Out of Orbit- The Complete Series Boxset

by Chele Cooke

  “I think I have a right to be worried,” she grumbled, stuffing her hands into her pockets. “We’re in Adveni territory, Taye. Or had you forgotten with all these nice buildings?”

  The buildings were nice, almost annoyingly so. It was just that little bit harder to hate the Adveni when you were surrounded by their technology. Georgianna didn’t venture into the Adveni sections of the city very often apart from the Rion, but even there the bright lights bouncing off smooth, polished surfaces were hard to ignore. Everything was sleek and well made, smooth lines and sharp corners. It all looked very… technical.

  Out in their housing quarter things were a little simpler. The buildings were less focused, but beautiful just the same. Two and three-storey buildings sprawled across larger areas of land in the wealthy areas, tall blocks that housed dozens of dwellings for those who were not as high on the pay scale.

  The biggest building they had seen so far, a little way in past the beginning of the dwellings, had been a two-storey complex that spread like a lake, sprawling further than Georgianna could see. The pale yellow stone shining in the sunlight made it almost blinding. Outside there had been no signs in Veuric as to what it was. Unfortunately, Taye didn’t know.

  “It was just a guy I do a deal with,” Taye sighed finally. “I promised him a couple extra doses if he found out where this Vtensu lived.”

  “Doses?” she shrieked. Taye glanced fearfully at her, so she lowered her voice. “Please tell me the guy was at least not taking while he agreed.”

  Taye waved his hand, a smug grin on his face.

  “You want to take issue with my sources, Gianna, you might want to return the Adveni stuff I get you.”

  Georgianna clutched her bag against her hip and pressed her lips together as Taye laughed.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

  Georgianna had dosed a couple of times, though not for a while. It was a slippery slope. The euphoric sensation the powder gave when smeared onto the temples was thrilling, and she could understand why some chose to do it more often. However, she’d also seen the effects of dosing over a long period, so she made sure to keep her own use to a minimum.

  “Remember Taye, we’re just looking!” Georgianna reminded him forcefully.

  Taye glanced at her, turning his head and glaring for a moment, his steps slowing as he seemed to consider whether to answer her or not. Not, it turned out, won the argument and he quickened his steps along the road, crossing his arms defensively over his chest. Georgianna immediately lengthened her stride to catch up with him.

  “Taye! We’re just looking… right?”

  “Yes!” Taye snapped, not looking back this time. “Just looking. So stop, alright?”

  “You’re just… you’re not filling me with a lot of confidence here.”

  Taye stopped, turning on his heel to move in front of her. Georgianna wavered for a moment mid-step, quickly righting herself and coming to a stop in front of him.

  “What do you expect?” he demanded.

  Georgianna frowned and shrugged. She didn’t know what she expected from Taye. He’d been so anxious since the moment she had told him that she knew who had bought Nyah. No, that was wrong, he had been this way since Nyah was taken. There were times when he was cheerful, but mostly, he wasn’t the same guy that she had known before. Even after the Adveni arrived, Taye had always been happy and confident, yet these days Georgianna hardly recognised him.

  “I know you’re worried about her, but…”

  “Yes, I am, but, can we just talk about something else?”

  Georgianna sighed and nodded. Maybe it was best.

  “Like?”

  Taye turned away from her, starting off down the road again, though Georgianna couldn’t work out how Taye could keep his head straight in this maze. The roads twisted and turned and she had no idea how many turnings they’d taken onto different streets. Taye, apparently, was keeping track, because he was walking with the determination of someone who knew exactly where they were going.

  Georgianna hurried to keep up, a few long strides before she fell into step with him. Taye was naturally tall and long legged, so it meant Georgianna had to push every step to stay close. Luckily, however, she was used to walking next to her father and brother, both a good head taller than her.

  “I dunno, how’s your da’?” he asked.

  Smiling and giving him a careless shrug, Georgianna glanced sideways up at Taye.

