Attention: Medical Staff
Subject: Mental Health Alert
Please prepare for an increase in new patients and/or existing patients’ needs in light of recent events regarding the arrival of the Royal Corps to our trust. Group meetings may need to be postponed in favor of individual sessions.
—Dr. Tanner
I had to stop in the kitchen first, real fast, because I couldn’t stand the thought of all my hard work sitting out and going to waste. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but the more I believed there might still be a holiday, the less terrified I was about the RC.
I answered a call I thought was from Milo, but it was actually Cheese and Turkey.
“Why aren’t you here yet? We’re all in comms,” Cheese said.
“I’ll be there soon,” I told them. “Right after I get all this food put away.”
“You’re still in the kitchen?” Turkey asked. “Could you grab us some popcorn?”
I laughed awkwardly. “No promises. Hey, why aren’t we going to the subbasement? My mom said there was an incident, but that’s all I know.”
“Lane!” Cheese yelled. “It’s so bad!”
“Two water reservoirs got damaged,” Turkey said.
“That’s six hundred thousand gallons,” Cheese explained.
“Spilling out all over the shelter,” Turkey finished.
I paused, looking around the freezer as I unloaded, trying to remember if I’d seen the reservoirs in person. “That’s fixable, right? The reservoirs are frozen, so it should all be ice.”
“Would’ve been, yeah. Except the gravdrives got off cycle,” Cheese said gravely.
“Meaning they all got turned on at once,” Turkey clarified. “Didn’t you feel it today? The weight?”
“Anyway, that created a lot of heat,” Cheese continued, “so the whole shelter and our siege storage are flooded, almost two meters deep. And we can’t access any of the supplies until we find a way to reclaim the water.”
“Not to mention those reservoirs are what fed the plumbing. So, like, we’re all going to smell extremely bad.”
“That’s hardly the worst part. The worst part is the RC’s here, and we’re sitting ducks.”
“Oh my god!” I shook my head in disbelief. “What are we going to do? My mom tried to get me to lock myself in our quarters.”
“That’s what most folks are doing,” Turkey said. “But you, grab some popcorn and head down here with us. We’ll fill you in.”
“Wait! Did Han tell you I found the spy? It’s my—it’s Stephan Novak. I caught him stealing water a little while ago. I think the RC might be using his family to pressure him.”
“He’s been a busy boy today,” Cheese said. “But yeah, we know. Han’s coming by later. She’ll deal with him.”
“On my way then.” I took one last sweep through to make sure I hadn’t missed anything, then I raced down to comms.
V and Halle were there with Milo’s whole crowd. A cheer erupted when I got spotted on the ramp, and I tossed a sealed bag of popcorn to Turkey. Everyone was smiling except for V, whose arms were crossed tightly.
She cut me off at the landing and scowled, gold painted nails tapping impatiently. “It’s about time you showed. Halle and I were starting to think you let your parents lock you away for good. I assume you haven’t read our messages.”
“Ha!” It was so close to the truth, it hurt more than the face she made. I covered with something else almost true. “Yeah, no,” I said. “Stephan’s the spy!”
“Han told us. She’s got him under watch for now, so he won’t get away with any more sabotage. And you’re terrified and simmering toward a meltdown.”
I lost my cool. My face certainly must have, because her chin dimpled and that quiver of her lips happened, things I wouldn’t have noticed if I weren’t hoping for them. If I weren’t wearing the same. It was like rocks blocked my lungs from taking a full breath. “Can we skip the part where we’re mad at each other for no reason? Just today?”
“What I mean is that I’m scared too. Halle and Milo and their crew are acting like it’s a series finale night, so I’m glad you’re here. I wanted you here.” V rolled her shoulders and took my hand.
“It’s starting!” Halle called. “Come on!”
The back wall lit, not quite like Andrek’s projector did, but with an array of pictures—no, videos. Six of them, surveilling various places in the trust, including the second and third domes, affectionately labeled “The Orchard” and “Shipssssss.”
“What’s going on?” I asked V, not whispering but feeling like I ought to be. “What is all this?”
