The Forbidden Zone (22 page)

"Julian has to live below the surface, probably for the rest of his life. I won't leave him alone down here. I'd be happy to explore the tunnels and map out this place, but I won't come above ground. I'm done with them."

"Saidan, you cannot let one incident—" One shook her head.

"Saidan, what happened?" I asked, realizing there was clearly a situation I hadn't been clued in on. He was down here for more than just me and my happiness. He was protecting himself from something. Or someone.

Saidan averted his gaze, unable to look me in the eye. "The others... don't agree with our relationship. They made some inappropriate comments. That's all. It's none of their concern."

One turned to me. "After years of relationships being banned, the people are just a little... conservative, that's all. A same-sex relationship with an alien is a little more than they can handle when they're just getting used to the idea of dating and mating." She stopped herself at the end, but I could guess what she was going to say. In the traditional sense. "That, and... they expect Saidan to contribute to the gene pool. He's an intelligent person, and his genes are in high demand."

I shook my head. "Saidan is staying here. I'm not going to have him subjected to bullying and I won't let him be used as some kind of prize stud in your population games. You're the Valerian leader; it's your responsibility to educate them."

"That's easier said than done! I have a dozen crises on my hands right now. Food production, health concerns, heat, pregnancies, genetic diversity... all the basic conditions for living. I can't dictate social norms. That's something the people have to work out for themselves. Hiding down here isn't going to help. You'll only become more of a mystery by separating yourself from the world."

"If I could, I would leave." There was anger in Saidan's voice, something I had never heard. "This planet has reverted to savagery. Perhaps it was a mistake to destroy Little Sister."

I knew he regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth, but it was too late to take them back. I wondered if I had made him feel worse by telling him the details of progressive Earth. Compared to that, the current state of Valeria did seem savage.

"Do as you will. I have no time for children. We have enough of those on the surface." One turned on her heel and marched away, her assistants following. Saidan punched the wall, his rage overflowing. I put my hand on his shoulder and he shook it off before slumping with defeat.

"I didn't mean to say that, but honestly, I'm not sure. Are we really better off now? Was our freedom really worth losing all the advances we made in science and medicine?" Saidan looked down at the floor as his rage dissipated.

I shuddered. "Without freedom, we would still be hiding from Little Sister. Our relationship would still be forbidden. We would be back in the Re-Education Building."

"Our relationship is forbidden anyway. It doesn't matter if there's no rule about it: these people will take it into their own hands if they don't agree. It's only a matter of time before they come down here after us."

"You have to give them a chance," I said. "Earth wasn't always progressive, you know. We had to fight for everything humanity represents now. We were savages once. We fought our way up from creating fire with sticks and living in caves. Much blood was shed in our history by people who were afraid of others. It's a stage every world has to go through in order to learn."

"You want us to die to teach them a lesson?" Saidan slumped against the wall.

"No, of course not! I won't let you come to harm. I'm fine if you want to stay down here. We'll work out a way to survive without them, if that's what you want." I held out my arms to him and he came to me. He rested his head on my shoulder. "All I was saying is that every society has its teething problems. You can't write them all off because of the actions of a few. And One can't dictate what the people should think, or she's no better than Little Sister. The Valerians have to come to that conclusion on their own."

"You're right, I know. I just... I hoped once Little Sister was gone that they would accept me. The truth is, I've never felt so far away from them as I do now."

"They have to find their own way. You have to find yours." I stroked Saidan's back and planted a kiss on his neck. I picked up the crate of glow-sticks and he picked up the protein bars. We took them to my room and set them down.

Thus began our new life alone, below ground. The days came and went. With no natural sunlight, I struggled to know which day was which. I slept a lot on some days, and wandered around aimlessly on others. We explored the tunnels below the towers simply for something to do, and marveled at the massive amounts of technology that we'd rendered useless. No matter what its former purpose was, it was all beyond repair.

The human body struggles without sunlight, and my depression only deepened. Saidan noticed that I had started to resist leaving my room, that my sex drive had decreased and that I was losing the ability to care about exploring the tunnels. I simply wanted to be left alone to die. It was a cruel thing to endure after my near-death at the hands of radiation. My strength and will seemed to drain right out of me.

"Saidan, I think you should leave me and live above ground," I said one day. It seemed like years had passed in the dark. I wasn't even sure I would be able to see if I went up to ground level. My other senses had sharpened, but there was little to taste or touch and even less to hear. I would have given my right arm for a Riva Melodia song to guide me through the night, but I seemed to forget things more easily as I grew more depressed. The memories that I'd fought so hard to regain after my torture were disappearing again. The depression was almost worse than the torture, because even then I had fight within me, something to live for. Now I simply seemed to exist, a shadow lost in the darkness.

"I'm not going anywhere," Saidan said stubbornly, but I didn't believe him. He would have to leave eventually. I knew I had to be unbearable to live with, and yet I couldn't bring myself to try harder. The will simply did not exist within me.

Saidan started to spend more time away, and I feared he was slipping through my fingers, but I didn't have the strength to do anything about it. I just sat and stared into the darkness. The doctor came down to check on me, but he just shook his head and walked away after his examination. I took that to mean I was beyond help. I certainly felt like I was.

It was later that week, I think, when Saidan came rushing into our room. I could hear his racing breaths in the silent darkness, understood his urgency as he illuminated his face with a glow-stick and attempted to form words without enough air in his lungs. For the first time in months, I actually managed to feel anticipation as I got to my feet and attempted to calm him down. He shook his head.

"Julian... I think— I think I've found a way to get you home. I found a transmitter. In some kind of protective cage. It still works! I was going to see if I could send out a message, but there's one coming in, from someone identifying themselves as an Earth ship!"

