by Keary Taylor
But it doesn’t come.
It’s silent.
I dare crack my eyelids open.
But they immediately flash wide open in disbelief.
Above me, directly above my outstretched hands, is a glowing blue disk, three of them actually. Floating above the disks, as if supported, are the three huge boulders that would have meant my death.
But they hover there. Blocked. Held back.
By Neron.
A curse slips from my lips in a huff.
I move my hands, swinging them to the left a little, and the boulders swing over at the same time.
“No,” I breathe. “Not…not possible.”
But I shift them even further, and the Neron answers me, moving the boulders.
“Nova?”
A voice startles my attention back to reality, and instantly the Neron dissipates and the boulders crash to the ground, just a foot from where I lie.
A figure steps into the pit of the debris. A figure dressed in black. A figure with a mask.
But his voice... The way he said my name…
I instantly scramble to my feet, wincing because every single part of my body screams in pain. I grab my staff from my tunic, eternally grateful that it didn’t get dislodged in my fall.
“I heard you,” he says, and my insides shrivel. I turn cold. “Screaming in my head. And I felt…you, here.”
The air is very still. I’m entirely frozen.
No.
No.
“What are you still doing here?” the Nero asks as he takes a step forward.
I’ve seen images of the Nero before, I would recognize his uniform anywhere. Anyone in the galaxy would.
But I have never heard him speak.
His voice is deep, piercing. Unlike any voice I have ever heard before.
“I tried to warn you, to tell you to leave the planet,” he says from behind his mask. “Why are you not on that ship?”
Emotions rip through me.
Elation. And terror.
“You shouldn’t still be here, Nova.”
I pull in my lower lip in an attempt to control the emotions that want to pour out of me. My hands shake, barely able to keep a grip on my staff. Blood drips from my left hand, pooling on the sidewalk below my feet.
“You?” I ask with a quiver in my voice.
He stands very still. The broad set to his shoulders hardly even rises and falls with his breath. His eyes are locked on me, even though I can’t see them through his mask.
“It’s you?” I ask. My voice is very quiet and threatens to crack.
He takes a step forward, and another, and I react automatically. I activate my staff and both arcs dart out, crackling in the air as I take a defensive stance, holding it up between him and me.
He hesitates, observing me with the staff. But he must not feel threatened, because he takes two more steps forward before stopping, only ten feet between us.
He reaches up, and he removes his mask.
For lunars, I’ve wondered what he would look like. I confided in him. He’s been in my head, learning intimate details about me. And here he is.
I know it. I can’t deny it.
Valen Nero is the man I’ve been talking to all this time.
His jaw is narrow and long, his cheekbones sharp and defined. Black hair falls wild around his face, his brows just as black.
He stares out at me with eyes as blue as the Neron he wields.
He’s beautiful.
But this is the face of Valen Nero. Puppet of Cyrillius, of Dominion.
He killed all those miners in the Square. He killed all those people on Hogwa. And I know he’s killed hundreds, maybe thousands, before them.
“No,” I say as emotion cracks my voice.
“Nova,” he says, his voice a breath, and the way he says my name…
I shake my head, wanting to collapse, to capsize on myself. I can’t handle anymore. It is all too much.
But I make myself stand tall, ignore the blood spilling from my hand, and hold onto my Neron staff.
“I saw what you did,” he says, his eyes darting to the boulders I’d somehow kept from crushing me. “Did you know?”
A tear pushes its way out onto my cheek but I shake my head furiously. “I know nothing. I am nothing.”
Valen shakes his head, his eyes so intense I feel like he can read every one of my thoughts. And I guess he can.
“It makes sense now, why we formed the connection,” he says. I can tell, he wants to come closer. But he doesn’t. Because he can see the anger and the betrayal rolling off of me in waves. “I’ve heard stories about it happening. That telepathic bonds could form between two Ner-”
“I am nothing!” I scream. “I am the daughter of a powerless maintenance worker. I am a wanted weapons manufacturer and dealer. I…am…nothing!”
Valen takes one step forward, shaking his head just twice, with absolute conviction. “You’re not nothing, Nova.”
More tears work their way out onto my face. My heart has expanded to the size of my entire chest and it beats so painfully strong.
I didn’t even realize it at first, but there are glowing blue particles swirling around my legs. They work their way up my torso, then to my arms. Just tiny little blue flecks in the air. Gently, they land on my body, and they disappear into my skin.
A breath of relief escapes my lips as the pain disappears. It evaporates. I feel my body healing, all the little cracks in my bones, the ruptured blood vessels. The puncture in my hand.
I don’t even see him doing anything, but Valen pulls the Neron from the air and sends it to heal me.
I shake my head, feeling like I’m going to shatter with all the emotions rearranging my organs.
“You need to leave, Nova,” Valen says, taking one more step forward. “The Kinduri have your face. They’re looking for you, and the woman who was running the mine. If they find you, Cyrillius will use you and then kill you.”
He takes another step forward, and the Neron arc of my staff illuminates his face.
