The touchdown was incredibly gentle, like a feather falling on a cloud. The lower half skimmed the dirt and cactus until friction grabbed the rest of my coffin and gravity finally thudded me onto the hard dirt like a ton of cement.
I breathed. And breathed. And shook.
The door slid open, and I imagined rather than felt the hot summer air flooding into the shuttle.
I lay there, gazing into the impossibly blue sky, until my insides solidified again and my legs realized they were still attached to my body.
Home.
So gorgeous, that sky. So peaceful and safe.
Up there somewhere was Luka.
And up there, too, was an ugly vrag ship, waiting in the deep, like a shark, to devour my people. I lay there for a second hoping against hope I might see Penelope break through the clouds.
He’ll find me. He said he would.
He couldn’t let the vrag have the weapon.
I finally found the strength to stand up. Gravity hit me like a ton of bricks. My quadriceps screamed as I stumbled out of the shuttle and fell to my knees in the dirt. I felt a stab of pain, wondered if I’d broken a rib.
I hit the self-destruct command and crawled away. There was no explosion. The shuttle simply lit fire and melted into the dirt. In a matter of seconds, it was an unrecognizable black puddle.
Finally, when it was good and melted like a tar soup, I looked up at where I was, past rows and rows of immature corn.
And met eyes with four farmers standing in the field not fifty feet from me. One sat atop a tractor. All of them stared at me, slack-jawed.
Gingerly, I reached up and released my helmet, probably for the last time.
I pulled myself to my feet with some difficulty, helmet under one arm, waving hesitantly with the other. “Uh, hi, guys. I’m from . . . NASA. Could somebody call them for me, maybe?”
Seventeen
TO BE HONEST, I don’t know how often Texas farmers find crashed astronauts in their cornfields. Maybe it was a common occurrence. The farmers didn’t seem nearly surprised enough to find a dirty, disheveled Indian teenager fall out of the sky. I was just thankful my suit had actual NASA logos on the shoulders, because those guys had shotguns in the back of their truck.
One of the farmers made a call while I sat in the kitchen, sipping from a sweating glass of lemonade while the others stared at me in gruff, disbelieving silence. I didn’t think it was wise to engage them in small talk, but I did smile a lot and thank them for their hospitality.
Within an hour I saw a black SUV pull up the gravel driveway.
I approached the car cautiously from the passenger’s side. The windows were tinted to an illegal opacity; I couldn’t see the driver.
Suddenly the front passenger’s-side door swung open, pushed from the inside.
Hanna was sitting in the driver’s seat, big sunglasses shielding her eyes, short blond hair falling over one side of her face. “Are you gonna get in or what? It won’t take Crane long to figure out I took his car, and I want to be far away when he does.”
Stunned, I climbed onto the leather seat, set my helmet on the floorboard, and shut the door. Hanna didn’t even wait for me to put on my seat belt before throwing the SUV in reverse.
“What is going on?” I demanded.
The SUV bounced over the gravel, rocking my abused bones and jostling my hand as I tried to latch my seat belt.
“You tell me,” she retorted, eyes on the road. “Crane sent some people to come pick you up. Lucky for you, I intercepted the call. Now do you want to tell me why the hell you’re calling Houston from some godforsaken cornfield in this backwoods hick town?”
“You don’t know? Then why are you here?”
She shot me a glance over her sunglasses as she turned onto the main road. “I saw you go into space, Cassandra Gupta. And now you’re back, alone, with no Odysseus, and a bounty on your head. Did you really meet aliens on Kepler-186f? Where is everyone else?”
“What the hell? Back up, back up.” I turned in my seat to face her, the seat belt cutting into my shoulder. “Did you just say a bounty?”
“Um, yes?” She shot me a look as though I was the unreasonable one. “They told us something was about to land on Earth, and it belonged to them, and whoever gave it back would be rewarded. And here you are.”
“Who is they?”
