Starstruck

Chapter 15b: Hypothesis verification (part 2)

CHAPTER 15

Hypothesis verification (part 2)

"I knew it!" Nara exclaimed, her tears overflowing as she smiled from ear to ear. "It was obvious the moment I saw her. And such bravery, at such a young age!"

They were all talking at once now, sounding both excited and relieved. Kyna, who had been so curt and reserved before, actually grinned at me.

"I'm so sorry I doubted, Excellency," she exclaimed. "You can have no idea what a relief . . . how important this is to everyone, what it will mean for both Mars and--" She broke off abruptly with a glance at Shim, who I saw had raised a warning eyebrow. "That is, we're all very happy," she concluded.

"We are indeed," Shim said quickly. "We do apologize for putting you through this, Excellency, but we had to be sure. Now, we are." He rose and bowed deeply to me his right fist against his chest. Everyone else did the same.

It was all I could do to keep my mouth from falling open. Shim was easily the most impressive person I'd ever met, and he was bowing to me? It seemed so backward.

"I don't get it," I said. "If all you needed was a blood test, why didn't we do that as soon as I got here tonight?" It definitely would have made for a less stressful evening!

Everyone in the room stared at me, various degrees of shock on their faces.

"Oh, but my dear," Nara began, bobbing up and down.

Shim silenced her with a wave. "Again, we forget you have none of the cultural traditions--taboos, if you will--that we take for granted. Are you aware that among Martians, the taking of human life is our greatest prohibition?"

"Yes. The Stuarts told me about that." Though if that taboo really worked, I'd still have grandparents, and maybe even parents, of my own.

"I assume they did not tell you that the prohibition extends to the taking of blood. Blood is tied so closely to life that, even though we are now more scientifically advanced--especially by Earth standards--we still cannot easily overcome our ingrained aversion to spilling it, even for legitimate medical reasons. Because of that, we have gone to great lengths to develop medical tests that do not require removing blood from the body. On Mars, it is so rarely necessary today as to be almost unheard of."

"Except in the case of verifying lineage for each new Sovereign," Allister said. "The ritual you have undergone here tonight has proven indisputably that you possess that lineage. It was necessary."

"Not necessary to all of us," Nara declared staunchly, making me smile. I was really starting to like her, even if she did gush. "My dear, I wish you could understand what it means to me--what it will mean to everyone--that we've found you after all of this time, after believing the ruling line of the Royal class was extinct. It's . . . it's . . ." She gestured with her hands but seemed unable to put her feelings into words.

"An enormous boon to the resistance, at the very least," Kyna finished for her, her expression as approving of me now as it had been skeptical before. "You will be a symbol of hope to them, Excellency. Something to energize them and to focus their efforts."

"Yes!" Nara agreed enthusiastically. "We must get word out at once! The Council can use MARSTAR to notify all Echtrans, while sending--"

Panicked, I put up both hands, stopping her. "Wait! I don't want to be a . . . a symbol. And I'm definitely no political leader! I'm only a sophomore in high school. And I don't know anything about . . . well, Martian history and politics and stuff."