Starstruck

CHAPTER 26: Electromagnetic pulse

  "Are you mad?" Shim demanded. I thought the lack of panic in his voice was admirable. I was starting to hyperventilate, myself. "A crowd this size is bound to draw the attention of local authorities, which will jeopardize your agenda more than ours."

  "Doubtful, as you've chosen such a private spot for our . . . meeting. But even if it does, it will be a minor setback at most." I could see Morven's people moving closer as he spoke. "It may force us to consolidate power more quickly, that's all. Our plan is the only one that can save our people, and you know it." His voice was becoming more strident. "The colony on Mars has barely one hundred years before resources become scarce, even with the population controls being put in place."

  Shim took a half step backward and the others did likewise, tightening the circle around me—not that I imagined it could help. "The people of Earth are our brothers, not our enemies," he said. "Peaceful integration will achieve the same end, without bloodshed or destruction of property. Surely you can see the advantage of having the natives as friends, as they outnumber us by more than fifty thousand to one."

  "Friends? No, thank you. But they may become useful servants, once they learn to respect us properly. And they will, make no doubt of that. Our superiority will guarantee it."

  "Superiority?" Shim's voice was still calm. "In technology, perhaps. Once I would have claimed moral superiority as well, but you and your followers have voided that claim with tactics such as these."

  Shim raised his voice, speaking to the still-growing crowd around us. "Do you respect what you have become under this man's guidance? Under Faxon's? It was not so many years ago that the Martian dream, embraced by all but a discontented few, was to bring peace and prosperity to Earth, our mother planet. To share both our technology and our enlightened way of life, teaching them to feed their hungry and power their planet without ravaging its resources or killing each other. Have you let go of that dream so easily, embracing the violent ways of Earth for the sake of greed or ambition? Were those not the very Earth vices we hoped to eradicate?"

  I was impressed by his ability to speak so persuasively under pressure—and apparently so were a lot of the people in the clearing, Morven's included. A surprised murmur swept through the crowd.

  "Don't listen to him!" Morven called out, his voice sounding weak and shrill compared to Shim's. "He's only a shill for the Royals, those elitists who held us down for generations, ruling by an archaic set of traditions."

  "Those traditions were put in place by our forebears for sound scientific reasons." Shim's voice still carried to the edges of the clearing and beyond. "Though we owed our original genetic enhancements to our long-ago alien abductors, we improved upon their efforts over the centuries to the benefit of our entire colony. When we formed a system of government, we selected our ruling class from among the brightest, most talented and most fair-minded among us. Those traits have persisted through the generations. Combined with our inherently pacifist, equitable nature—a nature Faxon and his followers have perverted—our people have prospered for centuries under the leadership of our Royal family."

  Morven hooted in derision—an unattractive sound. "Equitable, you say! But until Faxon's rise to power, your 'fair-minded' Royals dominated our leadership, both hereditary and elected."

  "Because of their abilities," Shim countered. "Can any of you claim that the colony is better off—more prosperous, more peaceful, happier—under Faxon's rule than it was under Sovereign Leontine? Is that the kind of future you want on Earth for yourselves and your children?"

  There was more murmuring in response, louder now, and more worried. Maybe it was only wishful thinking on my part, but it seemed like Morven might be losing control of the situation. Apparently he thought so too.

  "Enough of this!" he practically screamed. "Those loyal to me—to Faxon—have been promised both power and riches in our new regime here on Earth. They know where their interests lie and won't be swayed by the slick rhetoric of a cornered man, a man who sounds more like a politician than a scientist. All of you—do what you came to do!"

  As he spoke, he raised an arm and pushed a button on a device that looked like a miniature TV remote. At the same time, at least half of those surrounding us, from what I could see, started forward, some with their small weapons raised.

  I tried to stand, but Rigel hissed, "No! Stay down." He moved to my side, blocking as much of my body with his own as he could.

  "Stun only," Shim called out to our little group at the same time. "No killing except as an absolute last resort."

  Even before he finished, a flash like a small lightning bolt grazed Shim's arm, knocking him sideways. Immediately, three separate flashes came from our side and the man who had fired the shot dropped to the ground. Suddenly, flashes were everywhere, coming from all directions, though I didn't see anyone else hit. But even as I took hope from that, one of my defenders fell backward and lay still, just a few feet to my right.

  Rigel rose to his knees but I pulled him back down, now scared enough that seeing was no longer my top priority. "What are you doing?" I demanded. "Do you want to get shot?"

  He shook his head. "I've got to keep you safe. I need a weapon." He sounded furious, but not with me. He crawled toward the little silver weapon that had dropped from the hand of our fallen ally but before he could reach it, another bolt hit the device and sent it flying far out of reach.

