey was unhappy that her siblings had come here, throwing away the effort that Zoey had taken. But she loved them both for trying. The Lady of the manor, though, still made her sick to her stomach. Zoey wondered, after how her fight against Buska had ended, if she could really shoot anyone. For this one woman she was willing to make an exception.

She raised the pistol in her hand toward Il’lyse, and said, “You shouldn’t have come here, sister.” Her hand quivered as Zoey took aim. “Down, Lyssa.”

Il’lyse raised a brow over her narrowed eyes, and pursed her lips. She said, “Do it then,” then dropped to the floor.

Zoey pressed the trigger. The blast flew over her sister’s falling head and went for the woman in the chair, whose eyes darted open. The blast clipped the side of her face and made her scream out. Her right ear, or what was left of it, was bleeding. A hole had also been blown open in the wall behind the rebel queen. Zoey kept the small pistol trained on Fe’remene in one hand, and removed her mask with the other one.

“I should teach you how to aim better,” said Il’lyse.

“Save it for a day when we don’t have to shoot anyone,” Zoey said.

“No,” said Fe’remene, “now neither of you are getting out of here alive.”

She leapt to the side and then at Zoey. Zoey had to release her senses, allowing her to see half a second ahead, to gain any clue to Fe’remene’s movements. She was too fast for any of the sentient races, fast enough to disarm Zoey, and yet she was an Aelf. Zoey dodged the blow meant for her face after that.

“OK,” said Il’lyse, “so maybe I wasn’t the biggest threat in the Hulda’fi after all.”

The Lady sneered at her and said, “Who do you think had taught the man that would one day instruct your parents? The Hallowed Lady giveth since long ago. You refuse my blessing. Now the Hallowed Lady taketh!”

Both Thalassas girls blocked and evaded the next flurry of attacks as best as they were able. Zoey sought a weakness of any kind, but found none aside from the ear that she had blown off, but finding an opening to strike it again proved difficult. She had no idea how long the woman’s offensive went for, but Zoey’s own endurance was waning. She was not prepared to fight a foe like this one, with or without her sister’s help.

Fe’remene backed off, and changed her combat pose with a smirk and a smooch in the air.

“I guess they succeeded in making a super soldier,” said Il’lyse.

“So you heard, have you?” said Fe’remene. “I was one of twenty candidates at the start of the program, poised to tear Ginserei apart. I was one of eight who survived the initial treatments. I was the first to see greatness, and the last. I will outlast most life in the universe now until my greatness has been long recognized through the eons. You two are mites in comparison.”

“I guess no bad villain is without a monologue,” said Zoey.

An explosion sounded in a nearby room. The look on Fe’remene’s face changed as she glanced at one of the open doorways. Dasos walked into the room from the same point of entry. He stopped by a random spot and leaned against the wall.

“The guns are gone,” he said. “I decided the garden was too nice to destroy, so I went looking for the stash of drugs, if Lady Fjorfolia had any.”

“No,” said Fe’remene, gritting her teeth.

“There was a nice girl on the way here. She pointed the way.”

“You know not what you have done, you insignificant fool!”

Dasos folded his arms. “Want to bet?”

Screaming with rage, Fe’remene charged at Dasos, who jumped out of the way. He rolled on the ground again, at random, and dashed past his sisters. Il’lyse and Zoey groaned and took up defensive poses. Fe’remene was fast, plenty fast to require half of a second of seeing into the future so that surviving was possible, but her wrath made the woman too focused on Dasos to consider the girls a threat.

While Il’lyse went for the face, Zoey punched for the Lady’s stomach. Their hits landed, stunning the head Hulda’fi. Zoey used this chance to spinkick into the woman’s side. She saw, on impact, that Il’lyse brought her foot down upon the top of her back. Both girls went in for another attack, but their opponent pushed against them with her bare hands. Fe’remene buckled and dropped to her knees, and growled.

She got up a few seconds later, her face livid. “Lucky strikes,” Fe’remene said, “but the three of you can’t hold out for long.”

The girls backed away, their eyes focused on the Lady. Dasos stepped up and joined them. He had something in his hand. Zoey would have looked, but that would have taken her eyes off of their adversary. Doing that was too dangerous.

“It’s possible,” said Dasos. “Here, have this gift as a token of me not giving a damn.” He tossed the object he’d been holding at her.

Lady Fjorfolia batted it away behind her before opening her eyes wide in sudden realization. Zoey saw that it was the last pistol from the crate that Dasos had disposed of. Maroon lights were flashing on it. Half a second told Zoey to get down or turn her gaze; she did both and covered her ears.

With a bang, a blast rocked the room that they were in. The siblings all looked at one another and then at Fe’remene. Behind her a crack had appeared in the ceiling and a hole in the floor. Another drop of crimson fluid left what was left of her ear before she fell to her knees, and finally planted her face in the ground. Her back and head were a mess, but she was still breathing.

It was done, Zoey thought. She plopped her butt on the floor so she could give herself a rest. Midterms were already exhausting. Reuniting with a family member, sleeping little, and doing copious amounts of running and fighting did not need to be added to that.

“I really don’t want to know what the admiral can do,” said Zoey, her exhaustion showing in her words.

“Damn, and here I wanted to kick him between the legs hard enough to make up for what he did,” said Il’lyse.

“Let the law deal with him,” Dasos said.

Zoey said, “His ship is near Natt Grans, and he’s planning to leave here, possibly by wormhole. There’s no telling what he’ll do next, or if the law can do anything about him. How did you do that with those guns, by the way?”

“I overloaded them. It was one of the reasons they were outlawed, because of how easy it is to do with that model. Luckily they use a similar lighting scheme with most ships’ alert systems, so you know when they’re about to blow.”

“You made the guns go infrared,” said Il’lyse. “Nice.”

“What about the body over there?” Zoey said, nodding to the naked girl with a pool of blood beneath her.

“That would be the girl I had framed for the lab. Hey, super bitch, you killed the wrong girl.”

There came a guttural growl from Fe’remene. It was hard to tell if the reaction was due to the pain she was in, or if she was aware of everything being said by the trio of siblings.

Footsteps came into the room from the other side of the wooden dividers, and a few Hulda’fi appeared. The rebels stopped and gazed between their Hallowed Lady and the three people sitting across the room from her. Zoey waved at them, and they shook their heads, backing away.

“Two of them!” said one Hulda’fi.

“Tell the Lord Tunderek,” said another. They hurried out before Zoey could say anything to them.

“Shit,” said Il’lyse, “there they go.” She pointed to a distant window where the stiern-boat outside could be seen lifting off. The light warped, and then the craft was gone. The same voices from the Hulda’fi a moment ago shouted in protest. “We’re out of time. On the bright side, so are the Hulda’fi that ran off.”

Zoey said, “It’s too bad we can’t use that computer virus to stop that thing from leaving.”

“No, we’d have to be onboard the craft to plant it manually, like the Fjorfolias had done to the Marslou, or someone else with Elysium University. We would have had to find a copy of the nearest drive before that.” She jumped up to her feet. “I saw one. Oh, it’s perfect, but I’ll need a suit.”

“A suit for what?” asked both Zoey and Dasos.

“I’m going to infiltrate the Hastig Silver. I have an idea how to beat the admiral at whatever he’s planning. Who’s coming with me?”

***

Dasos folded his arms as he waited. Both of his sisters had left him despite his best arguments against their plan. He avoided one room, in particular, where a Ginserei sat on a couch in the nude. Il’lyse had taken her suit, and the woman, who was reading a book that Zoey had brought her, refused to take any clothes to compensate.

He returned to the room where they had fought Fe’remene. She had gotten up and left the area. His heart sank when he realized that she was up again. One room after another in the immediate vicinity, he looked, hoping that the platinum blond Aelf had at least been slowed down so she was neither too far nor too dangerous. He couldn’t see her. That was going to be a problem.

Outside one window, he could see Allied Peacekeepers appear through matter transference. The remaining rebels, as few as they were, either hid or fell to their knees in surrender. He was happy to see them, but Dasos feared for those men and women if Lady Fjorfolia decided to attack, whether or not she was hidden.

He turned, and a hand grabbed him before he could recognize who it was.

Chapter 58

“Das’ithrios? What are you doing here?” said his mom.

She stood before him in the manor corridor, and now wore a captain’s uniform with lines embroidered into her short collar to show rank. She had not worn this outfit in a revolution.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Dasos said. “For that matter why are you in uniform? I thought you were retired.”

Bon’sinne said, “I returned to duty under the condition that I could still teach at the university and spend time with my family. Never mind that now, you are supposed to be in your condo with Zoey and Lyssa.”

“Long story. We ended up here with some police and Peacekeeper officers. Most of them are at the lab.”

“Where are your sisters right now?”

“They’re doing something really stupid, and I tried to stop them.”

She frowned and pressed her hand on Dasos’s back as she walked. She grumbled as they had entered another room. Dasos recalled this room, and then shielded his eyes when his mother stopped. It was the room with that girl on the couch.

“Hello,” said the Ginserei. “My goodness, is your whole family moving in here or what? Not that I mind.”

“Who is this, and why is she naked?” said Bon’sinne.

“I’m a sex-craving cultist, ma’am. I see your daughters, and son, take after your good looks. A shame none of you are interested in me.”

“I hope you know that you’re under arrest.”

“Yes, the thought had occurred to me. You might want the three Hulda’fi in this basement behind me, too.” A voice that was muffled by the door called out. “See? I’ll be right here if you need me for anything.”

Shaking her head, Bon’sinne grumbled again. It had been many revolutions since the last time, but Dasos felt like his mother had walked into the end result of his and Il’lyse’s childhood mischief, and he was there to see each and every reaction come from Bon’sinne as they went from area to area.

“You’re being rather accommodating,” said Bon’sinne.

“I try,” said the Ginserei. “I had joined these folks for the fun sexy times, but was in too deep when I realized how wrong a lot of it was. So now I’m reading this book that one of your daughters brought me. I think I heard Lady Tunderek down that way.” She pointed in a direction away from everyone. “She didn’t sound too happy.”

“Too accommodating, even.” Bon’sinne tapped the standard issue headset she was wearing. “This is Captain Bon’sinne Thalassas. We have three insurgents trapped in the basement, a cooperative cultist guarding their door without any clothes on, and my children are here, somehow. My son says the facility has been taken by some of our own already. Will you, darling? Thank you.”

Dasos said, “Uhh . . . Zoey and I bound two more in one of the storerooms on the side of the manor.”

“We’ve found them, I believe. Yes, it sounds like it. Go on.”

“Zoey and Il’lyse left the planet, I think.” Bon’sinne gave him a harsh stare. “Like I said, I tried to stop them. Also, they fought Fe’remene, and we won, but I don’t know where she went.”

“Did you destroy her main drug supply?” said the Ginserei, who now drifted behind them as they continued to walk.

“Yes.”

“Good job. I’m glad my directions helped. She’ll be looking for a backup stash then. I think you destroyed the last of it that was here, actually. Oh hi! Are you here for a good time?”

Several Peacekeepers were marching through the corridor. Dasos turned past a doorway so he couldn’t see how many stayed behind or how many followed him and his mom. The Ginserei’s voice faded the further forward they walked.

“I thought you said the investigation would take months to open?” said Dasos. “How did you come here so fast and take action?”

“Everything lined up too easily,” Bon’sinne said. “Every piece of evidence we had corroborated with Il’lyse’s statement, Admiral Fjorfolia attended the meeting by video from orbit outside Dereskoo, and you should have seen his face when Aerak and I played the statement for every ranking official of the alliance to witness. I might have hounded him down with that stare of mine.”

“Il’lyse got that stare from you.”

“Did she?”

“It was the fastest surrender of a boat full of insurgents I’ve ever seen.”

“Well, it would have been nice if, once we got here, everyone had surrendered so easily up there. Vessels belonging to the rebels and alliance alike waited for us. They all fought to keep us all at bay. It took us twenty-eight minutes to disable their weapons and engines, destroying two of their craft along the way. One long-boat with two stellar masts tried to escape undetected, but your father caught them.”

“Which ship did they give you, or were you along for the ride?”

