Chapter 1 #2
He sighed. “You see? That’s why I didn’t tell you before. You always get dramatic.”
“And you’re being cryptic.” Lysa pressed a finger to his sternum. “What do you mean, something ugly?”
Ryneth watched their conversation with grim amusement and growing dread.
“It’s nothing,” the boy muttered.
Behind them, the man snorted loudly.
“It’s just dock talk, is what I mean. Some routes pay better because fewer people want them.”
Lysa stared at him. “What the hell? You could’ve told me that before convincing me to come.”
The boy shrugged. “Besides, nobody’s wasting trouble on contract workers. We’re just labor.”
Lysa turned back to the window, shoulders stiff. A moment later, she looked back at him. “And what’s up with you? You don’t sound like Outer Ring. You sound—” She broke off, making a rough sound in her throat. “I don’t know. Not like us.”
Ryneth shrugged. “Maybe I’m defective.”
The static flared under the surface of his skin, as if reacting to the words. Maybe that was it. At least it was easier than explaining.
The boy next to Lysa snorted. He had broad shoulders. “Defective, my ass. You’re going to blind Helion with your pretty-boy looks. They’ll think you’re some kind of model.”
Heat crawled up the back of Ryneth’s neck. “Well, I’m going to work, just like you.”
“Work pays better if people like looking at you,” the boy said with a shrug. “Anyway. Hope I didn’t scare you too much. The name’s Karo.”
“Ryneth. And you don’t scare me.” Ryneth shook Karo’s hand as the shuttle doors sealed with a hiss. The lights above them dimmed to a softer white.
A smooth, genderless voice came over the speakers. “Please fasten your seatbelts. This shuttle is preparing for departure.”
He clicked the harness across his chest and hoped it would squeeze away the nerves. Regret crawled further up his throat. Maybe he should’ve stayed with Mara instead. Taken the Kassa job. Kept Tavi safe.
Now it was too late. The lights dimmed and the engines rumbled to life. The dock fell away.
“Welcome aboard Helion Central Orbital transit shuttle KS-47…”
Ryneth barely heard the rest. Through the small window, Düren shrank.
From this height, the planet looked almost peaceful.
Ahead of them, Helion glimmered faintly in the distance, its orbital lanes and transfer platforms strung around it in pale rings of light, bright near the heart of the planet and sparser at the outer edge where the labor shuttles docked.
He wished he could outfly all the bad times as well.
Static prickled under his skin with every mile they climbed. It buzzed in his knuckles, gathered at the hinge of his jaw.
It felt wrong, as if it was listening. Like it was waiting for something to answer it.
A light on the panel above his head flickered, then steadied.
“Does anyone else feel that?” he asked.
“What?” Lysa turned her head.
“Nothing,” he said, sharper than he meant to. “Just… ears popping.”
But it wasn’t just that.
The first jolt was small. Nothing more than a shiver through the hull, but enough to rattle the overhead storage.
Ryneth uncurled one hand, pressed his palm against the bulkhead beside the window.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s just turbulence,” someone said.
Turbulence, my ass, Ryneth thought. His static deepened inside him, as if to prove his point.
Something was wrong.
The second jolt came harder, making the shuttle lurch sideways. His shoulder slammed into the metal wall.
Panic struck around them.
Lysa yelped, and Ryneth watched as Karo put his hand on her thigh, trying to calm her.
That was before the thin, mechanical tone started to beep from the front console, the pitch drilling into his skull.
The lights flickered. Came back. Flickered again.
“Please remain seated,” the smooth voice said. “Minor course adjustment in progress. There is no cause for—”
The voice cut out.
“Look there!”
Ryneth jerked, then stared outside the window. “Good Light…”
There shouldn’t have been anything there. Just star-dark and the distant glimmer of small stations, the thin line of Helion’s orbital platforms. Instead, a ship slid into view. Its hull was matte black, swallowing starlight. It had no registration lights. No company markings.
“What’s that?” Lysa whispered.
“Something that shouldn’t be there.” Karo planted his hands on the glass. “It’s coming right at us.”
The ship was closing in at alarming speed. The shuttle’s alarms started to howl.
“It’s going to hit us!” Lysa shouted.
“Remain seated until—”
Metal scraped against metal. The black ship clamped onto them with a grinding jolt that shuddered through the rows.
For a heartbeat, gravity wavered. A storage bin popped open and dumped someone’s bag into the aisle.
Passengers looked at each other with wide eyes, and for a moment everyone seemed too shocked to speak. Then chaos burst free.
Ryneth’s fingers burned. The static leapt from his palms and crawled hot up his wrists, coiling under his skin.
“Ryneth,” Lysa whispered. “What’s happening?”
But before he could reply, the inner doors at the front of the cabin hissed open.