Chasing the Stars (39 page)

It didn’t take long before I could hear panicked shouts, screams and the firing of pulser rifles. I leaped to my feet and headed for the nano-field barrier. Maria was on the other side of the cell, looking anxious, her head turning this way and that.

‘Maria, you’ve got to let us out,’ I pleaded. ‘Vee is the only one who can stop her brother.’

‘Move back,’ Maria ordered.

‘Listen, if you don’t let us out, you will all die.’ Vee had joined me at that the nano-field.

‘I have my orders,’ Maria said stubbornly.

‘I hope that’s a comfort to you when my brother rips your head off – literally,’ said Vee.

‘He’s just a boy—’ Maria began.

‘Aidan is an android with super speed and super strength, and pulser rifles and a few punches will not stop him,’ Vee said, her voice low but urgent. ‘The moment he discovered I was in here, he went into protection mode. He will annihilate anyone who tries to stop him from getting me out.’

As if to reinforce her words, we heard the sound of pulser rifle fire just outside the cargo hold.

‘If you won’t let us out, at least go and hide,’ Vee said angrily. ‘I don’t want any more deaths on my conscience.’

The cargo door was blasted open, the noise deafening. Aidan strode into the room, turning his head slowly to scan the hold. I inhaled sharply before all the breath left my body and stayed away. His eyes – Aidan’s eyes didn’t look human any more. His eyes, including his irises and pupils, were now entirely white. He had blood on his clothes and I didn’t doubt for a second that not all of it came from him. Two arms, two legs, one head as before but he didn’t look human. He moved across the cargo hold with relentless purpose.

‘Maria, run,’ Vee ordered.

A pulser blast hit Aidan in the back but he didn’t pause. He made his way towards our detention cell. Vee took a step back, her expression fearful. Instinctively, I stepped in front of her. Maria raised her rifle, pointing it straight at Aidan’s chest.

‘Move b-back,’ Maria stammered with fright. ‘I’m w-warning you . . .’

Aidan walked towards us, his stride purposeful but unhurried. Maria opened fire. The rifle pulse ripped through his jacket and the shirt underneath but it didn’t even slow him down, never mind stop him. The pulses bounced off Aidan’s chest like she was firing air at him. Judging by the rips, tears and burns in Aidan’s clothes, Maria wasn’t the first to fire at him. His clothes were taking a beating even if he wasn’t.

Aidan was only a few steps away now. And still Maria held her ground. Aidan reached out for her, grabbed her by her shirt and tossed her across the cargo hold. Maria hit the opposite wall with a bone-cracking thud and fell without uttering another sound. If she wasn’t dead, she was dying.

Aidan stared at me, then moved to the panel on the wall outside the cell to switch off the nano-field. The very thing that had kept me prisoner had also kept me safe, and I won’t lie – I was sad to see it go. Aidan stepped into the detention cell. Vee stepped forward but again I moved in front of her.

Aidan reached for me. I kicked out, my foot making contact with the side of his head. I managed to knock him off balance so that he had to sidestep to stay upright, but that’s all I managed to do. Aidan’s head turned and his expression altered. That slow, creepy twist of his lips that he called a smile was back. This wasn’t Aidan the android in control, this was Vee’s fifteen-year-old brother who loathed my guts for stealing his sister’s attention and affection. I tried to jump backwards away from him. His hands shot out and the next thing I knew, he was holding me up in the air high above his head, ready to either bend me backwards to break my spine in two or pile-drive me into the ground. Either way, it was going to hurt.

I turned my head to look at Vee. That was about all I could do. If my last moment in this universe had come, that’s all I wanted to do. Vee hadn’t moved. She wasn’t looking at Aidan but up at me, hurt and something else in her eyes. Something chilling, merciless. Then I recognized it for what it was.

Hatred.

She hated me.

Hated me enough to stand back and watch me die at her brother’s hands.

Fuck.

Aidan raised his left knee. He was still holding Nathan above his head and obviously intended to drop Nathan across his bent leg from a height to break his spine.

‘NO! AIDAN, LET HIM GO!’

Aidan turned to look at me.

‘Aidan, don’t. Let him go. Please.’

Aidan lowered his left leg to stand on both feet. Still holding Nathan high above his head, Aidan let him go and watched him drop. Nathan tried to break his fall using his arms to impact the ground first. I heard a crack and Nathan cried out in agony. He’d broken his arm or his wrist. Either way one of his arms was now useless. Eyes narrowed, Aidan hauled Nathan to his feet and put one hand around Nathan’s neck, lifting a kicking Nathan off the ground. Aidan started to squeeze. It was impossible for Nathan to breathe. A few more seconds and it would all be over.

No!

‘AIDAN, STOP! DROP HIM. NOW!’ I ran over to my brother to pull his hands away from Nathan’s throat. ‘Aidan, you are not to harm him. That’s an order. Stop.’

Aidan turned to face me, his head moving like his neck was stiff. He dropped Nathan, who fell to his knees clutching at his neck with his good hand and coughing wildly.

‘Aidan, stand down.’ I placed my hands on Aidan’s cheeks and looked into his eyes. ‘Please, Aidan, stand down.’