  Rigel and I both looked up in shock to see Mr. Stuart glaring at us. He had fired that shot!

  "No heroics, either of you," he snapped. "You'll only make this harder." Then he was firing at our enemies again, taking down another one.

  Though there were more of them than us, our side seemed to be better shots—or maybe Shim's arguments had shaken the resolve of our attackers. Peeking out from under Rigel's arm, I saw at least ten of them down, while only two of our people had fallen. Several of Morven's followers also seemed to have retreated back into the corn. We were still outnumbered, but by less than two to one now.

  "The Princess! Kill the Princess," Morven was bellowing. "Never mind the others, we can deal with them later."

  Dr. Stuart let out a cry as a bolt hit the center of her chest and she fell to her knees. As she fell, though, she raised her own weapon—I hadn't noticed before that she even had one—and fired at Morven, nicking his hip and knocking him sideways.

  "Mom!" Rigel shouted. He made a move toward her, but then jumped back to blanket me with his body again as two bolts came my way. I heard him grunt in pain as he took one of the hits that had been intended for me.

  "Rigel!" I tried to scream, but my face was in the dirt. Coughing and spitting to clear it out of my mouth, I tried again. "Are you okay?"

  "Yeah," he said, his voice faint. Then, more strongly, urgently, "How about you? Are you hurt?" He tried to struggle up, obviously still groggy.

  "I'm fine. You just lie still for a minute."

  I assumed the fact that he wasn't dead meant the others had to use three shots to kill, too, but I didn't dare count on it. I cautiously raised my head to look around and saw that one more of our people had fallen, in addition to Dr. Stuart. But less than ten of theirs still seemed to be attacking. Mr. Stuart was firing like he was berserked or something, and he was a deadly shot. Not a skill I'd have expected from a computer whiz, somehow. Shim was still on his feet, too.

  Unfortunately, so was Morven. Standing behind one of his men, using him as a shield, he punched more buttons on his remote-thingy. Shim was the one who finally brought down the bodyguard, but as his man fell, Morven let out a cry of what sounded like triumph—which didn't seem to make sense, since we now had as many people as he did, at least if you counted Rigel and me.

  But then I heard a weird whirring hum overhead and looked up to see a silvery orb about twice the size of a basketball skimming the tops of the corn stalks—heading straight for us.

  "No!" Mr. Stuart sounded horrified. "That's not possible. That project was mothballed fif
ty years ago because it was too dangerous."

  "How could you bring such an abomination to Earth, Morven?" Shim demanded, as the orb reached the clearing.

  Morven's high, derisive laughter made my skin crawl. "Now you know why I fear no opposition. We have half a dozen Ossian Spheres under our control—more than enough to subject this entire planet to Faxon's rule. All it will take is a demonstration or two."

  I still had no clue what the thing was, but clearly everyone else on our side did. They were staring at the object with naked fear, their weapons now held limply in their hands. Except for Shim, who brought his weapon up in one swift motion and fired at the orb.

  The shot had no noticeable effect on the sphere, but it spurred a few others to action. Mr. Stuart fired at Morven, who was now unprotected . . . except that he wasn't. Mr. Stuart's beam stopped about a foot short of its target, as though blocked by an invisible shield of some sort.

  Morven laughed again. "As you can see, I've made a few modifications to the original—though believe me, its primary function is still as devastating as ever." He toyed with the remote in his hand. "I recommend that any of you who don't want your nervous systems permanently scrambled move some distance from your Princess." He spat out the word like it was something disgusting. "I have it set to its narrowest, most intense beam but it will still likely affect anyone within a two meter radius. For obvious reasons, I haven't been able to test this setting under, ah, field conditions."

  His own few remaining people scrambled backwards, away from me. One or two of those on our side did, too, but Shim and Mr. Stuart stood firm, no more than a yard or two in front of me. Dr. Stuart was still on the ground, but whether dead or stunned I couldn't tell.

  I pushed myself to my feet and looked straight at Morven, deciding abruptly that if I was going to die or have my brain fried or whatever that thing was going to do to me, I wanted to face it standing—like the Princess I was. It was the least I could do in return for what these people had done for me.

  Then, to my surprise, a hand clasped mine and I turned to see that Rigel had managed to stand as well.

  "Get away, to where it's safe," I told him. "Please."

  He shook his head, no trace of compromise in his expression. "I'm with you, no matter what. I love you, M."

  Despite knowing I probably only had moments to live, happiness blossomed through me, making everything else irrelevant. Even if it ended in the next two minutes, my life had been worth it for this one instant.

