The Starlight Fortress Read online

  She turned back to the window, not wanting him to see her gloomy face. The Ragged Wealth! It no longer existed in her country, but she had always felt its presence, somewhere in the world, somewhere in her mind.

  A hundred and eighty years ago when the mother planet was no longer suitable for residence, the majority of mankind, together with some plants and animals, arrived at Planet RA-3, their first station in the new world. Several decades later, a group of Sunpherean environmentalists started an organization called A Second Chance. They blamed their ancestors for polluting the universe. “If we don’t change our way of living, we are just going to destroy one planet after another, like what we did to the old Earth.”

  But later on, as their propositions expanded, the organization was renamed the Ragged Wealth, and began to attract people with more diverse backgrounds, to say the least. Some of them were abstinent, anti-technology, and some anti-government. In the past several decades there had been numerous protests against Sunphere’s industrialization and military recruitment. The long battle between the organization and the government, as well as the royal family, finally ended tragically nineteen years ago. When Geneva’s parents were on their way to a welfare party, their car was held up by a group of protestors. Then one of the organization’s regional leaders, Quincy Sheelon, attempted to kill the king. Geneva’s mother died protecting her father, and Quincy killed himself on the spot. Since then her father had banned the organization, and the major leaders had been ordered to permanently leave the country.

  “I understand how you feel,” Charlie said. “But to be fair, your father didn’t have enough evidence to incriminate them. They denied that the assassination had anything to do with them. It might have been personal spite.”

  “And my father might have been killed long before he found the evidence.”

  “That was possible at his time,” Charlie said patiently. “Now it’s been twenty years, and I think you should reconsider your relationship with them. That’s quite a lot of enemies out there.”

  Geneva pondered his words for a while and nodded. “I’ve just started an investigation. If it does turn out to be a personal affair, I would consider paying them justice.”

  * * *

  They went to a restaurant located inside a harbor. Built over the water, the restaurant was made almost exclusively with glass. Rain started timely after sunset, flowing along the transparent dome before joining the sea below. Every now and then some sea creatures would pop up under the diners’ feet and have a quick peek upwards.

  The unhappy memory aroused by the Ragged Wealth was flushed away by the rain. Finally Geneva could have something other than garden salads for dinner. And how relaxing it was to eat out with a friend, rather than with an unacquainted political leader or a distinguished scientist or a military family! Besides, people here didn’t pay much attention to her. Several women at the nearby tables occasionally glanced over, but she knew whom they were looking at.

  “Are you ever tired of the rain?” she asked after she emptied her plate.

  Charlie was only halfway through his entrée. “No. If you grow up here, it’s as natural as the sunset.”

  “And it always stops in the morning?”

  “Usually it does. There were several times in the past when it lasted for more than a day. People freaked out.”

  “Do you have thunderstorms?”

  His hands froze, together with the air around him. His eyes were as placid as the sea on a windless day, impossible for one to tell how many undercurrents were stirring beneath. “Sometimes.”

  The phone inside Geneva’s bag rang. Good timing! She was grateful for the interruption as she took it out.

  “I’m sorry to bother you, boss.” It was one of her personal assistants, Fernando.

  Geneva had a special nanny who had taken care of her for many years before she went to college. Fernando was the nanny’s son and was frequently brought to her palace when they were little. Unlike other kids who always kept a distance from the princess, Fernando was never afraid of fighting her. He stopped coming to the palace when they were older, of course, but their friendship survived all those years. And when Geneva wanted someone she could trust to investigate her parents’ assassination, she immediately thought of him.

  Although occasionally she would wonder whether she had made the right choice.

  “You told me to schedule a meeting with Mr. Coles, boss. I called him, but he said he’s really busy. He has a dentist’s appointment on Monday morning. Then his wife needs to see her gynecologist in the afternoon. And since he’s a good husband—”

  “I have to see him, Fernando. I have to talk to him as soon as possible.”

  “I told him that but … what should I do?”

  She glanced at Charlie briefly and tried to stay patient. “Maybe you could do some reasoning with him, and let him know the consequence of failing to meet me?”

  “Ur, tell him you’ll be disappointed?”

  She said nothing.

  “Angry?”

  “Alright, Fernando, listen. You ask Lieutenant Dephery for a platoon of my guards and bring them with you to Coles’s place. Press a gun on his head if needed. Tell him, if he doesn’t come see me on Monday, he’s not going to see the sunrise on Tuesday. Does that sound like a workable plan?”

  “Yes, I guess so. I’ll go talk to him this afternoon.”

  She was about to hang up.

  “Just to clarify, boss. When you said he may not see the sunrise on Tuesday, you meant we’ll put him in a dungeon?”

  Geneva wished she could punch him in the face, as she used to do when they were kids. “Just repeat my words to him, okay?”

  She put the phone back to her bag and saw Charlie eating his dessert with a refrained smile.

  Whatever! Not the first time she blew a date. She moved her dessert closer and started digging in.

  * * *

  They spent the next day sightseeing on a small yacht. There were rivers everywhere, in every direction, forming a convenient waterborne traffic system for the city.

