Maria, to her surprise, was allowed to wander the station at will. As she went about, she met crowhoppers, all of whom treated her with deference. Some even bowed to her. When Maria found a porthole on the lower ring where she could see the moon, Truvia walked up and stood beside her. “What are you thinking about?” she asked.
“I was wondering how the horde got here.”
“Two robotic fusers, both equipped with catch baskets for the smaller asteroids. Maneuvering rockets were attached to the big ones and propelled them here. Your father, appointed by your grandfather, supervised the building of this station and the stocking of the horde. To do both, he used Umlap labor and captured warpods.”
“So after he’d finished his assignment, Junior realized he could use it for his own purposes.”
“Yes, after Carus and I talked to him when he made a trip to Earth.”
“How did you get to him?”
Truvia smiled. “We didn’t have to. He was looking for us, not to talk but to kill us. The Colonel, you see, sent teams to Earth to destroy the Legion. Your father was on a team that captured Carus and me. After we were tortured, Junior questioned us. Gradually, he came to trust us and told us about the horde at L5. That was when I explained to him how he might use it for his own ends.”
Maria looked at the Trainer. “What’s your relationship with my father?”
“To be perfectly honest, I think we will be married someday.”
Maria smiled. “Sure you will. I can just see him waltzing in to a Medaris family party with you on his arm! There might be some heart attacks.”
“You can be cruel,” she said.
Maria gave a short laugh. “You ordered a demon to crush my foot and break my fingers. That’s cruel. I’m just giving you some straight girl talk.”
“I fixed your foot and your fingers.”
“How did you do that, anyway?”
Truvia brightened. “Would you like to see?”
Maria’s curiosity overcame her dislike of Truvia. “Of course.”
Truvia beckoned Maria to follow her and led the way into the inner core and down to the lowest tube. In a cabin that had only a little gravity, Maria beheld a bank of puters and a long, doughnut-shaped tube with bundles of cables wrapped around it. Beside it was another machine, this one looking like a steel coffin. Truvia pointed at the tube. “We call it the Variable Cell Analyzer, or VCA. For best results, we have in our database all of the cell structures of the patient at their chosen age. In other words, if you were twenty-five and always wanted to be that age, you’d subject yourself to the VCA and then a record would be made.
She pointed at the coffin-like box. “After you got older and wanted to be twenty-five again, you would enter this three dimensional cellular printer—we call it a 3DCP—that essentially removes cells that are different from your optimal. For instance, fat cells around your midriff. It also modifies other cells to make an exact duplicate.”
“Are you telling me these machines are a fountain of youth?”
“I suppose so. It’s an unscientific name, but for the lack of a better term, that might work. For instance, how old do you think I am?”
Maria appraised her, then said, “Your early thirties.”
Truvia smiled. “I’m seventy. Your father doesn’t know that. Don’t tell him!”
“So before you crushed my foot, you stuck it in the VCA and made a reading?”
“Actually, all of you from head to toe. We put your crushed foot in the 3DCP and it fixed everything back the way it was.”
Maria studied the VCA and the 3DCP. “Look, Truvia, you’ve got your faults, mass murder being one of them, but let me give you some advice. You want to be worth about a trillion dollars? Set up shop right here in good old L5. Millions of—shall we say ‘mature’—women will pay to come here and get run through these machines.”
“But we wouldn’t have any of their youthful information in our files,” Truvia pointed out.
Maria shot her a disbelieving look. “I don’t think that’s a problem. Look at that fine, trim waist you have and your, ahem, otherwise fine endowments. Are you trying to tell me those were your original specifications? Come on, Truvia. You based yourself on somebody else, didn’t you?”
“Perhaps,” Truvia said with a secret smile. “Shall I show you another part of our clinic?”
“Why not?”
Truvia led Maria back into the tube and into an adjoining cabin, this one lined with plaston boxes, tubes leading in and out of each of them. Immersed in a clear liquid were what appeared to be embryos in various stages of development. “Our latest design,” Truvia said proudly. “These are Legionnaires, crowhoppers as you call them, who will be smarter, stronger, and able to endure extreme heat and cold even better than our old designs. We’re also experimenting with birthing what appears to be normal humans but with biolastic skins resistant to vacuum. They might also have lungs that are able to produce their own oxygen. It would be an entirely new creature.”
“Are you telling me you’re making moon people who could live in the vacuum without wearing suits and helmets?”
“Don’t you find that exciting?”
Maria felt a bit dizzy. The incubator room stunk of a variety of harsh chemicals, but it was the incredible possibilities of the creatures in the vats that was making her woozy. “Better get some fresh air,” she said.
Back in the ring, Maria leaned against the wall and tried to breathe away the noxious fumes and the dread she felt. “What’s the overall plan here?” she asked. “It’s more than the takeover of the Medaris family business. I see that now. I just don’t understand what it is.”
Truvia gazed through the viewport. Both the Earth and the moon were in view. “Were you impressed with the history lesson we gave you on the vileness of the world?”
