Desert Stars (28 page)

“
He left when we got to
the temple,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

“
Left? What do you mean
‘left’? Why did he leave?”

Mira cringed at the harshness of her
mother’s voice. “Because—”

“
Didn’t I tell you not to
come back without him? What about that didn’t you
understand?”

“
I—I did understand,
Mother, and honestly, I—”

“
Heaven save me!” her
mother shrieked, throwing her hands up in the air. “Why was I
cursed with seven daughters and no sons? Disobedient daughters, no
less! Wala!”

Mira swallowed and blushed. She didn’t
know what to say.

“
Look at me,”
Shira
continued, grabbing her forcibly by the chin to
direct her gaze. “Look at your mother. I’m an old woman; not long
now, and I’ll go the way of the Earth. Do you want me to spend the
last few years of my life watching my husband’s inheritance
parceled out to strangers and foreigners? Do you?”

“
No.”

Her mother slapped her across the
face—hard.

“
Then why didn’t you bring
back Jalil as I ordered you to?”

“
I—I tried,” Mira
stuttered, rubbing her cheek. “I did my best, but he—he didn’t want
me.”

Her mother’s eyes narrowed. “That’s a
lie. Of all my daughters, you are the most beautiful. No man could
resist you.”

Guilty memories of her last night with
Jalil flashed across her mind. Her heart had pounded with fear as
much as passion—fear that Jalil would never forgive her. Was that
why she had frozen up at the last moment? In any case, it made
little difference; she was left now to carry all the shame herself.
After what had happened, she didn’t doubt that she deserved
it.

“
Do you have any idea how
important this was?” her mother continued, practically screaming.
“Without a son, Sathi will take another wife—or heaven help us, the
inheritance will go to the Jabaliyn and all of us will
starve!”

“
I’m sorry,” Mira
whispered.

“
Sorry? Is that all you
are?”

Another slap landed hard against her
face, sending her sprawling across the floor.

“
Don’t play games with me,
girl,” her mother hissed. “I won’t stand for it.”

But I’m not
lying!

“
What am I ever going to
do with you? Your disobedience has brought shame upon us all. If
you had come back with him, we could have married you both quickly
and forestalled the worst of it—but no, it had to come to
this.”

But I never slept with
him,
Mira wanted to protest. Instead, she
hung her head and said nothing.

“
If it were up to me, I
would cast you out for dishonoring the family name. Fortunately for
you, your father has a plan to restore at least a fragment of honor
to this family. He’s expecting you in his quarters; I suggest you
see him at once.”

“
My father?” Mira asked.
Her stomach fell through the floor.

“
Yes, your father. Who
else, stupid girl? Now go, before I take you there
myself.”

Mira didn’t wait to be told a second
time. Pulling her headscarf tight to hide her face from her spying
sisters, she hurried out into the blinding sunlight. She could feel
her mother’s unforgiving stare bearing down on her until the door
flap swung shut behind her.

* * * * *

A few moments later, Mira stopped in
front of the tall metal door that led to her father’s private
study. Of all the rooms of the camp, this was one of the few that
she’d never entered. Timidly, she lifted her hand and knocked on
the steel door frame embedded in the adobe wall.

“
Come in,” her father
boomed from the other side.

She hesitated for a moment before
opening the door and stepping through. Her cheeks still stung from
where her mother had struck her, but she did her best to hide
it.

“
Ah, Mira,” her father
said, gesturing to the pile of blankets and cushions next to his
bed. “Please sit.”

Sathi looked imposing in his
immaculate white robes, his red and white checkered headscarf set
on his head with a golden agal. He followed her with his eyes as
she sat down across from him, glancing down at the carpeted floor
to avoid his gaze.

“
I’m sorry, Father,” she
began, heart pounding. “With Jalil, I—”

“
Yes, yes,” he said,
waving his hand. “I’m sorry, too. The entire affair has been a
terrible tragedy for us all.”

Mira nodded silently.

“
I put a great deal of
trust in Jalil,” he continued, his expression grave. “He betrayed
me just as much as you. However, all is not lost; there are ways to
lift the burden of shame from this family and restore a degree of
honor. That is why I’ve arranged for you to meet your cousin
Ibrahim next week.”

“
Ibrahim? Why?”

“
To begin the marriage
negotiations, of course.”

Mira’s stomach dropped out from
underneath her. “That’s—wonderful,” she stuttered. “When does he
arrive?”

“
Any day now,” her father
answered. “Don’t worry, Mira dear—we’ll do our best to clear your
honor.”

He thinks that I’m
pregnant with Jalil’s child,
Mira
realized, her head spinning.
He’s going to
do everything he can to marry me off as quickly as
possible.

That was the last thing she needed
right now.

“
I didn’t sleep with
Jalil,” she said, her voice barely louder than a whisper.
There’s no reason to rush me into this
marriage.

Sathi gave her a sad, fatherly look.
“There is nothing to be afraid of,” he told her. “Your mother and I
will never tell anyone otherwise.”

But I’m telling the
truth.

“
Can’t I—can’t I have some
time?” she asked, sweat forming on her forehead. “Everything’s
happening so fast, I—”

“
Mira, my daughter—think
of the family honor. This shameful affair has blacked our name more
than we can afford to ignore. If we don’t take care of this now,
I’m afraid I’ll have no choice but to cast you out.”

Mira swallowed nervously. To be cast
out—homeless, nameless, forced to wander and beg for her food—that
was the worst fate that could befall anyone in her situation. The
very thought of it made her stomach sink and her knees go
weak.

