Chase You To The Sun (23 page)

Would she ever meet Bruce again? Probably not. He’d made it very clear why they shouldn’t stay in touch, and if she was completely honest with herself, he was right. Maybe she’d see his face on the news sometimes. She prayed to whatever God was listening that he wouldn’t be arrested or killed in the war he’d started to take Prometheus. Even though he’d done terrible things, she didn’t think he deserved to be in prison. Not anymore. By saving those children, he’d redeemed himself and come clean with a darker past in which he’d forgotten why he was fighting in the first place.

If only she could tell him her thoughts. She was convinced it would bring one of those rare, genuine faint smiles to his face. A smile she had come to appreciate.

I
t took Lana a few more days to recover and feel strong enough to travel to Desida Two. As expected, Commander Kelso hadn’t hesitated granting the Ivanovs asylum. He’d gotten her a temporary job in Space Exploration, and her dad was all set to help the scientists in the brand new Geotechnology lab. If anything, he knew his soil types.

In the meantime, reports of the scandal surrounding Ivanov Mining Industries were beginning to float around the web. Somehow, the German edition of the Martian Herald had managed to get a hold of the videos Bruce had paid a fortune for, exposing the lies of the Russian and British governments. Still, the war raged on. Prometheus partly belonged to the Brits, so they had gotten involved too. Sutton was buzzing with talk about a revolution – overthrowing the current Elite government and replacing them with democratically-chosen representatives of both sides, common and Elite, was the talk of the town. Ava and Nicolas were out during the day, busying themselves with calming down some of the more belligerent Suttoners. Lana knew the townspeople were hoping Nicolas would step up and do something to call the corrupt British Elite to order and find like-minded Elitists to call for justice. Since he was married to Ava, another icon of commoner-Elite collaboration in these regions, he was the uncrowned prince of a new, Earth-focused movement crying out for change.

The evening before Lana and Anatoly Ivanov were scheduled to fly out to their new home on board a slow cruiser, Lana bumped into Ava and Tori sitting in the garden, tending a fire.

“You want some?” Tori pointed at the chestnuts she and Ava were roasting above the fire.

“Of course.” Lana sat down next to Ava, picking up a few chestnuts from the plate in her lap. “Thanks.”

As the fire hissed and popped, the girls fell silent. In the past few days, they’d all talked so much about the state of the world and what was to be done that Lana had been able to dodge the subject of her and Bruce, but she knew Tori would bring it up again sooner or later.

Surprisingly enough, Ava was the one with the opening move. “So, you and that rebel pirate, huh?” she said quietly.

Lana gulped down the cotton ball stuck in her throat. “It’s nothing,” she deflected.

“Is that why you watch every news item with him in it?” Tori commented, munching on a chestnut. “Or why you keep that old smart phone charged and next to your bed every night?”

Lana turned red. Nothing got by her friend – she was keeping the phone close by because it reminded her of her time at the Randall house, and because Bruce knew how to contact her on that phone. “I don’t have my pad,” she mumbled.

“Sure.”

With a frustrated sigh, Lana threw the shells of her peeled chestnuts in the brazier, watching the flames licking them slowly away. “I don’t want to talk about this. Bruce told me I would never see him again. Besides, he’s dangerous, and the whole thing is impossible.”

“You like him?” Tori asked, gently putting a hand on Lana’s shoulder.

Once upon a time, she’d been too scared of him to truly like him, but things were different now. “Yes.” The word was out, and there was no way to undo it.

“I know all about impossible love,” Ava chimed in calmly. “And I’ll be the last one to judge you for liking someone you’re not supposed to like.”

Tori sighed. “Well said, Ava. Ditto for me. Besides, Bruce may be a dangerous criminal, but thanks to him we’ve seen some long-overdue changes in the upper echelons of society.”

“Well, according to Alen, Bruce never meant to do that,” Lana said a bit sourly. “He’s only interested in money, remember?”

Tori chuckled. “Alen can be pigheaded sometimes.”

“Ooh, is the glow of love wearing off?”

“No. I’m just being realistic.” Tori patted her back. “And so should you. It’s pretty hard to love a man on the run from the authorities in the entire solar system. You’ve gotta keep that in mind.”

“I’m not in love with him,” Lana objected. “I just – miss him.”

Tori’s face turned serious. “Didn’t he hurt you?”