Why does he have to be so beautiful?
“You have to get off this planet, Nova,” Valen says. He takes another step forward. If he comes any closer, the arc will cut right through him and even a Nero can’t survive that.
But he reaches up, his hand coming up beneath my staff and my arms. I should be more vigilant, but my eyes slide closed, just for a moment, when his fingertips touch my cheekbone and his thumb brushes over my lips just once.
I’m frozen. Rooted. I feel as if I’ve just fallen, fallen far and deep down a dark pit.
My eyes slide open, but everything is different.
I’m looking at…myself. And Valen.
I stand beside him, wearing a dark, black gown, the finest thing I’ve ever seen. Some kind of black crown sits atop my head, woven into my blonde hair.
And Valen… He’s dressed similarly. He wears regal black clothes. A black crown sits atop his head. And it’s the most natural sight in the world.
Behind us, a planet burns. There are cries of grief and terror floating through the air.
But neither of us seem to notice it.
Valen looks down at me with absolute intent, and…peace.
I know that look in his eyes. It’s love.
I’m looking up at him, and not a piece of me doubts that is adoration in my own eyes. That is devotion.
That is love.
Between our two bodies, our hands are together, fingers interlaced.
Valen raises his other hand, bringing it to the side of my neck.
That vision of me leans forward, her eyes sliding closed. Her hand comes up to rest on Valen’s chest.
Love.
So much love.
I lean in closer, and I’m holding my breath as the space between our lips becomes smaller and smaller.
The wind shifts, and my eyes fly open.
Destruction is all around me. But just a breath away, Valen’s lips are hovering just in
front of mine.
My blood-covered hand is on his chest. My staff is deactivated, in the other.
Valen’s hand is on the side of my neck, holding me so close, so tender.
I meet his Neron blue eyes, and the shock, the confusion, the grief in his eyes tells me he saw something, too.
I jerk away from him, but it feels as if my heart just fractured into a dozen different pieces.
I shake my head. I back up four steps.
I activate my staff once more, holding it up between us.
“I will come for you, Nova,” Valen breathes.
I study those Neron blue eyes, wondering if his words are a promise or a threat. And my heart doesn’t know which one it should be.
I nearly cry out in protest when he steps away and immediately replaces his mask. I can’t… I need…
What just happened?
What was that?
Who was I?
Valen takes five steps toward the mountain blocking my path and extends his hand.
Neron instantly glows in and around every bit of the debris, shifting and rearranging, until there is a clear path back in the direction I need to go to get to the Airspace.
“Get off this planet,” the Nero says. “Don’t ever return to Korpillion.”
I straighten, my eyes flicking between the pathway and the Nero. I hesitate.
I have a million things I need to say, a thousand questions to ask.
“Go, Nova!” he suddenly yells.
It breaks me out of my frozen trance. My feet move. And with my eyes still frozen on his black mask, I run.
I dart. I race. I dash down the path Valen created with the magic he wields, his control over Neron. I deactivate my staff so I don’t accidentally injure myself.
But I only get twenty yards away when a figure leaps out from the shadow of an abandoned building. They grab me by the tunic, ripping me around, and then pinning me to the side of a building.
Reena.
“You have a way off this planet, and I am coming with you,” she hisses in my face. Her eyes are wild, manic. Terrified.
But determined.
“They have your name,” I say. I’m not sure if I’m even making any sense, if the words come out right. My brain is reeling. Too much. Too much.
“The Kinduri have our faces,” I breathe. “I was worried they’d find you.”
“You have a ship,” Reena says. And the focused, hard way she says the words, I know she knows. She saw. She heard. Everything that just happened with Valen. “Get me off this planet.” Wildly, she searches my eyes, begging. “Please.”
She knows.
She saw.
I can’t let Reena stay here and die, and I know I don’t have a choice but to agree.
She could out me, for so many things.
“Let go of me so we can get out of here,” I say, pushing her off of me.
And together we run. We run and run, for what feels like forever, the remaining kilometer to the Airspace.
I know we’re getting close, because I see dozens of ships taking off. They litter the sky. They fill the air with the scent of burned oxygen. They rise and disappear into the solar system as their Neron cores illuminate the world and then propel them to places far away from here.
And there are the crowds.
There has to be tens of thousands of people here. They’re pressing in on the gates, they’re climbing the fences. They’re sobbing and begging.
The guards at the Airspace stand there, holding their weapons. They look conflicted. They look tortured. They don’t know what to do. They know these people will likely die if they stay here; we’ve already seen that in the two hours since Dominion arrived.
But they have a job to do. And there are not near enough ships to get them off-planet.
A message vibrates my wrist. It’s from Zayne.
CUT EAST ALONG THE MAIN GATE. TURN LEFT AT THE ZELLOS BUILDING. THE HANGARS ARE ALONG THAT ROAD. NO CROWDS.
“Come on,” I say, nodding my head to Reena.
We fight our way through the crowd along the fence. Thankfully it grows thinner in the half kilometer we run to find the Zellos building. And finally, there it is.
