by Caryn Lix
He shook his head. “Do you really think that girl is the only one of her kind? Omnistellar has many anomalies willing to work for them if it means a pardon.”
“Yeah,” said Mia dryly. “Until Omnistellar turns on them because they outlived their usefulness.”
“Forget that for now. These aren’t the same aliens,” Cage interjected as the computer announced we had four minutes to live. I glanced around, hoping someone had a brilliant idea. But no one moved. Everyone kept their weapons trained on Dad and Liam, but no one opened fire. Cage continued, his voice calm and cool and persuasive as always: “Hasn’t anyone told you? The aliens we encountered on Sanctuary were harvesting. These ones are killing. They’re not here to collect us, they’re here to contain us.” His eyes flickered toward me and Rune. “Maybe it’s our fault. We killed hundreds of them back on the ship. Maybe that brought them here with murder on their minds. But whatever their motives, there’s no reason to assume any of them are sleeping.”
“We’ll take care of it.” Dad glanced at the red countdown on the console. “You need to understand that this isn’t my choice. Omnistellar is tired of Legion, tired of anomalies. It took everything I had to convince them to save Kenzie and honor their agreement with Legion. Even if I tried to take you along, or if you killed me and took the shuttles, Sabre would destroy you on sight.”
“Sabre,” Priya repeated. “That’s a high-powered warship. You did come prepared.”
He sagged against the wall, clasping the back of his head and wincing in pain. “You have a choice to make. We can all die here together, along with the aliens, and Omnistellar will try to take the ship anyway. They might fail, with Obsidian still standing and all of its creatures alive. If they do, the aliens will be free to advance throughout the solar system. Or you can let me, Liam, and Kenzie go. You’ll die, but humanity will survive. I suggest you choose fast.”
“You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?” Fury surged in my chest. Once again Cage’s arm turned restraining as I lunged at my father. “You arrogant, selfish bastard.”
Dad recoiled, his mouth dropping as genuine anger and hurt spread across his face. “I could have escaped this ship an hour ago,” he pointed out. “I delayed the self-destruct mechanism. I stayed and risked my life for you, Kenzie.”
“You were inputting the self-destruct when I came in! You were going to kill me!”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he snapped. “I saw you coming on the reactivated security feeds. I’m not . . .” He swallowed hard. “I’m not your mother, Kenzie. I would never hurt you.”
“And you expect me to be grateful ?” I was shouting now, heedless of the noise, even with Imani and Rune frantically shushing me. “To leave my friends, the people who saved my life when Mom abandoned me? Is that really what you think of me?”
“Please,” whispered Liam, looking around in frantic terror. “You have to stop. Listen, I don’t like this any more than you do. I don’t. But it’s about survival, you know? I’ve seen what those things can do to a planet. You don’t want them on yours.”
He shot to his feet, but before he took a single step, he jerked upright, eyes going wide as a stun gun blast rippled through him. I spun to find Imani, arm extended. “That’s enough out of you,” she snarled as Liam dropped to the floor. “It was on stun,” she added unnecessarily. His chest rose and fell visibly.
I’d be lying if I said I wasted a moment worrying about him. I turned on Dad instead. “You keep saying you’re different from Mom,” I said, forcing my voice to be calm and steady. I’d thought I’d lost any hope of reaching Dad, but now I could see the father I knew again, the kindness and good humor and logic. Maybe my last chance hadn’t vanished after all. “Dad, please. If you love me at all, listen. We have to find another way.”
He hesitated. “Omnistellar—”
“Forget Omnistellar!” The words were almost a shout. I clenched my fists and lowered my voice. “This isn’t about them. It’s about you and me, and whether you trust me. Dad, I’ve come this far. I’ve escaped these things and the bounty hunters and every obstacle you’ve thrown in my way. I think I’ve earned at least the chance to prove myself.”
Once more he hesitated. “Kenzie,” he whispered. He glanced at the others behind me, and a familiar bewilderment suffused his expression. I understood. It was the same expression I’d worn when I first questioned Omnistellar. Hope exploded in my chest. I was reaching him. If I could just have a few more minutes, show him that the anomalies weren’t dangerous criminals, I knew I could convince him of the truth. We could escape together. I just needed to hold his attention a little while longer.
