Chương 90: The Loop

Avataran Shahar, Zurah V Imperium Stellarum August 13, 2848 When the early settlers of Zurah V had experimented with Terran flora, they'd found that some particular quirk of the planet's soil, by a one in a million galactic chance, particularly suited Mulberry trees. With a bit of genetic tinkering to optimize the plant's growth rate, those first colonists had found their primary industry and export.

The first Katari dukes had subsidized the immigration expenses of skilled arborists, silk weavers, dyers, and every other occupation needed to get the fledgling colony's economy off the ground. All of this, Arc and his classmates had learned as children, studying the history of the system in school.

They'd toured Katari Silk Corporation's farms and mills, and every year they'd run screaming and giggling through the streets of Avataran Shahar during the annual silk festival, cramming their bellies with street food and watching the fireworks from the beach at night. But Mulberry trees hadn't been the only plants adapted, in those early years, to Zurah V's biome.

Millions of Imperial scientists had made their careers, over generations of expansion, on modifying the genome of Terran crops to each new world colonized in waves of human expansion. The early dukes knew that in order for their world to be financially stable, Zurah V needed to not only produce high-quality silk for export, but also enough food domestically that all those profits wouldn't be wasted importing what their workers needed to feed their families.

As a result, the land falling away from the capital city, once you got past the immediate Mulberry groves, which needed to be close to the silk mills, was lush with orchards and fields. There were mango trees and apple trees, fields of wheat and rice, tomato vines and garlic and a hundred other kinds of produce, all of which was funneled into the hungry city.

And at the top of one hill overlooking the massive lake Vishal Jheel, upon whose shore the city sprawled, grew a single ashvattha tree, or sacred fig, of the same kind that the Buddha was said to have sat under some thirty-three hundred years before. The fig grew at the center of Avataran Shahar cemetery, and over the one hundred and thirty-nine years since it had been planted, during the first year of the colonization, it had grown to nearly thirty meters tall and three wide.

Its great branches spread nearly twenty meters out in every direction, shading the markers and memorial stones and rustling in the breeze off the lake. Among those memorial stones was a pillar of black granite upon which the name of all twenty-nine members of the Adversity's crew had been engraved, at the expense of Duke Ishaan Katari. Arc, like everyone else who'd survived the loss of a family member when the cargo ship was attacked, had attended the dedication of that monument.

But when he wanted to feel close to Phoebe, Arc went to the headstone tucked away in one shady corner of the cemetery, beneath the boughs of the ashvattha tree. That had been paid for by the duke, as well - twenty-five years of Camden Sandhurst's life had bought that much consideration, at least.

There'd been no body to bury, so they'd had a few of Phoebe's things interred there, instead: a book of Alu'kan poetry, a stuffed bear that had been stained, ripped, repaired, and restuffed so many times that it looked more like a lump than any recognizable animal; and a necklace chosen from her jewelry box.

Arc had put off visiting until the day before he was due to leave, and then finally he hadn't been able to put it off any longer without accepting that he wouldn't visit her until the next summer, and that was unacceptable. He sat down on the grass facing the stone, but there wasn't anything there other than the same lotus flower that had been engraved on the monument, and Phoebe's name, with the years of her birth and death just below.

After staring at it for a few minutes, he turned to look out over the lake, instead. Vishal Jheel was enormous - hence the name, which essentially translated to 'huge lake' in Imperial Standard - and contained something ridiculous like twelve or thirteen thousand cubic kilometers of fresh water. Another useless fact that Arc had needed to learn in school.

"I might as well be looking out on the bay at San Teodoro," Arc said aloud.

"It's just about as big." It is one of the ten largest naturally occurring deposits of fresh water in the entire Imperium, Iceni observed. Quite impressive. I have access to recordings where the waves reach a crest of ten meters or more.

"Yeah. I've seen it." Arc put his hands in the grass and leaned back, watching the warning lights of the Lofstrom loop that ascended from the spaceport, out across the lake, and into the clouds. Zurah V wasn't wealthy enough to afford a space elevator of its own, and unlike Vidako, there was little reason for the imperial family to take an interest.

The Katari dukes must have known it, because the impression that Arc got from Cassie was that they'd never even bothered making themselves as obnoxious as the Montalban's about it. It was the thought of Cassie that got him talking.

"I'm seeing someone," he told Phoebe.

"You wouldn't believe who in a million years, Bee. You'd give me so much shit over it, but I think you'd like Cassie. She's nice. Mom and dad know, and they try to make like they've gotten used to the idea, but if I bring her back here to visit it's going to be a wreck. I'd like to, though. Maybe during the festival. I think she'd like that."

"You know, I'd never have met her if it wasn't for you," he told his dead sister.