“
Don’t be afraid, my
girl,” her father continued. “Ibrahim is a perfectly respectable
young man. I have no doubts that he will be a wonderful husband for
you.”

Why didn’t I go with
Jalil?
Mira wondered despairingly to
herself. Faced with the choice between exile and a forced marriage,
she wished now more than ever that she’d left for the stars with
him and never come home.

Like it or not, though, Jalil was
gone—possibly forever.

* * * * *

Jalil followed Lars onto the bridge,
where the others were already waiting for them. The forward window
stretched across the front of the room, while switches and
indicator panels covered the walls from floor to ceiling. As soon
as he stepped in, the doors hissed shut behind him.

“
Here,” said Michelle,
“you can sit in the back.” She unfolded a seat from the rear wall,
next to the door.

“
Right,” he said, settling
in. The seat restraints were nearly as big as the chair itself; it
reminded him of the skytrain at Raya Dome. He almost turned to see
how Mira was doing before remembering that she wasn’t
there.

Mark, Nash, and Lars were already in
their seats, practically surrounded by myriad keypads and monitors.
Out the forward window, the dark silhouette of the planet stood out
against the black void of space. Jalil could barely make out
clusters of city lights. The glass domes obscured most of them,
though, giving the night landscape a dull yellow sheen.

“
All stations report,”
said Mark from his seat in the center of the room.

“
Astrogation is go,” said
Lars from his station immediately to Mark’s right. “Target
destination plotted and set at forty-six-point-seven
LM.”

“
Communication is go,”
said Nash. “The port authority has given us clearance to leave as
scheduled.”

“
Engineering is go,” said
Michelle, her eyes glued to the computer monitor as she settled
into her seat. “Drives charged and ready.”

“
Excellent,” said Mark.
“Prepare for jump.”

As he hit a series of keys on the
controls at his station, a low hum sounded from the back of the
room. The wall behind Jalil began to vibrate.

I’ve been through this
before,
he realized with a start. Memories
rushed back to him, of shaking with terror in a chair not unlike
this one while the whole ship vibrated and roared with energy. He
remembered his mother sitting next to him, holding his hand,
squeezing to make the fear go away.

“
Five seconds and
counting,” said Mark. “four, three…”

What does he mean by
“jump”?
Jalil wondered. The hum jumped
sharply in pitch and volume.

Without warning, his stomach flipped
inside out, and his heart leaped into his mouth. A wave of nausea
struck him like a meteor, and the walls and ceiling shrunk until he
wasn’t sure whether he was looking at the room from the inside out
or the outside in. He gasped for breath as the room swam all around
him.

As suddenly as it had begun, he was
back in the bridge, sitting in his chair. Sweat dripped down his
forehead, and he lifted a weak hand to wipe it away.

What the hell was
that?

Outside the forward window, the
normally black sky was filled with the light of stars—thousands and
thousands of them, brighter even than the night sky in the deep
desert. His eyes grew wide with wonder as he stared at the
sight.

“
Jump complete,” said
Mark, leaning back in his chair. “Nash, try to get a hold of the
port authority at the system node. I want to be in the starlane
before my sleep shift, if possible.”

“
Yes, sir,” said Nash. He
busied himself at his computer.

“
What just happened?”
Jalil asked.

“
We jumped about
forty-five light-minutes from GN-2,” said Michelle. “Once our
energy reserves build up again—probably an hour—we’ll jump to the
system node and enter the starlane.”

“
But—but it was so
strange,” said Jalil, still sweating.

“
Feel a little woozy,
huh?” Lars asked. “Don’t worry—it’s perfectly normal.”

“
We just skipped across
millions of kilometers by creating a dimensional rift in space,”
Michelle explained. “It’s the only possible way to travel between
stars.”

“
You’ll get used to it,”
said Lars.

“
Right,” said
Jalil.
God-willing.

He stared out the window at the
brilliant starfield. The milky band of the galaxy streaked across
his view, with the dim red cloud of the Good Hope Nebula glowing
brightly to the left.

“
Where’s
Karduna?”

“
Out there,” said
Michelle, pointing toward the nebula. “But it’s too far away to
make out from the other stars.”

Jalil stared anyways, hoping to catch
a glimpse of anything familiar. Somewhere out there was his
home—his first home. He clenched his fists and repeated the thought
over and over in his mind. But try as he might, he couldn’t shake
the feeling that he was going away instead of coming
back.

Chapter 14

“
Why so glum?” Amina asked
as she brushed Mira’s hair. “You should be happy—I certainly would
be if I were in your position.”

“
I know,” said Mira,
sighing inwardly.

“
Don’t be so harsh,
Amina,” said Surayya, parting the tent door as she stepped into the
dressing room. “She’s been through a lot. Ever since
Jalil—”

“
I know, I know. But at
least you got to sleep with him before he left, right?”

“
What?” said Mira,
frowning as she turned to face her younger sister.

Amina grinned mischievously. “Oh,
don’t be so modest.”

“
I never slept with him.
Never!”

“
Right…” said Amina,
drawing out the word with a wink and a meaningful nod. “You never
did. We understand.”

Mira’s cheeks burned, but
she swallowed the urge to argue with her sisters.
It doesn’t matter what I say,
she thought to herself.
They
wouldn’t believe me anyway.

Surayya clucked her tongue
and shook her head at Amina. “Is your heart made of stone? Can’t
you see you’re hurting her? Only a few months ago, she thought she
was going to marry Jalil. Wouldn’t
you
be upset?”

“
Not if the groom were
Ibrahim. I hear he’s quite a beast.”