Authors: Lisa Lace
If he had fallen in love with me once, then he could do it again.
I smiled at him, and I knew it was a happy, hopeful smile and he wouldn't understand it. But I couldn't help it.
For the first time since he had looked at me with his blank, unknowing eyes, I had hope that maybe everything wasn't over.
"Are you in pain?" he said.
And as I thought about my arm, I realized how much it hurt. But it was nothing to what it had felt like when I had got my scar.
"Yeah," I said. "But it's not that bad. I've had worse."
"You have?" He seemed skeptical.
I nodded.
"Why don't you tell me what happened after I passed out?" I said.
After Mana and Jared had woken up, I discovered I was the only one who thought to go to Earth was a good idea.
"Mana," I said. "I know you don't like to depend on anyone but the Susohnnan, but you know that there have been changes in the relationship between our planets." My eyes darted to Dar, but there was no reaction. He probably had no idea what I meant. "We have a treaty now. Everyone's going to help each other."
"But how are we going to get in to see the President of Earth? Dar has no memory of any protocols or passwords." She gave me a Look.
Of course, she was right. How could we get in to see the President without Dar?
He hardly looked like a king. He had let his beard grow, and there was something different about the way he projected himself. He lacked a sense of confidence.
Mana's position as Senior Advisor wasn't enough to get us through the door. Jared and I were nobodies. None of us had identification, as we had lost many belongings during unexpected transportation.
Shit.
"You're probably right, Mana, but do you have a better idea?"
"I don't think this would be a great thing to do," Jared said. He looked more uncomfortable than I had ever seen him. Mana and I exchanged a concerned look.
"Why?" I said, confused. "We need help, right? There's no way that Susohn can handle this threat on its own. We might not have a chance even if we're together. Maybe other planets need to get involved, but it makes sense to start with Earth."
Mana nodded. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Kenna. My problem is the logistics."
"There's got to be another way." He stared down at his hands, then ran his fingers through his hair, making the golden curls stand on end.
"Of course, there are plenty of other ways but they don't make sense." She sighed. "We're going to Earth. We'll figure everything else out after we get there." she said in a tone that brooked no opposition.
Jared glanced my way, but he would get no help from me.
Even if we couldn't get an audience with the President, there would be something we could do. We could ask Dar's mother to intervene. We could stage a protest, lie down on the street in front of her office â we had to do something, anything.
The aliens could come back anytime.
"Well, what now?" I said, staring up at the skyscraper that housed the offices of the President. Mana and Dar and I had tried get in to see her and had been politely asked to leave.
There was no way we were going to get past her gatekeepers. They didn't believe that Dar was the king of Susohn and that Mana was his Senior Advisor. Didn't they have a picture of them? Maybe they thought everyone from Susohn looked the same.
We had cleaned up as best we could, but we didn't have enough money to outfit ourselves as a delegation from Susohn.
They thought we were a bunch of pranksters.
"Let's meet Jared back at the hotel and tell him what happened. Maybe he'll have some ideas."
I doubted it. He had been silent the entire trip back to Earth and refused to come with us.
We got back to the hotel, and I flopped down on the bed, gazing up at the ceiling.
My mind drifted to Carson, my favorite engineer who I had eaten with a few times before he had been stolen away for a life of slavery in the mines. I remembered his smile and how he had always been so kind to me. It wasn't right that he should be forced to live out the rest of his life under inhumane conditions.
We had to get in to see the President. She was the key. She would get everything going.
Mana finished telling Jared what had happened. When she finished, he closed his eyes as if asking for strength from the divine. Then he opened them and spoke.
"I can get you in."
We all stared at him.
"What do you mean?" Mana said, puzzled.
"I can get you in to see the President."
"What are you going to do, flash your AEA terrorist card and they'll buzz you right in?" Mana said, and I laughed.
"No. But the President will listen if it's me that shows up at her door."
"Why? She didn't listen to Kenna. Her staff didn't believe Dar and I. Why is she suddenly going to listen to a nobody like you?" Mana said.
Jared sighed deeply and rubbed his forehead with one hand.
"She'll listen to me because I'm her son."
We were back at the President's offices very quickly.
"Tell her Jared's here," Jared said. When we had entered the building, he had assumed an authoritarian air.
I didn't even know how to describe it. It was like he expected people to listen to him and do what he said.
The people in the office apparently felt it, too. But they also knew they would be in big trouble if they gave unauthorized people access to the President.
"I'm sorry sir, but that simply isn't possible," the small officious secretary said. He pressed his lips together and nodded.
"If you don't tell her, and she finds out I was here, you'll be wishing that you hadn't kept me waiting," Jared said. He planted his hands on the desk and leaned towards the man, the menace in his tone unmistakable.
I was shocked and looked at him carefully. Was this the same cheerful, easy-going guy I thought I knew?
The secretary was unsure of what to do.
"Look, why don't you take my name back to her and see what she says," Jared suggested.
"Fine, since you are insistent. I'm sure she won't see you, sir. What is your full name?"
"Jared Mahaar."
The man froze.
"Pardon me?" he said, his eyes wide.
"You heard me." Jared's eyes showed a hint of a smile at the man's sudden change of manner.
"I...I'm sorry, sir. I didn't realize. Your mother asked us to screen everyone. I was just following orders. Your appearance has changed."
Jared cut him off with a hand gesture. Then he marched towards the President's office without waiting to be announced.
We followed him as the others in the office stared at us. I would never have imagined that Jared had been born into affluence. He was always down-to-earth, friendly, and personable! He had never once acted like he was better than me or anyone else.
To learn that his mother was the President was quite a surprise.
When he opened the door, we heard a woman's irritated voice.
