Starfall: A Starstruck Novel (45 page)

There, perched on “our” rock and humming faintly, was the positron emitter—a metal tube about a foot and a half long, its cone-shaped end pointing at the sky. Just as Arthur had instructed us this afternoon, we moved to within four feet of it, positioning ourselves so that any bolt of electricity we produced would intersect the invisible stream of positrons on their way into space.

Rigel checked his cellphone. “12:41. Just over five minutes to go.”
 

We stared at each other, the enormity of what we were about to attempt—and the likelihood that it would be the last thing we ever did—hitting both of us at once. I swallowed.

“Rigel, I…I’m so glad you’re with me. If we don’t—”

“Shh.” He touched a finger on my lips. “We’ll do this, and we’ll be fine. And if I’m wrong, well, there’s no one in the whole universe I’d rather spend my last moments with. I love you, M.”

My heart was so full, I thought it might burst. “Oh, Rigel!” I flung myself into his arms and then we were kissing like there was no tomorrow. Which there might not be. For us, anyway.
 

For several moments we clung to each other, our emotions too intense for even mental words as we both mourned a future we might not get to spend together.
 

“I love you so much,” I finally murmured against his lips, determined to tell him one more time before it was too late. “More than I—”

I was interrupted by the beeping of the chronometer in his pocket.
 

My heart leapt into my throat. Instinctively, we tightened our embrace for an instant, then turned to face the emitter, hands still linked. We both swept our free arms upward until they were nearly touching above us, aiming at a point a few feet over the emitter.
 

This is it! Let’s save the world,
Rigel thought to me with all the confidence he could project.
 

Right.
I tried to match his certainty.
It’s us against the Grentl. Biggest bolt ever.

He nodded. The chronometer counted down, beep by beep. “Okay. Two, one, NOW!”
 

A sizzling blue-white bolt erupted from our outstretched hands to race toward the night sky. Fueled by pure adrenalin, we held the burst for nearly two full seconds—much longer than we ever had before. From the point where it intercepted the positron beam, a glittering trail arced up, up, to an unseen destination more than two thousand miles away. Hearts pounding in unison, we stared breathlessly after that sparkling path.
 

“Do you think—” I started to say, when, at the edge of sight, there was a flash, like a distant supernova. As we watched, it expanded from a brilliant point into a breathtaking rainbow of liquid light pouring out and down, filling the sky from horizon to horizon. It was beautiful…and terrifying.
 

Rigel tightened his grip on my hand with a surge of triumph just as the cascade of colors reached us. Abruptly, the positron emitter stopped humming…then exploded, the blast of energy knocking us off our feet.

Rigel’s hand was torn from mine. Terror that he’d been injured, or worse, was my very last sensation as everything went black.

*
   
*
   
*

I opened my eyes to see the night sky still above me, the spectacular wash of color fading. Then I became aware of the comforting sensation of being carried in a strong pair of arms. Turning my head slightly, relief abruptly became terror again when I realized it was Cormac, not Rigel, who held me.
 

“Rigel! Cormac, where’s Rigel? Is he—?”

“Likely he was merely stunned, as you were, Excellency,” came Cormac’s steady reply. “Once I have you safely away, I will return for him to make certain.”

“No!” I struggled against Cormac’s encircling arms. “Put me down. Go back now! I need to know if he’s okay!”

For the first time I could remember, Cormac failed to instantly obey my order. Instead, he continued on for several more seconds, until we were out of the cornfield. There, he laid me gently on the grass at the edge of the parking lot.

“I promised to notify the Council members as to your status as soon as possible, Excellency, if you will recall?”

“Fine. Call them on your way back to get Rigel.”

He frowned, clearly reluctant to leave me. “If that is truly your wish, my Sovereign.”

“It is.” I was nearly crying in my agony of suspense to know whether Rigel had survived that blast. “
Please
, Cormac!”

Pulling out his omni, he strode back into the cornfield. I could hear him speaking rapidly as he went, talking to Kyna, it sounded like. Only when I heard him say, “appears to have been successful,” did I realize I hadn’t even thought to ask if we’d saved the world.
 

