Honor Among Thieves (The Honors #1)(51)

“I should be. But I’m not, really. So much has happened. I can’t believe that in a few hours, we’ll be . . . gone.”

“Freedom.” His voice had gone low and quiet and warm, and it felt like a blanket wrapping around me. “Except it isn’t freedom, Zara, only the illusion of it. We will still be required to do our duties on the Tour. And we aren’t free to go anywhere we like.”

“You’re bored,” I said.

“Am I?” He sounded taken aback. “I don’t see how that could be true.”

There was some subtext I didn’t quite grasp, but I pursued another line of inquiry instead of drilling for more. “You told me that you hear the stars,” I reminded him. “It must be hard to resist heading out there. I heard it . . . when you dreamed.”

“I don’t . . . !” His denial trailed off, possibly as he recalled telling us that he’d had what we’d call a bad dream.

I sipped my coffee. “Am I bothering you?”

“Nothing about you bothers me,” he said. “Even when you’re angry. I like the way you shine when you’re angry.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “Shine? I do not!”

“Burn, then. Is that better?”

“Whatever.” For some reason, I blushed, an actual hot flush that traveled up my neck into my face. With my free hand, I touched my cheek, more or less in disbelief, because I once watched a couple from my old Lower Eight crew go at it up against a wall without even blinking. Yep. What is wrong with me?

The blush intensified, and suddenly it was hard to breathe. My fingers flexed on the wall, and then I felt the pulse of his life force. I went lightheaded, because it seemed like I was drinking Nadim through my skin cells.

I pulled away. Sipped more coffee. Tried to slow my breathing.

“I’m sorry. This is different than . . . anything I have known. Beatriz—she fits here with me. But not the way you do.”

I knew what he meant, and that filled me with equal measures of fear and delight. It was blowing my mind that in such a short time, we’d be out of the Sol system. Sayonara, ISS. Bye-bye, Moonbase Alpha. Farewell, Mars Colony Roma. In what world did two teenage girls get to go joyriding on a sentient ship? A future so strange I couldn’t have imagined it.

We’re a team. And in an odd sort of way, Bea and Nadim had already become family. I would fight anybody who tried to hurt them or take them away from me.

Including Elder Typhon.

Nadim might believe his elders wouldn’t do anything shady; I had no such illusions. And maybe my chary nature could save us when the shit hit the fan.





PART III





From //darknet, TRUTHSEEKERS forum, subbed: “True Symbionts: The Real Reason Leviathan Seek Us Out by Ingmar Str?m”

*WARNING, CONTENT CREATED by individuals is not validated or endorsed by TRUTHSEEKERS or //darknet*

Over the years, people have attempted basic explanations. The Leviathan seek companions for their travels; they are sentient and feel loneliness. But the truth is never so simple.

Per compelling data compiled by leading scientist Hermann L. Schulz [null citation], they have a pattern. They seek out civilizations on the verge of annihilation and offer aid. Those who accept flourish. The ones who do not often perish. However, there is no proof to substantiate fringe claims that the Leviathan herald or precipitate extinction-level events.

Based on my evaluation of Dr. Schulz’s work, I offer the following thesis regarding human and Leviathan interdependence. Consider the existence of the wax worm. It lives within a bee colony, tunneling, which protects the larva, while it eats wax, pollen, honey, and excrement. This keeps the colony clean while the bees hide the worms from predators. This is an example of a beneficial parasite.

We are the wax worms. They are the colony.

Further exploration into the Daedalean mystery as to why the Leviathan truly seek human allies reveals an interesting secret. In the course of my research, I discovered the memoirs of Moriah Krull, an early Honors selection. Most of her story has been suppressed, but I acquired a copy from the underweb, and what I learned . . . brace yourselves.

Humanity is not the first. Other sentient life forms have traveled with the Leviathan. But what became of them? How did we replace them? And why?

To find out, order my book, True Symbionts: The Real Reason Leviathan Seek Us Out.

[purchase information redacted, TRUTHSEEKER mod warning: DO NOT USE THIS FORUM FOR SELF-PROMOTION]





CHAPTER ELEVEN


Breaking Molds


I DIDN’T SLEEP. I was still up, staring out at the rotating Earth below, when Beatriz came out to join me. She looked wrecked, so I made coffee the way she liked it, Brazilian style, and she drank it curled on the couch next to me.

I’d expected some big send-off, fanfare, something like that. Instead, Nadim just said, “We’re leaving.”

And then, the Earth slowly turned out of sight, behind us. Bea whispered, “Nadim? Can you make the viewport larger please? I’d—I’d like to watch until it’s gone.”

He made the entire wall transparent. Beatriz sucked in a breath, then let it slowly out and nodded. Her eyes found and fixed on the Earth, and the only sign of her distress was the paleness of her knuckles as she gripped her coffee cup.