The Black Stars (14 page)

The woman was working with a huge machine made of clear plastic. Inside were hundreds of tubes filled with liquids of various colors—rose, pink, green, lavender—all of them draining into a central chamber filled with a golden solution. Her back was still turned, as she entered different values on the front of the machine. The Fangborn lurked somewhere in the darkness on the other side of the glass.

Mason stood there, content to wait until the woman turned around. She was probably expecting him. How else would the scanner have approved him?

When she continued with her work for too long, Mason decided to clear his throat. The woman jumped and spun around, her hand jostling a beaker, which fell off the table and shattered on the floor.

Mason felt like a sledgehammer had struck him in the chest. The air went right out of him, and he almost fell to his knees. The woman had midnight hair and eyes. She looked like an older version of his sister, Susan Stark.

“Mason?” the woman said.

The woman was his mother.

 

Chapter Nineteen

 

“Mom…?”

It couldn't be real. It was another Tremist illusion. That was the only explanation. His parents were dead, and even if his mother had escaped the First Attack, she wouldn't be here in a laboratory under the Rhadgast school, in the company of a Fangborn.

Mason didn't run to her, and she didn't run to him. They just stared at each other. Mason tried to recall images in his mind, memories of her when she was still alive. He remembered her saying goodbye, giving him a kiss on the cheek, then leaving. Only to pop back in a moment later, say “I love you,” and smile. That was the last time he saw her. April Stark had died that day. And yet here she was.

“Mom,” Mason said.

His mother was crying. She kneeled next to the broken beaker and began to scoop the pieces into her hand. Mason's knees felt like they'd been replaced with water balloons, ready to burst at any moment and stop holding him up.

It could be a Tremist trick. How else did you get in this room?

“I know you're not real,” Mason said.

The illusion of his mother stood up and put the broken pieces on the table. “I'm so sorry, Mason.”

“You're not
real.
” Mason didn't even care that a Fangborn lurked in the shadows near him; he was no longer afraid.

“Yes, I am.” She held out her hands. “Come here.”

Mason didn't want to, but he also wanted proof. He'd touched the illusion of Merrin, hadn't he? So how could he know for sure?

Mason crossed the room slowly, watching as his mother cried more tears. He stopped halfway. “If you're real, tell me how the scanner let me into the room. Then tell me how you're alive.”

His mother seemed taken aback for a moment. But then she smiled. “Of course you asked that. You're just like your father.”

Mason knew he looked like his father, that they had the same sandy hair and blue eyes. “Mom … if it's you, please. Tell me.”

April Stark took a deep breath and paused, looking around the room, as if searching for the words in the air. “I … I've been allowed to follow your progress. You're famous here on Skars, too. When I heard you were visiting the school, I reprogrammed the scanner to let in anyone who is a direct descendent of mine. I … was hoping you would find your way down here. They won't let me go to the higher levels. If a student saw me … I tried to come find you, but they caught me before I could leave.”

“But how is this possible?” Mason said. “How are you here? You're a prisoner?”

She wiped at her eyes. “I guess the shortest answer is that the Fangborn threat has been known for a lot longer than you're aware. When the Fangborn were first discovered you were just a baby. We didn't know how dangerous they were at first. But when we realized, a small group of open-minded humans and Tremist decided to meet in secret, apart from both governments. Just those that understood what's truly at stake.”

“What's truly at stake?”

“Your father and I were asked to be a part of this team, and we said no, of course. But they knew our specialties and they knew we were the best candidates to join the Tremist team—even though we were still at war then. They asked us again, and we agreed to six months. They agreed to six months, too. But then … the Tremist in control of the project didn't want us to leave. Our reappearance in the ESC would've brought too many questions. There was still so much work. We … we knew it was going to be important one day, that the future of both races were counting on us.”

Mason let that sink in. She hadn't meant to leave him for that long. She had good intentions. He should be able to forgive that. But then she willingly stayed.

“Would they have let you leave?” Mason said. “If you tried hard?”

She turned her face away, briefly, and Mason wondered if whatever came out next would be a lie. “Things weren't easy in the beginning. The group didn't mesh. Someone tried to leave, quite violently, and I was too scared.… I didn't try, Mason. I thought I would've been able to finish and come home. But then more time went by, and I didn't know how to come back to you, how to explain, and there was so much work left. I … I'm sorry, Mason. There is no excuse. But I believe the Fangborn threat is paramount to everything, even my own feelings. I did what I did to protect you and your sister. To protect all of us.”

Mason said nothing and felt nothing besides cold.

“I didn't know they faked our deaths at first,” she said. “The First Attack was not staged, of course, they just … said we were there. When we were really on a shuttle to Nori-Blue. I was promised I could tell you I was leaving for six months aboard the ship—you and Susan were used to us taking long trips—but they
lied.
They said it was too big of a secret, too important.”

“What's truly at stake, Mom?” He instantly regretted calling her that, wished he could pull the word back into his mouth, swallow it down.
But what am I supposed to call her?

Her scrunched eyebrows relaxed slightly. “The Fangborn don't just want to eat us, they want to
change
us. Their fangs contain venom that, when applied to a human or Tremist, strips the evolved DNA away, reverting the victim back to its most primitive form. We hold the Fangborn code inside of us, and their venom reveals it.”

A sick, cold feeling trickled down the inside of Mason's sternum. He was suddenly back in the free-for-all room, looking down at a bloody robe. It was the same feeling of helplessness.

“What happened to Jiric?”

“Jiric is no more.…”

Mason caught movement to his right; the Fangborn loomed out of the darkness again—no, a
second
Fangborn. There were two of them, side by side. The one on the left was slightly smaller, his skin a little bluer.
They can speak,
Mason thought, as fresh goosebumps spread down his arms.

