Chapter 72: Inversion

Chloe wondered if they'd lost gravity. Rudy and Milissa seemed to stare at her upside-down.

As her head cleared, she realized she'd fallen to the floor. Clearly, the Magpie's artificial gravity still worked. The odd angles of her observers' faces owed to their standing over her, and even that changed as Rudy knelt beside her.

Chloe sat up, or tried to. She slumped backwards.

Rudy’s hand cupped her back. “What happened to you, Clo?”

Good question.

One second, she'd felt the butterfly touch of Milissa's mind, a familiar presence amplified to almost uncomfortable closeness.

The next, she'd found herself in a tiny, or maybe just cramped, featureless silver room. With her dad and Animus Hunter Errard Zelph. Zelph seemed to know she was there, but no matter how she shouted and gestured to her dad, he didn't respond. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to move, and when she looked down at herself, she had no self to look at.

What had happened?

She said, “I have no idea.”

“I'm so sorry, Highness,” Milissa said. She dropped to her knees beside Rudy and clasped Chloe's hand. “I warned you it might be dangerous, but –”

Chloe shook her head. Mistake. If she didn’t know better, she’d have said she could feel her brain sloshing around inside her skull. “Don't worry about it, Mili. And don't call me ‘Highness.’”

“You aren't hurt?” Rudy asked.

“Just a headache.” And a heartache. Principle! Seeing her dad again, watching him try to keep up a brave face even when he knew Zelph could read his mind, and above all not being able to help him or even call his name? She could think of plenty of worse nightmares, but most of them started the same way.

Worst of all, she didn't even know if the Animus Hunter had let her dad go unharmed. She'd found herself back on the Magpie before their interview concluded.

She tried to make sense of the conversation, but it was at least as opaque to Chloe Hughes as it had seemed to be to Jack Hughes. Zelph had talked at her dad, or maybe at her if he'd somehow known she was there. Maybe the whole thing had been a construct of the Animus Hunter's mind.

Or of mine, Chloe thought. She hoped it could be true.

“You'd better explain,” Milissa said. “We're close enough to New Kyrillopolis to go back if you need medical attention.”

“Not going to happen,” Chloe said even before Rudy could. Actually, he kept his mouth shut and looked uncomfortable enough she knew he had something to say as soon as they were alone.

“But Highn – Chloe –!”

“I'm going forward, Mili,” she whispered, as much to herself as to the Kyrillos girl.

“Did you... see something?” Rudy asked.

“My dad,” Chloe admitted.

She sketched the scene for them as quickly as she could. Since she didn't understand what had happened or what Zelph was saying, she didn't see any point in trying to make it comprehensible to her companions.

Milissa startled her by clapping her hands together. “Oh! I’ve never heard of spontaneous remote viewing.”

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Chloe rubbed her eyes. “This is what Stephan was trying to teach me?”

The thought of actively seeking that experience out again made her stomach clench. Now more than ever, though, she couldn’t afford to forsake knowledge and power.

“Well.” Milissa clasped her hands behind her back. “I don’t know if he expected it to work.”

“Why not?” Rudy asked.

“It's a very rare ability,” Milissa said. She sounded bubbly, like she’d forgotten they’d just fought to escape Stephan’s clutches. “My brother is the only aristocrat I've met who can do it, and it took him just ages to learn how. Although I guess it makes sense that the empress would have every power.”

“Right now all 'the empress' has is a sore head,” Chloe said. “Not to mention, no intention of becoming an empress.”

“Of course,” Milissa said. She even managed to swallow the “highness” at the end. Chloe didn't have to be a telepath to read her darn close to worshipful smile, though.

Pretty soon, Chloe knew she would have to sit down with Milissa and straighten her out. The Kyrillos girl might end up being a friend or nothing more than a fellow passenger, but under no circumstances could she stay a – a follower. It probably wasn't important when it came to saving Chloe's parents, living to tell the tale or any semblance of happily-ever-aftering.

But it was absolutely vital to staying sane in the next month or so of travel.

So, Chloe hesitated to ask Milissa to leave her and Rudy alone. She could ask a favor, but Milissa would hear and obey only a command.

Rudy caught Chloe's gaze. His own danced toward the third member of their party, so quickly it might have been her imagination.

Maybe it was no signal at all, but when Chloe used their physical contact to transmit a “yes, please,” to his suit, he lifted her gently from the bridge floor. “I better get you down to sickbay and make sure you didn't crack your skull open.”

“Thanks, Rudy,” she said, for plenty of reasons, and let herself be carried. If she closed her eyes she could remember all the times her dad had toted her around the Mother Goose, but she was hard-pressed to say which she'd liked better.

She expected Rudy to put her down when the bridge doors slid shut behind them, but for the second time in a day he kept walking. Chloe squirmed to free herself.

“Don't move around too much,” he said. “With a head injury, you never know what might happen.”

“I didn't really crack my head,” Chloe said. “I just –”

“Wanted to ditch Mili?”

“Um,” Chloe said. “Pretty rude, I guess. Sorry.”

“I mean, I won’t say no to a little privacy,” Rudy said. “But you actually did hit your head when you fell out of the chair and that headache worries me.”

“I feel better already,” she said. If nothing else, because of the sound of his voice when he got serious.

Chloe heard the sickbay doors hiss open, then felt deck beneath her feet. She opened her eyes.

Rudy motioned to the examination table.

She shook her head. “I’ll grab a checkup in a minute, but I really do feel better. Besides, if I had a concussion, my flight suit would flag it.”

“True.” Rudy folded his arms. “I’m guessing you didn’t go along with this just to get some alone time.”

The smile that had crept onto Chloe’s face abandoned her. “I wish.”

“Me too,” he said. He stretched his neck. “What did you want the privacy to ask me about?”

She met his gaze. “Why did you shoot me a weird look when Milissa mentioned going back to New Kyrillopolis?”

“You caught that, huh?”

So she hadn't just imagined it. “With Stephan beaten, you're thinking I should go back, aren't you?”

Rudy sighed. “I told Milissa and I'll tell you. Stephan was right about Etemenos being a trap. The only reason I got you off New Kyrillopolis was because Mili said Steph would kill you and at the time I was operating under the assumption he'd been willing to kill her to get in your good graces, so I believed it.”

“So,” Chloe said. “You think we should go back.”

“The two of you? Yes.”

“While you ride off to save the day, oh knight in shining armor?”

He shrugged. “It could happen.”

“No,” Chloe said, “it can't.”

She braced for an argument.

“Okay,” he said. He jerked a thumb toward the examination table. “Now hop on and run some tests or link our suits so I can see the diagnostic on your head.”

She stepped forward and hugged him. It was another “thanks” without having to repeat it aloud. It was what she wanted to do.

It also linked their flight suits' diagnostics.

Rudy kissed the top of her head. “Guess you've got a thick enough skull, after all,” he whispered into her hair.