"Jeffers, I asked you to leave me for the next hour, I've got work to do!"
As Jared appeared in the doorway, her voice trailed off.
It wasn't the tearful reunion that I had imagined. I guess he had told me the truth when he said that he had a falling out with his mother.
"JJ? Is that you?" she said. Her voice projected uncertainty and fear.
Right now, this was not the dominant woman who ran our planet. She was a mother, hoping for forgiveness from her only son.
As we came through the double doors, I was surprised by her appearance, now that I saw her compared to Jared.
I had seen her before on TV but now that I thought about it, Jared looked nothing like her. He was tall and blonde and wiry. She was small and had straight, dark brown hair, with a compact, sturdy body and darker skin.
I had always assumed she was from the Middle East. I had read about her before, but I didn't remember her home country.
She and Jared were nearly complete opposites in terms of looks, and I assumed that either he took after his father or had been adopted.
He certainly didn't look like his mother.
"It's me, Mama," he said, dropping the aura of power he had carried since we had walked into the building. He looked hurt, and he was trying to keep his distance from his mother. Was he were worried she might hurt him again?
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
Jeez, was this woman the brilliant mind that ran the entire planet? Couldn't she see that Jared just wanted her to love him?
Perhaps she was an intellectual, but inept in relationships. How could she ask him what he was doing here? Why wasn't she running over and giving him a hug? I shook my head, stunned by the scene unfolding before me.
"Could it possibly be because I want to see you?" he said, his voice bitter. "Do you have time in your busy schedule for me?"
"You told me the last time we spoke that you never wanted to see me again. You didn't want me meddling in your life. You didn't want to go into politics and that I should leave you alone." She seemed close to tears. "I left you alone because that's what you wanted."
Jared shook his head, staring at his mother. The rest of us watched the drama unfold.
"No, you were doing what you have always done â ignoring me." His voice was harsh and filled with pain. My heart ached for the boy Jared had been and the man he still was, who had never been loved the way he had needed to be.
"It took years of hard work to get where I am now. It doesn't happen over night. I had dreams, Jared, and I had to follow them. They were important. That doesn't mean that you are not important."
She walked around the desk until she was standing before him. The difference in their heights was evident as they stood facing each other. They were completely oblivious to the rest of us in the room.
"Jared." she said, but he stared stubbornly at the floor. "Jared, look at me."
Reluctantly, he lifted his stormy green eyes.
"Ever since we fought, all of this..." She gestured around at the luxurious room. "...has been empty. I'm sorry I wasn't the mother you wanted me to be. I regret that every day. But it's in the past now. I can't fix it. There is only now. We can only go on from here."
She reached out tentatively and took his hand. He let her take it, staring at her with troubled eyes.
"And what does that mean?" he said.
"I don't know," she said. "But maybe we can figure it out together?"
She looked scared.
"If you could consider forgiving me, that is?" she added.
He stared at her for a long time, different emotions chasing each other across his face. I looked around at everyone else in the room.
Dar had a confused look on his face. He looked like he remembered something painful. I thought about his reconciliation with his mother and wondered what he was thinking.
Mana was watching Jared intently. She focused her entire body on him. She looked like she could feel all the pain he was feeling.
There was another emotion on her face that I struggled to identify. As I watched her, I realized that it could be called longing.
"I don't know," he said, and her face crumpled. "But I guess I could think about it."
She got a funny look on her face, and I thought that she would cry this time. But then she smiled.
"Okay," she said. "I'll take that."
All of a sudden, she seemed to realize that she and Jared were not alone.
"But why are you here, Jared? You didn't just come to see your dear old mother."
And when she said that, she looked nothing like a dear old mother. She looked like the woman who had climbed to the top and had the power of an entire planet at her fingertips.
"No, mama. We've got a bigger problem on our hands."
And I watched as she transformed into the President before our very eyes.
"What's going on?" she glanced around at the rest of us.
Mana finally spoke up. "We have a problem at Wormhole 87," she said. "A significant problem. The space station has disappeared, and aliens took everyone on it as slaves."
Mana, Jared, and the president had gone to contact Susohn. We had explained what had happened to Dar, and she volunteered to communicate with the queen mother, instead, considering the circumstances.
"I have to find a bathroom," I said, feeling a little nervous about being alone with him. It was the first time we had been alone since he had been mind-wiped.
"I'll come with you," he said, immediately.
"It's okay. I'm sure I can manage on my own. I've used a bathroom my entire life." I laughed.
"You don't want me to come with you?"
There was an unexpected note of yearning in his voice that took me by surprise.
"No, I didn't mean that. You can come with me. Just wait outside." I gave him a weird look, but he didn't notice.
I felt unsure and nervous. It was like we were starting all over again. We were meeting for the first time, and it seemed odd. I sighed as we walked down the hall together. I'd been told to go down the stairs, and I would find a washroom on the right.
"Is everything OK?" he said to me.
"Yeah, I'm all right," I said. It was a complete lie. I had lost the love of my life, even though he was walking right beside me, and it was tearing my heart out. Fine probably wasn't the right word to describe what I was. "Not all right" would open up a big can of worms.
"You seem different from the rest. Could you tell me about our relationship before I was mind-wiped?"
My mind clouded, and I forgot about needing the washroom for a moment. He wanted me to tell him about our relationship? He wanted to know about what we had done together? How could I tell him that? I couldn't explain to a complete stranger about what we had been through together.
The idea was ludicrous.
How long had we been walking to this bathroom?
"I'm not sure if I can," I finally got out after a minute of silence.
"Why?" he said, confused.
"It's complicated, and I have to pee," I said, changing the subject.
I started walking faster down the hall. He matched my pace easily with his long legs.