Jacob stared at his Telly for a long time in the darkness aboard Praiseworthy. He was resting in bed on his way to a campaign event in a distant region of the galaxy. He had watched enough ANN that he was growing used to being whisked in and out of news stories, but after listening to two commentators yell at each other for fifteen minutes about whether Mick Cracken was going to receive 90 percent of the vote or 95 percent, he’d had enough and shouted, “Off!”
He knew his campaign was foundering and that he should probably call it off and admit defeat. The Astrals were hostile to Earthers, and as much as he tried to assure them they were wrong about Earth, he couldn’t convince them to vote for him.
But there was some part of him deep down that refused to give up, not when it meant losing to Mick Cracken and not before he had given it everything he had. He still had Catalina, and even if she had her own agenda, at least she knew the Astrals and what they wanted.
Sometimes Jacob even pictured his dad watching him be named president of the universe, and he wondered what his dad would feel in that moment. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted his dad to be proud of him or whether he wanted him to be sad, to be forced to admit that he had been wrong about Jacob and was wrong to have left him behind. He wasn’t sure what being elected president would prove to himself or his dad, but he knew it would mean something. He knew he had to run even if it meant certain defeat.
He stared at the phone. There was still something that wasn’t right.
“Call Sarah Daisy,” he said to the Telly.
The phone rang for a long time. He waited, hoping she would pick up, and then suddenly he was inside another spaceship. He looked around. He was in a bedroom. The walls were all painted black, and there were graffiti paintings on the wall in gold frames. Sarah was sitting on a bed in the middle of the room, holding a lavender Telly and looking over at Jacob wistfully. The bed was also covered in a lavender comforter.
“Mick’s idea of a joke, I think,” she said quietly. “He knows I hate lavender.”
Jacob stared at her. He couldn’t believe that she had actually joined Mick’s campaign and was working against him.
“Who are you talking to?” he heard Mick’s voice say.
Sarah scowled and shouted, “I’m on the Telly, and if you tell Mick about this, I swear I’ll stick a fork straight in your hard drive. Don’t think I won’t do it!”
“Who was that?” Jacob asked. “That was Mick?”
“Mick Jr.,” she said. “Mick programmed his nav system with his own personality.”
Jacob couldn’t help but grin. “You have to deal with two of them?”
Sarah smiled faintly. “You should hear it when they argue with each other.”
Jacob laughed and then stopped and stared at his feet for a moment. They caught each other’s eye and then both looked away.
Sarah stared at the wall. “Why didn’t you go back for Dexter? If you had just gone back for him none of this would have happened.”
“Oh I see,” Jacob said. “Kind of like how you stranded Dexter and me on Numonia last time? You’re one to talk. Every time something happens, you go running off with Mick Cracken.”
Sarah shook her head. “It’s not about Mick,” she said.
“Sure it isn’t.”
Sarah threw aside the covers and stood up. “What about you and Princess Pointyhead?! Every time that alien shows up you go all weak in the knees. You should have seen the look on your face when she walked into the room on Planet Headline.”
“‘Can I call you Cat?’” she said in an exaggerated Jacob Wonderbar impression. “‘No? Princess Cat? Whatever you want, darling! I’ll follow your stupid personality anywhere because you’re so beautiful.’”
Jacob felt the blood rushing between his ears and he thought about saying, “End call” and leaving Mick’s ship, but he stood rooted to his spot. “I have to do this,” he said quietly. “It was hard, but I had to leave Dexter behind and I had to make Catalina my running mate. It was my only shot at winning.”
“Winning,” Sarah said with a sour expression. “I’m going to make sure you lose. So things will go back to how they were.”
And with that, Jacob knew why she’d run off with Mick. He remembered their conversation on the curb before they blasted off to space, how worried she was about him winning and everything changing and never being able to see each other. Sarah just wanted to go back to Earth so everything would go back to normal. A part of him even understood where she was coming from.
He stepped closer and reached for her, but his hand passed straight through hers. They weren’t there in the same room, it was all an illusion created by the Tellys. They were billions of miles apart, on different ships, sailing through different parts of the galaxy on separate campaigns.
“Come back,” Jacob said.
“I’m sorry, Jake,” she said quietly. “I can’t.”
Jacob glared at her for a moment and said, “End call.”