I whispered low enough so only he could hear, “Was Priavenus your home world or a colonized planet?” Perhaps there were other worlds where his people still thrived.
“Priavenus was our only home.” Cold bitterness tinged his voice. Shadows covered half his golden face, making it hard to read his expression. The inky tattoos ran across the other half, like some strange, exotic plant had cast a shadow on his cheek.
“You didn’t spread your people among the stars?”
“Even though we could travel in space, we always brought back resources. We had no need to leave. We lived a perfectly balanced life with few disputes and a steady population. Priavenus was thriving, unlike your home world.”
“We were forced into the stars.” I looked away in shame. When he’d touched Gavin’s lapscreen, he’d seen all of humankind’s horrible acts, along with the destruction of Old Earth. Did Asteran think I was just as bad?
I increased my pace to keep up with Leo and Nova, or maybe I was just running away from the ugly truths. “It’s not what you think. We’ve learned from our mistakes. That’s one of the reasons we don’t have sufficient weapons to keep the arachnids at bay. We left them on our ruined planet. Left them for a better life.”
Asteran increased his pace to match mine. “I should not judge. For all of our peacefulness and balance, my people weren’t as clever as we thought.”
“Hey.” I pulled him aside. “No one could have predicted what happened with the arachnids. We’d fall into the same trap if it wasn’t for your guidance.”
Asteran raised his hand and smoothed a strand of hair behind my ear, giving me tingly shivers all over. “I won’t let what happened to my people happen to yours. That’s a promise.”
We stood for a long, drawn-out heartbeat, staring into each other’s eyes.
“Over there! A landrover!” Nova’s voice cut through the thick, hot air between us.
I turned toward her. She stood beyond the new greenhouses, waving for our attention. The sound of an engine roaring to life echoed over the buildings. Leo must have already used the key card.
I turned back to Asteran and my hope rose. We were actually getting away with this. No bureaucracy of the Guide or Crophaven to hold us back. So why was I reluctant to get moving? “Time to go.”
Asteran followed me to where Nova stood. Behind her, two headlights bore into the jungle at the colony’s far edge. With tires taller than me, the landrover plowed through anything and everything in its path, except the giant crystals. But there were no ridges where we were going, only a bare field where Commander Crophaven had ordered the pod plants chopped to dust.
Nova climbed into the landrover next to Leo in the front seat, so I climbed in the back with Asteran. Good thing they hadn’t set up any surveillance cameras yet.
Leo revved the engine. “Hold on to your atoms.”
Dad drove these all the time, but had he ever taught Leo? I didn’t think so.
I scrambled for my seat belt as Leo circled around the colony. Asteran wasn’t making a move to fasten his, so I nudged his arm. “Belt yourself in.”
He blinked his beautiful golden eyelashes. “I do not understand you.”
What? No seat belts on Priavenus? I showed him my belt. “Look for yours.”
The terrain grew choppy, and we bounced so hard, my head almost hit the ceiling. Asteran still fumbled for his seat belt, so I leaned over and reached across him. My arm brushed up against his smooth lower abs. Oh, how I wished to keep it there. I grabbed the plastic fastener and pulled the strap across his lap. He found the other side and clicked the belt into place. “Thank you, Lyra.”
“No problem.”
Leo was watching me from the rearview mirror. The corners of his eyes narrowed as if he were grinning.
“What?” Why did I feel like he kept catching me with my finger in the strawberry frosting bowl?
Leo chuckled. “Nothing.”
“Just keep your eyes on the path.” Nova scolded him from the front seat.
Twilight grayed the sky above, dimming the stars. Soon dawn would break, exposing us as easy targets for the morning guard patrol. Anxiety crept up my legs. I twisted my sleeve into a knot and scanned the newly bare countryside. As much as they were poisonous, at least the pod plants would have cloaked our escape. The last thing I wanted was go back to the New Dawn as a fugitive.
A dark hull rose above us on the horizon like the carapace of a giant beetle. I suppressed a shudder, remembering I’d vowed never to return after pulling Asteran from that awful metal cocoon.