She frowned hard at the screens. “Plan F? Or maybe it should be Plan H for horrid?”
“What were C through E?”
“Wait for allies, hunker down, or feign surrender,” she said. “I suppose this could technically be E, with an asterisk.”
“What’s the asterisk for?” I pressed.
“We’re about to watch it.”
Turkey dashed in front of the wall, arms outstretched, casting a tall shadow as she bowed. “Ladies and gents, enbies and bents, may I have your attention, please?”
“Freebird!” Cheese yelled and Milo whistled.
Halle burst into applause, and I joined in hesitantly as I fell onto a bean bag. V shot me a look of disapproval.
Turkey laughed then pointed a laser to the video in the far-left corner. “Eleven brave volunteers traverse the tunnel toward the airlock which leads to the hangar bay. They do not all know precisely what they’ve volunteered for, alas, but let’s assume they’re brave in other ways.”
I saw the presidential envoy, clad in thick white space suits. Andrek was sandwiched between my dad and Joule, guessing by their gaits.
“Next we have the RC delegation in red and black space gear, led by none other than Brand Masters, the Big Bad himself, who exits his armored yacht to greet our intrepid heroes. Let’s count his minions, shall we?” Turkey moved the laser point to one soldier at a time. “One, two, three, four. Okay, fuck that, I think there are well over a hundred. So much for a peaceful negotiation, this is a pageant of menace. Why so many to walk down a ramp? Some could’ve been tidying up or brewing coffee or something.”
“The two groups are going to meet in the hangar, then they think they’ll be boarding the RC ship,” V whispered. “That’s not what’s going to happen though.”
V’s hand tightened in mine, and my breath hitched as we stared. Halle jittered on the other side of V, enough to cause her seat to make soft poofing noises like the world’s fluffiest drum. We watched as our tiny delegation approached Brand’s forces.
Turkey shifted the pointer to the lower row of videos, skipping the last one on the top where I assumed the first two met. I recognized the other two domes’ interiors, and an exterior camera somehow captured both from above. It was easy to tell the two apart, because the shipyard dome was open, like a wedge plucked out of an orange. They’d tapped into a satellite for this, I realized.
“What we’re waiting to see here is key. The third act turn, as some might call it,” Turkey explained.
Steak sucked his teeth and spilled a handful of popcorn. “They’d be wrong though, that would’ve been sometime this afternoon during the flooding, this is well into—”
“As I was saying…We are waiting to see—” She circled the orchard dome video with the laser “—nightfall come early. And also,” she repeated the motion around the shipyard’s video, “for the seal to seal, the shuttering to shut. And here it goes…”
The trees in the orchard rose like bleachers then started to rotate out of sight. Opaque metal slid into place where the tree sections had been, locking into a smooth floor. The orchard dome had shuttered tight.
“To protect the plants and the dome itself,” V whispered.
“That’s one,” Milo said, their voice breathy as they spoke into a short-wave radio tablet.
“Charges are set,” answered a man’s voice. “Ready.”
I flinched at the word “charges.” There was no way anyone messaged me details about all this. It would have been too risky. This was all too risky, but the only thing I could do was watch.
The shipyard dome closed unbearably slowly. We might as well have been watching grass grow. I swore I saw stars twinkling over the horizon. My gaze kept flicking up to the top right corner video, willing the president’s envoy to never arrive, to stop and turn back.
Come back, Dad. Andrek. Joule.
What if Brand takes you aboard and you’re gone forever?
Are we a trust without our president?
“Shipyard dome has closed,” Turkey said. “Call it.”
“Brace yourself,” V told me. “This will look worse than it is.”
Milo held the radio close to their mouth. “And two. Bluebird, go.”
“Now the moment comes, and my heart—I almost can’t take it!” Turkey palmed her chest and heaved a sigh. “I hope this goes as planned. Our heroes, here they are now, face to face at last with the corporate king, the spoiler of sustainability, and what will they do? Our valiant president—aw—she extends her hand. And Brand? He is, literally, folks, lifting his wrist to her. Does he think she’ll kiss it? I can’t with this guy.”
