Page 46 of Bound by Stars

Weslie

Six days to Mars

The screens at the captain’s station show alerts and updates, but there are no controls. More of a display than a command station. I push out of the seat and run down the steps through the middle of the room to find a workstation with door controls.

“Slow down. You’ll fall down the stairs and break your neck.” Behind me, Curran’s footsteps are as slow and casual as his tone. He must be in shock, the seriousness of our situation too much for him to process.

“I got it. Thanks.” I slide into a chair and click the keys, trying every command I know. Error. Error. Access denied. Error. Access denied. “This isn’t going to work.”

I stand and head back up the stairs.

Curran blocks my way, his tight expression unfocused, his chest heaving with short breaths, and his fist clenched around the medallion that always hangs around his neck. Hand clasped so tight, his knuckles are colorless.

I sigh, grabbing his shoulders. “Hey, it’s not over yet. We can still get out of here.”

His eyes are wide and wet. The tendons in his neck taut like he’s straining to hold himself together.

“I promise.” I nod and run up the steps.

Maybe if I can identify the exact zone where the emergency door is blocking first class from getting off the ship, I can bypass the permissions and force it open.

The ship’s holomap is still displayed in Navigation.

I swipe away the top level. And pull the corridor near the arboretum wide, so it enlarges.

Letting out a shaky breath, Curran holds himself up against the opposite side of the holomap table. “You know, when I found out about you, I thought it was a good thing.”

About me and Jupiter? I glance at him through the miniaturized ship hovering in the space between us. “I don’t really think it’s the right time for the best friend ‘I’ll kill you if you hurt him’ speech. Let’s get everyone to Mars and then you can threaten my life.”

He rakes his hands through his dark curls. “If you had just stayed hidden for a few more years, everything would be set, and you wouldn’t be such a problem.”

I don’t have time for riddles, either. I circle the table and hurry past him to get a better look at the digital markings.

Zone 5L. I pull the map again, zooming in on the door.

It stretches to almost the size of my palm, but when I try to make it larger, it blurs and snaps back down to its max size.

Dammit. The numbers on the door are tiny.

I squint to make them out. 6-7-8-4-0-2-1.

His voice drops so low and deep I can barely hear his words. “I tried to handle this in a cleaner way, but I guess I have no choice but to get my hands dirty.”

“I’m sorry, Curran. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” 6-7-8-4-0-2-1. 6-7-8-4-0-2-1. I mouth the sequence on repeat and cross the mezzanine to the top of the stairs.

“I can’t let you make it to Mars.”

I freeze mid-stride, every nerve in my body aware of him standing right behind me.

“Curran—”

“You’ll ruin everything.”

Pain radiates through my head. My vision goes dark.

I’m hiding in the hallway of my house on Earth, my small arms wrapped around scraped knees. The familiar homey smell of dust and hot metal mixes with the nutty, earthy scent of chicory.

I peek around the corner at the silhouettes in the dim light around our dining room table, not yet transformed into my mom’s worktop.

Dad pours dark liquid into two mugs in front of my mom, who holds up a flyer with three large letters printed across it: E.F.E. He puts the kettle down and sits.

“I just heard them out. This group is making a lot of sense. Aren’t you tired of being treated like a second-class human on your own planet?”

She cocks her head and raises her eyebrows.

“It’s your home planet now.” He takes her hand. “They want to change it. Split the worlds. Make it fair for everyone. What if we could change things? So by the time Wes has grown up, the planets bargain with each other instead of one ruling over the other. Think of her.”

“I am thinking of Wes, Sam. This”—she holds up the flyer again, tapping the paper with her index finger—“is dangerous. She needs both of us and if you get wrapped up in this, you might not come back.”

“I have to try.”

“Have you considered what happens if they catch you? Lock you up? Find me?” She takes her mug to the kitchen sink, splashing the steamy liquid into the basin and propping herself up on the edge.

“Or worse…” She turns to face him. The lamp light shimmers in her eyes.

“They could make you disappear. They can do that, you know. That’s how they deal with problems there.

Lock them away or launch them out of an airlock. Out of sight. Forgotten.”

He takes her hands. “And if I stay compliant? What kind of person does that make me?”

A loud rumble shakes the floor under me. I blink my eyes open to a gray ceiling. My parents and our dark kitchen are gone.

Curran stares down at me. “You Earthers are such pests. I think I’ve managed to get rid of you, but you just keep surviving.”

“What’s your problem?” I hold my head as a sharp pain cuts through my skull.

“The airlock was my mistake. I should have paid more attention. I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself if I’d killed Jupiter.” He circles me, shaking his head.

