Her voice rings with conviction, but I don’t know—there’s something about that one brief look that makes me think there’s more here than what she’s saying. Also, it’s hard to ignore the fact that she hasn’t exactly answered my question.
I open my mouth to come at it another way, but we’re already moving again, and it takes all my concentration not to trip over my cape. Royal protocol or no, I’m never wearing this thing again.
As we continue racing through the same corridor, which I’m guessing runs a loop parallel to the ship’s perimeter, it’s just more of the same. Numerous doors that line both sides. All closed with complicated security panels. All labeled Classified and Authorized Personnel Only.
The more secured doors we pass and the less Dr. Veragelen says, the more curious I get. What happened to her giving us a “tour”?
Yes, the doors are marked Classified, but we’re delegates from each of the planets’ governments. We have top security clearance. And we’re with the woman who runs this entire ship and who presumably has access to everything on it.
So what is she waiting for?
This meeting is supposed to give the delegates good news they can take back to their people, settle the unrest, and give them hope for the future. We all need to believe that the Empress, together with the Corporation, is working on a solution, which will be impossible if we never get to see evidence that the solution exists.
“Dr. Veragelen,” I finally say as we pass yet another Restricted sign at top speed. I’m beginning to think she’s training for next year’s interplanetary games. There’s no other reason for her to be rushing us past these laboratories so fast. “Are we actually going to be entering any of the labs,” I ask, “or are you just planning on walking us past them all?”
I hear a low snigger and turn slightly to peer at the guard at her shoulder, but his face is expressionless. Maybe I imagined it.
“We’re almost there,” Dr. Veragelen assures me, then smiles in a way that looks like it hurts more than a little.
“Almost where?” demands Ambassador Terra. “We’ve been walking for ten minutes and haven’t seen anything but doors we aren’t allowed through.”
The others grumble their agreement. Obviously, I’m not the only one irritated with what’s beginning to feel like a waste of time.
The high priestess from earlier is the only one who doesn’t look like they want to skin Dr. Veragelen alive—and me along with her. But she doesn’t look exactly happy, either. More like befuddled, which still isn’t what we need people to take away from this trip.
Which means I’m going to have to say something else. Even though I don’t have a clue what that something is yet.
Still, I clear my throat and give it my best shot. “Dr. Veragelen.”
This time, the look she gives me is less thoughtful and more annoyed, but I’m determined now.
“Can you at least tell us what experiments you’re conducting in each of these labs?”
We stare at each other for several long seconds, and I can see the moment she finally remembers who I am. She blows a long, slow breath out through her nose, and her tight mouth unpinches just a little.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness,” she tells me, though she sounds anything but sorry. “I’m afraid it’s for your own good. These areas are off-limits because of the chemicals we use in them. They’re hazardous to anyone not wearing the appropriate protective clothing.”
She gives me another forced smile—and this one looks like a full-on grimace. Probably because she’s managed to speak and “smile” and still hasn’t relaxed her mouth at all. “I’d hate to send you back to your mother…damaged in any way.”
That sounds more like a threat than actual concern, but I’ve spent all nineteen years of my life living under the Empress’s special brand of passive-aggressiveness. The doctor is going to have to work much harder if she wants to send me running away with my tail between my legs.
“That may be true of the Authorized Personnel doors, but what experiments are you running behind the Classified doors?” I counter. “And why are they even classified on a vessel that’s meant to be working to solve problems that aren’t classified? Problems that affect us all.”
Her bodyguard turns to stare at me, and when we make eye contact, it causes little shivers to skate down my spine. Somehow, he manages to look both impressed and bored by my questions, but I’ll take it.
My attention is brought back to Dr. Veragelen when she glances at the nearest locked door, then sighs and rubs a hand over her forehead like I’m causing her a great amount of trouble. Good. It’s fair to say that my childhood crush on Dr. Veragelen is dying a rapid death.
She must catch on to the fact that I’m not backing down until I get some answers, because she cuts the act and says, “I promise you, Princess, if you rein in your…impatience a little while longer, you will be more than satisfied.” Then she deliberately moves away before I can ask her anything else.
We finally stop in front of a set of wide double doors. Like the others we’ve passed, they have a Classified sign right across the middle of them. But unlike the others, it looks like we might actually have a snowflake’s chance on Serai of getting through them.
Dr. Veragelen claps her hands like a schoolteacher trying to get the attention of her recalcitrant pupils. Brilliant or not, the woman obviously has pretty major control issues—something else I recognize after spending the last two decades with my mom.
“Now, I’m about to show you our most important laboratory”—she glances directly at me, one eyebrow raised—“which has the added benefit of being unclassified for your visit today.”
She says the last with a definite bite in her tone. My mother would call her on it—in fact, she would probably eviscerate her for it—but I choose to let it go, at least for now, because maybe I’m going to see something interesting at last.
I only hope that whatever she’s got here is as good as she thinks it is. Because all of our lives depend on it.
The small crowd behind me starts to shift restlessly.
Dr. Veragelen must feel it, too, because suddenly she cuts to the chase of what I get the impression was supposed to be a pretty lengthy speech. “What I have in here,” she says, gesturing to the doors behind her, “is far beyond any technology currently in use in the Empire of the Senestris System. What I have in here will awe you. It will inspire you. And it will prove to you, once and for all, that I am capable of doing more than averting disaster. I am capable—we are capable—of nothing short of absolute salvation.
“Salvation for your families. Salvation for your planets. Salvation”—her voice drops to a whisper that echoes throughout the now silent corridor—“for the entire system.”