The shouting echoes through the road we cut down, but there are no crowds here. A quarter of a kilometer down, I see two figures standing off to the side of the road.
“Holy stars above,” my father says as I jog up to him. He pulls me into his arms, hugging me tight to him, burying his face in my neck. “I was so scared when we got separated. Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” I say as he releases me and looks me over. And I am fine. I feel great. Amazing.
Because Valen healed me with Neron.
“So, you made it out of whatever hole you were hiding in?” Zayne says with spite in his voice.
All eyes fall on Reena. “I’m not ready to die today,” she says in that haughty, elegant way of hers. But she doesn’t meet Zayne’s or my father’s eyes.
“She’s coming with us,” I say, stating it simply.
We might not exactly like each other’s company, even if I only don’t like her because she doesn’t like me, but she’s one of the only people I associate with on the planet, I’m not just going to leave her when I know for a fact that Dominion is hunting for her and will kill her the second she’s found.
“What’s going on?” I move on. “Is this the address of the hanger? Have you gone in to see what’s in there?”
They both shake their heads. “The message was sent to you,” Zayne says. “We thought it was better if you were the one to walk in there.”
I nod.
There’s a door there. I double-check it with the address. I realize now that it was Valen who sent me the message. And put all the credits into my account.
He kept trying to connect with me today to warn me.
My boss hasn’t told me yet where we’re going.
He’d been in the T sector. He’d been on his way here when we’d last spoken.
Did he really not know he was on his way to Korpillion? It wouldn’t have been hard for him to figure out I was here on this planet. There aren’t any others around that don’t belong to Dominion.
Stop, I yell at myself. You can think everything over a million times later. Right now, just get off this doomed planet.
I step forward, and twist the doorknob. It opens, and I step through.
Dim lights turn on at my movement.
It’s a medium-sized hangar, fairly standard. Sitting in the center of it is a Class 5 ship. They’re typically transport ships, with a command deck, small living quarters and a mechanical room. They’re big enough to transport five or six people to wherever you might want to go.
And standing just to the side of the ship, is a Frank.
They’re actually FR’s—function robots. They’re programmed to do one specific kind of job, and not much else. They are somewhat human-shaped, with chunky torsos and blocky heads. They have long skinny legs and long dangling arms.
When we walk in, the lights where its eyes would be if it were human light up as it activates. It takes two steps forward.
“Welcome, Nova,” it says in a smooth but mechanical voice. “I am ready to pilot you off Korpillion. Please board The Corsair.” It extends its arm, and the hatch of the ship opens, revealing a ramp.
Zayne and Torin both look at me, the same question in their eyes. Who? Why?
But we have to leave right now.
We all climb into the ship, and the Frank tromps its way up the ramp.
There’s a pilot’s seat where all the controls are, and a copilot seat beside it. There are four other seats behind it.
Zayne takes the copilot seat. It’s been his dream to become a pilot. But with so many people on this planet, the competition for the few positions there are was too steep. He didn’t make it through the program, so instead, he studied information systems.
I sit in the seat behind the Frank, my father in the seat beside me, and Reen
a takes one of the last-row seats.
“Give me your connect-link,” Zayne says, tapping something on his own. “We can’t have anyone tracking us.”
I extend my arm to him and he taps it, making it beep and information flashes between my screen to his and then back again. He does it with Reena and Torin’s, hiding our signals and information.
The Frank doesn’t push buttons or tap on the multitude of screens. A port extends from his fingers, plugging right into the ship. There’s a soft hum as the engine starts and it lifts off the ground.
The doors to the hangar open, revealing the chaotic Airspace.
“What planet would you like me to input as our destination, Nova?” the Frank asks.
Everyone looks at me.
Panus was my plan. We were going to be safe there and we could start a new life.
But now that everything has ended, now that everything has changed, it doesn’t feel right.
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly. I shake my head, wishing everyone would stop looking at me like I’m in charge and know what the void I’m doing. “Just get us out of this solar system. We’ll figure the rest out later.”
The Frank doesn’t make any noise of acknowledgement, but the ship smoothly sails forward. Through the hangars we make our way and line up in the departure lane.
There are hundreds of other ships waiting their turn to escape Korpillion.
And for just a second, I make myself marvel over this moment.
I’m about to leave. I’m about to get my dream. I have everyone I care about with me. I’m escaping the planet I hate.
For the first time, I’m about to fly through the stars.
And I’m on this gorgeous, beautiful, advanced machine.
I’m one of the lucky ones.
I’m going to escape.
And it’s because of Valen.
I swallow around the lump in my throat when I think of his name.
I can’t. I can’t think about him right now.
We move up a few places, and my heart starts thrashing in my throat when we’re up next. I reach over and grab my father’s hand. He looks over at me with his gray eyes. “I’m sorry, Nova. I tried to keep you safe. I thought Korpillion was safe.”
I shake my head. “You did keep me safe,” I say, squeezing his hand. “You couldn’t have known.”
I think there’s more he wants to say, but Zayne interrupts.