Page 44 of Stars on Fire

‘Welcome, Selene,’ a voice intoned.

Selene looked around the empty flyer in delight, recognising the voice coming from the bank of monitors at the controls.

‘Mirage?’

‘Yes, Selene, I’m here. I’ve taken over one of Kainan’s flyers to pilot you safely across the metro.’

‘Could we have walked?’ Selene asked.

‘Nada,’ Kainan said quietly. ‘Too far. Besides, we’re taking as many security precautions as possible.’

‘Of course, thank you,’ Selene said.

‘Mirage, please take us to the Elders HQ,’ Kainan murmured.

The flyer rose a few more feet to hover over the passing crowds, then took off smoothly.

Selene steeled herself for the meeting ahead. ‘Kainan, please tell me more about the Elders. How do you work together?’

Kainan leant back in the cushioned seat, hands and eyes fixed on his comm tab as he spoke. ‘The Elders deal more with our internal judiciary matters and the rule of law, while The Sable Group makes most of the internal and external political and security decisions. However, the face of both branches is The Kugwe, J’Kuu Kabi.J’Kuuis an honorific title that also means great aunt.’

‘I see,’ Selene said. ‘Does the J’Kuu make the final call on missions such as what we’re about to embark on?’

He looked up briefly, his golden eyes narrowed, penetrating. ‘Nada. All security and military decisions end with myself and the other Riders.’

‘How did The Sable Group get -?’

‘Appointed? We were invited. The rock needed a stable approach to security. The Elder Council, made up of members from all key communities on Eden II, through that we’d proven ourselves as part-time mercs and security experts. We’d also occasionally showed up with reasonable thinking on defence-related matters of Eden II. So they felt it was natural that we take the role. We, on the other hand, could not refuse. The Elders welcomed us here when we’d nothing to our name. They invested in us, which paved the way to our current status. Being their security go-to was the least we could do.’

‘I see,’ Selene said, her curiosity sated.

He abruptly turned his focus back on the tab he held in his hands, his face and body closed off to her.

She sensed that he, too, seemed to have made some decisions overnight about how they were to interact.

She felt a stab of disappointment that she dampened with a deep breath. Why that bothered her, she couldn’t quite work out.

Instead, she concentrated her gaze outside the thick plex windows. At the columns and colonnades of the concourse. At the dizzying heights of the living quarters that rushed by.

Further, at the invisible roofline of the massive dome above them. Her gaze followed the smoothly intersecting sky lanes that snaked vertically and horizontally under the dome. Their internal and external lights winked in and out of sight, creating the effect of a diamond-like necklace encircling the moon city.

Soaring and dominating the entire view above the glass-panelled dome was a black sky, dark and dotted with stars, even during the lunar day when the system’s twin suns shone high in Eden II’s sky. The moon’s slower spin on its axis meant that one face caught the perpetual cycle of starlight and never-ending dawn. Here, fractured low light bounced off the shadowed lunar ridges from the undulating cluster of stars and twin suns above. The other face, where the metro dome had been built, was always aimed at Dunia, which hung in the same place in Eden II’s sky as the sun and stars went through their monthly cycle around it. It was a fascinating dichotomy of light and dark.

Before long, the flyer came to a smooth stop outside an impressive building that rivalled the most stunning architectural buildings in the System. She stepped out of the flyer onto an open vaulted entrance that was a sculptural statement of swirling structures and organic forms made up of three distinct wings. She stared up and caught her breath.

‘How magnificent. Where are we?’

Mirage answered from within the confines of the flyer’s holo nav. ‘At the Edenite Civil Justice Centre. Within the three wings, you’ll find an amphitheatre, exhibition halls and courtrooms and last but not least, the offices of the Council. The large, open, glass spaces were designed to display the accessibility and transparency of our courts and justice system.’

‘Sante, Mirage,’ Kainan said, low and deep. ‘Wait here for us. We shouldn’t be too long.’

He threw his hood over his head, cloaking his face from view before leading Selene through the glass atrium of the impressive building. They walked up a flight of stairs via a long corridor of offices before stopping in front of a solid, brass-covered door.

He waved his wrist comm over a security panel, and it pinged. The door smoothly slid open to reveal a tastefully furnished and airy reception overlooking the concourse.

‘Khosi,’ a voice called out. ‘J’Kuu is not here.’

They turned to see a young woman heading their way from an inner office. ‘I’m Mariam, her assistant. She’s at the New Eden centre.’

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