Kingdom of Cages (53 page)

“I was born here, but…” The commander’s face grew distant and Teal felt her hopes plunge. “My Dad’s city is Atlantis. His
name is Trust. Varish Trust. He’s a shipper.”

The man beside her—the station director, Teal realized with a start— frowned at the commander. “Beleraja…”

The commander sighed. “I know, but if she’s from a shipper’s family, I’ve got to take the plea.” The director looked startled
and the commander just shook her head. “There are some things that don’t go away.” The director did not look convinced and
Teal’s heart plummeted. But the commander tried again. “Can I use your auxiliary office to run a check?”

The director turned to study Teal. “All right,” he said. “We should find out who we’re dealing with here, I suppose.” He sized
up the superior, who was still holding on to Teal’s arm. “Thank you, Lieutenant. I will take her under my supervision.”

“With respect, Director—”

The director held up one hand to cut the superior off. “You will, however, escort us to my office and remain outside until
you are dismissed.”

The superior relaxed visibly at this and let go of Teal’s arm. She couldn’t help but notice, however, his hand went straight
to his taser and stayed there.

Both the commander and director turned away then and started walking her into the depth of the directorate offices. Her heart
fluttering high in her throat, Teal followed.

The station director’s offices were a lot smaller than Teal could ever have imagined. There was just a desk, some chairs,
and four video walls displaying a dizzying array of images from all sections of the station. The director touched a spot on
the desk and the walls went instantly black.

Director Shontio sat down behind his desk, folding his chapped red hands and resting them on its smooth surface. Commander
Poulos motioned Teal to a side door. Throat tight and hands cold, Teal followed her into the next room. This one was even
smaller than the director’s public space, and it only had one chair, but it did have a comm terminal.

The commander sat herself at the code board. The motion lit the wall screen. “You said his liege city is Atlantis?” she asked.

“Yes.” Teal came to stand beside Commander Poulos, her palms sweating. She couldn’t believe it. The commander was going to
send a message. She was going to find Dad. “How long is it going to take?”

“First I’m going to see what records our ship has on him.” Commander Poulos’s hands moved across the keys, entering a series
of commands too quickly for Teal to follow. “We keep pretty good track of the family trees.” A data tree of ships and family
names organized by city appeared on the screen. “Varish Trust, I think you said?”

“Yes.” Her heart pounded so hard that her ears rang. After all this time, after all this trying, she would find him. She would
send him a message, and he would come get her out of this. “My… my mother tried to find him….”

“Your mother may have been working with old data. The comm lags for interstellar communication are incredible. There are so
many leaks on the stations that most shippers prefer to carry hard data to each other by hand.” Her mouth twitched, as if
she were trying to decide whether to smile or frown. “We’ve recently had an update here, however.”

Commander Poulos’s hands moved again. Fresh trees flitted across the screen as the station’s comptroller searched its files
and Commander Poulos discarded them before Teal could even properly read them. Then the screen stilled.

“You found him?” Teal gripped the back of Commander Poulos’s chair, but she couldn’t make her eyes read the words in front
of her.

Commander Poulos scanned the display. “It’s him,” she said softly, swiveling the chair so it would be easier for Teal to see
past her.

Teal leaned forward, resting her hand against the edge of the board. At the top of the screen she read:

Varish Trust

Ship’s mechanic aboard the
Imperial
. Blood son of Jask Trust and Teal Aramant. No official ship family. Jumped ship in orbital port of First Home (coordinates
listed). Citizenship and all voting privileges revoked for dereliction and desertion. Last reported residence Athena Station
of Pandora (coordinates listed), reap-plied for citizenship renewal upon joining Tuskay ship caravan at age 43. Found dead
of alcoholic overdose and brawling injuries in orbital port 4 of Cayman’s Stop at age 44.

No. No. No.
Teal swallowed hard, reading the words over, hoping they’d change and knowing they never would.

Found dead of alcoholic overdose and brawling injuries.

Found dead…

“I’m sorry,” said Commander Poulos.

Teal’s knees began to shake. “He left us,” she murmured.

“Here, sit.” Commander Poulos pushed on her shoulders, and she found the chair under her.

