Chapter 2

Chapter

Two

" I t's not exactly what I thought a greenhouse would be," I say, watching a strange, metal, jointed arm expertly snip a leaf, one that seemed fine where it was growing.

"There are flowers from Frith here," 99 points out, guiding me down the smooth walkway in the domed glass greenhouse.

"Oh, Calliape would hate this." I laugh.

Calliape hates most things in the capital, so much so that shortly after we arrived on Viathan, she confided in August that she could not stay here. That she needed to be farther away in one of the rural settlements. I miss her, only seeing her when she braves the capital to visit me, but when she does, I can tell she is happier now.

"I doubt August would even suggest showing her," he agrees, knowing how perfect it looks compared to the wildness of the mountain Calliape grew up on.

The Viathan greenhouse is nestled within the courtyard of the capital building and is as large as the grand hall in the Estate. The strange machines retract up into the scaffolding of the ceiling and move around on an almost graceful track, as if they can sense when we are getting close and want to maintain the illusion of true nature.

99 guides me by the small of my back to a roped off area protecting a glass case, barely large enough for two people to stand in. There is condensation on the glass that runs down in rivets, the inside kept more humid for fragile plants.

As we place our feet in the blue circle outside the barrier, the steamy fog inside the mini greenhouse dissipates and the contents come into view.

An artificially placed rock wall displays a cluster of beautiful, bright flowers with long, stringy roots. The elegant tentacles sway, and a large, bulbous part of the flower seems snugly fit into the cracks of the rocks.

"99, I think that's the peace plant from Frith. Look at the bulb."

"Is it?" he asks, having not seen it in it's true form and only after, when it was presented.

"Looks a little different."

"The greenhouse keepers alter some of the plant species. Could be spliced with something native to Viathan." He nods his head to a set of doors with a bright sign, warning not to enter.

It seems ominous and almost frightening what they may be doing back there, even if it's just to plants.

He pulls me in closer, tucking me into his side as we view the Frithian flower in its perfectly conditioned display, looking striking but out of place.

" So odd that the bulb we needed on Frith is just sitting here behind glass. Poor August," I remark into our tether.

It's terrible knowing August went out on his own for this and how much he suffered to secure the bulb for our peace offering. I can still picture his butchered arm, how pale and scared he looked, how awful that night in the forest was.

"August loves a good story. He has likely told every port attendant on Viathan of how he almost died in the forest of Frith," 99 soothes. He must have heard the guilt inside me.

I know he is trying to make me feel better, but seeing this flower only reminds me of the separation of the three worlds, how the symptoms of that division affected August.

"If this were Cosima, it would be kept with other forbidden items and considered a strange thing to be cataloged and then discarded, only kept as a paper record." I am a little sad at my own world's view and how I may have participated.

"And here it is a spectacle." 99's tone surprises me, like he too suddenly sees how wrong the flower looks in the display case.

The moment we step out of the designated spots for our feet, the lights on the flower change and the foggy mist fills the space, shrouding the plant in its perfect conditions again.

99's hand slips into mine as we walk down the pathway between giant plants that reach up into the greenhouse expanse above and never into the peaceful walkways.

But when Commander Yeva comes bounding toward us, leaving her post, I know immediately something is wrong.

"Lord General is just outside, 99th Commander. He would like a word," she says.

I have only met the lord general once, when a council meeting was held to discuss my stay on Viathan when we first arrived. He was more intimidating than the actual emperors themselves. He ruled in favor of my stay of sanctuary here, trusting 99's judgment without a second thought, but I have not seen him since that day.

"Commander Wesley, stay with Priestess Ferren," 99 orders over my head and then says softer to me, "I will be just a moment."

"I will be here looking at leaves." I smile.

He squeezes my hand twice and takes off with Commander Yeva toward the exit of the greenhouse.

I stand in front of an informational data pad displaying details on the large, veined plant growing in twists behind it. This portion of the greenhouse does a better job of making the plants appear like they are growing naturally, little pockets of jungle between the walkways featuring plants that seem to work together and still look pleasing to the eye.

