Colonization (19 page)

“I did.” He nodded, scrunching his eyebrows. “It makes sense. That’s why you’re the only one that’s seen the aliens.”

Relief spread through me as I realized he was taking me seriously. “Yup. They’re trying to warn us. They keep pointing to the ridge. Something bad is over there, and I think that’s what doomed their attempt at a colony.”

“Wow, this is heavy stuff. I can’t imagine holding all this inside. All the responsibility on your shoulders.”

My insides crumbled and I felt as though I fell to pieces on the floor. Having someone else know what I was going through lifted so much weight off my shoulders.
He believed me
.

“Annie, you’re shivering.”

Embarrassment with my vulnerability washed over me. There was nowhere to hide from my feelings or from him.

“Come over here.” Corvus raised his arm, and I settled my body against his, allowing him to wrap his arm around me and pull me close. His warmth comforted me. “We’ll find out what’s behind the ridge. I promise. I won’t let you fail.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Flames

I awoke to Corvus shuffling around the room, trailing his fingers along the patterns in the walls. He still favored his leg as he moved, but at least the skin looked clean.

“Is your leg feeling better?”

“Good as new.”

I stared in surprise. For someone so wary to get on the ship in the first place, he’d completely turned around. “What are you doing?”

“I think I may have found something.” Corvus didn’t turn around to look at me. He trailed his fingernail along a zigzag, and part of the wall separated. “Bingo!”

“Be careful.” I scrambled back, expecting a bomb to go off or a booby trap to snare our legs.

Corvus smiled. “Don’t worry. It’s just a wallscreen, I think.”

He wiped his hands across the thick layer of dust to clear the screen. Pixels blinked in and out like a million winking stars until a picture solidified. Corvus joined me on the floor. I whispered under my breath, “No way.”

Lines of pale-skinned aliens stood in a circle before a great ship, larger than the one we sat in. High towers surrounded them on all sides, glistening in an oily pinkish-white sheen. A sky red as blood shone in the background, casting the horizon in a hellish glow.

Corvus whispered, as if his voice would break, “I thought a purple sky was bad.”

“Something’s off.” I leaned forward. “There’s something wrong with their sun.”

Brilliant spots mottled the orb’s surface and I thought back to my class in astronomy. My heart plummeted. “I think their sun is dying.”

“What are they holding?” Corvus pointed to one of the alien’s slender, branchlike arms.

“Is it a pod?”

“No.” Corvus stood up and ran his finger along the curve. “It’s an egg.”

Each alien carried one to the ship, clutching the smooth oblong shape with both arms. “Do you suppose they’re their children?”

Corvus shrugged. “Might be.”

Then it hit me all at once. “What if Paradise 21 was their only chance?”

I tried to find another ship on the screen, but I couldn’t see anything past the high towers.

Corvus took my hand and squeezed. “I’m sure they had other ships. Just like us, they wouldn’t put all their hopes in one ship on one planet.”

His reasoning seemed logical. Still, my heart ached for them. To come from a dying world to a new one, then to have their colony fail. It was horrible. I stood up, releasing his hand as anxiety hit me like a laser bolt. I wasn’t going to let whatever happened to the aliens happen to my colony. Their warnings, and their demise, would not be for nothing.

“We have to find out what’s behind that ridge.” I looked at his leg. “Can you keep going?”

He bent his knee and tested, putting weight on his calf. “I think so.”

“Good.” I stuffed the skin regenerator into the pack. “Let’s hope it stopped raining.”

We followed the corridor to the platform. I traced the pattern and we rose to the surface. Part of me wanted to stay and explore the ship, to watch more of their videos and learn more about them. But time slipped through my fingers. Sirius was still out there, along with whatever lurked behind the ridge. We had to press on.

Corvus moved slowly, and it took us the rest of the day to pick our way through the crystals to the bottom of the ridge. The wall of crystals rose up in slabs, with cylindrical conglomerations sticking out every few feet. At least we’d have handholds and places to tie our rope.

“Let’s make camp.” Corvus slipped off the backpacks. Even with his leg still healing, he insisted on carrying both. “I don’t want to climb in the dark.”

