Page 165 of Star Bringer
I laugh, though, because they remind me that there are nice people in the world who work for the Empire—something it was easy to forget on theStarlight, when nearly all of my traveling companions had been treated so badly by them.
I start to ask them more questions, but before I can think of anything, there’s another knock on my door.
Dominique rushes to open it, and Lieutenant Belinda is standing there. She salutes when I come to the door, touching her finger to her forehead. “I wanted to let you know that we’ve contacted the palace, Your Highness. We’ve been told that there are several shuttles already deployed nearby, as they’ve been looking for you. The closest one has already set course for Espia and will be here before lunch tomorrow.”
Relief sweeps through me at the news. I thank the lieutenant, who offers to show me around the base. I want to say no—I’m emotionally drained and miserable, and the cold weather reminds me of walking through the docks of Rodos with Ian—but I’m not sure sitting in this room on my own will do me any good, either.
So in the end I agree. How long could a tour of Espia take, anyway?
The answer is way more hours than I anticipated, because there is a lot more out here than there looked to be when I first landed. Yes, the base is small, but I didn’t realize that there was so much beyond the mountains.
We drive through a tunnel cut into the base of the mountain, with Lieutenant Belinda explaining to me how the tunnel was made to streamline access to the facilities on the other side.
She adds that Espia was settled a long time ago, when the Corporation had wanted to explore Tybris and Nabroch, the two dead planets in the system.
They’re at the edge of the system, right before the Wilds. Almost none of Serai’s warmth makes it out here—one of the reasons the planets died so long ago. But when we found nothing usable, exploration halted, and nothing’s been out here since.
Or so I was taught.
Now, however, I think that’s not quite the case. Otherwise, why would theReformerhave brought Milla all the way out here, into the Wilds? And why would Ian know how horrible it was and that no one ever comes back?
Something is out there, obviously. Maybe a prison filled with people like Milla and Beckett, who are set to be experimented on? A child camp like the kind Ian grew up in? Something even worse?
It turns out that Espia has none of those things. Just an industrial park much bigger than the base, filled with identical-looking buildings—all painted Corporation black.
My suspicions grow. Something doesn’t feel right about this. What is the Corporation doing with an active presence on Espia? But when I ask for a tour of the facilities, Lieutenant Belinda shakes her head.
“The military is discouraged from interrupting operations over here,” she tells me stiffly, and I can tell it’s a sore spot with her.
I start to ask her why she even brought me over here, and then I realize. It’s because she’s as suspicious of it as I am, and this is her way of letting her leadership know. That little laser gun incident this morning notwithstanding, Lieutenant Belinda is growing on me.
I will be checking up on this after I get home. And if I need to take another shuttle out here in a few months, then that’s what I’ll do. My mother and the Corporation aren’t going to control me anymore.
We’re almost back to the tunnel when I spot someone coming down the side of the mountain. The lieutenant must spot him, too, because she slows our pod down to a crawl.
It’s a large man—taller even than Merrick, I think—and he’s wearing some kind of mechanical device on his right leg, probably to help him climb the mountain. It doesn’t seem so unusual, though, and definitely not the smoking gun I was hoping for. The Corporation is in charge of technology for the entire system, and they’re always researching and developing something new.
Tech to help people negotiate rough terrain seems like a really great project, actually, considering what some of the planets are starting to look like as the sun dies.
Eventually, he disappears from sight and we speed up again. Once we get back to the base, I excuse myself to my room and spend the rest of the day doing exactly what I told myself I wouldn’t do. I wallow in my own misery. On the plus side, the base has a fairly extensive digital library, and after I have dinner with the soldiers, I stop and check out a tablet.
I read until I fall asleep in the middle of the night, and when I wake up, it’s almost time to go. I dress in the uniform they gave me yesterday, then pack my dirty jumpsuit into my backpack. I know I should just get rid of it—I’ve been wearing it so long that I’m sure it’s unsalvageable—but I can’t bring myself to do it. So I just shove it to the bottom of my bag and tell myself I’ll deal with it when I get home.
After having lunch with the soldiers, I walk around and thank each of them individually for their service. Dominique gets overly excited and nearly throws her arms around me—which horrifies her lieutenant but makes me really happy. When I get home, I’m abolishing the no-touching rule anyway.
By then a ship has been spotted beyond our atmosphere, so I walk out beyond the base’s perimeter and wait for my ride. Ten minutes later, the shuttle sets down. It’s a mid-range transport ship with my mother’s insignia of a star-studded diamond on the side. Dread settles in my stomach the second I see it, but I ignore it. I never thought it would be easy going home to Askkandia, but it’s the decision I made. Now I’ve got to own it.
I watch as the engines settle to a low rumble, the external door opens, and the ramp slowly lowers. The moment the ramp is fully extended, a man dressed in the black-and-purple body armor of the Imperial security forces appears at the top. The second I see him, the tension oozes out of me, because he’s not just any Imperial soldier but a personal favorite of mine.
I race for the spaceship as he strides down the ramp toward me. “Arik!” I shout.
“Princess Kali!” Relief floods his face as he realizes that I’m okay. The second I reach him, I hurl myself into his arms, and his eyes widen with alarm.
He catches me, and after the initial shock of me touching him, he allows his arms to wrap around me.
I give myself a few seconds to hold on tight—he smells like home—and then reluctantly release my death grip on his shoulders.
“It’s good to see you, Your Highness,” he tells me once we both step back. “Though I almost didn’t recognize you.”