"This one grows out in the settlements." Commander Wesley's voice startles me.

"Does it?" I look to the informational plaque again.

"Mm-hmm, on the sides of houses."

"It's very pretty," I say casually, trying to take up the time until 99 returns.

"It's really invasive to solar panels." He laughs.

"Oh." I try to picture the vines growing across the shiny panels 99 has pointed out to me before.

"There's another kind down here that flowers."

When I look up, Commander Wesley is in the fork of the walkway gesturing down to another section of the greenhouse. I stare at him for a long moment, trying to figure out why he wants to go back where we just came from.

He beckons me again. "You will like it."

I follow him down the pathway until he stops at the carefully manicured foliage display of a similar plant. The podium lights up to reveal an illustration, both with and without blooms.

"Oh . . . well, it normally has flowers on it." He laughs.

I can tell he is trying to distract me from 99 being urgently called away. The way Commander Yeva walked toward us like there was something terribly wrong obviously took root inside my nerves and he noticed.

"Thank you for showing me, but I'm fine. I—" I cut my sentence short when I look up and see Commander Wesley in an on-guard posture. His helmet snaps to the side like he is listening to something, then he glances behind himself as if checking in that direction.

It sends a chill over my skin, and I step back, getting ready to brace for whatever happens next.

But then a bleating alarm begins in the distance, making him snap his attention.

"This way, Priestess." He steps forward and clutches my arm as the grating sound catches me off balance.

"What is it?"

He doesn't answer, just pulls me along, his hold not as tight as it could be but enough for me to be almost dragged as I shuffle along in shock.

An alarm goes off right above us, and the domed ceiling lights up with orange flashing lights, blinking to get our attention for whatever is coming.

We both pause, glancing up at the warning before he guides me down another pathway.

"What does the alarm mean?" I shout.

"It's not good! We need to get somewhere safer."

A slow rumble begins like the world is splitting down the middle, the ground itself groaning as if waking from a deep slumber.

I wince as the alarm seems to crest its pitch, piercing my eardrum as it prepares us for the incoming danger.

The thought crosses my mind that the vibrations beneath my feet are from an approaching ship, one from Cosima coming to take me back.

My body switches from confusion to an overwhelming instinct to flee from my pursuers.

And then I am running with him, forcing myself to follow his lead and to trust he knows the best route. He has sworn to protect me, but if a ship has arrived, then there is little a single commander can do to stop them. My heart feels like a fist pounding against my chest from within as we sprint down another walkway.

Commander Wesley stops us near the glass display of the Frithian flower and pushes me into an archway of the metal doors that warn against entry, standing with his arms on either side of my body.

He pounds on the door and curses anyone on the other side who will not let us in.

We are stuck here, waiting in the threshold, praying to be let inside to presumed safety.

I press my head back into the metal, trying to put room between me and his close but necessary proximity.

"Forgive me, Priestess," he shouts, apologizing over the sound of the world grumbling for the accidentally intimate pose, his arms coming down to encase me.

"Is it a ship?" I'm afraid to ask, shouting over harsh, rhythmic tolling.

The alarm screams so loud, I can barely hear the sound of a glass panel falling from the domed ceiling and crashing to the floor.

I jump as the greenhouse shakes and Commander Wesley tucks in closer, protecting me from more of the architecture threatening to crumble around us.

"It's a tremor!"

Of course.

I have never heard the alarms go off while outside the capital building. Our room and the library exude a pleasant chime from the door panels to warn of an incoming conjunction tremor.

I noticed the conjunction tremors have been calmer here compared to the building shattering ones on Cosima or the ones that feel like the entire world is being rolled around on Frith, but this is different.

"Why is this tremor so—" My question is cut off by another panel falling.

"The stabilizers are malfunctioning, just stay put!" he directs as something falls to the stone walkway and shatters.