But I never got the chance.
With a shriek of rending metal, a claw ripped through the door behind him. It raked through the triple-reinforced, shielded metal like it was nothing, disintegrating it in two swipes. Mia and Hallam opened fire, but the alien was too fast. It lunged through the door, screaming and trembling with effort.
And launched itself at my father.
My mouth opened in a silent scream as the world slowed down around me. I felt like I was moving in slow motion as I lunged for my father. I had time to register every movement, every nuance of his facial expression: the shock, the horror, the fear, all of it dissolving into pain as the monster stabbed its claws into Dad. They tore through his body. I reached for him, searching for someone’s power, anyone’s power, some way to stop this thing.
And then the world jerked back to normal speed. The alien swiveled Dad into the line of fire. His body jerked as bullets and laser blasts raked it, and I screamed, running for him.
I only made it a few steps before Cage tackled me to the floor. I fought against him, clawing at his face until he caught my wrists and pinned me. “Kenzie, stop!” he shouted. “It’s too late!”
The alien screamed again, and someone opened fire. The noise faded into the background as I struggled against Cage, shouts and orders and claws and bullets. But I only had eyes for Dad. “No. No. There’s something. Someone. Me! I can use my powers, Cage. I can help him!”
“You can’t resurrect people,” he whispered, pulling me into his arms.
“Matt. Matt can. Matt!”
Matt shook his head, his face ashen. “I can’t help anyone but myself. I’m not even sure how I do that.” Behind him, Imani clutched Jasper’s arm, their faces twin masks of horror.
“Get out of the way!” Priya shoved all three of them aside and jumped between us and the alien. It leaped at her and she targeted it, her expression cool and calm and professional as she squeezed off a series of shots. The alien howled in agony and slumped against the wall.
For a moment, all was silent. I twisted in Cage’s arms, reaching for Matt, blinded by a veil of tears. I could only think of finding something, anything to save my father. “I’m sorry for Sanctuary,” I whispered, my fingers straining for his. If I could only make him understand, make him forgive me, make him turn to Dad and work his magic. “Please. Please help me.”
Matt’s expression crumpled. For a moment he looked like he might cry, and that more than anything broke through my agony. “Kenzie, I can’t,” he said, so softly I barely heard him.
I can’t.
Not I won’t.
I can’t. The words shattered my shields and left me limp, my entire body shaking and exhausted and fighting to resist the knowledge that my father was gone, my parents, were gone.
A horrifying silence filled the room. Over Cage’s shoulder I saw Mia’s face, ashen and more frightened than ever before. She met my eyes, and her lips moved as if to say something. Then she turned away.
An alien scream broke the silence. Another answered nearby.
Something struck the wall across from me. Long, claw-shaped indents appeared along the wiring. It wouldn’t take more than a few strikes for them to break through. I stared at them numbly, still unable to absorb anything happening around me. Dad couldn’t be dead. The man who’d introduced me to Omnistellar
, who’d lectured me on company regulations, who’d placed my first basketball in my hands, who’d bought me ice cream when we walked by the beach visiting his sister . . . I remembered Mom and Dad laughing together, my cousins running around their feet, Mom watching with a tolerant smile as I raced over with my arms full of seashells. Dad had scooped me into his arms. I couldn’t remember what he’d said. Why couldn’t I remember? It was one of the last vacations we all took together, before the promotions and the work and the company claimed everything else. Why couldn’t I remember his words? Why was it so important?
I suddenly became aware of Cage babbling to me, cupping my face in his hands, trying to make me meet his eyes. “Kenzie, please,” he said, his words a mixture of Mandarin and English and something in between. “Please. Don’t do this, not now. I need you. I’m sorry, but I do. Look at me. Please.”
I drew a deep breath, forcing myself to meet his gaze. Relief surged through him, so powerful and profound I almost cried. “Is he dead?” I whispered.
“Yeah. I’m sorry. But if we don’t get moving, we’re going to be dead too.”