Neither did I. I wasn’t even sure I could climb it in broad daylight. I swallowed down my fear. We had to find a way.

After eating some soybean wafers and dried fruit, Corvus started a fire. We sat together on a slab of crystal, watching twilight turn to darkness around us. I shivered, hugging my shoulders. My clothes were still damp from yesterday, and the temperature plummeted with the oncoming night. Corvus put his arm around me, and I snuggled against him like I had last night. I wondered if we’d make it a habit. I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but I liked being in his arms.

The fire crackled and I watched the flames skip and leap.

Corvus took a deep breath. “Back on the
New Dawn
, before we landed, before I knew you, I didn’t want to reach Paradise 21.”

His words filled me with relief. So I wasn’t the only one. I craned my head up to look into his eyes. “Really?”

“Yeah. Silly, huh?” He laughed to himself. “I wished we’d have problems with the engines, or that we’d drift off course, or have to slow down to conserve fuel—something to keep us from reaching here.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want my life to change. I was lazy. It was easy for me to skip class. I used to go to the gym and relax on the viewing deck, watching the stars. I knew what to expect, you know? I knew what my life would be like the next day, and the next. Paradise 21 seemed like such a big question mark, and I knew I’d have to suck it up and start working hard.” He sighed. “I never told anyone. Guess I was too embarrassed.”

“You shouldn’t be. I felt the same way.”

Corvus pulled back to see my face. His eyes were skeptical, like I teased him.

“It’s the truth. When my great-grandmother died, I fell to pieces. I knew that phase of my life was coming to a close and I didn’t want to change. That’s why I never studied for the tests. I lived in denial for so many years.”

“Wow, Annie. I always thought you were a model student.”

“Ha! Me? A model student?” Corvus hadn’t known me at all. Either that or I put up a good front.

Corvus’s arms tightened around me. “You know what? Now that we’re here, I wouldn’t be anywhere else in the universe.”

I thought of my own situation.
Where did I want to be?
I’d wanted to go backward for so long, to be in that room with Tiff, hearing her stories about the space pirates. But now, I enjoyed this adventure and all the freedom that came with it. I was doing something much more important than procrastinating on my homework and sneaking around with Sirius in the biodome. It was the first time I believed I could make a difference and save the colony, like Tiff had said.

Corvus’s voice pulled me back from my thoughts. “There’s so much I want to tell you.”

His voice was calm, yet full of emotion, and I tensed up. Did I want to hear what he had to say? Anxiety rose inside me, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop him. He’d done so much for me and my feelings were growing like Mom’s tomatoes.
Out
.
Of
.
Control
.

As he spoke, he ran a hand through my hair, sorting out the tangles. “When I got my lifemate assignment, I was beyond happy. I couldn’t imagine a better partner. You’re beautiful, smart, and friendly, but I also felt guilty and nervous, as though they handed me a prize I didn’t deserve.”

He sighed and shifted as if his own thoughts made him uncomfortable. “When I saw you in the corridor the day assignments were made, my heart sank. I knew you weren’t happy with the results. I hadn’t done well on the tests because I never took school that seriously. To tell you the truth, I just liked to relax and have fun. After seeing your face, I realized I had to make something of myself. From then on, I made it my purpose to work to deserve you. I’ve tried so hard, Annie. I worked hard for that promotion. I’m worried I’ll never be enough in your eyes.”

His speech gripped my heart and held it, revitalizing it, making it want to beat. I wanted to make everything right for him in that moment, to give him what he sought: a part of myself. I reached my head up and brought my face to his, brushing my lips up against his cheek, and then finding his mouth.

Corvus held me close and kissed me back. Unlike the kiss with Sirius, this one felt right. I delved into those emotions, embracing them for the first time.

We kissed until my mouth grew hot and numb. I fell asleep in his arms, wanting the moment to last forever.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Ascent

The next morning I woke up to the smell of smoke and a hazy purple light.

“Hey, sleepyhead. Breakfast’s ready.”

