“Eighteen?” Alana asked. “What does that mean?”
The empress turned to speak directly to Alana. “In the year three thousand one hundred on earth, unpolluted resources were dwindling. The organization known as NASA sent a ship on an exploratory mission to find another planet where humans could survive. One hundred scientists and engineers were sent out on a ship. Eighteen survivors—great, great grandchildren of the scientists who originally set out—landed on this planet. From those eighteen humans, Crimea was born.”
Alana swore she could feel Ice and Storm resisting this information. One could cut the tension in the chamber with a d
ull knife. But as fantastic as the story was, it couldn’t be possible.
“We’re still a thousand years away from the year three thousand one hundred, Empress. You must be mistaken.”
“Oh, child,” she said. “At this moment, everything you know from earth is long gone by thousands of years. When the Campania traveled to earth on its mission, it was sent through a timeshift.” When Ice shook his head, the empress said, “A wormhole. I suspect it was part of the prime minister’s sabotage. He didn’t count on the wormhole remaining stable long enough for you to return through it.”
“We would have known,” Storm said. “How did we not know?”
Ice rubbed the bridge of his nose, and despite the circumstances, Alana was charmed by the gesture. “We were suspended when it happened,” he said. “The computers could have been programmed to erase all traces of the jump. That explains why the clothing and currency we’d been supplied had been so wrong. We were prepared for earth as it is now, not as it was.”
Alana felt dizzy at the idea that she was now several thousand years in the future from the year 2017, when she’d left earth. Everyone and everything she knew, gone.
“Is it still possible to go back to my time?”
Ice looked at her, an unreadable expression on his face. “The wormhole will decay eventually, but it may be stable enough for another trip through, maybe a few more. I take it you still want to be returned to your home, your time.” His voice tightened, and it was clear he wasn’t asking. He assumed he was right.
Alana realized she did, but only to say goodbye to the people who were probably panicked at where she’d gone. “To tie up loose ends, if it’s possible. But…I want to come back here to stay. With you.” The truth of it hit her as she said it. She wanted to be with Ice. “I think I might be…falling in love with you.”
Ice smiled at her. His face simply broke into a smile filled with so much happiness, it brought tears to her eyes to see it. She touched his face and laughed. “You’re smiling.”
Ice blinked a few times, and touched his own face as his smile grew. “I guess I am. And this feeling…the need to be with you, to see you happy…am I falling in love with you, too?”
Alana’s heart tumbled in her chest, and she laughed. “I think you might be.”
A silence fell over them until the prime minister spoke, his voice thin and shaky. “What have you done?”
The empress approached him. “I believed as you do, all along, Hallow. We will destroy ourselves if something isn’t done. And this is the best way. We were wrong, Prime Minister. But it’s not too late to save ourselves.”
He straightened but didn’t try to pull away from Storm’s grip. “I will not stand by and watch our people tainted by humanity. Especially not from a detention center.” He took a deep breath and looked at the empress defiantly. “Begin final sequence now.”
“No,” the empress said, grabbing his shoulders. “No, it’s not necessary. We can—”
Storm pressed Hallow to the floor, patting all over his body. “Where is it?”
The prime minister closed his eyes. Storm flipped him onto his back and tore open his shirt to reveal a small circle the size of a quarter blinking in the center of the man’s chest. It shone brightly, then went dark.
Prime Minister Hallow was dead.
“He would not let go of the idea that Arcana was flawed, but necessary.” The empress stared down at him, shaking her head. “He needn’t have died like this.”
“You believed that, too?” Ice said, his arm sliding around Alana’s waist to pull her close. She leaned into him, grateful for the contact.
“I did, Minister. We all did, except my son. He began changing our minds over time, stressing the necessity of keeping our population strong, vital.” She straightened her shoulders. “He knows some of our true history, but he does not know of this relic. I didn’t bring him here, because I feared treachery, and our emperor must survive to lead us into this new era.”
She shook her head at Hallow’s body and sighed. “I regret the deception, and I will apologize to the people for it. But regardless of the consequences, they have a right to know.”
Storm moved to stand next to Ice and Alana. “So the people are to know what took place here?” He glanced at the body on the floor. “All of it?”
“Yes. We will live in the truth from now on, and I’m sure it will lead to a better world for all our people.” She took Alana’s hand in her cold one, and seemed to be trying to smile at her, ever so slightly. “Thanks to you and your discovery that humans can affect change in our people, I think we can find our way back.” She patted Alana’s hand. “Once the relic is recovered, we will begin the process of explaining to the populace where they really came from, and why more missions to earth are needed to strengthen our civilization.”
“I’ll have my people begin excavations immediately,” Ice said.
Storm stared at the book behind the crystal. “The emperor will want us to arrange another mission as soon as possible. I’ll consult with him right away.”