She made an exasperated sound, as though I was the one making no sense. She jabbed her finger toward the sky. “Not a week after you launched, a ship larger than anything we’d ever seen suddenly appeared in orbit. It completely snuck up on everyone’s sensors, and the world predictably freaked the fuck out. But it just sat there in the sky for days. A week later, it sent a message to Earth governments that it meant no harm, that it wanted to be friends with us, but that nothing should approach the ship or it would be shot down. We weren’t sure why the aliens had come here after sending us that message to meet them at Kepler-186f, but thought maybe this was a small envoy? Is that right? We send some of our people there, they sent some of their people here?”
I realized belatedly that she was waiting for a response, but I was still trying to make sense of everything she’d just said. “No, I don’t—what happened after the ship arrived? Have there been any attacks?”
Her eyebrows furrowed and she glanced at me. Her voice was skeptical, confused. “No. They’ve been good on their word so far—it’s done nothing but quietly orbit for months, occasionally sending messages, even gifts to show their goodwill to certain countries. People calmed down pretty quick after that. Things almost went back to normal. But a month ago, the ship disappeared without a trace, and now suddenly it’s back, and so are you. Your turn.”
I sank back into my seat, feeling all strength leaving my limbs. The vrag had been here for months. Everyone in the world now knew about the existence of aliens. As soon as the megobari had gone, the vrag had swooped in and made themselves look friendly. Sickness hollowed my gut.
Hanna merged onto the interstate, turned on self-driving mode, and faced me directly. “Now are you going to tell me where the hell you’ve been, how you got back, and why I risked my career to help you?”
I closed my eyes, unable to take everything in. The vrag had put a bounty on me—did that mean Luka hadn’t landed yet? Where was he?
Or maybe the vrag knew about the weapon? What was it that they’d seen fall to Earth?
Oh God, this was all wrong. Our plan was already falling apart.
She was waiting with dwindling patience, eyes lit with fanatical fire, for me to explain myself.
I had to tell her.
“Hanna. Those aliens in orbit now are called the vrag, and they’re not the ones who invited us to Kepler-186f. They’re the ones who destroyed it.”
Aside from a slight narrowing of her eyes, Hanna didn’t react. She was leaning forward on her knees, seat belt straining, hands clasped, one leg bouncing slightly in agitation.
So I told her everything—what happened when we landed, the megobari who’d sent us the message, and why.
Everything except the weapon we’d brought back.
She wasn’t as surprised as I had been to learn of Luka’s identity, but then Earth had already been rocked by the news that we weren’t alone in the universe months ago, and there was an orbiting alien ship to prove it.
“Damn it” was all she said. “So all along? The whole competition? They were involved every step of the way?”
“Yes. Luka’s one of the good guys. The megobari, not the vrag. The vrag attacked our ship without provocation—killed all our instructors from Project Adastra and the rest of Luka’s family. Luka and I barely escaped. The vrag are not what they’re pretending to be.” I groaned, closing my eyes and leaning back. Everything had gone fubar in an instant.
“What happened to the ship?” she asked.
“We had to leave the ship behind—it was too slow to get us back here in time.”
There was a grim set to her mouth. She didn’t
take it the way I’d expected. She just nodded once to herself and sat back in her seat. “If what you’re saying is true—and, seeing as the rest of the crew didn’t return with you, I guess it is—that might be the one thing that can convince Earth they’re being tricked. The major players have been falling all over themselves to get the aliens—the vrag—on their side.”
“But we don’t have proof that the vrag are actually the bad guys.” Not proof I could show anyone, at least. I mentally checked in with Sunny again, and she again responded in the negative. Still no breakthrough. “You said Crane was going to send someone to bring me back. Is that where we’re going?”
She gripped the steering wheel a moment, as if forgetting that she didn’t need to. “No. You don’t want to go back there. The bounty, remember? Crane wasn’t about to be chivalrous. He wants to turn you in. Or at least use you as a bargaining chip to get something from the vrag.”