For a second, I forgot where I was. Dizziness swirled through me like someone spun me around until I landed in a different place. The sky was still purple, but the light shined brighter and clearer than before. My entire purpose had changed overnight. I had everything I ever needed all along. I’d blindly chased Sirius as if I had chained myself to him, using him to define me. He wasn’t who I thought he was.

All this deep thinking made my head hurt, and I stuck my face down between my arms and groaned.

“What’s the matter?”

I rubbed my temples. “The more I think, the worse it gets.”

I heard the clank of a cooker lid and sniffed food. Corvus must have found my stash of powdered eggs. “What do you mean?”

“Never mind.”

Corvus continued, as if what I said made perfect sense. “Anyway, I figure if we start climbing after breakfast, we can reach the top of the ridge before nightfall.”

Two truths remained in the mishmash gurgling in my head. Sirius was still out there, and so was the threat to the colony. Whatever my feelings for Corvus, I still had to investigate the ridge. I picked my head up. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

I wondered why Corvus was in such a hurry to get there. What did he think we’d find? I opened my mouth to ask him, but he brought a tray of scrambled eggs over and my stomach grumbled. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” He winked and sat next to me with his own tray.

I stuffed a forkful of the eggs into my mouth and barely chewed before swallowing them. “You’re a good cook.”

He shrugged. “Just followed the directions on the back of the container. Hmm…master chef. Hey, do you think they’ll promote me again?”

I laughed. “I’m not sure head of chefs is any higher up than head of security.”

He shrugged. “Guess you’re right.”

Although he tried to make light of the morning, the end of our journey weighed on my mind. “What do you think we’ll find over the ridge?”

Corvus creased his pale eyebrows. “Not sure. All I know is we have to find out to get some answers. Whatever is up there, we’ll deal with it together.”

It hit me like the wake-up call on my sleep pod: with Corvus, I never felt alone. He stood by me despite the danger and all my talk of seeing ghosts. Sirius had other aspirations. Rising up the chain of command, being an aviator, then maybe a lieutenant. He cared about the system and what everyone else thought. Granted, he might have sacrificed that to look over the ridge. But for Corvus, I was enough. I was his dream.

I had a lot to think about and a whole day of climbing to figure it out. I finished my eggs. “Let’s do it.”

Corvus took my tray and stacked it against his, shoving them both into the backpack. “Whatever you like.”

The climb loomed over us, and my ankle ached from the previous day’s trek. I took each step slowly, securing my footing before placing all my weight on the next level up. Corvus climbed two steps ahead of me and reached down for me whenever I needed an extra hand.

We rose above the vines of the jungle. The silver frames of our buildings poked out of the landscape like alien growth on the horizon.

My stomach flipped when I looked straight down, so I kept my eyes on the sky. The longer I climbed, the more I missed my sleep pod aboard the ship, and even my boring plant job back in the greenhouses.

The purple sun had risen to a great ripe plum in the sky before Corvus spoke. “We’re almost there.”

He quickened his pace as we reached the summit and pulled himself up over the ridge. He gestured for me to follow, but I waved him back. “Let me catch my breath.”

While I sat and huffed, he dug in his pack and took out a pair of binoculars.

I’d stolen a Landrover, driven to the edge of existence, and climbed all the way up the ridge, and I realized I didn’t want to know. My voice trembled. “What do you see?”

“Annie, you were right.”

I scrambled to catch up to him and almost fell back. He caught my arm and pulled me up. The landscape below us was a blur of red. It could only be one thing.

Corvus handed me the binoculars and I peered through, struggling to keep them steady in my shaking hands. Groves and groves of the poisonous plant blanketed the valley floor. I should have realized it when Mom and I tested the specimen in the greenhouse. The pool of humid air provided the perfect seeding ground.

I gasped, then realized I’d just taken in a breath full of air above a city of squiggling microbes waiting to be released. I clutched the slim barrier of my mask with my hand as if my skin could filter the air any better.

“It’s the poisonous flower that made Ray and Amber sick.”

I turned to Corvus, dropping the binoculars. “How did you know what it looked like?”

“I didn’t.” Corvus shook his head. “I wasn’t looking at the flowers.”