  “He’s alright,” she answered. “I think he likes having Braedon around to keep him company when he’s at home.”

  “Yeah, he’s what, four now?”

  “Almost five,” she answered. “And exactly like Halden.”

  Taye glanced at her and raised an eyebrow. Taye knew Braedon was not theirs by blood, but he didn’t comment on it.

  “Well, out of the people to be like, Halden’s a good one,” he said. “How is Halden doing, anyway?”

  Georgianna’s grin faded and she looked down at the floor, watching the smooth path pass beneath her feet.

  “He’s… surviving.”

  “Aren’t we all?”

  “Some better than others.”

  Taye rocked his head from side to side.

  Georgianna brought her hands from her pockets and clasped them in front of her, idly picking at a notch in her thumb nail.

  “I dunno, he seems fine, work and all, but I don’t think he’s even trying to move on.”

  “Should he?” Taye asked. “He was joined, that’s not an easy thing to get past.”

  Georgianna nodded. She knew she couldn’t expect Halden to move on from Nequiel, not when his death had been so horrific. Yet like Taye, her brother was no longer the same person she had grown up with. He was quieter, more reserved, and less willing to talk about anything important. As selfish and as stupid as it was with everything Halden had been through, Georgianna missed her brother.

  “It’s not like Nyah,” she said slowly. “Nequiel is gone.”

  “You say that like my missing Nyah is worse,” Taye answered. “I still have hope that I can see her, maybe even get her back one day. Halden doesn’t.”

  Taye looked sideways at her, raising an eyebrow as Georgianna glanced up at him.

  “We don’t all flit easily onto someone new.”

  Georgianna opened her mouth in indignation. She’d never been in Taye’s situation, or Halden’s. She’d never even considered joining with someone, not past a silly teenage fantasy.

  “I don’t…”

  “Oh yes you do,” Taye cut her off. “You think your brother likes that Keiran?”

  “He doesn’t…”

  “Yeah, he knows,” Taye confirmed. “You’re not half as secretive as you think you are. They know you’re seeing someone, someone who doesn’t treat you the way you deserve.”

  Georgianna harrumphed at his suggestion and shook her head.

  “He’s nice to me!” Georgianna argued. “And it’s not like I’ve been begging him to join and he’s saying no. I’m not ready for that either.”

  “That doesn’t mean your family like it. They want you settled with a decent guy.”

  “Settled is…”

  “Safe?”

  “Boring.”

  Taye laughed and rolled his eyes. Georgianna looked away.

  “Well, boring or not, Keiran is not who I would suggest doing it with.”

  “Oh, and I suppose you have a host of guys for me to choose from?” she asked. “There is nothing wrong with Keiran. He’s Nerrin, he’s a Belsa!”

  “He’s a Vtensu!”

  Georgianna reached out and smacked Taye. He stepped away, rubbing his arm.

  “I’ll tell your uncle what you said if you don’t shut your mouth.”

  “Tell him. He’ll agree with me,” Taye argued.

  “He’s…”

  “Oh, admit it Gianna, you like him because he’s handsome, not because he’s a good guy.”

  “He is a good guy!” Georgianna ex
claimed.

  “No, he’s not. If he was, he wouldn’t be running round with other girls.”

  “How do you…?”

  “Everyone in the tunnels knows he has a different girl most nights,” Taye answered with a hard look. “You’re more often than most, but there are others.”

  “You think I don’t know that?”

  “Then why put up with it?”

  Georgianna stopped, glaring at Taye in annoyance. Though, it did occur to her for a moment that maybe she was more annoyed that so many people apparently knew the ins and outs of her private life. Liliah, Wrench, Taye, and apparently her family. Now, Taye was making out that everyone in the tunnels knew as well. The Belsa, the Carae, her sex life was apparently common knowledge.

  She was probably worrying about it too much. Taye was over-exaggerating. He had to be.

  “The last one was better,” he said suddenly.

  “The last what?”

  “Boyfriend.”

