Off Planet

by Aileen Erin

  I whimpered. Declan was my lifeline. I didn’t want him to be muted.

  “I’ll be right back. I promise.”

  The earbud went silent. I missed the sound of his soft breathing. It’d been a comfort. I’d been alone on the moon four hours, but I’d never felt as alone as I did that moment.

  And now I had to tell the base that I was too stressed out—too afraid—to continue mining. “I think the stress is getting to me.” I bit out the words. “I’m not sure I can do anymore today.”

  I tuned out the fury from the base and waited for Declan to come back. I didn’t care how much the jerks back on Abaddon were yelling at me. Declan was right. I had to quit. I was trying—really trying—to make this work, but I couldn’t do it. And I couldn’t go back to the base. I couldn’t put on a suit again. Not today. Not ever.

  I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, and I was scared. I counted my breaths as I waited for Declan to come back and prayed for a miracle.

  “Hey.” Declan drew the word out like a soft sigh.

  I shoved down the sob that threatened to break free. I was glad Declan was back. So relieved that I wasn’t alone, even if he was light-years away.

  “I have a new plan.” He sounded defeated, and I hated that.

  I wanted to tell him how thankful I was for all the risks he was taking for me, but I needed something else to happen. I needed that new plan, whatever it was.

  “I talked to your father and Lorne on the other line.”

  “Thank you.” The words flew out before I could stop them.

  “Kid?” Carl said. “You okay?”

  “I had to tell them what was happening. I watched you unresponsive on my monitor, and I’d never been so scared. I wish…” Declan was quiet for a moment. “Lorne’s so unbelievably mad at me.” A long sigh hissed across the com. “And if I’m honest, I’m mad at myself, too. Watching you today was impressive. I’m blown away by your strength and determination, but I’m second guessing every single step that led us here. This never should’ve happened. I’ve failed you, and that’s the last thing I wanted to do.”

  Failed me? I had a lot to say about that, but it’d have to wait until we didn’t have an audience.

  “Lorne is coming to pick you up. He’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “What?” I sat up. “No!”

  “Martinez?” Carl asked. “You okay?”

  I heard his question, but it felt like it was a million light-years away. My mind was spinning, and answering Carl didn’t matter anymore.

  None of this mattered. Nothing that I’d suffered through would matter if Lorne picked me up. That would mean war.

  It felt like I’d been kicked in the gut. All the air was gone. Declan couldn’t do this to me. Avoiding war was why I went to Abaddon in the first place. It was why I endured working the most idiotic job in the entire godforsaken universe. It was why I tried to find my own way out of it and ended up mining. It was why I’d survived for hours today on Apollyon. Giving up now meant that all of that was for nothing. That I’d suffered for no reason. That I was the one who failed.

  His new plan was iced. I hated it. I was trying to figure out how to tell him that with the control room listening in when the drones around me smashed to the ground, and the yelling from the base abruptly cut off.

  “Ahiga just wiped out communication. He made it look like an accident, but they’re going crazy, and it might not last long.”

  “I don’t need saving. Find another way. Negotiate with—”

  “It’s not up to you or me anymore. Lorne started this way as soon as he got Ahiga’s message. Apparently, he was almost here when I called him. I was hoping to do this more delicately. I wanted to somehow keep the peace, but the Aunare have decided that war is inevitable. That SpaceTech crossed the final line. Lorne will be there soon. I’m connecting him to you now.”

  “Amihanna.” That one word from Lorne sent shivers down my spine. My skin flared, and I was glad Ahiga had already shut down the drones. It wasn’t just my name that set me off, but the way he said it, laced with so many layers of emotion.

  In one word, Lorne told me everything was about to change. Again. And I wasn’t sure I could take anymore change. I wasn’t sure I had it in me, and once again I didn’t have a choice.

  “You need to be out of the mine in the next minute. I can’t waste time coming down there and carrying you up if you can climb. We need to be gone before anyone from SpaceTech realizes I’m there. Abaddon’s base has me outgunned, and my ship won’t last in a fight. I’m taking you and running. So, if you can, get up. Now.”