“Yes, he did. But most of that was not against my will, Vitusya.” Lana bit her lip. “In a way, I seduced him. Not the other way around.”

“Wow. That’s brave.”

“Funny. That’s what he said.” Lana smiled faintly.

They all stared into the flames, contemplating the things that would happen in the near future. Ava was trying to get the commoners from Sutton organized into more than just a riot-instigating group of loudmouths, assisted by her husband and her best friend Georgie. Tori and Alen would be going back to Desida Two on the same cruiser, both of them involved in a project set up by some Desidan officials to investigate the Saturnian wormhole. And Lana was going to assist them, making sure representatives from all countries and alliances had equal opportunities to access the black hole as a portal once they’d established it was safe to use for travel.

There’d be plenty of work to keep her mind off Bruce.

“Well, here we go,” Lana said as she boarded the cruiser docked at the spaceport near Old London the next morning. She shot her dad an anxious smile.

“Still nervous about traveling through space?” he laughed. “We’ll be fine.”

“To be fair, Mr. Ivanov, last time she traveled by spaceship, she was kidnapped,” Tori remarked drily.

“That won’t happen now. Mr. Randall has got his hands full.”

This morning’s headlines had screamed VICTORY FOR REBELS in every newspaper. Apparently, more commoner rebels from Amalthea and Mimas had joined Bruce’s war effort, keeping the Russian and British armies at bay in the Promethean region. As a result, Desida Two had left its usual orbit because it was too close to Prometheus. Commander Kelso had used the on-board thrusters to move the space station away from the war zone and closer to Saturn’s G-ring.

“I’m not worried about being kidnapped,” Lana reassured her father. “Just – flying does.”

“You should take flying lessons,” Alen said with a smile. “You might feel more comfortable when you’re at the helm.”

Lana raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying I’m a control freak?”

“No.
You
just said that.” He grinned amiably.

“Tsk.” Lana nudged Tori in the side. “Vitusya, your boyfriend is teasing me.”

“Is he? I’ll have to punish him.”

Alen shot his girlfriend a devilish smile. “You’re on,
draga
.”

A small pang went through Lana’s heart as she listened to the happy couple flirting with each other. She’d hardly had light-hearted conversations like these with Bruce. In fact, there had been nothing light-hearted about their connection at all. It had been dark, intense and pretty violent. She should be happy it was over – after all, she’d have enough darkness in her familiar Elite world to cope with as it was.

Even though her father had been granted asylum on Desida Two, he was traveling with a fake passport, just like Lana. After all, he would be ‘fair game’ to the Russians prior to boarding the station. His temporary name was Artyom Kasparov. Nicolas had taken care of his fake papers, arranging for a complete set of forged ID-chips and cards that had been dropped off at the house in Sutton in the early morning.

Mr. Ivanov carried Lana’s suitcase and his own to the small room they’d booked on board the space cruiser with the money they’d borrowed from Alen. Her father had promised to pay the Croatian officer back as soon as he could – he felt hugely uncomfortable now that they were dependent on people’s charity.

“Well, here we are,” he said, pushing the door to their room open, looking around a bit forlornly. “Bunk beds. Hm.”

“I’ll use the top bunk,” Lana quickly offered. “I don’t mind.”

Her dad smiled. “In that case, you can use the table over there for all your stuff. Or as much as you can fit onto that pad-sized surface, anyway.”

Lana rolled her eyes. “Dad. Easy on the sarcasm, please. Your days of luxury are over. Get used to it.”

Mr. Ivanov sank down on the small sofa near the porthole. “Why is this so easy for you, Sveta? You make me feel like a spoilt brat.”

Lana shrugged. “It’s not. It’s just that I’ve accepted the fact that my life has changed. I’ll have to adapt.” She sat down next to her dad. “But I understand why you wanted the best for me and Mom. I probably wouldn’t have taken it so well if you’d told me we were out of money during my years on Mars.”

He blinked at her hopefully. “So you don’t blame me?”

“I do.” She sighed. “But I’m happy you’re here, and we’ll work things out.”

At that moment, the captain announced take-off on the ship’s PA system, so Lana quickly jumped up to sort out her baggage. Just sitting there would make her much too nervous. Her smart phone had been in the sun yesterday and was fully charged. From now on, she’d have to hook it up to her old charger if she wanted to keep it switched on. The sunlight near Desida Two was way too faint to charge her phone the regular way.