“They gave me both my father’s Tyk Jarl and Ren’baek’s the Marslou. The latter required my assistance and orders because the commander is still on the ground on Elysium IX. Captain Druvvin was busy pretending to be wounded by some Hulda’fi assassin planted on his ship. While we were fighting, he offered some orders to his crew, but I told him to sit back and deal with his own sibling come back from the dead. Buska’vild sits in the brig as we speak, with Ren’baek watching her. I told him that if she gives us any trouble then I am interring her ass into the sun whether she is dead or not while it happens. He understood.”

“OK, that raises the question as to why Captain Druvvin would pretend to be wounded by an assassin. I know Doctor Saludalta said they had someone under their watchful eye, but still, what’s going on there?”

“You are correct. Captain Druvvin and his crew deduced that someone wanted the Marslou to be misdirected, and the captain slain if need be. Ren’baek took the rebel spy aside and asked a series of questions, such as who it was that worked for them when the ship had been attacked a few months ago. That went nowhere since this new spy new nothing of that incident. So he proposed amnesty for this Hulda’fi if she helped him with his ploy to make the people in charge think they won.”

“I imagine, then, that Captain Druvvin is expected to make a full recovery once this is all over.”

“The man better, or else he’ll miss out on this promotion that’s opening soon.” Her voice chimed, and Bon’sinne gave Dasos her impish grin.

“Admiral Mom?”

“Well your father wouldn’t take it. He was reluctant enough to become a captain when he did. I have no idea of the other captains’ intentions.”

As they walked there was a sound of something crashing, and a woman roared. Both of them, along with some of the Peacekeepers, picked up their pace. The sounds continued as Dasos drew closer and closer, his nerves feeling more and more gripped by what they were about to find. Two Peacekeepers stood at the ready on one side of the double doorway. Dasos and the others with him reached the same side of it from the other direction, and he looked inside of the room.

It was two floors in height. The first floor had a low ceiling over it, but there were rounded shapes cut into it with guard rails around the openings, allowing anyone from upstairs to look down at the ground and anyone on it. There, too, was a set of stairs in here along with a fireplace and a space to one side that Dasos gathered to be some sort of bar.

“Where is it?” said a familiar voice.

Fe’remene emerged behind the counter. Her ear had healed, though was scarred. The remains of her shimmering gown hung off of her body. Scarring appeared again on her right shoulder that continued down her backside as far as Dasos could see, though she was turned sideways from the double door.

Bon’sinne stepped to the door, and Dasos held an arm out to stop her. He said, “Wait, she’s faster than you. Stronger too. We were lucky to beat her.”

“You might as well come in,” said Fe’remene.

“Please be careful.”

“I’d make a comment about not biting, but it doesn’t matter anymore, does it? Come in, come in. Ho-ho, Captain Thalassas, I see that the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance has decided to act fast.”

With a heavy breath through her nose alone, Bon’sinne walked through the door that was open, the other one of the pair still closed. Dasos followed her, and another officer of the Allied Peacekeepers did as well. He could see Fe’remene as she limped across the floor by the windows.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” said Fe’remene. “I spent over two centuries being worshipped by a steadily growing force of both Aelfs and Ginserei when I had volunteered for the program to fight the latter. Both sides stole from one another during the war, leading to the advent of genesis nectar. So much of it was made and used for the likes of me. Now I require it to sustain my livelihood. Who better to feed me life than the children of the ones who worship me? Who better to worship me than the children of those who made me? Now I have nothing except for the children who remain.”

“Leave my children out of this,” said Bon’sinne. “Leave everybody’s children out of this. You have a lot to answer for, and I will see to it that you spend the remainder of your endless years with no one to worship you; somewhere dark and far away.”

“I don’t know how much longer I will last, to be honest. Without my drug that I smoke my body will be susceptible to long-term damage. These scars will remain. You say none will worship me, but be honest. I am at my best without such blemishes or worse, but I’ll have many worshippers no matter how I look.”

“Then you won’t have to worry about outliving every jailer who comes along to feed you. After what you’ve done over the centuries, your sentence will last until the day when life can no longer exist in the universe.”

“You’re angry with me. You’re trying to contain that rage, as I am with mine, but I know that anger all too well.” She fell by the fireplace and faced it, though it was unlit. One scar over her back remained red with blood. “Not even one puff? I haven’t felt this vulnerable since we left Elysium Prime.”

“We who?” said Dasos.

“My parents and I, three hundred and twelve revolutions ago. We were among the last to leave there before it became uninhabitable. I visited there over a decade ago. I found the virus we had used to beat the artificial intelligence, and I brought it back as a souvenir. Who knew that it could be reused to enslave modern day machines and make their users utterly ours for the taking? Who knew that one of the children responsible for my downfall would come from a rock doomed to repeat the worst of our history?”

“Where is your husband now?” said Bon’sinne.

“Saving people in our way. Now that we have our wormholes there is nothing to stop him. Do what you will with me, but if you let me live then he will come to save me. He will come with an army from all over the galaxy. We will strike once again from the shadows, and none of you will remain unless you kneel before your goddess and beg me to let you live. Kill me and you will certainly die. You are mine.”

Fe’remene laughed as she lied across the floor. Her laughter turned into moans, and then she fell silent, eyes closed. She was sleeping.

Bon’sinne turned to Dasos and said, “Someone find me that ship at once. Dasos, dear, tell me again where the girls are?”

Chapter 59

She was grateful that the winter wear over her Hulda’fi suit kept the cold air and abundant snowflakes from affecting her, but the high speed of the sleigh made Zoey realize that she needed food. The onslaught of hunger made her groan.

“Are you doing OK?” Il’lyse asked.

“I should have eaten something,” said Zoey. “I could go for a lot of things right now, maybe even a raspberry snowcone.”

“Don’t go trying the snow out here, whatever you do. We’re almost to the stiern-boat. There should be some rations in there to last twenty people a week.”

“A week? Wait, how did you last so long waiting for the Marslou?”

“The couple of us who were down on Earth saw a bunch of food where we had crashed. We grabbed a much food as we could carry as soon as we saw that the struggle we had in there resulted in a fire breaking out. I’m really sorry about that, by the way. After that we spent a few days in Natt Grans before heading back to wait for the signal from the Lord or Lady to ambush the ship. I have no idea how they got the cryogenic case onto the ship, but we blew so much food and fuel waiting for it.”

The sleigh parked itself next to a hole in the rocky hill, a short trudge from the vessel, and both girls got off of snow vehicle. The snow had buried the bottom of the boat by a few inches. Given the intensity of the snowfall in the area, Zoey had expected more in the few seconds that that were here.

“Is this the right stiern-boat?” asked Zoey. “There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of snow at the bottom.”

Il’lyse said, “What are you talking about? Seven centimeters in fifty minutes to an hour is normal in this weather. Welcome to Dereskoo. I bet you’re ready to leave it behind already.”

“I always thought snow this heavy could bury a car in half that time.”

“Do you watch nothing except cartoons? Come on.”

“I could go for some hot cocoa right now.”

As they trekked through the deep, crunching snow Zoey caught the outline of a person coming out of the hole in the hill. She crouched and kept an eye on the man, dressed in a furred cap and jacket, as he emerged.

“You’re back,” he said.

“Lieutenant, we have to leave again,” said Il’lyse. “Do yourself a favor and set up a few flares out here to point the way for the Allied Peacekeepers when they get here. You’ll want to send out a beacon in a signal that only they recognize as well. Someone will be here shortly to pick up your prisoners.”

“In case you’ve forgotten you are supposed to be our prisoner.”

Zoey said, “There’s no time for that. One of their leaders is getting away, using wormholes. He said his ship is waiting outside Natt Grans. We’re going to use this craft to make our way there before he runs off to who-knows-where.”

“And then what?”

“We’re going to use their favorite weapon against them. Like she said, there’s no time.”

“My superiors aren’t going to be happy about you taking off, especially when you should be in my protective custody.”

“Wrong sister.”

“Zoi’ne, let’s go,” said Il’lyse, having opened the door to the stiern-boat.

The lieutenant threw his arms up in defeat and returned to his hole while Zoey entered the vessel interior. It was still cold, but it was quieter and didn’t bear the same sensation of being pelted by some vengeful god of ice and wind as was found outside. She took off the cap and protective mask as the door closed and Il’lyse turned on the console in the cockpit.

She flew the ship away from the hill where the underground facility was. Zoey wasn’t sure yet why her sister did this, but she suspected that it had a merit she would have to ask about later. For now, the air inside the craft was warming up, and the coat around her torso and thighs was no longer necessary.

Static rang on the radio as Il’lyse pressed a few buttons. She raised a finger a pressed it over her lips, looking at Zoey.

She faked her voice and said, “Hastig Silver, do you read me? This is Irenid Three requesting a stable wormhole to come back to you.”

It took over a minute for a response to come. Given the distance that Natt Grans was from the stellar system that Elysium IX and Dereskoo were in, Zoey estimated that to be the right amount of time, thanks to the signal boosting relays.

The girl’s voice that responded said, “Irenid Three, we had expected to hear from you ten minutes ago. What is your status?”

“Not well, I’m afraid,” said Il’lyse. “We were ambushed at the facility, and one of the assailants hit our radio by getting on board. I had only gotten away with one other sister. We’ve been in hiding, and only minutes ago fixed our radio. I repeat, requesting a stable wormhole to come aboard. Hallowed be our Lord and Lady.”

She turned away and gagged during the next wait. The second wait was longer, and then longer. Then longer still. Over two minutes since the last message went out before Zoey wondered if their plan failed.

Through the static, Admiral Fjorfolia said, “Irenid Three, it is good to hear from you. You have lucked out by mere minutes; permission granted. You may open the event horizon on your end. Hurry, though; we will not linger. Lord Tunderek – out.”

In her normal voice Il’lyse said, “Check the green bins by that wall back there on your left side. One of the bars in there should tide you over until the galaxy is free of Chan-Yeol.” She returned to her administering of fluid button presses.

Zoey saw the lighting change behind her in the seconds it took to spot the green bins her sister spoke about. The lids were fastened on two sides by clips that seemed easy to move once she had applied pressure to either one. Once she opened a bin there was a wide selection of food bars. She was hungry enough to consider taking all of them, but her sister said to take one. Zoey pressed and puffed her lips, and then took two of them before closing the bin.

Outside the front window was outer space and a ship in the distance that looked as small as one of Zoey’s fingertips, but it was growing.

Her sister scrambled to grab something from a shelving unit and went back to the pilot’s seat. Zoey unwrapped the first bar when she returned to the front and sat next to Il’lyse, who held up an item as small as her thumb that looked like it could plug into something.

“This is it,” she whispered. “The question I have right now is whether or not to let it go with them, or what.”

“Can they hear us?” Zoey said, pointing to the radio. She bit into the bar, finding a dry taste void of real flavor. There were hints of green beans and black beans in it, but the texture was that of a smooth leather if it could be chewed with as much ease as gum was.

“Space food sucks, huh?” Il’lyse asked.

“It’s totally the best thing ever.” Zoey took another bite out of defiance.

“Well, to answer your question, they can listen in if they wanted. It helps to have little to say if you ever had a lot to hide. When I lad learned to pilot these things I took solace in the silence, or tried to. One time a girl rode me when she caught me zoning out in the pilot’s seat. That gave a new meaning to ‘learning curves.’”

The stiern-boat made contact with one of the ship’s landing docks. Zoey heard the reverberation through the vessel’s portside, but she did not feel it. Il’lyse focused on her connection to the larger vehicle until it was done. She grabbed a computer from the side of her seat and plugged in the small drive. She pressed a few selections that Zoey couldn’t make out.

“We’re not far from the Medical Bay. I have an idea that involves it, but I’ll need to get in there,” said Il’lyse. She grabbed another item from the shelving unit and put it in Zoey’s free hand. “Before that here’s a beacon. If we get separated I want you to use this.”

“What? No,” said Zoey.

“No arguments. If we had plenty of time I would program this thing to take you automatically and fly to safety if I’m not back within five minutes of your arrival.”

“I really don’t want to teleport anywhere. What if I change again? What if I wake up from all this back in my old body? What if I don’t wake up at all?”

“Zoi’ne, please, it will be like one extended blink, except that it covers your body instead of your eyes. You’ll be fine. Promise me you will use this on yourself, and not on someone else like you did our mom.”

