by Caryn Lix
Us. That still sounded strange. After seventeen years of regarding myself as an elite prison guard ready to take down dangerous anomalies at the drop of a hat, shifting allegiances so quickly hadn’t caught up to me. It still kept surprising me at inopportune moments—like this one. I glanced down over my tattered guard uniform and zipped my hoodie, hiding the shame of my former identity.
We met everyone near the airlock. Alexei, Mia, and Reed were near the front, their expressions determined. “Where’s Anya?” I asked. I wanted to make sure our youngest charge was well back from danger.
“Imani has her. She’ll make sure she gets to safety.”
I glanced over the assembled faces, all weaker and more exhausted than three weeks ago, but somehow livelier, too, as if their taste of freedom strengthened their resolve. Even Kristin, Rune’s old cellmate and not my biggest fan, forbore giving me her usual disdainful glare. “All right,” I said, raising my voice. “You all know the plan. Rune, Cage, and I will give ourselves up. While we have the guards’ attention, Alexei and Mia will create a distraction. Reed is familiar with Mars, so follow him. He’ll get you off the station and to safety. Anyone willing to risk recapture to make sure this ship gets destroyed, stick with Reed. The rest of you scatter. Go to ground and don’t come out.”
It wasn’t much of a plan. Most of them probably didn’t have contacts on Mars, and they didn’t have credit chips or anything else on which to survive. I knew all of that. But it was the best chance I could offer, and no one disputed it.
I returned to the front as Mia shimmered out of existence. I winced. I’d never get used to her habit of turning invisible whenever the urge struck her, even if, as now, it was planned. “I can’t think of any more excuses to delay,” I said to Cage.
He examined my face, pulling in his bottom lip. “We’ll be fine,” he said. Did he feel as assured as he sounded? I envied his confidence. “I trust Mia and Alexei. They’ve got our backs.”
Alexei nodded, giving me one of his rare smiles, and flexed the muscles along his shoulders. “See you soon.”
I faced the smooth black plastic of the ship’s exit. Even though the ship had provided us with refuge after we’d escaped Sanctuary, it had never felt like home. It was too alien, too bizarre. I wasn’t sorry to see it go, even if it meant turning myself over to the authorities. The ship had never been a destination. It was a place between permanence, even between identities. I still hadn’t found my next home, but this certainly wasn’t it. “Here goes nothing,” I said, and jammed a screwdriver into the exit slot.
The black material shimmered and flowed, re-forming itself into an opening about ten feet above our heads. Earlier, Imani and Cage had rigged a rope ladder to make it easy to vacate the ship. But over twenty people needed to escape behind us. Mia and Alexei had been vague on the details of how exactly they planned to accomplish that, and when pressed, Mia muttered something about playing it by ear and creating a distraction. I just hoped it would be big enough to give them the time they needed.
I waited for Mia to exit the ship ahead of me. The ladder swayed with her movement. Once it stilled, I caught a rung, a makeshift plastic bar I hoped would support Alexei’s weight, and crawled after her.
I emerged on top of the alien ship and got my first view of Mars. My eyebrows shot up in amazement, and in spite of the situation, I took a moment to stop and stare. My family had lived all over Earth before we moved to Sanctuary, and we’d vacationed once or twice on a luxury star cruiser. But I’d never set foot on another planet. I’d never admitted it to anyone, but Mars had always fascinated me. It had the same allure as Robo Mecha Dream Girl 5: someplace with mystery and danger left to uncover. Humans had walked the surface of Earth for millennia. We’d only colonized Mars in the last fifty years, and aside from a few scattered mining camps, there was only one real settlement: Mars City, with its strange mix of tourist attractions, mining homes, and corporate research facilities.
We were on an exterior landing pad, an invisible bubble trapping oxygen and atmosphere in the space beside the huge gunmetal-gray building. To my left and right, Mars stretched away, red dust billowing as far as the eye could see. Behind the building lay Mars City: a labyrinthine complex of flashing lights and dark shadows, high-priced hotels and metal lean-tos. I drank it in, my imagination filling in the city with back-alley deals and the desert with unexplored caverns.
