Honor Bound (Project Gliese 581g #4)

Prologue

PROLOGUE

A board the international spacecraft:

Gliese 581g Deep Space

“Julia, will he live?”

The voice cut through the haze, tugging at her consciousness. Familiar. Urgent. Just out of reach. It clung to her like a thread from a fading dream. Julia tried to latch onto it, to remember.

Mei… Mei, where are you?

“Get to the escape pods!”

Josh’s bark sliced through the haze clouding her mind, sharp and demanding. Her pulse raced, and with it came a flicker of clarity. Adrenaline poured through her, pushing back against the heavy fog of sedatives that dulled her senses. Her body fought her control, sluggish and unwilling. Something was wrong—terribly wrong—and she needed to wake.

“Warning: hull integrity compromised.”

The sterile, mechanical tone echoed in her ears, pulling her further into wakefulness. A groan escaped her lips as flashes of disjointed memories bombarded her: the hum of alarms, the blinding red lights, Sergi’s limp body, Josh’s command. Then, nothing.

She reached out, her fingers fumbling along the cold, curved interior of the escape pod. The surface was slick, wet with condensation that smeared beneath her trembling touch. A faint hiss accompanied each labored breath, the sound amplifying the panic rising within her.

“Warning: oxygen levels at eight percent.”

The computerized voice was clearer now, external and male. Her eyelids felt weighted, as if lead had settled upon them, but she forced them open. What greeted her wasn’t blurry vision but the opaque fog of her breath on the window of the escape pod. It swirled into fleeting patterns before fading, a stark reminder of the dwindling air supply.

A sharp inhale stung her lungs as the memories aligned, snapping into place with terrifying clarity. The Gliese. The alarms. The alien gateway. The explosion. The void of space. The fractured pieces of it all coalesced, grounding her in the reality of her precarious probability of survival.

Two Earth weeks earlier:

Gliese 581g Interstellar Spaceship

Calm settled over Julia, a deceptive cloak isolating her from the chaos erupting around her. Alarms wailed, a discordance of urgency and disaster, their shrill tones reverberating through the exterior of the docking module. Red lights strobed, casting the scene in an ominous glow. Yet Julia’s focus remained sharp, honed by years of training. Chaos was a backdrop; survival was the objective.

Sergi Lazaroff’s pale, lifeless face filled her vision as she knelt beside him. His grizzled hair clung to his forehead, damp with sweat, and his lips had taken on a faint blue tint. Not here. Not like this. She tightened her jaw, blocking out the thought.

“Mei, hold him steady,” she directed, her voice firm despite the tremor threatening its edges.

Mei Li Hú’s dark eyes met hers for a fleeting moment, reflecting equal determination as she nodded. Together, they maneuvered Sergi’s limp body in the weightless atmosphere, the lack of gravity turning the simple act into a struggle.

The magnetic boots anchoring Julia to the floor provided a semblance of control, but the constant tremors rattling the ship fought to steal it away. Her medical bag, strapped to the wall, swayed in time with the vibrations. She reached for it, her fingers brushing against the smooth fabric as the ship jolted violently.

“Damn it!” Josh’s voice boomed from behind her.

She turned her head sharply, glimpsing the Gliese’s commander pulling himself along the wall with determined, jerky movements. His helmet clattered as he hooked it to a shelf, and his gloves disappeared into the net beside it.

“The gate’s pulling us in!” he barked, his voice taut with urgency. “The ship won’t hold much longer. How’s he doing?”

Julia turned back to Sergi, her hands working methodically even as her mind raced. “His lifeline got caught in the gate’s gravitational field. The shock must have stopped his heart.” She didn’t wait for Josh’s reply. Time was running out for all of them.

Her hand hesitated over the defibrillator, the cold, metallic surface biting against her fingers. A thought, unbidden and cruel, crept into her mind: If we’re all going to die, does it matter if I bring him back?

“No.” The single word escaped her lips, a whispered defiance against despair. Her hands moved on their own, pressing the defibrillator’s paddles to Sergi’s chest. “Clear!”

The machine jolted, sending a pulse of energy through Sergi’s body. His chest arched upward, then fell back into stillness. Julia swallowed hard, her fingers trembling as she prepared for another attempt.

“Clear!”

“Come on, old man. I would not think you would let a little shock knock you offline,” Mei growled.

This time, the steady beep of the monitor pierced the tense silence. Julia exhaled a shaky breath as Mei replaced the oxygen mask over Sergi’s nose and mouth. Sergi’s eyelids fluttered weakly, and his hand twitched. Slowly, with an effort that seemed to defy the odds, he lifted one hand and extended his middle finger toward Mei.

“Still as charming as ever,” Julia murmured, a relieved laugh bubbling up as Mei gently punched Sergi’s arm.

“Too stubborn to die,” Mei muttered, her voice thick with unshed tears.

“Who—says any—thing about—dying?” Sergi rasped through the oxygen mask, his accent heavier than usual.