  “What boyfriend? I wasn’t…”

  Taye uncrossed his arms from over his chest, clicking his fingers together as he waved his hand around, as if that would help him remember.

  “Al… Al… Alec?”

  Georgianna looked at Taye in surprise. As surprised as she was that Taye knew about Keiran, it was even more of a shock that he knew about Alec.

  “Alec was never my boyfriend,” Georgianna said.

  Taye opened his mouth, ready to reply, but Georgianna held up her hand, cutting him off.

  “Plus, you can like him all you want,” she muttered. “He’s dead, so there’s no point talking about it.”

  Taye looked away quickly. Whether he’d not known about Alec’s death, or he’d simply not thought about it before bringing it up, a slight colour rose on his cheeks and he stuffed his hands into his pockets. Georgianna felt a little bad. She hadn’t meant to bring it up quite so bluntly, but it was the truth, Alec was dead and there was nothing that could be done. Like Nequiel, people simply had to find a way to move on.

  Alec had been fun to hang out with, and they certainly found each other attractive and enjoyable enough to keep going back, but they had both known what it was. She wasn’t looking for a relationship, and Alec was trying to forget the loss of one. She had asked him about her once, his wife, but he simply said that she was gone and that was that, conversation over.

  That was the thing about Alec: everyone knew he was a great guy, that he was a skilled fighter and had impeccable morals, but he was hard to actually know on any intimate level. His unwavering belief in his hatred of the Adveni, which admittedly he had good cause for, made it difficult to talk to him about anything regarding them, including her work at the compound. Alec had made his opinions on her working there abundantly clear: it was a bad idea and she shouldn’t go back because one day she would get caught up in it.

  When Georgianna refused, the argument had not been pretty. It was, unfortunately, one of the most honest conversations they ever had, yet it had turned into a shouting match which ended in her storming out. She didn’t need some guy she fooled around with telling her who she should and shouldn’t help.

  She’d been stubborn, refusing to go back and apologise, even though she really did think Alec was a decent guy. However, before the stubbornness had even begun to fade, she’d learned that he was missing. She’d looked for him, she’d checked the compound and she’d listened in on conversations between the Belsa, but in the end, they’d agreed that death was the only logical explanation for his disappearance.

  For a while, Taye and Georgianna walked in silence, Taye watching the buildings pass around them, Georgianna watching her feet. She tried not to think of Alec too often, even though she knew that his death had not been her fault. He was a Belsa: short life expectancy was almost a given. Despite her difficulty in getting to know him, he had been a decent friend if nothing more.

  Georgianna still hadn’t told Si about Alec, though she suspected that Jaid might have explained it to him. She hated pretending that Alec was alive, as if he would walk in at any moment, having come off guard duty to visit his friend. Hearing Si speak about Alec as if he were still around had been much harder than she’d thought. It had been two years, but it still caught her breath when he was brought up so casually by Si, by Keiran, and now by Taye.

  “I think that’s it,” Taye suddenly announced, lifting his hand to point at a house coming up on their right.

  Georgianna slowed her steps, trying not to stare. She glanced around at the other houses, scanning across them until she came to the one Taye had pointed at. For a moment she paused, her gaze washing over everything she could take in before she quickly looked away to the other side of the street.

  “You’re sure?” she asked.

  Taye looked around too, but his gaze locked back onto the house pretty quickly. It looked much the same as the others, a little bigger than those next to it, but the same style and general appearance. Slowing their steps even more, Georgianna scuffed her foot idly against the pavement, looking this way and that but always landing on the same spot.

  “Yeah, this is the eighteenth,” he answered after a moment. “I’m sure of it.”

  She looked away, not wanting to be seen staring, but when she looked back, Taye was already two steps ahead of her, moving across the road towards the house. Squeaking in horror, Georgianna lurched forward and grabbed Taye’s arm, tugging him back.

  “Taye!” she hissed under her breath, looking up at him furiously.