But between me and adventure stood twelve heavily armed soldiers, all bearing the logo of Mars Mining Incorporated. I couldn’t see the guards’ expressions through their mirrored faceplates. Somehow, I doubted they were friendly. Their firearms might be primitive compared to Omnistellar’s arsenal, but they were plenty lethal. I raised my hands to show I posed no threat and picked my way across the ship.
One of the soldiers gestured. As Cage emerged behind me, an automated staircase rolled toward us. It wasn’t quite tall enough or the right shape to reach me, but it only left a gap of about a foot, and I cleared it easily. I kept my arms spread wide, as the Mars soldiers looked edgy, fingers twitching on triggers, and I didn’t want to give them an excuse to open fire. My heart skipped at the sight of all those guns, and for a moment I almost froze. No one knew like I did how easily you could hit the wrong target. Staring down the business end of the rifles sent a tremor through me, and I had to force my feet to resume their climb.
Behind me, Cage and Rune scrambled onto the staircase. I didn’t hear Mia land, but that meant nothing. Girl moved like a ghost.
We hurried to put as much distance between us and the ship as we could. My courage faltered as we approached our masked captors, and I was suddenly, powerfully grateful for my companions—Cage on my left, Rune on my right, keeping so close our arms brushed with each step. I resisted the urge to grab for their hands. If I’d learned anything in years of dealing with Omnistellar, it was never to show your fear.
As we drew near the soldiers, one of them stepped forward. “That’s far enough,” he said, and I recognized his voice from the comms. “Which of you is Kenzie Cord?”
“I am.” I took a step ahead of the others, clenching my hands into fists. My hands often shook when I got nervous. I’d learned long ago that fists made me look stronger than trembling. “And we followed through with our side of the deal. Are you going to honor yours?”
“Of course,” he said, a little too smoothly and quickly, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Most corporate suits had a bit of sliminess to them. “But first, we have some business to take care of. I’m going to need the three of you to—”
At that moment, a massive explosion rocked the area. I smashed into the pavement and skidded, my ears ringing, spots dancing before my eyes. Skin tore from my wrists. Rune landed on top of me, and all the soldiers toppled despite their armor.
The world lurched in sickening heaves. Through the haze of disorientation, I was dimly aware of shouting and flames, utter chaos. Behind me, Cage stumbled to his feet and caught the nearest soldier, yelling about something—keeping his attention here, I assumed, because this had to be Mia and Alexei’s version of a distraction. It was distracting, all right. I twisted, still not trusting myself to stand, and found a wall of flames not five feet in front of me. On the other side of the shimmering heat, a steady stream of teenagers scrambled over the ship and leaped for freedom.
I wasn’t the only one to notice. Shouts rose around me as the soldiers took aim. I threw myself at the nearest armored goon, knocking their arm aside and sending their shot careening wildly into the barrier surrounding the landing platform. It absorbed the bullet’s energy, leaving the bullet to ping to the ground, harmless. I got a gun hilt to the face for my trouble. Pain ricocheted through my skull, and the back of my head smacked the pavement.
The kids scattered, bolting through the Mars landscape toward the neighboring city, trusting in their powers or their own willpower to get them through the few seconds of vacuum separating the bubbles. The flames blocked the soldiers’ pursuit. Some of t
hem made to charge after the escaping prisoners, but their commander called a retreat. “Let them go!” he bellowed. “Make sure no one else is on that damn ship! We’ll put out an APB. They can’t leave the city, and they won’t last long with a reward on their heads.”
My heart sank. There was nowhere else to go, not without a passport or a Mars Mining pass. But the city was big and had a reputation for hosting a healthy horde of criminals as well as Mars Mining citizens. With luck the commander overestimated the city’s love for his corporation.
I had my own problems to deal with, as the commander approached the three of us, tilting his faceplate back. He was older than his voice had led me to believe, with a grizzly white beard and flashing dark eyes. “I suppose you think you’re clever,” he snarled. The ringing in my ears was fading, but I still struggled to catch his words. Instinctively, I stepped between him and Rune, and Cage drew up beside me. Rune sighed heavily behind us, and I winced, remembering how she’d complained about Cage treating her like a child. Now I was doing it. Before I could apologize, though, the man continued. “How many murderous maniacs did you just turn loose in my city?”
