Bysme, please. Please don’t go. This voice sounded different, deeper. Gemme saw the other Seer blink her one good eye. A tear trailed down her pasty cheek.
Why didn’t she do something? Gemme wanted to shout at Mestasis to stop her twin, but then she saw what was happening. The Seer’s body was rigid because the tube running into her spine had been pulled halfway out, pink liquid dripping to the floor.
You’ve kept me here long enough, Metsy. I’ve always done what you wanted us to do, and what’s it gotten us? Trapped in the same room for hundreds of years, waiting for a planet we’ll never be able to enjoy. Don’t you get it? Once we reached Paradise 18, we’d be done for. The ship would be abandoned and we’d be left to die. I want out, and this chest will let me live my life all over again.
Gemme wondered how she could hear their mindspeak. At this point, the Seers must be shouting so loud to one another that they didn’t care.
What about the people we swore to protect?
I’m done living for others. It’s time I lived for myself. Her voice dripped bitterness.
Mestasis twitched, trying to move without the body fluid to enable her atrophied muscles. A joint in her neck snapped as she turned her head to her sister. You steered the ship into the comet shower, didn’t you? You wanted to land here, all for the chest.
Abysme dragged herself forward, unhindered by the accusation. I’ve been planning it for years. Ever since we found the orb. I’m not going to let you or anyone stop me.
You’ve gone crazy, Bysme. Let me go. Let us help you.
Abysme approached her sister and the loose wires around her torso wound around the links keeping Mestasis in place. One by one, she yanked them out, disconnecting her sister from the system. Each broken connect racked her sister’s body with a shudder. You will join me. I’m in charge of our futures now, and we’re going into the chest.
Stop! If you do this, we’ll both die.
The ship’s shot to hell. We’ll die anyway. Why not pass on in the comfort of our mother’s arms?
Mestasis yelled, her eye burning with intensity. I gave up James for you, for us to have a safe life together. Pain filled her voice, making it quiver. If Gemme weren’t tied down, she’d run to comfort her. She looked to Brentwood, but he busied himself squirming in his restraints to find a weakness.
And now you can see him again.
He’s not in there, Bysme. No one is! They’re your own memories, pulled from the recesses of your mind. James, our mother, all the people in our past died hundreds of years ago. There’s no way to get them back.
They’re real to me. Abysme yanked more wires loose. You said you’ve always known what’s best for us. I stood by and let you make all the decisions, and I’ve had it with being passive while opportunities for true happiness passed us by. Now, I know what’s best. We’re going in.
Mestasis’s dark eye turned on Gemme, pleading with her to help. Gemme stared back at her and shook her head. Her sister was gone. She’d totally lost it. How could Gemme possibly right her sister’s wrong? Undo all of the death and devastation she’d caused? There was no way.
“We’ve got to do something,” Brentwood whispered as he struggled, his face turning red. “She’s going to kill them both. We need at least one of them at the helm.”
He was right. Mestasis hadn’t done anything wrong, and she could still help them save the ship. Lights flickered above them as the last twin disconnected from the system. Warning alarms wailed in the control chamber and down the hail, echoing one after the other. The ventilator above them shut off, the familiar buzz dying to complete silence.
Pushing her thumb into the palm of her hand, Gemme popped the digit out of her knuckle. She bit her lip as the streak of pain shot through her arm. Then she pulled her hand free.
Too distracted by disconnecting her sister, Abysme didn’t notice her escape. With her free hand, Gemme unwound the tube around her neck and pulled her legs from the coiled wires. She moved to help Brentwood, but he shook his head and flashed his eyes at the scene behind her.
Gemme whirled around. Abysme had disconnected Mestasis and dragged her limp body to the chest. Gemme threw herself across the floor and landed on top of her, the wires on the Seer’s back poking into her stomach like a porcupine’s quills.
Aaaaaah! The Seer’s voice screamed in her head as Gemme wrapped her arms around her. The torso writhed beneath her, layers of old skin flaking away underneath her fingernails. Wires lunged at Gemme’s face trying to poke out her eyes, but she buried her head into the Seer’s back held on, stopping Abysme from reaching the chest’s light.
The reek of dead skin and decomposition gagged her. Gemme had feared the Seers since her childhood, hoping she’d never had to meet them face-to-face, and now she sprawled on top of one, the Seer’s thin wisps of gray hair tickling Gemme’s cheek as they wrestled. Everywhere on Gemme’s body, her skin crawled.
But she had greater problems than her worst fear come to life. The wires scratched at her back, tearing into her thermal coat. It would only be a matter of time before the frayed ends ripped through the outer layer to her skin. One look at Brentwood told her he wasn’t able to help. She took a chance and released an arm to swat the wires away.
There were too many to keep at bay, and they scratched her arms leaving thin ribbons of blood. Abysme squirmed out from underneath her, and Gemme lost her grip, her sweaty hands slipping down her back.
The Seer’s wires reached toward the light. Anger welled inside Gemme as she thought of all the people Abysme had inadvertently killed. People she’d sworn to protect. Now, the Seer wanted to run away, leaving them all here on this frozen, forgotten planet to pick up the pieces. Gemme grabbed her main spinal tube trailing behind her and yanked her back. “No you don’t, you selfish bitch.”