  Taye, however, wasn’t listening. His gaze never wavered from the window at the front of the house, which was flung open. Georgianna followed his gaze and gasped as she saw a blonde figure there, looking out of the house.

  Her face was partially masked by her long blonde hair, the clothes not her own but those given to her, but it was Nyah. Georgianna paused, unable to tug Taye along any more as he stared at the woman he would have been joined to. His mouth opened, his chest heaved, and a groan issued from his mouth.

  Georgianna kept a tight hold on his arm, especially when a deep voice echoed out of the house.

  “Nyah!”

  Nyah flinched, her hair flying back as she turned towards the voice and disappeared back into the house. This time, Georgianna moaned as well: for the briefest moment before she disappeared, clamped securely around Nyah’s throat, a cinystalq collar had glinted back at them in the mid-heat sun.

  The house dripped in shadows, the flickering light from the oil lamp dancing in dappled spots across the corridor through the open doorway. Georgianna sat on the floor, her back against the corner of the doorframe, watching the specks and flames of light across the sandstone. It had been a long time since she’d heard one of her father’s stories, but the moment he’d begun telling it, Georgianna could remember it in its entirety.

  Halden was out, working long hours again, so the task of putting Braedon to bed had fallen to her own father, as did storytelling. As Georgianna was home so infrequently compared to her brother and father, Braedon had quickly demanded that Georgianna be the one to tell him a story, but she had managed to talk him out of it. Her tales were far too dull, and didn’t always have happy endings. It was better to have a tale from his Grandda’, who was experienced in such things. Her father had scowled and smacked the back of her arm for passing the job onto him, but she’d noticed the small smile as he tucked Braedon in, and the look of fond surprise when he moved to sit down and noticed her perched outside the door to listen too.

  It was the one about the coyote who found himself trapped in a deep hole. He needed to learn to be nice to those who were different if they were to help him find a way out. Braedon had complained and whined when he couldn’t have the ship story, which was apparently his favourite, but Georgianna knew all too well that the coyote story was the best. It was the longest, which meant you got to stay up longer. For twenty-six years, she had neglected to tell her father that particular reason for requesting it as a child.

  She’d considere
d going back to the tunnels with Taye after their trip into the Adveni quarters, but after seeing Nyah, with the collar fastened around her neck, Georgianna felt the longing for the familiarity of home. Taye was so separated from everyone he considered family, and so she found herself making the long trek through the camps, looking forward to the safe and protected feeling when her father gathered her into his arms.

  “Holding on to the head of the snake, they began lowering his long body into the hole.”

  Georgianna giggled, quickly covering her mouth so as not to disturb the story. She’d never considered as a child, just how odd it would look for a bear to lower a snake into a hole so that a coyote could climb up the animal like a rope. Her father’s stories, except for the ships, had always been a little strange, and it hadn’t been until she got older that she realised the life lessons in them all.

  Resting her head back against the frame, Georgianna closed her eyes, listening to the low rumble of her father’s voice. In fact, she had almost drifted off herself when he stepped over her legs, nudging her shoulder so that he could pull the door closed. Georgianna got to her feet, following him back into the front room where she slumped down onto the thick rug. It was bare in places, and there were some stains that just wouldn’t come out, but it was still more comfortable than the bare floor.

  Her father took a seat on his whittling stool, collecting up his knife and a half-finished piece, glancing over at his daughter lying flat on her back staring up at the ceiling.

  “You will need your own stories soon, my Gianna,” he said.

  Georgianna let out an amused breath, shaking her head.

  “Hardly.”

  “No, you will. When you are ready to tell them.”

  She turned her head, her cheek pressed against the coarse fibres of the wool. Her father didn’t look up, his knife making smooth strokes against the wood, slivers coming off against the blade, floating down onto the floor.

  “I don’t think that will be for a while, Da’,” she replied. “I don’t even know if that’s what I want.”

  Her father gave a low hum of laughter, and though he didn’t look up, she could see the amusement sparkling in his eyes through the lamplight.