Chapter Twelve

SOPHIE

“I want to see him,” I told Fiona angrily.

She gave me a scathing glance. “Why would you want to do that? You’ve made a bad situation worse. Now Khellen’s life is in danger. You’ve done enough, don’t you think?”

“Please, Fiona,” I said, putting my hand on her arm. “I want to see that he’s okay.”

“Trust me. He’ll be all right until he disappears.” Tears welled in her eyes and she pressed her lips together. She paused briefly to compose herself before stepping over the threshold into the house.

“If you won’t help me, I’ll go by myself.”

She spoke without looking at me. “They won’t let you in.”

I took her by the arms and turned her to face me. “They will if you come with me,” I said. “Please.”

She looked annoyed but soon relented. “I’ll take you one time, but that’s it. I have to figure out a way to get him out of there.”

We made our way to the local jail. The wind was blowing softly through the indigo leaves, and I couldn’t help smelling the lovely scent of flowers on the breeze. The air at home was full of smoke and pollution, the air of a dying planet. Why hadn’t I said I would marry him without any conditions attached? I could have stayed here forever in this paradise. As Fiona and I walked down the path through the purple forest, we were silent until a question occurred to me.

“How did they find out?” I wondered. “I thought everything had gone well.”

“It did. Someone tipped them off.”

“Why would anyone do that?” There was a sinking feeling in my stomach.

“Does it matter?” I heard resignation and anger in her voice. “Someone told them the marriage records were forgeries. They saw the times didn’t match. The informant suggested I faked the records to save my son.”

“It was Morda.”

Fiona continued as if she hadn’t heard me. Wrapped up in her story as she was, maybe she hadn’t. “What’s ironic is that he’s legally and properly married. But they arrested him because he’s protecting you.” She stopped walking abruptly. “Are you guessing it was Morda?”

“Yes. She saw something had changed.” I didn’t know how to tell her about the marking without revealing I had taken her son’s virginity.

For once, she took pity on me. “She saw his maturation marking, I suppose. You’re his wife, Sophie. There’s no need to be ashamed.” For the first time, her expression towards me softened, and I saw the kindness Khellen had mentioned. “Sometimes things can’t be helped. Don’t feel bad. You’ve done nothing wrong. If Morda is responsible for this, she’s to blame, that vengeful child.”

“But how do we protect him if he’s in their custody now?” I wiped my eyes and tried to pull myself together.

“I don’t know, Sophie.” She looked into my eyes. The despair I saw there disheartened me even more.

KHELLEN

When the force field came down, and I could see everything around me again, I thought my nightmare was over. I hoped I was only moments away from freedom.

But when I saw a guard escorting Sophie and my mother to the catwalk leading to my platform, my heart dropped. The expression on their faces told me they had no good news. They were coming to say goodbye. That’s when the fear hit me. The thing I had worried about and tried so hard to avoid had finally happened, and I was powerless to stop it.

The two women I loved most in the world walked tentatively across the narrow walkway to my platform, clutching the railing tightly. I didn’t blame them. Beyond the railing was an endless drop into absolute blackness. The environment was designed to discourage escape attempts.

The huge cylindrical room making up this block of the jail had hundreds of cells, each with the same slim catwalk extending at intervals around each level and all the way up. The platform cells were located in the middle of the huge stack.

When the force field disengaged, I sat on a round platform surrounded by a railing. When the force field was engaged, I was in a white room with a bed, a toilet, and nothing else. I couldn’t see out, and no one could see in. The time I spent in there already made me a little stir-crazy. I needed to get out.

Sophie came across first. She gave me a tight smile but didn’t touch me, which made me feel even worse. My mother pulled me into a hug, and I saw that she had tears in her eyes. “Khellen, are you all right?”

I nodded. “Am I stuck in here?”

“I don’t know. Sophie thinks Morda was behind this.”

I glanced over at Sophie, and she nodded.

“That’s what she meant when she said we would regret it,” I said.

Sophie looked bleak and avoided my eyes as she glanced around at the white balls at the ends of catwalks that looked they went up into the sky.

“I’m going to tell them.” My mother made an announcement, glaring at Sophie, daring her to disagree. “We have to tell them you’re married now.”

“No, Mom, please. I don’t want you to. There must be another way.” Sophie didn’t say anything.

“Guard,” Mom called. “Bring the Warden.”

A guard came across and seemed about to chew her out until she flashed a government access card indicating her rank. After that, he followed her orders.

The man spoke like an older person but must have had several rejuvenation treatments. He looked barely a day over forty. He looked annoyed as he came across the catwalk.

“What’s this about, Fiona? It sounds like an open-and-shut case to me. He’s not married. He’s twenty-five. That means he’s broken the law, and we are within our rights to arrest him and deal out the typical punishment.”