"She'd be at the academy, with all my friends, and they wouldn't have the slightest idea that I even exist. How crazy is that? The worst thing that ever happened to this family is the reason I met the girl I love." Is it worth it? He couldn't help but wonder. If I had the chance to go back in time and save my sister, but it meant giving up Cassie, and Pika, and Vee and all the rest... would I do it?

"I don't, though," Arc said, and found that his face was wet. He reached up with one hand to press the heel of his palm into each eye in turn, wiping away the tears.

"And the plan's still on. This is the second year, so I need to get into the zero-g track and qualify on a Kestrel. That's the next thing. And then get up into space. And sooner or later..." You must understand that the odds you will be the deployed on the ship assigned to hunt down this particular pirate are astronomical, Iceni told him. If an AI's voice could be said to be gentle, it was hers. You're exceptionally intelligent, Arc. Pirates don't live long, and the Imperium is at war.

Statistically, she's likely to be dead before you ever graduate from the academy and receive your commission.

"Not this one," Arc argued.

"She got away from Beecher Red Crest. She'll still be there." Regardless, Iceni said, there's nothing that you or I can do about her for another two and a half years, at earliest. Our time would best be spent focusing on your studies and training.

"Yeah." Arc pushed off the ground and rolled to his feet, then turned to regard the gravestone one last time. It was such a stupid thing, such an infuriating replacement. Phoebe should have been waiting when he got home, to ruffle his hair and feel the tracery of metal along his scalp and make some kind of joke. She should have cornered him in his room, after their parents had gone to bed, to grill him about Cassie, and demand to talk to his girlfriend.

She should have had things to tell him, too - about what it was like to run a cargo of silk to Mikaboshi, where it would be turned into formal kimono for Duchess Ashitomi or the fashion houses of Nightside City. Or into the core worlds, or one of the Alu'kan rings. A year of trading around the imperium, and she would have seen so many places. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. It wasn't fair.

How could someone just kill twenty-nine people as if they didn't matter? Just take all of those hopes and dreams away, and leave their families with nothing? Arc's vision blurred, and he had to wipe his eyes again before he walked downhill and left the cemetery. 𝝮" - meet you at the gate, because C'rise and I should be there an hour and a half before you get in," Cassie's voice came out of the tiny speakers built into Arc's tablet while he checked over his suitcase, packed for another year at the academy.

Outside his window, it was still dark, and the streetlights of Avataran Shahar hadn't switched off yet. It was the third time he'd listened to the recorded video, the last that he'd received from Cassie. After nearly three months of break, it felt both odd and strangely familiar to once again be wearing the gray tunic of a cadet. Most of what he was bringing back were his uniforms, because they hadn't been allowed to leave anything in their dorm rooms while they were away.

But tucked in between the layers of standard issue pants, socks, undershirts, and all the rest were the scarves and other pieces of silk that Arc had bought in the garment district only a few days before. Once he was certain that everything was there, Arc closed the suitcase, heaved it off his bed, and set the wheels on the floor of his room. He flipped his tablet closed, pocketed it, and rolled the suitcase out into the upstairs hallway, and then wrestled it down to the first floor of the apartment.

"Take something to eat," his mother said, as soon as Arc pulled the suitcase into the long room which served as both kitchen and dining room.

"I bought protein bars, and bottles of juice for the road."

"Mmmph. These bars are really good, Mrs. Sandhurst," Teo said, from his seat at the table. There were no less than four pieces of discarded wrapping, and not a few crumbs, in front of him.

"You sure you want to ride with me?" Arc asked, again.

"It's not going to be very interesting. Just the metro over to the spaceport. You've done it a hundred times before."

"Course I'm going with you," Theo said, with a scoff.

"I'm not gonna see you again until next year, you think I'm just gonna let you slip out without saying goodbye?"

"I'm surprised Rashmi isn't here, too," Arc's father said, as he hurried into the room. Already dressed in his work clothes, he slipped one arm around Audrey Sandhurst's waist, gave her a quick kiss, then released his wife and walked over to draw Arc into his arms. Arc let go of his suitcase to return his father's embrace.

"Doesn't seem like you were here long enough," Arc's father said.

"You've made your mind up about the winter break?"

"Cassie wants me to go home with her to meet her family," Arc explained.

"And we really can't afford for me to come home. I'll try to get her to come with me next May. I'd like you guys to meet her." With one last squeeze, he and his father stepped back and released each other.

"I don't know how that would work," Arc's mother fretted. He could tell that the idea made her nervous, because she was wringing her hands.

"We'll figure it out, and we'll send you a message," Arc promised.

"I wish I could go to the spaceport with you, but I've got to get going," Arc's father said.

"Make sure you get something to eat. You said last time there was nothing on the ship out to L2."

"I will," Arc promised. He snatched one of the protein bars from the table and held it up so his father could see.

