Starfall: A Starstruck Novel (41 page)

Wishing Molly were here to give me a final once-over, I carefully brushed my hair and touched up my lip gloss. Then Kyna positioned me in front of the big screen, where Mr. Stuart had uploaded my edited statement so I could read while looking at the camera.
 

“Ready?” he asked. I nodded. He turned on the camera and I started talking.

“Hello, everyone. What I have to tell you may sound like a history lesson at first, but please bear with me.” I tried to smile pleasantly—not nervously. My tiny image in the lower corner of the screen helped. “As most of you know, Nuath was originally created well over two thousand years ago when an alien race transplanted the inhabitants of a small Irish village to a prepared habitat under the surface of Mars.
 

“Most of Nuath’s earliest history has been lost in the mists of time, but we know that our alien abductors remained for less than a thousand years before inexplicably disappearing. They left a lot of their technology behind, though, and over the centuries Nuathans put most of it to good use. For example, by adapting alien technology for space travel, nearly six hundred years ago, we discovered that our nearest neighbor, Earth, was our species’ home of origin.
 

“But while we figured out many ways to use their technology, we never did figure out who those early aliens were—until now. I have recently been contacted by those aliens—they call themselves the Grentl—and have learned that they are worried about what humans, particularly Earth humans, are evolving into. They feel partly responsible for what they consider some wrong turns by our race, and now plan to undo as much of our modern progress as possible.
 

“By now, some of you may have heard about the satellites taking up positions around the Earth. The Grentl plan to use them to generate a massive electromagnetic pulse with the intention of disrupting all Earth communications and technology. This is expected to occur this coming Saturday at 12:47am Eastern time on Earth, or 5:47am Nuathan time. While Nuath itself should not be directly affected by this pulse, Earth is likely to experience a complete loss of power and possibly much worse.
 

“The
Echtran
Council and our most qualified Scientists recommend that everyone living on Earth shut down and disconnect
all
electronics before midnight Friday night. This includes car and other batteries and anything else that could be affected by an EMP. If you can, please urge your
Duchas
neighbors to do the same. A story is already being sent to
Duchas
media worldwide, warning of unusual sunspot activity and encouraging them to take exactly these precautions.
 

“If enough of us do this, we may weather the Grentl’s assault with minimal damage or casualties. I’m sure you have a lot of questions. You can direct them to Regent Shim Stuart on Nuath and to Kyna Nuallan of the
Echtran
Council on Earth. Above all, please don’t panic. We are a resilient people and I have every confidence that we’ll all come through this challenge stronger than ever. Thank you, and God bless you all.”

Mr. Stuart switched off the camera, then played back the recording. Kyna watched it carefully, then nodded her approval.

“I believe that will do quite well. Excellency?”
 

Though I always hated how my recorded voice sounded, I was amazed I hadn’t stumbled over any of the words—and also amazed by how
not
nervous I looked on the screen, since I totally was inside. Practice had obviously made me lots better at hiding it than I used to be.
 

“I doubt I could do it any better if I tried again.”
 

“Then I’ll convert it into the proper formats for broadcast at whatever time the Council should decide,” Mr. Stuart said. “When is the video conference supposed to start?”

Kyna checked the time. “Germany’s and Ireland’s Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the American Secretary of State all agreed to call in at one-thirty. I’m hoping that Japan’s and Australia’s Ministers and the Minister of External Affairs from India will be able to join us as well, though they didn’t firmly commit. Needless to say, these are extremely busy people and I was unwilling to give enough details to their assistants to adequately convey the urgency of this meeting. Quite honestly, I’m surprised even this many agreed on such short notice.”

Mr. Stuart nodded. “Excellency, if you’d like to take a break, I can get everything set up before the calls come in.”
 

“Oh, okay, thanks.”
 

I hurried off to the bathroom, trying to quell nerves that were so ramped up now, I was afraid I just might puke. I managed not to, but it was close. When I emerged, Dr. Stuart was waiting with a cup of peppermint tea.