“But he is married,” Mom insisted. “Look, Warden, this is what happened. He and Sophie got married.” She nodded at Sophie, who didn’t say anything. “But Sophie has a job where it would look bad if she became married.”

The Warden interrupted her. “This is getting pretty complicated. What kind of company wouldn’t want you to get married?” He directed this at Sophie, but Mom answered for her.

“It’s a long story,” my mother said. “I’ll tell you over lunch sometime. Just believe me. She didn’t want anyone to know they were married. I agreed without raising a ruckus.”

“You acted illegally, Fiona. Maybe you shouldn’t be telling me this.”

“I don’t care, Seamus. Listen. No one would have been the wiser if Morda hadn’t come to start trouble. They are married, Seamus.”

“Give me your arm, Khellen.”

I held out my left arm with the computer facing up.

“We concealed it,” Mom said. “We couldn’t have the certificate showing if we wanted to keep the wedding quiet.”

The Warden called the guard over and spoke quietly to him. A few minutes later, the guard returned with a handheld device that he gave to the Warden before retreating across the catwalk.

“Hold it out,” he said. He ran the scanner over my arm. “There’s no information here, Fiona. Don’t waste my time.”

I saw that we had lost all credibility in his eyes.

“Seamus, I’m telling the truth. Don’t you believe me?” My mother’s voice was pleading now, and she wrung her hands together.

“I’d believe you if there were some proof. A marriage without a certificate is no marriage at all.”

“Sophie can prove it. She can go to the doctor and have her covering removed. When she comes back and shows you, you’ll have to let him go. They were married before he turned twenty-five. We have the proof. We just need a little time.”

Seamus stared at my mother with compassion. “No one wants to lose a child, Fiona, I understand that. But there’s the little matter of the law. If she comes back with a marriage certificate, we’ll release him.”

“Thank you,” my mother said. “Come on Sophie. I’ll take you to the doctor right now.”

Sophie didn’t say anything, but the look on her face was enough. Whatever remained of my heart was crushed. I knew she wasn’t going to follow through. If she did, everyone would know that not only was I married, she was also married. Her supervisor would discover her secret and she would lose everything she had worked for on Earth.

As I gazed at Sophie, something changed inside of me. I had only been concerned for myself up until that point, but all I cared about was her safety when I was gone. I wanted her to have something for her when she returned home. I needed to let her know it was okay for her to do what she had to do. I wouldn’t blame her for it.

I went to my mother, giving her a hug and a kiss. “I love you, Mom. Everything will be okay. Don’t worry, all right?”

She looked puzzled. “Of course it’s going to be okay. We’ll be back in a few hours with the proof.” My mother studied me with trepidation in her eyes. Did she know what was going to happen? I turned to the Warden. “Can we have a minute alone, please?”

The Warden nodded. He understood I needed to say good-bye. My mother still clung to the hope of my freedom, but I knew I wasn’t going anywhere. They filed off the platform. I walked over to where Sophie stood, arms crossed, looking guilty and apologetic. The force field materialized around us, and we were alone in a white bubble.

“Khellen,” she said immediately. “I can’t do this.”

“I know,” I said, putting a finger on her lips. “I know.” I held her gaze, willing her to understand. “I want your life to be intact when you go back to Earth. You didn’t change your ticket yet, did you?”

“No, I didn’t have a chance.”

I shook my head. Unable to refrain from touching her one the last time, I wrapped my arms around her. She uncrossed her arms, linking them behind my neck.

“Don’t say anything. Just listen. I want you to know I don’t blame you. You tried to help me, and it doesn’t matter what’s going to happen now. You’ve been a good friend, Sophie.”

“But Khellen—”

“No. I want you to listen to me, Sophie. Go to the spaceport, get on that shuttle, and go home. Tell your boss whatever you like, but start your new job.” I kissed her gently on the forehead. “You’re going to be single for life and save Earth from overpopulation. And you’re going to know I’m behind you every step of the way.”

She studied my eyes with sorrow etched in every line of her face. “I can’t let you do this.”

“You have to, Sophie. I have to.”

“Why?” she whispered, tears shining in her eyes.

“I’ll tell you the next time we meet.” There wasn’t going to be a next time. “I promise.”

She kissed me then, and I responded, filled with a longing and sadness I couldn’t hide. I held her tightly, burying my face in her shoulder.

“I love you,” I whispered under my breath into her sweet skin.

“What?” she asked, searching my face. “I didn’t hear what you said.”

“You should leave. You have to pack your bags. It will be tough explaining everything to my mother, but do your best. It’s okay if she doesn't understand.”