99 once explained some sort of cushioning or balancing in the infrastructure of the buildings here to prepare for such tremors, but as with much of the Viathan technology, I let it go over my head willingly.

I place my forearms over my head in case one of the panels falls on us, but through a crack in my arms, I notice Commander Wesley's visor is fixed to the side as if staring and then he opens his shoulder to brace for a collision.

99's gloved hand shoves him away like his weight is nothing, almost knocking him to the ground.

I gasp as 99 hovers over me, casting a larger blanket of protection than Commander Wesley, his forearms planted on the wall above, body pressed painfully close. I want to wrap my arms around him in a hug but I'm too afraid to move out from under his shelter.

99 sends me reassuring light through the tether and beckons me to tell him if I am hurt. He doesn't flinch as more things crash down from the ceiling.

I catch the shine of a mechanical arm falling into the miniature jungle of plants at the front of the greenhouse where it tended to them.

The panel right above us shakes and looks as if it will be the next to fall, so I wrap my arms around 99's waist. The moment I do, I know he wants me to stop, to tuck my arms in and be fully shielded by his form again.

I close my eyes tightly, the tremor so loud I can't hear anything but the world coming down around us. We are too far into the structure to move; there is nowhere to go.

I tug him impossibly closer against me, hugging so tightly his heaving breath shallows.

And then it's suddenly warm all around us, and I can feel 99's arms come down from their placement on the wall behind me to the back of my head.

He embraces me tenderly even though the destruction continues.

Confused, I crack open my eyes and see a bright green halo around us, surrounded in an emerald dome of our own.

99 rubs my back, while the tremor rolls to a stop and the alarms calm, the tiny movements of his helmet searching for any indication that I am harmed.

"I'm alright," I tell him, holding onto his forearms and letting my light fade away into tiny dancing particles.

He takes a heaving breath and then turns deadly slow to Commander Wesley in the other door's threshold next to us.

"You should have taken her outside," 99 barks at him.

"We weren't by an entrance," I say quickly. "I came back here to look at another flower."

"Apologies, Priestess Ferren, I should have escorted you out."

"No. You did nothing wrong," I tell him.

"I could feel how afraid you were, Ferren," 99 says slowly to me, like he can't bear it.

"I thought—I thought it was a ship arriving from Cosima for a moment."

99's fists clench like he is holding back and hearing the confession is too much.

Commander Yeva jogs toward us, gracefully avoiding the scattered debris. "Lord General has dispatched to the emperor's wing."

"Find out why those fucking stabilizers are off." 99 jabs at the air between him and Commander Wesley. "Commander Yeva, I want you glued to Ferren's side, is that clear?"

"Affirmative, 99th Commander," both guards reply in unison and position themselves with their hands behind their backs and heads down in submission.

"Go!" His command is so loud, I'm surprised another glass panel doesn't fall from the ceiling.

99 turns to me, his breathing so deep his chest plate moves, trying to collect himself from the harsh tone he used on my guards.

"Commander Wesley got me to safety, 99. I would have been dead in some artificial forest if he hadn't been so quick to move me."

He shakes his head, finally calm.

"The malfunctioning things, is that why you were called away?" I ask.

"No, there was a First Son attack on a factory this evening while we had the suspects under questioning." He sighs, reluctant to continue. "And a woman was abducted."

"A woman? A priestess?"

"Not a priestess." He strokes a piece of my hair between his fingers as if the affection is more for his comfort than mine. "You are safe."

Glass crunches beneath my feet as I shift in place, the ground littered with debris and metal parts of the machines that so carefully cared for the plants here.

For some reason, it makes me sad to look at the damaged, broken pieces of the mechanical caretakers that made me so uneasy when I watched them work before.

"Why did this happen?"

"We should know soon." His tone has an ominous edge to it that makes the hair on my neck stand up.

There is no reason for perfectly maintained stabilizers to suddenly be malfunctioning, unless they have been tampered with.

"99, do you think this was on purpose?"

He doesn't answer me—he doesn't have to.