Abysme turned and hissed, white eyes wide as two moons.
“Gemme watch out!” Brentwood shouted, his voice hoarse with alarm.
The wires flew through the air, trying to pierce Gemme’s body. She ducked and caught one in her hand, inches from her throat just as another shot through her pants leg and grazed her calf.
Gemme collapsed to the floor in pain, but she wouldn’t release the tube. The Seer crawled toward her on her wire limbs. Gemme scurried back, favoring her leg. The blood ran in a streak across the chrome. Abysme gained on her, squirming up her legs to her chest.
Wincing, Gemme expected a wire to impale her or shoot through her gut, but the Seer stopped inches from her chin.
Abysme’s face contorted into sheer surprise, toothless mouth opening wide. She whirled around just as a wire moving against the rest plunged through the air above her and stabbed her in the back and through the heart, protruding out of her chest.
Gemme froze in shock and glanced behind Abysme to her sister. Mestasis lay on her back, head rolling to the side. The Seer’s voice resonated in her head. You and Lieutenant Brentwood have the love that I once had. Don’t ever let it slip away.
Mestasis had saved her by murdering her own sister. Gemme stared at the Seer in shock.
Mestasis’s black eye leaked a stream of tears then shut.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The Most Important
Vira’s miniscreen flickered and she smacked it against the floor. The blue liquid in the energy cell had run out an hour ago, and it was her last one.
“Come on, don’t die on me now.” Teachers had temporarily suspended classes until the situation with the Expedition stabilized, but when she was stuck learning geometry again, she wanted to have her proofs completed.
Besides
, doing homework kept her mind off all her problems. She was sick of not having what she needed: her hoverchair, fresh food, and now energy cells. How were they supposed to live on Tundra 37 without all those things?
She minimized the glow of the screen and her undone proof flashed on. She scanned the last line before the miniscreen powered down and went dead. Guilt came over her as she thought back to all those hours wasted playing Star Quest.
Vira pressed the start panel over and over and nothing happened. Pounding her fist into the floor, she slumped against the wall in her room. Now what was she supposed to do?
“Mo-om!”
No answer. Vira shouted with the full force of her little lungs. Her voice echoed in her room and died away. Mom must have left to take Dad dinner. He never came home anymore, working long hours in the energy core, trying to keep the ship going.
The dim lights flickered around her, the room alternating between blindingly bright and black as deep space. Vira covered her face with her hands. When she pried her palms off, she was plunged into darkness.
“Rizzy?”
Was her sister playing pranks again?
“I know that’s you, so cut it out.”
No answer. She pushed her useless miniscreen off her lap and dragged herself to the kitchen. The carpet left burns on her arms, so she’d developed the technique of anchoring herself with an elbow, then pulling her weight forward arm over arm. Slow but sure. Isn’t that what her teachers had said about the Expedition’s progress? Vira was overcome with melancholy. Well, not any more. The ship would never fly again.
The icy chrome floor chilled her belly as she entered the kitchen. A half-eaten soybean wafer stuck out from the edge of the table, but other than that, no signs of life.
How could they leave her alone? Air wheezed over her head as the main ventilator shaft shut off. The silence of stagnant air reminded her of when the ship first crashed. Vira’s face squished up as she held back her tears. She sniffed, wiping her eyes on her pajama cuffs and tried to calm herself down. Someone will come home soon.
An alarm wailed down the corridor outside their family cell and she scrambled up, heart beating out of control. A shorter, more insistent sound beeped a warning followed by an automated response. “Engine failure in fifteen minutes. Core shutdown imminent. Evacuation procedures commence.”
Vira held her breath, not wanting to believe it. The ship was dying and she was alone.
She crawled underneath the kitchen table and curled up in a ball. She couldn’t hold the tears back any longer, and they ran down her cheeks, wetting the front of her favorite pajamas. But soiling her pink jammies didn’t matter, because if someone didn’t stabilize the energy core, they’d all be dead.
She bit her lip until it hurt. After feeling sorry for herself, she wondered if there was a way she could help. If she could channel the remaining energy, she could connect to the ship and find out what was wrong. Maybe she could fix it. She thought back to Rizzy’s poster, the mage staring her down as if demanding her to use her powers. She’d done it before with the air ventilator. Controlling an entire ship would be more complex than one air ventilator, but at least she could try. Vira paused, hands hovering over the chrome floor, fingers shaking. If she reconnected to the systems, the evil presence would find her.
Metal banged as the hull adjusted to the changes in air pressure. Vira cringed, thinking of her parents, Rizzy, and even stupid Daryl. As much as she hated them at times, she wanted to see them again and sit together at the dinner table as a family, eating fresh food and calling each other a spacehead. If her dad couldn’t fix the problem, and the Seers didn’t care, it was up to her.
She held her breath and pressed her hands against the floor, feeling all the connections still alive within the mainframe branching out. No conscious presence presided. In fact, the systems ran blindly, each program terminating when their cycles completed with no new orders issued. No one was in charge at all.