“Fine, but you owe me a better breakfast.”

Il’lyse giggled. “Deal. Now to figure out the Medical Bay.”

“How is your leg?”

***

While her sister wore a Hulda’fi mask, Il’lyse kept her hood up and head low. They walked into the Medical Bay, with the older sister pretending to be nauseous. Their ploy was to pretend a severe or debilitating case of pregnancy symptoms. One laeknar was present in the entire section. He accepted them and took Il’lyse onto the table before seeing her face. The man turned in a panic, but Zoey put a hand over his mouth and pushed him back on the table, which Il’lyse had rolled off of to make room.

“Now what?” said Zoey.

“Now I do this,” Il’lyse said with an object in hand that she had grabbed. It was transparent in the main tube, and had a two-piece cap with a needle inside of it. Il’lyse grabbed the man’s arm, and he screamed out when she pressed the front of the cap against the vein.

The laeknar went limp, his eyes rolling back. Il’lyse helped Zoey lay him over the bed, and then she darted for the refrigerated storage racks.

“What is that?” Zoey said.

“It’s a type of syringe for quick injections. It had enough tranquilizer in it for one dose capable of putting either of the two of us to sleep in seconds. It would last us a few hours or more. He’ll come around in one hour due to being larger and heavier than us. Here we go.” She grabbed a bottle with more tranquilizer fluid in it.

“Is that what we’re here for?”

“Yes. It’ll help me put the engineers to sleep, as well as another Hulda’fi or two who might get in the way. Let them sleep so they don’t feel anything when this whole thing goes. It’s the least I can do for them, assuming they don’t know any better. Are you ready to get started?”

The intercom rang, like any sadistic alarm clock yanking a person from a dream in the middle of a thought or sentence.

Chan-Yeol’s voice came through it, saying, “My children, as sad as it is that only sixty-three of us are present for this, we have passed the wormhole safely. Our new mission is to take the planet known as Earth. They need our help, the Lady’s blessing, and we are going to give it to them. As few as we are we can do this for seven billion lives, and branch out quickly to more worlds in need of saving. We will one day return home. We will one day go back to reclaim the Hoshi-Lacartan territory with all of your brothers and sisters who remain there. We will one day see our Hallowed Lady again and spread her blessings across the whole galaxy. My children, welcome to Earth’s stellar system. Our arrival will be in two hours, bearing current speeds.”

“That doesn’t give us much time,” said Il’lyse.

“Crap,” said Zoey, “let me distract them.”

“Distract them how?”

“The Hulda’fi wanted to convert me to replace you, I think. I’m going to have a chat about that with the asshole in charge.”

“Zoi’ne.”

“Let me do this. It will distract some of them. It will give you the time you need to infect their ship and take control of it. I’ll have this beacon you handed me.”

“Somehow I get the feeling you won’t be using it.”

“Just worry about blowing up the ship. Send me a sign of some kind if you have to to say you’re fine. If I don’t make it back, tell our family I’m sorry, and that I love them. Tell Tonny that I wanted to be there for her when she decided what to do with her baby, as well as when she gave birth.”

“If you don’t make it I’m finding some way to tear into the universe to bring you back. Don’t think I won’t. We owe each other a rematch someday.”

Zoey went to the door and said, “You’re on, Soror. Besides, you still owe me a proper breakfast.” Then she was gone.

Shaking her head, Il’lyse checked the syringe now that she had filled it with the tranquilizer needed for five muscle builders. The syringe had a control mechanism built into it to inject a limited dosage at once.

Il’lyse knew that the sanitary thing to do was to change the needle, but if she was successful in her mission then that was the least of her worries. So she skipped out on the tray full of replacements and dropped the opened bottle of tranquilizer on the floor of the Medical Bay on her way out, allowing the substance to cause a slippery mess by the entrance.

She sneaked from corridor to corridor, judging the best route to take and who to bother putting to sleep. There were sixty people on this ship, meaning two fifths of that were at work keeping the craft moving. Protocol for the alliance meant a minimum of ten security guards were on patrol, not counting the captain or admiral upon request. This was a ship registered to the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance, but it was run by the Hulda’fi rebels. Given their love of pleasures of the flesh, and Zoey saying she was on her way to distract some of the crew, Il’lyse could understand why she saw so few people walking through the hallways.

Three people worked in the Engineering station, and a fourth Hulda’fi stood by the door flirting with them. There was no time to deal with their arms if they were faced away from Il’lyse.

The first thing Il’lyse did was inject tranquilizer medicine into the neck of the girl visiting her kindred. The engineer and technicians were too many meters from reaching the alarm button, and worse off for taking a moment to realize what had happened to their sister in front of their eyes. Il’lyse felt as though she were beating up on untrained civilians when she attacked all three people in the room. She subdued them all, hoping that they had better dreams than her assault being the last thing they saw.

Once they were asleep she went to work in uploading the virus onto the ship’s primary system. It didn’t take long once the drive was connected, of course, but finding the right spot to plug it in was a more frantic prospect than she had anticipated. Getting this done, and getting her sister home, weighed on her mind.

Worrying about other people made it harder to get anything done.

She checked the sleeping bodies, all propped up against one another on one wall, and sighed. “Rest in peace, my brothers and sisters. Bury our sins in the cold, infinite beyond where they belong,” Il’lyse said.

Now all that was left for her was to return to the stiern-boat and take control of the systems without the ship’s crew realizing anything was wrong until it was too late. Il’lyse hurried along to the vessel that she and Zoey came on and closed the door once she was onboard.

Detaching the lock from the Hastig Silver’s port was easy without turning on the power to the boat, though she did have the power on the computer that she was using to control the larger craft. The ship now thought that the boat was still attached. All of the ship’s systems were at her fingertips, including navigation. No, they weren’t going home this way. Not only would that raise too much suspicion but there was no telling how the Allied Peacekeepers would handle the situation. Instead she had a dangerous liar to slay and an underdeveloped planet to rescue without so much as a single nod of acknowledgement.

The self-destruct sequence came up on the computer screen. A single press of one button could set the timer, but then someone might notice and try to counteract it. She could set the timer for a few seconds, but Zoey needed more time. How much time did Zoey need?

What Il’lyse needed to do was take full control of the ship, and send a signal for her sister to get out of there.

“Come on, Zoey,” she said. “I got the perfect sign for you.”

***

Inside of the Hastig Silver the walls reminded her of the first ship that Zoey had ever been on. It didn’t matter the layout of this one. The curvature of the walls and dark gray stripe running back to front told her plenty. The silver overlay of brambling vines, all accented with tiny diamond shapes as if it sparkled, told her which of two ways was the bridge. There was no time to argue with the convenience or debate its meaning, so she pressed on.

“What’s with the mask?” asked one girl as Zoey drew closer.

Zoey pulled it off and said, “Take me to your Lord. Uhh, please?”

The small group of insurgents backed away from her in surprise. She knew all too well who it was that they saw. However this half-assed plan of hers turned out, Zoey hoped this was the end of the shadow that her sister had cast. One of the three girls who looked at her stepped forward straightened up, trying to appear more in control of the situation.

“He does not need to see you,” said the posing Hulda’fi.

“He’ll want to. I’ll go to him alone if I have to. I’d prefer to do this without any violence between us.”

“Y-you’re not her, are you?”

“No, I’m the other Thalassas daughter. Will you escort me to your Lord or not?”

While the four of them walked together Zoey shifted the straps of her utility harness that had come with the suit. None of the Hulda’fi checked her for any sort of weapon or device. Either that meant that they didn’t see her as a threat at all, or Zoey was too much of one where one more item didn’t matter. She wasn’t about to ask, nor was she about to draw attention to the beacon tucked away in one pouch.

They came to the front of the ship, the Hulda’fi stopping at one of the side doors of the bridge. One of them pressed the main button on the panel by the door, causing it to slide open. Zoey had almost missed these sliding doors, as opposed to the swinging ones found throughout Elysium IX. She took a few trepid steps past the doorway, at which point the door closed and the panel beeped twice to indicate that it had been locked. The crew stationed around the room shot glances her way. Two women stood guard at the sides who kept an eye on her. The admiral stood in the middle of the floor, looking forward.

“Young Lady Thalassas,” said the admiral, “I heard you had wished to see me. I assume you came on that stiern-boat of mine?”

“I came alone, and willingly,” said Zoey.

“Oh?” He turned to face his guest. “What of the one who flew you here?”

“She’s in the Medical Bay where I left her. You made her nauseous, like you did with her sisters; my girlfriend as well.”

One crew member working at a station on the bridge hesitated and lifted her fingers from the console she sat behind. The young woman went back to work after the apparent hiccup in her activity.

Chan-Yeol hitched a brow at Zoey and said, “So that particular rumor was true then? A shame that her children will have to grow as they will – without the love of their mother’s life.”

“There’s one child,” said Zoey, “and I’ll find a way home. This is a dream, and I’m lucid enough to say what will happen.”

“Perhaps not for long. Perhaps you will say what comes next after we convince you what comes next. My children and I can be most persuasive. Once you receive the Lady’s blessing you will see what sort of dream life really is. Hallowed is the flesh and the pleasure we give it.”

“You have no remorse for all you’ve done, do you?”

“Remorse? Nonsense. I gave the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance something it didn’t realize that it needed. I gave it the strife it needed to press forward. You told me once that you love history and archaeology. What civilization has lasted long without any conflict or crisis? What wars have not led to brilliant advancements, or how many great things were born outside of fighting between peoples? Our last great war, after all, gave us our Hallowed Lady, my wife. Would that I knew why she didn’t make this journey with us, but she has her reasons I’m sure. When we join her again, one day, she may well bless us with this knowledge.”

Zoey stilled herself. She knew the reason Fe’remene wasn’t here, but telling the truth wasn’t the best move where she stood. Her sister needed more time. Her sister needed to send a her a sign.

“Now you plan to take over the Earth,” said Zoey. “Its own people have tried over the years. All of them failed to take the known world.”

“I’m sure I can guess where every one of them went wrong,” the admiral said, chuckling. “I’m sure I know well where they are most vulnerable.”

“We have time before we get there. I think I know the perfect history lesson to give before we arrive.” She laughed to herself. It was poetic to her that the last piece of Earth history she had read before leaving as Dylan was the one that she would give approaching Earth as Zoi’ne. Better still, it had parallels to a book she read on the way to Elysium IX.

“Perfect, you say?”

“You are a military man. Maybe you will appreciate this most of all.”

“Do tell.”

“There was an empire, long before guns and technology, that outgrew itself and fell on one side to a myriad of reasons. Centuries before it had become an empire it had a rival and adversary in trade and military. The two nations fought three wars against one another, ending with the decimation of one and the violent growth of Rome. It is the second war that you will want to hear.

“In the second war a man was hired to take the fight to Rome and ruin them. He attacked from a front that no one expected. He ravaged the countryside for years with no one from Rome able to keep him in check. There was one battle, in particular, where this man, Hannibal, made the Romans lose control of their own army, lured them into a precarious attack position, and then flanked them. For the Romans it was a massacre, but it was also a lesson.”

“Such an effective maneuver is commendable,” said Chan-Yeol, amused.

Zoey said, “Years later, a Roman general repeated a similar strategy to other men working for the people of Carthage. The general won when he gave the enemy a taste of what Hannibal had given Rome. He would eventually beat Hannibal in a showdown. Earth’s people, you see, are fond of repeating any success.”

“So, what, do you mean to say that Earth will beat us with our own strategy?” He gave a boisterous laugh as though trying to get the crew to go along with him. A few chuckled with far less energy.

One crew member yelped, and then shrugged at their console in confusion. The console had stopped responding to her inputs. Above, in the dark strip at the top of the walls, lights flashed in succession. Zoey saw yellow, red, orange, green, and yellow on it. Il’lyse had done it, but how much time was left?

The Aelfs and Ginserei on the bridge noticed something was wrong in time for a second sequence of colored lights to flash. This second time it was red, yellow, orange, and yellow. Four lights instead of five; it was counting down. It had to be.

“Yes,” said Zoey.

“What was that?” Chan-Yeol said.

“It’s not Earth’s people you should be worried about. Did you know my sister is pretty damn smart when she wants to be?”

