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TWENTY-FIVE

OLIVIA

After I said goodbye to Aeon in the council chamber, I slipped behind the gnarled trunk of a native tree outside, my heart thumping in my chest. My plan worked—everyone thought I’d left when I’d actually circled back through the garden side entrance.

Foolish? Definitely. But something in Aeon’s expression when Tegan requested a private word made my instincts scream.

“I reached out to Dr. Naomi West on Earth,” Tegan said. “It was a peace offering.”

“I knew it.” Aeon’s voice cut through the air, sharp as a scalpel.

“But that’s not all. I received intelligence this morning. Someone from Earth is coming soon,” Tegan further admitted.

I pressed my back against the cool stone wall, my breath catching in my throat.

The pieces slotted together like a horrifying puzzle—Tegan contacting Naomi back on Earth and making deals behind everyone’s backs.

And now someone was coming. Maybe Naomi, or maybe someone worse who’d intercepted their communications.

My stomach twisted into a knot as I processed the betrayal. Tegan was willing to trade me away like currency, back to Earth, away from... everything I had found here.

I didn’t wait to hear more. Pushing off from the wall, I forced my shaking legs to carry me out the side entrance and through the garden, past the colony’s hydroponics dome, and into the open air of the colony’s central plaza.

The plaza bustled with afternoon activity. A group of my medical trainees hurried past with food in hand, rushing to get back to the medical bay. I watched them, these beings I’d once feared, now my students, my colleagues, my...family.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” came a voice beside me.

I turned to find Sage, her blonde hair glinting in the sunlight that filtered through the canopy above us.

“Just thinking,” I managed, trying to mask my turmoil.

“About Earth?” Her perceptiveness was uncanny.

The word hung briefly between us. Earth. Home. Or was it?

“I made promises,” I whispered. “To Aeon. To all of you. To Ben’s memory.”

“Promises matter.” Sage nodded. “But so does choice. Real choice.”

I looked across the plaza where two of the council members were talking and laughing with Commander Helix, who was holding her newborn daughter, Helena, gently in her arms. I’d saved both mother and daughter.

Not to mention, Helena was part of the first generation born here on Planet Alpha.

It was truly the beginning of something extraordinary.

“I chose this,” I said, surprising myself with the conviction in my voice. “When I realized what we could build together—what Aeon and I could create—I chose to stay.”

But still, Earth tugged at me. My house with the window box full of lavender. The sound of rain on city streets. The simplicity of a world where I understood the rules.

“And now?” Sage asked quietly.

“Now I have to decide if I’m brave enough to keep that promise if and when rescue comes knocking.”

I was still talking with Sage when Aeon strode into the plaza. His presence always changed the atmosphere around me—like the air itself became charged with electricity. Right now was no different. His dark hair shone in the sunlight, and his eyes found mine immediately across the crowd.

“Olivia,” he called, his voice lifting over the buzz of activity.

My heart did that ridiculous fluttering thing it had taken to doing whenever he appeared.

I watched him navigate through the plaza, moving with purpose, some cyborgs stepping aside respectfully while others nodded in greeting.

Sure, he was their leader, but something was more primal in how they deferred to him.

Something in his bearing commanded attention.

“I need to talk to you both,” he said, his jaw tight when he reached us.

Sage straightened. “Something’s happened.”

“Tegan just confessed to me that he reached out to Dr. Naomi West,” Aeon said, looking directly at me. “As a peace offering, he claims.”

My stomach dropped. I struggled to look surprised, guilt washing over me for my earlier eavesdropping. “Naomi? My Naomi?”

“Yes. And now someone from Earth is coming. Tegan intercepted intel this morning.”

I swallowed hard, gripping the edge of the stone bench. “Naomi wouldn’t?—”

“I don’t think it’s her,” Aeon cut in, combing a hand through his thick dark hair—a gesture I’d come to recognize meant he was deeply troubled.

“I’ve been analyzing the communication patterns for the past thirty minutes.

The transmission signatures changed after the initial contact.

Whatever your friend, Naomi, is like, would she suddenly become this aggressive in her approach? ”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “She’s methodical and cautious. She’d never risk—” I paused, realizing what he was suggesting. “You think someone else intercepted their communications.”

“CyberEvolution,” Sage whispered, the name sending a chill through me.

Aeon nodded grimly. “They must have bugged her communications when she started asking questions about you. CE has eyes and ears everywhere on Earth.”

I should have trusted him to tell me this information himself. The shame of my distrust burned inside me. When he’d previously withheld information about Naomi searching for me, I’d felt betrayed. But now I was the one with secrets. I silently vowed never to doubt him again.

“They probably dug into your military record,” Aeon continued, his voice lower now. “They know you worked with cyborgs during the war.”

“They’re not stupid,” I agreed, meeting his eyes. “If they put it together that I’m here?—”

“They’ll also know what we’ve accomplished,” Aeon said, his hand finding mine, warm and solid. “Free-thinking, autonomous cyborgs. Everything CE fought to prevent.”

The reality crashed over me. CyberEvolution, the corporation that created and controlled the cyborgs on Earth during the war, would never tolerate what Planet Alpha represented—freedom from their programming and from human control.

“I doubt they’re coming to negotiate diplomatic relations,” Sage said dryly.

“Would Earth’s government ever recognize Planet Alpha’s autonomy?” I wondered aloud. “Treat you justly?”

Aeon’s thumb traced small circles on the back of my hand. “That’s the real question. Isn’t it?”

As we said goodbye to Sage and walked toward Aeon’s quarters, the weight of what was coming settled over me. I felt the invisible countdown begin. Everything we’d built and everything we’d become to each other would soon be tested by whoever was making their way from Earth.

The colony hummed around us, a small city emerging from the jungle, buildings of stone and metal and native wood rising among the massive trees. All of it felt suddenly fragile.

“We’ll be ready,” Aeon said, seeming to read my thoughts. “Whatever comes.”

I squeezed his hand, letting my actions speak what I wasn’t quite ready to say with words. I believed him now.