Page 151 of Carousel

“Good,” she says, rounding on him again. “Ara chose the number one thousand. That’s the number of days you’ll go without Sky Provision on this ship, Duncan, for Disrespect against a first officer.” She smiles, sweetly. “Hope you ate well at dinner.”

He calls her a vulgar name.

But then he seems to realise what he’s just subjected himself to, and starts apologising to her, profusely. He’s begging her.

But she’s already stalking off, her long hair falling back behind her. Rike and I have to step quickly to keep up with her. I grab Rike’s arm, and we speed up even more, because the man is lumbering after us now. I honestly think he might attack us.

Would I be able to fight him off, if he did? I wish I’d had more training sessions with Riss.

Out in the hallway, Rike says, “My pod’s just up here.”

We head into a curving corridor of hatch doors. Rike yanks the large lever outside one, which releases the mechanism with a hiss. A wheel on the floor turns and clicks, and he gets the door up.

Once we’re inside, the door shut behind us, I look at them properly. Rike’s clearly as concerned as I was.

Meg is calm as ever.

“He wouldn’t have attacked us,” she states.

“How do you know that?”

“Because then I’d have had grounds for IES. Instant Execution for Self-Saviour.” She smiles to herself. “Although – at one thousand days of no food privileges – I’m sure he’ll start to wish he was dead.”

“Do you not get scared? Issuing sentences like that?”

“Why should I be? They’re certainly not scared of insulting me. I’m like their Provision Day. Give back what I receive.”

I can’t argue with that.

She says, “Nice flying today, by the way, Rike. You were one of the best out there.”

“Oh. Thank you.” He looks between us. “So, why did you want me?”

“I got him for you,” Meg tells me. “You do the talking.”

I cross my arms, thinking hard about what I need to know. And why.

“Some of my memories are missing,” I start. It seems as good an opening as any. “I know yours were, too. What did the Queen make you forget?”

“Meg could have told you, but they were minor things, really. The king’s funeral – maybe because she made a spectacle of herself. The fact she travelled.”

“She travelled?” That must be one of the memories she’s made me forget, too.

He nods. “To visit Lartos, in a sky ship they’d gifted her. It caused my father a lot of grief. It was dangerous for her to be away from the dome.”

I let the words settle. Then I say, “The Soulmates. Did she make you forget that story? The song? Because I think she did for me. I only remembered them when I heard the song at the morale booster.”

Rike contemplates it. “Possibly. Yes.”

“Tell me the whole fairy-tale. I want to make sure I’m remembering it right.”

He shrugs. “The Soulmates were fated to be together by the Sisters. Their powers, combined, were unimaginable. But they wanted different things. When they separated, they were weaker – and they were punished by the Sisters for going against them. It ends badly for them both.”

I don’t know what to make of that.

I look over at Meg, now leaning back against Rike’s ship. “If the Queen hides things she thinks are dangerous, things that expose her, why hide a story?” I ask her.

“You wouldn’t hide a story. Unless you thought it wasn’t just a story.”