The admiral shot her a wary squint. Green, red, orange. The man pointed to one guard, then the other, saying “Medical Bay” and “Engineering” between them. Both women took out their cell-comms and spoke into them too quiet for Zoey to hear, but she knew that her sister would be in trouble if she was still anywhere near those two rooms.

“What have you done?” said Chan-Yeol. “Tell me.”

“I was getting to that,” Zoey said. “If you remember the Marslou and Elysium University then a computer virus had infected those systems. The virus had been used by none other than yourself and your brainwashed children.”

Orange. Red.

She saw the half-Ginserei’s face lose color of its own, and Zoey said, “You made too many mistakes and lost control. My sister has found and planted the virus on your ship’s primary computer. In other words,” she paused to pull out the transmat beacon, “we just Hannibaled your ass.”

“Stop her,” said the man in a weak voice, his head shaking. He took steps toward her. The footfalls had been staggered.

Maroon.

With a tear rolling down Zoey’s cheek she pressed the activation button on the device in her hand. She hoped this worked. She loved this dream, if it was one, or this life if it wasn’t. The rest of the white lights in the ceiling turned red and maroon.

People around the bridge were too shocked to move. The admiral, in his final act of rage and fear, reached for Zoey. He shouted, “No!”

Then she blinked, spots of dark red dissolving into the void.

Chapter 60

Somewhere in the Hoshi-Lacarta, a young man dialed his cellular communicator to call someone from halfway across the steller system. He was never any good with long-distance relationships, but calling her was right in his heart. He asked her how she was, and the young man felt lighter inside his chest than he had in months.

Across the garden, a woman who once thought she couldn’t trust herself to make any major decisions was directing members of the military where to go. More prisoners were taken today alone than the Aelfs and Ginserei had seen since the early days of the great war. Beneath her arm she carried a paper parcel containing a change of clothing that one of her daughters had left behind. She had to get them both back. She had to, even if it would take a month to travel one way, and another to comb the stellar system for two girls.

A few kilometers through the snow a man spoke with two gentlemen who were far from home. Both were scientists with specialties in related fields, but one of them was in need of more advanced medical attention for his arm. The human from Earth said he had no intention of going back, but he would be delighted to lend his talents to this alliance between worlds. All he needed was an active assistant who was talented with technology as his partner was, and he could send anyone across the galaxy within the day. The military captain laughed it off for a moment until he spoke with another man who had been the ranking officer among the Peacekeepers present. The lieutenant said he saw two girls take off in a stiern-boat, and that they had come here originally by a wormhole. The captain looked again to the Earth human.

In one of the ships above the atmosphere a man sat in a chair. His only brother, made into a young woman, lied on a medical bed behind a barrier. The new woman had further injured her own legs and feet when taken into custody. Her feet could be fully mended with the procedure responsible for her change, but the risks would be as great as the cost. She leered at him again, choosing not to try to help the man redeem himself. The man still had to try. He owed it to their parents, as well as to his own soul.

Many kilometers away, in a city reeling from the recent assault, two girls stood behind a window in a condo that wasn’t their own. One Ginserei had her arm around her sister’s shoulders as they gazed upon the park below. The lockdown was lifting, but the military-run medical camp was still there. Clouds formed in the sky to signify the coming of rain. It was dusk, and one of the girls had not seen the owners of this home yet. The older sister knew that one of them had spoken with the younger from a few planets away, but where were the girls? In the road below, a car pulled up against the sidewalk, and a decorated man in uniform exited one of the passenger seats. The older of the girls knew this scene. When a man or woman in uniform made a house call like this in a black car, either they had come to pick someone up or they’d come to bear bad news about a loved one. The latter was too frequent, she heard, especially in times of conflict. She felt her heart stop when the man in uniform looked up at the window she stood behind.

***

Reality flooded her face, smacking her like a great wave. Her eyes saw the dark interior of the stiern-boat. Her nose found scents she didn’t even want to think about. Her legs found the feel of gravity. Her ears found a voice.

“Did you wait to the last second or what?” said Il’lyse.

Breathing heavily, Zoey patted herself with her hands. She removed her gloves and tried again. Hair, boobs, hips; they were all there. Everything was where it needed to be. She was here.

“I’m alive,” she said. “I’m really alive.”

“Hang on to something. Shit, shit, shit!” Something hit the craft. “The shield is holding, but we’re not far enough away from the heat yet.”

“What heat?”

“The heat of the explosion. I made that guy’s ship go infrared and left the drive with the virus there so no one else thinks to use it. With my luck there are more copies of it somewhere. There, now take a look at this.”

Zoey treaded the boat and saw that the view ahead of the craft was spinning. The rotation was slow and steady. In the distance, pieces of the Hastig Silver were burning. Bright, orange lines crawled over the surfaces as they broke apart further and further until the ship was nothing more than dust. Sixty people had been slain with a single act, but billions saved on one planet alone. It was hard to swallow, but knowing that Chan-Yeol Fjorfolia could never hurt anyone again helped. Her sister grabbing her hand, as the two of them looked on, helped.

“We did it,” Zoey said.

“That’s the good news,” said Il’lyse. “We can try to make the trip home, but we’ll run out of fuel before the end, no matter what tricks I use to conserve it. We’ll run out of food and water before that.”

“Is there anything we can do to get help?”

“We can send a signal and hope that someone back home gets it in time. There aren’t any communication satellites between here and Natt Grans, so it will be a while before our signal gets that far. We can try it every couple of days until the next survey team comes this way, which can be a month, or it can be a couple revolutions.”

“Let’s lie low. Let’s go to Earth and hope for the best.”

The craft moved once the girls were strapped into the front seats. Zoey could see the sun she had grown up with toward the top of the front window, and the asteroid belt passing at the bottom until the disc of rocks slipped from view. The angle changed in the window, the sun leaving her view for a brief moment, and then the sun returned in time for a rusty sphere to appear to the left.

“So what’s the name of that one?” said Il’lyse.

“That would be Mars,” Zoey said. “Earth has been sending probes there when they can afford it.”

“Probes are good and all, but what do they get out of it? Building materials?”

“Pictures and test results on what they find. I couldn’t really tell you more than that.”

“I’d hate to spoil their fun, but I think they should build more and colonize. Get out more, you know? Dasos and I once made a clubhouse with Tonny in the woods behind our old neighborhood. It was a shack that had collapsed before we all applied to the university, revolutions before, but it was a start. We knew at thirteen it didn’t need to be the end-all when we made it. All things considered, I’m glad we did that. I’m glad we went out.”

They neared a sphere of blue, green, and brown. A smaller sphere, dark to Zoey from the side of the craft’s approach, appeared to the right of the Earth. She took a few minutes to wonder how many days it had been. It was a mid afternoon in Nevada when she had left this planet more than three months ago.

“Do you have any preferences to where we can land?” said Il’lyse.

“I always wanted to visit Greece or Italy, but I think the language barrier might be a bit of a thing.”

“These names! Don’t make me drop you where we first met.”

“Somewhere in that same continent should be fine. Make it as close to a city as you like, as long as we don’t get in trouble with the locals.”

“Relax, our cloaking hasn’t been beat in over two centuries. No one is coming to find us.”

“Famous last words.”

***

There was a radio station in range; there had to be. Il’lyse played with with the reception settings on the stiern-boat after she had landed. Her sister was crossing her arms and pouting at her in the meantime. Outside was a desert. Il’lyse always wanted to visit one of these, so she wasn’t entirely sure what Zoi’ne was unhappy about.

Outside it was hot, despite the position and movement of the one star in the sky telling Il’lyse that it was among the later hours of the morning. While the stiern-boat did not have stellar masts it did have an emergency panel for charging sun energy from as close as the fourth planet in the stellar system. So that served to keep the interior of the vessel nice and cool.

“What?” said Il’lyse.

“You know what. I would have loved to go outside during the day.”

“You’ll be fine. Go naked if you have to.”

“We’re naked enough with these things on. How did you Hulda’fi stand to wear them so often?”

“It made us feel exposed, and yet powerful; protected from the elements, but not from one another. Come to think of it maybe we need some new clothes. This could get awkward fast if we spend too many days in these suits.”

“We have no local currency, and I’m not playing any part to a robbery. I don’t care if a lot of people on this planet deserve it.”

“Here we go.”

The radio found a few frequencies. Il’lyse took note of them for when she would send a message out later so that she could avoid them. With these frequencies being what they were, that was going to be simple. She picked one and found organ music. The strong hand gestures from Zoi’ne told Il’lyse that this was not a good station for her to stick with. A second one had rock music, but the static interference was too high to enjoy it. The last one of the three frequencies had a talking program on.

It was the fourteenth of something called July, a month Il’lyse guessed, and the number given after that broke up in mere seconds of static. Zoi’ne nodded along, her eyes rolled to a corner, so she was thinking about that one piece of information. The two men talking on the radio were laughing in regards to something that had happened the day before about some moron trying to push his version of care or he would be “very angry.”

“If only I was two years older,” said Zoi’ne. “It probably wouldn’t have mattered a whole lot.”

“What’s that have to do with anything?” asked Il’lyse.

For the next hour Zoi’ne explained the nightmare that was the voting system in the land where she had grown up. If it didn’t make any sense to Il’lyse it was because that was how little it made sense to everyone else. The worlds, and their nations, of the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance had their flaws, but not like the younger sister was explaining.

Il’lyse sent the first message into outer space when a green truck drove across the dirt towards the stiern-boat. Zoi’ne saw it and said, “Oh no. There goes lying low.”

“Are they the government?” Il’lyse said. This was fast for anyone to come along, she thought.

“Sort of, yes and no. More like underappreciated employees who may or may not be over-zealous depending on whom you talk to. I’ll talk to them once I have a better look at what’s coming. Who knows? Maybe I can talk them into helping us out with a better place to park that won’t draw attention.”

The truck had stopped. One man leaned out of his window, looking at the stiern-boat, and another got out of the opposite side of the vehicle. The man who got out wore a button-down shirt and a wide-brim hat with sunglasses. Confounded by what he was looking at, the man walked along to the portside of the stiern-boat.

The door opened all of a sudden. Il’lyse turned and saw that her sister had done it, and the younger sister was now poking the top half of her body out of the opening.

“Good morning, sir!” Zoi’ne said.

“What is this, miss?” the man said with a minor twang to his accent.

“This is a really long story. I’m sorry, was this a bad place for us to set down? We needed to park somewhere for a little while.”

“Is that right? Well, this is a wildlife reserve that you’re on. There’s a campsite back up the road about five or six miles. Are you having some sort of engine trouble?”

“That’s one way to put it. You can’t really move faster than light, though we do have a temperamental warp drive that lets us bypass a light-year in a few seconds once per day. We’re kind of figuring out our best move since we only have a week’s worth of food, and three weeks’ worth of energy, to travel thirty-nine light-years or less. Again, it’s a long story, but if you could keep this quiet I would much appreciate it.”

“Hey, Roger, are you hearing any of this nonsense?”

The other man shrugged and said a few words, but Il’lyse couldn’t hear him. Il’lyse, on the other hand, rolled her eyes in disbelief. Her sister was being honest with these men and they weren’t buying it.

“So where did you get your costume?” said the man outside.

“We stole it from a sex cult bent on dominating every world they come across,” Zoi’ne said. “You’re welcome, by the way. They won’t be bothering you now.”

“Zoi’ne,” Il’lyse muttered.

“So there’s a campsite near here? Does it cost anything to stay there? We don’t have any Earth money right now. Shame too, I hear you have these things called carrot cakes, and I really wanted to try one or get a recipe.”

Palm, meet face.

“Tell you what, miss,” said the man, “if you can really make this thing fly and make it there then I’ll see what I can do about your time here.”

“Will you? That was five miles in which direction?”

A few moments later the stiern-boat landed again. This time it was in a lot with bare sand, a fire-pit, and a table with some cover. Il’lyse left the engine running on idle this time in case the show triggered a bad direction from the locals. The girls waited for an hour before the green truck came along and parked on the other side of the lot.

Il’lyse answered them this time. “Hello,” she said to these humans, stepping out to greet them.