Though I knew I should be glad, if I’d lost Rigel in the process I doubted I could ever be happy again. Luckily, before I had time to work myself into complete hysteria over that prospect, I distinctly heard two sets of footsteps approaching. Sure enough, a moment later they both emerged from the crackling corn stalks, Rigel walking shakily and with Cormac’s support, but under his own power.
 

The sight of him, apparently unhurt, gave sudden strength to my legs. I propelled myself up and into his arms—only to land us both on the ground in a heap. Not that I cared. I wrapped my arms tightly around Rigel, tears of happy relief pouring down my cheeks.

“You’re okay! You’re okay!”

“So are you!” He hugged me back just as tightly. “I was never so scared as when I woke up and you were gone. I was afraid you’d been vaporized.”

We were still kissing—Cormac standing stoically by and looking off into the distance—when two cars came screeching into the parking lot. Rigel and I reluctantly broke apart to see Kyna, Arthur and Rigel’s dad racing toward us.

“Success!” Mr. Stuart shouted exultantly. “Thank God you’re both all right!”

“The EMP never reached Earth,” Arthur confirmed, “though that light show your intervention produced did cause a few scattered power outages. Nothing that can’t be restored within a day or so, however.”
 

Kyna positively beamed at us. “Sovereign, Rigel, the people of this planet,
Echtran
and
Duchas
, can never repay the debt they owe you for what you have done this night. It is no exaggeration to say that you have quite literally saved billions of lives.”

Still clinging to each other, Rigel and I scrambled to our feet. “Are the Grentl leaving, then?”
 

“It is too soon to know, but from what you told us earlier, it’s unlikely they have the resources here to make another attempt at this time. Let us hope they will not wish to.”

The triumph I’d felt a moment ago faded slightly. “I, um, guess I should find out. Use the device again, I mean.” A wave of exhaustion swept through me, amplified by the weariness I felt from Rigel.

“Not tonight, though, right?” he asked.
 

Kyna shook her head. “No. Not tonight. You two both need rest—extremely well-deserved rest.”

“I’ll take the Sovereign to the O’Garas’ house on our way home,” Mr. Stuart said. “I’ve already notified them. Needless to say, Rigel’s mother is anxious to see him, as well.”

After another effusion of gratitude from Kyna and Arthur, Rigel, Cormac and I got into Mr. Stuart’s SUV. I was asleep, leaning against Rigel in the back seat, before we were out of the parking lot.

*
   
*
   
*

It was broad daylight when I opened my eyes again to find myself alone in Molly’s bedroom. I had no memory of how I’d gotten there, but felt remarkably refreshed. I must have slept at least ten hours. When I made my way downstairs a few minutes later, I discovered it was nearly two in the afternoon—so more like thirteen hours.

“Kyna messaged me not to wake you, dear,” Mrs. O’Gara explained. “Still, I’m glad you’re up. Your aunt has called twice to ask when you might be coming home.”

“Oh, wow. Yeah, I’d better get back. What am I going to tell her?”

Molly grinned at me. “Don’t worry. Mum told her you were helping me shop for a Homecoming dress and we wouldn’t be back till late this afternoon.”

“Which should give you time to conduct certain necessary business at the Stuarts’ house.” Mrs. O was suddenly serious. “First, though, let’s get some food into you. You must be famished.”

I was, though the prospect of another session with the Grentl device kept me from eating as much as I might have otherwise.
 

Less than an hour later, we were all gathered again in the Stuarts’ living room around that deceptively innocent-looking cube with its coppery projections. Rigel, I’d discovered, had slept every bit as long as I had—which was good, since I was going to need his help for this.

“Ready when you are,” he said now, placing a hand on my shoulder like last time. Warmth and strength flowed into me, along with a welcome dose of courage.

“Right. Let’s find out what they plan to do next.” Trying not to broadcast my fear that it might be something even worse, I reached out and grabbed the prongs.
 

