The view on the other side causes me to stumble backward, even though I’ve seen it before. The vast, empty plains angry with red-orange dunes as far as the eye can see. In the distance, thick storm clouds blot out the horizon. Just before the clouds, looming like a malevolent shadow, are the mountains that could mean my salvation—or my death.
Was I an idiot for even attempting this? The facility here is safe, I know this for sure. Whatever awaits on the other side of those mountains? A total question mark. The sector Calix has read about in his father’s notes could have been destroyed. I could be risking both our lives in this crazy endeavor.
“I know you hate me,” Aria begins.
I look up from the minnasuit—one that’s smaller and more form-fitting than the other—I’m trying to figure out how to fasten. “I don’t hate you,” I say before she can speak again. “I wish you’d let me make decisions for myself.”
My response stuns her to silence and then she gives a little wry laugh. “You sound just like my little sister, Limerick. I used to boss her around, too. I guess when I realized Calix woke you up, I tried to be your big sister, too, rather than the friend I should have been.” She pauses, rubbing a hand over the gentle swell of her belly. “I guess I was a little desperate for her and I took it out on you. Can you forgive me?”
Family.
The concept is a foreign one to me, that’s for sure. It hadn’t occurred to me she looked at me in that way. The only family I’d ever known—my mother—died when I was younger. I admit as much to her. “I lost my only family when I was a teenager. It’s probably as much my fault as it is yours. I don’t have much experience in the family department lately either.”
Aria lifts her hand from her stomach and starts forward like she might pull me in for a hug, but I sidestep her attempt. Hurt flashes in her eyes, briefly, but she blinks it away. Maybe one day I’ll feel comfortable with her, but I’m still harboring some hard feelings toward her and how she’s handled things on my behalf.
“I hate that you’re leaving just when we’ve started to work things out,” Aria says with a small smile. “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid while you’re out there?”
I think of the mountains, the long, almost impossible trip, and the burning in my chest I’m trying to ignore. “I’ll do my best,” I tell her. “Do you know exactly how we’re supposed to be traveling?”
She pulls me to the window. “That’s what I was going to talk to you about before you left.” Aria points to a dock of sorts outside the facility. “Calix requested you use one of the little four-wheeler like vehicles they have. They call them terrainsters. It’s not in the best repair, but we can’t afford to let the other go, not with the geostorm coming.”
“I understand.” Nerves jangle in the pit of my stomach, but I’ve committed to our plan now. There’s no turning back.
“You’ll be safe,” Oz, the mort covered in grease, explains in an almost shy way. He squints his eyes and then smiles reassuringly. “I have tested it several times.”
“Trust,” Calix murmurs to me. “Oz can fix just about anything. Between him and Jareth, I know it will work just fine.” He saunters over to the vehicle to toss in some gear.
The entire faction—the group of morts and us two human girls—stands on the ship deck, fully covered in what they call zu-gear over our minnasuits. Several morts, who are unrecognizable behind their masks, load items into the back of the vehicle we’ll be taking.
“Remember,” the one with slightly slanted eyes says. Galen, I think. “Don’t eat any plants on your journey. They most likely aren’t safe. The rations I prepared will be sufficient.”
I nod my understanding.
The one named Jareth bounds over to me the moment Galen leaves. “Just push the button and watch the brilliance happen.” He points at Oz. “Genius, that one.” His lips turn up in a cocky way from behind his mask. “Of course, the vacuuroom wouldn’t be possible without my knowledge of metals and their capabilities. You’ll understand later.”
I barely utter out my thanks before someone else is in my face.
“I’d take you for a ride in Mayvina,” Theron, a guy just as energetic as Hadrian, says, “but she’s a little ill at the moment. We’re working on making her as good as new.”
Another giant mort nudges me with his elbow. “Don’t take rides from the likes of him,” a familiar voice says. “Stick with Calix. He’ll keep you safe.” Sayer. I recognize his voice from many of the times he spoke over the comms.