Kartega
Chapter 17

A wild scream sat just below Sid’s ribs and she tried her best not to let it escape. She had spent an hour dragging Ashlan from room to room — under the guise of fixing his blade — in an attempt to locate a spare valve for her ship. How was it possible that there was not one pathetic little valve in all of Neostar? The Citizens must have ships and means of transportation other than the pods she’d seen thus far. She simply needed to find them and take what she required without being caught. Sid felt hopeless, lost and entirely defeated. What was the plan now? She couldn’t very well stay on the star and continue lying to everyone. Sooner or later, someone was bound to catch on and what would happen then? If she was lucky, she’d be detained, chipped and thrown into the domes. She didn’t want to think about what would happen to her if she wasn’t lucky. Sitting on the floor of the blade charging docks, surrounded by an endless amount of weaponry, she tried hard not to imagine what the new general would do to a liar like her.

“So now what? You can’t fix it?” Ashlan whined.

He’d been so quiet that she almost forgot he was there. Sid crouched and turned to look at him, taken aback by how tall he looked from her low vantage point. His shoulders broader somehow and the bulge in his biceps intensified with each squeeze he gave to his broken blade as he slammed the pieces together.

“No, I can fix it,” she sighed.

“What was the treasure hunt about then?” His blue eyes narrowed.

“I was just,” she tried to think of a convincing lie, “looking for something to maybe make it better. Give it more kick, you know?”

Ashlan let out a bolstering laugh, his eyes still teary when he looked at her. “You thought,” he said breathlessly, “you thought that you could do better than all the scientists here?”

“First of all, that is incredibly rude and for all you know I can do better. Second of all,” she crossed her arms, “you might want to reconsider insulting someone that is trying to help you.”

“You’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry. It’s been a long night,” he knelt beside her and she turned away defiantly, “what do you say we get out of here? Get some food and call it a night? You can fix the blade tomorrow, right?”

She thought about it for a moment before nodding and following him out of the room. It might be good for her to get her mind off things anyhow.

* * *

“So let me get this straight,” Sid laughed, her mouth full of bean dumplings, “you actually kicked the general in front of everyone?”

“Not everyone. Just the queen, and the Magistras, and most of her guard. What can I say? I was a handful as a child.” Ashlan smiled as if to imply he wasn’t sorry about it at all.

“And what did he do?”

“He just kind of stared for a moment. Like he couldn’t believe I’d actually do that. Then he laughed and sent me home. Said mom would deal with me.”

His face scrunched at the memory and though Sid knew better, she still couldn’t help but ask. “She’s not around anymore, is she?”

“My mom? No, not for years.”

“What happened to her?”

“Amperfuge. When I was still young.”

Sid thought about the horror he must have endured as a child watching the disease take his mother. The worst part about the illness was the slow speed with which it attacked. Once exposed to enough of the star’s magic, the human heart didn’t give out immediately. The disease attacked the eyes first, then moved to the muscle tissue, and only after the person was unable to move or see, a process that could take years to complete, did it shut the lungs down. For all the years that Colton’s people worked with the star’s magic, no one had ever been able to reverse the effects or find a cure. It was as if the disease was targeting them. Sid sometimes wondered if the Al’iil created the illness just to punish Colton’s people but she knew that was a foolish thought. In the end, there was no explaining magic.

“I’m sorry,” she finally said. “That must have been awful. It’s horrible what all that electricity can do to your people.”

Ashlan raised an eyebrow, “Not just mine.”

“What do you mean?”

“The chips? The ring?” He gestured, waiting for her to clue in.

“Yes, I know. But it’s not like it can hurt us.”

“Unless you don’t check in at Starise and Starset. Then,” he shook his hands like he had been electrocuted, “zaaaaaapppp!”

Sid shrank back in her seat. Starise and Starset? What was he talking about? She tried to remember anything from her lessons or vague conversations with Colton but nothing came to mind. “Zap?”

“I’m sorry. That was insensitive. The entire concept of the check-ins is barbaric if you ask me. To have to come back to your own domes before the ring makes a pass or you get electrocuted? It’s disgusting!”

