Prologue
As the ship’s shrill sirens blared out, 294 curled up in his allotted station on the flight deck, his hearts hammering out of sync. The alarm was being transmitted to every part of the vessel, but 294’s link with hisother,Lanu, the chief engineer, made him aware there was nothing anyone could do to save the ship. Lanu appeared calm and focused, hiding his terror from everyone.Apart from me.Lanu kept checking where 294 was.As if I could hide.
All the crew were frantically trying to make adjustments at their workstations to avoid the inevitable. But no matter how loudly the captain screamed instructions, if Lanu felt the ship was doomed, then 294 knew it was.
They’d been told before they’d set off that there would be no rescue mission if anything went wrong. Not that 294 had been given a choice about being on this ship. His role was to protect and where hisotherwent, so did he. Mostly. He’d already been reprimanded for his lack of commitment. Twice. Only minor infringements. But there was nothing he liked about Lanu who was selfish, greedy, unpleasant, cruel… But soon he’d be dead, which was good.Except so will I.Not so good.
294 had sometimes wondered how he’d feel when death approached. Now he realised it depended on how, when and where. Some departures from life were easy, assuming you reached your end-of-time release, but others were not. Being torn apart for anything but minor transgressions was enough to maintain law and order. 294 hadn’t liked the role he’d been allocated on maturity, but now dying was inevitable, he had regrets. Not about what he’d done, but about what he’d not done.
Too late now to take a risk, to be a rebel, to do whathewanted.
Or maybe not.
The flight deck had more shielding in place than any other part of the craft. 294 was part of that shielding, but Lanu hadn’t called for him yet because when he did, it would be as good as telling Gash, the captain, that he’d given up. Not allowed. Not before the captain accepted the inevitable. So Lanu was still frantically trying to control their descent despite knowing he couldn’t save the ship.
As far as 294 understood, their craft had lost power and guidance due to a malfunction caused by an unanticipatedcoronal mass ejection from the sun of this system. Something that had happened just as they’d begun the process of coming out of miniaturisation—which had failed. Those two events had led to them being caught by the blue planet’s gravitational field and now they were plummeting towards the surface. Not quite out of control but still far too rapid a descent.
Setting aside his own wish to survive, what was happening wasn’t such a bad thing. Not for this planet anyway. No one on board had good intentions. They didn’t come in peace. They didn’t want to make friends or share knowledge or wonder at a different world. Instead, they were hunters, pillagers and looters whose mission was to rip what they wanted from everywhere they found worth investigating. Five worlds so far, and all five destroyed when they left. It had made 294 feel sick. He suspected he wasn’t the only one who felt like that but it would have been deadly to voice that opinion.
The planet where it seemed they’d meet their end was the first on their long voyage that had given acceptable survival readings for their species, so no requirement for life-support. The captain had been beside himself with excitement. To be able to hunt, pillage and loot,andhave a good time doing it, what could be better? Everyone agreed.Except for me.294 didn’t understand why he was so different to the rest, but he was.
He could see their final destination through the window, floating in the blackness of space. The planet was more enticing than any other he’d seen. So much water made it beautiful. But if it offered the resources they wanted, the thousands of vessels that would follow theirs would split the planet’s skies open like a wound. Surrender would have been demanded in a language the inhabitants couldn’t understand. The land and oceans would only have been seen for what they could offer another species.My species.Cities would have been destroyed. People wouldn’t have mattered. The planet would have been sucked dry of everything usable.
But not now. 294 almost wished this disaster was his fault. It would have been something to be proud of.
The captain had stopped shouting. 294 was surprised he hadn’t abandoned ship on one of the transporters they used to send material back home. There were five vehicles left. Five more planets to ruin before they could return. Now that wasn’t going to happen.
“294! To me! Now!” Lanu finally yelled.
294 tensed. He had no choice but to obey hisother’sorder. He was already in pain because his first instinct hadn’t been to rush to him. He saw that 154 was already attached to Gash, wrapped around him, blending with him, protecting him. 294’s pain would stop when he did the same. He crawled across the floor towards Lanu.I don’t want to help him try to survive. He found himself moving more slowly.
“Hurry, you coward!” Lanu yelled.
No, 294 wasn’t going to do that.I hate you!As Lanu snarled and leapt towards him, the ship rocked violently and 294 was sent skittering across the deck. He couldn’t help it, but Lanu bellowed with rage, flung himself after him and snagged one of his four arms.
Luckily, it was the wrong arm. The one without receptors. The mistake enabled 294 to pull back and break their connection. He glimpsed the fury on Lanu’s face and managed a secret smile.A death of my choosing.Maybe the best he could hope for. At least his last act had been one of rebellion. Then the vessel slammed into the ground and darkness wrapped around him.
1
Kaden hurried out of his building and over to Harris’ car. He slid into the passenger seat and smiled at his boyfriend. “Morning.”
“I said seven twenty. It’s now seven thirty.”
“Sorry.” Kaden didn’t bother offering an excuse because none would be acceptable to Harris. Not even a fire in the building or having to give the Heimlich manoeuvre to a neighbour or saying he’d overslept because he’d stayed up late working on his book. Which was the truth. Nothing should have interfered with Kaden’s arrival at the car ten minutes earlier, not even a bleed from a femoral artery.
Harris checked his mirror, indicated and pulled out into traffic. “Those few minutes make all the difference. Look at the traffic!”
It was always busy, though Kaden wouldn’t say that either. “At least you’re going against the flow.”
They were heading out of London not into it.
Harris huffed. “Remember not to touch anything.”
“You already told me.”
“Because it’s important. Touch nothing!”
How old does he think I am? Seven?“What if someone wants to shake my hand?”