Maria shuddered but tried to keep her tone light. “Sure. The human race has done some bad things, but . . .”
“What if we could start over?” Truvia’s green eyes seemed to glow with an inner flame. “What if there was a new world where a new kind of people could live and prosper while the old world was cleansed?”
This time Maria couldn’t hide her disgust. “Truvia, you’re creeping me out!”
The Trainer spread her arms expansively as if she were embracing the universe. “Why so? There have been numerous extinctions on Earth. What if there was another one and the people of the moon were prepared to repopulate it? Think about it!”
“I am thinking about it! You’re talking about killing billions of people!”
The Earth was just a sliver on the edge of the viewport in the revolving tube, and then it disappeared, leaving only the moon. Truvia pointed at the gray, cratered planetoid. “There is our new world, Maria. We will populate it with people of our own design and they will worship the founders of this new society as if we were gods. We will create a royal house.”
Truvia turned to Maria and caressed her shoulder before dropping her hand away. “Do you recall what I first told you about Trainers? I said we were born in a petri dish, our genes manipulated to make us extremely intelligent, to have a commanding presence, and yet be subservient. For all our advanced brain power, we live to serve.”
Maria discovered she was trembling in both fear and an unexplained excitement. “Who are you serving now?”
“It could and should be you.”
It was the last thing Maria expected to hear. “Me? In what way would you serve me?”
Truvia’s eyes softened and her lips trembled. “Our King Raleigh and Queen Porella were members of the Medaris family. You are their great-niece.”
Maria’s breath caught in her throat. “Are you talking about my great-uncle Ralph and his wife, Portia? They were killed in a plane crash. That’s what the Colonel told me.”
“He lied. Ralph and Portia Medaris became our royal house. The Colonel set them up to make the Legion.”
Maria’s head was swimming. “My grandfather is responsible for the crowhoppers?”
“Indeed he is.”
“Does Junior know about any of this?”
“No. He thinks all this has been done so he could take over the family business. The wheels are turning, Maria, that could end with you on top. All you have to do is accept our offer to be our queen.”
“What wheels are you talking about?”
“To be precise, a very big asteroid.”
“In L5?”
“Elsewhere.”
“Where is it aimed?”
Truvia seemed to be making up her mind about something, then said, “I will tell you this much. The reason I crushed your foot and broke your fingers and then fixed them is because I wanted you to understand how to rule.” She made a fist. “You must first have a fist of iron.” She opened the fist to show her palm. “While appearing to be benevolent.” She closed her fist again. “And then when your enemies expose themselves, you crush them!”
Maria resisted the urge to call Truvia batscrag crazy to her face. “I’ll try to remember that,” she promised. “Iron fist, benevolence, crush my enemies. Got it. But where did you say that asteroid is aimed?”
As if sensing Maria’s true opinion, Truvia’s expression turned to disappointment. “Your choice is a splendid life as our queen or an ignominious death. And that choice must be made in hours, not days.”
“Fine. I choose to be queen. Now, tell me. Where is that asteroid aimed?”
“Earth, of course,” Truvia replied with a coy smile.
“But they’ll see it! They have to. There are telescopes watching the sky.”
“By the time they see it coming, it will be too late. The Earth is in disarray. It’s the perfect time to make this strike.”
Maria took a moment to put it all together. “Very clever, Truvia. You’ve got everybody focused on the family business, but it’s control of the Earth and the moon that you’re really after.”
“Yes, it’s laughable, really, about the money. Money means nothing to us. Your father thought we brought you here to get the secret family account numbers. The real reason we brought you here was to offer you our loyalty.”
“My father is in the royal line too. Why not make him king?”
“He is unworthy. We have studied you. You are ruthless and you desire power and you are intelligent. Our choice is you.”
Maria thought maybe if she was quick, she could snap Truvia’s neck. She girded herself to try, but before she could move, a crowhopper in full armor arrived. “You are needed on the bridge, Trainer Truvia,” he said, after glancing at Maria.
“I’ll be right along, William,” Truvia replied, then waited until the crowhopper had left before turning to Maria. “Although you said you accepted the crown I offer you, I don’t believe you are fully committed. Give it some proper thought.” She arched an eyebrow, then walked away.
Maria watched through the viewport until the Earth came back into view. She looked at the blue, green, brown, and white planet, the loveliest jewel in the sky, while she absorbed several truths.
• Her grandfather, the Colonel, whom she loved with all of her heart, was responsible for the crowhoppers, the mercenary force that had been sent to the moon and murdered hundreds of innocent people.
• The Medaris family’s secret about the crowhoppers, if exposed, would destroy it.
• Truvia was showing her a way out. It was extreme, desperate, and horrible, but as she said, the “wheels were turning” and nothing could stop it now.
• Either a splendid life or an ignominious death. Those were her choices.
Even though she knew it was wrong, Maria started thinking about what it would feel like and all the things she could do if she was the eternally youthful queen of the moon.
The truth was she rather fancied the idea.