Kartega

Images of Queen Leona flashed beneath Sid’s trembling, closed lids as she tossed and turned on the lab’s floor.

The queen was climbing, her golden skirts flaring behind her, and each step reverberated against the growing mountain under her feet. She tried to reach out, to pull at the gilded chains that trailed over the rock, to stop the queen from going further. Something was wrong. Sid couldn’t quite put her finger on it but the fear that paralyzed her was unmistakable. She scrambled, taking large strides to climb but each time her foot landed, it only pushed her further behind. It was as if something was holding her back from reaching Leona.

With quick steps, the queen reached the top of the mountain and turned, her fierce eyes trained on Sid. She gave a soft bow and her lips curled into a smile that was more sinister than welcoming. The tip of her pointed nose lifting as she raised her arms to the side in welcome. Behind her, the ring grew over the horizon. Its yellow glow deepening as it rose until Sid could barely see ahead of her.

She sheltered her eyes with the palm of her hand, squinting to make eye contact with the queen.

It was then that she saw it.

The light of the ring’s energy shone brightly over Leona, the jewels in her raven hair sparkling playfully in the glow. Her smile was fixed and relentless but her gaze drifted down. Sid followed it, her eyes widening in horror as she realized that the mountain was no mountain at all.

Every rock was a Domer skull.

Leona was standing on a pile of corpses. Freshly killed by the ring rising behind her.

* * *

Sid woke up covered in sweat and scrambled around in the dark, blue glow of the lab. For security purposes, none of the labs had windows facing out and it was hard to tell what time of day it was but she estimated it couldn’t have been past Starise. It was simply too quiet in the corridors.

She shook her head and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, glancing quickly to the droid slouched against the wall next to her. Sid knew it was just a dream, a nightmare brought on by the information she’d found out at dinner but even knowing so, she was shaken to her very core. She tried to erase the image of the bodies but it refused to budge. A nightmare permanently etched into her bones.

“Great, Fred. Because that’s just what I need right now,” she sighed and got up, quickly tidying up her makeshift bed of lab coats to avoid suspicion. “How about we figure out another way to get off this star?”

The droid tilted its head and stared blankly at her.

“Well, I don’t know how, Fred!” She exclaimed. “But we can’t just sit here until someone catches us.”

Sid paused to listen to words that didn’t exist.

“Well, of course you’re coming with me!” Her hands shot up in protest, “And I don’t want to hear any more about it!”

Grasping the interface box, she entered a series of codes that propelled the droid to follow her out. With her lack of success in finding a replacement valve, she needed a new plan to escape the increasingly tormenting hold of Neostar. Sure, there wasn’t anything in the mechanical rooms and sure, she hadn’t seen any ships resembling the Arcturus so far. Come to think of it, with the exception of the pods, there were no other means of transportation in all of Neostar. The thought tugged in annoyance in the back of her mind but she brushed it off.

Colton’s people arrived on this star somehow. There had to be ships around. She simply had to find them! And she knew the perfect person to help her with that.

“Come on, Fred! Let’s find Ash and get to work!”

* * *

They walked in silence along the edges of the garden, following the rock laden walkway that curved in and out to mimic the landscape outside. Ashlan was not kidding when he said they had mesmerizing gardens in the city. This place was the size of a small jungle! Sid found it hard to concentrate on anything other than the sounds of animal life playing in the speakers above them and the pure whiffs of oxygen pouring off the leaves of the luscious fronds that spanned the area. She ducked her head under a fallen vine and took the next left at a fork in the walkway.

“Have you ever gone out?” She asked and pointed to the far edge of the jungle beyond the city’s barriers.

“Out where?” Ashlan raised an eyebrow in concern.

“Out there. Past the domes.”

“To the jungle?” The way he emphasized the word made Sid wonder if it was fear she could hear in his voice. “Why would I go there?”

“I don’t know. To see what else is out there. It’s a pretty big star.”

She gestured dramatically to the sprawling landscape of Neostar. From her years spent on the ship, it was nearly impossible to see the detail of Tower City and the domes that lay in a circle around it. Even when she’d tried to piggyback off the ring’s satellite, she could only make out patches of white and grey where the bulging constructs lay before the feed gave out. Down here, everything looked different. The domes were so much larger than she imagined, of course, they had to be to house nearly a thousand workers each. They looked like massive, polished rocks that jutted out of the ground and towered over the landscape. Trees that had been growing for decades took root around the convex walls of the domes and she could even make out vines that whipped around some of the exteriors, reaching almost as high as the windows that encased the top edges. The same vines spread and twirled in every direction, squeezing all their weight over the tubes that connected the domes to the city. She wondered if it was dangerous to have plant life so close to the power supply that delivered the collected energy from the workers but assumed that someone much brighter than her had likely already thought of it.

