Tundra 37 (33 page)

Gemme took his hand next. “Stay warm.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to melt my beard, now would I?” He gave her a wink before walking back to the drill.

“What was that all about?” Brentwood whispered to her as they jumped in the landrover.

She laughed and rolled her eyes, a playful gesture he hadn’t see her do before. “An inside joke.”

They rode for the remainder of the day and into the night until their headlights cut through darkness. Without the drill and the mining platform, they made excellent time, and he estimated they’d reach the
Expedition
within the next day.

Brentwood parked the vehicle and turned to Gemme. “Shall we make camp for the night?”

“Sure. I know I don’t want to sleep in the landrover with Luna’s body and that chest.”

“Okay, I’ll get the tents.” Brentwood pressed the panel for the hatch.

“Tents?” Gemme emphasized the plural.

Brentwood paused as the hatch opened behind him. “What do you mean?”

“Why do we need two?”

Brentwood’s heart sped up. She asked him if they could stay together, in one tent. She’d already hinted at it in the memory in front of the log cabin, but that felt like a distant dream now. In fact, they hadn’t ever really kissed in reality, only in the chest. Faced with the harsh truth of Tundra 37 and the chest, he hadn’t thought of whether or not they’d sleep in the same tent.

“I thought for reasons of propriety—”

“Look around us.” She waved her arm across the sight panel. “There’s no one here for hundreds of kilometers around. What we do is our business.” She studied the depths of his eyes, her gaze intense and warm. “It’s just us.”

He touched her cheek. “Are you sure?”

“All my life I’ve been shy; I couldn’t speak up when the Luna pushed me down the recycling chute, and I couldn’t tell you we were paired together. Ferris had told me before I left there was more to life than numbers. He was right. I was afraid to come out of my shell, to think outside the box and take chances. The comet shower, Tundra 37, this mission, they all forced me to grow. I’m not shy anymore.”

Gemme met his gaze. “In other words, yes.”

Brentwood realized he’d been holding his breath, and he exhaled. She’d changed so much, but he had as well. “On the
Expedition
, I thought I had life figured out.”

Gemme nodded and he smiled when he thought back to his own naivety. “Then I met you, and it was like someone splashed me with cold water and woke me up. I was tongue-tied. You made me feel vulnerable, and I wanted to know why. After the ship crashed, the Seers assigned me to Alpha Blue. When I saw your name on the team, I felt excited, but also scared. I was heading into unknown territory, and I feared I’d fail the team and the
Expedition
. But most of all, I was afraid I’d fail your expectations.”

“You didn’t.” Gemme assured him, taking his hand. “You exceeded them.”

Brentwood wondered how he could deserve such a marvelous woman. “Life can change in an instant. I saw that with the ship and with Luna, and it shook me up. But you calm me. You give me focus. It’s the bonds we’ve built with each other that hold us together when things get rough.”

He rubbed the palm of her hand with his fingers, heat rising inside him. “Our bond is so strong, it’s lasted over centuries. That’s why you threw me off when I met you. Part of me knew we were destined to be together. I want you too, Gemme.”

He leaned in and kissed her tenderly. Her lips softened against his, and she pushed into him, demanding more. He responded, his hands traveling across her shoulders to her neck. This time
she
pulled back, gasping for air. She spoke, almost breathless. “So let’s go set up that tent.”

Bysme, let me go.
Mestasis struggled to move, every impulse blocked by her sister’s wrath. Abysme’s temper raged, and harnessing her hatred gave her unequalled power. She had always been the stronger telepath, which had been a blessing until now. She’d thought Abysme had lost control, but she’d gained every last ounce of it while Mestasis drifted off into memories. She should never have allowed herself to go back so far and linger for so long.

Abysme’s blind eye widened and she writhed in her restraints.
The beacon draws near.

Forget the beacon. I’ve been inside the orb, and there’s nothing there but temptation.
Mestasis’s mind shot up every channel she could find, but she ran against dead ends. If no one looked after the ship, the systems would fail. She had to convince her sister to let her go.