  “Damn it. No.” I slammed my hand on the ground. “I can’t be the cause of a war. I can’t live with that on my shoulders. Can’t you negotiate with SpaceTech to release me?”

  “No. I can’t risk what they’d do to you in the interim, and I won’t let them use you as a bargaining chip. But I also won’t sit by and watch you die for Declan’s idiocy. Start climbing. Forty-five seconds.”

  “But—”

  “Amihanna. War is inevitable. The Aunare know it. SpaceTech knows it. Declan is the only one who thinks it can be stopped. No matter what happens next, the war will never be your fault. I don’t know why you’re on Apollyon or what happened since I talked to you in that warehouse weeks ago, but I know you’re hurt, and I won’t risk your life. Thirty seconds and I’m there. Get up. Now.”

  “If we could just—” Declan started, but Lorne cut him off.

  “No. We cannot just anymore.” He paused. “Declan lost visual with you when Ahiga blew the coms. So I can’t see you and I don’t know how hurt you are, but I need you to hear what I say and try. Please.” He was much calmer when he spoke to me. “We’re not fighting today, but believe me when I say I’m picking you up. Twenty seconds and I’m there. So do me a favor and get up so that we can leave right away. I want to be gone as soon as physically possible.”

  I wanted to believe what Lorne said—that the war wouldn’t be my fault—but it didn’t matter anymore. Lorne was here, and I wanted to live. Maybe that was selfish of me, but I ripped off my wrist unit and slammed my hammer down on it. I was done with SpaceTech and pretending to be something that I wasn’t.

  “Fifteen seconds.” He paused. “You won’t be able to see my ship, but you’ll feel the wind. Are you almost there?”

  “Not yet, but I’m getting up.” I tucked my tool in the waist of my pants and pushed my body to stand. Even though I was swaying, I started sprinting.

  I’d taken stairs down, but there was only a single staircase on each level, and it was directly across the mine from me. A full mile away. Even with my Aunare speed, I couldn’t get there as quick as Lorne wanted. It was impossible, unless…

  I sprinted toward the wall. I used one foot on the wall to give me a bit more lift as I jumped up, and gripped onto the top edge. Pulling myself up, I started running again at the next wall, except I didn’t make it to the top.

  “Shit!” I closed my eyes as I slid down until my feet touched the ground. I leaned my head against the dirt wall. My body was too weak to make it. “I can’t. I’m so tired. I’m not strong enough.”

  “Yes, you are. I’m close enough to see you now. I know it feels far, but you can do this.” Lorne’s voice urged me on. “I can come down once I get there, but that will take longer. When I open my hatch, the cloaking will turn off, and I’m worried that they’ll get their coms rebooted. I’d rather not be caught. Not today. Not with this ship. It wouldn’t go well.”

  It was the plea in his voice that got me moving again. I didn’t know what they’d do if SpaceTech had the Aunare crown prince in their hands, but I wouldn’t let that happen.

  I steadied myself as I stepped away from the wall and then ran back, just barely jumping high enough to grab the top of the wall. I groaned as I heaved my body up onto the next level.

  I hit the level after that. And the next.

  Lorne started talking in Aunare to Declan. I didn’t
speak a lick of it, so I just ignored their chitchat and kept going. By the time I hit the fifth level, my abs were screaming. If I’d had a relaxing day, then this would’ve been a cakewalk. But my bones ached, and my muscles were shaking, threatening to give out.

  “Tracker?” I gasped the word. The one Declan had given me wasn’t the standard human device, but it still had tracking capabilities. I figured a warning would help Lorne.

  “I’m going to overload the chip as soon as you’re on board. It’ll knock you out, but I’ll put you in a healing pod when we’re safely away from SpaceTech. When you wake, you’ll feel better than you have in years. And this is a promise that will actually come true.”