Of course. I was a fugitive now.
Her eyes bored into the steering wheel as it made minor adjustments on its own, the autopilot keeping us on course. Before I could ask her what she was thinking, she asked her own question. “What happened to Luka?”
Everything inside me went dark. “Last I saw him, he was leading the vrag away from my escape pod,” I said quietly. “He swore to meet me back here. But I don’t know. The vrag go after the megobari ships like rabid dogs. I don’t—”
She cut me off with another question, then another, asking details about the megobari, what they’d looked like, what they wanted. I answered best I could, but my eyelids were growing heavy. I just wanted to shut my brain off.
“How did you get back?”
“We found another megobari ship, faster than Odysseus. But the vrag had beaten us back here and attacked us. I took an escape pod and landed in a field. And now you’re all caught up to the present moment.”
She didn’t react, didn’t emote at all. “So the aliens in orbit and the ones that sent us the message are different. You made contact with one, and we made contact with the other. They’re hell-bent on killing each other and they brought their war here. And we don’t know why the vrag are here now except maybe to spite the megobari. Does that about sum it up?”
“And more megobari are coming. We sent a distress signal to the few that remain.”
Her face was solemn, eyebrows slightly raised. “And you came back here to . . . warn us?”
I nodded, wanting to sleep, wanting to just stop being conscious for a while and wake up to a world that made sense.
“Cassie. You don’t understand. The aliens—the vrag—a few weeks ago, they sent a message saying that Earth was about to be invaded. That’s why they had come here; our only chance was to ally with them. And they were offering their alliance to the highest bidder. I didn’t understand at first. But now—Cass, they’re going to make Earth governments compete against each other. The gifts the vrag have been giving are incredible—they’ve solved soil pollution in China, heat crises in Canada, malaria in Africa, and invasive species in Australia. Heads of state are tripping over themselves trying to do the vrag’s bidding. They’ve been testing us, pitting us against each other. When the megobari get here . . .”
“Yeah. Earth will be more than willing to shoot them down.” I shook myself out of despair, trying to focus, to find forward momentum. I couldn’t stop yet. Luka was still up there risking his life for me to be here, to find a solution. But the problems were so complex—they involved the entire world. How could I possibly fix this?
Maybe I couldn’t. I wasn’t anybody. I wasn’t in charge. I had no platform.
But I had to try.
“Wait. You said you risked your career to come get me? Why would you do that?”
She shrugged, affecting nonchalance. “Look, whatever he was going to do to you—hand you over to the vrag, or keep you as a bargaining chip himself, or God knows what—I didn’t want to work for a man like that anyway. And besides. You saved me from him once. I don’t like owing favors.”
I went quiet a minute. Hanna was always surprising me. “So I assume you have a plan? Where are we going?”
At this, she gave me a reckless grin. “It depends on who answers their phone.”
She handed me her cell phone. “You can’t go home, obviously. They’d grab you at the airport. I can’t keep you at my place, because they’re probably already there. So we’re going to Houston. Call Mitsuko and tell her we’ll be there in a few hours.”
“Wait—no. I can’t. I have to meet Luka. We have a plan.”
She leveled her gaze at me, speaking slowly, as though she thought I wasn’t capable of understanding. “We can’t meet him in this car, Cass. I took out the GPS, but they’ll track the plate. We have to get the feds off our trail first. Understand?”
Sliding down in my seat, I held the phone against my ear, listening to it ring on the other end. And ring. And ring. A tingle of nerves vibrating through me. Who would pick up a call from a random number in the middle of the day?
But the very last ring was interrupted by a voice so achingly familiar I wanted to sob.
“Hello?” Mitsuko’s voice was unaffected by my anxiety, pleasant but tinged with the polite, cautious tone people use when they have no idea who’s on the other line.