I knew. I knew that. I knew both of those things. I simply couldn’t make myself believe them.
The alien shrieks tripled in volume and another creature leaped over my dad, ignoring the other alien crumpled beside him. I threw up a hand to shield my eyes as Hallam opened fire. The alien shrieked, recoiled, but shook off the gunfire, shifting on unsteady feet before seeming to recover.
“I’m out!” Hallam shouted, throwing the big gun aside. He yanked a second laser rifle off his back and braced it against his shoulder. “You, girl! Whatcha at?”
If Mia bristled at being called ‘girl,’ she didn’t show it. “Quarter charge,” she replied as she opened fire. Jasper lunged into action at the same time, jerking an entire console free of the wall and slamming it into the creature. “Eighth charge,” Mia amended as the alien slumped.
“Self-destruct in three minutes,” announced the computer.
“Let’s move,” Priya ordered.
“What about the other ship—Sabre?” Reed demanded. “If he was telling the truth . . .”
“You want to stay here? Be my guest! Everyone else, go!” Priya spun for the door behind us. At the same moment, claws slashed through it. Alexei and Mia attacked in the same instant, and the alien released a shrill scream.
Mia pivoted and fired another shot at the far door, where a creature struggled past Dad’s body. It howled in pain but didn’t drop. Mia threw the weapon aside. “I’m out!” she shouted.
Another strike on the far wall. This time, the tips of claws emerged through the shielding. Shrieks came from all directions. Three of the aliens charged through the gaping hole behind Dad and paused, sniffing the air, calling to one another. More claws burst through the door behind us. And at last, the aliens tore through the wall.
We all stood frozen, silent. For a heartbeat I wondered if the aliens knew where we were. Maybe they thought we were all dead. If we stayed very still, didn’t even breathe, then maybe . . .
An alien charged through the door behind us, flailing wildly. Alexei and Jasper dove to either side just in time, but they collided with the floor in a giant racket, and every one of the creatures—five in the room, and two more tearing through the walls—spun in our direction and screamed. They leaped, and we scattered. Cage swept me out of harm’s way. But there was no escape, not anymore. The creatures closed in.
“Two minutes to self-destruct.”
And we were out of time.
“Kenzie,” shouted Mia suddenly. “You have to open a door!”
“What?” I yelped. My voice cut off as Cage yanked me twenty feet across the room, avoiding another alien attack. We landed by Mia, all of us clumped together. Priya and Hallam continued shooting, but their laser blasts didn’t seem to have any effect anymore. The same went for Alexei’s fire. Reed, Rune, and Imani weren’t even attempting to use their weapons, simply cringing on the floor, despair in their expressions. Jasper waved his hands and pieces of engineering flew toward us, building a sort of circular wall. It wasn’t much, but it might protect us for a minute.
Of course, we didn’t have much more than that to live, anyway.
“Open a door,” Mia repeated, twisting from one direction to another as if she could anticipate the next attack and somehow stop it.
“A door to where? This time there really is a good chance I’ll launch us into space! We have nowhere to go!”
“As far away as you can,” said Cage grimly, his hands firm on my arms. “It’s our only hope.”
“He’s right,” Alexei said. He crouched on the floor, very close to Mia, watching Jasper’s shield of rubble shake and tremble under the force of alien attacks. “It’s a chance, Kenzie. Not a good one. But even if you dump us into space somewhere, at least we’ll have tried. It’s better than being killed by those things or blown up with the ship.”
I looked from one face to another: Rune and Cage, Mia and Alexei, Priya, Hallam, Jasper, Imani, Reed, Matt. Somewhere beyond our protective shelter lay my dad’s body, dead and torn, and Liam. And I couldn’t help Liam now, even if I wanted to.
But maybe, just maybe, I could save the rest of us.
I swallowed a whimper. “I’ll probably kill us,” I whispered.
With impeccable timing, the computer replied, “One minute to self-destruct.”
No one answered. There was no answer. There was no choice.
I closed my eyes and focused on getting away from here, as far away as possible, somewhere we maybe even had a hope in hell of beating these things, of saving humanity. Why not get greedy, since I was already pushing my boundaries?