  It was a stab at Declan and that pissed me off, but as tired as I was I couldn’t deny how amazing that sounded. “Good. My. Bones. Hurt.” I grunted out the words as I took one last run at the wall in front of me, leaping with every last bit of strength. I screamed with the effort of pulling myself up. As soon as my feet touched the ground, the air shifted around me.

  It swirled faster and faster before abruptly stopping. The illusion broke in one small section, revealing a back hatch opening.

  I ran to it, knowing that I’d already taken too long, even if he’d given up on the countdown.

  A man was waiting just inside. His black hair was pulled back from his face in a low ponytail. He wasn’t dressed as most Aunare I saw on the news though. His slacks were a little too loose and his shirt a little too tight. But his jaw had the typical squareness of Aunare males. His skin was glowing, and the darker teal tattoos peeked out from the bottom of his rolled up sleeves.

  He stood there, waiting for me, and I stumbled. He was too fierce. Too handsome. He didn’t have the thick muscle that Declan did, but he was more muscular than any Aunare I’d ever seen. And he was beautiful. I kept coming back to that. I just never looked at someone before and thought whoa. But this man took my breath away. I would give him everything, and that made him more dangerous to me than the mines of Apollyon and the surface of Abaddon combined.

  “Hurry!” he yelled, waving me forward.

  I jumped into the ship as it hovered two feet above the ground. I started to lose my balance and fall backward, but Lorne leaped forward and grabbed my arm, steadying me.

  “Amihanna.”

  That word again. It was just my name. It shouldn’t make me feel anything other than weird—because my name had been Maité for so long—but his voice saying it? It sent shivers through my body. My skin lit from within, and for the first time I didn’t try to stop it.

  And then I looked into his eyes and froze.

  They were my favorite color. A deep, dark aquamarine.

  He gently pulled the earbud from my ear, threw it on the floor, then gripped my bicep, right where my tracker was and I could feel something in his hand pressing against my skin. “I’m sorry to do this now, but we need to get out of here.”

  “Do what you need to do,” I said and meant it.

  There was a flash of light and searing pain. I started to fall, but Lorne still held my arm.

  “Damn it.” Lorne’s voice was threaded with worry. “Why aren’t you passing out?”

  “If only it were that easy.” The pain had been sharp, but it was fading, leaving me weaker than I was before.

  I rested my head against Lorne’s chest, unable to keep it up anymore. I’d used the last bit of strength I had to get to him. “My head is pounding.”

  He grabbed my chin, tilting my head up, but I couldn’t open my eyes.

  “Amihanna?” He pulled one eyelid open, then the next.

  “Hmm.” I felt drunk. I’d only been drunk a couple of times, once really wasted, and that was how I felt now. The room was spinning and my head was hurting and I was sure that I would throw up any second, but I was too far gone to care.

  He ran a hand over my head. “The blood wasn’t from her ears, you idiot.” Lorne yelled something in Aunare, and the ship started to move. “It’s from her brain. I can’t jump through space with her like this. She’s not stable.” He swung me up into his arms and started running.

  “What do you mean it’s from her brain?” Declan’s voice came from somewhere in the ship.

  “Is he here?” I asked.

  Lorne shook his head. “No. He’s still in his ship.”

  “Lorne?” My voice sounded so far away.

  “I’ve got you, Ami.”

  “Okay.” I took a breath. “Might pass out now.”

  “I’m sorry,” Declan said. “Take care of her.”

  “That’s what I’m doing.”

  I could feel the air against my face as Lorne moved, but I barely felt his footfalls. “Are we floating?”

  “Stay with me. You have to promise.” He sounded so lost and scared that I wanted to ease his worry.

  I tried to laugh to show him that I was okay, but it came out more of a croak than anything else. “Lotta promises happening. Just no nanos. No more nanos. Rather die.” My words were slurring, and I wasn’t even really sure what I was saying, because everything hurt.

  “You’re safe with me.”

  He said it and I believed him.

  He lowered me into something soft, and I managed to flutter my eyes open. Lorne filled up my sight as he leaned over me, pressing buttons frantically.

  I reached up a lazy hand to touch his face. “You’re so pretty.”

