Page 53 of Bound by Stars

Jupiter

Five days to Mars Station

As the pod slows from launch, I shove Curran and Skye off me and stand to press my palms on the window.

Behind us, the ship is in pieces. Entire rooms are torn open, floating off into empty space. Flames lick the mangled edges, feeding off the remaining oxygen. The center mass of the ship where we left Weslie is still intact.

My chest heaves as I suck in short, rapid breaths. I whip back, my hands shaking over the control board, but I don’t know what to do. I look between my friends. “Help me turn it back. We have to go back for her.”

Skye touches my shoulder, and I brush her off.

“It automatically docks to the nearest station. We can’t control it. It’s a basic rescue device, not a ship.” Curran stares back at the Boundless , his expression blank.

“There has to be a way.” There’s no button, no joystick, no levers. I’m missing something. It has to have a manual mode.

Skye grabs my arm. “Maybe she can still get out with ILSA.”

“We can’t just leave her alone out here.” My voice cracks and my vision blurs. I blink away hot tears.

Skye pulls my chin, forcing me to meet her eyes. “There’s nothing we can do now.”

Behind her, a cloud of flame expands and then dies.

I frantically search the small window for any sign of ILSA. She could have gotten Weslie out. They had to get out.

More explosions, bigger, brighter, go off all over the ship until it’s engulfed in an orange blaze.

The shockwave hits our little pod. We’re pushed forward, hurtling faster toward the station. Farther from the ship. From Weslie.

We all hit the floor. Warning alarms sound until the vessel gradually returns to travel speed.

I scramble to my feet, hoping for enough of the ship to still be intact, but it’s minimized to debris.

Nothing inhabitable. Small fires die off quickly without any more oxygen to burn.

Gray and white fragments—the scraps of an indestructible ship—float in every direction, drifting into space.