“None,” I replied sharply, forcing myself to stand straight and meet his eyes in spite of the fact that the world continued teetering, in spite of the agony where the skin had torn from my palms. I didn’t know the background of every single kid I’d just turned loose on Mars, but I was willing to stand up for them regardless. “None of those kids are what you think.”
He spit on the ground in disgust. “That’s what I get for trusting an anomaly.”
“We kept our word,” Cage broke in. “The three of us surrendered in exchange for you destroying the ship. That’s what you bargained for, and that’s what you got.”
“And you simply forgot to mention the other prisoners hiding in your hold, is that it?”
“No, we left it out intentionally. You didn’t ask. We didn’t tell. They weren’t part of the bargain.” Cage flashed him an unsettling grin. I watched him from the corner of my eye. Who else had seen that grin? For some, it might have been the last thing they ever did see. “So. Are you going to keep your word, or not?”
“Unfortunately, that’s not up to him.” Another soldier spoke, approaching us from the line behind the commander. She tipped her own faceplate back, revealing a surprisingly small woman with a sharply angled nose and eyes like deep-set obsidian. “I’m Commander Yang, the officer in charge of this outpost and official representative of Mars Mining Incorporated.”
I closed my eyes. I should have known. “Your subordinate here made promises he couldn’t follow through on,” I said, laying emphasis on the word “subordinate” and glaring at the man, who showed me his teeth. “What about you, Commander Yang? Do you understand how dangerous this is? The situation we’re in?”
“No, but I’ll give you a chance to explain once we have you safely in custody.” She gestured with her gun, making it clear we were to precede her into the station.
I exchanged glances with the twins. It wasn’t like we had a lot of choice. Cage might outrun these clowns, but I knew he wouldn’t abandon me or Rune, and none of us stood a chance against this many armed soldiers. Besides, we’d made a bargain, and I had to at least try to convince Yang to follow through. According to Rune’s calculations, we didn’t have much time to destroy the ship before the aliens’ course became irreversible. Still, the idea of walking into captivity . . . Not so long ago I’d stood on the opposite side of this equation. I clenched my fists again and swallowed a lump in my throat. We’d get through this somehow. The only thing that really mattered was destroying the ship. So many of us had died. I couldn’t let it be in vain, couldn’t let those monsters return for the rest of humanity.
I took in my surroundings: the Mars Mining soldiers, the unsuspecting city, the red dust leading to scattered mining camps. If the aliens followed our signal here, no one would survive. We’d made our way off Sanctuary through cunning, skill, and more luck than we ever should have managed. I didn’t dare count on that sort of fortune again. At least on Sanctuary, we’d been able to contain the aliens to a limited space. Let them loose on Mars . . . A tremor shot down my spine. Give me Omnistellar. I’d take my former corporation, their wrath, even a death sentence before I faced one of those things ever again.
“All right,” I said, bowing to the inevitable, and we followed Yang through the crowd of angry soldiers, returning to the one place we had fought at all costs to avoid: back into corporate custody.
FIVE
THE SECOND WE PASSED THROUGH the heavy metal doors, the guards slammed us against the wall. Still disoriented from the blast and the blow to the face, I couldn’t even muster the energy to protest as they bound my hands behind me in huge, heavy cuffs. Some sort of padding forced my hands into involuntary fists as painfully tight bonds clamped over my wrists. My shoulders instantly ached, the weight of the cuffs dragging my arms down, pulling my elbows together. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw them do the same to Cage and Rune, jamming their hands into what looked like metal boxers’ gloves. Cage’s face locked in a mask of indifference, although the muscle twitching at the corner of his eye communicated volumes. Rune didn’t even try to hide her distress, closing her eyes and breathing heavily as the manacles snapped into place. As awful as this was for me, it had to be a hundred times worse for them. They’d only recently escaped five years of prison, and a few weeks later, they were voluntarily returning to a jail cell.
If Cage and Rune could handle this, so could I. At least that was what I told myself. But as the metal bit into my wrists and added what felt like ten pounds to the drag on my arms, ice-cold panic clawed at my chest, constricting my throat. I closed my eyes, tipped my head against the wall, and pretended I was in Robo Mecha Dream Girl 5. Yumiko was taken captive, on average, once a week. She always survived, and so would I.