“He left us to go get drunk and die.” Hot red anger flooded her heart and head. “Bastard!” she screamed, slamming both fists
against the screen. “You bastard! You left us to get drunk and die! You left us down there! You killed Mom, you pissing, drunk
bastard!”

She fell back, tears turning the world to a blur of colors and her own sobs drowning out all other noises. Commander Poulos
tried to put her arms around Teal, but Teal shoved her away. She bowed her head into her hands and sobbed and screamed until
her throat burned and she had no more tears inside her.

The sound of Teal Trust’s sobs followed Beleraja as she returned to Shontio’s main office.

“Sounds like someone else got bad news,” he said softly, gesturing toward the door as it closed.

Beleraja dropped into one of the office chairs. A chill ran through her. What more could be happening? “What do you mean?”

In answer, Shontio reached out and touched a command key on his desktop. A section of wall screen lit up to show a thunderous
Father Mihran. “Since you do not choose to acknowledge my call, Director…” He dragged out the title. Surprise sped up Beleraja’s
heart. She had never heard Father Mihran talk like this. “I will leave you this message. A fugitive named Teal Trust has either
lately arrived or will shortly arrive on Athena Station. You will institute a search for her at once, and when you find her
you will return her immediately. If I do not hear from you on this matter within one week, we will have to assume that she
is being harbored aboard Athena in violation of the treaty your ancestors signed with mine.”

The message cut off and the screen faded to black.

“What did she do?” Beleraja croaked. Her mouth seemed to have gone dry.

Shontio touched his swollen knuckles gently, as if trying to gauge whether the arthritis had gotten worse in the last few
minutes. “Does it matter?” he said softly. “They want her back. Badly. At the very least she got up here under a set of false
passes and a fake ID, a practice which is illegal on both ends of the pipe. Something Father Mihran was quick to remind me
of.”

Beleraja gazed straight to the closed inner door. “Are you going to give her up?”

“When is our first wave getting here?”

Beleraja bowed her head. “It could be tomorrow. It could be in as long as two weeks. Calculating relative times when making
hyperspace jumps is”—she waved her hands—“difficult.”

“Then I’m going to give her up.”

Distress tightened Beleraja’s face. She had gotten used to thinking of people in groups. A few thousand needed to be in this
place, at this time, to perform this set of tasks. At that same time, another thousand would be needed over here to perform
this other task. She’d forgotten to think of those thousands in terms of the individuals that comprised them, single human
beings being displaced, hurt, or ruined by all these schemes—her invasion, the Pandorans’ cure, the Authority’s desperate
attempt to maintain the status quo. Beleraja had forgotten them all, until she’d seen Teal Trust’s own plans fall to ashes
in front of her eyes.

“Shontio, we don’t know what they’ll do to her down there. We’re almost ready to start. Our people are on their way….”

“But they are not here yet.” Shontio got up and circled his desk. “And there are not going to be nearly enough of them when
they do get here.”

“So, we start early. We shut down the cable, we take over the satellites. We’re going to do it anyway.” She ran her hand through
her hair. “And I am sick of waiting.”

“And we run out of food two weeks earlier than we have to because you got impatient,” Shontio said. “No, Bele. The girl has
got to go back.”

“And if the fleet gets in tomorrow?”

“Then we pull her right back up the pipe.” Shontio’s face twisted, and Beleraja thought she saw tears. “We are not going to
be able to do this without casualties. You were the one who pointed that out to me.” He touched his knuckles again. “If you
want, I’ll tell her. I ran her name through our records. It turns out she’s originally one of mine.”

“No.” Beleraja stood up. “I’ll tell her. I have a feeling that delivering bad news is something I’m going to have to get very
used to.”

When Teal managed to look up again she was alone in the little office. A cup of water had been left on the edge of the comm
board, along with a clean white towel.

Teal was surprised at how steady she was as she got to her feet. She wiped her face dry on the towel and drained the cup in
one gulp. She felt… still, dry. Dad was dead. He’d been dead for years. He wasn’t even really an Authority citizen. He was
just dead.

“Teal?” Someone knocked on the door.

“Yes?” She turned her head. Commander Poulos stepped through the threshold.

“Are you all right?”

She nodded.

