Chapter 21 #2
Torian had spent so many sleepless nights wondering if that was true. Every year that passed, her low-grade anxiety about her sister’s health climbed, until it became a persistent humming in the back of her brain.
She might die anyway.
All this effort, in vain.
You never could have saved her.
Torian refused to let that poisonous mindset take hold. She had a solution. If it didn’t work—she’d find another solution. Period.
Torian lifted her chin. “Look. The fact is, Colony 13 will kill you someday. Rhymarra is a bust. But Moss—ah, that life support system—it could work. Please, Lise. Come with me.”
“On that tiny ship,” Celise drawled, then dissolved into a light round of coughing.
When it passed, she added, “Tor, we’d kill each other.
You remember what it was like living here, and at least we had a few rooms to work with.
I’ll be honest: My life got a lot better when you started working on Fleet ships.
” She added a teasing smirk to that, clearly ribbing.
But also, she wasn’t wrong. They used to have screaming matches, shoved in such close quarters. At some point, Torian was convinced sisters weren’t meant to cohabitate.
Or maybe her sister was just an asshole.
(It wasn’t Torian, nooo. Torian was a delight.)
(Okay, maybe she was more like Moss than she cared to admit.)
“Gee, thanks.” She rolled her eyes, then geared up for the Big Reveal. “Look, you wouldn’t be moving to my ship. We’d be relocating to a new space station!”
Silence.
Based on Celise’s unimpressed expression, maybe it was too big a reveal.
Her sister leaned forward in her chair, drumming her fingers on the table in obvious exasperation.
“I know you’re trying to be purposefully vague, and you know I hate that, so I’ll just sit in silence until you care to divulge the details.
Because if you’re seriously pitching that we relocate to another colony, it would seem you left your single brain cell on that fancy alien ship. ”
Torian snorted, but dutifully glanced around for a holopad.
She found Celise’s in the living room, and stepped back into the kitchen as it powered on.
It only took a minute to open the drawing app, and Torian set it down on the table.
An empty holographic box, ready to be illustrated, hovered at eye level with Celise.
Torian sketched a big circle in the center.
Celise examined it with mild interest.
“I took the ship to Rhymarra. But like I said, we had a mechanical failure halfway there. The ship automatically diverted to a ‘maintenance base’ in the Kialoa Nebula.”
Celise frowned. “There’s nothing in that nebula. Except weird signals and the husks of ancient, broken starships.” A pause. “Right?”
“You’re correct. And so very wrong.” Torian grinned, sketching extra circles around the big circle.
She connected them with thick lines, then drew a planet in the background.
A spin of her fingers had the image rotating slowly at Celise’s eye level.
“This is Vaesa. A space station created by the native species in this solar system: the nylarians. They used it as a launch point between their planet, Verdaan, and the rest of the galaxy.”
Celise squinted at her. Not at the drawing. At her.
“It is my professional medical opinion that you have actually lost your mind.”
“You thought I lost my mind last year, when I joined Amelia’s ship. And two years before that, when I told you I was buying a starship at some point. And four years before that, when—”
“Maybe it’s a continuous process.” Celise smirked.
“Or maybe you just can’t admit I’m right sometimes.”
“Eeeh,” Celise said, waving a hand in dismissal.
Torian huffed. “This is real, Lise. The center of this big dome is a massive tree with blue leaves. It’s also, apparently, a jerk.” She thought that was a funny detail, but from her sister’s medically inclined point of view, it could be seen as the ravings of someone very disturbed.
Celise found Torian’s hand, taking hold in a comforting gesture. Considering they rarely touched outside of the occasional hug, it was very obviously an exaggerated form of faux comfort.
“Torian. I’m here for you.”
At least Amelia had been willing to suspend disbelief. Then again, Amelia traveled the solar system, and that kind of thing broadened horizons. Celise could benefit from getting off this space station, for once.
Torian pulled her hand away, shooting her sister a crude gesture. “Oh, fuck off. I’m not crazy. There’s a whole ecosystem inside this space station. Different ones in every auxiliary dome. It’s orbiting a planet, a real terraformed planet like Rhymarra.”
“Rhymarra is the only terraformed planet in this solar system. Remember? The CSS ensured it.” Celise’s voice was dry as bone.
“Well, someone lied, because there’s a planet, and it’s been terraformed.
” Celise rolled her eyes, which only spurred Torian on more.
“Why don’t you believe me? The nylarians were so much smarter than humans.
Even their space station has better air than here.
It’s artificially generated right now, but Moss—the computer on my ship—is going to make it as clean as the Destitute. ”