I hurdled myself on top of the crates and crawled across until I reached a gap big enough for me to drop into. I pressed my cheek against the cold steel of the case keeping me safe and shoved my knees tight against my chest. Dense and heavy, my body pressed down on the deck as everything around me rattled and shifted across. Good thing I’d skipped dinner earlier.
Once we left the mothership, the ride became smoother. Ry hadn’t mentioned how long it would take for her to talk to her unit about her stowaway. To stay busy, I tapped on my wristband and pulled up the hologram stream Ry had sent me, which contained her mission log. She wanted me to memorize as many details of it as I could.
We were due to land in Wharf District, one of the last colonies on Earth. The Old Planet had been devastated over a century ago, during the Last War—right around the time when Mars was terra-formed and colonized. But a few well-populated territories along the East and West coasts still remained.
I thumbed through several images of the Ukruum fields, the plant that hosted the virus that gave Ry immortality. We were here to collect that plant. According to Captain’s orders, we were to keep the peace around the fields while the supplies were being loaded onto our freight ship. That was easy enough. Most people were terrified of the Queen’s army. Our presence there alone would get the job done. Ry couldn’t trust me with a truly dangerous mission, but this was a very good place to start.
Before I finished reading, someone knocked on crate I was hiding in. I booted the panel over my head and crawled out of my cubbyhole, expecting to see Ry. But instead got her best friend Sierra. She hated me too. But at least she had a reason. More than once, Ry had canceled plans with Sierra to hang out with me. I had my own friends too, but it wasn’t the same as hanging out with Ry. Like Sierra, my friends didn’t understand the close relationship I had with my sister. Mainly because they didn’t have siblings of their own.
“I should’ve known something was up when Ry made us wait past the takeoff time.” She stepped back.
“Sierra.” Ry stepped in before I had time to tell her to fuck off.
“You know what? You wanna bring your pet to this mission. Fine by me. But if she dies down there, that’s on you.” Sierra pursed her lips and stormed off.
“What’s her deal?” I glared at Sierra’s back.
“She’s not wrong.” Ry rubbed her temple.
“Please don’t change your mind. I’m already here.” I hated the whine in my voice. But this was too important. I was ready to beg if needed.
“No, I already talked to the rest of my guys. Just stay close to me, yeah?”
“Done.” I put up my hands in mock surrender and followed Ry to the front of the ship where several rows of seats faced a wide window.
“Stay here. I’ll be back.” She winked.
“So cute. Can she also roll over?” one of her guys called after Ry.
I ignored the sniggering. I didn’t care if they were assholes. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. No doubt Wela would find a way to stop me from doing another space tour after this one.
I let my head fall on the side panel and focused on the view ahead of us instead. To the far right, disappearing quickly behind us, the Epoch looked like a floating city attached to the Bourg Orbiter—a bright cityscape in the dead center of darkness. It was such a peaceful view. One I’d only seen in images during history lessons.
I stared at the familiar drones with their dangling tentacles as they buzzed around the station doing routine inspections. They held my attention until the entire orbiter disappeared from our line of sight and was replaced by the blue globe rushing toward us.
“Try not to look so pleased with yourself.” Ry sat next to me and buckled her seatbelt.
“How much longer until we get there?” I asked.
“About thirty minutes. You have time for a quick nap.”
“I’m fine. You think I’m gonna sleep through this?” I pointed at the sunrays bleeding over the curve of the planet.
“You’re right.” She wiggled in her seat to make herself comfortable and closed her eyes. “Wake me when we get there.”
The rest of the way, Ry’s unit ignored me while she slept. Sierra did manage to throw a few glares my way, but for the most part kept her focus on the hologram controls hovering over the pod console. As we approached the planet, she maneuvered the craft in a zigzag pattern to avoid satellite debris. White puffy clouds swirled against the window for a beat, and then it was as if we’d hit a solid wall.
Sierra stood flinging her arms left and right to get the ship under control. Seconds later, we had cleared the atmosphere and flew through a hazy, orange sky. I shoved Ry’s arm so she wouldn’t miss the spectacular view. “Are you seeing this?”
“Yeah, it’s great,” she mumbled with her eyes shut.
Ry had brought me with her out of pity. And also, in hopes that after seeing this once, I would forget about crazy missions that could get me killed. Now more than ever, I knew I wanted this. I wanted to be a pilot.
The freight ship landed on the outskirts of town with a soft descent. As soon as we touched down, Ry shot to her feet. “Remember what we said.”
“I remember.” I stood and waited until the other
