Aurora's End (The Aurora Cycle #3)(47)

Aurora nods, hurt in her eyes. “I understand. And if you need me …” She looks to Lae, shrugging. “With the drive … I mean, if you need power to move us, maybe I can help.”

Lae glances toward the Neridaa—that massive vessel moved here by the power of Aurora’s will alone. She nods curtly. “I will accept your aid.”

“All right,” Tyler says. “Dacca, Toshh, get those refugees situated. Elin, I want us to stay on Alert Two in case more Weeds show up. An hour isn’t too long to stay in one place, but soon as we can, we jump for home.”

“Sir, yessir,” comes the reply.

“Let’s move like we got a purpose.”

The crew breaks up, heading off to their assigned tasks. With a soft smile to me, Aurora leaves with Lae to inspect the drive. Tyler and I are left alone, staring at each other across the table. There is much to be said between us, but I am unsure if this is the place or indeed if he would listen. So instead, I ask the question burning in my mind.

“Where is home in a galaxy like this, Brother?”

He looks to the window, that red sun, those silent worlds. I allow myself the smallest hint of hope that he has not yet denied me the use of that title. “You’ve been there before, actually.”

“… Aurora Academy?”

“No,” he sighs. “Ra’haam agents destroyed it during the attack on the Galactic Caucus. And the station moved too slow, anyway.” He looks at me, faint horror in his eye. “It … listens, Kal. It’s so big now, it can hear everything. Hole up on a planet, it’ll find you sooner or later. Hide inside a fleet, eventually it’ll sniff you out like those poor bastards downstairs.”

I shake my head. “Where is safe, then?”

Tyler shrugs faintly. “If there’s no world you can call home, no ship that’s safe to hide inside, well, you just use both.”

I blink, putting the puzzle together in my head.

“Sempiternity,” I smile.





15



SCARLETT





My guidance counselor once told me that the words “if she only applied herself” had appeared more on my assessment transcripts than on any cadet’s in Aurora Academy history. And I’m almost certain this wasn’t what he meant when he told me, “Practice makes perfect, Cadet Jones.” But I’ve died thirty-seven times so far today, and it turns out I’m pretty talented at it.

It sounds weird, I know. Maybe even a little insane. But as strange and morbid as it might be, I’m beginning to suspect the biggest reason people are afraid of dying is because they don’t know what happens afterward.

Zila, Finian, Nari, and I all know what happens. To us, at least. And it’s somehow getting harder to be afraid when you know what’s coming.

Black light.

White noise.

A moment of vertigo.

And then I’m standing in front of Finian again, back aboard our shuttle, with Lieutenant Nari Kim’s fighter waiting just outside in the dark.

The fear didn’t disappear right away. And at first, the strangeness of it all was so heavy that I wondered for a little while if I wouldn’t rather just stay dead. There was something wrong about it. Unnatural, even. But like I say, I’ve always been a glass-half-full kind of girl. And once the fear disappears, I gotta tell you … this immortality thing is almost amazing.

So here we are, on another attempt to access Dr. Pinkerton’s office. Attempt #37, to be precise, to discover the secret of what the hells is going on inside this facility. Lemme take you through it all real quick.

First, we’ve discovered we have to access the admin levels through the elevator shafts, not the emergency stairs like Lieutenant Kim first told us. Stairwell A leads to the unshielded part of the structure, and we’ve already seen what happens when that quantum pulse hits the station and we’re all just standing there looking gorgeous.

ZAAAAPPPP.

You might be wondering why we don’t wait till the pulse hits and head up afterward. Excellent question. Sadly, we tried that already, and discovered when we loitered too long on the lower level, security found us, not once, not twice, but three times straight.

BLAM.

BLAM.

BLAM.

Turns out even with the damage to the station, some of the camera feeds are still operational. Who would’ve guessed the SecBoys in a covert black-ops military installation would take the presence of saboteurs so seriously? I thought getting punched in the ta-tas hurt. Let me assure you getting shot in them is a lot worse.

BLAMBLAM.

We decided to try our luck with Stairwell B next, and on our maiden voyage, an entirely new piece of strangeness was added to the mix. You see, on the way to meet us, good Lieutenant Kim decided to take a different route to shave a few minutes off her trip. She entered Corridor 16B, Level 6, at the precise moment a bulkhead failed and vented the corridor’s atmo into space.

HISSSSHHHHHH.

THUMP.

And even though Zila, Fin, and I were still crawling through waste disposal at the time, suddenly—black light, white noise, vertigo—I’m standing back aboard our shuttle, looking into Fin’s big, pretty eyes again.

That was the final confirmation of my theory. Somehow, the four of us are locked in this thing together. Doesn’t matter how, doesn’t matter who—if even one of us gets taken out of the loop, the whole thing resets.