Legacy (8 page)

8

Diana

USSC Foothold

I couldn’t believe that in such a short time, we went from being inside a “shuttle” on the ground in Blaze to now standing inside an unimaginably huge ship far above Legacy. We just exited the shuttle and were now standing inside a giant metal barn – at least that’s the best way I could describe the room we were in.

“
Diana, Braxton, please follow me,” the captain said, leading us past nearly a dozen people who were already tending to the shuttle.

“
Iron Dragon,” Braxton whispered to me as he pointed to the shuttle where a man was now inserting a thick cable into its side, “I first thought this was a magical dragon from those Minchu novels that I read as a kid.”

“
As a kid
,” I repeated, wishing it hadn’t made me laugh, “Sorry, you just appear so young to me.”

We slipped through a doorway, then up three flights of stairs before entering a long hallway. I was beginning to wonder just how huge this ship was. The largest ocean-faring vessel I’d ever seen only had three full floors beneath the main deck and two above.

“
And you’re better than me, of course. I’m sure everything we say or do makes the people from Green laugh,” he replied, looking a bit frustrated.

“
I didn’t mean anything bad,” I said, wishing I had better control over my tongue, “I only hear old people say stuff like ‘as a kid’ when referring to things.”

He shrugged. I noticed he made a point to keep his hands in his pockets as we traversed the long hallways. I was beginning to think that this was just a giant building located somewhere else on Legacy. We continued to pass up more and more of the exceedingly pale people from Earth in these halls, all of them seemingly rushed and intent on a destination, but not intent enough to stare at us along the way.

“
I thought the shuttle was a flying ocean-vessel from Blaze,” I said, trying to make conversation, “But I should have known. I’d been sending messages to Earth for a long time.”

He turned to me, his beautiful dark eyes seeming to take me in for the first time.

“
Diana ‘ex’?” he asked.

My mother was Diana Nine, my grandmother Diana Eight, so I was the lucky one to be named Diana Ten. Of course, the name is written in our clock numbers, meaning it’s spelled out as Diana X. I’d spent my life being called “ex” instead of “ten” especially in the scientific community. Since my dad and I are know throughout Legacy as eccentrics who enjoy blowing our money and time on the stars, the name Diana Ex became a nickname for Diana Eccentric.

I’d heard all the comments that I was never meant to hear. I’d seen the hands covering mouths as people whispered. I still maintained a lot of anger toward these people who enjoyed the benefits of the Cop/Mag Dynamos, but made fun of the man who funded their invention. My grandfather needed the power of thunder to ignite the glow into his lighting devices, and years later he’d need it to create his listening devices. He never got credit for either of these inventions, but he was at the forefront of both Legacy-changing creations especially when it came to money. He did get partial credit for the first copper/magnet electricity-creating dynamo, but it wasn’t credit he was looking for. He just wanted to be seen as ‘normal.’

Now, three generations later, I was still trying for the same thing. The world enjoyed the dynamos that produced electricity, and they especially enjoyed their military listening devices, but they laughed at the ‘eccentric’ family that paid for it all. They laughed at the family that was fascinated with the stars.

“
Yes,” I sighed, “Diana ‘ex’.”

“
You were really… you know… these are the people you were talking to?” he asked, “It was all real?”

I actually punched him in the arm for that question.

“
It was never assumed to be
NOT
real! The noises were heard and published for the whole world. Didn’t you hear their music?” I asked.

“
Yeah, but I just figured-”

“
No, you didn’t ‘figure’. You didn’t want to accept that there just might be other worlds out there,” I cut him off, wishing suddenly that I had better control of my emotions, “I’m sure that Captain Reiss, his people, and this whole ship is all part of a… hmm… maybe it’s part of a scam.”

I’m sure the captain heard us as he led us through the never-ending corridors. Finally, just before Braxton had a chance to reply, the captain pressed a blue square next to one of the doors, causing it to open by itself. He turned to us and gestured us to enter ahead of him.

“
We have a very limited amount of windows aboard this ship since space is a hostile environment,” he said with a smile, “But I’m sure you’ll appreciate our starboard observatory.”

I didn’t really know what I was looking at the moment I entered the room. It was a domed room, surrounded by windows filled with a portion of a very colorful ball. The blues, greens, and whites were so vivid; more beautiful than anything our painters could dream up.

I approached the window, staring off toward Alpha in the distance. It took me a moment to realize that if that was Alpha, then the beautiful ball must certainly be Legacy.

“
Legacy?” I muttered.

“
No way,” I heard Braxton reply beside me, “That’s too… no way…”

“
Yes, that’s your planet. Actually, that’s the continent you call Green right there,” the captain said, pointing to the green portion filling the window, “Your home is right about there, Diana.”

He touched his finger to a spot close to the blue ocean.

“
It’s nothing like I imagined,” I whispered, feeling a tear racing down my cheek, “Can I stay here? Can I visit your world?”

The captain laughed. I turned to see him shaking his head.

“
I’m staying here for a while, actually. It may be a couple years before I begin my journey back to Earth,” he said, “But I’m willing to share my ship, my windows, my technology, and anything else if you’d would be willing to share some friendship and land with the people of my ship.”

