Aurora Burning (The Aurora Cycle #2)(9)

“Silent mode,” we chorus, and it’s enough to raise a ghost of a smile all around.

Fin shakes his head. “I know those old model unis were a little buggy, but that thing really wins the prize.”

“Yeah,” Tyler sighs. “It was never the same after Scar installed that persona beta off DealNet.”

Kal blinks at Scarlett. “You accessed upgrades for your uniglass from a shopping channel?”

“No,” Tyler says. “She accessed upgrades for my uniglass from a shopping channel.”

“It came with a free handbag.” Scar shrugs. “And it was your old unit anyway, you baby.”

Tyler rolls his eyes and changes the subject. “How’s the exosuit, Fin?”

“Fine,” he says.

“This summation is incorrect,” Zila says almost immediately. “Fin’s suit took significant damage on Octavia III and is still in need of serious repair. Further, Finian himself requires time in low or zero gravity to rest and recover. He has pushed his body several days past his usual limits.”

Fin’s got his mouth open by the time she’s halfway through her speech, but nothing’s coming out. Finally, he manages to speak through gritted teeth.

“I’m fine. I can handle it. And maybe you should mind your own business.”

Though it’s sometimes a little hard to read his expression through those black contact lenses he wears, there’s no mistaking the death glare Fin is shooting Zila right now. Our squad’s Brain studies our Gearhead for a long moment, then turns to Tyler, her face as blank as ever. But there’s something in the way she blinks and tugs at her dangly gold earring—today’s are shaped like gremps—that’s a little less bulletproof than it used to be.

I mean, we’re all a little less bulletproof than we used to be. But for Zila, this hint of a thaw has to be unnerving.

“I am the team science officer and medic,” she says, addressing Ty directly. “It is appropriate for me to report to my Alpha on the condition of team members.”

“It’s okay,” says Ty, gentle. “Thanks, Zila.”

Finian, however, seems to be completely ignoring Zila’s advice for bed rest. He yanks a tool from her hand, takes a slurp of his prepackaged meal, and gets to work on his suit again without another word. After a glance at Ty, Scarlett rises from beside me, settles down beside Fin.

“If you get Just Like Real TacosTM in your circuits, that stuff’s never coming out,” she informs him softly.

“I need to fix this,” he insists around his mouthful.

“Give it a moment, Fin.” Scarlett puts her hand over his. “Eat. Breathe.”

He meets her eyes for a second, somehow chewing and pouting at the same time. But a hint of tension goes out of his shoulders as he swallows, as if he’s conceding something other than the possibility of frying his suit.

“Yeah, okay,” he sighs.

We all fall quiet for a little, finishing our meals. I’m concentrating on getting food into my mouth, and leaning against Kal’s shoulder where he sits against the headboard with me. Sore as I am, I’m aware of every tiny shift, of each of his breaths. He spent so much time avoiding touching me after we first met, restraining any hint of the Pull he’s feeling, that when he allows himself the luxury now, it sends sparks through me. That he gives me this, when he’s still so careful around everyone else … I know it’s not the place for it.

But I find myself wanting more.

“All right, we need to take stock,” Tyler says once dinner is over. “Kal, see if you can find any mentions of us on the local feeds. We need to know how deep we’re in it. Zila, Scar, take inventory. Fin, find out what happened to the Longbow.”

“It was not looking its best,” Kal says, glancing at me with something like awe. “Once Aurora was done with it.”

“I know,” Ty nods. “But if there’s no way to salvage it, we’re gonna need another way out of this hole.”

Fin wipes his hands, pulls out his uniglass, and begins hacking the station net. Kal switches on the holoscreen, flicking through newscast channels to see if we’re making any guest appearances. Zila and Scarlett methodically begin going through our bags, categorizing everything we got out of the Longbow into personal property, group property, and stuff we can sell. I see Zila has salvaged the two GIA uniforms we stole aboard Sempiternity, and I catch a glimpse of myself in one of those blank, reflective masks. White streak in my bangs, white iris in my right eye. The girl who looks back at me in the mirror still sometimes feels like a stranger.

I see the exact moment Scarlett pulls Cat’s stuffed dragon, Shamrock, out of Fin’s satchel. She glances over her shoulder at Tyler, eyes shining with tears, then leans across to hand him the toy. He gently wraps his hands around it as if it’s infinitely precious, pressing it against his chest. Then he looks across at Fin, who’s watching him. Fin, who must have hurried up to the pilot’s chair when he should have been leaving the Longbow to grab this last piece of Cat.

The Betraskan just nods, and turns back to his uniglass.

Though this squad is the closest thing to a family I have now, I still feel like a fish out of water around them. It’s moments like these that I’m reminded how far from home I am, how far out of time. Two hundred years passed in the blink of an eye while I was lost in cryo. For me, it’s only been a couple of weeks since I boarded the Hadfield, setting out for a new life on Octavia. But now everything I know is gone, and everyone I love is gone right along with it.