14 Harmless Boxes of Circuitry and Lenses
Harmless Boxes of Circuitry and Lenses
A mbassador Ialan! Over here!”
“Artemis! Is it true X-ers have special powers?”
“Ambassador Ialan!”
“Artemis! Over here!”
“Is it true you were Her Highness’s stalker?”
Prior to setting foot on Expan Proper, Temmi would’ve thought herself well acquainted with claustrophobia.
X72 was an overpopulated city boxed in by the thick smog overhead.
Clean breathing was a luxury, open space nonexistent.
Even when living in the Graveyard just outside the city, she’d been one of hundreds tucked into the gaping carcasses of ancient ships.
She never could’ve imagined how her world, already small, could shrink even more.
But as she stepped off the transport to blinding afternoon light and the onslaught of an entire armada of cameras, she considered that she’d been wrong.
Her sudden claustrophobia was acute. She froze.
Her arms shot up to shield her eyes. Her head ducked instinctively.
Her breath condensed into steel in her lungs.
The cameras were everywhere. The people, everywhere.
The sun, too bright, too direct. Her name became a bullet, fired at her from every possible direction.
Blessing Stone hadn’t prepared her for this.
She should’ve kept her earplugs in, a barrier from the noise, the debilitating stimulation.
She was certain in that instant, more certain than she’d ever been—and Temmi had considered herself certain of many things in her life, to the annoyance of many a primary-school teacher—that she was going to die.
Pressure on her left bicep. A hand, gripping. In her ear, a voice, husky, an off-kilter, pretty accent, “Chin up, X-girl; the cameras can’t bite. Just a minor press gauntlet. Come on, now; yes, that’s it.”
Temmi raised her head to find warm brown eyes smiling at her. They belonged to a heart-shaped face. A tallish woman with close-shaved brown hair, flawless black skin, and gaudy rings in her left eyebrow. Where had the woman come from? What happened to Kalvin?
“Walk forward,” the stranger said, moving her hand from Temmi’s bicep to her lower back. “In step with me.”
Temmi channeled her focus into the feel of the woman’s hand on her back.
Stepped when she stepped. Breathed in the warm, rich air of Expan.
Noticed the towering high-rises in the distance.
Elsidor City, Expan’s capital. A metropolis that, by comparison, transformed X72-1 into a child’s dollhouse.
She recognized Elsidor’s silhouette, had seen the flyover view of the capital every time Ollie turned on their home holo.
“Ambassadors! This way, please! Pose for a picture?”
Cameras flashed. Temmi closed her eyes, body going rigid.
The woman nudged her along. “Ignore them. We’re almost there. The car’s just ahead.”
The car. A lifeline. Temmi could do this. They’re just cameras. Boxes of circuitry and lenses. Harmless. Yet they felt more threatening than a hundred assault blasters.
“Ambassador VinVanxin! Were you surprised to be named the Moons’ contestant over the attorney general’s daughter?”
“Arbora! How long’s it been since you last visited the Prop?”
The crowd of press thinned, revealing a line-up of sleek black hovercrafts. Based on the winged tips lining the carriages, they were Cavallers, a luxurious brand of high-speed armored vehicles that had Temmi nearly forgetting her panic entirely. They were gorgeous .
The glare of a camera lens abruptly obstructed her view. Behind the camera, a reporter shouted, “Have you and Arbora been previously acquainted? Did you know she dated Her Highness as a teenager?”
Temmi tried to retreat, but the hand along her back held her in place.
The camera swung to the right. “Does Her Highness know you’ve been cast as a contestant? When was the last time you two communicated?”
Temmi glanced at the profile of the woman who’d effectively rescued her. Ambassador Arbora VinVanxin. Another contestant. Prop Moons...the very same moons that had stolen Temmi’s father from her. (He wasn’t stolen, her rational mind prodded cruelly. He chose to leave you.)
Arbora sidestepped the camera, dragging Temmi with her. Thank the nebula, since Temmi wasn’t sure she would’ve made it out on her own.
“And here we are.” The Moons’ contestant spun Temmi around as they breached the end of the press gauntlet. Kalvin was there, standing beside the open door of a Cavaller, brows furrowed as he typed an invisible message above his CB. How’d he make it through so fast?
“Smile wide, say your piece quickly, and dive in the car.” Arbora’s hand dropped from Temmi’s back as she swept forward with an easy grace.
“Expanese citizens, Outer Expanese compatriots, and friends from across the seven systems, my name is Ambassador Arbora VinVanxin, representative of Expan’s Moons: Irma, Primus, and New Lune.