There was darkness everywhere. Sid couldn’t focus on his face no matter how hard she tried. All she saw was tears and dark. This couldn’t be right. He couldn’t be right. Colton’s people, they weren’t monsters. They didn’t force people to stay in the domes like caged beasts! They couldn’t! And they wouldn’t kill any of the workers, not in that horrible way. Not by turning their own magic against them! None of this made sense. Neostar was at peace. It had to be. It just had to be!

“But-” she stumbled on her words, “but Queen Leona-”

“You’re right. I guess we do have her to thank for all of it,” he rolled his eyes and stuffed a piece of boiled frigger leg in his mouth. “Again, sorry. I get really worked up about this stuff.”

Sid fisted her hands and relaxed them again, willing the tears away. She couldn’t let him see her cry. Not over this. Not over something that was supposed to be common knowledge. Is this why the Domers rebelled? She wouldn’t blame them if it was. Could the queen really be capable of such cruelty? Sid had too many questions and no opportunities to ask them. Colton should have told her about this instead of protecting her like she was some foolish child. Why had he kept so much from her? How did keeping her in the dark help? It certainly didn’t help her. She bet he thought that hiding the ugly truth was going to make her hate him and his people. Little did he know, the only thing she hated at that moment was how foolish he made her feel.

Taking small, weak bites of her food she tried to will herself to relax. Maybe Ashlan’s wrong, maybe he’s just confused.

“Can we talk about something else, please? I feel like I’m making you upset.”

You think?

“No, it’s fine. I’m just not used to talking about this with a Starblade,” she said, finally not lying. “We can talk about whatever-”

“Well, lucky me, Ash!” Abbot barged in behind them and smacked Ashlan on the back hard enough to knock the food out of his mouth. “Twice in one night!”

Sid used the distraction to wipe the tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her suit and fixed an assured glare in Abbot’s direction. His fiery stare never left hers, even as Ashlan spoke.

“Abbot! Nice surprise! What are you doing out this late?”

“You know the drill, son. The queen’s business never rests.” Abbot answered, his gaze traveling between her and the droid at her side. He looked like he was about to ask her about it, but instead pursed his lips and straightened his shoulders, his hand casually grazing the powered-down blade at his side.

Sid made a mental note of the familiarity between the two. Abbot had been brave enough to refer to Ashlan as ‘son’, and so soon after his real father’s death. She watched them attentively, studying their interaction with each other. How comfortable it felt, how accustomed. Ashlan must have known this man his entire life and she wondered how he felt to see Abbot wearing his father’s title. Colton’s title. Her Colton.

“Anything I should be worried about?” Ashlan asked.

“Not at the moment. You stay here. Enjoy your date!” He winked but she could swear she heard a growl when he glanced in her direction.

Red coated Ashlan’s skin all the way past his collar. “It’s not a date!” He protested, a little too eagerly. Sid wanted to defend herself but decided it was best to stay quiet and under the radar. She shoved an oversized dumpling into her mouth and chewed loudly. Good, this will keep her mouth shut for a while.

“Whatever you say, son,” Abbot laughed. “Well, I’ll let you get to it. I’ve got an early morning so I should get to bed before Silva sends a search party.”

He turned to walk out, pausing to squint in Sid’s direction. “Goodnight, Domer girl,” He mused with poison on his tongue.

“Goodnight,” she growled under her breath and threw half of an uneaten dumpling back onto her plate. “I should probably go too. It’s pretty late.”

“Do you have a place to stay tonight?”

“Of course!” She lied, “They set me up with a bed near the labs. I’ll be fine. We’ll be fine, that is.” She knocked on the metal arm of the droid.

“Are you sure?”

“Am I sure about having a bed? Yes, I’m sure. What? You think I’m going to be sleeping on the floor of some corridor? Stardaughter! We’ve definitely spent too much time together as it is.” She gestured for the droid and shoving a final piece of dumpling in her mouth, turned to leave. “Thank you for the dinner, really. And I’ll see you back in Professor Cevil’s lab in the morning.”

She could hear Ashlan grumble something which she assumed were complaints about her leaving but didn’t bother turning back. She wanted to make her way back to the professor’s lab before he could see her sneak in there for the night and wonder why she was lying about having a place to stay. As she made her way down the glass stairwell, she stared at the deep dark beyond, a dark that seemed to swallow the star whole. The type of dark that made hearts stop beating.

The droid’s loud footsteps scraped against the stairs, pulling her thoughts back. At least she didn’t have to face it on her own.

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