“A pretty dangerous star too,” Ashlan said.

“Everything is dangerous until you figure it out.”

“Yes, but not everything could kill you.”

“The jungle can’t kill you, Ash. You’re being ridiculous! It’s just a place.” She rolled her eyes and remembered how scared she was when she first entered into the green abyss. “You adapt. Like you did when you first came to Neostar.”

“We didn’t adapt,” he whispered, “we took over. There’s a difference.”

“Either way, everyone is doing great and we’re all alive. So what’s the problem with a little adventure and exploring?”

His nose scrunched in a way she was starting to find endearing, “Not that I expect you to know your history, but we already tried that. And it didn’t work out that great.”

She took offense to his comment. Sid knew her history very well. “Meaning what?”

“Well, I obviously wasn’t around then but my dad used to tell me stories.”

“I like stories. Do you like stories, Fred?” She yelled back to the droid on their tail. “See? He likes stories too!”

“He can’t actually talk to you, Sid.”

“Not the point. Tell your story,” she crossed her arms and huffed.

“Fine, fine. Basically, after the first year of the Circulum System’s operation, the queen’s mother sent some of her guard into the jungle. To scout the surrounding areas and find resources. She knew that the Domers that didn’t agree with her methods of using their energy abandoned the rest and left for the jungle but assumed they would stay away. Keep to themselves, you know?”

“But they didn’t?”

He shook his head. “No, they most definitely didn’t.”

“What happened?”

“No one knows for sure. According to my dad, only one guard returned. Well, barely. I guess they hurt him pretty bad but left him alive long enough to deliver a message.”

Sid’s voice trembled and caught in her throat, “What was the message?”

“That the star didn’t belong to my people and its magic was not for our use. That anyone who dares come after them and any other Domer that defects would suffer the consequences. The guard that came back died soon after he delivered the message but before he did, he said these Domers were something different entirely. Like they had changed somehow. They ripped out their chips and it turned them. Made them more,” he paused, “Al’iil.”

The Al’iil; a word Colton had sworn her not to utter out loud. It was what the native population of Neostar called themselves before the peace treaty between their peoples. She had never associated it with something horrible until just that moment. How could one word mean so much? Change someone so greatly? But it could. One word could do many things. Colton taught her that when he was pronounced ‘dead’.

“But ripping out their chips, that would kill them, right?”

“In theory. But no one had ever tried before, most of the Domers chose to be chipped. To be given the technology my people brought, homes, work — a future. But a prison is still a prison no matter what you call it.”

“Did that guard say anything else? About the jungle people?” She was still too afraid to use the word.

“The Al’iil? Not that I know. Just that they changed. Mutated. Became savage in a way that was violent and cruel. I was still a kid when my dad told me this story but from what I remember, he said the guard came back not really whole.”

“You mean emotionally?”

“No, I mean his arms were missing. They had been sliced clean off his body.”

Sid gasped and raised a hand to cover her mouth to keep from retching. The droid behind them, coded to emulate her every move, slapped himself in the mouth. The sound of metal on metal echoed through the otherwise serene garden and even Ashlan jumped in surprise. She stopped in her tracks and bent over, her hands resting on her thighs to catch a breath. “Your dad told you this? When you were a kid?” She couldn’t imagine Colton telling her stories like that when she was little. It felt so careless and she never knew Colton to be anything but calculated and calm.

“Of course. We all know the history here. Everyone who was born on Neostar knows it. We even cover it in school. I guess they keep it alive as a warning, for us not to go wandering off. And it sure does work! So to answer your original question, no, I haven’t ever gone out. I like my arms just fine, thank you.”

She didn’t understand any of it. Why did the Al’iil become so cruel? Why did the queen’s mother not try to repair the relationship? Why did everyone refer to her as the queen’s mother? Didn’t the woman have a name?

She was still racing through countless questions when a low beeping sound interrupted the nature calls on the speakers.

“What in the name of the star is that?” She yelped and covered her ears.

“Shhh,” Ashlan commanded, “it’s a special announcement from the queen.”

Sid’s eyes widened and she followed his gaze to the three large telescreens projecting in the center of the garden above their heads. There was white noise and the regular snow of the screen as the satellite connected to the feed, before Queen Leona’s perfectly porcelain face appeared. She was even more beautiful enlarged and magnified by three but what struck Sid as most interesting were the gold jewels woven intricately into the dozens of braids that fell down her straight back. They were identical to the ones she had been wearing in her dream last night.

