I round Myria’s cell and look up at her. Finally, her eyes open.
“Myria?”
She looks down at me, and her gaze lingers. I can’t tell if she recognizes me or not.
“I’m Esthi, your sister. I know it’s been a decade, but…”
Small lights blink on in rows inside her cell.
“You’re too late.” She says it with such apathy that I’m not sure what to do or think. This is not what I expected.
Myria crosses her arms over her chest. A shield encases her in green light, giving her an eerie glow. “Ellipsis. Titans.Fight.”
She has Myria’s eyes, her face, and that scar, but she isn’t my sister.
With a droning hum and a rush of air, her cylindrical cage launches through the floor.
“Damn it!” I turn and pace the path circling her cell, trying to figure out what to do. All of my careful planning has gone to shit in seconds.
Fight? Is that where she’s going? Or is that what I’m supposed to do? Has Myria forgotten me, forgotten herself? Was that an evil clone? What the hell is going on?
“They’re ejecting and falling to the surface of Ellipsis,” someone says in the hallway. “Skysprinters loading now.”
A sick feeling twists my stomach.Is that what they made her into? A fighter pilot for the enemy?
That would make perfect sense in their minds. Use the enemy to defeat the enemy. It’s a regular Solcrue tactic.
The door to her cell opens. Panic makes me lurch behind the cage frame and crouch, then watch through a crack between hibernation feeding and circulation systems.
An officer, judging by the gold trim along his black uniform, stops in the doorway. The top of his ears bear the typical military crop, and his skin gleams with oil that makes the hexagonal scales more defined. “Power relay blew in her room. Get it fixed for the next occupant.”
It’s rare for me to see an officer, but Ahronis clearly likes to get his hands dirty. He killedMarst’scaptain and took his place. I saw it on the video feeds I’d hacked.
“You’re not returning her to this post?” a shorter Solcrue asks.
“No. She’s assigned to eliminate the enemy on Ellipsis now. And don’t ask stupid questions above your pay grade.”
“Yes, Commander.”
“MothershipAidathrawill arrive soon. She will be reassigned. Then, I want you to upgrade a hangar for the obelisk. Once we have all the pieces, we will win the war without lifting a finger.”
“Yes, Commander.”
Plinking sounds, like little metal feet, echo in the vent overhead. I look up, dread filling my bones with lead. An inspection drone peers out. It spots me with a jerking head motion, then crawls like a demented spider to brace itself in the opening as alarms go off.
The door to the cell begins to close. If I don’t get out now, I’ll be caught, tortured, and killed. It’s happened to others I’ve crawled with through the dust on other ships.
I scramble for the door, dart by the mechanic, and slip through at the last second.
Commander Ahronis and his protection detail aren’t far away. They stop in the hall access to the hangars for cruisers and troop transports and then turn around. Security doors flash and begin to lower from the ceiling.
They’re trying to isolate the problem—me.
I sprint away from them and down the hallway toward the escape pods, hoping there is one left. It’s the only way I’m not getting captured when an Isolate and Terminate order has been placed.
The Solcrue are compartmentalizing the ship and will go through each until they’ve taken me down. I have to take my chances in a pod. But even as the door to the escape hangar on my level closes and I dive underneath it, I fear I’ve lost my sister forever.
If she returns toMarstorAidathra, I have no way to get back. And hitching a ride toMarstalmost killed me the first time, just like most transports I’ve been on.