“I have to say that was a fine feat you pulled off back there,” said the man, who Il’lyse now saw was older than she had expected. “I am a man of my word, however, and I believe you said you needed help with food for a few days?”

“My sister said that, yes.”

“Hello again!” Zoi’ne said behind her from inside the craft.

“Well then,” said the man, “you are in luck. Someone left a bunch of muffins in my office this morning.”

“I’m pretty sure that was your wife, sir,” said the younger man by the truck.

“She keeps trying to get me to eat more often. I figure a pair of nice ladies like you could use this much more than I can. Also, if your sister is serious about the carrot cake then I can ask my wife for a recipe for you.”

“That is nice of you,” said Il’lyse. “Thank you.”

“Why let two young ladies starve when it can be helped? Anyways, I don’t know how much more help I’ll be. We’ll keep this quiet, but it’s Friday so there will be other campers about, starting tonight. If you’re really from out there then you’ll probably want to be mindful of that.” He chuckled.

The humans left moments after one of them had given the girls the basket full of muffins. They were all as large as Il’lyse’s fist. Zoi’ne ate three of them in a hurry and hiccupped before lying on the floor of the boat. Il’lyse had one with the seeds in it.

Both girls spent their afternoon together reminiscing about experiences that they had in their respective childhoods. Il’lyse had figured that Dasos told Zoi’ne every story he could have by now, but Zoi’ne let her tell it as she remembered it. There were holes in her memory, thanks to a man, his wife, and their cult that were now gone, but Zoi’ne asked her questions that made sense and let Il’lyse lay those stories to rest when she still couldn’t answer them.

The sun came down, mere centimeters from dusk, when Il’lyse said, “I’m sorry I fucked up your life.”

“No,” said Zoi’ne, “my time here wasn’t all that great. I think I got what I needed out of it. I can think of no one better to come along and set that old life ablaze and force me to start anew.”

“Dork, I meant your newer one. You seemed to be happy.”

“I still am. We’re not home right now, but we will be. Then I’m going to spend a good, long while making this up to Tonny for running off like I did.”

“You better. She’s been like a sister to me for a decade, as you know by now. The two of you must really love each other. That’s what surprises me.”

“I never expected to meet someone like her, especially so soon after my new life had begun. I’m glad I chose to pursue a lasting relationship with her instead of going after more partners like Commander Consilius.”

“Cold, infinite beyond, you did not sleep with that commander!”

“No, we didn’t sleep. You’d be right about that. He was the first and only man I had ever been with, and, as good as it was, there was no connection there like I get from Tong-Chang. I’d gladly chase some guy across the galaxy to beat his ass for her. What? Why are you laughing?”

Il’lyse had burst out laughing, but she did it more and more until she felt like her heart refuse to do any more work. She said, “I love it. I think I approve of the two of you. Now, Dasos and this Shungdi woman, on the other hand; I don’t know enough about her yet.”

This time Zoi’ne laughed.

***

Night was quiet. They left the portside door open part of the way to let some air in or out while the stiern-boat’s fan system was set to low. There was a set of rolled-up mats in one back corner of the parked vessel, all of which Il’lyse promised were washed at some point recently. Zoey never asked for that, nor did she think to wonder why it mattered in the time it took to doze off on one of the mats.

She opened her eyes to see Tong-Chang, glowing while she searched the inside of the craft. Zoey reached for her, and then she was standing, kissing the bunny-eared woman on the lips. The sensation of flesh was dim, but the wanting, the sheer force of taking in this sweet fervor, was brighter than any star. Tong-Chang pulled away. They were floating outside of Natt Grans, except the reactor in the middle was replaced by a small machine, that she knew she had seen somewhere before. The machine grew larger and greater until the station twisted and vanished.

It took Zoey seconds more to know that she was in outer space without an air source. She was alone. She had to reach Tong-Chang wherever she had gone, knowing that it was with Natt Grans. But first she needed air. Zoey inhaled and exhaled. There was no air. Her breath came sharper. Still, no air.

With a painful gasp of air she sat up. She was back aboard the stiern-boat. After months of doubting herself she was sure that she was awake now, however vivid the dream was that she had.

A second mat was set out next to hers despite either one being an ample width for two people who were larger than Zoey. Her sister wasn’t there. The door was open an ample amount for someone to get out, and the suit that her sister had been wearing was hanging over the top of the pilot’s seat. Il’lyse told her that they didn’t have to take off the whole suit to use the restroom, so Zoey knew it wasn’t that, aside from the lack of her sister’s presence in that small alcove in the back the vessel.

Zoey left the craft and saw the moon coming up from the horizon. A quarter of one side wasn’t shining like the rest of it. She had often wondered, in her youth, why the moon showed up at sunset on some days or early in the morning on some others. The lone clock she had access to could tell her the time according to the Hoshi-Lacartan standard for Elysium’s timezones, rather than where she stood, yet she could gather from the darkness and the silence coming from the next campground over, that it was well after midnight, be it one or three hours.

She looked over by the table and found Il’lyse basking in the limited moonlight. Zoey approached and sat next to her upon the table itself rather than the bench.

“Couldn’t sleep?” said Zoey.

“I needed to relieve myself, and it was nice out,” said Il’lyse.

“Using the restroom wouldn’t have bothered me.”

“Not what I meant.”

“What do you—? Oh. Well thank you for not waking me up with that.”

“The funny thing about that is that I almost went out to one of the other camps, dressed down as I am, to have fun with some of the people here. When I realized that the next camp over was full of boys too young for either of us I decided against it. Now I wonder if any of them was watching me. The thought hadn’t occurred to me at the time, but now it’s kind of awkward.”

“I’m glad you decided not to go after those boys.”

“So am I.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Months ago I might have if the Lord and Lady wanted it. It’s one thing they never asked of me, but I know of others who did. Months ago it would have led to some of those boys changing against their will, but being convinced they did want it, most of them joining our cult, and possibly one or two of them dying along the way. I know this, I know it is wrong, but I still feel as though I betrayed a family of over a thousand, as empty as they were; as empty as I was outside of my anger and lust.”

Zoey placed a hand on her shoulder. “Now you’re free. You’re able to be your own self again, even if it will take time to recover. When we get home you’ll have the whole lot of us – your loving family.”

“Yes, I like that optimism. I’ll have a father who tells wonderful stories over a meal that he had made, a badass mother who tries too damn hard for her own good but is loving in ways I wish I had accepted sooner, a brother who has fun and games even as he looks deep into things he really shouldn’t, and a little sister who studies history and talks in her sleep.”

“Tong-Chang and Dasos keep telling me I do that.” Zoey growled at the wooden cover hanging above the table.

Her sister giggled and wrapped an arm around her. Il’lyse leaned her head on Zoey’s shoulder, saying, “I’m glad you’re a part of this family.”

“Likewise, sister.”

“It’ll be a moment before I’m ready to go back to bed. Would you tell me about the planets of your stellar system in the meantime? I’m curious about those.”

“Sure, I can try.”

***

The next morning the same muffins were waiting for the girls, nowhere as stale as Zoey had expected them to be. The blueberry ones, especially, were the same as the day before. Now she wished she had some juice instead of more water. Something with raspberries would have been nice as well, but she wasn’t going to complain.

As they ate, Zoey told her sister about a dream she had involving Tong-Chang and Natt Grans, along with a machine that might have resembled the one she had seen in the basement in the Hulda’fi mansion now that she was thinking about it. With a chocolate muffin in hand, and a curious look on her face, Il’lyse hurried to the front of the stiern-boat and tampered with the radio.

“What are you doing?” Zoey said.

“I’m wondering about something,” said Il’lyse. “If the two of us can see half of a second ahead of ourselves instead of a quarter, whenever we’re close together I mean, then might it affect other things like our dreams? What if every good person that we know is working out a way to find us and bring us home? Please be all of the optimism for me, sis.”

“OK?”

Her sister worked up a fever pressing a series of buttons that Zoey did not know well at all. Zoey watched before she knew that her hands covered the bottom half of her face in anticipation. Please work, whatever it is she is doing.

The radio static whined. Il’lyse stopped. Silence.

Blips came. Each nibble of sound was a man’s voice, like thin slices of words that had been drifting in the air until the stiern-boat’s radio caught them all. Il’lyse threw her arms in the air and screamed in excitement. She slammed a hand down on one button.

She said, “This is Il’lyse Thalassas of Elysium IX. I am on Earth with my sister. Do you copy?”

Il’lyse clasped her hands over her heart while the voice repeated its old, broken message. Zoey stood back bewildered. She had no idea what to ask regarding what was happening. She had less of an idea as to how long to wait for a response from wherever the voice was coming from. Il’lyse repeated her message after a couple of minutes, this time with tears in her voice.

They waited. A minute after their second transmission the man’s voice picked up a third time and stopped as if interrupted. The words, if they could be called that at this point, changed; the slices of syllables and the energy behind them different from what Zoey and Il’lyse had heard before.

“They’re doing it,” Il’lyse said. “Cold, infinite beyond, they’re actually doing it.” She turned and launched herself at Zoey, grabbing her shoulders. “We’re going home. If we can reach one another this soon then we’re going home, this time tomorrow. I don’t exactly know how, but it’s happening.”

“Home,” Zoey said.

Il’lyse let go and punched the wall. “Fuck, we’re going home!” She twisted and leaned against the structure she had hit seconds prior. Her cheeks were wet. “I guess it was nice being free while it lasted.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Zoi’ne the conflict with the Hulda’fi is over. As soon as we enter Hoshi-Lacarta they will arrest me. It’s not like I can fly you in and take off alone, into the unknown frontier. If you knew how to fly this thing then maybe I could spend an eternity here on Earth, and enjoy myself to the fullest, but it would take months to learn. There’s no way around it unless we both go on the run.”

“Let’s do it then.”

“No. You have a life full of the right people at the right time. I’m not taking that from you, nor am I letting you throw that away. This is going to sound really fucking stupid after the little time we knew one another, or the times we argued and fought, but you are my right people at the time I needed you most. I kind of hate you for that, but I love you.”

Zoey huffed and smiled through her tears. She stepped toward her and hugged Il’lyse despite the older sister’s insistent nudity. “You were the first right person for me too,” Zoey said.

“You really are an idiot. The best kind. Don’t lose this shine of yours.”

For the second day in a row lunch and dinner consisted of the rations in one of the green bins. Zoey examined the wrappers to see if she could find a sort of date listed on them, in case they were expired or close to it. In lyurunics that blended into the one wrapper she inspected, because of a poor choice of colors, she saw the Elftemane of 228 listed. She proceeded to ask if that was so many revolutions before the alliance or since it formed. Il’lyse laughed at her and never answered.

One of the park rangers in the green truck came by again during the afternoon. Zoey talked to the man while Il’lyse watched a distant group of ravens from the front of the stiern-boat. The kind ranger handed Zoey an index card with a recipe written in the old alphabet that she had grown up with. His wife loved to bake when she wasn’t busy working at a job that she hated, so she was more than happy to share this recipe. Zoey thanked the ranger and showed the carrot cake recipe to Il’lyse.

“Earth has such strange writing,” Il’lyse said. “Ever since Doctor Wilde wrote it on that board of his, and I asked him about it, I always thought it was weird. Too bad I can’t read it very well.”

“Wait, my father taught you how to read the alphabet?” said Zoey.

“Father?”

“Yes, him.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I kind of wish I was. How much did you learn, anyhow?”

“Enough to bring him a bag of Funyuns. So half of those letters, maybe one more besides. It’s too bad Plau’s Theory doesn’t cover writing like it does speech.”

“I had forgotten about that stupid theory.”

“Yeah, it really is rubbish, isn’t it?” Both sisters laughed.

After nightfall, when they were finished with dinner, Il’lyse activated the radio again. She tested a thin pair of nobs and exhaled hard through her mouth. Il’lyse set her hands on the base of the console and focused. Zoey knew not to disturb her, though she knew not what the focus was on.

A man’s voice hailed through the radio. He said, “This broadcast is a test. If you are able to answer then please repond with your name and origin, or else disregard this message.”

Il’lyse repeated her message from several hours ago, once again saying, “This is Il’lyse Thalassas of Elysium IX. I am on Earth with my sister. Do you copy?”

