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My mother leads the way. She does not stop to talk to any of the laborers or even the engineers. They are below her caste and not worthy of her attention in her mind. I nod at those we pass and try to look as generally encouraging as I can.
The lead ship is more spacious than I expected. As we pass down the corridors though, all I can see is the extra space where stasis pods could fit. What does it matter if it’s roomy if most of us are asleep anyway?
“Queen Mother,” says a dragon of the engineer caste, looking up from a tablet as we approach. Stasis pods fill an open room, lined up like soldiers.
“How is your progress?” my mother demands, not looking at the engineer, but running her hand along the smooth, sleek metal of the stasis pod.
“Installation has gone perfectly. These pods are up and running, ready for hosting.”
“Excellent.” Then she makes a minute motion with her hands. “Guards.”
I frown, not following. I catch up quick enough, though, when four Royal guards grab me, two on each side, and begin to drag me toward a stasis pod.
The engineer hurriedly opens the pod.
“Mother. Mother!” I yell. “Don’t do this!”
There’s no use. The guards shove me into the upright stasis pod and plasma clamps wind around my arms and legs.
I look to the guards. “Stop! I am the son of the King. I will have you executed for treason.”
Soon the plasma bands have me completely immobile and the soldiers step back. They look to one another, obviously unsure of their actions. But my mother is quickly there. “You are dismissed.”
The guards snap to attention and then exit the stasis room.
I glare at my mother. “How dare you do this. I will be King one day.”
My mother smiles at me. She smiles.
And then she reaches out and touches my forehead, caressing me. I try to jerk back from her touch, but there’s nowhere to go. “You will thank me for this one day.”
Of all the times she’s said that to me, never once have I thanked her.
“You’ll wake up hundreds and hundreds of years from now and this will all just be a bad dream. I’m saving you from this nightmare. Just like any loving mother would.”
Then she leans forward and kisses my cheek.
I want to scream at her, but a plasma tube has inserted itself into my mouth and down my throat so that all I can do is choke on my curses as she pulls away and the glass shell of the stasis pod closes shut.
“Nooo!” I try to shout, yanking at the bindings. “Let me out. Let me out! Stop! You can’t let all those people die!”
“First. First, you have to calm down! First, please, I can’t hold you down and you’re going to reopen your wound.”
I pause in my thrashing, confused. Giselle? My human female? What is she doing h—? How —?
I blink and I am no longer on the Salvation Ship. I’m in a human dwelling. Everything is wooden instead of metal.
I don’t understand. I was just with my mother. And the Draci, I should have saved them. I should have known my mother was tricking me. I should have—
“First, you need to drink this. You haven’t been getting enough fluid down. You’ve been feverish for days. Please, drink this.” My human female sounds exhausted as she holds a cup of water to my lips.
I swallow convulsively, spilling half of the water down my chin.
Everything is still so foggy and fuzzy. I feel too hot and too cold at the same time.
“First, is there any way we can call someone for help? I don’t know how to help you. We need some alien antibiotics or something. We obviously didn’t clean the wound in time. Please, First. I’m afraid if I go and try to look for help, I won’t even know what direction to go or how far —”
I reach out blindly but manage to find her arm. I clasp my clawed fingers around it. “No. No, don’t leave. Don’t leave me alone in the dark.” A full body shudder wracks me. So many years alone in the dark. We did not know what stasis would be like, the years of dreams and nightmares, all alone. All alone in the dark, and I was only asleep a hundred years into the journey before Mother woke me. I start to shake. “Don’t leave me alone.”
“Okay, okay. I’m not going anywhere. I won’t leave you alone. I’m here. I’m here, First. I’m not going anywhere.”
I sink back into the mattress and the darkness takes me.
Twelve
GISELLE
All through the night, he screamed. In anguish, he screamed for his people. The ones who’d been left behind and he hadn’t been able to save.
The only thing that would calm him was my presence. Until finally, I just climbed in the bed with his huge, feverish body. I was exhausted and nothing else I tried helped. He needed sleep. I had no idea how to help him and no idea how to call for help. I could try going for help, but go where? And how would I get there? If there was one thing that had become clear in my mad dash for help the other night, it was that we were truly in the middle of nowhere.