Asteran stiffened beside me and breathed in quickly.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with bad memories.
The arachnids are gone. Crophaven scoured every tunnel for survivors. The only monsters left are contained in the science bay.
The ship that had once held us prisoner had become our savior. The irony of the situation puzzled me. Could we really fly it all the way to Cavernia and defeat them, or were we fools?
Asteran’s hand closed over mine. His touch steeled my determination. If he said he could get us there, then I had to have faith in him.
Leo pulled up to the hole in the hull that we’d made to reenter the ship after it had crashed. The landrover engines stilled as he pulled out the key card. “Our loyal steed awaits.”
Chapter Thirteen
Stowaway
How Leo had picked up such antiquated terminology was beyond me. Must have been all those Old Earth files he kept on his wallscreen. Whatever the case, the dark bulk of the arachnid ship stole my breath away, and I couldn’t find the courage to tease him.
Nova turned to Asteran. “Can you fly it in the condition it’s in?”
Asteran scanned the melted metal. “I won’t know until I can get to the controls and review the schematics, but I believe so. If I section off that particular tunnel, we’ll be fine.”
The hatch buzzed open. Leo jumped out first then offered his hand to each of us. Goose bumps prickled my arms and legs, and I wasn’t sure if it was the misty morning air or the metal monster that sprawled before us, challenging us to conquer it.
Once again, Asteran took one of my backpacks, so I didn’t have to lug both of them onto the ship. He took the lead, as if he sensed our hesitation. “Follow me. I know these ships well.”
I took one look behind us, across the barren field, to make sure Crophaven didn’t have an army on our tail. Mist rolled over the black crystals, and dried stalks of dead pod plants tumbled in the breeze. No landrovers followed.
“Here.” Nova handed me a beacon light. Taking a deep breath, I followed the others through the melted frame.
Stalagmites made from hardened liquid metal rose around us, prickling up from the floor like giant thorns. Water from a distant source dripped in a rhythmic pitter-patter. A trace of strange chemicals wafted on the air. Inky shadows seemed to move in all directions, and I flashed my beacon light, chasing them around the high ceiling. Could Crophaven have missed one?
Asteran’s light illuminated a sleek, silver corsair sitting in the loading bay. “This is not one of their ships.”
“No, it’s ours.” Nova aimed her beacon light at the emblem of the New Dawn painted on the hull. “They captured my team in this ship. We were stuck in here for days. That’s how Lyra found you wrapped in the cocoons.”
He turned to me. “You saved me?”
I nodded, heat creeping up through my neck and into my cheeks. He must know how I feel about him by now.
Leo positioned himself between us, running his hands along the wing. “Does it still work?”
“It should.” Nova shone her light through the main sight panel toward the pilot seats. “After Crophaven secured the ship, Sirius went to run diagnostics on the corsair. They were going to find a way to fly it out.”
“Well, they’ll have to wait until we get back for that.” I scanned the entrance, making sure no one followed us in. The gray twilight had turned into violet luminescence. The sun would rise soon. �
��We have to move.”
We entered the tunnel and climbed up an incline. I stumbled on the uneven metal floor, tripping over a hardened bubble in the smooth surface. It was hard to imagine the arachnids spinning out enough metal to build an entire fleet, never mind one ship. There must be millions of them on Cavernia. That thought didn’t help my rising anxiety.
The walls narrowed, playing on my claustrophobia. Hazy, reddish light glowed from the end of the tunnel.
“That’s it.” Nova increased her pace. “That’s the control room.”
“How do you know?” Leo’s voice sounded less confident than it had back on the New Dawn, but there was no turning back now.
“Because I’ve been there.” Nova disappeared around the bend.
Asteran followed, leaving Leo and me in the tunnel.
“You okay?” I placed a hand on my brother’s shoulder. The last thing I wanted to say was I told you so.
“Just peachy.” He wiped sweat from his forehead. “Come on. Let’s get this freak show on the road.”
We entered the control room, and my eyes adjusted to the cloudy, reddish haze. Glassy orbs stood on metal pillars in a semicircle around a giant crystal at the room’s center.