Natt Grans was over thirty-two light-spans away from Earth a few months ago. That did not account for movement between the stars or objects made, but Zoey didn’t think the difference over three or four months was too great. She did, however, try and fail to do the math in her head before the man spoke again with the same message.

“Six minutes,” Il’lyse whispered. “That’s how long they would need, and they’re sending another every two. I hope this is a recording, and they have people listening for our response. I’d hate to think how many men or women are losing their voices.”

“Is that with or without communication relays?”

“With. If my theory is right then they’ve initiated an untested protocol to send out temporary relay nodes across the frontier in order to find us or the ship that we had blown up. The effort will last a week before the first node breaks apart, as per its design, or I guess that minus however hours ago that they started. I thought this protocol was still in its theoretical stages.”

“Theoretical stages?”

“The one thing that had been holding it back from being tested was travel time. We bypass the speed of light with the relays because they work with the same method as our delta warp drives; by tapping into imperfect wormholes the size of a pen’s tip. Getting a relay into position this way has always been far riskier because no one could figure out how to open an event horizon wide enough to fit a trashcan without causing lots of damage or leaking lethal radiation in a zone twenty times as wide. Your Earth father figured it out even though his world is far less advanced than ours. If I am right then he is helping the Allied Peacekeepers try to find us. He is generating wormholes at calculated intervals until the temporary relay nodes start failing.”

“You said Natt Grans, though.”

“Natt Grans Beta, the second ring, stores the last relay on that side of the whole territory. It is also neutral ground for all four races of the alliance. If they want quicker response times then that will be the best strategic spot for them to set up and broadcast this far out.”

“I’m glad you know a lot about this.”

“It was one of those things Dad had talked about when we were younger. I mean when Dasos and I were growing up together. Damn it, now I’m starting to talk like you were there with us all along.”

Another man’s voice emerged from the radio in place of the older one. He said, “It’s good to hear your voice, Il’lyse. Bon’sinne told me you were back. Now then, let’s see about getting you and Zoi’ne home so I can meet both of my granddaughters, eh?”

“Grandpa! Yes, please help us.”

Six minutes passed before he spoke again. “We’re working on it. I never liked the idea of these wormhole things, but if they will bring you home then I will never doubt them again for the remainder of my revolutions. Is anyone else there with you?”

“No, sir. It’s the two of us with a Hulda’fi stiern-boat. Some of the humans here know of our presence, but are staying quiet.”

More time. “I see. That presents some considerations for us on our end. Can you tell any of us where Admiral Fjorfolia is? He is due for a court martial if we can find the man and apprehend him.”

“He’s dead. Zoi’ne and I witnessed his ship explode with him on it, along with sixty other Hulda’fi. I did this, Grandpa. I’ve done a lot of things.”

“A pity he will not stand trial. You have done us all a service. From what we’ve gathered, you’ve helped billions of lives if what you say is true. Zoi’ne, was it? Can you confirm anything that has been said?”

Zoey felt the twinge of stage-fright, a spotlight illuminating her when her place was in the back. She said, “Yes, sir. It’s nice to meet you, sir. I was on the Hastig Silver until Lyssa transported me to the safety. I can confirm that Chan-Yeol was on the bridge when the lights turned red and maroon. He didn’t have any means of escape like the two of us had.”

“Your voices sound a lot alike, but someone here tells me that is to be expected with the two of you. We are going to cut this conversation short so that everyone can get to work calculating your position. Are you two able to activate the anomaly on your end? What does that—?”

With a snort, Il’lyse said, “We are equipped to do that, Grandpa. I see that they scripted that question for you, and don’t you worry. It makes twice the amount of sense that it sounds.”

“Good. Well then, I understand you are able to fly the craft that you are in. That solves the issue of having to dispose of it to keep the technology out of Earth’s hands until they’re ready for it. Give us up to twelve hours. After the eleventh one leave your radio open so we can exchange signals when we’re both ready. I will see you then.”

The sun rose on the sixteenth of July. One more day would have been Dylan’s eighteenth birthday. It dawned on Zoey that this was the week that would have had a festival going on that she wanted to see, and not for the sole reason of the celebration of her birth, as well as everyone else who was born through the fifth and seventh months of the Elysium calendar.

Was there cake? Of course there had to be cake. She worked at a place that made them, and had seen the mass orders received the day before the Hulda’fi attack. She had worked there. She winced, having realized that she was absent for two consecutive days without calling them.

“What’s the matter?” said Il’lyse.

“I think I might be fired from work when I’m home,” Zoey said. “I was supposed to work yesterday and today, as well as help out making a bunch of cupcakes for the seasonal life festival. Are you sure we can’t take off and roam the galaxy?”

“Maybe next revolution, or later after you get out of college. That’s assuming I’ll be able to take you anywhere.”

“Damn it.”

Zoey walked outside. The summer heat in the area had not come for the day yet, so she stretched and breathed, basking in the spot of Earth. It was no longer her home, but she had to do something she never got to do four months ago. She kneeled and picked up a handful of sand with her hands before letting it sifted through her fingers. In an internal whisper she said her goodbyes to the place of her old life, and to the few friends who would remain. It was time to leave it behind and let her newer life go on.

As she got up, she heard the sound of cars speeding across the dirt and dried brush. They were big and black, their windows tinted. The cars were coming her way. Zoey ran to the door when she guessed what was coming.

“Sister,” she said, “we have company, and not the good kind.”

Il’lyse said, “I’m turning on the radio now. Hopefully we can go. You can come inside and shut the door. Unless they’re stupid enough to throw rockets at us without establishing a threat I doubt we’re in any trouble.”

“When you put it that way, let me talk to them from here. Maybe I can buy us a moment or two.”

“What? Zoi’ne, wait!”

She turned back to the cars, which had stopped on the edge of the lot where the sisters had been staying for the last couple of days. Men in tailored suits and sunglasses were exiting the vehicles, some wasting no time to draw their weapons. Two more men in military uniform appeared as well.

“Step away from the object!” said one man in a suit.

“Hello!” said Zoey. “Sorry, but we can’t really stay long.”

A uniformed man said, “Who are you?”

“I’m a universal idiot passing through. We ran into a little trouble, and will be heading home in a moment. There’s no need to worry about us.”

“How many more of you are there?”

“Here or there?”

“What?”

“I’m asking if you can clarify your question.”

The man in the more decorated uniform had a grim frown as he inhaled through his nose and stiffened. “How many more of you are on your spaceship?”

“I don’t have a spaceship?”

“We don’t have time for games. We picked up radio signals coming and going through space to this location. You are standing next to a foreign object that appears to be a ship of some kind.”

“It’s not a ship. Do you see any masts upon it?”

Zoey could not read lips, but when one man in a suit leaned in and talked to the military man in charge, she imagined the man saying “She has a point there, sir.” The man was not in the Navy, or else leadership was worse than she thought.

“Fine,” said the military man, “can you please step away from your space craft? We need to know your intentions here, and if you carry any biological threats to the safety of this planet.”

“We have an air purifier inside our boat,” said Zoey, “but I think my sister and I could both use a good shower. It’s been over two days since we left home to save your planet from a violent cult. Not to worry, they’re all dead now since we blew them up.”

Her words triggered every man in a suit, and the second military man, to point their weapons her way. Maybe trying to sound cheerful about that deed wasn’t the best approach that Zoey could have taken. A few of the men were shouting, some of their demands contradicting the others such as getting away from the craft versus getting on the ground, and again versus getting everyone else inside the vehicle to come out. How did fictional alien heroes manage these encounters?

Zoey pursed her lips and headed inside. A single gun shot off and hit the side of the entrance to no effect. She closed the door and went second seat in the front, her lips pressed inward.

When more gunshots fired, their sounds held back by the material of the stiern-boat’s contruction, Zoey said, “Does this thing have an external speaker system?”

Il’lyse, who now finally wore her suit again, handed her a metallic object that was the size of a thin writing implement. Zoey pressed a sensor on the side with her thumb and said, “Stop shooting, boys, before you accidentally hit someone.”

The guns all stopped. Zoey folded her hands on her lap with the microphone in hand. Then the shots continued to her dismay.

“You tried,” said Il’lyse, activating the engines. She lifted the craft several meters into the air before moving forward.

“I love this place,” said Zoey, “but remind me later to never come back this way again.”

“Noted.” The radio buzzed, prompting Il’lyse to pressed a button twice. “Good, it sounds like we’re ready to go.”

***

Dasos stood behind the protective glass and waited. The first confirmation signal had gone out, and the crew in the area was waiting for a response. Today they were bringing his sisters home. Today, their family would be whole.

Tong-Chang worked with Doctor Wilde to make one last check of the machine they had rebuilt with all the help that the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance could muster. It was a technological breakthrough, but it also was going to rescue two people being hailed as heroes. Damned fools, but heroes nonetheless.

Beside him, Dasos saw his father and grandpa looking on. It was hard to tell if the two of them were talking nowadays or not, and Dasos had heard that it’d been this way since his father married the other man’s daughter.

The crew stirred in the main room. Bon’sinne directed the men and women from the same side of the bunker as where Tong-Chang and Doctor Wilde were working. A few minutes passed. Then the air twisted and formed a stable wormhole. The sight of it made the captains in the room with Dasos both whistle. The event horizon was turned away from the protective glass or opposite wall, and instead toward the machine that did most of the work for being the size of a bathtub.

A stiern-boat flew through it and over everyone’s heads. It turned half of a circle in the air and slowed to a stop after a few meters. Everyone who was under the vessel had gotten out from underneath it, but the craft moved toward the wormhole’s location while it closed. Dasos caught sight of Zoey laughing on the starboard seat, and Il’lyse working the controls on the other side. The stiern-boat turned once more so its rear faced the protective glass, and it landed before the glow of the thrusters all went out.

People clapped when the door opened. Dasos ran out into the main chamber to witness both girls come out of the craft. While so many people gathered around, the scientist, Doctor Wilde, coddled the machine like it was his baby. If Doctor Rakendaya could see him now, Dasos thought.

“Terra-almost-firma, we’re home,” said one of them. Dasos guessed it to be Zoey, with her persistent high energy and knack for words no one knew.

Tong-Chang hugged them both at once and said, “You need a bath, but I’m glad to see you two.”

“Yeah we do. Thank you for bringing us home.”

Tong-Chang kissed the one that Dasos suspected to be Zoey, who kissed back. “Yep, right one. You have some making up to do for running off like that.”

“You’re right. I’m so sorry, Tonny.”

“I’m sorry too,” said Il’lyse. “It’s my fault we chased after Chan-Yeol. Brother! It’s a group hug. Get your ass over here.”

Chuckling, Dasos walked behind them and wrapped his arms around the girls. He loved them all. He loved this moment. Their immediate family was there. Their parents and grandfather were there. He wasn’t letting go.

“Excuse me, Admiral,” one man said to Bon’sinne.

She groaned and said, “Wait for the paperwork to file next week, at least. What is it, officer?”

“Which one do we take again?”

“I’ll let you know after my family has had a couple days to be together for once. Now, girls, could you do me a favor and get out of those things before I have you both arrested?”

“We’re naked under these,” said Zoey. “Can we get a bath first? Ooh, and maybe get some breakfast?”

Dasos heard his grandfather laugh. He bellowed with it when he wanted to. The man said, “They’re like my own daughter. Bonny, my dear, you have your hands full.”

“Yay, we’re a handful!”

“I don’t think that was a compliment,” said Il’lyse.

“With our family, wasn’t it though?”

Epilogue

Nine months later

Il’lyse sat upon a couch reading a news magazine while the monitor in front of her was on a string of commercials. She was wearing white pants with blue flowers printed on them. On top she wore a gown of blue and green. The majority of her scars were gone now, as far as her physical appearance was concerned.

With a glance behind her, around a wooden table, she saw a group of girls who had been looking her way, each one dressed like she was with some differences to the prints on their pants. Half of them looked away. The Ginserei girl who had helped her, and her siblings, during the final Hulda’fi conflict waved her way. Il’lyse nodded her way, and went back to the magazine.