“I am sorry about your father. You must have been hoping very hard.”

“Yeah, well…” Teal looked down at the empty cup. “Turns out it was all a bunch of stupid stories. I knew that anyway.”

Commander Poulos said nothing.

Teal set the cup back on the board’s edge. “I guess you’re going to send me back to Pandora?”

Commander Poulos rubbed her thumbnail gem against her trousers leg. “Not because I want to,” she said quietly. “But the director
has found out you’re wanted by the Pandorans. You didn’t tell us you broke the law to get up here.”

Her words sank in, leaving Teal cold and leaden. It had been for nothing. Her grand scheme for escape. All the Pandorans had
needed to do was tell the director who she was, and now… now there was nothing.

“What else haven’t you told us, Teal?”

Teal stared at the blank screen above the command pad. In the distance she heard a dull voice explaining how the hothousers
had herded them all under the dome, about the Eden Project, and how Mom had died, how they’d escaped and lived with Nan Elle
until Teal had thought of a way to leave Pandora for good.

She stopped there. Commander Poulos already knew how it ended.

“Teal…”

The sound of her name made Teal blink and turn her head back toward Commander Poulos. But the commander wasn’t looking at
her. She was looking at her own hands, at the wall past Teal’s shoulder, at the door. “You should know…” Commander Poulos
stopped, and began again. “I know it’s no comfort, but I believe Director Shontio doesn’t want to send you back either.”

“It’s okay,” said Teal in a small voice, even though she couldn’t help feeling that those words were not the ones Commander
Poulos had wanted to say. “It’s okay.”

Commander Poulos’s face tightened as if she were in pain. “You should know…” she said again. “If you can just hang on. If
you ever need help, you can…” She opened her mouth, closed it again, and rubbed her thumbnail gem hard against the side of
her leg. “You can call on me, Teal.”

“Thank you.”

“I’ll walk you.” Commander Poulos got to her feet and Teal could still feel something unspoken hanging in the air between
them.

It didn’t matter. There was nothing Commander Poulos could say to make it better. Teal stood. She couldn’t see where she was
going. Nothing. Her grand plan had all come to nothing. She wanted to cry, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t do anything. Her
feet were moving on their own, steered by Commander Poulos’s firm hand under her elbow. Each step taking her closer to the
Pandorans, closer to the hothouse, and the place where Mom had died. Died like Dad in a bleeding mess on the floor, and all
for nothing.

Chena was right,
she thought dully.
I should’ve stayed put.

Well, that didn’t matter either, because Teal would never be able to tell her so.

Dionte leaned over Tam in the observation chair. His face was pale, drawn, and tired. The eyes that looked back at her were
sunken in their sockets.

She looked into his face and felt nothing, nothing at all. Her Conscience told her there should be something. She knew it
was wrong that her brother should look at her like this, but she could not feel that wrong.

“Don’t worry, Brother,” she told him. “You are almost done.” She made herself smile. That was the right thing to do.
Why can’t I feel him?
“Only a few more adjustments.”

“No,” he whispered, and winced. “No more. I was promised no more.”

“Just one more. Then you are done. Then we can talk.”

A tear trickled down Tam’s cheek and sadness hit Dionte so hard she curled her fist around the arm of the chair to keep from
reeling backward. Why had he brought them to this? This was not the way it was supposed to be. They were supposed to work
together for the family. He was supposed to have been beside her as they together saved Pandora. He was not supposed to be
afraid of her.

What’s happening, what’s going on?
She had to concentrate to keep from shaking her head to clear it out. She could not slip now. This was too important. She
could not jeopardize the potential of the bond between herself and Tam, the first one they would truly share. This moment
was too emotional, that was all. There was too much going on inside and outside at the same time, upsetting her balance. It
would be all right again in a moment.

“It is just a matter of refining some synaptic connections in the implant filaments.” She laid her hand on his and felt how
cold it was. A thousand memories flickered through her mind. Games of tag in the family gardens. Quizzing each other for math
and botany tests. The passionate debates about every subject under the sun. She tried to take comfort from the future shining
so brightly before them. Soon she’d have Tam’s stubborn, sharp-minded honesty to help her to think more clearly.