WE CLAIMED A CORNER OF a table against the wall. No one joined us; in fact, they left the entire table empty, cramming in at the other three. A moment later, Priya, Hallam, and Matt appeared and sat beside us. “We’re pariahs,” said Hallam cheerfully.
Eden emerged from behind the curtain. She observed the situation, and for a moment I thought she might join us, just to prove a point. But instead she sat at another table, a smile on her face as she struck up a conversation with her neighbor.
I shrugged. I didn’t need to be friends with these people. And I understood their fear and suspicion, especially since their leader had never returned from dealing with us. With luck, we wouldn’t have to intrude on them for long. After Eden’s news, we could be home in a matter of weeks, depending on the speed of Eden’s ship and exactly how far we’d traveled.
And, of course, the aliens not tearing us to pieces.
A shudder went through me as the enormity of what we were doing suddenly sank in. I’d been hiding from it, I realized; sequestering myself behind a wall of bravado. But now, at the worst possible moment, it hit me: we were going to voluntarily march into an alien stronghold featuring not only the horrifying creatures who’d ripped through Sanctuary and Obsidian, but something larger and older and far, far worse.
Cage’s hand slid over my elbow. “Easy,” he murmured, pulling me against him. I caught at his shirt and forced my breaths steady. Embarrassed, I raised my gaze, but if the others noticed my momentary weakness, they had the good manners to pretend otherwise.
After a while two men and a woman came from an almost-hidden door, carrying large bowls of food. With unspoken consent, we allowed everyone else to serve themselves before we left our seats. We were intruders here, and the last thing I needed was someone attacking us in the middle of the night.
Eden caught my eye across the room. “Hey,” she called, louder than was strictly necessary. “If you’re risking your lives to help us regain our freedom, the least we can do is feed you. It’s not much, but it’s edible. Promise.”
A low murmur surfaced, and people gaped at us again, this time some with respect, but many more with fear. Maybe they didn’t even want to think about what we were planning to do. I understood the feeling. Hell, I was on their side—assuming they knew anything about it. Eden had seemed to want to keep things secret, her comment about risking our lives notwithstanding. She must have told them something, though, in spite of her earlier warnings. In her way she was as duplicitous as Cage could be, manipulating situations with skill and ease. That was worth watching out for.
The main table featured three huge communal bowls alongside mismatched plates and cutlery. I scooped up some sort of grain that might have been rice, dropped a pile of unidentified meat beside it, and added a spoonful of what looked like dried peas. It was not particularly appetizing, but at the moment I’d take it. I added a cup of water and returned to the table, where Cage was frowning at Imani’s plate, which held only a small portion of rice and some peas.
“That’s not enough food,” he said.
Imani shrugged. “I can’t tell what’s in the meat.”
“Then you need more of the rest.”
“I’m fine.”
Cage glared at her. “Are you hungry?”
“Yes, but … I don’t want to take more than my share.”
“You’re not,” I said. “Imani, you’re a healer. You’re going to be awfully important in whatever comes next.” I swallowed, trying not to think about what that might mean. “We need you at full strength.”
“Here.” Mia grabbed Imani’s plate and headed for the front, her slight limp more pronounced after the incident with her foot. The aliens on Sanctuary had damaged her limb so badly not even our healers had fully repaired it, and it looked like Gideon had shot her in the exact same spot, making matters worse. But no one challenged her as she doubled the food on Imani’s plate.
Hallam nudged Imani. “Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself, kid. No one else is going to do it for you.”
She gave him a haughty scowl, one that spoke to the beauty belle she used to be. “I’m not afraid. And I think my friend just proved you wrong.”
Mia returned and dropped Imani’s plate in front of her, and we all set ourselves to eating. I looked around the table, the uncomfortable silence broken only by the soft murmurs of the crowd at the other side of the room and our chewing, which seemed painfully loud. “So,” I said, just because I couldn’t take the quiet tension, “what do you guys make of Eden’s story?”
Hallam leaned back, wiping his hand across his mouth. “Hard to say. The corps have been searching for intelligent life for a long time and never found a glimmer. Eden’s explanation makes sense in its own way. I can see a civilization with the tech to shield itself doing so, especially if they didn’t like what they saw when they looked at our planet. But I’m still suspicious that we’ve never even caught a glimpse of them before. You kids better prepare yourselves. Even if we survive the alien pit, even if Eden’s telling the truth about her spaceship, and even if we can figure out how to get home, we might still face a journey of several years. And that’s assuming we have the fuel and supplies to get there. Remember, they’re low on materials. You think they’re going to hand us enough food to journey across the universe?”