They warmed instantly in my hands, almost as though the Grentl had been expecting me. Before I could even try to block them, they quickly extracted the last forty-eight hours from both my mind and Rigel’s. The moment they finished, I tried probing the Grentl’s collective minds for some sense of their future plans.
 

I received impressions of curiosity and satisfaction, which puzzled me, since we’d foiled their attempt to EMP us back to pre-industrial times. Then I caught a distinct vision of the Grentl ship retreating, hurtling through the blackness of space to a planet I now recognized as their home world with its hovering clouds of energy-beings.
 

You’re leaving?
 

“TEST RESULT INDICATES SIGNIFICANT POTENTIAL. FURTHER STUDY NECESSARY.”

More rapid-fire images assaulted me, too quickly to comprehend all at once, and then the projections cooled in my hands. They were gone.

I let go and took a step back, exchanging a puzzled glance with Rigel, who’d heard what I had and seen at least some of what I’d seen.
 

“Does that mean—?” he started to say when Kyna spoke.

“Excellency, I’ve just received word from Nuath that the Grentl ship appears to be moving off at extreme speed. They’re leaving!”

Hardly daring to believe, I stared at her, those final impressions from the Grentl still unfolding in my brain. “I think… I think they’re done with us for now. They said—” I tried to remember the exact words— “that the test result indicates we have significant potential.”

“You mean this whole thing was just a test?” Malcolm seemed outraged. “They weren’t really planning to release the EMP after all?”

I shook my head. “No, it was real. They released it. But…they
wanted
to see if we could stop them.” The truth came clear to me even as I put it into words. “If we hadn’t, they’d have considered it proof that humanity isn’t capable of progressing past our inherent savagery.”

“But you
were
able to stop them!” Little Nara looked both pleased and confused.
 

“Yes. Because of my bond with Rigel. Because of our love.
That’s
the potential they see in our race, what they now plan to study for another millennium or two. Love.”

“Are you nearly dressed?” Aunt Theresa called up the stairs. “Your friends will be here in half an hour.”

“Almost,” I called back, trying to get a look at the back of my dress in my little hand mirror. Molly had just finished fastening me into another of my less formal (but still way formal for a high school dance) Sovereign outfits, this one a rich green that exactly matched my eyes.

Sean’s friend Pete was taking Molly to the dance and all six of us—me, Rigel, Molly, Pete, Sean and Missy—were going to dinner first at The Rib House, the closest thing Jewel had to a fancy restaurant. Last night I’d been way too distracted to properly appreciate my role as Junior Princess but tonight I planned to thoroughly enjoy myself—now that I no longer had the freaking fate of the world hanging over my head.
 

“Don’t worry, you look great,” Molly assured me. “How does the back of my hair look?”

“Fine.” I couldn’t help being amused by how excited she seemed about her first date with Pete, after all the disparaging remarks she’d made about
Duchas
boys. Or maybe she was just happy to be going to the dance and Pete was incidental. I had no intention of asking.

Deciding my silver barrette might look good with the dress, I dug into my nightstand for it. “Do you think this will go with—?” I started to ask when I noticed the message light on my omni blinking. “Oops, guess I should have checked this when I first got home.”

The message was from Kyna and had come more than two hours ago. “Excellency, I must warn you that you will shortly have an extremely important visitor—the President of the United States.”

“
What?
” I nearly shrieked.

The message continued, “He should arrive at your home at approximately five o’clock this evening. You may wish to prepare your relatives in some way beforehand.”
 

According to my bedside clock, it was five o’clock now!

I stared at Molly. “The
President?
Here? Why… How… What will I tell Aunt Theresa?”
 

Hearing a car door outside, I flew to the window in time to see a black SUV with darkened windows pull up in front of my house. Two other, identical SUVs were already parked, one with a black-suited man standing next to it.
 

“Holy crap! I think he’s here! How do I look? What should I
say?”

Molly shrugged, looking nearly as stunned as I felt. “Guess you shouldn’t keep him waiting, huh?”

That was enough to send me clattering down the stairs, hoping to somehow head off Aunt Theresa before she started asking questions I’d had no time to make up answers to.