Vira shot up. If she wanted to save the Expedition, she’d have to reach the control chamber where she could access each system at once from the main console. The heartbeat of the ship weakened, and she didn’t have much time before the spark keeping the energy core running flickered out.
She crawled back toward her room and popped open the secret floor panel. Her scooter, made from old parts and the cleaning droid sat, almost finished. She didn’t have a steering wheel, or a seat to hold herself up, but she could hold on and drive it with her mind like she was able to turn on the ventilator.
She activated the scooter and rode it to the front portal, stopping before the chrome. She couldn’t reach the panel for the portal, so she ran her hand along the wall. The wavering current of electricity tickled her fingertips, and she shot it up to the panel before it flickered out. The portal dematerialized, and the scooter propelled forward, pulling her with it.
People ran through the corridors so fast, they didn’t notice a girl lugged by a makeshift scooter at their feet. An older woman cried and a young man screamed for help inside his family cell. Guilt weighed on her as she ignored them and whizzed by, clinging to the scooter. She could only save them by reaching the control room.
The scooter dragged her to a back elevator, grander than any of the ones she’d seen before with double sets of portals, the frame painted in a filigree of loopy designs with two pairs of dark eyes staring over each portal. She pressed her hand to the wall. The wires ran dead for several decks. Probing deeper, she drew a current directly from the dying core to get the portals to dematerialize. The particles disappeared and she nudged the droid ahead with her mind. It wheeled her over the platform.
Her heart raced as the elevator rose, thumping in her hears. What if the Seers set a trap to catch her? A jolt of anxiety shook her body. Would they really sacrifice the ship and risk lives to catch a spy? She had no idea. But the energy core had destabilized. She could feel the tension brimming as the radiation permeated the inner shield. Getting caught was a gamble she’d had to take.
The portal dematerialized to a corridor cluttered by debris. It looked like no one had walked there since the ship crashed, and a shiver crept up her back. The scooter sputtered as it led her off the platform, the small green lights on the nose dimming.
“Come on you space bot! Not now.”
The buzzing of mechanics inside its belly clicked off as it powered down. Vira checked the energy cell, and the blue liquid in the tube had run out. An ethereal shine emanated down the long corridor from what could only be the control room. She was so close. Climbing off the scooter, she pulled herself forward a foot at a time.
Scrambling over Abysme’s body, Gemme reached Brentwood, ripping wires from his arms. The grooves left ugly patterns on his skin. “You okay?”
He nodded and stared beyond her shoulder. “Help Mestasis.”
From what she’d seen, it seemed like a lost cause, but Brentwood was right. The Seer had to come first, and if she could do anything to get her back, she would. Gemme ran over to Mestasis and cupped her wrinkly face in both hands. Her skin felt dry and cold underneath her fingertips. “Mestasis, wake up.”
The Seer lay limp in her arms. Gemme shook her and her head twisted to the side. Hesitantly, she laid her hand on her chest: no heartbeat. The finality of the moment hit her like a laser in her stomach. She turned back to Brentwood. “I think she’s gone.”
“Plug her back in, restart her heart.”
Wishing she had some sort of medic skil
ls, Gemme turned the Seer over and pushed the spinal tube further into the input hole in her back. Pink liquid dribbled into her body, but Mestasis’s limbs hung lifeless. No matter how much Gemme jiggled the tube, only a trickle of liquid flowed. Around her the ship’s sirens wailed as the systems shut down one by one. An automated voice rang out, “Warning. Engine failure in fifteen minutes. Core shutdown imminent. Evacuation procedures recommended.”
“By the Guide.” Brentwood’s face paled as he struggled with his own restraints in panic. “I didn’t think losing them would cause a core failure. I had no idea.”
“Probably wouldn’t have if the ship was in better shape.” Gemme knew that made no difference now, but she didn’t want the fate of the entire ship resting on Brentwood’s head. They’d made the decision together, and now they had to fix it.
Gemme tried again to wake Mestasis, jiggling the tube she’d attached.
“I brought her back before.” Brentwood pulled his leg from the wire clump and stumbled over. He checked the tube, then turned her face to him. “Metsy, please come back to us.”
“She’s dead.” Gemme’s voice broke on her words.
“She can’t be.” Brentwood pressed on the Seer’s chest in rhythm and blew air into her mouth. “Come on, Metsy. We need you.”
“I can do it.” A small voice rang out behind them and they whirled around. Gemme recognized the girl she’d talked to in the safe zone after the comet shower had hit the Expedition. Sweat ran down the girl’s forehead, dripping off her black curls, and her cheeks flushed red with exertion. Sprawled on her belly, she must have dragged herself all the way there.
“Vira, what are you doing here? You should be evacuating.” Brentwood’s voice was stern.
Gemme’s mind turned back to that day in the emergency chamber. Vira had more control of her world than she let on, and the things she knew about Gemme were impossible unless she had secret access to the systems. It all fit into place like a grand puzzle, and Gemme couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen the connection before.
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