My chest lurched. I’d been so excited by the possibility of an escape that none of this had occurred to me. I’d imagined dying, of course, but as terrifying as that was, it was better than starving to death on this planet. I had not considered the realities of what came next.
Reed scowled at him. “You’re a cheerful sort, aren’t you?”
“He’s only being honest,” Matt replied quietly. He glanced at Cage, rolling his fork over in his hands. “And he’s not wrong.”
Cage shrugged. “Just like you weren’t wrong when you told me Sanctuary was designed to be an inescapable prison. We still broke out.”
Matt snorted. “That wasn’t exactly an unqualified success, was it?”
“No, but we couldn’t predict the aliens.” Rune’s voice was quiet, but it seemed to strike Matt like an anvil. It was one of the first times she’d spoken to him, and she instantly had his undivided attention. “The escape was a disaster, but we did escape. If we hadn’t tried, we’d have died in our cells. And if we don’t try now, we’ll die in a new Sanctuary.”
Priya shook her head and drained the last of her water. “I don’t disagree with you, but Hallam’s got a point. We need a plan B.”
“Plan B better not entail staying here,” Jasper snapped.
Priya glared in return. “You are not the only one with family back home, okay? No one wants to stay here. We’re simply considering the realities of the situation.”
For a second I thought Jasper would fire off an angry response, but then Rune laughed softly. “Are you guys really going to fight about this?” she asked. “For once, we all want exactly the same thing. We’re alive. We’re together. And we have a chance of getting off this planet. Can’t we just lean into that for once?”
Cage and I exchanged frowns. It was clear he was thinking exactly what I was: we might not be alive much longer.
But Rune’s words seemed to calm Matt and Jasper. “Sorry,” Jasper said. “I’m on edge thinking about my family, that’s all.”
Matt shrugged. “You haven’t said anything we aren’t thinking. And Hallam’s not the most tactful guy.” He elbowed his new friend, who grinned, showing all his teeth.
Imani rolled her eyes and shoveled the last of her rice into her mouth. “So what do we do now?” she asked. “This was lunch. We have time to kill. Eden doesn’t want to talk to us about the mission. Do we just stand around? Take a nap?” She laughed self-consciously. “It’s been so long since I’ve had nothing to do that I’m not sure how it works anymore.”
“Well, we could do nothing,” Cage replied in the long, slow drawl that said something was going on in his head. “Or …”
Rune groaned. “Don’t play mysterious, gege.”
He laughed, eyes sparkling. “We could try to learn more about what’s going on here.”
A grin spread across Mia’s face. “Now that’s more like it. What do you have in mind?”
“Mia, your job should make you happy. Disappear and snoop around. Listen in. See what you can find out, especially if you can get behind this curtain.” He nodded. “Take Rune with you. She can be quiet and won’t give you away, and I want her to examine the tech around here, see what, if anything, they have working.”
Alexei scowled. “And what shall I do, O imperious leader?”
Cage nodded toward a group of boisterous, well-muscled soldier-looking types. They were hanging out near Eden and keeping a careful eye on us. “See if you can make some new friends. I get the sense they’ll respond to you better than anyone.”
Alexei shrugged noncommittally, but he was already scrutinizing the soldiers, his mind working. Cage pressed on: “Imani and Reed, there must be a medical facility here somewhere. You have every excuse to get in there. Scout the place. If we have injuries, we might need to know exactly what supplies they have and how many of them we can access.”
“And me?” Jasper asked.
“You, me, and Kenzie will see who we can get to talk to us. Try to gather more information about this place.”
Priya arched an eyebrow. “I notice you’ve left us out of your little plot.”
Cage frowned in what seemed to be genuine surprise. “I thought you’d have your own plan, to be honest.”
Priya almost smiled. “Yours is as good as any.” She nodded at Hallam and Matt. “See if you can get any information on what sort of weaponry they’ve got around here. Help Alexei chat with the soldiers. Me, I’ll talk to Eden, press her for information on the alien stronghold.” She examined me appraisingly. “While you’re scouting around, learn anything you can about Gideon. I don’t trust Eden’s appraisal of him. You say she had no choice about killing him, but she still pulled the trigger on her superior. I want more facts than we have.”
Somehow she’d managed to turn Cage’s operation into her own, and I winked at him to say I’d noticed. He gave me a rueful smile in return. “We’ll meet after supper and share what we learn.”
Mia stretched, her joints popping in a way that made me wince. “Beats sitting around all afternoon.”
Cage caught my eye and winked, and I smiled in spite of myself. Why not? I’d been a prison guard, a fugitive, an anomaly. Might as well add spy to the list.