Space Cadets

Fueled by pure panic, Eliza almost forgot her injuries as she ran full tilt toward the viewing boxes. She scrambled up the steps and burst into the balcony where her family was.

“Eliza? What on earth happened to you?” Her parents rose, looking alarmed.

“Everyone has to go,” Eliza shouted. “It’s not safe here, someone is planning to assassinate the queen. There’s a bomb, you have to go. Right now.”

“What are you-“

“Get out of here right now!” Eliza ran up the steps to the queen’s box as fast as she could, almost tripping twice. She ran to Korrine.

“Highness, you have to get out of here now. Tyvern is going to launch a bomb, my guard is trying to defuse it now. But you have to go, everyone needs to evacuate this area.”

General Hannon answered before Korrine could. “How do you know about this?”

“Do you think I beat myself up?” Eliza snapped, gesturing to her face. “You have to get these people out of here.”

Korrine rose immediately, seemingly needing no more convincing.

“General,” she said crisply. “Begin the evacuation, immediately.”

There was a mad dash from the viewing area once the word began to spread, and Eliza was very nearly crushed on a tide of people as everyone moved to a safer location. Eliza’s eyes scanned the area, and she spotted her family. She ran to them, asking James if he had seen Colin.

“No,” he said.

“He was looking for the bomb,” Eliza said frantically. “He could be blown up, we have to find him!”

“Okay, calm down, I’m sure he-“

“Did you just tell me to calm down?” Eliza practically screamed at him. She took a threatening step in his direction and he actually looked a little scared of her.

“Easy! I just meant we’ll find him, he’ll be okay-where are you going?”

Eliza went tearing back toward where she had left Colin, adrenaline making her pulse thunder in her ears. Another firework went off, and then there was an explosion. Eliza’s heart seemed to stop. She was temporarily frozen in place, a black hole of terror engulfing her.

Until someone rammed her from the side and sent her flying to the ground. She shrieked as she landed on her broken wrist, but it was lost in the melee of panic and chaos around them.. At least she didn’t drop the gun Colin had given her. She gripped it in her good hand, looking up into the glowering face of Lord Tyvern.

“You have ruined everything,” he spat. “You are proving to be quite the thorn in my side, and I suppose this time I’ll just have to extract you.”

He took a managing step toward her and Eliza raised the stun gun. He laughed coldly, sneering.

“You’re not going to shoot me,” he scoffed. “You’re nothing but another spoiled little brat. You don’t have the guts.”

“Fucking try me, asshole.” Eliza jerked the setting up as high as it would go and fired right at his midsection. He convulsed violently and flopped to the ground like a hooked fish.

“What were you saying about guts?” Eliza asked. He just twitched in response. Eliza could see guards running in her direction, also heading toward the site of the explosion. Eliza left Tyvern for them to deal with, determined to go find Colin. When one of the guards tried to stop her, she threatened to turn him into a eunuch and he quickly backed off. Apparently he wasn’t interested in calling her bluff. James appeared at her side, along with Kieran. They helped her in her frantic search for Colin.

“He’s here!” James called out. “He’s alive,” he added hastily as Eliza came hurtling toward him. Colin was unconscious, covered in debris dust and had a gash across his forehead. James flagged down the medics who had arrived on the scene.

“You need to go to the infirmary too,” James told Eliza. “Go with them, I’ll tell your family where you are.”

She nodded, feeling dazed. She suddenly realized that her face was stained with tears. A medic ushered her off toward the infirmary, while two others gently lifted Colin onto a stretcher.

“Is he going to be okay?” Eliza anxiously. The medic gave her a curt nod.

“He should be fine, we just need to get him patched up as quickly as possible.”

Eliza watched them take him into another room. A few minutes later she was still standing there, staring at the doors they’d taken him through. Her family found her, her mother embracing her tightly with a hysterical sob.

“Oh, my baby!” she cried. “Are you okay? Why hasn’t someone come to tend to you yet?”

Her father and sisters fell in around her too in a tear-filled group hug. A harried looking medic appeared and shooed her family off so they could actually see to Eliza’s wounds. James noticed the gun still clenched in Eliza’s hand and gently pried it loose. The medic cleaned the cut on her head and dabbed some ointment on her cheek to help with the bruising.

“We have this device called a bone knitter,” he said. “It’s going to help me set your wrist. It’s a pretty quick process, but it’s going to hurt a bit and the wrist will be tender for a few days.”

He put the device on her arm and Eliza yelped.

“Ow, fuck! That’s your idea of hurts a bit?”

Queen Korrine entered the room then, her eyes widening a little at Eliza’s cursing. Eliza grimaced, her ears going red.

“Um, I’m sorry, Your Highness.”

“That’s quite all right dear, after the day you’ve had you’re entitled to some swearing, I think. I wanted to come and thank you personally.”

“I really didn’t do much; Colin was the one who stopped the bomb,” Eliza said quickly. Korrine nodded.

“Yes, I am indebted to you both. I will speak with your guard once he’s awake and feeling a bit better. But tell me, Eliza, whatever can I do to thank you? You helped save a lot of people today.”

“I didn’t really-“

“My dear girl, you needn’t be so modest. While the damage was ultimately fairly minimal, that explosion could have killed plenty of people. Yours and your guard’s show of bravery was most heroic.”

Eliza was struggling to think straight, between her adrenaline wearing off and the bone knitter still jabbing away at her wrist. Korrine seemed to recognize her fatigue and smiled warmly.