I didn’t know where in the system I could take us, but I fixed the idea firmly in my mind: someplace we could survive, someplace we could help, someplace we weren’t about to die.
And I opened the door.
FORTY-THREE
I CAME TO IN A blur of noise and motion.
Confusion surrounded me. I stared up a long tube, sounds echoing without meaning, everything a nonsensical swirl of light.
And then, as if a camera zoomed in on the action, the end of the tube rushed toward me. Everything came into sharp clarity. Sounds became almost too clear, piercing my brain like spikes. I howled, clamping my hands over my ears, closing my eyes against the onrush of images.
Hands grabbed me, almost painful in their intensity, and I cringed away. They released me. I tumbled onto something that felt like sandpaper and screeched as it scraped my back.
The hands had me again, less violent than before, lifting me off the sandpaper and propping me up. Sounds slowly coalesced into voices. I focused on the most familiar, which turned out to be Rune: “What’s wrong with her?”
“Give her a minute.” That was Cage, close by.
Hands ran over my skin, and they weren’t violent at all. Something had oversensitized me to every little sound and sensation. It faded now, but for a moment it had overwhelmed me with pain and intensity like I’d never known, not even when Cage cut the chip from my arm.
I forced my eyes open, blinking against what I now realized was dim, shattered sunlight. I slumped in a pile of sand with Rune and Cage crouched nearby. Imani and Reed knelt behind me, Imani holding me up while Reed used his power on me. The sensation on my back—Reed’s hands, touching, channeling, healing. Strength and cooling seemed to flow from him, and I closed my eyes, embracing the awareness.
After a moment the pain receded, the world coming into sharper focus. But with the physical pain receding, my grief surged inside me. I dropped my head to my hands to hide my tears. I couldn’t cry in front of them, not now, not here, wherever here was.
But Dad . . . I could have convinced him. I was so close. He’d been opening up, ready to listen. We could have escaped together. And instead I’d left him lying on the floor of an Omnistellar ship, soaked in blood, killed by the aliens he’d summoned and entombed by his own corporation.
Cage slid a hand over my arm as if he knew what was going through my mind. I bit hard on my lip, so hard I tasted blood and saw stars, and between that and the warmth of his hand I managed to choke back the tears. Dad, my dad . . . but no. Not now. I almost laughed. It seemed like I never had time to grieve anyone properly.
But Dad would want me to survive. He’d want me to fight. And to do that, I needed to get myself together. I closed my eyes until the urge to cry passed, surreptitiously wiping a few stray tears away as I got to my feet. I tried to pass the effects off as the lingering consequences of the healing. “Thanks,” I managed. Cage cast me a knowing look but kept his mouth shut. His hand lingered on my arm, and I leaned against him gratefully even as I squared my shoulders and found what remained of my training, becoming Omnistellar strong. “What happened?”
“We don’t know.” Imani regarded me carefully, as if wondering if I’d break. I forced a little more steel into my spine. “You pulled us through the portal and instantly collapsed. When you woke, you were screaming. We didn’t know what happened, so Reed tried healing you.”
I rested my hand on Cage’s and took in my surroundings. We stood in a dimly lit desert, but I didn’t get the sense that it was night. Instead the sun itself seemed dull. Its reddish tinge reminded me of my night on Mars, even though the sand looked more like Earth. Memories flooded me, summers spent with my cousins at their beach house before we’d started moving all over the planet. This had the same white, soft quality, and it was almost comforting.
In most directions, an endless sea of sand rose and fell in wavelike dunes. Toward the sun, though, buildings shadowed against the light. It looked like a city, but something—the angles of the buildings, maybe, or the way it leaned into the horizon—didn’t fit. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was wrong, but I got a distinct feeling we weren’t on Earth.
As far away as we can get, I’d told my power.
And . . . it looked like it had obliged.
“We’re on another planet,” I whispered, almost to myself. The others stared at me, their expressions glassy, and I realized that my revelation trailed theirs. “That’s impossible. Isn’t it?”