by Keary Taylor
“You just manifested your abilities?” the woman prods.
I nod, even though she can’t see it. “Someone told me that the Bahiri still exist. That I should try to find them, that I’d be safe there.”
The woman is quiet for a moment, as if considering everything I just said. “Have you used your abilities to harm anyone?”
Strange question, considering what I just said. “Yes.” I have to be honest, because she’s inside my head, and I can feel it: this is a big deal.
“Was it in righteous self-defense?” she prods further.
“Yes,” I tell her the truth.
She takes another moment of consideration. I can feel the wheels turning inside her head, deciding what to do with what I’ve told her.
“Do you consider yourself to be a good person?” she asks. “Would you ever be persuaded to use your abilities for personal gain and power? Would you ever be tempted to become like Valen Nero?”
My stomach flips.
It’s not that simple, what she just asked. Would I ever be Cyrillius’ puppet? Never.
Would I ever consider living in the grey area if it meant I could have time, real time with Valen?
I would be so tempted.
“I am nothing like Dominion’s puppet,” I say, rephrasing the question. “And I don’t know that there is such a thing as good, anymore. But I didn’t like killing those men.”
The woman pauses, taking in everything I said.
“The Bahiri are alive and well,” she says. “There aren’t many of us left to serve and protect, but there are a few of us, in hiding, biding our time. I would like to meet you. Can I trust you?”
My heart is thundering with all the information she just revealed. The Bahiri. Other Nero. Her location.
“Yes,” I breathe.
“Where are you?” she asks.
“In the P sector,” I say. “We heard rumors that the Bahiri were in the E sector, so we’re making our way there, though it’s going to take us lunars still to get there.”
I swear I can feel her smile, something sly and amused. “I’m going to give you coordinates, I want you to go there. You’ll know what you’re looking for when you see it.”
“What does that-”
“If I am to trust you, I need you to trust me,” she says, her voice calm.
Maybe I should be more wary. But I get up, being quiet so I don’t wake anyone. I slip out of the sleeping quarters, and step out onto the command deck. Quietly, I walk over to the Frank.
“I have new coordinates,” I say to the function robot.
The woman who has appeared in my head tells me the coordinates and I relay them to the Frank.
He’s silent for a moment, calculating the route.
“The destination is five leagues ahead. We will arrive in one hour.”
“No way,” I breathe. I expected wherever this woman was sending me to be weeks or maybe even lunars away. Not so close. Not just off of our original course in the P sector. “I’m close.”
“I thought you might be,” she says, and I feel her smile again. There’s something warm about it, and I can’t even actually see it. “As I said, you’ll know it when you see it. Don’t be afraid. Just follow your heart and not your brain. I will see you soon.”
And just like that, she disappears from my mind.
The ship gently changes course, aiming down and toward the right just slightly.
I sink into the co-pilots seat, my eyes fixed on space outside, even though the Frank said we’re an hour away.
The woman’s words replay in my mind, over and over. Don’t be afraid. That statement makes me afraid. Follow your heart and not your brain. I will see you soon. How? How would that be possible?
But I turn inward now, and something in me, some instinct is saying do it. Be brave.
Alone, in the dark, I sit with the Frank piloting the ship. My eyes watch space around us. And I wonder what is waiting for us.
I pop in my audobuds and tap on the icon, one I haven’t listened to in some time.
“I have horrible news to share with you today.” Arden Black’s voice sounds in my ears with weight and grief. My stomach sinks and I don’t even know what’s happened.
“As you all know, the ultra-populated planet of Korpillion was taken over by Dominion nearly two lunars ago,” she says. “We know what that means. It means mass evacuation. It means a complete change. And while millions have moved off the planet already, the vast majority of the planet cannot afford a ticket to somewhere else in the galaxy.”
I know all this. We knew this would be the problem when Reena told me that Dominion would be coming for our planet.
“Dominion wants control,” Arden says. “We’ve seen that proven over and over and over again for the past four hundred solars. Korpillion had more than twenty-eight billion people on it. It’s populated from coast to coast. The people there were in the way.”
My stomach sinks.
“The population couldn’t leave fast enough.”
My hands grow slick with sweat.
“There are two companies on Korpillion who supply energy, powering the whole planet. Horne Energy on the Northern hemisphere. And Klal Energy on the Southern.”
My old work. I imagine the massive building, the four quadrants. The thousands of employees who worked for each company.
“I don’t know how they did it,” Arden continues, “but something happened at Klal Energy. And the entire thing exploded.”
A gasp rips from my chest and I sit up straight.
“The blast took out over ten million people,” Arden says. Her voice is little more than a whisper.
My hands go to my chest. I can hardly breathe. I’m trying not to, but I can’t help but imagine all the people. What the crater must have looked like after the blast. All that Neron in the cores of those quadrants.