Abysme continued, oblivious to the ship’s imminent danger.
Everything is there. You, me, Mom. We’re together.

She sounded like they’d already died and gone to heaven. But there were thousands of people’s lives resting on theirs. Mestasis forced herself to concentrate and think of a tactic that would penetrate her sister’s delirium.

Remember the oath we took to protect the ship and all the colonists?

Abysme squirmed as if she didn’t want to remember.
I’ve been a slave to this ship and its crew for so many years. Don’t we deserve our freedom?

Mestasis remained silent. She had a point. But she’d signed away their freedom hundreds of years ago in Thadious Legacy’s office. In return they received extended life and power. But, to use that power to achieve their own ends at the expense of the crew was unthinkable. This wasn’t her sister talking, it was the orb.

Bysme, let the orb go. It’s only an illusion, a trap.

Abysme shook her head.
I don’t care what it is. When Alpha Blue brings back that beacon, I’m going in.

Mestasis balked, feeling her grip on her sister slide, tearing a hole in her heart. To be deceived or forced against her will was one thing, but Abysme knew what she did was wrong. She flung herself headlong into temptation, and she didn’t care who she plowed down in her path.

Vira tossed in her sleep pod, banging her elbow against the side. She wanted to fall into a deep sleep and enjoy her ballerina dream all over again, but a sense of jittery uneasiness crept over her like spiders under her blanket. The strong presence pulsed on the other side of the systems, searching for her.

As the ship grew weaker, the presence grew stronger, like it sucked the vital life of the systems to support its own demands. She sensed it in every vibration. It wanted control, and it hated the fact that an intruder had spied. If it caught her, it could keep her soul stranded in the neverland of the electric grid while her body fell into a coma.

She wished she could shut off her powers. In fact, she wanted to get rid of them altogether. All they’d done was cause her problems, and she knew she couldn’t keep them hidden forever. Smoothing her hands over her blanket, she tried to convince herself to fall asleep. Somehow, she knew the presence couldn’t find her in her ballerina dream. When her conscious mind dozed, she was safe.

Vira hid her head under her pillow. She hadn’t meant to spy. She was just trying to keep her family safe. But somehow, she didn’t think her excuses would matter. It would only be a matter of time before it found her out and then everyone would know about her powers. They’d take her away and her poor parents would never be happy again.

An ugly question reared its way into her head.

What if she was the only one who could save the ship? What if she could stop it?

Vira shook her head and ignored the answer. She wasn’t ready to be a hero. The other men on the
Expedition
were working on the energy. Her dad said so. They’d figure out a way to stop it, and then her mind could roam free. She hugged her blanket to her chest. All she had to do was lie low and wait.

The hunk of crushed metal poking out from the horizon grew larger, igniting nervous jolts of energy in Gemme’s limbs. She gripped the armrests of her seat, wondering how a place she’d called home her entire life could look so ominous.

“I don’t see any deck lights on.” Brentwood squinted out the sight panel as they approached. She wanted the comfort they’d given to one another last night, but the warmth of their tent seemed a lifetime away, like the cabin on the prairie. Drawing strength, she assured herself that with their love they could handle anything the Seers threw at them.

“Maybe the Seers are conserving energy?”

“Or maybe they ran out and the energy core has failed.” He narrowed his eyes, his jaw set in a grim line.

Gemme took his hand, the touch of his skin against hers now familiar, but still just as exciting. “We’ve brought the first shipment of hyperthium. Whatever it is, we’ll fix it, okay?”

“I hope it’s something that
can
be fixed.”

Skidding in the snow, they pulled up to the back hatch. Icicles two times longer than Gemme clung to the hull in deadly stalactites. Snow coated the entire chrome ceiling, piling up as if the landscape had claimed the ship for itself. The hull looked more like a mountain than a ship that only days ago had flown through deep space.

Brentwood pressed the communications panel. His voice was gritty, like he hadn’t spoken all day. “Alpha Blue requesting entry.”

Gemme gave him a nervous look and they waited in silence as she struggled to calm herself. What if everyone was dead? The Seers hadn’t responded to her communications concerning the hyperthium, and she hadn’t heard from Ferris in days.

