It’s nearly pitch-black, like the first time I set eyes on it. And it’s currently being towed behind two ships like a broken-down satellite. Only much, much bigger.
Kali suddenly moves all the way to the nose end of the bridge as she reaches a hand out as if she can actually touch the thing. As she stands there, transfixed by the ancient artifact, I can’t help thinking that Merrick is right.
Kali might really be the Star Bringer.
And we need to tell her the truth.
“What are they doing with it?” Rain asks.
“They’re taking it down to the palace,” Kali answers. “They planned on me destroying a few planets in the morning.”
“So you know?” I ask.
“That I can activate the heptosphere? Yeah, Dr. Veragelen was pretty adamant,” Kali says. I glance over at Rain, who gives a small, sad head shake. We’ll get to the rest of it—the Star Bringer, all the deception, her role as the true high priestess—later.
“But why are we here, watching it?” I ask, since it seems pretty clear to me that this is what has the ship going off course. “What does the Starlight want with the heptosphere?”
The others shrug and shake their heads.
“I’m assuming we’re about to find out.” Max moves to wrap a comforting arm around Kali’s shoulders. When she sags against him, I wonder if maybe she’s okay with me after all. That maybe I really did misread the situation between us. It wouldn’t be the first time.
The Starlight slows to a stop—right in the path of the two shuttles towing the heptosphere. On the plus side, they’re short-range passenger shuttles with no weapons.
“What’s she doing?” Gage asks, and he doesn’t sound impressed.
“I don’t—” I break off as, with absolutely no warning, two beams blast out from the Starlight.
They hit the shuttles simultaneously, and seconds later, both ships explode into nothingness. They just disappear.
“Holy shit,” Beckett whispers.
“I really don’t think those were normal lasers,” Gage contributes.
“Thanks, tech genius,” I drawl, but he’s not wrong. The Starlight, quite literally, vaporized two ships in an instant.
With the ships gone, the heptosphere is free of its restraints now. They’ve fallen away, and it’s drifting in space. At least until the Starlight makes a beeline for it.
“Can you stop her?” I ask.
Beckett shakes her head. “Not a chance. I’m guessing this is what the detour was for.”
“But how did the ship even know it was here?” Rain asks. She looks as fascinated and as horrified as I feel.
“They’re both alien artifacts,” Merrick suggests. “Maybe they have some kind of common signal that lets them talk to each other.”
Yeah, or maybe there’s something more going on here. Something we don’t have a fucking clue about.
Either way, we’re level with the heptosphere now, staring straight at it as we fly closer and closer.
“She needs to get closer,” Kali answers, and again her hand is on the display, like she’s dying to reach out and touch the giant black orb as the Starlight circles it once before turning around and flying away.
“That’s it?” Max asks. “She just wanted to see it?”
“Nope, that’s definitely not it.” Beckett presses a couple of buttons on her console, and the right viewing screen switches to show the rear of the ship.
To where the heptosphere is now following us through space.
Chapter 83
Kali
“So we’ve got a heptosphere on our ass now, too. Because we didn’t have enough shit going on already,” Max comments from beside me. “You okay, Kali?”
I have no idea. I don’t feel okay, but I don’t think that has anything to do with the heptosphere. I haven’t felt okay since I watched Arik and Lara die, and everything that’s happened since has only made it worse. Including the fact that I’m drawn to that giant black orb in a way I’ve never been drawn to anything ever before.
Except maybe Ian. But that’s something else I don’t want to talk about right now. Max interrupted our talk earlier, and I have no idea where we left off.
I don’t know if he believes me when I say the gestalt had nothing to do with me leaving.
I don’t know if he’s still mad at me.
Basically, I have no idea where we stand, and right now I can’t bring myself to care. Not when it feels like the entire system is about to implode around us.
“I have control back,” Beckett announces. “Looks like the Starlight did what she came to do.”
“Then let’s get out of here,” Ian answers. “And hope we don’t have any more unwelcome company on our way to the Wilds.”
Going to the Wilds, finally rescuing Milla, is the only thing I truly want to do right now. After everything we’ve been through, everything that’s been sacrificed, at least Ian and Max should get to reunite with her. And she should get to be safe.
But what about the dying sun? If we really only have a few weeks left—not years, as I thought—how can I just run off and leave that problem for another day? Because if the sun implodes, nothing else matters.
“I can’t go to the Wilds, Ian,” I tell him quietly. “We have a bigger problem. Serai might be dying a lot quicker than we thought, and I still have to help protect the whole system.”
He looks at me with fire in his gaze, and not the good kind. “I couldn’t give two shits about the dying sun, Princess. We’ve come too far to not get Milla back now. I’m sure your mom will figure something out.”
“This is what she figured out. What Dr. Veragelen and all the smartest minds in the system figured out. We don’t have any other options. We’re out of time.”
“Well, time is just going to have to wait a little longer,” Ian growls. “Your mom and Doc V and their fucked-up plan are why Milla is where she is. So pardon me if I don’t give a shit about doing things on their fucking timeline.”
I sigh, because I really do understand what he’s saying—more, what he’s feeling. But that doesn’t negate the fact that if the sun implodes, Milla won’t be alive anyway. None of us will.
“Do you even know how to work the heptosphere?” Merrick asks suddenly. “Everyone—including you—seems to have bought into the fact that you can fix everything with it. But do you even know what to do?”
“I guess I thought it’d be kind of self-explanatory,” I answer.
He raises a brow. “Like it was in the lab on the Caelestis?”
I pause. He’s not wrong.
“All of this is superfluous,” Ian says, “because we’re going after Milla right now.”
An idea starts to formulate in my mind. Merrick is right when he says I have no idea how to control the heptosphere. But if I have any hope of actually using it to save the sun, then I need to learn. The only problem is, I have to assume the learning curve is really steep—that thing is dangerous, and who knows what will happen if I just start trying to figure it out near the most populated planets.
No, much better to rescue Milla and then test out the heptosphere at the edges of the system, where there’s nothing but a few asteroids and two dead planets around. Talk about killing two varmaks with one rock.