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Chapter 2
Ana
So, did you find my son yet?
I’m sitting in my first lecture of the year, Mathematics for Integrated Technology Science, and it’s so familiar being in a classroom again that I almost feel at home—even down to the part where Elena is distracting me with messages as if she’s the only person that matters.
Ana? Hello? You said you’d get back to me today. How’d you go?
My wrist device vibrates again as her text pops down from the notifications bar on the flat screen of my Galaxy Snap (so named because it snaps around your wrist and connects you to the whole galaxy). I swipe her message away and try vainly to tap my lecture notes as quietly as possible against my clackety keyboard, while all around me everyone else types away on their high-tech holo-notes with slim keyboards and holographic screens.
Ana, seriously. Why are you ignoring me? Hellooooooo?
It’s a bit intimidating if I’m honest. I’m the only human in the room—probably the only human attending this university, from what I’ve seen. There are a few other races scattered around, a couple of skinny Ak’tek insect types which we see a lot of at home, plus some others I can’t even name, with strange faces and strange bodies. But the class is mostly dominated by the large Zvezdi, all of them sharp-toothed, pointy-eared and almost-but-not-quite human.
Ana. My son. Where is he?
I hold in a sigh and try to ignore as my wrist continues to zap me with tiny little vibrations as each of Elena’s new messages come through, one after the other.
It’s been days now. DID YOU FIND MY SON?
I squeeze my fingers into a quick fist so that I don’t throw my laptop across the lecture hall and hit an unsuspecting student in the head.
ANALINA, DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH A GALAXY SNAP COSTS? Not only did I use the last of my surrogacy money to buy one for you, my UNGRATEFUL sister, but I got one for the family too so we could stay connected and HELP EACH OTHER. But you don’t care about me, do you?
With pursed lips I finally swipe open her messages to reply. A beam of light flares out from the small screen and projects a palm-sized keyboard onto the table before my fingers, and I angrily tap out my response against the wood with my right hand.
He isn’t YOUR baby, you’re not a biological surrogate. None of the DNA is yours, you drama queen.
I want to turn back to my notes, but her response instantly pings through.
Oh, good, so you ARE free to chat.
And then she starts calling me.
For the sake of my sanity, I decide to take her call outside, so I gather up all my stuff and quietly slip out of the lecture hall and into an empty hallway.
“Fine,” I huff, as a tiny, round little camera drone zooms out from my Snapand projects a holographic screen of my sister glaring at me with her arms crossed. “I’m here.”
“Nice to know you care, Ana,” she says with a glower.
“Listen,” I say, cutting straight to the point. “I was going to tell you after class today, but since you’ve hijacked my lecture…I found the kid. Which was not easy, by the way. I had to dig into the surrogacy company’s confidential files, which is probably illegal, but I found him. Yes, his parents are famous; yes,he’s here in the capital city with me; and no, there is no chance in any of the seven rings of hell that I am going anywhere near him.”
“What? Why?”
“Because, Elena! He’s—” The sound of murmured conversation wafts towards me as a few students wonder by, and I slip further down the hall towards the bathrooms, the little drone following me loyally. “Because he’s the son of President Vahadr Tzelik II, and I would like to remain alive long enough to see the end of my education!”
Elena’s expression is frozen in shock as she stares at me, and there’s a long silence.
“You mean, the dictator of the whole planet of Zvezden?” she finally chokes out.
“Yes!”
“The President Tzelik? Holy Jesus, Mary and Joseph… Are you serious?”
“I’m serious, Elena. And I’m not going anywhere near him!”
She takes a deep breath and then tilts her head back and lets out a bellow. “Mari! Come quick, you’ll never guess who I gave birth to!”