I pressed the call button, and the force field disappeared. Sophie didn’t move. I gave her a gentle nudge towards the catwalk. She finally reluctantly walked away. When she got to the other side, she lifted a hand and blew me a kiss.

I smiled and blew her a kiss back.

When the force field came up again, I knew she was lost to me forever.

An hour later, the force field powered down again, and the Warden beckoned me to come across. When I stepped off the catwalk, he put two thin bands on my wrists that immobilized my hands.

“Come with me,” he said.

“Are you moving me?” My throat tightened painfully.

“In a sense.” He guided me out of the cell block.

“Is this it? Am I disappearing?”

He looked back at me, shaking his head in disapproval as we quick marched down the hall. “The law’s not difficult to follow. I don’t know why we have trouble with you people. Still, you’ll help build our population whether you get married or not.”

“How's that again?” The Warden was leading me through a maze of corridors, and I had lost track of where we were.

“You’re in good shape and have an excellent sperm count, according to our tests. You’re going to a breeding facility.”

I felt sick to my stomach. When the Warden reached a door at the end of the long hall, he moved his arm over the sensor pad. The door slid open, revealing a docking garage filled with hovercraft.

Seamus continued across the garage to a ship waiting on a departure platform. “The government needs the population to grow. If people don’t follow the Edict of Marriage and start reproducing voluntarily, we enforce it another way.” He glanced back as we reached the craft. “You didn’t think they killed people of child-bearing age considering our population problem, did you?” It didn’t make much sense when he put it that way. “You have your choice of natural reproduction or in vitro. Either way, your sperm is going to make babies. If I were in your place, I’d choose natural. There are lots of cute girls there who didn’t follow the law, just like you.”

“Why are you taking me there? You must have other people who can do this.”

He turned to answer me as the door to the hovercraft slid open. “Your mother’s a friend of mine. She made me promise to watch out for you until she returned with proof exonerating you. This is my way of fulfilling that promise.”

“You know that’s not what she meant.”

“No, it’s not. But it’s all I can do considering the circumstances.”

“This will break her heart.”

“I know. You’re a bastard for letting this happen.” He motioned for me to get in the hovercraft before him. He climbed into the seat facing me and the door closed.

“You don’t believe her, do you?” I stared at my restrained hands as the hovercraft slowly flew out of the garage. There wasn’t anything visible between the bands on my wrists, but when I tried to pull them apart, they were solidly linked as if there were chains between them. The restraints were projecting force fields.

“It doesn’t matter what I believe. The only thing that matters is the law. A marriage without a certificate is not a marriage.”

“We have certificates, and we covered them.”

“With what?” His voice dripped with skepticism. “There’s nothing that could hide them from my scanners.”

“Are you sure about that?” I said, holding his eyes.

“Yes.” He added uncertainly, “What did you supposedly use?”

I rattled off the scientific name of the compound that I remembered from the bottle.

“Where the hell did she get that?”

I answered honestly. “I don’t know.”

He examined my arm again. I thought I might have convinced him, but then he shook his head. “No. You guys are trying to put one over on me. I’m sorry kid, but it won’t work. Even with your magic compound, the device would have picked it up.”

“What happens if Sophie comes back with a marriage certificate on her arm?” I was trying to find a faint ray of hope.

“The President doesn’t want word getting out that we’ve gone soft. He ordered you moved three days early. We don’t want anyone else trying this kind of hoax again. It doesn’t look good for us.”

“What about my mom? Is she going to be charged?”

The Warden shifted his eyes away from me. “The charges have been dropped. Your mother didn’t commit a crime. She was trying to save her only son.”

“You got them to drop the charges, didn’t you?” His body language said it all. “You have feelings for my mother.”

“And so what if I did?” His face looked defensive as he met my eyes.

“I thought you were just friends. But I’m glad to know someone will be looking out for her when I’m gone.”

He looked contrite and a little bit guilty. “I’ll watch out for your mother, boy. You needn’t worry yourself about that.”

I nodded. “Good.”

He turned away from me and made himself busy with his comm unit, effectively ending the conversation.

The ride to the breeding facility took a few hours. I soon lost track of time and fell asleep in my seat. Finally, the hovercraft came to a stop, and the door opened. The landing platform was vacant. I could see a uniformed man crossing the facility. The Warden ordered me to get out.

“This is it, then? I’m stuck here no matter what?”

“No one comes back after a disappearance, Khellen.” His artificially youthful face held genuine compassion. “I’m sorry.”

The hovercraft door closed, and I watched it fly away. Behind me, a guard poked my back.

“Let’s go, stud.” He didn’t bother to contain his amusement at my situation. “This is your life now. Welcome to the disappeared.”