Preda's Voice (Guardians of Vaka Book 1) (13 page)

31

L
aney sat down to breakfast with her parents that morning. Excitement overcame her. It was only a few short days until they would be leaving for home. It felt strange to think of a place she had never been as home, but she just knew it was going to be everything she imagined and more.

Her parents seemed tense while they ate, and Laney supposed it had to do with the impending meeting with the Vank later. She decided to break the silence and asked, “What do you think they’re going to say at the meeting?”

Her father answered after he carefully swallowed a bite of toast. “They are going to bluster on about the importance of tradition and ensuring the Vozia line has the intelligence to lead in the coming war. It will be the same as always. The only difference is that the Vozia girl is here, and tensions will be running even higher.”

Laney’s mother stopped her father from saying anything further with a stern glance. She turned to Laney with her no-nonsense face and said, “Today you have to decide what you want to take with you to Vaka. It can only be what you can fit into two bags. Think carefully.”

Laney obediently nodded and started to clear the breakfast table. Her father and mother started talking again quietly while Laney was washing dishes. She overheard her mother. “Karn, are you meeting with Artem before the meeting?”

Her father’s response was lost under the clanking of washing dishes. Laney frowned and wondered why he would be meeting with Artem Vank before the meeting today.
Are they going to discuss Preda or maybe the trip home?

Just as she was about to return to her room to start sorting through her most prized possessions, she heard a sharp knock on the front door. Laney put the last of the dishes down and made a quick detour to get to the door before her parents did. When she opened it, her jaw dropped open. It was Will Kait standing in front of Preda Vozia herself.

“Laney Ceren,” Will said, “Preda Vozia would like to know if you could…” Will hesitated and glanced back at Preda before continuing. The Vozia had a mischievous smile on her face. “Come out and play?” he finished, looking slightly embarrassed.

Laney couldn’t help herself. She practically leaped off the floor in delight. Her parents were behind her. They both looked worried, but how could they deny a Vozia’s request? She ran to her room, gathered some spelunking supplies, and threw them into a bag. She didn’t know how adventurous Preda wanted to be, but it never hurt to have some rope and belaying equipment.

She practically knocked her parents over in her haste to get out the door but stopped before running out of the house entirely. Laney turned back toward her parents and bowed in respect. She said in the most humble voice she could muster, “May I beg leave to escort Preda Vozia around Underground Deception?”

Karn Ceren sighed heavily but nodded his assent. Laney practically skipped down the walkway to join Preda and Will. Preda had a beaming smile and seemed almost as excited as Laney.

As they turned to walk down the pathway, Preda asked, “Underground Deception?”

“It’s what we like to call our humble cave system here,” Laney said. “It’s deceptive in how large it is, and this is Deception Island, after all.” After a moment she asked, “Where’s Tamron? How did you get out of his sight without a guardian?”

Preda looked acutely guilty and glanced back toward Will. He was following at a discreet distance behind them. “Will Kait is my guardian.”

“No. I mean your official guardian. You don’t have one yet, but when we get to Vaka, there will be a big choosing ceremony and…” Laney trailed off at the look on Preda’s face.

She glanced at Will. He was doing an excellent job of looking everywhere but at the two girls.

“I might have skipped the ceremony part,” Preda said, and she looked more than a little chagrined.

“You what?” Laney exclaimed. “How did you even know the words or how to say them?”

“I don’t know,” Preda answered.

The three had stopped walking, and Preda seemed intensely concerned with a piece of rock she was pushing around with her feet. “It just happened,” she said and shrugged.

“It doesn’t just happen,” Laney said. “You have to have true intent when you speak. Otherwise it doesn’t work. However you knew what to say, the meaning was there. Will Kait was meant to be your guardian—no matter what anybody wanted.”

“Really?” Preda had looked up, and her eyes seemed to glow more brightly.

“Sure,” said Laney. “It’s in all the histories. When a Vozia tries to pick someone to be his or her guardian as a political maneuver, it never works. No matter how much the Vozia thinks he or she wants it, that person can never make the words work.”

Preda started to smile, and Laney leaned in conspiratorially before continuing in a whisper. “The other thing about it is…the guardian has to want it too. More than anything. Otherwise the words mean nothing.”

