Or maybe the Sisterhood did it. Maybe they harbored a grudge that he’d left them for my mother. I used to think that the Sisterhood was basically peaceful. Now I’m not so sure—they have a freaking army stationed on every planet. And Merrick is definitely not what I would call a pacifist…
If not the rebels or the Council or my family or the Sisterhood, then who?
My mind is whirling, and all I can think about is my mother lying to me about my father’s death. Lying to the entire Senestris System about it as she and her Imperial forces enacted a purge designed to wipe the rebels from existence. All those people dead for no reason.
All those people imprisoned and tortured for no reason.
Don’t puke, don’t puke, don’t fucking puke.
The warning to myself comes too late—or maybe it never stood a chance against all the things I’m thinking about. Either way, I end up rushing to the bathroom and vomiting the water Ian insisted I drink after the fight right back up.
There’s nothing else in my stomach—which makes for a delightful vomiting experience—so I brush my teeth before heading back into the bedroom, only to find Rain sitting on the bed.
“Are you okay?” she asks.
“I have a lot to process,” I admit. “I’m just lucky Beckett didn’t decide to kill me.”
Rain looks sad. “She’s hurting, Kali. She’s been hurting for a long time. And she blames your family.”
“She blames me.”
“At first, maybe. Now, not so much. I think she’s beginning to understand that we’re all products of our circumstances. You, me, her, Ian, Max, Gage. Even Merrick. We are who we are because we’ve been taught to be that way. And, except for Gage, we’ve never tried to be more than that.”
“I don’t think I even knew there was more than that,” I tell her.
“Yeah.” She smiles a little sadly. “Me neither.”
But I do now. And ignorance isn’t something I can hide behind anymore.
“Beckett’s also in a lot of pain,” Rain says after we sit in silence for a few minutes. “I mean physical pain. She hides it because she doesn’t want anyone to know, but I can see it. Whatever they did to her on the Caelestis did more than mess with her mind. It damaged her physically.”
“I know, and I feel terrible about it,” I say honestly. “I wish I could help her.”
“We’re actually helping her right now—or we would be, if we could get the Starlight moving again,” Rain says. “She believes her brother might be in the same place Milla was sent to. If he’s alive. She thinks Jarved might have been sent to the Caelestis four years ago like she was and ended up thrown away out there like all the other prisoners who were taken on the Reformer.”
It makes a lot of sense. Ian said they use people up out on the asteroids. That they die pretty quickly and the companies just get an influx of more. But then, how could Jarved have lasted this long? If he even survived the Caelestis. I remember Ian’s belief that prisoners had died touching the heptosphere—and with the shape Beckett’s in, I wouldn’t be surprised if they died in other fucked-up experiments, too.
At that moment, Beckett’s voice comes over the comms.
“All crew members to the bridge. Captain’s orders.”
Beckett’s the only one who refers to Ian as Captain—well, besides Ian himself. Rain and I roll our eyes at each other before I sigh and push myself up. Everything aches like I’ve been tossed around and sat on, which I suppose I have.
We’re the last to arrive, and as we walk in, I realize everyone is strapped in. Well, everyone but Gage, who is currently on the ground, messing with some of the Starlight’s controls. Apparently, Ian’s already thin patience has worn out completely.
“Is the Starlight ready to move again?” I ask, taking a seat and getting to work on the harness.
“Not yet,” Ian says grimly.
“Then why are we—”
I break off as I suddenly realize what everyone is looking at. The Starlight’s front viewing screens are unshielded for the first time in days, revealing three ships cruising directly toward us. They’re still a good distance away, but that doesn’t mean anything. Weapons travel far and fast in space.
“What do we know?” I ask.
“Not much,” Ian answers impatiently, “but we’d know more if we had a working comm system and could communicate with them.”
“Fuck off,” Gage mutters.
“Can’t we just outrun them again?” Rain asks.
“Maybe we could.” Ian sounds even more bitter now. “If we had a pilot who could get the ship she’s supposed to be flying to actually, I don’t know, fly.”
“Fuck right off,” Beckett snarls as she continues to press buttons and levers, all to no avail.
“So what is the plan?” I ask, because those ships are getting closer.
“There is no plan,” Max answers grimly. “I think that’s why everyone is freaking out right now.”
“So, now’s a good time for me to be freaking out, too?” Because I have been since I sat down.
“Oh, yeah,” Merrick intones. He’s leaning forward, his forehead resting on his elbow in an I-can’t-believe-this-shit-is-happening-again pose. “It’s an excellent time for that.”
All of a sudden, the Starlight jumps about fifteen meters. A torpedo bigger than a drokaray flies right by on our airlock side.
“She’s awake!” Beckett calls.
“Yeah, no shit,” Ian growls. “Now can you get her to move?”
“I’m trying,” she answers testily. But nothing happens.
“They’re using torpedoes,” I point out. “That’s a violation of space-debris procedure. That’s illegal.”
“I’ll be sure to let them know,” Ian says snidely.
Another torpedo comes at us, and this time the Starlight shoots up about ten meters so it can pass below.
“On the plus side, at least these ships don’t seem any better at hitting her than the other ones did,” Gage says, getting up and dusting himself off.
“Yes, but what if—” Rain breaks off as three torpedoes come at us at the same time, followed by three more, followed by three more—all simultaneously.
“Get her moving, Beckett!” Ian snarls.
“I’m trying. She’s not—”
The Starlight does an arcing spin through space that ends with a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree vertical circle that flings Gage across the bridge and has the rest of us yelling.
But the first three torpedoes miss us, and so do the next—
All of a sudden, the Starlight shudders, the entire ship groaning and buckling as a torpedo slams straight into her left side.
Chapter 54
Ian
“Beckett!” I bark as two more torpedoes slam into the Starlight’s hull. “Run a status report now!”
“I’m trying, but she’s not cooperating, Ian.” The fact that she calls me Ian and not her preferred Captain tells me just how frazzled she is.
“Gage, can you get in there? See what you can make happen before we get blown right out of the sky?” I shove a hand through my hair.