By the time Jellica found where Ornette and Desmond had crash-nded, Ornette was so thirsty that she would have drunk her own blood, so it was wonderful for her that the rescue helocarrier was stocked with provisions.

  She and Desmond sat in the back as the chauffeur flew them to Silver Ashley’s private panel, Nimbus City, eating snacks so fancy that Ornette felt spoiled. Had the boys hosting Goldilocks Zone been holding out on them? Every morsel of food was perfect. They were fed chocote-covered strawberries, stuffed strawberries, mini cheeseballs with salty crackers, avocado dip, orange chocote cookies, and more.

  “Why are we going to Nimbus City instead of a hospital on Nepra? I bet the hospital is closer,” Ornette asked Desmond, partly to keep him awake and partly because she actually wanted to know.

  “Ashley has a doctor of her own. She would never send me to a subpar physician.”

  “Who’s the doctor? Are they famous?”

  “They’re sort of famous,” Desmond confirmed, “but not for being a doctor. It’s her personal sve, Vangelis. I’m sure you’ve heard of him. She’s had him for over fifty years.”

  Ornette swallowed. The food in her mouth had gone a little sour when she heard the word sve. In her mind, a model from Sleeping Beauty Inc. was a completely different thing than a sve. Her contract as a model would end. A sve contract would never end. “I’ve actually never heard of a man who would take a contract as a sve,” she said, hinting that it was an involuntary contract, which was the scariest idea that had ever entered Ornette's mind.

  Desmond looked at her oddly. “Are you hinting that her acquisition of him was not above board?”

  She looked at the ceiling of the helocarrier as if the bnk panel above them had the answer. “I don’t think I’d like to insinuate any such thing whilst I was in a helocarrier owned by such a person.”

  “The story is that she rescued him,” Desmond expined. “He was a teenager. He had been purchased at auction by a miner from Mars. Ashley was visiting the mine looking for raw materials. She saw him being abused by his owner, and she decided to kill his owner and take him for herself. It was probably the action that ruined her heyday because she didn’t seek to retain as much power for herself after that. She stopped being the Queen of Venus in the most literal way and gave most of the responsibility to others. Everyone was disgusted. She was a woman in her fifties who ran off with a teenage boy who, as a sve, was less than a person. He was property. It was scandalous.”

  “So they’re lovers?” Ornette asked softly.

  “Does that offend you?” Desmond asked, giving her a look that suggested that to hint that it did would be beyond stupid. Much, much stupider than accusing her of owning a sve.

  “Is she over a hundred now?” Ornette asked, trying to focus on another aspect of the story rather than the one she personally had a hard time envisioning.

  Desmond nodded.

  “Was that her talking to you over the hologram?”

  Desmond nodded again.

  “She looks amazing! She looks like a child,” Ornette said sweetly.

  “Vangelis is a cosmetic surgeon,” he continued. “She had him trained that way when he was young, and he’s very good at it.”

  “That's interesting. She didn’t look anything like other old women who have had tons of cosmetic surgery,” Ornette continued, pleased to have found a subject that didn’t risk putting her in hot water with Desmond.

  “Listen,” he said, interrupting her and pulling her hand into his. “Regardless of how it looks, how it began, or what anyone has been led to believe… If Vangelis did not want to stay with her, he could have left her a hundred times over already, and she would have let him. My family has found that svery-grade bracelets, which basically amount to a contract, are the best way to keep tabs on your family and keep them safe. Every other kind of technology is too concerned with the privacy of the wearer to be effective. Today, we were able to be rescued because of my svery bracelets. Everyone should wear one.”

  Ornette nodded. She thought of the one instance during the filming of Goldilocks Zone when she had pressed the emergency button on her bracelet. It had sent a message to Desmond, and it had sent a message to Sleeping Beauty Inc.'s head office on Venus. Shortly after she pressed it, The Coordinator saved the day, but if she had to bet, the reason he had come so quickly was because Desmond had made a call, not because anyone at Sleeping Beauty Inc. had acted that quickly. A call bracelet was only helpful if the person, or entity, on the other end gave a rip about what happened to her.

  “I won’t say anything to embarrass you,” she whispered assuringly. “I won’t say anything at all if that makes you most comfortable.”

  He gave her a funny look. “When we get there, Ashley will send me off with Vangelis to have my wounds dressed. She may want to talk to you. If she does, you need to answer her questions. I saw early footage from st week’s filming. Think of how you acted when you met Varner’s mother.”

  “Will that behavior do?” Ornette asked eagerly.

  “No,” he said cleanly. “I’m telling you this because Silver Ashley will not be impressed by that. If you want to impress her, you have to be who you truly are. She’s too old to be fooled by your look of awe and respect for someone who has done nothing to deserve it. It’s a good act, and I praise you for it, but it will not work on her. She’ll know everything you’re thinking before you think it, so just say what you really think. That’s all.”

  That was when their helocarrier was docked at the main mansion at Nimbus City.

