by Jessica Gunn
“You’re a super soldier, not a monster,” she said. “Those are two very different things. You’re fighting your genetically engineered instincts, Chelsea. I don’t know that you shooting him without hesitation was so much you doing what he said to do. I think it was your instincts telling you to dispose of a Lemurian.”
Rage lit a fire in my gut. My gaze snapped to hers. “No. No—I know what that feels like, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve reined in my super soldier half. I love Trevor. I’d never let her take that away from me.”
Sophia relented and lifted her hands in front of her. “Okay.”
“Don’t ‘okay’ me like you’re afraid to go down this road. You put us here,” I said.
“I know and I’m sorry.”
I sighed. “It’s okay. I’m sorry, too.”
More silence passed us in long beats.
“He loves you, you know. Always has in spite of everything,” she said.
I nodded and tried not to let my focus slip to the ring around my finger. “I know.”
“Have you talked about it since he and Valerie returned your memories?”
I swore sometimes that Sophia might actually have been telepathic. “Not really. There hasn’t been much time. Because of Abby and everything.”
She pursed her lips. “Excuses.”
I rolled my eyes and looked away. “I know. Okay, fine, you win.” I hopped off the table. “I’ll talk to him about this. But you need to promise me something in return.”
“What’s that?”
“That you’re in this one hundred percent,” I said, pausing by her side. “I know how you feel about going against orders and oaths. I know you don’t want to detonate either ship. And I also know you think this plan will result in all of our deaths.”
Beats passed us by in silence before Sophia lifted her gaze to mine, a mask of deadly seriousness over her eyes. “I’m in it, Chelsea,” she said firmly. “Trust me.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
TREVOR
I was watching the sun rise through my window when the knock came. Abby had always liked sunsets the best because the fireflies were never far behind. But the sun had set on her death and now it was morning, and there wouldn’t be fireflies for hours. I still couldn’t believe she was gone, that despite everything she’d lived through, this war had killed her after all I’d done to keep that from happening.
Guess you couldn’t always protect everyone all the time. It was the hardest lesson I’d had to learn. And with the final battle approaching, I wasn’t sure I was done learning it. I feared what fate had in store for us tomorrow. I feared for Chelsea and Valerie more than for my own life.
“It’s open,” I called.
The door opened and Chelsea stepped into the room. “Can I come in?”
I smiled. I didn’t have much to be happy about right now, but that Chelsea was still here was good enough. She smiled back and it was like everything was right with the world, even if only for a moment. Hope seared my heart at the thought that she was here with me, for the good or bad of however this played out. I had to admit: at the end of the world, there’s no one I’d rather be with.
Except maybe Abby.
I waved her in. “Yeah.”
She entered and shut the door behind her. Her right hand found her left and she fiddled with something there. The ring. “I, uh, just wanted to talk. And I know this is a sucky-ass time to do this. I do. But I’m afraid our time is running short.”
My stomach dropped. She was going to give back the ring. She thought her ring was for the plan and that was it. “Chelsea—”
She raised a hand. “No, please. Let me speak.”
I steeled myself for whatever was about to come out of her mouth. She’d already broken me once. I was reasonably sure I could endure it again. I’d endure anything for her.
I’d already lived through the worst.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I…” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry about Abby. I should have been there to keep her from being kidnapped in the first place.”
My heart snapped again on the mention of Abby’s name. “That’s not your fault, Chelsea. Please don’t take that on.”
“But—”
I swiped my hand through the air. “No.” If Abby’s death fell onto anyone’s shoulders, it’d be mine, and mine alone.
Chelsea fiddled with the ring again, and then held it up between us like a wall. “Okay. Then something else.”
I gulped. “What?”
“I’ve just… Okay. It’s stupid. Especially right now with… But like, I know me shooting you dead was fake. And I know now that all the other things that happened—horrible things—were an extension of a plan we both agreed on.” A sob wracked her body, but she suffocated it with another deep breath. “But they still happened. I can’t take a bath, Trevor. It sounds dumb, but it’s true. I get my head under water in a bath or a pool and I freak out as if I’m drowning again.”
This was it. This was the end of us. But all I could think about was wanting to help her through it. “Chelsea…”
“I can’t look at you and not think this is a dream. That you’re not actually here.” Her eyes welled up and she dropped her left hand to her side. “After everything we’ve been through, everything, I can’t help but think that even if we win against the General, I’m going to wake up and you’re going to be gone, or dead, or that we’re simply not going to be together. And I can’t do that again, Trevor. I can’t. I need you in my life.” The tears in her eyes spilled forward, careening down her cheeks. “You’re my everything. I love you. But I’m so scared of what is going to happen next. Especially after Abby.”
I raced across the space between us and cupped her face with my palms. “I’m here, Chelsea. I promise you I’m alive and I’m not going anywhere. I will never leave you again.” I brushed away her tears with my thumbs. “That ring means something, Chelsea. It wasn’t just to aid with your memories. I love you, I want to start a life with you. When this is over, it’s just us and that’s it. You and me.” If this ever ended. If we both survived the final fight.
