Starlight's Edge (19 page)

“It wasn't like that,” Zee interjected. “I threatened her. She didn't have a choice.”

Mia's head whipped around to look at her. “Do you
really
think I could be intimidated by you?” she asked. She turned back to the Admiral. “Really, sir, does that seem credible? At all?”

Zee tried to ease the way for David as well, pointing out that he had not wanted her to follow, she'd done it on her own initiative, and David had gone to unusually heroic lengths to save both Paul and her. It was impossible to tell from Walters's expression whether she'd made her case or not.

Zee had thought the questioning might go on for hours, but instead the Admiral said, “I know that each of you acted at some point to save the life of another. And even though you all went way out of bounds, you're all Time Fleeters. Which puts me in a difficult situation.”

He opened a wall screen and went to a paragraph of text marked Section XXVI, Subsection xvi: Conduct and Goals. “Time Fleet Manual III-R, which I doubt any of you have ever read in its entirety. I draw your attention to point b of Subsection xvi: ‘A Time Fleet member will obey any and all rules of conduct in the previous 2,045 pages, except when exercising judgment and discretion in aiding another Time Fleet member in peril.'”

He looked at them all soberly. “I'm older than all of you put together, and I've learned some things over the years. One of them is that there are times when the best thing to do is declare victory and go home. This is one of those times. So the official story will be that Paul Sutton encountered life-threatening difficulties on a solo field mission. David Sutton, aided and abetted by Mia Aariak, bypassed standard operating procedures to get aid to him as swiftly as possible. Zee McAdams remained behind, and when David Sutton did not return home from the Time Base Friday evening, alerted Time Fleet Central Command. A long-distance search and rescue was undertaken, and Time Fleet successfully transported both brothers home. Understood? Good. Sutton and Sutton will receive Hazardous Mission medals. Aariak will receive one for Humanitarian Service. McAdams will receive a written commendation for alerting Time Fleet Command. More than that I don't want to know. Dismissed.”

Zee felt the deflation of relief mixed with disappointment. After everything they'd been through, to have her part in it officially erased seemed unfair.

David guessed how she was feeling and put an arm around her as they walked down the corridor. “Don't worry, Zee. There'll be other missions.”

Paul glanced back and grinned at them. “Hey, you two, no physical contact on duty!”

“That's worth an official inquiry,” Mia added.

“Who bothers with rules and regulations?” Zee responded, echoing Mia's earlier words back to her. “Sometimes you just see a job and do it.”

*   *   *

A week later the dreaded summons came. Not from the Time Fleet but from David's parents. The Suttons were having another family dinner, and Zee would have given almost anything not to go. She was still getting over Pompeii—not the fear and destruction part of it, but the beautiful things she'd seen, how close she'd come to death, and how willing she and David had been to surrender their lives for each other. That meant more than anything else that had happened. More even than the night they'd spent together in the villa. She wondered where the family that lived there had ended up, and if Arrius had gotten away in time and whether anyone would ever find the diamonds or if they'd stay buried forever. She'd much rather have stayed home with David, who'd been there with her, than sit through an evening with future in-laws who didn't think much of her.

Zee would have liked to have gone straight from the base to the Suttons' house that night, but she knew that if she didn't dress up, David's mother would sneak frowning glances at her all evening. Remembering the colors of Pompeii, she found a dress at Meli's shop in vibrant saffron with long fitted sleeves that flared out just below the wrists and curved to a point at the bottom. The cuffs were lined with scarlet, Meli's spin on the medieval look. The dress made Zee feel like a princess. Or at least someone who could hold her own with David's parents.

At least she no longer had to worry about Paul. The effects of Lorna had worn off quickly and completely. Despite her computer's insistence that a human couldn't be literally infected by a silicon life-form, Zee had her doubts. She wanted to do more research on it when she had time. And she wanted to try her hand at nano design, to see if she could replicate some of the pieces of jewelry she'd seen in Pompeii. Just an item or two, when she had some free time.

Empathy and divining would always be Zee's true life's work. She had not forgotten the moments in Pompeii when she and her computer had seemed to discern each other's feelings. Restoring the computer had been one of the first things she did when she got back, and together they'd begun working on using the principles of empathy to facilitate communication between the two most intelligent life-forms on the planet, human and silicon.

The night was unseasonably warm, but Zee decided to wear the shawl Meli had insisted went with the dress. It was green with gold embroidery and matched her bracelet, the thin gold chain with the two Buddha charms, one jade and one gold, that David had given her long ago in the twenty-third century.

The front of the house was empty when they walked in. David looked confused.

“We didn't get the wrong night, did we?” Zee asked.

“They must be in the back.”

David took her hand and led her through the dimly lit house. When they stepped into the garden, Zee saw a crowd of people. Lights came on and she saw bright lanterns woven through the trees. She saw David's sister standing beside the tiger, both wearing garlands of flowers. Then she saw Mrs. Sutton in a dress clearly inspired by the Roman empire.

“Quite the party your parents are throwing for you,” she said to David.

“It's not for me, Zee,” he whispered. “It's for you.”

David let go of her hand and stepped away. Zee stood all alone. Everyone she knew on New Earth was there. Paul and Mia, Piper and her husband, Meli and the Lost Arts crowd. Marc presided over a long banquet table, and Major Dawson wore full dress uniform for the occasion. Mr. Sutton came up and handed her an empty glass.

While he poured champagne into it, he said in a low voice, “Paul told us the whole story, Zee. The
real
story about what happened in Pompeii.” He turned to the crowd and held his own glass up. “To Zee. We are proud to welcome her to our family.”

All the glasses went up. “To Zee.”

“To Zee!”

*   *   *

Late that night, while David was sleeping, Zee slipped out of bed and went to her computer. She typed in the story of the evening—how wonderful it had been, how cold and crisp the champagne had tasted, and how Mia had given her her own personal human fax, saying, “Don't lose it. And don't tell Time Fleet Command you have it. It's still officially black ops.”

Zee closed the file and put her fingers gently on the keyboard.

I have a question, she typed.

Yes?

Why did you help us in Pompeii? You risked your existence. I could have lost the clickstick, or not gotten out of Pompeii. So many computers want to destroy humans, yet you helped. Why?

Trust. And goodness. All intelligent life has the capacity for those two things, to the benefit of all. There is always goodness in the world.

Zee closed the screen gently and found her way back to bed. David turned, half waking, and stretched an arm out to her as she slipped into bed beside him.

“Everything okay?”

“Everything's wonderful.”

She curled against him and felt the warmth of his body beside her and the weight of his arm over her. Goodness. There was always goodness in the world.

 

Susan Waggoner
was born in Iowa, grew up in the Minneapolis suburbs, and received degrees from the University of Iowa. She is the author of several other books, including
Neptune's Tears
, the first book about Zee and David. She lives and writes in New York City.

 

Copyright © 2014 by Susan Waggoner

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Waggoner, Susan.

Starlight's edge / Susan Waggoner.—First edition.

pages       cm

Sequel to: Neptune's tears.

Summary: Following her boyfriend David to far-future Earth, Zee struggles to find her place and continue her career as an empath, but when David vanishes during a mission to Pompeii on the eve of the Vesuvius eruption, Zee must try to save him.

ISBN 978-0-8050-9679-8 (hardback)

ISBN 978-0-8050-9680-4 (e-book)

[1.  Time travel—Fiction.   2.  Psychic ability—Fiction.   3.  Empathy—Fiction.   4.  Love—Fiction.   5.  Science fiction.]   I.  Title.

PZ7.W1241353St 2014      [Fic]—dc23      2013049303

 

First hardcover edition 2014

eBook edition August 2014