  “That’s the National Air and Space Museum.” Sitting beside her, Charlie pointed at a modern building complex on the river shore ahead of them. Four spherical structures, each made of a different material, were connected with bridges. The whole rectangular structure symbolized the Renaisun quadruple star system.

  “Shall we go in and take a look?” he asked.

  Geneva smiled broadly at him. Astronomy was her college major and lifelong hobby. Was he always so attentive to his girlfriends? “I’d love to. It looks magnificent.”

  “I think the one you have is more magnificent,” he said. “It has all the old stuff from Earth.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yes, you can almost call it a Museum of History! There hasn’t been anything new for decades because it doesn’t have the space. We need a larger one.”

  That was her wish and would probably remain a wish for a long time. There was no way for her to bring it up to her financial minister, who was already bombarded by excessive military expenses over the years.

  The yacht slowly approached the shore. “How about I build one for you?” he asked in a casual tone, but she could tell he wasn’t joking. And he wasn’t just talking about the museum. She shifted slightly in her seat. The morning was getting hotter. Wasn’t that what she had wanted? What her prime minister had wanted?

  He was different from Anthony. With his talents and family background, he should be able to build her people a stronger realm. Then she could be off the hook immediately and never need to worry about battles or recruitments or promotions for the rest of her life. And in other people’s eyes, they’d make a perfect family.

  But for some reason, she couldn’t make up her mind.

  The yacht jolted mildly as it reached the shore. Along with the moist breeze came Charlie’s suave smile. “Let’s go there and take a look.”

  * * *

  The sun was hanging low in front of them when they
re-boarded his ship and headed for Sunphere, but Geneva knew soon they would catch up with the sun, and the sky in her world would be lit up again. What a great time she had! If this trip became a weekly routine, who knows, maybe she’d indeed fall in love with him.

  “That was quite an experience.” He chuckled, after she told him about the recent adventure. “So you’re the one who first found out about the asteroids. Were you scared?”

  “Not at the time, because things were happening so fast. Now when I think about it, I could’ve been killed by our ally, or even my own people.”

  Neither of them spoke for a while. Then he seemed to have remembered something and moved closer to her on the couch.

  “Speaking of asteroids, I just had a plan last week, a plan intrigued by the enemy’s trick.” He picked up a small keyboard from the coffee table and turned on a screen mounted to the wall straight ahead. The screen showed a map of the current Renaisun-B system, with each of the five planets colored differently.

  “The planet in red is RB-2, where Thyphol’s largest base is located.” He zoomed out the map for a complete picture of the quadruple system. Somewhere in the deserted Renaisun-D a small yellow dot flashed rapidly. “That’s a real asteroid with a diameter of three kilos. Within a few months it will fly past RB-2. The closest distance between the asteroid and the planet will be less than a thousand miles—naturally, if nothing else interrupts them.”

  He typed something on the keyboard, and the image changed. Now the red and yellow dots were almost together. “We could set up a time bomb on the asteroid. And let it go at the right moment when the asteroid is too close for them to do anything, even if they realize what’s going to happen.”

  Geneva gasped, her hand covering her mouth. “Are you saying … Well, it’s a sound plan, Charlie, but you forgot about one thing: there’s a small Thypholian colony on the other side of RB-2. It’s no larger than a tribe, but still there are fifteen thousand people. Nobody would survive if the planet was hit by an asteroid of that size.”

  “I know, but more people have died since the beginning of this war.”

  The indifference of his tone shocked her and left her speechless.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He smiled. “Let’s—”

  “Charlie!” She grabbed his arm. “You can’t do this! You can never achieve the right goal by means of a crime.” He looked away from her. She shook his arm and tried to draw his attention. “How are you going to live through the rest of your life knowing you’ve killed those innocent people? Think about it! Say if … if I were on that planet, would you still do this?”

  He finally turned back, but his gaze was cold. “Yes, I would.” He broke loose from her grasp and walked away. At the moment, there was no virtual image showing in the window. He simply looked at the sky, which was growing brighter with each passing minute. But she had a feeling what he really saw was the dark outer space.

  “I once had a girlfriend. We met in college. Later she joined my squadron as a pilot, one of the best women pilots we ever had. She was killed during the Battle of the RA-5. Her plane was the second in line to take off when a missile flew right into the Winter Sun from the exit ahead of her … Immense fire, I heard …”

  Geneva lowered her head and stared at the carpet. The brown floral patterns were spreading out like dried blood. She knew he didn’t exaggerate. She was actually not far from the carrier at the time it was doomed.

  “She survived for a few days in the hospital, all wrapped in bandages. Couldn’t see me, couldn’t hear anything … She was five-weeks pregnant at the time, but I guess she didn’t know it … We had the largest thunderstorm on the day she left.”

  For a while, silence filled the gap between them—thick and impenetrable.

  “I was sick of the war since that day.” The undercurrents were rising to the surface. “I want it to end. I’ll do anything to have it end, right or wrong.”

  “I’m sick of it too.” Geneva recollected herself and stood up. “That’s why we are all working so hard. But if we kill those people for our peace, what makes us different from our enemy?” She walked to the window and stopped at his side. “Say your plan works, and this war is over, would there be no war and no more conflict in the future? Does the majority always have the right to sacrifice the minority? Who gets to decide, and where do you draw the line?”