“I seem to recall Rigel saying this is one of your favorites?”

I cupped my hands around the warm mug with a grateful smile. “Thank you so much. This is exactly what I need.” Sipping slowly, I headed back to Mr. Stuart’s office for the ordeal ahead.

The video conference lasted a full two hours and left me nearly as drained as using the Grentl device. India’s Minister hadn’t shown up, but all the others had—and they’d been nearly as unwilling to accept such incredible news from a teenaged girl as I’d predicted. Even after Kyna had them confirm with their own astronomers the existence of numerous unexplained satellites, they were clearly skeptical.
 

“Do you realize what it would do to our economy to shut down the entire nation’s power grids for even an hour or two?” the U.S. Secretary of State demanded at one point.
 

Kyna assured them that
Echtran
Scientists would continue trying to find other solutions but made it clear she considered that unlikely. She and I both stressed repeatedly that taking our recommended precautions would be
far
preferable to the alternative, but by the time we disconnected, only Ireland and Australia were willing to admit that the potential risk justified such extreme measures.
 

After they’d all signed off, I pushed myself away from the enormous computer screen with a frustrated sigh. “Wow, and I thought the Royals on the
Echtran
Council were stubborn.”

“It
is
an awful lot for them to take in all at once,” Mr. Stuart pointed out. “We knew this might not work, but we were ethically obliged to at least try. You did as well as you possibly could have, Excellency.”
 

“Not well enough, obviously.” I looked pleadingly at Kyna. “Do you think there’s
any
chance our Scientists will come up with a defense we can use in time?”

The emotions I sensed from her answered my question, though she tried to smile reassuringly. “There’s always a chance, of course. If nothing else, we’ll be able to shut down quite a few power grids whether those in charge agree or not, and blame it on that fictitious solar storm. I have people working on that already, in fact. And as more and more astronomers verify the existence of the satellites, those skeptics may yet come around.”

I tried to be comforted but knew that, at best, only a tiny fraction of the world could be protected if the Grentl carried out their plan.
 

“I should use the device again. Try one more time to talk them out of what they’re doing.”
 

The look Kyna gave me was almost pitying. “Do you really believe that will help, Excellency?”

“No.” Once everything absorbed from the Grentl had finally clarified in my mind, I’d become more positive than ever that it wouldn’t. “But…what else can I do?”

“If we are unable to come up with anything by tomorrow night, perhaps you can make another attempt at communication,” Kyna finally conceded. “You and your bond mate, I should say, as his assistance seemed to make such a difference.”

*
   
*
   
*

It was actually a relief to get back to my house and such mundane chores as homework and laundry after such a nerve-wracking, high-stakes afternoon. Bri called with an update on how many people she, Deb and Molly had talked into voting for me for Junior Class Princess. Frivolous as it was, I played along, welcoming the temporary diversion from far more life-and-death matters.

But when Aunt Theresa got home an hour or so later, things took an even more absurd turn.

“I ran into Melinda Andrews in town just now, and she tells me
you
have been nominated for this year’s Homecoming Court?” she greeted me, eyebrows nudging her graying hairline.
 

Her astonished skepticism didn’t even hurt my feelings, I was so used to it. “Um, yes. Bri and Deb filled out the petition for me and got all the signatures. I know I probably don’t—”

“Marsha, this is
wonderful
! Homecoming Court is a great honor. Melinda and I agreed that we need to do all we can to make sure you win, as it could be a nice addition to your college resumes next year. I thought perhaps cookies that you can hand out to your classmates tomorrow? Now, which do you think your little friends would like best—my cranberry walnut oatmeal cookies or classic chocolate chip?”

Too startled to answer, I just stared at her. “Um—”

“Let’s make a few dozen of each, shall we? Here, I have an extra apron you can wear. I’ll phone Louie at work and ask him to pick up a pizza on his way home so we don’t have to worry about dinner.”

