A shiny bar, stocked with hundreds of gleaming, colorful bottles filled one wall, and she guessed the other wall could be transformed into a viewing screen for entertainment.
The man who’d greeted them in the first hangar approached.
“Captain Hertzog,” Yurkutz said, her voice taking on a slightly respectful tone. Was it because she was now in his domain?
“General Yurkutz,” he said. “I trust you have found things to be satisfactory?”
She gave him a curt nod.
Hertzog eyed Grey, his gaze resting on her restraints. “Are those really necessary?”
“Not negotiable.”
“The passengers will notice.”
“Let them.”
Grey saw something spark in the pilot’s eyes. He raised his brow and lowered his voice. “This is my ship, General.”
“So do your job,” she snapped, ushering Grey to a cluster of five chairs in the corner. “We will stay out of your way.”
Yurkutz pushed Grey down into one of them, and she collapsed into the cushions.
“I will return shortly,” she said, and with a flick of her eyes she seemed to telepathically order the larger of the drones to sit in the seat across from Grey. She left the room with Captain Hertzog, trailed by the remaining drone pair.
Grey didn’t bother trying to talk to her guard. The intelligence of a drone could sometimes be equivalent to that of a human, but she’d never be able to have a conversation with one. This machine had no idea what fear felt like. Or love.
She covered her face with her tied hands, trying to keep from crying. She wished she believed in a god she could pray to. Mom and Dad had. She had too, once.
If I go up to the heavens, you are there.
This time, Grey let the verse linger in her mind. She would fight to keep from revealing anything about Rin or her parents, but how long could she withstand torture? Maybe prayer would give her some strength. She’d heard about condemned men dying with a smile on their lips because of faith in their deity.
If there is a god, could you please show yourself to me?
Grey arranged her hands in her lap and tried to relax into the soft chair. Mom and Dad had taught them about how things used to be, about the freedom people had enjoyed before Mazdaar.
When Mazdaar took control, they had promised a greater freedom, the privilege of belonging to an enlightened society, and the comfort of being taken care of. That sense of security lured most. Dad used to say it was human nature to, in times of crisis, sign over one’s rights in exchange for it. The problem was that with security came complacency. And that was worse than death, Dad had said.
A deep, almost imperceptible, vibration came from somewhere beneath Grey’s feet, and she felt herself breathing faster. They’d started the engines.
In an attempt to keep herself calm, Grey counted the chairs. Eighty-four.
Evangeline Yurkutz returned. Behind her was a group of passengers dressed in garb from all corners of the world. They filed in as the general took her place in a chair beside Grey. A few of the younger men headed straight for the bar. One couple holding hands strolled toward some chairs at the far end of the room and began caressing as if they were alone.
But everyone who entered eventually noticed Grey. Their gaze would inevitably fall on her bound hands, and they’d either quickly look away and pretend they hadn’t seen her or show a look of disdain before doing so.
Only one passenger did not look away. His closely cropped Afro-textured hair and mustache were white, but his eyebrows remained even darker than his skin. He stood out as the only member of the group who appeared over sixty. He seated himself in the chair on the other side of Grey and smiled at her. For some reason, he didn’t seem to care that she was sitting with the head of the Mazdaar High Council.
Soon the room hummed like a party. Drinks were poured, toasts given, and laughter punctuated the air. Who were these people, and where were they all going?
Suddenly all the lights went out, the only illumination coming from the bar where the counter and stools were outlined in blue light. A rush of music flooded the room, the beat thumping in Grey’s ears.
As one, the people let out a deafening roar of excitement accompanied by whistles and cheers. They seemed to know what was coming next.
“Don’t even think about talking to anyone,” General Yurkutz said.
“Welcome, adventurers!” A speaker boomed, and Grey cringed at the decibel level. “You are about to embark on the trip of a lifetime!”
More whoops and hollers.
“Each one of you is to be commended for your enthusiasm and incredible bravery to travel where no modern man or woman has traveled before! You have been selected from a pool of millions to journey to the stars! Welcome to Genesis! Please be seated.”
A thunder of applause filled the room. Grey could see the forms of people heading for their seats.
Adventurers?
The lights came up, and Grey felt the vibration increasing under her feet. The white-haired man turned as if to speak to her.
“Well, young—”
“You will not speak to the prisoner.”
“And pray do tell, why not?”
“For your safety, sir.”
“My name is Dr. Henry Lenoir,” he said, “and I don’t see anything about this girl that would jeopardize my well being.”
Evangeline Yurkutz stood, all six feet of her towering over the old man. Grey silently begged him to shut up so he wouldn’t be hurt, but if he was intimidated he didn’t show it. Instead, he calmly looked up from his seat at her.
“Ma’am . . .” A steward in a crisp, flight suit approached them. “You need to sit down for takeoff.”
Yurkutz whirled at the steward. “Do you know who I am?”
“I don’t care who you are. You’re on this flight, and you’re my responsibility. Please sit down.”
Grey stared down at her hands, waiting for the general’s wrath to boil over, but instead she marched past the steward and toward the door where the captain had disappeared earlier. The steward ran after her.