  ***

  Just as Desmond predicted, he was met by a collection of personnel dressed in hospital scrubs. They were women who were going to prep him for surgery.

  Over their heads, Ornette spotted the only person who could be the doctor, Vangelis. He was beautiful beyond reason, with a face that looked like it was chiseled out of marble. He wore his sideburns rather longer than usual and had a tattoo down the side of his neck that was a Roman numeral for seven. His hair was medium brown and his eyes a deep blue. They were made even more blue by the gold of the Venus sky.

  Ornette swallowed. She guessed only people as rich as God were allowed to be that beautiful.

  Jellica, the helocarrier pilot who came to rescue them, exited the front of the craft and pulled Ornette apart from the medical team.

  She was a woman with ash-blonde hair tied into a French braid and aviator shades on her face. “They’ll take care of Desmond. He’s their darling. Don’t worry about them. Silver Ashley asked me to bring you to her room to meet her.”

  “I’m not sure I’m comfortable meeting the Queen of Venus in her bedroom,” Ornette balked.

  “You’re not meeting her in her bedroom,” Jellica assured her. “She’s the Queen of Venus. You’re meeting her in her throne room.”

  Ornette exhaled a fake sigh. Of course, she had a throne room. “Well, that’s all right then.”

  Naturally, the idea of meeting Silver Ashley in her throne room did not make Ornette feel any more comfortable, but she allowed Jellica to lead her down the hall. The pilot swung open the massive double doors, bowed, and gave Ornette plenty of room to enter.

  It was a white space, huge and modern. It was all white marble, or what appeared to be white marble, with intricate patterns of indirect light making the room even brighter. As she took a few steps further in, she realized that the light was coming from outside. There were tiny lines of windows letting the light of Venus filter into the room. At the end of the long white carpet was the throne Jellica had mentioned. It was a huge white monstrosity. On it sat Silver Ashley, a tiny thing with her legs dangling from the throne.

  Was she even shorter than Ornette?

  At a gnce, it was suspicious if Silver Ashley was wearing a wig or not. Her hair was thick and tied into a half-up style that was held together with dangling hair sticks. Her dress was poofy, and she had white ballerina slippers on her feet. She wore giant diamond rings on the outside of her gloves. Clearly, she was in her statement jewelry years.

  “Hello,” the old dy called. Her voice sounded a million years old, even though her face showed no signs of aging. There was no anti-aging surgery for vocal cords.

  “Hello,” Ornette responded, ducking her head in a little bow because that seemed appropriate.

  “I won’t ask you to sit down," the Queen began, indicating the ck of chairs. "I never let anyone but me sit down in this room. I make them stand while I talk to them, and I want to talk to you. Tell me, Ornette, is that your real name?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what is your st name, little sve?”

  “Halverson,” she replied, wishing she did not have to say it.

  “I see. I remember the doom of your family. I did not know what happened to you when your family imploded, but I see you did not nd on your feet if you’re selling yourself as a model for Sleeping Beauty Inc. All the same, I need to congratute you on being as big a daredevil as your father. It's a shame about him. Even eagles fall,” she said tragically.

  Ornette did not know what happened to her father. She was scared to ask. Besides, she doubted Silver Ashley knew the details. She probably only remembered the scandal of lost wealth. It was a common story on the yellow pnet.

  The Queen of Venus continued, “I need to thank you for your help. Getting Albert Gilt removed from his CEO position was crucial to so many pns. Excellent work. I also need to congratute you on getting a DNA sample from Rowan Hamelton. We knew he was lying about his parentage, but we didn’t know how much he was lying. We worked out his whole DNA string and informed a few of his ‘retives’ that their retion was quite a bit slimmer than he had shown them. They withdrew their support, and it does not look like he will become Mayor of Nepra after all.” She began cleaning the half-moon gsses hanging from her throat by shimmering cords that she had not put on her face.

  “Was there anything else you needed me to do?” Ornette asked. “The show is still going on.”

  “Indeed,” Ashley said, dropping her gsses. “If we could pin Varner onto a bed of wax… That was our next goal. We were hoping he would choose you and you’d get more access to his life so that, eventually, you’d publicly disgrace him, but his stabbing Desmond works just as well. We’re still deciding how we want to use that.”

  “I could have done better with Varner if I’d known I was supposed to,” Ornette volunteered. “If I’d been given a heads up, told that I was working toward his destruction, I could have done better.”

  Silver Ashley smiled. “I bet you could have,” the old dy conceded. “Historically, he and Desmond have been contemporaries. Desmond has always wanted to hurl him into the sun, but he’s a slippery bastard. We would just let him be if his father wasn’t constantly operating against me."

  That confirmed what Ornette already believed. Varner's father was not the man they'd gone bungee jumping with for the show. It was someone else. Someone who did not want to be known to the public.

  "Make no mistake," Ashley continued. "This is still my pnet.”

  “So it’s true that Desmond chose me because I’m too small for Varner, and he wanted to make sure that he couldn’t have me as a final dollop of spit in his face?” Ornette asked.