“Entry granted. Requesting status of Beta Prime.” Even though it was a sign of life, the monotone voice sent a shiver across her shoulders.

“She didn’t even ask about the hyperthium.” Gemme smoothed her shaky hands over her thermal pants.

Brentwood’s eyebrow rose. “Exactly.”

He drove forward, speaking into the microphone on the control panel. “Beta Prime located and secured. Requesting an audience.”

The Seer responded quickly. “Request granted. Report to the control chamber immediately with Beta Prime.” Gemme wondered if she detected a hint of eagerness in the otherwise emotionless voice.

The doors retracted slowly, revealing a dark and empty docking bay. Gemme had expected an audience and a grand parade, Alpha Blue in its entirety lugging great bins of hyperthium behind the landrover to thunderous applause. Instead, she returned to a ghost ship. “No one’s here.”

He shrugged. “Probably isn’t worth heating this part of the ship, so I bet the Seers directed the workers elsewhere.”

The hatch opened to silence and the occasional bang of metal as an icicle cracked off the hull. Gemme jumped out and scanned the empty docking bay. The doors rumbled as they closed, leaving them in shadows. She had to warn Ferris, but she didn’t want to drag him into anything dangerous. Clicking off her locator, she joined Brentwood at the control panel.

His fingers brushed the touchscreen. “I’ll send for a team to unload the landrover.”

Gemme felt like the Seers manifested in every chrome plate, watching them move, hearing them speak. She whirled around, searching the shadowy ceiling and hugged her shoulders. Without the distant light of Solaris Prime, the bay felt frostier than the ice world outside. “Should we wait for them?”

Brentwood shook his head. “I’ll leave a message saying we’re checking in with the Seers and to tend to Luna’s body. I’d like to avoid any questions about the chest.”

“Okay. Let’s get out of here before everyone shows up.”

They rounded the vehicle and Brentwood pressed the panel for the back hatch. The chest rested between the hyperthium containers like a pearl among stones. The cosmic swirls moved underneath the crystal, collecting on the side that faced them as if drawn by their presence.

“Do you think it remembers us?” Gemme asked as Brentwood pulled it forward.

“Who knows? We’ll keep the rope tied around the lid just in case.” He tugged the chest out and Gemme took the other side, marveling at the lightness. For something that held so much, the crystal weighed as though it held nothing at all.

Brentwood gestured over his shoulder. “I know a private corridor that will take us to the Seers without running into anyone. Come on.”

She followed him to the back end of the loading dock. He typed a code into the panel, and a secret portal dematerialized from the wall. Gemme watched in fascination.

“It’s an old escape route,” Brentwood explained while balancing the chest on his knee as he positioned his hands around the sides for a better grip. “For the Seers. They were to be kept alive at all costs, even in the event of a ship failure. The Seers had their own escape pods. They could control the other pods from deep space using their mindspeak to organize an emergency landing on a suitable planet. Once biologists and doctors connected them to the mainframe, they abandoned the escape plan. Now the Seers can’t survive without the ship, so it doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me.” Gemme tried to ignore how the swirls twisted around the place where her arms touched the chest. “How come I didn’t know about this?”

“Confidential. Only the Lieutenants know.”

She narrowed her eyes. “How much more do the lieutenants know that I don’t?”

Brentwood smiled, surprising her. “Not much. I’m sure you as the ex-matchmaker have your own little secrets.”

Gemme smiled. “Maybe a few.” She was tempted to tell him about the hypergene secret, but she’d have to go into great explanations, and she decided now was not the time to further complicate matters.

Brentwood sighed. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t even know about the beacon or the orb until just a few days ago.”

“So much has changed in so little time.” Overwhelmed, the darkness of the corridor pressed in on her while the chest’s innate glow beckoned. She tried not to focus on it, but her eyes kept returning to the elusive shine.

“I know one thing that hasn’t changed at all in centuries.”

He stole her attention from the chest and she flicked her eyes up. Brentwood checked over his shoulder as he walked backward and then turned to her with a lopsided, boyish smile on his face.