“You will take me to Hertzog,” Yurkutz said.
Dr. Lenoir smiled. “Well, we have a moment, at least.”
“She’s right,” Grey said.
“Oh?”
“If you talk to me, you really could be in danger.”
He laughed. “I’m willing to take the risk.”
Grey held up her manacled hands to emphasize her words. “She wouldn’t hesitate to kill you if you got in her way.”
“Not on this ship.” Dr. Lenoir reached for her wrists, and she noted the contrast of his ebony skin next to her own.
She pulled away, but he gently touched her where the blood had pooled under the surface and her skin was rubbed raw.
“I’m the ship’s doctor,” he said. “Once we pass through the Tunguska tunnel I can help you with these wounds.”
“I doubt she’ll let you,” Grey said.
“Perhaps you don’t understand.” Dr. Lenoir let her hands go and leaned back in his chair. “Cosmoship Genesis is a sovereign entity. Mazdaar may own us on the ground, but once we’re in the air . . .” he snapped his fingers. “Captain’s orders are law. And since the captain is my son-in-law, I think we can arrange to transfer you to the sick bay for a little while. My wife’s on call there now.”
She managed a slight smile. “How long will we be in the air?”
“It should be at least two days before we reach Jupiter.”
Grey shot him a look. “Jupiter? This ship is going to Jupiter?”
He chuckled. “Why, yes, of course.”
* * *
Chapter 15
Mrs. March led Rin through every level of the ship, from the cargo hold to the galley. When she brought her onto the bridge, Rin actually gasped. Every switch, lever, and screen glowed with a faint green light.
“I keyed up the basic power drives,” Mrs. March said. “I’m pleased to say just about
everything appears to be in working order, thanks to your father.”
Four high-backed chairs with the Yien Dynasty’s yellow rising sun emblem embroidered in the fabric faced the main panels on a wall Rin guessed became the pilot’s windshield. She felt as if she was encroaching on something sacred.
“Amazing,” Rin whispered.
“Yes, definitely.” Mrs. March dropped into the largest chair and ran her fingers across screen after screen. Lights got brighter, some turned yellow, and a few blinked out.
The commander lifted out her medallion controller. Jet’s face appeared in front of her.
“Go ahead,” Mrs. March said, fingers still flying across the panels.
When Jet didn’t respond right away, Mrs. March eyed the screen, and even Rin could see his eyebrows knit together.
“We have lost her,” Jet said.
“What?”
“Yurkutz got to her before I could remove her from lockup.”
Rin rushed over. She started to yell questions, but Mrs. March held her back.
“Explain.”
“They took her on board Genesis.”
Mrs. March froze, closing her eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“No chance of getting on that ship yourself?”
“They would never allow it. I tried to send one of my men, but it’s heavily guarded.”
“When is departure?”
“It is gone already.”
“We will proceed with the plan. Thank you for letting me know, Jet.”
He gave a slight nod.
Rin grabbed Mrs. March’s arm. “Where are they taking her?”
The screen went black, and Mrs. March sighed. “Cosmoship Genesis is Mazdaar’s first commercial flight to Jupiter.”
An involuntary wail escaped her lips, and Rin gasped for air. “They’re taking her to Jupiter?”
Mrs. March swiveled her chair back to the panels, talking as she worked. “Another reason why I must expedite Operation Noah. If Mazdaar establishes a foothold on the planet, our plans will be for naught.”
Dropping to her knees beside Mrs. March’s chair, Rin looked up at her. Her voice was trembling. “Can you . . . save her?”
Mrs. March stopped her work momentarily and took Rin’s hands in hers, looking deep into her eyes. “We will do everything we can.”
***
Grey hadn’t known what to expect during takeoff. She’d never flown in anything until the smaller catchship had taken her to Mazdaar City, and that was a transatlantic flight, not a transgalactic expedition.
Pressure grew in her ears, but even as Dr. Lenoir assured her everything was normal, Grey shut her eyes. She was a prisoner in a cosmoship heading for another planet that many scientists still believed was uninhabitable. No one knew where she was. How would she ever get back home now?
“We should be entering the tunnel shortly,” Dr. Lenoir told her quietly.
He explained that with the discovery of space tunnels connecting specific points in the universe, a year-long trip to Jupiter could be accomplished in a matter of days. Tunguska was the name they’d given this tunnel connecting the two planets.
Once scientists harnessed the massive energy of the tunnels, everything about space travel changed. It took engineers a generation before they discovered the alloys necessary to build a vessel that could withstand the rigors of the space tunnels, and even cosmoships specifically made for the journey could usually only make a dozen flights before they had to be rebuilt.
His voice calmed her as she tried to focus on his words.
“Tunguska lies directly over our moon’s Mare Crisium,” Dr. Lenoir went on.
Grey listened but didn’t acknowledge him for fear of General Yurkutz. She wondered when the captain would make some kind of announcement. Everyone else in the room seemed distracted, and she guessed they had routed their Dots into the ship’s onboard network. She wondered why Dr. Lenoir wasn’t doing the same.
