“Tedra wasn’t, but then Challen was just like you, convinced that she had to be from his planet and so already knew everything about his planet, including all laws. He refused to believe in off-worlders—actually, he knew she was telling the truth about who she was, he just didn’twantto believe it. Sound familiar?”
That had annoyed her. They’d shown her some pretty fantastic things, or they would be fantastic if they were real. She just didn’t believe anything was real.
So she wasn’t the least bit apprehensive about arriving on Sha-Ka’an. If she thought she would be meeting Dalden’s real parents instead of actors representing them, she’d probably be a nervous wreck, worried about all the normal things one worried about when meeting the family of the man she had committed to.
And shewasfully committed. After spending nearly three months with Dalden, there was no doubt that her heart wouldn’t be whole now without him. The thought of losing him when this was over and she was rejected as unconvinced, was so painful that she couldn’t face it. Nor had she been able to seek reassurance or ask what was going to become of them when this was over, because he would just insist there was never going to be an “over” for them.
She sometimes thought that Dalden was actually as brainwashed as they were trying to make her, that he really did believe everything that had been told to her. She preferred to think that was the case, rather than that he was deliberately lying to her for whatever “good” reason. Lying would mean an end when the truth was finally admitted. And what would that end be? Go home, we’re done with you? Or stay with me and be part of the program? Could she agree to put other people through what she was undergoing? She didn’t think so, because bottom line, it was cruel to tamper with emotions to this extent.
But the journey was over; the announcement had already been broadcast that they’d be home in a few hours. And now she’d find out how they could possibly depict an entire planet—that was, if they were going to try. No studio could be that big. She’d have to be contained in a small part of it. But how would that be convincing? And they’d made the mistake of telling her that there was plant and animal life unique to Sha-Ka’an, that even the air was different, edenlike, it was so pure and pollutant-free. Hard things to fake.
So was this going to be the end, then? When she stepped off the “ship,” would they tell her, “You failed, you can go home now”?
Chapter 37
“IT IS TIME.”
Brittany was staring out the bank of windows in Dalden’s quarters at a very large planet that didn’t come close to resembling hers. Hers was two-thirds ocean. This one had a lot of green, but very little blue. A nice computer simulation, like everything else she’d seen out those windows. And yet it looked so real it gave her chills.
“We aren’t close enough to land yet,” she pointed out.
“We are. For a ship of this speed, it is a matter of moments.”
Dalden’s massive arms came around her from behind to draw her back against his chest. It was comforting and frightening at the same time, because he could be preparing her for their last moments together. The thought brought tears to her eyes, and she swung around to hug him tightly.
“Tell me this isn’t going to be the end of us,” she said in a voice that was as close as she could get to pleading.
Dalden lifted her face in his hands. His thumbs gently smoothed away the wetness on her cheeks. His own expression was intense.
“I feel your pain. What causes it cannot be allowed to continue. After today, there will be nothing else for you to fear.”
“I hate to break it to you, warrior.” Martha’s voice suddenly floated about the room. “But you arenotreassuring her.”
He turned a chagrined look at the wall monitor. “What must I do to ease her distress?”
“Take her home, to hernewhome. Get her settled in. Introduce her to the family pets.” Some positively wicked-sounding chuckling was inserted over that last suggestion before Martha continued. “It’s really too bad this ship didn’t come equipped with solaray baths. Three months of squeaky-clean without a speck of water might have done some convincing. But she’s only had inanimatethingsto go by here, which she has discounted as being ‘tricks’ or things her own people could have invented. Fifty giant-sized warriors didn’t impress her, when mencanreach that height on her world. She thinks she’s been on a simulated ship, thinks she’s going to step off it and still be onherworld. But you have things to show her now, live things. Living, breathing, unique, can’t-be-shoved-into-the-‘trick’-category things.”
Brittany stepped back, bristling a bit with indignation. She really hated it when she got talked about while she was standing right there listening.
“I hate to break it toyou, Martha, but you aren’t reassuring me, either,” she said testily.
“Wasn’t trying to, kiddo. I’m just telling the warrior what it’s going to take to end your delusional state. But then I did toss you a bone; you just didn’t catch it.”
“Excuse me?”
“‘New home.’ ‘Settled.’ Sounds like a beginning rather than an end, don’t it?”
It did, but words could be deceiving, or outright lies. She glanced at Dalden again, her skepticism plain. His own look turned determined, and she figured out why when he took her hand and marched her out of the room.
“You’re taking me off the ship?”
“Indeed.”
“Why not take me off the same way I was brought on?” Brittany asked.
Martha chose to answer, from the comm-link Brittany had been given a few days ago. She’d been warned to keep it with her at all times until she ran out of questions.
“Transfer can’t be done here until we’ve actually landed,” Martha said. “Sha-Ka’an is surrounded by a global shield that prevents access by ships without permission. A hole in the shield is opened above the Visitors’ Center if permission is given, but even that opening contains a contamination shield. There is at least one meditech in each town, but that isn’t nearly enough to help if disease gets introduced to the planet by visitors. The second shield the ship passes through scans for contamination and, in the process, interferes with Molecular Transfer.”