“Perhaps we’ll discuss later what I can do for you. I think now you could use some rest.”

Eliza was surprised when Korrine actually planted a kiss on the top of her head. She turned to the rest of the Rothchilds. “I am very happy to see that you’re all safe.”

When she was gone, Eliza’s family continued to fuss over her, all talking at once; asking what happened.

“You were amazing, Eliza,” Bianca gushed. “That was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve always been a little jealous of you.”

Eliza startled, the medic ordering her to hold still.

“You were jealous of me?” she said in disbelief. “You and Jocelyn are the pretty ones that everyone notices and likes.”

“But you’re so fearless,” Bianca insisted. “Nothing ever scares you. And anyway, who told you you’re not pretty?”

“Fully functioning eyeballs,” Eliza muttered. “And Bobby Offman, when I was twelve.”

“He said that to you? Oh, when I get home I’m going to dunk his too small head right in the toilet.”

Eliza let out a startled laugh. It had been a long time since she and her sisters had acted like sisters. Finally the doctor was done torturing her with the bone knitter and Eliza was allowed to return to her own room. She was eager to wash all the blood and dust off of herself. She looked an absolute fright with the bruises and the blood. Once she was cleaned up, she went to see the queen.

“Your Highness, I did have a favor I’d like to ask. There’s a girl who was accepted to the Zenian Academy engineering program. Rebecca Holman. I know her first year is covered, and I know the outer planets don’t get scholarships but… maybe you could give one to her?”

Korrine nodded, then looked at Eliza questioningly. “There’s nothing else you’d like to ask for?”

“To be honest, I really don’t know what to ask for,” Eliza admitted. “At least, there’s nothing that I want that you can help me with,” she added, thinking of Colin.

“Well, you’re always welcome here. And if you do think of anything you’d like to ask for, please don’t hesitate to speak with me.”

Eliza found herself at the infirmary, hoping to get any word on Colin’s condition but also a little worried he wouldn’t want to see her, now that the crisis was over. She reminded herself that he’d rescued her from the freezer because it was his job to do so; it didn’t mean he wanted to be around her since she’d told him to go away.

One of the medics recognized her. “Hey, the guard they brought in is awake now,” he said. “You two came in together, I thought maybe you knew him?”

“Yeah. Yes, thank you.”

“Well he’s in the room at the end of the hall, last door on the right.”

Eliza stood there for several minutes, conflicted. Finally she decided to just steel her nerve and talk to him. It would likely be the last time she got to see him, since the Rothchilds didn’t need constant security anymore. Her family would be heading home soon, but Eliza didn’t want to go yet. Her plans were currently as confused as she was. Her heart began to pound as she walked up the hall. Bianca was wrong; plenty of things scared Eliza. She had to force herself to open the door and hoped she didn’t look petrified. Colin was sitting up in a hospital bed, looking a little ridiculous as he sipped from a little juice box. It didn’t stop that butterfly feeling from forming in her stomach though. He looked up as she entered, setting down his juice.

“You’re okay,” he said. Eliza tucked her hair behind her ears.

“Yeah, I guess. I got everyone away before the explosion. When it went off I thought maybe you were… I’m glad you’re not dead,” she said hurriedly, worried her emotions were going to get the better of her. She didn’t want to break down in tears all over again.

“Is your family okay?”

“They’re fine.”

“The queen?”

“She’s fine too.”

“Are we going to talk about what happened after the maze?”

Eliza tensed, staring fixedly at the floor. “No.”

“Come on Eliza, I just want to know what I did.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me,” Colin said, exasperated. “I thought we were getting along, and if you’re going to hate me and refuse to talk to me anymore then I think you could at least tell me why.”

“Hate you?” Eliza snorted. “Do you have any idea how much easier my life would be if I hated you?”

“You told me to go away and leave you alone.”

“That’s not because I hate you.”

“You slammed the door in my face.”

“That’s because I don’t hate you.”

“That’s a really weird way of showing someone how much you don’t hate them,” Colin muttered. Eliza scowled.

“Yeah Colin, I got that upset at the idea of you hooking up with my sister, cause I just hate you so much. I wear the necklace you gave me every day, because I hate you. I have to put in an extraordinary amount of effort every day to remind myself that you are entirely out of my league so I can keep myself from saying or doing something embarrassing, because I hate you. I hate you so much that I think about your dumb handsome face all the time, and I hate you so much that when I thought the bomb had killed you I almost lost my mind and I yelled at James for not knowing where you were. I hate you so much that I feel physically sick about the fact that your job here is done and you’re not going to be forced to follow me around anymore but that’s probably for the best anyway because I’m making an absolute idiot of myself right now.”

There was a momentary beat of silence, and then James swaggered through the door. Eliza could have hugged him for the interruption, because Colin had a blank look on his face and Eliza’s entire body was flushed from embarrassment.

“The queen is on her way in to speak with Colin,” James said. Eliza nodded.

“I’ll just… go then.” She ducked around James and headed for the door.

“Oh hey, Eliza, I meant to tell you yesterday. That was totally badass when you shot Tyvern.” James grinned and Eliza managed a weak smile before the queen appeared in the doorway.

“Mr. Holman, I’m glad to see you’re feeling a bit better.” She went over to sit in the chair beside his bed while Eliza made a break for it and scurried away. She didn’t have a destination in mind, but somehow ended up in the secluded garden nook where Colin had taken her during the ball. She sighed, feeling the last two days catch up to her. Exhausted, she flopped down on one of the benches and closed her eyes.