Page 1 of The First Spark
Stargate Route C-1009, Sector 5
Decemmensis-7, 817 cycles A.F.C.
Legends would rememberit as the night a single bombing changed the galaxy forever. In later cycles, Kalie would remember the end of the world in flashes. Screeching alarms. Troops in tar-black armor. Beads of blood staining her skin. And a final, tearful cry that would haunt her nightmares:“Go!”
But it started off as a perfectly normal day.
Or as normal as Election Day could be, when the fate of the Federation hung in the balance.
As her holopad beeped, Kalie’s eyes flew open. Wine splashed as she slammed her glass down on the end table, flipping open her holopad’s case.
It scanned her face.
Error.
She shoved a lock of her brown wig out of the way.
Error.
Right. Colored contacts and dark makeup, tofashion her into Ariah. Or, at least, Ariah’s disguise. Scowling, Kalie punched in her passcode.
The display unlocked, and her stomach dropped.
Carik had won eight more votes.
Chills raced across Kalie’s skin. Marcus Pool, Aunt Calida’s closest friend, was ahead by eighty-six Senate votes, but he’d had a lead of ninety-four ten minutes ago. Three hundred planets still hadn’t voted. What if more switched to Carik’s side, what if he defeated Marcus? If Zed Carik secured another term as the Federation’s Prime Minister, he’d come for her. He’d come for all of them, anyone who’d dared to oppose him.
Leaves rustled. Flapping wings filled the spring air.
Snatching the remote, Kalie switched off the nanotech controls. There was no point in trying to relax, not as election night drew to a close.
The beautiful sunny meadow she’d painted across her walls at the beginning of the campaign vanished, along with the floral scents and the simulated breeze. A bird’s song was cut short. The disappearance of the sound modifiers brought the roar of her flagship’s thrusters back in painful clarity.
Wincing, Kalie massaged her temples.
Marcus was still leading. A few lost votes didn’t mean Carik would win.
She sighed and stood up, whispering a prayer to the goddess Azura that they wouldn’t have to endure another three cycles under that tyrant’s rule.
The cold marble tile surrounding her overstuffed couch was an unpleasant shock after the warm blades of grass from the nanotech simulation. Stepping into her silk slippers, Kalie padded across her stuffy living area, where her easel and paints lay abandoned. A press of a button set a simulated fire blazing in the hearth.
With shaking hands, she filled her glass and took a sip of wine to ease her nerves, then swiped her hand over her suite’s vacant holoprojector.
A three-dimensional news broadcast fizzled to life.
And,of course, the broadcast showed her giving the summit’s closing speech.
Kalie slashed her hand through the air. The projector changed channels.
It wasn’t actually her who’d given the speech earlier, but the Federation had seen a woman identical to her speaking to an applauding crowd of senators. Treason, in Carik’s eyes. He couldn’t act now, but if he was still Prime Minister tomorrow morning, with a vote confirming his control over the Federation’s fleets…
She checked the door. Closed. Her large, airy suite was empty.
But no one was safe with Zed Carik as the Federation’s Prime Minister. Especially not her family.
“—either Senator Pool chose her because of his friendship with Duchissa Calida,” a suave voice was saying, in smooth Galstan, “or he finally saw sense and decided to throw the election.”
Kalie’s nails bit into her skin.