Before Julia could respond, a distant rumble reverberated through the ship, followed by a series of sharp, metallic groans. Through her commlink, she heard Ash’s panicked voice coming from the bridge.

“Josh, the gate’s tearing us apart!”

Josh’s reply was calm, yet final. “Go forward.”

“Are you insane?!” Ash’s disbelief rang clear.

“Stay with Sergi,” Julia instructed.

Mei nodded, her eyes filled with worry. Julia’s heart clenched at the men’s conversation. Her mind flashed to the simulations she’d run—every outcome, every possibility. None of them had ended well. She released the magnetic boots she was wearing and floated upward. She could move faster through the ship without them on. She glided through the narrow tubes of the spaceship leading to the bridge. A part of her clung to the thin thread of hope that somehow, this wasn’t really as dire as it seemed.

When she reached the bridge, the sight before her took her breath away. The alien gateway loomed on the viewscreen. The six spinning rings seemed alive with impossible light. Colors pulsed like the heartbeat of a sleeping god, each hue shifting in mesmerizing patterns.

Her breath caught. Her body froze. This was no anomaly—this was intelligence at work . Each ring shimmered with a unique hue—nebula blues, fiery reds, golden yellows—all shifting in hypnotic patterns. The scientist within her connected the dots almost immediately.

“Wavelengths,” she whispered, awe momentarily overtaking her fear. “It’s aligning to a destination.”

Josh’s voice snapped her back to reality. He turned to face her, his expression a mask of grim resolve. “Suit up. Get to the escape pods. That’s an order.”

Julia hesitated for only a moment, the urgency in his voice compelling her into motion even as the weight of his words sank in. This is it.

The command to abandon the Gliese repeated in Julia’s mind as she retraced her path back to Mei and Sergi. Mei was already wrestling with the straps, securing Sergi to the weightless confines of the corridor, when she arrived. The ship groaned, a deep, resonant sound of a dying beast, and another violent tremor rippled through the metal framework. Sparks cascaded from an exposed panel, casting fleeting constellations across the cramped space.

“Warning: hull integrity compromised. Oxygen levels critical.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Sergi muttered, pulling at the oxygen mask covering his mouth.

“It’s not,” Julia replied, ignoring Mei’s scowl of disapproval.

She wasn’t sure if Mei’s displeasure was directed at her comment or at Sergi for removing his mask. Now wasn’t the time to contemplate it. The computerized announcement amplified their urgency.

Her breaths came in quick, shallow bursts, fogging the air, when the temperature inside the Gliese plummeted as the environmental systems went offline. She and Mei urgently maneuvered Sergi through the narrow passage. The weightless atmosphere should have made it easier, but every jolt of the ship threatened to tear him from their grasp.

“Almost there!” Mei’s surprisingly calm voice was audible despite the ear-piercing groans of the ship.

Julia barely nodded, her focus narrowing to the blinking lights ahead—the escape pods.

Josh’s distorted voice buzzed through their headsets. “Move faster! The ship won’t hold together much longer.”

Mei’s sharp intake of breath matched Julia’s rising panic. They reached the pods, and with Mei’s help, Julia hoisted Sergi into one. His eyes fluttered open briefly, confusion still clouding his face.

“Rest,” Julia whispered, placing a gloved hand on his shoulder. “We’ll see each other soon.”

Without waiting for his response, she pressed the control to seal Sergi’s pod and turned to Mei. The smaller woman hesitated, her dark eyes meeting Julia’s with unspoken acceptance that they probably wouldn’t survive.

“You next,” Julia ordered.

“But—”

“No arguments.” Julia pushed her gently toward the pod, her tone leaving no room for debate. “Go.”

As the pod’s hatch sealed behind Mei, a shudder rippled through Julia. Her heart hammered in her chest as she moved to her assigned escape pod. The ship groaned again, a deafening crescendo that drowned out the alarms. She climbed in, her fingers fumbling with the controls before the lid finally closed over her.

“Escape pod launching,” the automated voice announced.

The pod shot away from the ship, and Julia experienced a sensation of disorientation at the burst of speed, flashes of lights, and the sudden darkness of space. Through the narrow viewport at the top of the pod, she saw the Gliese—a glowing silhouette against the dark backdrop of space. For a moment, time seemed to stretch as the ship disintegrated into a brilliant flash of light as they were all pulled through the gateway.

The realization crashed into her with the force of a tidal wave. Her breath frozen, her pulse hammering against her ribs. The Gliese—their home, their mission, their last connection to Earth—was gone. Swallowed whole by the impossible.

She stared in disbelief and awe as ribbons of brilliant, iridescent color, like a living rainbow, encased the pod as it rocketed forward at an impossible speed, the vacuum of space humming with energy. Her analytical mind raced to process the data, but her human side was overwhelmed by a terrifying surge of fear and anguish as she waited for the pod’s sedative to slow her metabolism.

It’s gone. The Gliese is gone.