Preda glanced back at Will. He was speaking to a passerby about some fruit that was in season this time of year on the mainland. When she looked back at Laney, it was as if the weight of the world had been lifted off her shoulders.

Laney beamed back. “OK. So where to?”

Preda laughed. The laugh was genuine, and coming from her it rang through everyone standing within a twenty-foot radius. People turned around and stared with good reason. The sound made Laney’s whole being feel better. She imagined this what being drunk felt like.

Will came forward and leaned in toward them. To Laney’s eyes, he looked more affected by Preda’s laugh than anyone else. The tension around his eyes she had noted before was absent. The two truly were bound.

“Ladies,” he said, “we should go somewhere soon. People are staring. Also, Preda, we have got to work on that whole voice projection thing.”

Preda blushed and looked around. She finally seemed to notice all the people staring at them with grins on their faces.

Laney grabbed her arm and started to lead her down one of the back tunnels. “Come on,” she said. “I know just the place to start.”

32

P
reda couldn’t believe what she was looking at. The cavern was at least twice as big as the main one. The ceiling was so high, she could barely make out the delicate stalactites dangling from it. It wasn’t the massive cavern that had caused her to stop and stare in wonder, though. It was the enormous spaceship inside it.

The people working around the ship looked like ants in comparison. It had a reflective black surface that curved in such a way that it created intricate spirals with no corners. What Preda could see was just the top half of it. The bottom half was hidden in a depression—a crater in the cavern floor.

Laney said the crater had been made when they had first landed it. The cavern roof was formed when the caldera was formed. Preda could barely concentrate on Laney’s voice. The rippling green reflections on the black metallic surface mesmerized her. The ship looked alive.

“What’s it made of?” she asked.

“That is the secret to interstellar space travel,” Laney said excitedly. “The metal was discovered at the bottom of one of our deepest ocean trenches. It absorbs any surrounding radiation like a sponge. This allows it to act as its own fuel source and travel faster than anyone had ever dreamed possible. Once we figured out how to work with the metal, the Vank developed an algorithm to use gravitational fields to calculate distances between stars and planets. This way, when we travel as fast as we do, there are no collisions.”

Laney seemed proud of her explanation, but Preda could only shake her head in wonder. Her first thought was that people on Earth would do anything to discover such an element. She looked at the ship, and her eyes almost had trouble following its otherworldly shape.

“It’s called the
Feria
,” Laney said after a moment. “It’s named after your mother, Preda. She was the one who dreamed of finding this planet. It was because of her that the ship was built. I’m sorry she never got to see this place. Or you.”

Preda swallowed and looked at Laney in disbelief. “This is because of my mother?”

Feria
, Preda thought. It was a beautiful name. Will came up behind Preda and stood on her other side. He looked at the ship while he spoke. “On Vaka we’ve always known about our shared ancestors on Earth. What we didn’t know was that humans had completely forgotten about us,” he said.

“Shared ancestors?” Preda asked.

“We came from here. Well, from what is now Central Africa. Before your year 3200 BC. A race of beings took a group of humans and brought us to Vaka. Ever since then we’ve been on a different evolutionary path. Didn’t you wonder why we look so much like them?” Will smiled.

Preda felt stupid for not wondering. She had taken it on faith that she was an alien who happened to look just like a human. This made more sense, though. She had so many questions, she didn’t know where to start. Everything was unbelievable. After a moment she asked, “Who took you…us, I guess…to Vaka?”

“We don’t know,” Laney answered. That thought was frightening.

“We have a description from our earliest histories. I can show you when we get home,” Will said.

Home
, Preda thought. It was a strange concept to think of a place she had never been to as home. Laney sighed next to Preda as though she had been thinking the same thing. Abruptly she smiled and asked, “Do you want to get closer to the
Feria
?”

Preda nodded enthusiastically. She felt drawn to it. As they made their way closer, the colossal structure truly towered above them. She craned her neck back but could no longer see the top of it. It felt as if it was humming. On closer inspection Preda confirmed that it was one continuous piece of metal.

Laney watched Preda and said, “When the Landis were first charged with trying to forge and shape the metal, they found that it resisted any force applied to it. It takes the opposite shape that is intended. They had to learn to work with it. Not against it. My father says this shape is the one the metal wanted—not us.”