The thought gave me just enough courage to keep my feet as the guard behind me tugged on my cuffs to make sure they were secure. He said something to Commander Yang. It sounded like Mandarin, a language I’d become pretty comfortable with between Cage and Rune. But I couldn’t understand a word of it.
Power inhibitors, I realized numbly. Mars Mining didn’t have Omnistellar’s fancy inhibitor chips, so they’d found another way to cut off our abilities. The heavy metal cuffs suddenly seemed to double in weight even as my mind raced through corporate technology. Some sort of injection, probably. Temporary. I hadn’t felt it, which meant the cuffs contained a numbing agent. That explained the lack of feeling in my wrists, which I’d attributed to the weight of the cuffs.
“You all right?” Cage muttered as the guard grabbed our elbows and propelled us forward.
I nodded. Cage glanced past me to Rune, but she stared straight ahead, her chin jutting forward, her muscles tightly corded. I shook my head at him, telling him to leave her alone. She looked stronger than I felt. Let her get through this however she could.
At that moment, though, Rune glanced at us and gave me a small smile. She turned to include Cage, and he smiled back. It was the tiniest movement of her lips, the slightest quirk of his, but it went so far toward calming my panic. In this moment, all barriers among the three of us melted away. It’s hard to focus on much else when you’re fighting to keep your head above water.
Yang removed her gloves and helmet, passing them to a random underling. She scanned her thumb and the door connecting the corridor to the tarmac slid shut behind us. She opened the next passageway, and we stepped into the headquarters of Mars Mining Incorporated.
I’d never been in Omnistellar Concepts’ headquarters in London, but I’d seen lots of other corporate facilities when my parents did intercorporate training missions. They’d led sessions for all the big security firms: New Earth, Sphinxhead, even the closest thing we had to a competitor, Surge Networks. Some, like Omnistellar and Surge, were immaculate, run by the book and according to strict regulations. Some were a lot laxer. But I’d never seen anything of
f planet before.
This was the city’s central hub. We were in a huge open area, all exposed metal and hastily welded pipework. But it had been designed with something more professional in mind. Faux leather couches, worn and patched now but good quality, lined waiting areas, and huge windows revealed Mars’s expanse on one side and the city’s flashing lights on another. A thin layer of red dust covered everything. They might have sealed Mars City in an atmospheric bubble, but apparently that didn’t stop the windstorms from doing their work.
Corridors branched off the main area in four directions. I scanned the signs overhead. They hadn’t bothered labeling them in anything but English, so I didn’t even need my powers to interpret TOURISM AND CORPORATE IMMIGRATION, MARS MINING AFFAIRS, MEDICAL, and SECURITY. Unsurprisingly, Yang led us and our escorts toward the last one. Dozens of people gathered in the main area, but none of them batted an eyelash at the sight of us. Obviously, arrests weren’t uncommon here. I assumed no one had noticed the huge alien spaceship on the tarmac, not to mention the resulting explosion. There was a reason they’d directed us to a landing site at the rear of the facility.
The weight on my arms continued to grow, a steady ache spreading through my shoulders and neck. I focused on the echo of my heartbeat, battling a claustrophobic panic. Having my hands bound this way was like waiting for the air to drain from an airlock before a spacewalk combined with the sensation of first learning about my chip. I was completely and utterly trapped. I couldn’t even reach for Cage or Rune for support. Even if our hands hadn’t been bound, the guards kept us several feet away from one another. My family had never been very physical, but I’d spent a lot of time with Rune over the last few weeks, and I’d gotten used to her quick hugs, the way she tipped her head into my shoulder or poked me in the arm when she wanted my attention. The physical separation felt strange and wrong.
But the second we passed through the doors to security, a sense of familiarity settled over me. Security was just as dusty and run-down here as everything else, but things ran with a greater sense of efficiency and purpose. In a strange way, it felt like coming home. I didn’t want to consider what that said about me, that I found empty halls and blank faces more comforting than a sea of normal people. Omnistellar conditioning.