I know what you’re all wondering: isn’t she the girl who gave our beloved princess her first taste of heartbreak?
” Arbora smiled wide and winked, emanating a confidence Temmi envied.
“Ah, but we were children then. And who better to heal a heart than the one who broke it?”
With an easy flair, Arbora dipped into a pretty bow. A blinding barrage of cameras flashed as she rose, spun, and ducked inside the expensive hovercraft’s open door.
The cameras turned expectantly to Temmi. Reporters shouted her name. She swallowed, completely forgetting Blessing Stone’s practiced speech.
You’re not an actress, Ambassador. Say something real.
Somehow, Temmi doubted telling the ten trillion viewers at home that she was scared shitless would enamor her to them.
What would Ollie say? He’d be watching her right now, probably throwing stale barley chips at the holo and cursing her pathetic performance.
He’d be laughing at her dyed hair, her form-fitting dress.
Her mother would be beside him, drinking too much and saying too little, probably too embarrassed to even watch. Thinking of them steadied her.
“I’m Artemis.” Temmi squared her naked shoulders.
Her full name felt like a barrier between who she really was and who she was offering the empire.
The gathered reporters went silent. She focused on the sound of the Cavallers humming at her back.
“Ambassador Artemis, I suppose, or Ambassador Ialan, though I’m still getting used to that.
I’m pretty new to all this. Before today, I’d never even worn a dress.
” Her comment elicited a few chuckles from the reporters at the front.
“Anyway, um, let’s do this fucking thing, yeah?
” The curse slipped out against her better judgment.
How many times had Blessing Stone warned her against using such language on camera?
Color rose to her cheeks, and instead of curtsying with Arbora’s grace, she fled like a coward for the open hovercraft, not stopping until her ass landed on rich brown leather.
The door closed with a firm jolt. Temmi leaned her head against the back of her seat. The car interior’s dim lighting made it easier for her to breathe.
“Nice,” said Arbora, laughter in her voice. “I can see why she likes you.”
Temmi opened her eyes. Her fellow contestant lounged on a richly crafted bench perpendicular to Temmi, a champagne flute in one hand, her feet kicked up to rest on what looked like a miniature bar in the vehicle’s center.
Glass bottles of sparkling wine chilled on ice.
Arbora’s pale pink pantsuit rode up from her ankles, revealing thick, defined calves.
Pantsuit! How’d she get away with not wearing a dress?
“Where’s Kalvin?”
“Kar-Beidell? The twins’ producer? I imagine he has far more important things to do than hold your hand.”
The Cavaller’s engine hummed louder, vibrating Temmi’s seat as the hovercraft rose. Through a tinted side window, the crowd of reporters shrank. They didn’t look so threatening from up there.
“Well, that was embarrassing.” Temmi blew out a breath. “Don’t suppose I made much of an impression.”
“Oh, you made an impression.” Arbora’s laughter still colored her tone. “Drink?” She held out a flute of sparkling wine.
Temmi took the drink and downed it in one go. The wine was startlingly sweet. Making a face, she reached for the open bottle.
“Careful, there.” Arbora sipped from her flute as the Cavaller accelerated. “Don’t want to be tipsy when we get to the manor. The other contestants arrived last night. You and I are at a disadvantage.”
The wine settled warmly in Temmi’s stomach. Her view of the landing field and reporters vanished. The outer limits of Elsidor City rushed by in a headache-inducing blur.
“You’re from the Moons? That’s closer than any other territory.” Temmi poured herself another flute, spilling a few drops as the hovercraft banked left.
“There were complications with my transport,” Arbora said, in answer to Temmi’s implied question, but didn’t elaborate. “And it’s a good thing, else you may never have made it off yours.”
Temmi hadn’t consumed enough alcohol to stop the burn of embarrassment in her cheeks. “Yes, well, thank you for that.”
Arbora dipped her head. “Good sportsmanship is a Moon virtue. You may be my competition, but I’ll always help a woman off the field.”
“I’m not your competition, actually. You’re here for Spie?
” Temmi did her best to say the princess’s name in a neutral tone, ignoring the little twinge of something fluttery in her gut.
“That’s what you told the cameras, right?
I’ve no interest in her.” Temmi forced herself to sip more slowly on her second flute of wine, wincing at the sweet, aromatic taste. X-er’s preferred their alcohol to burn.
Arbora arched her pierced eyebrow. “You’re after Nicky? Huh.”
Why did people always seem so terribly surprised to learn Temmi wasn’t there for Spie?