The words sped past me at a million miles per second as my depression-addled brain struggled to process them. Transmitter. Message. Ship. Earth. Home.

"Where?" It was the only word I could manage. Saidan didn't need to say a word as he hurried out into the hallway. I followed automatically. I hurried along behind him as my brain struggled to reboot. Earth. Ship. Home. How? Had the Foundation worried so much about my fate that they sent a whole ship and crew across five years and five trillion miles to find me?

He took the steps down two at a time, jumping when he reached the bottom four of each flight. I struggled to keep up and my body complained, but I forced my aching limbs to go the extra mile as we made our way into the tunnels below the tower.

Fear rose within me as I thought about the transmission. What if the ship got sick of waiting and simply moved on? A scan of the planet would indicate lifeforms, but no technology. The crew would be prohibited from interfering in the affairs of a pre-technological world. If it was a simple exploration ship, they might simply move on. I used my fear to push my body to the limit as we passed doorway after doorway. I followed Saidan's glow-stick like a beacon of hope as he passed through a doorway into a tiny room. A circle of glow-sticks sat around the small transmitter that had been kept in a shielded cage along with other everyday technology. Technology that was alive. The glowing lights on the transmitter seemed like holy beacons in some ancient temple.

I read the Valerian symbols on the transmitter and pushed the receive button.

"This is the Corona. We come in peace from Earth, searching for a friend of ours. Please respond." I recognized the voice with awe. It was Christine, a fellow student of Professor Lankis, and one of the quintet of lovers I had known back at the Foundation. I was so overjoyed to hear my own language spoken in a familiar voice that I choked up and couldn't speak.

"This is our last attempt," Christine said. "Is anyone there?"

"I'm here!" I pressed the transmit button with a heavy hand, almost breaking it. "Christine, it's me! Christine!"

"Julian? Oh, my God! You're alive!" Christine sounded relieved and overjoyed.

"That's right. I'm alive. Oh, God, I have so much to tell you. So much has happened." I knew Saidan couldn't understand my words, so I squeezed his hand as he searched my face for a meaningful expression. I hoped he could at least read the joy written on my face.

"We know. A scan of the planet has shown little to no technology. What the hell happened there? From what we knew, the Valerians had technology superior to ours!"

"It's a long story," I said. "What about you? Why did you bring a ship all the way out here?"

Christine actually laughed. "That's a short story," she said. "Your last research paper, Wormholes and Their Practical Usage, sparked a bit of a revolution around here. With my partners, we were able to harness already-existing technology to create wormholes that we could travel through. A journey that used to take five years now takes only five days. This is the prototype ship. We decided our first mission should be to find you and see how you were doing. We didn't expect any of this."

"Amazing," I said, my voice filled with awe. "You sound surprised I'm alive. It was only supposed to be a research mission."

"We found your ship," Christine said. "When we 'holed into this system, we discovered its wreckage floating aimlessly. Analysis showed that it had suffered fatal drive core failure—a problem with those ships, and the reason they've been withdrawn."

"Holy shit." I wasn't a man who swore often, but this revelation deserved it. "Any survivors?"

"There were three androids of Valerian design amongst the wreckage, but they were all completely non-functional. We left them where they were. What we want to know is how on Earth did three Valerian androids come to be on board your ship instead of you?"

I actually laughed. "You wouldn't believe it if I told you." I turned to Saidan and related the whole exchange in Valerian.

"Amazing. So the Sisters met their demise purely by accident." Saidan smiled, clutching my arm.

"It would seem so. If we had taken off in that ship, we would have been killed. I guess we got lucky." I shook my head, shaking off the depression as I admired the random madness that was the universe.

Saidan shook his head. "It's strange how things turn out."

"We can go home in a matter of weeks," I explained to Saidan. "It's up to you if you want to come or not."

"I'm coming." Saidan gripped my arm so tightly it hurt. "I want to see Earth more than anything."

I couldn't help but smile at the firmness in his voice. I picked up the transmitter again. "Christine, can you take us home?"

"Us? Julian, what are you not telling me?" Her voice was sly and filled with laughter. "Could it be that cold-as-stone Julian has made a friend?"

I laughed, the darkness disappearing from my mind as I realized I was going home. Home. We were going home. "You could say that," I said, looking at Saidan with a smile.

"We'll send a shuttle down for you, then," Christine said.

"There's a problem with that. The planet's had a recent nuclear blast. The radiation levels are too high for humans to endure. I'm currently sheltered below ground." I explained the situation best I could.

I could hear Christine pacing in the background. "We have radiation shielding suits on board. We can still send a ship. Thanks for the heads-up, though. I can't wait to hear your story, Julian. Sounds like you've had one hell of a research trip."

"Don't leave us here. This transmitter may not work again." I felt a sudden sense of panic. If they had problems landing, we wouldn't be able to find out.

"I wouldn't dream of it. We'll get you off this planet somehow. Besides, I have to meet this wonderful being who has warmed your heart. Later, Julian." Christine ended the transmission and her voice was replaced with static. Ending the transmission to save the battery, I set the precious receiver down.

"We're going home," I said, seizing Saidan in a hug. I picked him up and spun him around before setting him down. A grin was spread from ear to ear on his face and I gave in to the urge to kiss him, pressing him up against the wall and grinding my lips against his.

When we parted, reality set in. We were going home, but I realized Saidan was also leaving his planet, perhaps forever.

"You should go up and say goodbye to One and the others."

Saidan shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Without One, we wouldn't even be here. We would have died in that torture chamber as Valeria descended into chaos. The doctor helped me out, too. They deserve to at least know we're going."

"They might try to stop us." Saidan sighed.

"Christine is not somebody who will be stopped," I said. "She will do whatever she can to get us off this planet. We're not looking for your people's approval. I just think you should say goodbye. You may never come back."