Defy the Worlds (Defy the Stars #2)(37)

The emergency lockers are hard to spot at first: Normally they’d be painted a bright yellow or orange, but here they’re a sedate gold that matches the pseudo-Egyptian decor. Noemi stoops by the first locker, cracks it open, and pulls out three blasters. She tosses the other two to people nearby—Delphine and Vinh. Dr. Shearer just keeps running, leaving the rest of them to catch up.

“I’ve never fired a real blaster!” Delphine says between gulped-in breaths. Obviously she’s not used to running this fast. She is fast, though; her white caftan flutters around as if she were caught in a strong breeze. “Is it like in games? Because I’m pretty good at games.”

“Of course it’s like games!” huffs Vinh. “What’s the point of firing simulators if they don’t simulate firing?”

On Genesis, war games are only for the literal practice of warfare. What must it be like, to shoot at human figures and think of it only as play?

The comms crackle, and a different voice comes over the speaker. “This is Captain Fouda,” he says, “of Remedy. The Osiris is ours. Surrender yourselves at the main docking bay, or consider your lives forfeit.”

People begin to shriek and cry, but Gillian yells, “This doesn’t change anything! Keep going!”

Noemi expects half the group to ignore her and turn themselves in, but instead they keep running after Gillian. Either they have more gumption than she thought, or they’re too scared to do anything but follow their leader.

It’s harder to tell while she’s running, but it seems to Noemi that Gillian’s taking them farther from the engine room, not closer. That would’ve been her call: Take down primary engines and wait for Remedy to come begging for help. But there are other valid targets, like food storage or water systems. She just keeps looking out for lockers—which are few—and distributing the handful of weapons they’re able to muster.

The vibration of the engines suggests that the Osiris is definitely on the move, at what feels like full speed. Where is Remedy taking them?

Gillian leads them all into an enormous room lit only by the alert sirens. Noemi lets her blaster drop to her side as she squints to make out the various shapes. They’re surrounded by walls of tanks. At first she thinks this must be the water supply—a solid target—but then she realizes most of the tanks are filled with opaque pink goop. Within them she can see vague dark forms, bobbing slightly, waiting to be born.

“You led us to the mech chambers?” Noemi says. “How does that help?”

“The mechs can fight,” Delphine offers.

Noemi shakes her head. “Not until they’re finished, which could be hours or days from now. How does this help us?”

“This is the most important area on the ship,” Gillian says evenly. “This is the area we need to hold.”

The passengers seem unwilling to argue that point—except for Vinh, who remains prepared to argue about anything. “We were told there would be top-level security! But our departure date is moved up because of the ‘threat of discovery,’ and we still get attacked by terrorists? I demand at least a fifty percent refund.”

The other passengers launch into similar complaints. Maybe they’re distracting themselves from their fear; maybe they really think they’re safe now. Either way, Noemi can’t take any more of it.

The far wall of this chamber is next to the outer hull. A few plasma windows reveal the stars outside, so she at least has a view. The sight of the stars might give her some peace.

Instead she sees a smaller scout vessel gliding alongside—a Remedy ship, no doubt—and in the far distance…

“What the hell?” she whispers.

The silvery ring ahead of them, only a few moments away—that’s a Gate.

This Gate isn’t as polished as the others. Not as perfect. Long sections reveal its inner workings, as jumbled and ugly as the entrails of a living thing. Still, there’s no mistaking it for anything else.

But the Osiris is nowhere near the Earth Gate to Stronghold. Nor has this ship had time to travel all the way back to the Genesis Gate, even if they’d accelerated to overdrive, which Noemi doesn’t think they did.

This is another Gate. A secret Gate. A shortcut across the galaxy to… where?

The Osiris hits the Gate’s horizon, and light fractures around Noemi as they pass through to a destination unknown.





14



“WELL, IF IT ISN’T MY BELOVED COUSIN ABEL BACK ONCE more! It’s so wonderful to see you again so—oh, crap. What’s wrong?”

He stands in the geometrical white-and-orange dock on Cray, staring at Virginia Redbird, unable to find any words.

It would seem that having more emotions within would lead to having more to say, since there is naturally more to discuss. But now Abel knows it doesn’t work that way. Emotions don’t take turns; they crowd in together. His different feelings blot each other out, like writing words atop other words in ink, until nothing’s legible any longer. What remains is a darkness that says nothing and contains everything.

Virginia comes closer and puts her hands on Abel’s shoulders. “Abel?” she whispers. “What happened with Noemi?”

“I don’t know,” he manages to say. “Let’s go back to your lab. We have some data to analyze.”