“Mitsuko.” Her name rushed out of me in a sigh of relief. “It’s me.” And then I realized it’d been six months, and there was a very real possibility she would have no idea whose voice was speaking. “It’s Cass—Cassandra. Gupta. From the . . . from . . .”
“Cass?” There was a stunned silence on the other end where I imagined her looking back at the caller ID on her phone in confusion. “Are you okay? Where are you? Are you back? Was the mission scrubbed? Why are you calling from a Dallas area code?”
A strangled laugh escaped me, relief and anxiety together. “Uh, it’s a very long story. But here’s the thing. I just got back. I’m on my way to Houston. I . . . I need your help.” Hanna nodded encouragingly, gesturing me to continue. I stammered, wondered how much detail to give away over the phone, how much detail she could handle. “Hanna’s with me and we need a place to crash. Are you . . . can we . . . ?”
Silence on the other end. I held my breath. This was stupid. Who would agree to—
“Of course, Cass. And you’re with Hanna? Oh Lord, I am dying to hear this story. Wait, Emilio will want to see you! Should I call him? Do you need food? Should I go shopping? Also, did you know there’s a giant-ass spaceship orbiting Earth?”
I laughed in sheer exhaustion and relief. Told her yes to all of that, told her she was amazing, thanked her, promised to tell her everything when I saw her, and we hung up.
I looked down at the phone in my hand. At the date. June 30. I’d missed my high school graduation. Everybody in my class had gone on without me.
I wondered if I should call my parents.
Hanna reached out, palm up, waiting for her phone. I hesitated and she shot me a look. “No more calls,” she said. “Crane will probably pull up my phone records—though it’ll take some time—and we’re already leaving quite a trail. You’ll only put them on Crane’s radar if you call right now. And don’t plan on staying at Mitsuko’s long—they’ll come looking for you there next. Her husband’s FBI, but I don’t think it’ll help us.” I put the phone in her hand and she tucked it back into her pocket. “And now we need another plan, because this is as far as I got.”
Thinking of the coordinates to the safe house and the weapon hiding itself somewhere nearby, I nodded. “I have one. I just hope it’s good enough.”
Eighteen
“SO, OKAY, YOU’VE missed a lot.” Hanna manipulated the car’s console until videos and text filled the black windows.
She caught me up on what had been happening on Earth in my absence. All news channels were now dominated by round-the-clock coverage of said giant-ass alien spaceship orbiting Earth. The world had been holding its breath for six months, dangling on the precipice of war.
Constant surveillance of the vrag ship had apparently gleaned humanity very little. Radar bounced off its angles; heat sensors were blocked. The only reason we saw them now was because they wanted us to see them. Giant as it was, the ship had hidden itself easily from our detection methods on approach. No one had seen it coming.
Only now that it orbited Earth among our very own cloud of satellites was it able to be consistently observed. And yet we knew nothing.
Anything that had approached the ship—from unmanned spy drones to space trash—had been destroyed. But they had made no threats. Hanna had told me the truth. The vrag had foretold of a coming alien invasion, and now had every major world power vying for the rights to ally with them. They’d already started the smear campaign against the megobari, and their protection was being offered to any nation that promised allegiance. And, presumably, that help wasn’t going to be offered for free.
It was just that easy. The vrag had pitted us against each other. Made us forget that our first allegiance was to the human race, not money or power.
The only way humanity had a chance was by presenting a united front. But we were too easily fractured. They’d found our weaknesses, the long-standing divisions and rivalries between peoples, and stepped in. The vrag were going to seep into those cracks like water and freeze, forcing us all farther apart.
The news mentioned that the vrag ship had, without warning, disappeared for about a month, and had only reappeared within the past few days.
I closed my eyes as Hanna illuminated the details, and let the pieces organize themselves in my mind. The vrag must have been keeping a closer eye on the megobari than they knew since they arrived as soon as the megobari had gone. But why were they here? If they wanted to invade, they’d had ample time and opportunity while the megobari had been away. But they hadn’t left their ship.
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