Nova touched the hard edges of the crystal. “I don’t understand. I damaged the controls to get out of here.”
Asteran smoothed his fingers over the base. “They must have repaired it. Did the ship fly after you escaped?”
“It did. We led them to this field. It was covered in pod plants, and we used the poisonous microbes to infect the arachnids on the ship.”
“Interesting.” Asteran stood before the orb in the middle of the room and placed his hand on the glassy surface. “I can feel the energy willing to flow. This ship sleeps, waiting for them to return.”
“Be careful. The last time I tried to play with the controls, the mother brain seized my mind and almost killed me.” Nova circled the orbs as if they would electrocute her.
“That’s why I have this.” Asteran dug into his shirt and pulled out the jade crystal. “Some crystals, like the one over there, transfer and intensify electromagnetic and psychic energy. And some”—he fingered his necklace—“block them.”
“Where did you get that?” Nova inched toward him but still kept her distance from the orbs.
“There’s only one place in this universe to find them, and that’s on Priavenus.” Asteran caught my gaze. “The rarity of the crystals drew the arachnids to my planet.”
“Sucky deal, man.” Leo ran his hand through his hair. My brother looked sincerely sorry, a face I didn’t usually see.
Before I could respond, Asteran turned to the orb and closed his eyes. The purple crystal at the center of the room glowed brighter until it blinded me, and I had to cover half my vision with my hand. A white light shot from the crystal to each one of the orbs, lighting them a deeper shade of bloodshot red. Asteran opened his eyes, and a picture of a distant star system emerged from the hazy red light of the orb. He blinked, and a single planet orbiting around a dense, dim sun swung into sight.
The ship rumbled around us like an ancient beast stirring from hibernation. We stumbled back against the wall. Leo held my right arm, and Nova held the left.
My brother’s voice shook with the ship. “They don’t have seat belts on this thing?”
“Yeah, right next to the Jacuzzi on level one.” I tried to lighten the moment, but neither of them laughed. The floor pitched under our feet, and my stomach somersaulted. Yeah, I’d flown on a deep space transport ship my whole life, but the gravity rings of the New Dawn stabilized each bump and jolt. I swallowed a lump of fear congealing in my throat. Would this ship have gravity? I’d only flown on it in the atmosphere of Paradise 21. Never in deep space.
The shaking intensified as I pictured arachnids floating through the air in each tunnel. No, they had to have gravity or their weak brain sacks might hit the wrong stalagmite, and pop.
My legs felt like lead, and we were pulled toward the floor.
“What’s going on?” I shouted over the rumble, as I sat up, leaning against the wall.
Nova gazed at the ceiling. “The increase in gravitational pull can only mean one thing. We’re going up.”
“Up through the atmosphere into deep space?” Leo’s eyes widened as he crossed his legs beside me.
“That’s where we have to go.” Nova stared at him as if he hadn’t read the fine print in the Guide book.
Thank the Guide the craft didn’t have a sight panel, because the view of Paradise 21 getting smaller and smaller under our feet would make me hurl.
All of a sudden, the shaking stopped, and the gravity lightened. My arms felt five pounds lighter. I wasn’t exactly floating, but the change in pressure dizzied me.
Asteran turned from the controls. “Takeoff was successful. I have pinpointed the destination and calculated the course. We’re on our way.”
Leo whooped and jumped up to his feet. Nova covered her heart with her hand and breathed easy. I caught Asteran’s gaze and smiled. He returned my smile, making me feel as though we could conquer the universe. I’d be queen, and he’d be...
“Everyone freeze. By section four-eighty-seven of the Guide, you are all under arrest.”
My chest tightened until there was no way my heart could move. It can’t be. Yet I’d heard that voice for years in my classes, reciting every answer like a textbook example of how to behave from the Guide.
I turned slowly, denial climbing every nerve in my body.
Tauren stood at the mouth of the tunnel, holding his laser to Asteran’s face.
