Reza was looking at me with that sweetness in his eyes. It was dark and deep and beautiful and something to get lost in, but it was not where my heart was pointed.
I shook my head. I knew I didn’t feel what he wanted me to feel.
“Don’t you love me?” he asked. “I love you.”
“I do. I really do,” I said. And I did. It was such a strange love. A big love. A proud love. “But I see a different road for me.”
I looked at the window. At all of Quint.
“You want to stay here?” Reza said. “But there are others who can bring this planet back. Ednette and the Wanderers who are going to stay. You don’t have to. You could come with me.”
“I don’t want to,” I said.
“You want to be near him?” Reza said, his voice filled with jealousy.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Tournour. He is not even Human,” Reza said.
“If I had wanted to be with Tournour I would have stayed on the Yertina Feray,” I said. “I’m here because I want to be here.”
“He’s probably not even compatible,” Reza said. “You have to choose…”
“Why do I have to choose?” I asked. “Reza, you make me feel like a woman, and I love that about you.”
“What can Tournour make you feel like?” Reza asked.
“He makes me feel Human.”
Reza made a noise indicating his disappointment in me. But I didn’t care. I had lost too much to care what people thought of me.
“Let me ask you a question. Would you stay here with me?” I asked him.
“No,” he said after a moment. “My life is out there.”
“Then you understand why I can’t go with you.”
“This planet is a harsh mistress,” Reza said.
“But I can make it bloom again,” I said. “It’s our first Earth colony. I can’t leave it. This is where my space journey ends.”
He sighed deeply, and as angry as I knew he was, I felt that deep down inside he understood.
“You’ll come back,” I said. “You’ll have to visit and check in on us. And I’ll be here.”
He pulled me into his strong arms, and we said our goodbyes the only way we knew how. With a soft kiss and a long hug.
Then he was gone.
* * *
It only took a few weeks, but I could see it whenever I walked to the edge of Reza’s claim. A town was being born.
As it slowly grew, I spent my time making myself comfortable. Reza’s house was mine now. I swept the floor and carefully arranged Reza’s things, mixing them with my own. Even Trevor, broken down and useless, was there in the corner. It was as if Caleb was there with me, too.
I kept mysef busy with the slow pace of this new life. There were flowers to cultivate. There was community to build. I mentally made a plan for the months and years ahead. What we would need and how we would trade and thrive. I thought of Heckleck and knew he’d be proud.
Every day ended with a brilliant sunset.
As I prepared my supper, after weeks of being alone, I heard the hooves of an animal outside of my door. There were more and more of those larger kind of animals arriving on Quint and so I thought nothing of it. Soon, there would be herds. They would help tame this planet. It made me glad.
I heard a visitor dismount and the creak of footsteps on the porch and in a moment, there was a knock.
I opened it.
It was Tournour.
His antenna moved slowly from side to side.
He had his bag at his feet.
“Do you know what I think?” he asked.
“What?” I said.
“You are my home. You are my world. You are my galaxy.”
I smiled at him.
“What if our biology is too different?” I asked.
“Some things are the same.”
“It won’t be easy.”
“We’ll work it out,” Tournour said. “I don’t mind if you get pleasure from being with Reza.”
I was in love with an alien.
“But I mind,” I said, pulling him inside.
“Why?”
“Because my heart minds,” and I tipped my forehead to his, and his antennae folded toward me.
“I adore your strange Human heart,” he whispered.
I was home.
I was finally home.
Acknowledgments
To my gentle first readers, Laurent Castellucci, Cylin Busby, Sarah Watson, Angie Chen, Alice Artemis Westover.
To the cluster, the shamers, and the nine piners, you are the wind beneath my word wings.
To Nicole Cloutier at NASA/JSC and Astronaut Rick Mastracchio for the spacewalk space talk.
To Nancy Mercado, who started me out.
To Connie Hsu, who brought it all home. Eternal gratitude for your amazing editing.
To Mimi Simard, who floated me when I most needed it.
To Gina Gagliano, Simon Boughton, and Roaring Brook Press for being so great.
To Kirby Kim for all the cheerleading and care.
To Skylight Books for the constant support.
To Steve Salardino, always.
About the Author
Cecil Castellucci is a two-time MacDowell Colony fellow and award-winning author of twelve books for young adults, including Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, First Day on Earth, Year of the Beasts, and Tin Star. She lives in Los Angeles. You can sign up for email updates here.
ALSO BY
CECIL CASTELLUCCI
Tin Star
The Year of the Beasts
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Cecil Castellucci
Copyright
Text copyright © 2015 by Cecil Castellucci
Published by Roaring Brook Press
Roaring Brook Press is a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
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All rights reserved
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Castellucci, Cecil, 1969–
Stone in the sky / Cecil Castellucci.—First edition.
pages cm
Sequel to: Tin star.
Summary: “In this follow-up to TIN STAR, the desol
ate planet below the Yertina Feray space station is discovered to have overwhelming amounts of an invaluable resource, which suddenly makes the station a major player in intergalactic politics”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-59643-776-0 (hardback)—ISBN 978-1-250-07368-6 (trade paperback)—ISBN 978-1-62672-151-7 (e-book) [1. Human-alien encounters—Fiction. 2. Space stations—Fiction. 3. Science fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.C26865Sto 2015
[Fic]—dc23
2014040877
eISBN 9781626721517
First hardcover edition, 2015
eBook edition, February 2015
Stone in the Sky Page 25