  “Is that why he chose you?” Silver Ashley said with a sly smile. “I never heard a reason why he chose you. I mean, I knew he intended to use whoever he bought to be a dagger clenched in his fist, but Desmond did not tell me the details. Is there a rule enforced by Sleeping Beauty Inc. that a woman your size can’t go to a rge man?”

  Ornette nodded.

  “First I’ve heard of it. Personally, I think it’s a magnificent idea.” She swung her feet under her throne, accidentally emphasizing her miniature stature.

  That was what Silver Ashley said, but Ornette was confused and needed to ask directly. “You mean, he didn’t choose me based on that criteria?”

  “He may have,” the old dy answered. “I don’t know what he had on his mind. I trust Desmond to make my enemies bleed. I have watched the episode where you were chosen by Varner over and over again since it aired st night. The footage was chosen carefully, not to offend Papa Bear, but he did not come off as the successful lover regardless of the editing, which is what he wanted above all things. I know!” she suddenly excimed happily. “We should have you stay for some kind of medical treatment, and we’ll let people think that he hurt you because he was frustrated about being so unsuccessful with you. What do you think? Shall we cut you open? Do you need any work done?”

  “My hand is bck,” Ornette volunteered.

  “Perfect. I’ll get Vangelis to figure that out, and we’ll keep you here as long as we can,” she excimed. “Oh, delightful. I hear you had something to eat on your way over. Are you full, or do you need dinner?”

  If the old dy was letting Ornette make demands, there was something she wanted more than food. “Uh… if possible, I’d like to be near Desmond when he wakes up.”

  Silver Ashley smiled wickedly, and Ornette knew she’d ticked her off. “Instead of that,” she said in a voice that made commands and did not accept requests after all. “We’ll put you in cryostasis and wait until Desmond calls for you. How about that?”

  “That sounds perfect,” Ornette agreed, aware that disagreeing with the Queen would not get her anywhere.

  “I knew you’d love that. I like it, too. It stops you from being any trouble. If we do that, we don't need to bother with anything like cosmetic surgery. You can rex, and you won't age a day. Jellica,” she called on a consul that was part of the armrest of her throne. “Come get Ornette and put her in cryostasis. She’s tired from her ordeal.”

  When Jellica appeared behind Ornette at the double doors, Ornette ducked her head in a gesture of respect before following Jellica out of the throne room. Ornette looked over her shoulder to see the Queen of Venus smiling like a sphinx before the vertical crack into the door closed completely.

  “Do you want to be told a fairytale before you go to sleep?” Jellica teased as she led Ornette down the hall.

  “Nah… I’m good,” Ornette replied. “I don’t really like fairytales at my age.”

  “What do you like?” The pilot wanted to know.

  “The inside of Desmond’s mouth,” Ornette answered cheekily.

  Jellica snorted. “And that’s why you’re getting put in cryostasis. That woman doesn’t miss a beat. What on earth did you say to her?”

  “That I wanted to be nearby when Desmond was finished in surgery.”

  “Oh…" Jellica hummed, thinking it over. "How did you say it? Nevermind. That woman is sharp. She doesn’t want you stressing him out with your feelings. I’ll put you to sleep, but do not bme me if you end up waking up on Earth after your contract has expired.”

  “I won’t,” Ornette said with a struggling sigh. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” In truth, Ornette didn't even think that would be such a bad ending, considering all the bad endings she'd already endured.

  In a room with nothing but a cryochamber, Jellica lifted the lid, and Ornette obediently got inside. She was still wearing her housecoat. She wondered if the fact that she was still wearing it was what ruined her chances of staying near Desmond and how she could have pyed it so she could have kept his bed warm while he recovered. Surely, Desmond needed a little distraction while he recovered. Why couldn’t it have been her?

  She buckled herself and thought about orange clouds. This was the moment when she was supposed to wash her mind of all her memories of Desmond. Just like Jellica said, it was a definite possibility that she would wake up back on Earth with his money in her fat fist and her chance at loving him gone forever.

  Jellica was about to close the lid on her, but Ornette put her hand in the way.

  “What?” Jellica asked.

  “Can you give him a message for me?”

  “Ew. What kind of message?”

  “Can I write him a note and you can look at it or not, but if you could just give it to him, I’d really appreciate that.”

  “Fine. But I’m not giving him anything tangible for you. You can send him a message through your bracelet. I’ll give you a minute to send it before I flood the chamber with gas, but that’s it.” She closed the lid on Ornette, and Ornette heard the locking mechanisms click into pce. “You’d better hurry,” the pilot shouted through the gss.

  Ornette pulled up a hologram and recorded a voice recording of the only thing she wanted to say to him. It was the only time she’d ever wanted to say those five particur words. “Desmond,” she whispered. “You can have me for free!”

  She sent the recording, and Jellica flooded her cryochamber with gas.

  ____________

  Author's Notes: Thanks for reading! See you Monday!