Chapter Fourteen
Admission
I stood to face Tauren. He wouldn’t shoot me. A plan formed in my mind. Distract him and keep him busy while the others found a way to get that laser out of his hands. “What are you doing here?”
He aimed the gun at Asteran. “Making sure you don’t get into trouble.”
I resisted the urge to puke at his absurdity, like he was some knight in shining armor come to sweep me off my feet. “It’s a little too late for that.”
His voice fell to a whisper. “You don’t know what you’re doing. You’re going to ruin both our reputations.”
So this was really about him.
He inched toward me, still holding the gun. “If you come with me now, maybe we can work something out and convince my father these...delinquents made you do it.”
I stared into his eyes and he stared right back. His pupils weren’t dilated. He was totally serious. He didn’t know Asteran had flown the ship thousands of miles away from Paradise 21 in deep space.
Like I’d go with him? The jungle would have to freeze over first.
I crossed my arms, refusing to let him intimidate me. “They didn’t make me do anything, Tauren. This was my idea.”
“Your idea?” A pained expression contorted his face. “By the Guide, Lyra! You’re aiding a prisoner, stealing Guide property, and breaking curfew. What’s gotten into you?” His eyes strayed to where Leo stood behind me. “Stay where you are. I’m taking you all in.”
Leo stepped beside me. “That’s gonna be hard to do, man.”
“Stay back!” Tauren shifted and pointed the laser at my brother. “I’m not afraid to use the stun.”
Leo froze, but I sensed a blur of motion from the corner of my eye. Asteran was on the move. I forced myself not to draw attention to him. Instead, I watched Leo like he was the most interesting person alive.
Leo threw up his arms. “Stun me all you want, but it’s a long way down to Paradise 21. You may want to wait awhile.”
For the first time, fear tinged Tauren’s eyes. Sweat beaded on his large forehead. “What do you mean ‘a long way down’?”
“We’re flying in deep space, Tauren.” Nova spoke in a calm, controlled voice. “Now, put down the gun, and we’ll work something out.”
Tauren shook the laser at her. “I’m not putting down anything. If you think you can scare me wi
th some kind of crazy bluff, then you’re wrong.”
Movement from the right caught my attention. Asteran dove from his position behind one of the orbs, ramming straight into Tauren’s legs. The two men tumbled to the floor. Tauren shot, and the laser ricocheted off of the crystal and into the shadows. I swung my backpack around and dug for one of the weapons.
Asteran moved swiftly and smoothly, but Tauren had sheer bulk and weight on his side. Asteran slammed my lifemate’s wrist into the metal floor, loosening his grip on the laser. With his free hand, Tauren punched him in the jaw, sending a strike to my heart. Asteran fell back, and Tauren scrambled to get hold of the trigger. Before Asteran could regain his senses, Tauren aimed and fired.
“No!” I screamed, my throat raw as my fingers closed over the handle to the metal spray gun Alcor and I had devised just a few hours ago.
Leo kicked Tauren’s hand as the laser fired, sending the shot over Asteran’s head. Tauren swiped at Leo, but my brother jumped back out of reach, buying enough time for Asteran to climb on top of Tauren. Leo pinned one arm, and Asteran pinned the other. Tauren kicked like a bull, trying to knock them off him.
I ran forward and held the gun to Tauren’s face. “Freeze.” Guilt shot up my neck, but I couldn’t let him ruin our mission.
Nova pried Tauren’s fingers from the laser. She pointed his laser at him. “I’m not afraid to use stun, either.”
Tauren’s face turned as red as a tomato as he fought against them. The muscles in his neck protruded, and his arms bulged under Leo’s and Asteran’s grips. “You’re not going to get away with this.”
“What? Crophaven’s going to reconstruct the New Dawn just to come get us?” Leo smirked.
Tauren spit in his face as he spoke. “You’ll have to fly back to Paradise 21 at some point, and then you’ll all have your titles taken away.”
Nova cringed and the laser wavered in her hand.
I took over. His warnings didn’t bother me. “Not if we save the colony first.”
Tauren spit as he hissed his words at Nova and the rest of us. “So, that’s what this is about? Saving the colony?”
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