  He held my hand to his cheek for a second, before pressing it down onto the bed. “You’re going to feel much better in a bit.”

  Feeling better sounded good.

  “Try to sleep. It will help.”

  My eyelids felt like they weighed ten pounds each. “Not hard. Tired.”

  His soft lips brushed against my forehead, and I sighed.

  Then I remembered. SpaceTech. “Need to run.”

  “We’re fine. We’re cloaked again, and they haven’t rebooted coms yet. So we’re hidden. We have a little time now. It’s more important that you heal.”

  I felt his hand brush against my face, and he started to sing. It was the same song he’d sung to me in the warehouse the night my skin wouldn’t stop glowing. This time it sounded sadder. Slower. More aching.

  I wished I knew what he was saying.

  I tried to stay awake. I wanted to talk to Lorne. To ask him why he was sad. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t fight sleep for one second longer.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  I woke to the distant sound of people arguing. The blue tinted lights were dim but gave a calming cast to the room. I sat up, and the world swam. I was better—I didn’t feel drunk anymore—but the room seemed to sway every time I turned my head, which told me I wasn’t fully healed. I must not have been asleep for long.

  I almost sighed at having to get out from under the softest blanket I’d ever felt, but the voices rose again. Whatever they were arguing about, I hoped it didn’t have anything to do with me, but then I heard my name—both of my names—and I quickly gave up that hope.

  I didn’t want to deal with whatever drama was happening now. I was still weak—physically and emotionally—but I couldn’t ignore whatever was going on when it was about me.

  I slipped out of the small bed and took measure of how I felt. I was exhausted but pain free. That was an improvement. Maybe some food and water would get me back to normal.

  Glancing back at the bed, I noticed a readout glowed along the side of it. This had to be the healing pod Lorne promised me. I ran my fingertips across it, and the display changed, but I couldn’t read the swirling letters.

  The pod itself wasn’t made of plastic or metal, but some sort of beige stone that had been polished until it was as smooth and soft as the blanket inside. There weren’t any wires or tubes or needles in sight. I wasn’t sure how it’d helped me heal, but I couldn’t deny that I was feeling better. I did. Still, I’d never seen stone inside a spacecraft before or in anything SpaceTech built. It wasn’t just the material that made it odd or the fact that i
t was comfortable or had readouts that I couldn’t read. It was the whole room and the feeling of calm that I felt while in it.

  We were on the run from SpaceTech. I should be anything but calm, but for the first time in my life, it was as if I could breathe. But why?

  A counter and cabinets made of dark wood took up most of the wall on the opposite side of the room. The sound of trickling water drew me to a miniature waterfall in one corner. Flat, dark gray rocks were stacked in an imperfect circle. Each stone placed specifically so that the water made the prettiest tinkling sound as it traveled down them. Moss stuck out between the rocks, and around the edges was a fine mist. In the center was a little pool. Squatting down I stuck my fingers in the clear water. A cooling sensation spread up my arm, moving through my body.

  I drew my hand out of the water, and the sensation slowly receded.

  Did the mist have some sort of medicine in it? Was it making me feel calm?

  I tested it again, and the feeling came back. The cooling balm ran up my arm and spread out across my chest. The longer I held it in there, the farther it spread.

  “Amihanna.”

  I jerked my hand out of the fountain and fell back on my butt. “Yes?” I winced at my utter lack of grace as I wiped my hand on my tattered leggings. When I first saw him, I thought he was handsome, but I’d been too tired and in too much pain to really notice how attractive he was. My skin started glowing just looking at him and the desire I felt terrified me.

  Those eyes. Every time I looked at them, my chest tightened with need. It ached in a totally unfamiliar way, and I didn’t trust it. I had to look away, trying to distract myself.

  “You like the water?”

  “What’s not to like?”

  “But you seem confused.”

  I dared to look back at him. “It’s beautiful.” And so was he.

  I looked away again. That sounded painfully familiar. Did I really say that to Lorne when I was out of it?