  He turned to look at her. Weary and vapid, he was not that charming gentleman she had been admiring. “We are running out of time, Geneva. Soon there’s going to be a big one, before Ribbon Islands could recover from the recent attack. Everything’s under Pompey’s control, as it was always. I’m sorry, Geneva, but this time I won’t listen to you.”

  The ship was descending steadily. They quietly looked at each other until there came the little touch of the ground.

  “Then you’ll find my troops on your way,” she said as she grabbed her bag and left for the exit.

  Chapter 6

  On the following Monday, there was the queen’s biweekly defense council meeting. Regular attendance included the fleet admiral, the Secretary of Defense, major commanders of the Second Fleet, and deputies from the other two fleets that were headquartered outside the capital.

  “Before I forget,” Geneva said after she sat down behind her desk, facing her officers seated in a semicircle, “Sir Lloyd, have you heard from Treagium about when they would be ready to take over the fortress?”

  The Starlight Fortress was jointly built by the five major countries of the Renaisun-A system. The construction began three years ago, after the disastrous Battle of the RA-5, although the idea of a space fortress had long existed. The five countries agreed to take turns to garrison it every four months, and Sunphere took the first term.

  “Yes, ma’am,” said Lloyd, the Secretary of Defense and Geneva’s aunt’s husband. He was a plump man with amicable small eyes and a reddish nose due to year-round allergies. When she was young, she always felt jealous that her cousin, Calvin, had such a loving father. He played with her and Calvin whenever she visited them, baked funny-shaped cookies, and never chided them for eating only the icing and fruits on their cakes.

  “They said it’ll probably be two more weeks. The commander is on sick leave.”

  “Two more weeks? They are already a month late. Fine, we’ll stay there for two more weeks, but please let them know they are responsible for the supplies.” She checked the notes on her laptop. “Sir, you said Treagium sent us a message?”

  “Yes. Their intelligence found out that our enemy is planning on a cross-planet maneuver, called Firework. We don’t know when, but it’s believed to be a major one.”

  Geneva nodded. “I’m glad they shared the information with us. Maybe our own intelligence should work harder?”

  For a while, the air thickened inside the conference room. Then a Message Window popped up on her laptop screen. What’s the matter with you, boss? You’ve been quite mean today.

  She glanced at Sterling quickly and looked back at Lloyd. “Thank you, sir. Please keep me updated.”

  After Lloyd sat down, she checked her list again. “I wanted to talk about this a while ago but kept forgetting … Have we figured out what new technology is used by our enemy’s new model—sorry I don’t know the official name—the one that looks like an elephant?”

  She looked around and only saw puzzled faces.

  “Ma’am.” Wilson leaned forward in his chair. “We have no clue what you are talking about.”

  Now Geneva was also puzzled. “I’m talking about the ship that has a … an elephant’s trunk kind of tube on the front. You know, the mysterious ship that brought down Rainprus’s Winter Sun?”

  “The tragedy was caused by a failure in the carrier’s missile defense system, ma’am. There was no mysterious ship in the Battle of the RA-5.”

  “There was one,” Geneva said. “Because I saw it.”

  Wilson exchanged perplexed looks with Oakley. “Ma’am, you have to tell us the
whole story.”

  Geneva sighed, feeling tired even before she relived her memory. “I was in graduate school at that time. We were supposed to reside at a station near the planet for a week, to collect data for our dissertations. On the fifth day, we learned the battle had begun, and nobody would come to pick us up for home. We were told to remain at the station until it was over. But then, uh, I was curious …” She became hesitant, like a mischievous child being forced to admit her deed. “So I took a pinnace and headed to the nearby battlefield.”

  Somebody inside the audience gasped.

  “I stopped somewhere between our ally and the enemy.” She had to lie here. She was a lot closer to the enemy, in fact. “Initially, the Winter Sun was able to intercept the enemy’s incoming missiles with no problem. Then I saw a strange ship emerging from the back of the enemy. It had this long curved tube at the front. When a missile launched by that tube reached the Winter Sun, it always made a hit.”

  As she was speaking, she thought of Charlie’s girlfriend. When she watched the carrier going down, it was all weapons and metals. She had not tried to picture the people inside until Charlie told her about the tragedy.

  “Then how did you know it wasn’t a problem of the carrier’s defense system?” Oakley asked.

  Geneva gathered herself. “Because when the Elephant occasionally fired at other ships, they couldn’t defend either.”

  Nobody spoke for a long time. Finally Lloyd broke the silence. “Ma’am, I’m glad now we learned the truth. I will contact our ally to see if they know more. Meanwhile …” He paused and looked around. “I think all of us would appreciate it, if you stay on this planet next time there is a battle going on.”

  Geneva smiled with embarrassment. “I’ll try.”

  * * *

  Soon summer came to the country along with a lot of good things—games, picnics, vacations, and long bright days like stretchy lizards being pulled by invisible hands. People either forgot about the ongoing war, or chose to drop it from their conversations, although every now and then they’d pause from what they were doing as that sneaky little “what-if” crept up in their minds.