I could never remember Aunt Theresa being this pleased with me—and for something I’d had virtually nothing to do with! We spent the evening baking cookies together while she chatted about how much more I would enjoy school, now that I was finally becoming more popular. Unreal as it seemed, I was grateful I’d at least have this one happy memory of Aunt Theresa to file away for whatever future lay ahead.

As I was getting ready for bed, I received a message on my omni from Shim. My statement had already been broadcast all over Nuath and he reported that while at least half of the population was in frightened denial, many were offering their help to the Scientists already working on the problem. He also mentioned that after receiving the results of our
graell
tests from Kyna, he had gone on the air himself to share an edited version of the researchers’ conclusions.

“While this Grentl news has already done much to turn people’s minds from the topic of your potential out-of-
fine
pairing, I’m hopeful that providing them with scientific evidence of your bond may prevent it again becoming an issue, should the Grentl attack be somehow averted.”
 

Any humor I might have found in the first part of that sentence was wiped out by the last. Clearly, Shim didn’t think it any more likely we’d find a way to stop the Grentl than Kyna did. Still, on the off chance we could, Martian opposition to Rigel and me as a couple would again be the biggest problem facing us, so it was good Shim had a plan for that.

Though I felt beyond foolish carrying my huge box of cookies onto the bus the next morning, Aunt Theresa turned out to be right. Even before we got to school, Bri and Deb seized the opportunity to hand some out to the few other juniors on our bus.

“Cookies were a great idea, M,” Bri told me as we headed into the building. “Yesterday I didn’t think you were really into the whole campaigning thing.”

I shrugged. “Actually, the cookies were Aunt Theresa’s idea. Deb’s mom told her I was nominated and she went nuts. Got totally excited about it. It was weird.”

“Didn’t we tell you Homecoming Court was a big deal?” Deb grinned at Bri, who grinned back. “Go stash these in your locker for now and we’ll hand out the rest over lunch.

Rigel had been hanging back, but joined me as I turned toward my locker. “You might as well have fun with it,” he murmured. “Who knows if—”

“Yeah.” But I knew. We both knew.

The news that her cookies were a hit put Aunt Theresa in such a great mood that evening, she didn’t even question me when I said I might be later than usual getting home from Molly’s tonight. We would supposedly be putting a few finishing touches on our Government project.

“Your grades are even more important than Homecoming Court, so be sure to do your best.”

I nodded, hoping Molly really had been able to finish that project like she’d promised, since I’d been way too busy to help.

“I’ll leave the front porch light on. Call if you’ll be much past ten so I don’t worry.”

The whole O’Gara family was already waiting in their minivan when I arrived.

“Kyna messaged that we’ll be at the Stuarts’ house again,” Mrs. O explained. “We’d best hurry, since it’s likely to be rather a long meeting.”
 

Like when we’d reconvened here Monday night for me to use the device, Kyna allowed Rigel and his mom, as well as Molly, Sean and Mr. O to join us. I was glad, since I could already tell from the emotions of those physically present that no one had good news to report. Having Rigel in the room would help keep my courage up.
 

“My colleagues have spent nearly all day running simulations,” Kyna told us right at the outset. “Unfortunately, assuming the specifications given us by the Sovereign are correct, no weapon we might create in time is likely to have the least effect on the Grentl satellites.”

“What about weapons that already exist?” Connor asked anxiously. “
Duchas
weapons? I heard something in the news today about missile tests and wondered—”

Kyna nodded, but grimly. “Yes, those so-called tests were attempts by the American military to destroy Grentl satellites. Israel made a similar attempt, though it was not publicized. All, unfortunately, were ineffective. Even had one worked, there would be no way to destroy all seven hundred and twenty of those satellites, distributed as they are. In addition, an experimental anti-satellite laser weapon was fired at two satellites. It was no more successful than the missiles. More countries do seem to be taking the threat seriously now, at least, which increases the likelihood that they will implement our recommended precautions.”