"We're proud of you, son," Camden Sandhurst said. Then, with one last wave, he walked out of the kitchen. Arc could hear the apartment door open and close, and his father was gone. He did force himself to eat one protein bar, and to stuff two more in his pockets, so that his mother wouldn't worry. Then, the three of them walked down the street to the nearest station, with the sky overhead just beginning to glow on the horizon.

They rode the train together, packed in among the crowd of people on their way to whatever jobs they worked: in an office downtown, perhaps, or at a hospital. Arc had been hoping that leaving so early would mean they didn't have to deal with cameras, but Dumb and Dumber must have staked out the spaceport, because they were waiting when the train car came to a halt - and they weren't alone.

Before Arc could do anything to stop it, a crowd of men and women were shoving cameras into his face, into his mother's face, microphones extended.

"Cadet Sandhurst, do you have any comment on Senator Tarquin's impeachment trial?" a dark-skinned woman with a bindi on her forehead called out. She must have been local.

"Mrs. Sandhurst, how do you feel about your son's relationship with the princess?" a man with slicked, perfect hair shouted. Arc grabbed his mother by the hand and tugged her forward through the crowd.

"Don't say anything," he reminded her, but Teo clearly wasn't listening.

"This is the imperium's next ace, right here!" Arc's friend called out to the cameras.

"One duel down, and he isn't even out of the academy yet! Just wait!" Arc stopped, reached out, and grabbed Teo by the shoulder with his other hand, yanking his friend along toward the security gate. Once they were through the checkpoint, thankfully, they were able to get a moment of peace, because spaceport security firmly blocked the vultures from following any further. Arc watched Dumber try to push past one stocky guard who immediately threw him back, sending the man tumbling to the ground.

"Take a moment to say goodbye, cadet," the guard said, catching Arc's eye.

"No family past this point."

"Sorry about that," he said.

"Teo, maybe you and my mother should get breakfast here or something. Wait for them to get bored and leave."

"How about it, Mrs. S?" Teo asked.

"My treat." Arc's mother still looked frightened, and for a moment he actually considered staying with her.

"Maybe I should delay for the next flight," he said.

"No," his mother said.

"Don't let me make you late. Give me a hug and then get moving." She stepped forward, reached out, and wrapped her arms around him. Arc braced his mother and caught his friend's eye. Teo gave a nod, and that would have to be enough. A moment later, she let go, and the two of them turned away from the checkpoint.

"Thanks," Arc told the stocky security guard.

"No, thank you," the man said, with a grin.

"You won me a thousand imperial credits on that duel. If I'm here when you come back, Sandhurst, I'll buy you a drink." Arc laughed, gave the man a wave, and headed forward. Military identification - even if only that of a cadet - combined with the fact that just about everyone in Avataran Shahar seemed to have watched a recording of Arc beating Fletcher Radecki beneath the surface meant that he was practically waved through security.

It was a distinctly surreal experience: when Arc had left Zurah V a year ago, no one had the slightest idea who he was. The loop cars were small, with a capacity of only twenty people seated. They had to be, because the Lofstrom loop worked by sending a lot of light loads up into orbit, rather than a few heavy shipments. At thirty-five launches every day, that meant that a car left just about every forty minutes.

Not all of those carried passengers, of course: about half were filled entirely with goods, instead, headed up to be loaded into cargo ships bound out of the system. Arc stowed his suitcase overhead, then took his seat and strapped in, though the idea of only three gravities of acceleration now seemed rather underwhelming, after his centrifuge training and the lightning-quick maneuvering he'd survived piloting Lady Ren in The Deeps. The loop was, essentially, a maglev cable car system inside of a sheath.

The sheath was attached to the spaceport at Avataran Shahar on one end, and to an artificial island two thousand kilometers away on the other, anchored out beyond where Lake Vishal Jheel eventually emptied into the ocean by means of a connecting river. Between those two points, the sheath rose eighty kilometers up on a parabolic trajectory, taking it above the mesosphere, where the magnetically accelerated cars were released and retrieved by shuttles.

For passengers, that meant there was nothing to see during the first part of the launch. Arc leaned back, closed his eyes, and waited for the acceleration to press him back into the cushions of his seat. Only when they'd reached the top of the curve, and detached, did he open his eyes. There, outside the window, he could see the blue curve of the lower atmosphere against the black of space, and far below, the white clouds which crawled across the surface of Zurah V.

He couldn't pick out Avataran Shahar, but Lake Vishal Jheel was just in sight on the horizon. Arc tried to imagine what it would be like to be up here under his own power, strapped into a Kestrel, with no one else to distract him and only his thrusters to get him where he needed to go. There was something very peaceful about the idea, and it kept a smile on his face until it was time to board his ship.