  "I love you too, Rigel." I made it a vow, the truest thing I'd ever said. And then we were kissing, in full view of family, friends and enemies. Why not?

  Morven's obnoxious voice broke the spell. "Puppy love. How very touching. I guess it's both of you, then."

  But even as he spoke, I had a memory so vivid it was like a vision—of Rigel stopping my uncle's runaway car. I looked into Rigel's eyes and saw awareness dawn there, then, clear in my mind, I heard his voice saying, Yes!

  Our hands met and clasped, tightly, then we both swept our free arms up to point at the sphere just as Morven pushed something on his remote. A blinding arc of electricity, at least twenty times as strong as the one that had hit Bryce Farmer, jumped from our fingertips and converged on the now-humming orb.

  With an ear-splitting boom the sphere exploded in midair, sending sparks and shards raining down on the whole clearing. Reacting instantly, Rigel pulled me to the ground and shielded me with his body, like he had before, and I had a fleeting glimpse of everyone else, friend and foe, also hitting the dirt. The debris fell for several seconds, then stopped.

  Slowly, fearfully, I raised my head and saw others doing the same. Shim appeared unhurt, other than a burn on one hand, which he was shaking. Mr. Stuart, who had covered his wife just as Rigel had covered me, seemed okay, too. Rigel moved, letting me up, and I twisted around quickly to check on him. He greeted me with a grin and I let out my breath in relief. In fact, everyone who had still been standing before the explosion appeared all right, if shaken.

  Except Boyne Morven.

  Maybe because he'd been closest to it, or maybe because he'd been enveloped in whatever shield the orb had been generating when it blew up, he'd been knocked halfway across the clearing and appeared to be unconscious—or worse. Not that I was going to feel the least bit guilty about it, Martian heritage or no. The guy had just tried to kill me—and Rigel.

  "Is everyone all right?" Shim asked as we all clambered to our feet to take stock.

  Everyone on our side who could nodded, even though I could see that several had cuts or burns of some sort. The couple of people from Morven's side who were still in the clearing remained sitting, covered by the weapons of two of Shim's people.

  People on both sides I'd feared were dead were starting to stir, apparently only stunned. To my intense relief, Dr. Stuart was one of those.

  Mr. Stuart instantly noticed her moving. "Ariel!" he exclaimed, kneeling beside her. "Oh, thank God!"

  Rigel moved to his mother's side as well, but never released his grip on my hand so I came along, too. "Mom! I was afraid you were . . . you know."

  "I'm fine, dear," she said with a weak smile. "Or I will be, once the queasiness passes. What happened?"

  "I'd rather like to know the answer to that myself," Shim said, coming over to join us. "Rigel, Sov— er, Marsha, what exactly was that? Not that we're ungrateful, of course."

  Rigel and I looked at each other, then back at Shim. In that brief exchange of glances, I could have sworn I heard Rigel say, Truth.

  "We're not exactly sure, sir," he said aloud. "We've experienced something similar a couple of times before, but nothing anywhere near as strong as this."

  Shim looked at me and I shrugged, too. "It just seemed like . . . the thing to do, sir. We definitely didn't have time to plan it."

  His expression softened. "I suppose not. But once we've all had a chance to, er, recover and clean up a bit, I'd like to have a talk with both of you about this interesting, ah, ability you seem to have."

  I was startled to see Shim nearly at a loss for words. But I had a question of my own. "What was that thing, sir? What would it have done to me, if we hadn't, er—"

  It was Mr. Stuart who answered. "An Ossian Sphere. They were working on a prototype back on Mars nearly a hundred years ago. It disrupts electromagnetic impulses. It was being developed as a way to stop runaway reactions, but they discovered it also had the potential to affect organic impulses—neurons. Also, to short out all electronics within a fairly large area. Given that an accident with it could have crippled our entire colony, the project was shut down. I had no idea Faxon revived it."

  "I'm sure it wasn't publicized," Shim said. "But I'll make certain word reaches him that we now have an effective defense against it." He smiled at Rigel and me and I felt my cheeks grow warm.

  "Shim," Dr. Stuart said, moving to stand beside her husband. She seemed to be nearly herself again. "Do you think you can get a ride back with one of your people if we leave you to handle the details and . . . cleanup? I'd like to get Marsha and Rigel out of here."

  He blinked. "Of course, Ariel. I was forgetting for a moment that they're only— But you're quite right. I'll see you all later."

  "Come on." Her words included Mr. Stuart as well as the two of us. "I believe something was said about going for ice cream?"