Aidan closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his irises were beginning to change back to normal. Across the hold, the lift doors opened. Darren and Alex raced over to us, their pulsar rifles blasting. Aidan pushed me to the ground and turned to face them, back in protection mode now with a vengeance. Once again, his eyes were fully white, allowing him to see in a number of spectra at once.

‘Darren, don’t be a fool. Drop your weapon,’ I called out. ‘You need to show Aidan that you’re not a threat.’

Darren charged at Aidan, his pulser rifle blazing whilst he cursed us both with words I’d never heard in that particular order before. I launched myself on top of Nathan, trying to cover him so that he wouldn’t be hit by stray weapons fire. Nathan groaned beneath me. I was hurting his arm but that couldn’t be helped. I risked a glance up to see Aidan holding Darren off the ground by his neck.

Darren was kicking and struggling whilst Aidan regarded him, tilting his head as he slowly smiled.

‘This is for my sister,’ Aidan said softly.

‘Aidan, wait—’ I began.

But too late. A quick, upward jerk of Aidan’s hand and Darren was still, his neck broken. I turned away, sickened. Alex, Darren’s colleague, immediately dropped his rifle and started to back away, his hands out before him to show that they were empty. Aidan didn’t follow him. He stood like a sentinel between me and Nathan and the rest of the world. I rolled off Nathan and got to my feet, putting out my hand to help him up. Nathan looked at me, his emerald green eyes dark and ice-cold. Using his good hand, he pushed himself up. My empty hand fell to my side as Nathan and I watched each other.

He knew that I’d come within a hair’s breadth of letting him die.

He knew.

Mum ran into the cargo hold, flanked by Sam and Harrison, both of whom were armed. She made her way over to the detention cells, only to stop short when she saw Darren lying dead on the floor.

‘Don’t come any closer,’ Vee pleaded. ‘And for God’s sake, put down your weapons. There’s been enough bloodshed. If Aidan perceives you as a threat, he’ll drop you where you stand.’

Mum turned to the men behind her and nodded. Harrison didn’t need to be told twice. Sam, however, wanted to hold onto his gun but thank God common sense kicked in. Watching Aidan intently, Sam carefully lowered his rifle to the ground.

‘Nathan, are you all right?’ Mum asked me slowly, though she never took her eyes off Aidan.

No, I wasn’t all right. My arm hurt like a son-of-a-bitch and Vee wanted me dead.

I know which one hurt worse.

‘I’m fine, Mum,’ I replied quietly.

‘Vee, I had nothing to do with this.’ Mum was facing Vee now, speaking quietly but with real urgency. ‘I had no idea what Darren and the others were planning. Darren only told me what he’d done after the event.’

I risked a glance in Vee’s direction when she didn’t reply. She wasn’t looking at Mum but at me. I immediately turned away. I couldn’t bear to look at her. It hurt too much.

‘Nathan, you’d better leave,’ said Vee. ‘Go and get your arm sorted out.’

I walked out of the cell, quite frankly not caring if Aidan attacked me again. If he did then he’d be doing me a favour by putting me out of my misery.

Vee wanted me dead.

She’d got her wish.

Everything was so messed up. Two people were dead – Maria and Darren. Three more were injured, one of them seriously. The only small mercy was that Aidan hadn’t hurt the children, Simone and Khari, who were distraught and grieving for Dooli. Rafael was currently looking after them.

Everything was so damned messed up.

Aidan was no longer in protection mode but it didn’t matter. The bodies were removed from the cargo hold, but no one wanted help from me or my brother. The commander gave her quiet orders and everyone skirted around us, giving us a wide berth. When at last, we made our way back to the bridge, no one came near us. And I do mean no one. And as Aidan’s sister, I was viewed as just as dangerous, if not more so because I controlled him.

We made one stop before we headed back to the bridge – the medical bay on the mid deck. Doctor Liana and Mike was busy tending to the injured, some of whom had their friends around them. The moment Aidan and I walked in, all talk ceased. Every eye was on us. Fear was a living, breathing presence in the room. It was as if everyone had taken a step back from us even though no one had moved. I looked at Aidan. He was back to normal but he hadn’t said a word since he came out of protection mode. I knew my brother could feel but, not for the first time, I wondered if he felt things in the same way that I did. How did it feel to know he’d killed and injured so many others? Did he justify it in his cybernetic mind by telling himself that it was self-defence, that he was coming to my aid and that my safety was his priority? Did he tell himself it was just the way he was wired? Or did he not tell himself anything at all? He didn’t say and I didn’t ask.

‘Back to work,’ the doc ordered Mike. Her tone was terse but that could be put down to the pressure she was under.

‘Doctor Liana, may I have a word with you?’

‘Not now, Vee. Can’t you see I’m busy?’

‘It can’t wait, Doctor,’ I insisted.

Irritated, Doctor Liana came over to the now closed medi bay door where Aidan and I stood alone. She was the first person I’d seen since leaving the detention cell who hadn’t viewed me and my brother with abject fear.

‘What’s so important that it can’t wait?’ asked the doctor.

Pause.

‘Doctor Liana, why did you do it?’

Her eyebrows raised, the doctor looked at me with unconcerned patience, waiting for me to elaborate. ‘You’ll have to be a little less vague if you expect a meaningful answer,’ she said.