Chapter 55: Chapter 54: Speeches

Rooney was exactly right about his prediction. The city went wild when the VDF arrived back at Biosphere Five, dragging the carcass of the bear behind their rover. This marked the first time a bear’s body had been killed and recovered by the Vestans, and for most of them, it was a sign that things could change for the better.

And Alex’s star rose just a little higher, if that was even possible. Quite suddenly, he had ordinary Vestans coming up to him to ask how he killed the bear. He had Vestan women wanting to know if he was married or whether they could come over to “get to know him better.”

The attention was overwhelming, and Alex was secretly thankful that he still had the matter of his chest to attend to. It was Rooney that brought him to the hospital on the other side of Biosphere Five, and after a check-in, a doctor came in to perform a scan of his entire chest.

“Yep, it looks like two broken ribs right here,” said the doctor, using a pen to point it out on his scanner. “You’re lucky that’s all it is. I don’t usually see bear injuries here. Most of the time, we never recover the body.”

“So I’ve heard,” said Alex, rubbing the tender spot on his chest. “How long until I’m patched up?”

“On your own? Three to six weeks,” answered the doctor. “But we’re not going to do that the old-fashioned way. I’m going to give you a growth serum that will promote rapid healing.”

“I’m familiar with the stuff,” said Alex. “I’ve had it before when I broke my back.”

“Good, then I don’t have to warn you about the taste,” joked the doctor.

Alex made a disgusted face. Though the serum was incredible in the way that it worked—healing broken bones in a matter of days instead of weeks, it was quite possibly the foulest tasting concoction that he’d ever had. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it just went down the hatch and it was over, but the aftertaste lingered for an hour no matter what you drank after it.

“Let’s get this over with,” said Alex. “I don’t suppose you have any serums that temporarily remove your sense of taste, do you?”

The doctor chuckled. “If only, son. If only. I’ll send the nurse around with the serum in a few minutes. You’ll have to stay the night just for caution but we can release you in the morning.”

“That’s a good thing, the elections are tomorrow,” replied Alex. “I can’t miss that.”

“Ah, right,” replied the doctor, nodding his head. “I’m looking forward to hearing your speech then. From what I’ve heard, it’s going to come down to you and that Serrano guy. Anyway, it looks like you have a visitor.”

The doctor had scarcely gestured to the door before Alex saw a blur of blonde rush into the room. Quite suddenly, he had Jenna’s arms around him, hugging him tightly as a look of concern filled her face.

“Easy, my ribs,” said Alex, wanting to laugh but holding himself back because of the pain.

“Another one?” asked Jenna. “I’ve heard the rumors going around on my way over. They said you killed another bear!”

“I’m getting better at it,” joked Alex. “I killed this one before it got to me. The problem was that it had enough momentum that it still tackled me and landed on my chest. I have a few broken ribs.”

Jenna started to rub his chest. “That’s all though, right? No other problems?”

Alex shook his head. “The doc scanned the rest of my body. Nothing else is broken. Nothing else feels broken either. Although that might change if you don’t let go of your grip.”

Alex pointed below with his free hand, where Jenna had been squeezing his wrist absentmindedly.

“Oh, sorry!” said Jenna, a small giggle erupting from her throat. “I’m just relieved that you’re okay. I just heard your name mentioned in the same sentence as a bear and I panicked for a second. I didn’t even hear that you killed it until I noticed everyone was celebrating.” Jenna reached over to touch his cheek. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” said Alex, a smirk on his face. “You can count on that.”

“I’m going to hold you to that,” said Jenna, joking with him. “You still have a lot of things to do.” She then leaned in really close. “And you haven’t even knocked me up yet.”

Those words caused Alex to bite his lip. It was a thought that could wake any man from the dead, and when coupled by the coy look on her face, he nearly got started on the task right then and there.

“Trust me, that will happen in due time,” he vowed.

“Good,” she replied, her eyes sparkling.

It was incredible to think about how far they’d come since they met. Alex could still picture the first time he saw Jenna, when she was outside his cabin on the colony ship with a surly look on her face. They’d come a long way in that time, especially considering it wasn’t that long ago.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked a moment later.

“I was just thinking about how far we’ve come. You hated me the first time you saw me.”

She managed to look embarrassed. “I wouldn’t say I hated you . . .”

“You certainly didn’t want to be my companion though.”

“No, maybe not,” she replied, biting her lip. “But things change. I changed. I realized that I misjudged you badly. You’re not the person I thought you might be.”

“That’s good,” said Alex as a grin spread out on his face. “But you’re exactly how I imagined you would be.”

Mock anger erupted on her face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Alex laughed and pulled her onto the bed with him. Jenna came willingly, settling against his side. “I just wanted someone who could make me forget about the past. You’ve done a great job of that so far.”

Her anger melted as quickly as it arrived. “So have you if I’m being honest. I barely think about my life back on Earth these days. I mostly think about Vesta . . . and you.”

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“Do you think you can put aside thoughts of Vesta right now and focus solely on me?” he teased.

