––––––––
“I’m coming with you,” Tauren ordered as we packed our bags for the trip.
I shook my head. Even on the wrong side of the laser, he tried to boss us around.
“And I’m King of the Universe.” Leo strutted back and forth in front of him, holding his weapon. I could tell my brother was enjoying this. “Lyra’s the Pop Rock Queen of the New Dawn.”
I smiled. “Thanks, Leo. It’s what I’ve always wanted.”
Leo nodded as if he had full authority on the matter. “No problem, sis.”
Tauren fought against his bindings. “It’s not fair for you to run off and leave me stranded in this ship. I want to get home, and the only one able to fly this hunk of metal is Mr. Golden Skin over there. If something happens to him, then I’m stuck here on this ruined world.”
Asteran looked up from the orb, but he didn’t say anything. Challenging Tauren wasn’t his style.
“Well, you should have thought of that before you walked on this ship.” Leo crossed his arms.
Tauren widened his eyes in frustration. “I had no idea it was going anywhere.”
His words reminded me of the question I’d had before. Just what was Tauren doing on the ship?
“Enough!” Nova put her hand up. “This bickering isn’t getting us anywhere.” She turned to Asteran. “This is your planet. What do you suggest?”
He glanced up from the orb, and the red light diminished. “We cannot leave him tied in this ship. If something happens to us, he’ll need to take care of himself.” Asteran studied Tauren as if determining his intentions. “If we free him, he’ll follow us. It is better to keep him in our sight at all times.”
Tauren nodded in a weird agreement with Asteran. “Listen, I’m not out to shoot anyone or take over. There are way too many of you against me, and I know Blue Hair won’t fly us back until he gets his revenge. I’d just like to ensure my safe return by making sure you don’t do anything else that’s stupid.”
Nova looked at me like I had the final say. I was still his “lifemate”, after all.
I glanced at Tauren, and his eyes pleaded with me. It was the first time I’d seen him vulnerable. For a nanosecond, I sympathized with him. Then I remembered all the jerky things he did and squashed that thought. As much as I didn’t want him to come, he didn’t deserve to be left behind in a strange ship on a ruined world. “I say he goes.”
“Oh, man, by the Guide, why?” Leo whined.
I tried to think of an easier answer than the fact I had underlying guilt from not telling him I didn’t want to be his lifemate, coupled with the fact the guy I did want stood in the room. My life couldn’t get more complicated.
I settled for a halfway answer and put my hands on my hips. “Because Asteran isn’t sure if these people are alive and we’ll need all the help we can get.”
“That settles it then, three to one. Tauren comes with us.” Nova hefted her bag on her back.
I zipped the top of my pack. Since I’d handed out weapons to Asteran, Nova, and Leo, the bag felt lighter. I’d stuck both the webbing thrower and the microbe spray into my belt. Now I only carried some food, an extra sweatshirt, and my water bottle, among a few other little things. The seething volcanoes convinced me I wouldn’t need the warm socks for the trip to the surface.
Asteran led us through the ship. I followed him, with Tauren at my back. Out of all of us, Tauren was the least likely to use violence on me. At least I thought so. He’d grabbed me a couple of times in private when angry, but never in public when others were around. I figured I was pretty safe. Besides, I had a hunch Asteran would be all over Tauren if he so much as touched me.
Nova and Leo followed in the back. Poor Nova had to put up with Leo’s complaining, giving me a vacation. We traveled the narrow tunnels to the edge of the ship, where a single orb stood on a metal pedestal in front of the wall. Smaller than the orbs in the control room, this one reminded me of a crystal ball.
“There are no portals to this ship, only walls.” Leo clutched both sides of his face. “We’ll never find a way out.”
“There are portals. You just have to look for them.” Asteran approached the orb. He waved us back. “Stay where you are.”
As he gazed into the orb, a square formed in the hull as the metal began to melt. Twilight shone through cracks. Smoke trickled in, and we covered our faces. The air reeked like burnt leftovers in the oven, of used charcoal and decay. The stench overwhelmed me as the wall poured itself into a ramp and the ashen forest claimed the space around us.