The smaller one had strange hands: the outer layer of flesh was translucent, showing a violet layer within … which ended at the elbows. Almost like it was wearing Rhadgast gloves inside its skin, as if the skin had formed around it …

“Jiric,” Mason breathed.

The Fangborn cocked his head at the name, lips peeling back from fangs that were not yellow, but white.

“Subject One escaped the other day,” April Stark said. “He was recaptured, but not before infecting another student. We're still investigating the breakout. There is no physical way past the safety glass without assistance.” Mason filed that idea away for later.

His mother turned to him. She had to look up at Mason now. When he'd seen her last, she'd been able to pick him up. “I am
so close,
Mason. That's why I'm here. Because the fate of both our worlds is in jeopardy. The Fangborn are coming back, at this very moment. They are traveling to us
at this very moment,
and if I don't have a cure before then, I don't know what's going to happen!”

Mason took an involuntary step back, his heart dropping into his stomach.
They know where we are.
“Is the ESC aware? The fleet needs to be made ready! I have to—”

“Red light,” his mother said. Any doubts he had that this wasn't really his mother were wiped away. Anytime Mason had been getting too far ahead as a kid, his mother would shout
“Red light,”
and Mason would have to stop in his tracks. Even now it shut him up, though it made him bristle. He was about to tell her she had no right to boss him any longer, but she spoke first. “It's not going to matter,” she said. “You disabled their ship once. They won't let it happen again. They're coming, and there is nothing we can do to stop them, no technology we have that can compete with their ship and its weapons. They've been planning and building for millions of years.”

Mason clenched his fists. “But we have to try.”

“Yes, we will try. Warn the ESC if you can. I've been told they're aware, but … I don't trust
anyone
. Be careful, though. If the news leaks, there will be panic on both sides. The treaty may not survive it.”

“I'm going to Master Zin right now to tell him you're leaving.”

“No you most definitely are not! You're going to go back to your room and say nothing to anyone.” She almost reached out for him. “You are here for the ESC, aren't you?”

“Maybe…”

“Then you're going to do your duty.”

“Like you did? By faking your death?”

His mother reared back as if Mason had slapped her. “I … I sacrificed—”

“
Me.
And
Susan.
That's what you sacrificed.” As he said the words, he tried to understand his mother. She was working on what was possibly the most important task in the galaxy. An ESC soldier knew what it meant to sacrifice, and his mother was an ESC soldier. So was Mason. But she left him behind. She left Susan behind.

“Why did you have to come
here
?” Mason said. “The ESC has resources, they could've—”

“I'm sorry, honey, it had to be this way. The Tremist tech is light years ahead of ours, but we had our own skills to bring, me and your father did. A human perspective for the research. If I was still on an ESC base, I wouldn't be where I am right now.
Days away.
Almost there. You have to forgive me.”

Mason didn't have to do anything.

“Where is your team?” he asked.

“On their way. You can't be here when they arrive. I don't know what will happen.”

“Is Dad with them?”

She blinked rapidly, like she was fighting sudden tears, and looked away briefly; Mason saw her trying to form some kind of lie.

“Is he dead? Don't lie to me. I want to know.”

She swallowed three times before speaking. “You father … we were on Nori-Blue. That's when we made the discovery of what the Fangborn can do. How they can make us like them. He … he was infected. I last saw him on Nori-Blue eleven years ago.”

“Was he…?” Mason felt his throat tighten; any hope at seeing his father again faded like smoke.

“When I last saw him, he was not your father.”

 

Chapter Twenty

 

Mason had to sit down. He did it right where he was standing. He simply folded his legs under himself and put his back against one of the metal tables. He did it a little too hard, and some weird instrument he didn't recognize clattered to the floor, a piece of it skittering away and pinging off the glass wall.

The two Fangborn had retreated to the shadows again.

“They don't like the light,” Mason said, his words feeling hollow and automatic.

“They spend so much time underground, it's uncomfortable. The light isn't damaging to them, just annoying.”

“What if Dad's alive?”

His mother was quiet for a moment. “Mason, that's the only thing that's kept me going all these years. Plus the hope that when I was reunited with you and your sister, I'd have created something … something that could protect our future together. But I
will
find your father and bring him back.”

Mason heard a noise from the direction of the door he'd come through. It reminded him of where he was. He was still on Skars, in the Rhadgast school, deep below ground. As much a prisoner as the two Fangborn were.

“What happens now?” Mason asked. He had no idea what to do. How could he just go back upstairs and pretend like nothing had happened?

But that's exactly what his mother asked him to do. “You can't let anyone know you're aware of this secret. It could spread panic, and that won't help anything. You have to return to your team and continue your studies.”

“How long do we have? Before the Fangborn arrive?”

“I don't know. We captured the one you've already met during the battle above Nori-Blue. In one interview, he began to taunt us, saying his brothers and sisters planted a tracking device on a Tremist ship during the battle. It's my theory they can communicate telepathically on some level.…” She paused. “Mason, I'm so proud of you. What you and your friends did.”

“Thanks.” He didn't know what else to say. “When can I see you again?”

“You can't. Not until this is over. If you're caught, I don't know what they'll do. You've probably been gone too long as it is. But I want a hug before you leave.”

Mason went to her and his mom held him close. He squeezed her back, a crack appearing in the wall he built to hold back his emotions. He didn't want to know what would happen when it broke completely.

“Now go,” she said.

Mason looked at the glass again, but the Fangborn remained in darkness.

“Please go. And stay safe.” His mother's dark eyes were pleading.