Starstruck

Chapter 15a: Hypothesis verification (part 1)

CHAPTER 15

Hypothesis verification (part 1)

Dinner was delicious--baked salmon with apricot glaze, asparagus, and tiny red potoatoes--but super awkward, especially at first.

Rigel started to sit next to me at the long table, but Allister Adair cleared his throat and he paused. Shim motioned Rigel further down the table, then sat next to me himself. Dr. Stuart sat on my other side before Allister could, to my relief. There was something about the way he watched me that made me nervous.

Nara sat right across from me and kept smiling and bobbing her head every time I looked her way. That kind of weirded me out, so I tried to avoid her eye. Also Kyna's, since she still looked critical. Flynn and Bain both seemed to be analyzing me like I was some kind of curiosity. So I mostly kept my eyes on my plate.

At first no one seemed to know what to talk about, since Dr. Stuart had forbidden them to question me over dinner--which made me feel like I shouldn't ask questions, either. But then Rigel's dad asked Shim something about the political situation back on Mars. Shim answered, then Kyna offered an opinion, and soon everyone except Rigel and me began to weigh in on the subject. I didn't understand a fraction of it, but it was fascinating all the same--when I listened.

"Faxon has postponed elections again," Mr. Stuart said at one point. "He claims to need more time to recruit polling inspectors, but no one believes that excuse."

"Isn't this the third time they've been postponed?" Nara asked.

"The fourth," Kyna said. "They're six years overdue now. The man is nothing but an unbaen --a dictator," she clarified with a glance at me,"--at this point."

There was a lot more, stuff about eroding the rights of the people and military tribunals and how Faxon and his followers were able to overcome the genetic taboo against killing. They also talked about an underground resistance, and it sounded like everyone present had friends or family who were members. Allister mentioned a sister in the resistance who had been forced to emigrate to Earth less than a year ago to escape Faxon's purges.

He gave me another one of those odd, probing looks as he spoke and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Maybe he thought I should be voicing an opinion if I was really who the Stuarts claimed I was? But even though I knew this was all important stuff I should try to learn about, most of the political talk went right over my head.

Which meant I spent most of the meal trying to catch Rigel's eye further down the table without anyone else noticing--and not having much luck. When would I get that explanation he'd promised, and what was it? This whole not-touching thing was starting to bother me a lot more than I wanted to admit. I tried a little harder to listen to the conversation so I wouldn't have to think about it.

"Even if we knew how many followers Faxon has here on Earth," Shim was saying, "we have no way of identifying them. If we could, I'm confident we could persuade them to our cause. Especially now that--" He glanced at me and broke off.

"Can there possibly be more than a handful?" Nara sounded a little fearful. "Once here, away from any risk of reprisal from Faxon's guard, surely they would revert to a civilized way of thinking."

One or two of the others nodded, but Mr. Stuart looked skeptical. "Their families on Mars could still be at risk. I wouldn't be surprised if Faxon has a few hand-picked followers on Earth as spies, since he must know Echtrans are in contact with the resistance back there. We're not nearly as careful as we should be. We've grown complacent in our relative safety here."