“Dominion did this,” Arden says. “They did it. They killed ten million people and Cyrillius won’t have any trouble sleeping tonight. And there’s no one who will stop him. Not the remaining population on Korpillion. Not the armies of Stippe or Laziria or Crade. Certainly not his Nero.”
My heart pounds, hard. Arden has said nothing about Valen’s involvement in the explosion. He might not have even been on Korpillion when it happened.
But he stays. He remains Cyrillius’ puppet.
Valen is just as guilty.
“Where is your promised savior, Evander Nero?” Arden asks the question of a man who has been missing for decades. “Where is the Nero strong enough to free Neron? Where is this Nero you saw who would be able to bring the galaxy back from destruction?”
There’s a long pause, and sounding exhausted and filled with grief, Arden Black signs off of The Black Hole of Truth.
I sit back in my seat, my stomach in knots. I feel like throwing up. So many dead. The planet I grew up on is ruined. I might have hated that planet and wanted nothing more than to get off it. But it was still home.
Even if it wasn’t where I was actually from.
Nero.
Nero.
I think of Arden’s last words. Solars and solars ago, Evander Nero saw the future and shared a prophesy.
That there would be a Nero who could end Dominion. Who could save the galaxy from Cyrillius’ clutches.
There is Valen.
There’s me.
And for a second I feel panic. Because Valen certainly isn’t going to save the galaxy.
I can’t be that Nero. I know I don’t have that kind of strength.
But I remember where I am headed, right now.
To a planet with at least one other Nero.
My eyes flick to the clock that, for the most part, has very little meaning out here, but is now the most important instrument on this ship to me.
Thirty minutes left.
Twenty.
Fifteen.
I shift in my seat, sitting a little taller, looking at the planet we’re approaching.
It’s blac
k. It looks dead. Uninhabitable.
Ten minutes, and we aim for the far side of it. Like we’re circling around this planet no one would ever look twice at.
Five minutes.
With my brows furrowed, I stare at the surface of the planet. It looks like it’s covered in dark ash. Like it burned up hundreds of solars ago and no one has disturbed it since.
Two minutes.
My heart picks up pace and it’s painful. I’m filled with anxiety. I get to my feet, pacing, but unable to take my eyes from the port window.
One minute.
And just then, as we round the far side of the dead planet, I see something.
At first, it just looks like more space. But there’s a ridge to it, like it’s a mirror, reflecting back the view behind us. And then I notice the ripples, just faintly. Like it isn’t just a mirror, but also the surface of water.
And at the center of it, there is darkness. At first it seems like there just aren’t any stars in that area.
But there’s a depth to that darkness.
I can feel it.
You’ll know it when you see it.
I don’t know much about space because I really never thought I’d leave Korpillion, no matter how bad I wanted to. But even I have heard rumors about these.
It’s a wormhole.
Never, as far as I and the public have heard, have they been proven. Only theorized.
But I know it. In my gut I can feel it.
Be brave.
Trust your heart and not your brain.
Go into it, my heart says. Your future is through there.
But in my brain, I’m terrified. I have no idea what’s on the other side of that wormhole. And it’s not just my life I’m experimenting with.
It’s my father’s. It’s Reena’s and Zayne’s. It’s Edan’s.
I stand there, in our ship, which is now stopped, staring into the dark.
“Is that what I think it is?”
I whip around.
Edan stands there in nothing but a pair of underwear. His thin arms and undefined chest are out in the open, for all to see.
There are scars scattered across his body.
But he doesn’t seem ashamed of them.
“Where are we?” he asks. There’s a look of awe in his eyes as he walks forward for a better view.
“Still in the P sector,” I say. And I’m actually glad he’s here. That I’m not alone.
He shakes his head, his eyes filled with wonder. “This is incredible. None of these have ever been found. People have wasted their whole lives trying to chase them down.”
“You know a lot more stuff than I’d expect you to,” I say without looking at him.
“Just because I looked like a street rat doesn’t mean I wasn’t smart enough to make it on Laziria,” he says. “If I’d wanted to.”
A little smile pulls on my lips. I can’t wait to learn everything about Edan.
But that wormhole is staring me down, and something calls inside my chest. Come.
“We’re supposed to go through it,” I say, my voice very quiet.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Edan asks, not a trace of hesitation.
I swallow once. I stand a little taller and I roll my shoulders back.
“Frank, take us through the wormhole,” I give the command.
There’s one simple ping sound, an affirmation as he gives the ship the command. And we slip forward.
My heart jumps into my throat. My breath gets caught somewhere behind my tongue.
But a hand slips into mine, bony but tough. Edan holds it tight, and I look up at him to see the wild, manic excitement on his face.
He’s mad. Utterly mad.
So I squeeze his hand a little tighter, as if I can steal some of that manic bravery from him.
I hold my breath as the tip of our ship meets that dark center. And, slowly, we slip inside the wormhole.
Space is dark, but this is a darkness unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
Even the lights inside our ship grow dim. It’s like a physical, thick thing that creeps inside and lays itself across every surface.