My hand is wet. Blood. I’m bleeding. I roll to my side and try to push up off the floor. Pain splits through my head again, but the pieces are coming together. “The O 2 shutdown…”

“Seemed like the perfect plan. I even had someone to blame it on after the painted message in the elevator. But I didn’t factor in that goddamn robot.” He squats down beside me.

“And the cargo bay…”

“I’ll admit, kicking you away from the ladder was sloppy and impulsive.”

I push off the floor again, but he shoves me back down.

“Don’t bother getting up. That head wound looks pretty bad.”

“You’ve barely spoken to me. How could I have pissed you off enough that you want me dead?”

“You really have no idea who you are, do you?”

The door is only a few steps away if I can move fast enough.

He stands and circles me again.

I sweep my leg around his knees. They buckle, sending him to the floor, as I scramble toward the door, trying to get my feet under me.

He grabs my ankle, yanking me back down.

I kick back but he dodges it, using the momentum to pull me closer and throw his weight on top of me.

Slamming me down on my back, he pins my arms to my sides under his knees and laughs.

“You have a lot of fight in you. That’s one thing we both got from Dad. ”

“You are more confused than I am.” I squirm, but he squeezes his knees tighter against my body.

“I thought you were playing around, but you really don’t know.

” He sits back on my thighs, so my bones ache under his weight.

“Before we left on the Earth Experience Mission, we were all assigned a family history report. I wanted to go above and beyond, so I accessed my family’s company’s interplanetary databank and entered my DNA to create a bloodline map. Talk about extra credit, right?”

I sit up, throwing my forehead toward his.

He leans away, dodging the strike. “Careful there. You’ve already got a head injury.”

“Let me up!” I try to buck him off, but I can’t get any leverage with my thighs and hands pinned.

Behind him, text runs across the screen on the captain’s station: Warning: System reset. Loss of Artificial Gravity in 00:60 . The timer replaces the message, counting down the seconds.

“So long story short, I’m from a family line that’s been on Mars since the habitat was first built, yet somehow, to my surprise, this ratty little Earther girl who entered a silly bot-building contest comes up as a 26 percent match.”

Forty-seven seconds. Keep talking, asshole.

I frown at him. “Am I supposed to know what that number means?”

“Do they not teach you basic genetics on Earth?” He rolls his eyes. “That makes you my half sister. My dad’s little secret.”

My heart seizes.

He’s wrong. My dad is Samuel Fleet. Could DNA results be wrong? If it’s all true, that means the man I’ve known as my father my whole life is my stepdad. No. Human error. Curran obviously made a mistake. “Sounds like bad information. Maybe you should investigate that when you inherit the company.”

“Not possible. DNA doesn’t lie. And since you were born thirty-seven days before me, if anyone found out you existed before I was appointed, you would be next in line to inherit.” He crushes my wrists together under one strong hand, his long fingers clamped tight around my bruised skin.

Twenty-three seconds.

“And here’s the kicker. You aren’t only a Nole. You’re 51 percent Aphelion, too. Two Big Six parents. Which makes your existence illegal by treaty laws, but it also puts you at the front of two inheritance lines.”

“Now I know you have it wrong. Both my parents are from Earth.” But could I have been adopted? No. I have my mom’s eyes, her nose, even her freckles. There’s no mistaking I belong to her.

Eight seconds. The warning flashes faster.

“Let’s say you’re not just a murderous sociopath under a wild delusion. How do you know all of this and no one else does?”

He leans over me and places his hands on my throat, haloed by the flashing red lights. “There’s no system for flagging relatives on Earth. You aren’t supposed to exist.”

I claw at his fingers.

…three, two, one…

His weight lifts off me. Both of us float off the floor.

Curran circles his arms in the air, the sudden weightlessness catching him off guard.

I grab the front of his shirt and try to push off, but the heels of my shoes slip on the slick floor, and we’re spinning through the air.

The lights shut off. The low hum of electricity fades to total silence.

Outside the window, Mars blurs into a haze of orangey-red until we hit the ceiling, and he gets his hands around my neck again.

“Systems online,” a robotic voice announces, and we’re falling.

Curran hits first, softening my landing. His arms drop to the floor, his face slowly rolling to the side, mouth half open.

I shove off his chest, jump up, and stumble toward the exit. My head throbs and my vision smears like wet paint, turning the world into shapeless smudges of color and light. I blink until my eyes refocus. Gripping the edge of the half-open door, I check to make sure he isn’t following.

His motionless body is still crumpled on the floor. Eyes closed. Jupiter’s best friend. Possibly my half brother. He lets out a groan.

I turn and run.