“My loyal Citizens,” the queen said in a serene and haunting voice, “I regret to inform you that recently, the number of incidents of rebellion has increased substantially. While I understand that fear may be building within you, and that fearful minds must talk, I urge you not to give in to the fruitless conversations that may be carrying on in our common areas. You are safe here in the city. You are safe here with me. You are simply, perfectly safe.”

Leona shifted in the camera view slightly and Sid noticed her checking something off screen. Her eyes narrowed and she shook off the distraction and collected herself once more. This time, a smile tugged at the edges of her lips as she spoke. “Earlier this morning, there was yet another act of revolt taken against one of my trusted Starblades in the docking station of dome number nine.” From where she was standing, Sid could hear a low gasp escape Ashlan’s lips, likely worried for one of his friends. “I am pleased to tell you that no one was hurt. The Starblade is safe; aside from a few minor bruises.”

Ashlan’s shoulders relaxed but Sid squeezed every muscle taut. Where was this speech going?

“I am even more pleased to tell you,” Leona continued, “that we have apprehended the Domer responsible for this act and believe they were connected to the revolts in Domes fourteen and eighty-seven earlier this week.”

The camera began to tilt and Sid found herself shifting her weight from foot to foot. Something about this seemed wrong. There was no way that one Domer could be responsible for all of that chaos, at least not from what she’d seen on her telescreen recordings back on the ship. These were organized attacks and whoever planned them had help. Her thoughts landed on the woman’s face she had been attempting to find more information on after the first two attacks. She knew her somehow, from some other life before this one. Could she be who the queen had in custody?

Don’t be her, don’t be her, don’t be her. Sid whispered as the camera swung around and landed on the blurry shape of a very large, very muscular man. She breathed out in relief though why she was relieved for the safety of one particular Domer she’d never met was beyond her.

“This man will pay!” Leona’s voice boomed over the speakers and Sid wondered if the volume had been turned to the maximum. “He will be held responsible for his doings and for endangering all of you! I will not let one bad seed destroy the life we have built here. The life my mother has died to protect.”

A single tear rolled down Leona’s cheek as she continued, “As I speak to you now, my most beloved Citizens, a message is being screened in all the domes, with incentive for anyone who steps forward with information in regard to the accomplices of this terrorist. We will not be broken!” Leona raised a fist in the air, “We will not be derailed! And anyone who tries, will answer to me!”

With that, the telescreen shut off.

Sid stared at the empty space that was once filled with the queen’s magnificent presence in awe while her droid slumped foolishly next to her. If she thought she had questions before, she definitely had more of them now. There was so much she still didn’t understand about the intricate balances between the Domers and Citizens. Her ever-explorative mind wanted to know but the rational part of her, the part vaguely raised by Colton, told her to concentrate on what mattered. She had to find information on the original landing ships of his people. There was time to learn all about Neostar’s politics when she was safe and sound aboard the Arcturus.

“Hey, Ash? Do you know if– “

Another procession of beeps interrupted her, this one higher pitched and coming from Ashlan’s comm device. He raised the device to his eyes and as soon as it recognized his retina, the low mumble of a voice sounded in his earpiece. It was too quiet for Sid to hear but she could make out the words ‘immediately’ and ‘order’.

“What was that about?” She asked.

“The queen wants to see me. Let’s go.”

“I’m sorry, what? Why do you need me?”

“Because you still haven’t fixed my blade and if I show up without it and the stardamned queen notices, I’ll need to explain a few things.”

“But I-”

“I’m not arguing over this. You made a deal. I held up my end but you haven’t held up yours. You don’t strike me as the type of person that would back out of a deal or am I wrong?” He looked at her and she shook her head. “Good, thank you. Now let’s go before she sends guards to come find me. Leona is not exactly the patient type.”

Ashlan reached for her sleeve and tugged her along. Away from the peacefulness of the gardens and the comfort of a conversation with him that felt almost like home. Sid let her eyes meet the fog settling over the jungle on the horizon and smiled, her thoughts rushing to one small detail that she had almost ignored in the chaos. For the first time since she’d met him, Ashlan called her a person instead of a Domer and stars help her, she liked how it sounded. If he could see past her eyes, maybe others could too. Maybe Colton was wrong to protect her. His own son was starting to come around and it gave her some hope. Sid still wanted to get off the star as soon as possible but at least the time she would need to spend here might be worth her while. She could experience life on Neostar instead of reading about. Spend time in the city, take more walks in the gardens; she could dive off the falls if she chose to!

Her lips parted and she smiled so wide that her face started to ache.

I’m going to meet the mucking queen!