“What’s that?” her dad inquired when she put Bruce’s poetry book on the table next to her new make-up bag.

“A book,” she replied a bit hesitantly.

“I didn’t know you read paper books.” He smiled up at her. “Did Ava give you one of hers because you lost your pad?”

“No.” Her hand stroked the dust jacket. “It’s from the Randall house.”

Mr. Ivanov observed her curiously. “How come you have it?”

“Because...” She stopped, the truth lodged in her throat. She didn’t even know if it
was
the truth. Had Bruce given her the book because she loved it so much – or had he wanted to give her something to remember him by? Maybe it was even because reading the book would have reminded him too much of her.

“Sveta,” he said softly. “What happened in that house?”

She waited for a few beats, staring at the sun through the window in their room. “Why did you say Bruce killed Mom?” she whispered. “When we had that video call? I bet you knew that wasn’t true.”

He cast his gaze to the floor. “Because it was easier to blame him than blaming myself.”

“But it wasn’t your fault either.”

“It was.” Mr. Ivanov clenched his jaw. “If I hadn’t run the company like I did, Randall wouldn’t have had reason to ask your mother to visit the mines.”

She fell silent. “I don’t think you should blame anyone,” she finally said. “
Mama
was killed in a war that’s been going on for far longer than just these past few days.”

During her time at the Carter’s farm, she’d been talking to Alen and Nicolas a lot. Ever since Tori had told her about her boyfriend’s prison past, she’d been intrigued by Alen Novak, a rags-to-riches man from a Croatian backwater town. He’d told her about his struggles. And Nicolas had related to her how his family had always frowned upon his amicable dealings with commoners, finally casting him out of their Lunar community when he’d announced his engagement to his partly common half-niece Ava. Commoners and Elitists didn’t often see eye to eye, and even members of the Elite had to play by the rules, as Bruce had put it, or risk being pushed out. It was shocking to discover just how sheltered her life had been thus far – she’d never known how bad the situation truly was. The two men’s stories had brought back to mind what Hikaru had related to her about his former employers. Of course, the Sanyo family was notorious for being disagreeable even in Elite circles, but she was pretty sure Hikaru’s case wasn’t an isolated event.

“So, what happened?” her dad gently interrupted her musings.

Lana closed her suitcase with a thud, pushing it under the bed. “Nothing important,” she said, turning away from her father. “It’s just an unfortunate memory.”

Traveling on a high-tech cruiser had exceeded their budget. The Ivanovs’ trip to Saturn took them two whole days instead of two hours. By the time they assumed orbit around the gas giant, following the path of the Saturnian G-ring, it was late night. The ship ran on standard Earth/Martian time, so fifty hours had elapsed since their departure from Old London. Lana felt drained from the constant, slight apprehension she’d felt during the journey. Every little ion storm they’d hit had made her tense up and seek out Tori’s company, who was always so wonderfully calm on board any kind of vessel.

“Look, we’re here,” Tori enthused, gaping out of the biggest window in the mess hall. “That’s our home. And it’ll be yours, too.”

Lana followed her gaze and sucked in a breath. It looked so much like Desida One that she couldn’t help feeling she’d simply returned to her own station. The only difference was the gigantic, ringed planet of gold and amber in the background. “Yes, I think I’ll fit right in,” she replied softly. “Thanks for taking us in, Vitusya.”

“Don’t thank me, thank Kelso,” Tori grinned. “Oh, and Alen, of course. He talked to the commander on your behalf.”

The ship swiftly approached the station. It didn’t take long before Mr. Ivanov entered the hall to find his daughter. “From now on, we don’t know each other,” he said sternly, handing her the small suitcase that belonged to her. “I’ll leave the ship by myself when they dock at Hydroponics. I’m supposed to report straight to Geotechnology.”

Lana bit back some tears. “Well – maybe we can become friends,” she suggested. “You’re working in the same department as Tori, so we might run into each other every now and then.”

Her father smiled. “I’ll make sure of that, miss Petrova.”

“Don’t you forget it, Mr. Ivanov.”

Saturn Boulevard was the first docking point for the cruiser. The enormous walkway was practically deserted at this late hour, save for a pair of beaming girls waiting for them to disembark.