Will chuckled. “It is hard for a Landi to admit defeat and compromise.”

Laney laughed at the shared joke. As they drew closer to the ship, people working around it stopped what they were doing and stared at the three of them.

“Are we not supposed to be here?” asked Preda. She was suddenly worried about getting Laney in trouble.

“You can be wherever you want,” Laney answered. “You’re a Vozia.”

The way she reverently said the name only made Preda more concerned that she was not worthy. When they were standing next to the
Feria
, Preda could definitely feel humming coming from the ship. It resonated in her bones, even though she couldn’t hear it. She reached out to touch it, and a green light built up in the metal beneath her fingers. It felt warm, and she pressed her whole hand flat against the metal.

Preda stood that way for a while, and it wasn’t until she heard the murmurings of concerned voices that she turned her head. People had gathered to stand behind her, and some were kneeling on the ground. She saw worry in Will’s face and pulled her hand back immediately. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Preda, how are you doing that?” Will asked.

“Doing what?” she responded.

He indicated the ship behind her, and when she turned around, she saw it. The green light she thought had been only beneath her hand where she had touched the metal was swirling all around the ship. It was like water moving beneath the surface of the black metal. The
Feria
had come alive beneath her touch.

Preda backed up to see better, and as she moved farther away, the light slowly died down. The humming she could feel in her bones became quieter. It was still there, though, just beneath the surface. She looked at the faces around her, and most looked scared. She didn’t blame them. She felt terrified herself. Will and Laney started smiling, though. Preda felt better, seeing their reassuring faces. “Is that not supposed to happen?” she asked.

“It looks like that only when it’s absorbing something radioactive. That’s what it looks like when it’s moving through space,” Will said.

“I’m not radioactive. Am I?” Preda felt stupid for asking, but she had to.

“No,” said Will. He was still smiling.

Laney looked thoughtful. After a moment the people around them started moving again. It was as if some sort of spell had been cast and then broken.

“You wanna see the inside?” Laney asked after a moment.

Preda nodded, and they walked toward the center of the
Feria
. A ramp led to the open entrance. The doorway disappeared when Preda wasn’t looking at it from the right angle. It was like an optical illusion. The metal was curved around either side. Preda felt the humming grow louder in her ears as she passed through the entrance. Once inside, however, it stopped abruptly. “I can’t feel it anymore,” she said quietly to no one in particular.

Laney and Will exchanged a glance. “Maybe it’s because of the metal’s property,” Laney said. “It absorbs from only one side. The other side is inactive. That’s why it’s safe for us to be in here with all the surrounding radiation that’s in space.”

Preda couldn’t help but shiver at its sudden absence. She looked around and saw that the color of the walls was a muted gray. It was sharply contrasted with the onyx black of the outside. Once they moved farther in, the front of the ship opened up into a large central room that led off into at least thirty hallways. They extended out like the arms of a splayed starfish. Laney led them through the one straight ahead—to the “control room.” The room reminded Preda of a miniature auditorium. A blank screen covered the entire wall, and the back of the room, where they had entered, was behind the highest rows of chairs. Each chair seemed to have its own console, and one chair in particular sat higher than the rest in the center of the back row. The entire room seemed technologically above Preda’s head.

“This is where we program the algorithms for interstellar travel,” Laney said. “I couldn’t even begin to tell you more than that, but I’m sure a Vank or Landi could.”

They left the control room and toured the rest of the ship. The entire thing was like an indoor city. There was a greenhouse that felt like a park, with stone walkways and ponds. The living areas were nicer than anywhere Preda had ever stayed—except her current rooms. Laney had said the
Feria
could sustain more than a thousand people for over a year. Preda could believe it.

When they exited the ship, Preda noted that people passing by were carrying supplies and crates. They were preparing to leave Earth for good. She felt a sudden urge to go back to the surface, see the ocean, and walk out in the open air. It felt as if this would be her last chance on Earth, and the thought made her chest constrict.

As they were leaving the cavern that housed the
Feria
, Preda turned to Will with pleading eyes. She tried to convey her sudden urgency. “I need to go back up to the surface one last time,” she said.