At last the day came when we docked at Black Locust Station. When it was time to depart the ship, I stood at the hatch fretfully, awaiting instructions from the local authorities. Even the warmth of the Pearl, which I now carried in a specially made pouch slung across my chest, brought me small comfort.
Several nervous soldiers filled out slate forms, looking like they couldn’t find the ones for “captain turned into tiger and went AWOL” or “passenger is escorting a magical artifact” and resented it terribly. Before they would let me leave, one of them called for a shaman.
The shaman had definite opinions about what to do. “You’re haunted,” she said, frowning. “I don’t think this is going to be an easy exorcism, either.”
Jun shot me an alarmed look.
I was already bristling. “Jun is my brother,” I said. “I don’t want him exorcised.”
The shaman shook her head. “Are you sure? Ghosts can’t be trusted, that’s what I always say.”
“I’m sure,” I said. “I’d take him over most people any day.”
The station authorities put me up in a luxurious hotel suite. I cooled my heels for two days, wondering what the holdup was now. On the third morning, a visitor arrived.
“Min,” said a voice I had heard a long time ago, one I’d never expected to encounter again. “We need to talk.”
I grabbed the Pearl from its place next to my pillow, then opened the door.
The man on the threshold was the investigator who had come to my house so long ago. Only this time he wasn’t wearing an investigator’s badge, but the formal gray uniform of the Thousand Worlds’ Domestic Security Ministry. He must have been undercover before. He gripped a briefcase in his left hand and nodded at me with a thin smile. “I’m Security Officer Seok,” he said. “You know why I’m here. You’ve led me on quite the merry chase.”
I lifted my chin. “You can’t have it.”
Seok showed no sign of intimidation as he stepped past me into the room. He calmly sat down at the desk, opened his briefcase, and pulled out a slate, as if we were in his office. He invited me to sit down across from him, but I chose to remain standing.
“By all rights it belongs to the Thousand Worlds as a whole,” he said. “And not as a weapon, as the unfortunate Captain Hwan planned. Yes, I’ve read the reports.” He held up the slate.
I didn’t relish the prospect of bargaining with someone I’d once knocked out with a saucepan. Served me right for panicking. But I was a different person now. I lifted my chin and said, “Considering I helped bring the Pearl back, I want the Dragon Society to offer their terraforming services to my homeworld—to all the worlds—at a price that our governments can afford.”
Seok shook his head. “The Dragon Society is unlikely to agree to that.” He grabbed at the Pearl with his free hand, so quickly that I was caught off guard.
I instinctively snatched up the orb, grazing the top of his head as I pulled it away from him. It flared with a piercing bluish glare, like lightning. Then it went completely dark.
For a horrible moment, I thought I had destroyed the Dragon Pearl forever. But it still felt warm in my hands.
Seok groaned and backed away. Smoke rose from his hair where the Pearl had singed it all the way down to the scalp. It made him resemble a badly shorn sheep. “I take it,” he said, breathing raggedly, “that the Pearl has opinions of its own.”
Trying not to laugh, I pressed the advantage while I could. “That’s right,” I said. “Don’t mess with me again or I’ll do more than ruin your haircut.” I stroked the orb, and its colors began to glow.
“You may hold the Pearl—for now,” Seok acquiesced. “At least until we’ve consulted with the Dragon Society.” He looked down his nose at me. “But then there’s the matter of what we’re going to do with you.”
I braced myself, gritting my teeth.
“You impersonated a Space Forces cadet. That offense carries a serious penalty.”
I knew all about it from reading the code of conduct. I stood up straighter and puffed out my chest in a military posture. “I don’t care what you do with me,” I said. “The only thing that matters is using the Dragon Pearl for good. Agree to my proposal, and then I’ll take my punishment.”
I felt a chill as Jun manifested next to Seok. He gave me a smile and a thumbs-up.
When Seok spotted Jun, he drew back in alarm and muttered some impolite words under his breath. He took a moment to collect himself, then said, “Maybe I can offer you an alternative.”
“Yes?” I asked warily.