“It’s always been you and me,” she said.
I nodded. “Exactly.”
Her gaze fell to my lips and I brought them down to meet hers. Our mouths crashed together in a slow, intense dance in which I tried to convey every feeling I’d ever had for her. She responded in kind, wrapping her arms around my neck and slanting her mouth to deepen the kiss.
After tantalizing moments, I pulled back and held up her left hand between us. “I feel like I have to do this.”
Her eyebrows furrowed together. “Interrupt the best kiss ever in the history of kisses?”
“No,” I said, grinning. “Chelsea Danning, will you marry me? No side agendas this time?”
“Well, I did have this one plan—”
I covered her mouth with mine and kissed her until we were both breathless. Then I withdrew again. “Will you marry me?”
Her eyes fluttered open, her mouth parted. “Yes, Trevor. Obviously. Always.”
“Good.” I kissed her fingers and the ring.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
JOSH
My work tablet pinged with another repair request. I hadn’t necessarily been trained as an engineer, but falling into the rhythm of the new Atlas had been easy enough. A good portion of the ship had been destroyed four months ago during the attack on Pearl. But the Navy had made repairs a top priority since then, amplified by TAO losing its base. The same day I’d lost Chelsea for good. She must have been following the rules of her banishment.
I swiped open the list of tasks for today and examined my new job. Some kind of short circuit on the science decks. Swinging the tablet onto my back, I exited engineering and made my way to the stairs.
A year ago, I was pretty sure Captain Marks and Admiral Dennett would have laughed at my request to join either crew. But with TAO out of commission, they needed Atlas back up an
d running as soon as possible and, quite frankly, they were running out of engineers whom they already knew and even remotely trusted. Trevor and Valerie were gone. Others had been lost in the attack on Pearl.
I cleared my throat and my head from my thoughts and went about my day. First the short circuit on the science decks, then some more extensive work around the Link Piece drive with the others. It always seemed to be that way—either long lists of easy jobs, done before noon, or longer jobs that took two days or more to complete.
I grabbed a round of coffees for the team and settled in for the long haul. The moment I made it onto the busy science deck, filled with scientists hurrying back and forth, my radio pinged. I switched it on. “Turner.”
“We need you back here straight away.”
“I was just there.” As soon as I plugged my tablet into a port on Science Deck 3, I saw the problem. Some rogue electromagnetic field had formed around some of the lab chamber sensors. Weird. But fixable. I depressed the TALK button on my radio and spoke into it softly, so as to not disturb the scientists behind me. “Be right back. Simple fix.”
The frequency crackled. “No good. Need you now.” The sound squeezed and shrilled like a bad amp at a rock show.
I cupped my hand around the speaker and looked behind me. “Sorry about that, guys—”
All the scientists were gone. They’d been there a second ago.
“I’ll be right there,” I said to the radio, which still squealed. No one responded through the din.
I backed out of the corner I’d set myself up in and headed for the hallway. No one was there, either. Not a single officer or scientist or lab technician. What in the? Had I missed a drill sound because of the EMF field? No—they couldn’t do that. Shaking off the confusion, I continued on my way, opting for taking the Lift this time for quicker passage to Engineering. Not a single person surfaced until I got back to the office. Three engineers stood in a circle inside with pale, stricken faces.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“The whole Bridge staff is missing,” Chief George said. “Can’t contact anyone on the Life Support deck, either.”
“I was just on the Bridge,” another engineer said. “I don’t understand where they all went so quickly.”
I nodded and held up my tablet. “Was fixing something on the Science Decks. One minute the deck is a mad house and the next—”
Blue, glowing water droplets swallowed Chief George and he disappeared. A shower of fire appeared and for a brief moment I thought I saw Valerie inside them before she reached out for both me and the other engineer. A flash of red and a stomach roil later, we stood in a huge, glass-domed roof room with the entire staff of Atlas.
Valerie stepped out of the fire and ran across the space. My gaze followed her, followed quickly by my feet.
“Hey!” I shouted. “Valerie!”
She only paused long enough to shoot a look at me over her shoulder before disappearing again.
I froze and looked around. The palm trees visible outside and the bright, shining sun suggested Hawaii, but—no, we could literally be anywhere.
Captain Tessa Marks appeared beside me in wave of blue. Her eyes narrowed, neither of us able to glimpse the figure inside, although I was starting to form a very not-awesome picture.
“Turner,” she said.
I nodded. “Captain.”
“What is—?”
“No idea, but I saw Valerie,” I said. “She and someone else, an Atlantean, are teleporting the crew off of Atlas.” But why? And who was the Atlantean with her? My heart skipped of its own accord—not in a romantic way, but of surprise. Of fear. “It might have been Chelsea.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Why would they bring everyone here? This is Pearl. We’re in the new Naval Center.”
“I don’t know.” I rushed to a trash can, toppled it, and stood on top. “Next time one of them appears, I’ll join them.”
“Don’t—that’s an order.”