My throat constricted until I choked. I dug through my backpack and pulled out the mask Alcor had given me to use with the microbe spray. I’d teased him at the time, saying a mask wasn’t going to make much of a difference when I strolled through arachnid territory, but now I was eternally grateful.
Nova and Leo did the same. The filter managed to block most of the smoke.
“What about Tauren?” I’d forgotten we only had enough masks for ourselves. We hadn’t planned on a stowaway.
“Guess he’ll have to wait behind, after all.” Leo adjusted his mask.
“That’s not necessary.” Tauren ripped a piece of his uniform from his sleeve and wrapped it around his mouth. “This will do just fine.”
“It stinks.” Leo pinched his nose through the mask.
Asteran turned toward us with tears in his eyes. “It is the smell of death.”
My courage shrunk to the size of a pea. Could I really go out there onto a ruined world, with death surrounding me? I could barely watch the funerals on the New Dawn, when the coroners used to send the coffins into deep space.
I steeled my nerves, needing to be strong for Asteran. This was his planet and these were his people. He shouldn’t face the ruin alone.
“Come on.” I took his arm. “Let’s do this.”
Asteran retrieved his mask from the bottom of the backpack I’d given him, and he strapped it over his face, so only some of the tattoos swirled past the edge, like vines reaching for the sun.
We walked out onto the ramp. The twilight sky stretched above us in a churning sheet of dust and ash, with lightning streaking the far horizon. Volcanoes thundered in the distance, and the earth quaked. If we stayed too long, it seemed the planet would fold up upon itself, smothering us in soot. The worst was yet to come.
My boots crunched into the ash, breaking pieces of the porcelain street underneath. The gravity was lighter than Paradise 21, much like it had been on the New Dawn most of my life.
Asteran walked with stiff resolve as he approached the obelisk. He collapsed to his knees and ran his fingers over the markings.
I crouched beside him. “What does it say?”
He sighed, brushing a tear from his cheek. “It warns of trespassers on sacred ground.”
Nervous panic shot up my legs. “Are we trespassing?”
Asteran stood, gazing into the ashen forest. “Considering the circumstances, I assume the elders will overlook our desecration.”
We entered the forest, careful not to stir up too much soot and dust. Even with a mask, decay overwhelmed me, strangling my throat until I could smell nothing else. Branches drooped under thick ash. Leaves, dried by the scalding air, crumpled at my feet. One flame and this whole forest go up like kindling for a fire.
“What happened to this place, anyway?” Tauren reached toward a dried branch, and it morphed to dust at his touch, turning his fingers gray.
“The arachnids invaded, space brain.” Leo trudged behind us, snapping pictures with his wrist locator. Why he wanted to remember this, I wasn’t sure.
Tauren growled. “I know that, but a full-scale invasion wouldn’t cause planetary ruin in terms of climate change.”
Asteran nodded. “Tauren’s correct. The weapons we used against the arachnids caused large-scale fires and destruction, which spread when the arachnids overwhelmed us. The rise in global temperature set off some of the largest volcanoes on Priavenus, which filled our sky with debris. With the sun gone, life failed.”
Tauren swung at a low-hanging branch. He’d taken the lead with Asteran, carving a path for the rest of us. “That was smart.”
Asteran’s shoulders sagged. “It was our last chance to defeat them.”
“Well, we’re going to defeat them now.” I tried to stay positive. While everyone else saw death, I imagined the ash lifting and all the trees and ferns springing back to life. This forest must have been quite a majestic sight, with green branches reaching all the way to the sky.
A branch cracked behind us, and we all turned around. With her locator, Nova scanned the area where we’d come from. “Movement to the southeast.”
“What is it?” Leo whispered as he crouched behind a hollow log.
Asteran lifted his nose to the air and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, releasing the air slowly through his nose. His eyes flickered open. The irises had turned an alert, bright gold. “We’re being followed.”