They were in a clinic that specialized in mental trauma, and Il’lyse was one of several individuals—not brothers and sisters without a name, not a mass of disposable pawns, but all their own, personal selves—being treated against brainwashing and its effects. Judgment had been passed on the cultists who’d been caught. Il’lyse’d dreaded the big day for her own sake, after seeing the worst offenders sentenced to life in prison and the least violent sent to clinics like this one. She remembered well the day, and the intimidating voice she heard.

Il’lyse Thalassas, alias Soror Valide, you are charged with over 370 billion burras in property damage, ninety-seven counts of murder, three counts of espionage, thirty-four counts of theft, two counts of kidnapping, and piloting a spacecraft without a permit. How do you plead? She winced, both back then and now, and pleaded guilty. She had told them she was done running. You have also shown a capacity beyond your peers to grow as a person, to show more remorse than the majority of those sent to seek aid, and to put your life on the line for the sake of others. You have shown cooperation with the law in ways that have saved our society, you came to our aid to strike down a man guilty of high treason and worse, and you elected to bring your true sister home rather than run, knowing well the consequences that await you here today.

This is a dark time. Too many, already, are being sent away to never be seen by society. Never to be seen by the families they had forgotten. You love your family, do you not?

Yes.

As stated before you came to our aid and saved your sister. Many among us have looked at your case with meticulous care and heavy hearts. Some have argued for a reduced sentence. They were, however, proven wrong and overruled. Il’lyse Thalassas, by the power invested in me by the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance, I hereby grant you a provisional pardon.

That day when she had first heard the words, Il’lyse broke down crying. She felt the pain she had caused. Now, as she sat, a tear fell again. It wasn’t fair. Provisional or not, she didn’t feel right to accept the amount of freedom she had.

So that was how she came here. Society would forgive her if she saw a therapist once a week, and this place fulfilled that requirement. Civilization as she knew it would take her back if she helped pay for her damages by an acceptable degree; so, barring the birthday morning feast she bought for Zoey, and bare minimal living expenses, she kept an eye on the news of markets so she can convince her parents to invest her burras for a cut of the profit so that they would donate her share of the gains to good causes. What little she received from it was a pittance compared to what she had hoped to gain from the practice, however.

The commercials ended, and a daily talkshow resumed with a new guest. It was Laeknar Veran’uvia Saludalta, heir to her family’s fortune and spokeswoman for the new version of synthonectar. She had lobbied to have a supply of genesis nectar, found a year ago, and again during the Hulda’fi conflict, catalogued for molecular synthesis with greater accuracy.

Laeknar Saludalta had argued the same then as she was doing now—months after the deed was done—that the lives that could have been don’t need to be thrown to waste. Those lives never got to start, no one got to make their own choices, but no one needed to suffer when the sacrifice had already been made, as terrible as it was. It was the same argument as before, because it was unchanged in merit, but changed in that the catalogue had happened. Now the improved version of synthonectar needed to hit the market.

“Miss Thalassas?” said one of the clinical guards.

“Yes?” she said, being closer to the door than the guard had been expecting.

“You have a visitor.”

“Is it that time already?”

The guard said nothing and led her to a visitor room. No one patted her down anymore. She handed the guard the magazine that she had been reading and entered the room expecting her usual company. It was another man.

It was a half-Ginserei. He turned from whatever he had been looking at, and smiled at her. There was something big in his arms, but she stared stunned in his eyes. “Hello, Il’lyse,” said the man.

“You?” Il’lyse said.

“I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m Brach’geros. We used to go to public school together when we were children. Oh, here’s this.” He handed her a wooden box with roses inside. “I-I wasn’t sure what you liked, and this was probably dumb; I should go—mmf?”

For a reason she could not fathom, Il’lyse kissed him. Memories from their youth came flooding in. This wasn’t their first time.

“You haven’t changed much since the last time,” she said.

“The last time?” he said.

“Surely you know.” Then she whispered in his ear, “I am the lady of the haunted wood.”

“It’s really you, isn’t it? Why did you do that, all those revolutions ago?”

“I don’t know. Part of me thinks I was always a strange girl. I think part of me was sorry that the prank scared you off for good. Why come back now? How did you know I was here?”

“Zoey told me. I’m an assistant manager at her work, you see.”

“You are? Thank you for not firing her. I would have blamed myself eventually if you had done so.”

“No, we chalked it up to a family emergency on top of all the chaos and discord across the city of Trullwick. Zoey’s a good worker. A shame that she’ll be out of town for a couple weeks.”

“You sound like you admire her.”

“Professionally? I mean, when she started with us I thought, maybe, it might go elsewhere, but she’s still with the same girl, and only her. I’m probably never going to find anyone, am I?”

Il’lyse giggled. “Well, you brought me these roses when you didn’t need to. You followed me into the forest that one day when I didn’t know what I wanted. Now I think I might want someone stable in my life.” She caressed the side of his face with her free hand that wasn’t carrying the roses.

“I don’t want to impose. I mean . . .”

She kissed him on the lips again. “I’m allowed three visitors a week, not counting my therapist. If you’re up to it then I really do want you to impose. Bring a movie, bring dinner, bring me stories about what you’re doing with your life. Play it right and I’ll have you bring more.”

“Y-you want to? With me?”

“Redemption is a bitch. That doesn’t mean I have to be.”

“Then, as your sister would say, I’ll see you on Tuesday, whatever that is. What are all these days of hers, anyhow?”

***

While they rode in the car pasted the fields of wheat to one side, copper in color between the dual suns and the large planet in the sky, and plum orchards to the other side of the road, Zoey held the baby boy. She saw none of that evil man in the infant, and much of the Leezu family members that she had seen or met so far.

Next to her on the right was Tong-Chang, and Dasos sat on the right side of the backseat of the royal salir. A week before her girlfriend had given birth, Zoey teased the idea of carrying their next child when they were ready. Tong-Chang tried to talk her out of the idea by reminding Zoey that such a thing could be made to happen with today’s medicine, and with ease. Zoey said to remind her again when they were both ready to raise a child.

Today? Today Tong-Chang was giving her son a loving home that was willing to take the baby in. After months of thinking about it and talking to her relatives, she had decided that this was the best course of action.

High House Leezu was built atop a raised plateau along with water towers that had been reinforced and protected with barriers in the event of invaders. It was one of the historical landmarks Zoey couldn’t wait to see before the car entered the opening on one side of the plateau. From the opening the road split north and south, both of which climbed up the respective sides after wrapping around and continuing east for half of the length of the plateau. The car entered through the south gate and parked over a lot made from sets of granite half the size of Zoey’s feet.

The group in the backseat got out of the car, and Tong-Chang took one last deep breath before they treaded the walkway to the mansion, spanning a third of a kilometer. Tong-Chang carried the baby, Zoey carried a smaller container in her own hands, and Dasos held his hands behind his head as he looked around. The trio had been informed before the ride that their driver would cart their luggage to the manor.

On either side of the walkway was a garden with square stepping stones made from brick. The gardens were in square spaces with flowering shrubs for borders. A group of children played with one another between two spaces to Zoey’s left, and a stone marker, similar in shape to the emblematic hair growth on Tong-Chang’s chest, stood to her right.

On the porch outside the front of the mansion a man and woman sat on the floor, looking toward the gardens and coming visitors. Tong-Chang stopped before them and descended to her knees. She bowed her head to them, and they to her. Zoey had heard that the man among them had been among the competing siblings for the head of the High House.

The voices of the children reached Zoey’s ears. She could hear them as they sang a tune. She recognized the melody from times when Tong-Chang had hummed to her child before and after birth.

Life it goes, and goes it may

Life it wills, and will all day

One day has gone, and fields are run

When day will come, with more astray

Well maybe life, it carries you another sun

“It has been an age, hallowed twin,” said Tong-Chang.

“Too long, hallowed twin,” said the man. “Is this the child?”

Tong-Chang held out the boy, and the woman was the first to grab the baby. The woman on the porch smiled, which was followed by her husband taking the child, and Tong-Chang letting go.

“I’ve heard about your condition, and I apologize,” said Tong-Chang. “May this child bring you the love and happiness you both deserve.”

“You honor us, sister,” the man said.

“I ask only this in turn; be the right people for this child, raise him to one day be the right person for the next, and so on.”

“Hallowed honor upon you, sister.”

Zoey had read that, in texts, to mean praise for Tong-Chang’s wise request, and that her brother recognized her as a superior in the family hierarchy.

Tong-Chang stood back up on her feet. As she did so, Zoey restrained herself from walking up and smacking her girlfriend’s bottom in front of her relatives. Zoey never used to be like this, nor was Tong-Chang ever angry about it since it was between them. How did Zoey get to be lucky with her?

“Tell me,” said Tong-Chang, “I see our nieces and nephews out here, but where are our brothers and sisters?”

“Inside,” her twin brother said. “They are entertaining a guest.”

The door slid open manually from two sides with the aid of two Ginserei who were dressed in simple garments. Zoey took them for servants of the house. Beyond the entrance, however, was a procession of men and women in robes, with the two eldest in front. Tong-Chang took a step back when she saw the people inside the door, throwing her hands up to her mouth, and she once again went to her knees, bowing.

The older couple walked out while Tong-Chang signaled at Dasos and Zoey, with her hand, to go down. Dasos had already begun to bow in an Aelfen manner, but Zoey read the situation and bowed the same as her girlfriend did.

“As I understand it,” said the older Ginserei, “neither of you need bow to me. Not in this manner. Rise, my new friends. Tong-Chang II, head of High House Leezu, welcome home.”

Tong-Chang and Zoey arose as the former said, “Thank you, Your Holiness. I know not for what we owe this honor.”

“As formal as your father was when I was crowned emperor of Heudee, and that man was my childhood friend. Pah! Enough of this. Will you introduce me to this lovely young woman in your life?”

“I can.”

Ahead, the procession walked in pairs past the dividing, metallic rail inside the entryway. A few pairs held hands, and more did not. Among the pairs that did not hold hands was Shungdi, whose smile and gaze fell on Dasos.

“Dasos,” said Zoey, “could you give her this for me, please?”

She held out the container in her hands and let him take it. She then took a few steps toward Tong-Chang, who led the emperor to her. He gave her an approving nod before the next person could speak.

Tong-Chang said, “Your Majesty Gao-Xing, this is Zoi’ne Thalassas, the love of my life. Zoey, this is Emperor Gao-Xing III, honored ruler of this land.”

“How do you do, sir?” said Zoey.

“I am well, despite what the laeknar says about my back, young Lady of Earth,” said Gao-Xing. “This here is my wife, Yin-Ann. Let the four of us walk together if you do not mind.”

“After the amount of sitting we have done for the past few days, sir, I would be most gracious to accept.”

“You will need to cut the formalities with me, too, at least while no one else is around. We are all family here so speak to me as you would a colleague of yours, or a friend from school. Come, there is a dear friend I’d meant to say hello to before people guided me to the door. Was your ride here pleasant at least?”

Both Zoey and Tong-Chang affirmed as much during their walk. They returned to the structure that was akin to the emblem. There was more depth going front to back at the top, and the top of the structure was held aloft by four crystalline poles. Etched within the front of the central, round wedge were characters in an older style of writing that predated the alliance by millennia.

Elysium to Zoey, you can geek out about this later.

Between the group and this structure was a pedestal with what Zoey presumed to be one of several protected copies of a tome, shielded from the elements.

“Here lies the rulers of High House Leezu,” said the emperor. “Rather, here we honor the heads and their most beloved companions in life. As you well know, it has been man of the house and his wife throughout the ages, with three exceptions. You may find more in this book and its archived copies, such as the deeds they had all been renowned for during their lives.” He bowed at the hips, his hands together. “My friend from childhood was the passionate sort. He gave every challenge a stiff lip and hard stare, which translated poorly to half of his children, but he loved them regardless. I hope your soul finds respite, old friend.”

“I wish we could have done more,” said Tong-Chang. “I hate how he’d treated me as a child, but he deserved better. He meant better, I realized too late.”

“Such is the pity with life. Some fools poison us one way or another to serve their own ends. You and your sister did well to give him the hints and warnings he needed to find the truth in his fate, and we were able to eliminate the poisoner pretending to be a bringer of life and medicine. A shame that such a man had served your family for a generation, but a blessing that we were able to buy my old friend more time. When he met his final throws seven months ago, we all knew it to be his end. He was at peace when it had come. The last that we had spoken he told me the planet above could crush him for an age and he would know peace because the girl he failed most had forgiven him. For that I thank you, Tong-Chang.”