“
Land?” Braxton asked.

“
We’d like to build a port here. I know you two may not be governing authorities of any type, but at this moment, you could definitely serve as intermediaries between Earth and your governments. You can at least prevent the attacks long enough for us to introduce ourselves,” the captain stated, “Think of it as another country asking to build a port on your land so we can have a base of operations when it comes to trade and other relations.”

“
I’d definitely do whatever I can, but in all honesty, as Diana has expressed, I’m just a kid,” Braxton stated, “I don’t hold a lot of weight in the land of Blaze.”

“
I know exactly what you’re saying, but as a governing official on the Foothold, I can tell you that I would listen to even my lowest ranking waste handler if he told me that I needed ignore my instincts and talk to someone he considered important. I might not let my guard down, but I’d definitely consider his recommendation. No one is completely useless and I’m telling you this as the supreme commander of this ship.”

“
My mother is one of the top people in all of Green and I can guarantee you will be allowed to build a port there,” I said, turning back to the beautiful ball beside us, “We have a large portion of sterile land near the Gosslin Mountains that my mother was considering for housing. She had said there was enough room for a thousand families to live.”

I could actually see Legacy moving slowly beneath us. I thought I was imagining it at first, but as I stared at the left side, I could see landforms slowly moving into view while portion of the right side slowly disappeared.

“
You both are exceptionally generous,” the captain stated, “I hope you won’t begrudge me for this, but my medical staff is already insisting on seeing you.”

The door opened and two pale women entered the room. They were smiling as though they’d already been introduced to us.

“
How do you speak to these people without us knowing?” I asked the captain.

“
I have something of a… well, imagine a window that no one else can see. It appears in front of my vision anytime I choose. I can make selections from this ‘window’ to answer questions, send messages, or to pretty much keep updated on everything that’s going on,” he replied, “It’s so common to my people that I sometimes forget that you and Braxton have no idea what I’m doing.”

It still didn’t make any sense to me, so I just nodded as I often did. I took one more look out the window, then glanced over at Braxton to see if he had anything more to add. Braxton and I then followed the two women out of the room.

. . .

Their tests were quite non-invasive, just as the captain had promised. They swiped the insides of our mouths with a stick, poked our fingers and took a couple drops of our blood, then peeked into our eyes, ears, and mouths. After that, Braxton and I were left alone in a small room to ponder the future of Legacy.

“
My cousin owns Tyler Coal,” Braxton said apropos of nothing as he fiddled with his Mystic glove, “I think half his coal is traded for your family’s sugar.”

I figure he was looking for some form of common ground between us and I was grateful for it. Nothing had been comfortable between us and it was made even worse by my conscious effort to avoid his eyes. I knew if I looked too long into those black pools, I’d probably drown in them.

“
Yeah, I’ve heard of them,” I replied, “For the record, I don’t have a low opinion of you or the people from Blaze. I mean, look at me – I’m the girl who wastes all her mother’s fortune on star-listening.”

He snickered, then held his gloved hand out to me.

“
We’re all freaks in some way. Don’t worry about what I think,” he replied.

The door opened before I even had a chance to respond. The captain stood there smiling at both of us. Then after a moment, he came in and closed the door.

“
We’re definitely related,” the captain said, “There’s no doubt that you are both the descendants of a colony we established here a long time ago. Oddly however, Braxton is either a product of a thing we like to call gene therapy or maybe his DNA was somehow mixed with another.”

“
What’s that supposed to mean?” Braxton asked.

The captain took a seat, then clasped his hands together in front of him. He nodded subtly, then looked up at Braxton.

“
When we want to change something in future generations, we take the genes of a person – the hidden information inside our cells…” the captain began, then shook his head, “I know this won’t make any sense, but we improve our future generations. We used to have something called cancer that killed off millions of people, but then we removed the possibility of that from happening to future generations by gene therapy.”

“
So someone messed with Braxton’s ancestors so he would have to deal with this electrical problem?” I asked.

“
As best as we can tell, someone many generations back probably knew something of modern day science. This was probably someone from the original crew of the Pioneer. This person must not have felt comfortable with his future generations trying to survive through primitive means – spears, clubs, maybe even swords. I’d be willing to bet he messed around with the DNA of many…”

We watched the captain, waiting for him to finish his thought. I’m sure Braxton understood as little as I did.

“
Let’s just say, someone from the past figured a way to mess with your line. But as you’ve mentioned before, Braxton, some have learned a way to control this ability of yours. If I may, I’d love to perform a scan on you to see if we can learn more,” he said, “After all, this is just a theory of mine. Your DNA has subtle differences that confuse us and we’re only coming up with our most reasonable explanation for these differences.”

“
And what exactly am I going to get from all this?” Braxton asked without pause.

“
Again, I have nothing I’m unwilling to share. I’ll share our metallurgy as you’ve asked. I’ll share how to build starships and the simpler engines of land vehicles,” he stated, “All we want to do is get a closer look at your cellular makeup as well as a full scan of your brain.”

I watched Braxton, hoping he’d agree. I wanted to know everything from these people and they really asked for little in return. Braxton finally nodded.