I feel blind. I’ve been robbed of all sense of sight.
The breath catches in my throat.
Even the air feels thinner in here.
My heart beats faster, on the verge of panic.
But only seconds after it begins, it’s over. I pull in a deep breath.
The stars reappear. The darkness leaks back outside of the ship.
And there, only ten leagues away, I see a planet.
I see blue and white and a calm, sandy coral color. I know that’s water and there is some land, but mostly, it’s a planet full of water.
Edan lets go of my hand and goes to the holo display. He taps it, pulling up a map.
We’re in the B sector. On the far, outreach side of the galaxy.
“Whatever that planet is, it doesn’t even read on the galactic maps,” Edan says. He sounds excited. Ready for anything. “I don’t know how that’s even possible. There are automatic scanners, that have been everywhere in the galaxy. They wouldn’t miss that planet, not unless-”
“Someone was hiding it.”
I whip around to see Zayne walking across the command deck, a look of awe on his face. His hair is standing up everywhere and he wears sleeping pants, but nothing else.
“You’re sure we’re in the B sector?” he asks as he goes to the holo display and inputs a few commands. The view on it zooms out, displaying our galaxy, and then zooms back in, showing that we are in fact in the B sector. “How the void did we get here?”
“Wormhole,” Edan says with that mischievous, wicked smile of his.
The holo display starts pinging that a message is coming through. Zayne clicks it and it displays large, big enough for us all to read.
“Congratulations on your bravery. We are all waiting for you. You can land at these coordinates.”
A series of numbers displays.
“Frank, set our course for those coordinates,” I say before I can think about them too much.
“Who…who the void is that message from, Nova?” Zayne demands, looking at me with wild eyes. “How did we even get here?”
I look over at him warily, annoyed that he’s jumping all over me.
“Another Nero contacted me,” I say, and before I can continue, Zayne’s expression shifts to horrified and scared.
“Valen Nero?!” he exclaims. “You took us straight to that psychopath?”
I snap.
It just happens sometimes.
My hand leaps out, and I strike Zayne across the face.
He takes a step back, his expression shocked, but finally silent.
“I would never,” I say, quiet and deadly. Maybe that’s a lie. But I would never, now.
He looks at me with wide eyes, but he finally shuts up.
Just then, my father and Reena step out onto the command deck as Edan makes an entertained, surprised noise, covering his smile with his hand.
“It was another Nero,” I say. Looking around at them all, they watch me with uncertainty and fear. “I feel like we can trust her. I think she’s with the Bahiri. And I think they’re all there, on that planet.”
They’re all quiet for a moment. I wouldn’t know what to say, so I don’t blame them for not being able to find words. I’m asking them to trust me, in a big way, which is scary after what we just went through.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Reena says. She stands in the doorway, her arms folded over her chest in her sleeping garments. “We better get presentable for our new hosts.”
“Nova, are you sure about this?” my father’s voice comes out low and quiet. He looks at me with his gray eyes that are nothing like mine, because we don’t share a single bit of DNA.
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “But at this point, I don’t know anything about anything, and we have to believe in something. We have to trust in something.”
> So he nods, and it must be good enough for everyone else.
Thirty minutes later, we’re all dressed and clean and ready. Our ship enters the atmosphere of this hidden planet and the Frank guides us to the given coordinates.
We watch out the port window, and my jaw is slightly slack.
There’s blue ocean; so much of it. And there, where we are headed, is a series of islands. They’re built of light coral sandstone, nearly white in color, but with a slight pink hue. Greenery stretches along the tops of the islands, bursts of color here and there. There are mountainous, but I also see valleys. There are endless beaches, most of them at the bottom of towering cliffs.
The water is so blue, it’s almost the color of Neron.
It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.
“Look,” my father says, pointing up ahead.
My eyes follow his line of sight, and the wonder in me doubles.
There’s a big white building on a rise, just before it breaks off to the beach. There are other smaller buildings around it; more pink than white.
There’s a beautiful garden at the center of it all, and I see every color possible growing in it.
My heart goes into overdrive when the Frank announces we are touching down, and it’s just outside the structures, in a field of pale yellow grass.
Everyone grabs their weapons, just in case. The Bahiri are supposed to be the galaxy’s most peaceful residents. But anyone can lie about anything.
The ship decompresses and beeps, the hatch begins to open.
I’ve never smelled air like this. Without a single trace of pollution. It’s sweet and salty and it smells like heaven.
Cautiously, I walk down the ramp, shielding my eyes from the sun.
Together, we exit the safety of our ship, and walk through the long grass back toward those structures.
It’s quiet. But not in an eerie way. In a peaceful way.
It’s so calm.
We round the buildings, and from that massive white building, I see two figures descending the steps.
We meet in the middle of the garden.
It’s a woman, and I have no doubt she’s the one I heard in my head. Her hair is long and a warm brown. Her body is lithe and strong. She wears a purple dress, soft and flexible. Her facial features are defined and serious, but observant.