“This family deserves more than I, alone, can give it. I will be away for college for one more semester. My girlfriend will be off studying as well so I’ll be there to give my support. I will need all of the help I can get to keep our businesses and faith in the balance.”

“For some of us that is another day. You have siblings willing to extend their aid when you need it. That is more than your father and I had at the beginning. I have no doubt that you will do fine. One day you, too, will be commemorated here, along with Zoi’ne perhaps. For the man or woman who follows, it will again be another day.” The idea of being a part of history sunk into Zoey’s mind when the emperor said this. “Now then, Zoi’ne, while we continue our walk, I understand you are a lover of studying the past. Would you have any tales from Earth you would like to share with me?”

“I might, Gao-Xing.”

***

Shungdi approached Dasos, more bashful than he had seen her before. He took her hand and kissed it, unsure how far she was willing to go in public. No, they weren’t in public, but in front of her royal family. That made it more uncertain.

“Zoey brought you this,” he said, handing her the container.

She looked inside and found a pair of cupcakes. Each one of them was a carrot cake, made from a card full of strange markings. Dasos had recognized a few lyurunics from what he had seen, but was in awe as his little sister read it all as easily as she did the writing that Dasos had taken for granted.

“She really did it, didn’t she?” said Shungdi.

“Yes, she did,” said Dasos. “Every Aelf has been reluctant to try it at first, and every Ginserei who has experienced it so far seems to love it.”

“I’ll try one if you do.”

“Very well, you have a deal.” They each took a cupcake. “It’s about time I tried one of these anyhow.”

Shungdi bit into hers and hummed with delight. Dasos still wasn’t convinced. He braced himself for having to live a lie to make his little sister happy, and then put the top of the cupcake into his mouth. Never mind, that wasn’t some simple language he saw on the index card. It was some sort of witchcraft, and he was under this cake’s spell.

Giggling, Shungdi said, “You should see the look on your face.”

He swallowed the first bite and said, “How is this madness possible?”

“A better question is how none of our worlds had ever done something like this before. You could market this, but protect the recipe.”

“Don’t worry, the only copy of it that I know about is in Earth writing. Knowing Zoey she will sell a bunch of these things to try and pay for Il’lyse’s damages. She keeps looking out for her.”

“How is Il’lyse holding up? I’ve been meaning to visit her at some point.”

“She has a therapist meeting today. Mom and Dad are escorting the two of them somewhere that Il’lyse needs to see, wherever that is. I think she is recovering from the cracks in her memories, and finding some forgiveness along the way. We all want to do more for her, but we know it’s also her fight to become whole again.”

Dasos finished his cupcake before Shungdi was done with hers. They walked together, during which time he noticed that some sort of cloth had been clipped to the inside of the ribbon that was wrapped around Shungdi’s waist and tied in the back. The cloth that had been pinned to the ribbon was peach in color and didn’t match the fabrics around the rest of her gown.

“Are you seeing something you like?” said Shungdi with a playful tone.

“I’m curious about this cloth here is all,” Dasos said.

“Oh, that. It’s something I had found in my mother’s dresser when I was helping her clean her room. She’s doing better now, but she told me that this cloth will bring her too many memories if it were to stay in her room; memories of Father. I never knew he had such a romantic side.”

“A romantic side?”

“We have an old tradition not often practiced anymore. Let’s . . . not worry about that now. I was surprised to hear about what he used to be like when he was my age. My father would sneak out of school to visit girls at night, and read them anything that he had heard they enjoyed. Most went with it once or twice with simple poems or short stories. Then he met my mother and overheard her talking about her tastes. He read whole novels to her, erotic ones, until she couldn’t take his teasing any longer. Or she thought that it was teasing. She confronted him about it, and he proposed to her using the old Ginserei tradition. Mother said yes.”

“I envy him. I admire the dedication. I’d have loved to know the man better and get his advice on long-distance relationships.”

“Don’t count yourself out, lover. You’ve been getting better at it over the last nine months. If I wasn’t busy with law school, helping Mother cope with her loss, or preparing to help Tong-Chang head this family of ours, then I would be there for your game nights. I would be there for you at night after both the best of days and the worst of them. If you weren’t trying and doing as well as you were, well, then I might not be showing you this cloth right now.”

The peach cloth was transparent and soft to the touch when Shundgi dropped it over their arms – his right and her left. He pinched at it with his left hand and stepped closer to her.

“If you weren’t worth every effort I wouldn’t try,” he said. Then Dasos flipped one end of the length of peach silk, bringing it over their arms a second time.

“What? Wait,” said Shungdi.

“Yes, darling?”

“Do you know what you’re doing with that gesture? Here? In front of my family like this?”

Half of the adult Ginserei present were looking their way. The children were still off playing their games. Dasos knew this, and he pulled in Shungdi by the waist. He kissed her.

Somewhere, unseen, the children sang their tune again.

“I might know a thing or two about Ginserei customs,” he said.

She said, “Dasos, lover! If you’re not careful you can break a girl’s heart, or cause another incident.”

“If I’m too careful then I’ll never see you again. Ever since my sisters were on Earth while we looked for them I thought about how far love could go, or should go. For you I would risk the universe.”

“Stop that. Now it sounds like you are reading those novels to me.”

“Shungdi, I am serious, and I want this to be a promise between us that we will keep going until the stars beyond that planet of yours can no longer shine on either of us. Someday I will want a family of my own to raise, and I can think of no one better to do that with. You are beautiful, you are brilliant, and there’s no one else I’d want to wake me up at two in the morning with a counter-argument, because I love you.”

“Damn it, Das’ithrios. If I say yes then will you promise to cause the best kind of incidents?”

“I’ll do better than that.”

“There’s no such thing as better than the best.”

He kissed her, letting every single Ginserei see how passionate he was about her. She flipped the second side of the silk length over their arms. When he saw this, Dasos also saw her eyes. They were like windows holding back the rainstorms of early spring, and there was life there, poised to flourish if he gave it more care. He intended to give this life what it needed, because he felt like he needed it as much as she did.

“Congratulations, beloved,” Shungdi said. “You are now engaged to a princess. Now what are you going to do?”

***

The ride from Elysium IX to their destination had been given a mere estimate of three hours and five minutes. Il’lyse sat in a shuttle with her parents and the therapist, who was a Metouka. Bon’sinne and Keft’aerak had pulled a few strings to help Il’lyse earn her flight permit despite her criminal record, as diminished as it had been by the pardon. However, she was not the pilot this time, and she deduced from the math alone that they were going as far as the seventh planet of the stellar system.

They had told her where they wanted to go, of course, but she ran the numbers through her head to be sure this trip was real. The shuttle landed inside of the dome on Dereskoo. Its passengers disembarked from the interplanetary craft once Il’lyse told her parents and therapist that she was ready. Shadows of the cult flashed in her mind while she advanced through the garden.

“Someone has been tending to it all,” she said.

“That would be my parents,” said Bon’sinne. “Since he retired from the military the day before the Hulda’fi conflict my father needed a new project, and he refused the life of politics. I had told him that this place needs care until it’s been decided what to do with it, and he volunteered to come here every so often to keep it alive as long as it needs to be. Mother keeps asking him to ask for compensation for this project. Never we mind that captains receive benefits and pay for a decade after retirement.”

“If it were up to me I’d say keep the garden and burn the house. Build something new in its place. Maybe block off that secret garage behind the main bunker if nobody’s done that yet.”

“Once you sign for it, perhaps it will be up to you.”

“Huh?”

Keft’aerak said, “Fe’remene passed away two weeks ago. The government and bodies of military have been trying to keep it quiet from the public in case any of the last Hulda’fi in the shadows decide to lash out. We have been going over her legal will since then.”

“What happened to her?”

“It was a cardiac arrest. Her organ, that none of us dare call a heart, collapsed on itself. The woman had called for a guard and asked him a cryptic question regarding his children. Then she stared defiantly in his face from the moment that her organ gave out. The guard realized something was wrong when her eyes didn’t move at all, when there was no sign of breath, and he moved aside without her moving her head. Her final stare will haunt him for some time. He called for a laeknar, of course, but she had perished.”

“Any more than that will be saying too much for his privacy,” said the therapist.

“Yes, you’re right, laeknar. Anyways, Il’lyse, both she and her late husband had left behind a legal will that had last been updated within days before the major conflict. It states that, should anything happen to the both of them, they would leave this entire property to one of three people. One of them had been found to be dead two days after the conflict ended. A second is in prison for life, her rights to wealth or property now forfeit, though her biological brother was allowed to contest this and take the property for himself. Ren’baek showed no interest, and was all too happy to remain at work on his ship. That, and the stars, is his real home.”

Il’lyse nodded and kicked at a stepping stone without much force. She said, “Do you need my help finding the third one, given my history with the Kroke Team?”

The others looked at one another, and two of them cleared their throats. Il’lyse suddenly didn’t like where this was going. Bon’sinne said, “They’ve listed you by your Hulda’fi name. As I said, if you sign for it then this garden, the dome, the ten kilometer radius of land outside, and everything in it is yours.”

“They tried to kill me. They tried to initiate Zoey. Why would they do this?”

“We do not know, dear. I wish I did.”

“I can understand when Uncle Aren’oro had offered me a place to work if no one else would take me once I’m out of that clinic. I can understand the both of you offering me my bedroom back until I’m on my feet again. But this? Cold, infinite beyond. Now I really will have to do something about this damned house.”

“Is it so bad?” asked the therapist, stepping forward. “It looks nice.”

“It’s full of too many bad memories. I haven’t told any of you this yet, but I am remembering more of my time being brainwashed, initiated. There was a time, Dad, when you’d come to visit here for coffee and biscuits, after I was believed to have died. You didn’t see or hear any of us. But I saw and heard you over a camera. I heard the Fjorfolias trying to console you over the loss of your daughter when she was on the other side of the house in a mindless fugue of anger and pleasure.”

“That’s horrible.”

Keft’aerak said, “I wish I had known. I would have come to save you.”

“That’s why this manor can’t stay here,” Il’lyse said. “This symbol of wanton lust and deceit is a bigger burden to everyone than any of us truly know. We can rebrand it or hand it off to anyone, but in this case it’s not a simple thing or object. How dare they give it to me after all that’s happened?”

Her parents hugged her tight. She needed it.

This place was hers. It was the whole world she had wanted, long ago, but this land on Dereskoo was hers. She needed a plan as to what to do with the whole thing. Why did she want the world, and what would she have done with that?

Perfection came, spreading a smile on her face while her parents held her in the opening courtyard. She knew exactly what to do with this place.

“How is Doctor Rakendaya these days?” she asked, her tone happier.

Everyone there gave Il’lyse a sideways glance.

A week later she’d come back with her therapist. She adjusted the maroon cloak that was now hers. She had always wanted this one, at least. Il’lyse fitted a visor over her head and took one more look behind her where the Metouka woman stood. Next to her was Valkoi’ves, whose arm had healed since the conflict. The man smiled and gave her a thumb up with one hand before pressing something on the computer held by his other one.

She pulled down the visor while the music started. Her view changed to that of a giant robot. Il’lyse flexed her fingers to test the sensors on them, and the robot moved. Then she danced to the music, letting the robot wreck the building in the middle of her garden. The machine was stronger than the brick and plaster. Every last wall that went down at her command brought her closer to opening a resort, but there was more.

One day there would be customers staying here and enjoying the amenities. The Peacekeepers’ lieutenant from the Hulda’fi conflict would get to enjoy his sleigh rides, along with many other patrons who want them. Most of Il’lyse’s share of profits would go to paying off more of her damages than the court had asked her to try for the sake of her provisional pardon. One day her boyfriend, her brother and sister, and their future wives, would come to visit, and she would refuse their payment for staying for a week or more. One day she would be the one to offer them a place to call haven.

Not today. Today she broke down the walls that had scarred her. The therapist and doctor of technology, who stood next to the bunker entrance to be safe, might have thought that she was beyond the reach of any psychological help, but this was her life now. It was her slice of Elysium.

For the first time in over three revolutions Il’lyse shined.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Epilogue