When they actually entered the tunnel, it was without any warning. One moment Grey was sitting in her chair trying to calm her nerves; the next, she couldn’t move. The force was so intense it pushed every part of her body into the seat. She could almost feel her internal organs compressing. A whine at a frequency so high she could only hear it inside her head reverberated and made her feel like she was going insane.
Cosmoships had countering systems to cut down on the G forces and noise, but if this was what it felt like with them on, she could only imagine their intensity. Grey couldn’t help but imagine the ship breaking into pieces, and her with it.
Just as she began to taste blood, the pressure suddenly ceased and she was able to fill her lungs again.
“We’ll travel normally the rest of the way,” Dr. Lenoir said, wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. “It’s still a two-day journey ahead, but we’ve crossed the threshold. Tunguska gives us a huge leg up.”
When the captain announced that the passengers were free to enjoy the lounge and unfasten their seat restraints, Grey stared down at her bound hands, knowing she wasn’t going to be getting up. What did Mazdaar have planned for her on Jupiter? She tried to recall everything Mrs. March had said about the planet, but her thinking seemed fuzzy. Had the pressure damaged her nervous system?
General Yurkutz returned, and for a moment Grey thought she would pass by and leave her alone with Dr. Lenoir. But the drone guarding her pulled her out of her seat. She didn’t even have time to say good-bye to Dr. Lenoir before she was once again led off, following the general.
The drone herded Grey from the lounge area back down into the bowels of the ship. They descended two flights of stairs and passed numerous uniformed guards before reaching a room that opened with a scan of Yurkutz’s facial features.
When Grey saw what was inside, she shrunk back. The room was packed with Mazdaar military. She had thought this was a civilian flight.
They passed through the room and down a narrow corridor. Grey soon lost track of which way was out. All she knew was that she ended up in an interrogation chamber, sitting on a chair with her hands still bound. The light was so bright she was squinting.
General Yurkutz stood in front of her, arms crossed.
“We will begin now,” she said, the intensity of her gaze causing Grey to cower inwardly.
“I’ve told you I don’t know where they—”
The shock hit before she could finish her sentence, and Grey gritted her teeth against the voltage.
“I will ask you a question, and you will answer,” Yurkutz said.
Grey nodded her head erratically, and the shock let up.
“Were your parents working for the Yien Dynasty?”
She said nothing.
Yurkutz rolled her eyes. “Even if you thought they were dead, you must know something. Sooner or later, you will realize this front you insist on keeping up will get you nowhere.”
She stared at the floor.
“I asked you a question, Grey Alexander.”
“They were working for themselves,” she muttered through her teeth.
“Themselves?”
With a jerk of Yurkutz’s eyes, a life-size hologram appeared in the room. The image looked so realistic, Grey almost believed Jet was actually standing in front of her. But holograms always had a slightly translucent quality if you knew what to look for, especially around the extremities. At Jet’s feet, she spotted the fuzzy anomalies in the image.
“Who is this man?”
That was an odd question. Yurkutz already knew who he was.
“Jet Yien.”
“Is it true you have sold him illegal contraband?”
Not wanting to incriminate Jet, she decided to lie. “No.”
“No?” Yurkutz’s voice became hard.
“You heard me.”
The Mazdaar general’s pupils seemed to narrow in frustration, and it gave Grey a moment of satisfaction.
The hologram quickly dissolved, another taking its pla
ce. Rin.
“And who might this be?”
Grey tried not to let her horror show.
“What a shame for her to lose both her parents and her only sister, don’t you think?”
“I’m not lost yet.”
Yurkutz laughed, and the sound sent a shiver up Grey’s spine. She kept her eyes on the image of Rin, wondering how they’d gotten it. A silly grin was spread across her sister’s face. She was dressed in camo, like they’d worn to Jet’s hideout. Was this taken at Jet’s?
“Miss her?”
She wouldn’t answer that.
Leaning down close to her face, Evangeline Yurkutz seemed to study her like she was a specimen in an experiment.
Maybe she was.
“They wouldn’t have told you much, but still . . . what do you know about Operation Noah?”
Grey wished the name did mean something to her. She wished she had some kind of information to give that would buy her some time.
“Nothing,” she finally said.
“Wrong answer.”
This time Grey screamed as the current surged through her body.
* * *
Chapter 16
You have a decision to make,” Mrs. March said, stepping back onto the scaffolding.
Rin followed her, still in a state of shock. How could her sister be on her way to Jupiter? Why would Mazdaar even want her there?
Mrs. March gestured down the corridor, beyond which lay everything Rin had ever known. “I know this is your home,” Mrs. March said, “but I don’t believe you’re safe here anymore.”
“I have to leave, don’t I?”
Mrs. March’s expression was kind. “I promised your parents I’d look out for you girls. Any time now, Mazdaar could choose to decimate the Preserve and flush people like me from hiding, and I don’t want you to get caught in the crossfire.”
“I don’t care about me.” Rin smacked the palm of her hand against the wall. “They have my sister, and I’ve got to do something!”
“We can evacuate you to someplace safe.”
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