“You’ve been very busy, Min,” Seok said. “Over the last two months or so, you’ve run away from home, deceived spaceport security, gotten involved with a gambling den, been in a shoot-out with mercenaries, impersonated a dead cadet and an active captain, released prisoners without authorization, stolen an escape pod, and broken the Fourth Colony’s quarantine.”
It was a good thing I couldn’t see my own face.
“But you have also showed a remarkable combination of abilities and resourcefulness. And you’re still only thirteen. The Domestic Security Ministry could use someone of your talents—if you learned some self-control, that is.”
I had never imagined myself in such a role.
I gestured at Jun. “Could my brother come, too?”
Seok raised his eyebrows. “You’re asking me to hire a ghost? What good would he be to us?”
Jun vanished for a couple moments, then reappeared. “You might want to get a new stylus,” he said. “It looks like someone chewed on the one in your briefcase. I can read the documents you have in there, too, even though it’s dark. . . .”
Seok huffed in exasperation. “The two of you might make a good team,” he conceded. “And, Min, I should point out that the Domestic Security Ministry is one of the branches of the Thousand Worlds government that can shield you from the wrath of the Dragon Society and the Space Forces.”
“You mean I wouldn’t get punished after all?”
“Yes, that’s what I mean.”
Put that way, I had to agree.
“This way we can visit the stars, Min,” Jun said.
“Yes,” I said softly. “But first, Mom.”
Seok and I reached Jinju by civilian transport. It was dizzying to see that familiar reddish sky beneath me, and to imagine it becoming less dust-choked, more vibrant. I patted the Pearl, snug in its pouch, which by that time I had embroidered (not particularly well) with a fox. Eventually I planned to add a goblin, a dragon, and maybe even a white tiger. Seok had assured me that the Dragon Council would take my petition seriously. But even if they agreed to it, nothing was going to happen overnight. Jinju wasn’t like the Fourth Colony. It was a fully inhabited planet, and I couldn’t terraform the whole place willy-nilly without first figuring out how to keep people out of harm’s way.
My scooter was long gone. Seok rented us a hover-car. I was disappointed but not exactly surprised that he wouldn’t let me drive it, considering all the illegal things I’d already gotten away with. At least I didn’t have to give him directions to the house, because he’d been there once before.
I spent the ride contemplating the red dust and chafing at the straps of my face mask. While the hover-car had its own filtering system, everyone wore masks anyway as a precaution. The rule I’d taken for granted my entire life felt stifling now that I had breathed freely on the Fourth Colony. I looked forward to the day when I could travel down this same road without worrying about dust-sickness.
At last the house came into view. Mom was waiting in front of the dome, wearing her own mask. The plumes of dust kicked up by the hover-car would have been visible from a long distance, and it wasn’t as though many travelers came this way.
The hover-car stopped. “I’ll wait here,” Seok said.
“You’re going to listen in anyway,” I said. I’d made a cursory check of my clothes and shoes, but I still hadn’t located the bug that I knew he’d planted on me. Was it revenge for my knocking him out, or simple pragmatism? Jun could find it easily—he probably already knew where it was—but I’d made a bet with him that I could locate it myself by the end of the day. “Did you call ahead?”
“I told her you were coming, but no more,” he said, unsmiling. “Some news needs to be delivered in person. You should be the one to tell her. Go.”
I opened the door, then hesitated. But I couldn’t put this off any longer—it would be unfair to Mom. I exited the hover-car, cradling the Pearl.
“You’re home,” Mom said, embracing me. Then she stepped back to look me over. Were those tears in her eyes, or were they just irritated by dust?
“Yes, and I brought the Dragon Pearl. Everything’s going to change now, Mom.”
Her eyes grew wide when I showed her what was in the sling.
“But there’s something else you need to know,” I said.
Just then Jun appeared, glowing white with phantom flames. He floated toward her, then stopped. “Mom?”
Her expression clouded for just a moment, and then, in typical Mom fashion, she collected herself. Her family was together once again, and that was all that mattered. “Come inside,” she said quietly. “Come inside and tell me everything.”