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His voice fell by half an octave, turning somber. “I was a late bloomer. My mating timeline was thrown off, and I never… found a partner during the time when my peers were linking up. There were times I thought, if I ever found closure over Baade, I might come out here and see for myself whether there was any truth to it.”
“You wanted that?” she asked.
“It’s a hard thing not to want. Honestly, I never thought it would work out for me, but… of course I wanted it.”
He didn’t look at her. His eyes remained fixed on the curved habitat as it grew larger in the view. It was almost close enough to see individual towers. Her heart squeezed steadily tighter, the closer they came. Somewhere beyond the Crescent Rim was the jump point that led to Earth, hidden so well that one would need to know to look for it.
A lump lodged in her throat. She walked around the platform again, pulling out her tablet to capture better shots for her album.
The Crescent Rim was far brighter than she recalled, especially in contrast against the physical darkness that coalesced around this outer realm. The city inside looked like brilliant, crystalline diamonds, each strangely-formed spire glowing to the slow ebb-and-flow pattern of embers. She took her pictures.
Caligher stopped beside her and she felt his silence intensifying. The air tickled with static and she wondered what he must be thinking now that he saw it with his own eyes. Was he imagining the mate he never found? Insecurity reared its head and Lucca fought the ugly feeling down.
Sudden awareness flittered over her. The inside of the cockpit lit brightly.
She turned and saw him flashing his haywire signals. That faint inkling she felt graduated to alarm.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
He said nothing. Only placed a palm on the window and stared at the false moon with visible, palpable rage.
“Caligher?”
Reluctantly pulling her eyes from him, she turned to study the city, to try to see what he saw. The more she looked, the lessrightit appeared. Her breath died in her lungs, leaving a deep chill in its place.
The city looked strange because it had been melted down.
They weren’t looking at a city any longer.
The Crescent Rim had been demolished.
* * *
Their course continued on to the dark circle of the jump gate, hidden a few hours deeper. Caligher climbed up top to his ship to bring them in as Lucca’s heart calcified into stone. She had worried her hair to the point of breakage, retying it compulsively. She’d chewed her inner cheek, picked at her nails, and exhausted every nervous tick to the point of frenetic pain. A bad feeling was lodged in her chest and nothing in the universe would expel it.
Once they were in range of the gate, a notice chimed on her computer. A message had been left for her former captain, triggered to go off once the Selkie moved into range.
Project Selkie was a great success. The site known as the Crescent Rim has been cleared of local life forms while preserving the overall structure and habitability. Our tests have gone spectacularly, and we could not have done it without you. Go home. Hug your families for those of us who can’t. On behalf of the human race, thank you.
She stared at the message left behind by Commander Terry Collins for so long, she didn’t notice Caligher standing beside her at first. The console screen reflected his bioluminescent churning. She caught a heart-jolting glimpse of his marble-cut face, eyes flickering over the explosive text, reading it over her shoulder.
The message was brief, but she could fill in the missing details.
It was clear that the Aerinus warship had destroyed the Crescent Rim. Data sent out from the Selkie—her ship—had been gathered and used by the fleet. Lucca had guarded her ship and maintained its systems, having no real clue what it was that she protected.
She understood what was supposed to happen next. Earth’s climate was more unstable than ever. The human population increased at a perpetual rate. What could be more ideal than moving to a different planet—a fresh, new planet with no competition?
Checking the timestamp, she determined that the Aerinus had come through less than two months earlier. They’d missed them.
“Fuck,” she swore.
She was going to betray the military fleet. It would be treason—even she knew that—and it was her only option left.
It was like when they’d been under attack.
What happened?Someone shot at us.
What do we do?We fight.