I looked down at her. “Why? They’re doing something with Atlas, something big enough that Chelsea resurfaced. Valerie must have tracked her down after all these months. Dammit.”
Why are you doing this, Chelsea? What are you planning?
All things considered, things had been quiet since Trevor had been killed and General Allen had used the Lifestone to make himself immortal. Whatever his plan had been, the part including us must have ended when Trevor’s life had. But the fact that General Allen hadn’t bothered us at all didn’t bode well for whomever his real target was.
Four more clusters of waterfall lights appeared throughout the room, depositing groups of confused and shocked crew members. Chelsea’s teleport was the closest—a jumpable distance. I crouched, ready to move, and waited.
“Turner!” Captain Tessa Marks shouted. “Don’t you dare!”
Another shower of blue lights. Captain Marks and Commander Devins appeared inside of them this time. People from SeaSat5 were being teleported here, too?
She could court martial me if she wanted, I didn’t care. Finding out what was happening was way more important than the future of my already-shaky military career. Right when Chelsea’s form started to get lost in blue lights, I pounced, grabbing on to her middle and falling with her through the teleport. She yelped in surprise.
We tumbled when we landed on the other side, back on Atlas’s Bridge. I came up first, ready to fight, but she just looked on at me completely shocked.
“You idiot,” she said. “Do you have any idea how close you came to being lost in the time void?”
“Worth it to find out what’s happening.” I pointed around us as Valerie and Charlie appeared, followed by other Atlanteans—who were only identifiable by their waterfall teleports. Then someone came running onto the Bridge, engineering tablet in tow.
Someone who should have been dead.
My head spun, but I wouldn’t let it show.
“I got it,” Trevor shouted. “We’re good! Let’s go!” He lifted his head and he froze in his tracks when his eyes met mine. “Oh, shit.”
My hand was on my pistol before he’d finished speaking, my fingers curling around the trigger. Chelsea sidestepped to stand in the way, hands in the air. Not in defense, I realized, but in preparation to pluck the bullet out of the air. She’d gotten her powers back somehow.
“Stand down or I’ll attack,” she said, venom in her voice. “I know how this looks, but I swear to god we’re trying to end this war.”
My gaze didn’t waver. Neither did my trigger finger. “Give me one good reason.”
“I can teleport you out of here before you can get off the shot,” came Valerie’s voice from behind me. The sound of a fire crackling—probably in her hand—filled my ears. As did the clicking off of safeties from weapons.
“What are you doing?” I asked Chelsea.
“Commandeering Atlas and SeaSat5,” she answered.
“Chelsea!” Valerie hissed.
“What? Nothing they can do about it.” Chelsea’s eyes pleaded for understanding. I wasn’t sure I could give it. Trevor was supposed to be dead. She was supposed to never come here again. No one had known where Valerie had gone. “Please, Josh. Let this happen. If we survive this, I’ll explain everything.”
“Survive?” I asked, taking a step forward. “Survive what?”
“If we don’t, it won’t matter,” she continued, ignoring my question. “None of this will.”
Before I could ask anything again, Valerie’s hand closed around my shoulder and I was dumped in the room with the others on Hawaii.
Chapter Forty
VALERIE
“SeaSat5 secure,” came Charlie’s voice over the ship-wide station. “The soldiers have taken up Bridge stations and are ready for your orders.”
I looked up at Chelsea and Trevor. “You got things here? They’re ready.”
Chelsea nodded. “Yeah. Once we get out of Pearl and into open water, let’s cloak both ships.”
“I
’ll have the sonar and other tracking abilities dampened by then,” said Trevor. “I’m running into some resistance—they’ve changed things since we’ve last been on board.”
I pursed my lips. “I’m not surprised. Need help?”
“No,” he said. “Get to SeaSat5 and be ready to move. I just need a few more minutes.” He walked off, head in his tablet.
I locked gazes with Chelsea and she stuck out her hand. “Good luck.”
I wanted to laugh at her gesture. To think that we’d be here after where we’d been when we’d first met was pretty hilarious. To think that all of this would end the same way it had begun, by stealing SeaSat5 from the military, was even funnier. I stuck my hand in hers and shook it. “You too.”
SeaSat5’s Bridge had only been this empty half a dozen times that I’d been aware of: during restock while the crew was on leave, during construction, and when I’d helped hijack SeaSat5 all those years ago. Now, just Weyland, Sophia, and I—and half a dozen Atlantean super soldiers—stood on the metal grating, manning the important Bridge stations.
With engines pressed to full, we’d be at the Atlantean outpost in the Sargasso Sea a little after Atlas—well, if our plan didn’t work. With every moment that passed, I grew more inclined to believe it wouldn’t. For one thing, SeaSat5 hadn’t been outfitted with a Link Piece drive. So even if Chelsea and Charlie and their contingent of super soldiers could get this to work, SeaSat5’s lesser model might keep Sophia and Weyland from replicating it here.
I gulped, fingers restless. I smoothed out my hair, my pants, and finally gripped the railing around the command center so hard, my fingers left indents. When I couldn’t stand it, I told Weyland to call up Atlas. “Ready?”