Turkey had a momentary tantrum with the laser pointer then cleared her throat. “Wait for it…”
Brand’s soldiers filed near their ship, taking position on either side of the ramp to wait for the others to pass inside.
V had shut her eyes, but Halle’s were as wide as they’d ever been.
“What are the charges for?” I asked at the same moment I got the answer.
What else could they be for? Charges light explosions.
Just like this.
There was no sound.
Not from the videos, and not from the others in the room.
There was only light, white and blinding, popping across the top right first and spreading across both rows. For moments too long, that was all I could see, and I was frozen with fear, with loss, with anger. I screamed. I couldn’t tell anymore; I couldn’t do anything but stare and stare and wait for the light to dim and return my family to me.
Turkey and Milo joined hands with the rest of their department, forming a ring. They started humming something, out of sync and off key.
There was static. It grew over all six videos then resolved screen by screen into something worse than the light.
The shipyard dome appeared to be all right, if singed black.
The underground tunnel, the one our envoy took, however, had collapsed. All the camera showed was rubble and dust.
As the RC’s ship came into view, I ran to the wall, searching for my father, my boyfriends. They couldn’t be gone. That couldn’t have been the plan. The ship itself looked destroyed, the back half of it careening into the black through a gaping hole in the hangar roof. I saw figures floating near the floor, twisted into unnatural poses.
All the bodies I saw wore black and red. I craned my head to search for specks of white, but they were gone.
Gone.
“Where’d they go? Where are they?” I cried and found I was also crying real tears. They rolled off me in rivers and soaked into my shirt. “Where the hell did they go?”
Halle appeared at my side and wrapped her arms around me. “It’s going to be all right.”
“How can you say that? They just—they’re dead!” I tore myself away from her only to find myself wrapped up again, this time by V.
I didn’t want a damn hug. I wanted the dying to stop. I wanted my sister.
“Shh, shh,” V said. “They’ll be fine. They were ready, Lane. Their suits were armored, equipped with gravdrives. Andrek knew what to do. Any minute now we’ll see them. It’s going to be all right.”
“That’s right, folks,” Turkey interjected, sliding in front of the wall. She shooed us out of her way. “The fireworks portion of this show is complete. Any second now we’ll see our wayward warriors, wounded but not wrecked. Ah, here they come!”
I saw figures hobbling into view in the lower left corner. Black and red, white and red. They limped or dragged each other over the slick metal. Some pulled off helmets as they collapsed onto the floor of the orchard dome.
“My, my, my!” Turkey strutted and gestured wildly. “Didn’t we promise you romance? Drama? Foes facing off against uncertain odds? No one can say these players haven’t delivered.”
“See? They made it,” Halle said, though her voice trembled so much it told me she hadn’t been sure they would either.
I spotted Joule and Andrek, holding each other, forehead against forehead. My dad too. He was tending to the president, and his hair was a wreck. One of her aides had her pulled onto their lap, and another was tying something around her thigh.
Trust security officers circled nervously as Brand stalked toward them, hands clasped loosely behind his back. He seemed unscathed.
His eyes found the camera, and he turned to holler at his soldiers.
The unthinkable happened.
More unthinkable than this whole year, than anything I’d ever imagined.
An RC soldier slung his shouldered weapon forward. Pointed to the ground and barked something at Andrek and Joule.
Joule rose first, offering a hand to Andrek.
Andrek stood on his own, swatting Joule’s arm out of his way. The way he moved—stilted and off-balance—I knew something had happened to his prosthesis. He turned his back on Joule and reached for the soldier who surrendered his weapon.
To my Andrek.
He limped several steps away, approaching the trust security guards as one stepped forward, their long blonde braid hanging from beneath her helmet.
Danny? No, I couldn’t believe it.
But there she was, accepting the weapon from Andrek. She pulled the strap around her neck and looked up, straight at the camera.
Then the rifle was in both her hands, the barrel reflecting in her helmet as she aimed.
The image went black.