Jenna nodded quickly and wrapped her arms around his neck. She kissed him tenderly, the first of many. “Gladly!”

*****

The night in the hospital passed by uneventfully, and before Alex knew it, it was the day of the election. Since the speeches were due to start around midmorning, Alex was able to secure (with Jenna’s help) an early release from the hospital so he could prepare. His chest already felt much better this morning, although there was still some lingering pain anytime he took a deep breath.

He figured he ought to be more nervous than he actually was but Alex knew his speech and he wasn’t bothered by the thought of giving it to the entire city.

On the other hand, Jenna was a nervous wreck.

“Just breathe,” coached Alex as they approached the quad in the middle of the city. “Everything’s going to be just fine. You’ll get up there, give your speech, and come back down. Nothing to worry about.”

Jenna didn’t look nearly so assured. “What if I stumble on my words? What if I forget a whole portion of my speech?”

“Then just look at the prompter,” said Alex, a smile on his face. “Trust me, this will be just fine.”

She was still nervous by the time they found Ellie and Annette moments later. Ordinarily, Ellie wouldn’t have been allowed outside of Annette’s housing unit but a special exception was made for today, much to Belladonna’s disgust.

“Are we ready to do this?” asked an excited Annette. “Our big day is finally here!”

Alex pulled Jenna closer to him. “We’re ready to give our speeches. Right, Jenna?”

“Right,” squeaked Jenna. “I think.”

Ellie put her hands on Jenna’s shoulders. “You’re going to be great, I know it. Just remember what we practiced, okay?”

While Ellie was coaching Jenna, Alex looked out on the crowd with Annette.

“This is the first time I’ve seen the entire city in one place,” noted Alex. “I’m surprised to see so many of them.”

“Voting is a very important right to the Vestan people,” replied Annette. “We tend to take it incredibly seriously. I will say this though—this is the first time in a long while I’ve seen this many Vestans out here. For the new colonists from the Racine, this will be their first election.”

Annette was right, and Alex saw many familiar faces from the colony ship amongst the crowd. It was then that he realized just how critical it was that the colony was resupplied with people. Without the new arrivals, the crowd today would be considerably thinner.

Most of the people in the crowd had already formed their own opinion on who to vote for as well. Alex was pleased to see quite a few signs that had his name on it, which surprised him because he didn’t recognize half the faces that were carrying them.

However, there were quite a few signs with Serrano’s name on them, including one giant banner that stretched over half the quad that called him the “people’s candidate.”

“That looks a little ominous,” said Alex, pointing to the banner. “He’s calling himself the people’s candidate, now?”

Annette rolled her eyes. “Belladonna’s handiwork, no doubt. We’ll just have to hope that most Vestans see through her bullshit.”

Alex didn’t like relying on hope but there wasn’t much more that he could do at that moment because the speeches were slated to begin, and he had the first slot. The people cheered loudly as he took the podium and a draft of his speech started to play on the teleprompter.

It was over before he knew it. The crowd cheered whenever it was appropriate, usually at one of the planned pauses in the speech that had been designed by Annette and Ellie. For Alex, it sounded like every political speech he ever heard, full of promises and vigor but low on actual substance. The crowd didn’t seem to care and they roared their approval long after he left the podium.

Jenna went just after he stepped off, and he gave her an encouraging smile as she took the podium. He doubted Jenna actually saw him though, so nervous was she at what she was about to do. Her speech started off well enough although she didn’t earn nearly the same cheering as he did. She stumbled on her words a few times but managed to recover nicely, so nicely that the crowd gave her a modest applause at the end of her speech.

“Thank god that’s over,” said Jenna, taking several deep breaths once she got off the podium. “I never want to do that again.”

Annette started to laugh. “What are you going to do if you win? You’ll be expected to do that all the time as part of the Council.”

Ellie didn’t seem nearly as amused. She knew that her fate in the colony rested on Jenna getting a spot on the Council alongside Alex. It wasn’t hard to see that she was anxious about the voting after hearing their speeches.

The two native Vestans and Ross went after Jenna, although there was nothing particularly remarkable about their speeches. They all got a lukewarm response, similar to Jenna’s, except for when one of the native Vestans, a younger guy in his late twenties, had a coughing fit right in the middle of his speech. He went to grab some water to stop the coughing and in the process, tripped on the stage and landed right on his butt, causing a roar of laughter from most of Serrano’s people.

The Vestan man never recovered his courage and cut his speech short, as well as his prospects for joining the Council.

“He’s not the first to lose his nerve in front of this crowd,” said Ellie. “Probably won’t be the last either.”

Finally, it was Serrano’s turn. His supporters cheered him all the way up to the podium, often getting louder than what Alex received during his speech. Alex thought that the cheering would stop as soon as Serrano started speaking but his very first sentence caused a thunderstorm.

“My name is Lucius Serrano and I want to make every Vestan filthy, stinking rich.”

The roar that erupted from the crowd could probably have been heard kilometers away.

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