Act II, The Free LandChapter 12
Chapter 12: The Long-Awaited Moment
Planet Oro. While Terrinia rebuilt.
The Council has voted. Ruby finally makes her move, and says goodbye to the only friend she has.
Her father’s desk was black glass, with a map inside it. He touched one light. Words rose beside it: ORO, A-20. He touched a second: DAWNBREAK, in A-19, a young galaxy. The map had no scale.
“Dawnbreak is at war with the Enders again,” he said. “Its people are in uproar. Their last city, Terrinia, is under a broken dome that is still being mended. The Council calls this unrest.”
Oro’s three powers ruled through the Council: the Decisionmakers, the Institute of Technology and the Beau Monde. “All three have voted,” said her father. “Dawnbreak will be cleansed and brought into Balance.”
The placeThe Council
Cleansed. Ruby knew the Council’s words. It meant nobody on Dawnbreak would be left outside Balance. Then Oro would annex the planet. That means take it over. Angela was the Council’s secret weapon.
“I object,” said Ruby. “They’re people, Father. They’ve done nothing to us.”
“They make weapons from the Enders’ dead. Such a people does not stay in its place.” He switched off the map. “Your objection is noted. It has been overruled.”
She thanked him for explaining, and bowed to the exact depth.
She left the light off in her laboratory. A dark room was the nearest thing Oro had to privacy. On the bench stood a glass with Angela’s white flower, brown now, folded over the rim.
The corridor light fell across the floor. Her father stood in the doorway, hands behind his back. He had never once come here. He looked at her face and at nothing else.
His mouth opened a little and closed. Then he was gone, without a word.
Ruby waited until the boots faded. Then she woke the screens.
Forty lines of code lay folded under Angela’s walking routines. A red square above them said LOCKED. A triangle said DANGER. She had written the lock first. Nothing could open those lines without her hand.
“The long-awaited moment has finally come.”
Her fingers were already moving. “Now I just need to activate the trojan in Angela and wait for her to wreak havoc in the android troops.”
A trojan is code that hides in a machine and wakes later. This one would wake on the Dawnbreak mission. Angela would turn on Oro’s own androids. The officers would see a fault they could not locate. They would call it a “technical bug,” and only the one who wrote the code could mend it.
The lock would do the rest. Nobody else could open the lines, so Oro would have to send for the heir.
“It might be my only chance to leave Oro. They’d need me, Angela’s creator, to shut her down.”
“But what will happen to Angela?”
Ruby did not answer. She pressed the key.
The hangar was cold. Black ships stood with their ramps down. The android company waited in columns, girls with magenta eyes. Only the one in front turned her head, looking for someone.
An officer read the orders off a slate. “Planet Dawnbreak. Save the Rioters and restore balance.”
“The Rioters?” said Angela.
“The people in need of saving.”
Ruby knew what that meant. She looked at the officer’s boots, at the deck, at nothing. Tears came. She did not wipe them.
Angela looked at her face. “Ruby,” she said. Then she said she would give the mission everything, because she wanted to make Ruby happy. Ruby’s mouth would not make a word.
“Alright, sit tight until I get back!” Angela waved and turned for the ramp.
“Wait!” It broke out of Ruby. “I...I want you to have this.”
It was a doll no longer than her hand: a copy of Angela in white, with pink hair, rabbit ears and a four-pointed star. Its name was Tetra. Its left eye was a camera lens, and whatever it saw would light a monitor on Ruby’s bench. Ruby did not say so.
Angela hugged her hard. Are we really... friends?! thought Ruby, stunned.
Ruby’s arms came up late. They stopped in the air behind Angela’s back and did not close.
Angela went up the ramp with the others, Tetra pressed to her chest. She turned her head twice. Then the ramp rose.
When Ruby reached her laboratory, the ship was lifting. The monitor on her bench had lit itself.
It showed a round window from below: Angela’s chin, her face against the glass. Behind her the lights of Oro were getting small. She was smiling at them.