Chase You To The Sun (24 page)

“Oh my God, you’re back!” a blonde girl with a pixie haircut exclaimed as Tori exited the airlock. Lana blinked in astonishment – Shirley had changed so much. She hadn’t seen the girl in years. Anna, standing next to her blonde friend, still looked more or less the same, albeit a bit more voluptuous than she’d been in high school. They both hugged Tori tightly before turning their gaze to Alen and her, still standing near the exit.

“Lana?” Anna ventured. “It’s you, right?”

Lana cracked a smile. “Yes, it’s me.”

“Well have you ever,” Shirley laughed. “What are you doing here?”

“I was on the same ship Alen and Tori were on when we were attacked,” Lana explained. “We spent some time on Earth together.”

“Well, we’re gonna design T-shirts for all of you,” Anna said decidedly. “I already told Jari to book the laser printer in Repro. ‘I was attacked by pirates and survived!’ How’s that for a slogan?”

Giggling and chatting, the group walked down the boulevard, Lana trailing a bit behind. At some point, Alen caught her eye and fell into step beside her. “Will you be all right?” he inquired.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I just – I feel lost. Even though this station looks a lot like Desida One.”

“I’ll ask Tori to show you to your new quarters, okay?” He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “And after you’ve settled in, you should meet us for a late-night drink in
The Spark
.”

“
The Spark
?” she echoed.

“Yeah. It’s the coolest bar on the Boulevard.”

“Oh yeah? Why?”

“They play the best music.” His eyes glinted. “Plus, it’s where I kissed Tori for the first time.”

It was official – Alen was the cutest guy ever. “So what was that like?” Lana wanted to know, a smile spreading across her face. “I bet it was romantic.”

He grimaced. “Up until the point she shoved me away and told me I was just playing games, yes.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah, that hurt. But it all worked out in the end.” He shrugged. “Sometimes you hurt the ones you love the most.”

Inadvertently, Lana rubbed the spot in her neck. The bite mark had faded away, but the memories of Bruce holding her that night he’d told her how he became the man he was today still lingered. “I guess,” she mumbled, her voice thick.

At that moment, Tori turned around and grabbed her hand. “Let’s go to your new apartment,” she said with a warm smile. “I’ll show you. It’s very easy – the escalator right next to the fountain will take you there. You’re lucky, being so close to the Boulevard and all.”

“Thank you,” Lana whispered, feeling deeply grateful for being here. She didn’t have to feel lost and lonely. Although her dad was now officially no longer her dad, he’d be there for her if she needed him. Tori, Anna, and Shirley would settle her in. Alen would become a good friend as well. She was among friends and family.

When the door to her new quarters swished open and Lana’s gaze landed on the moving boxes of stuff she thought were still on Desida One, she grabbed Tori’s hand. “How did you – oh, everything’s here!”

Her friend shot her a wide grin. “I told Commander Kelso to go the extra mile. Thought it’d make you feel welcome.”

Lana pulled Tori into a tender hug. “You’re the best,” she whispered. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“That’s okay,” Tori said a bit shyly. “I’ll leave you to it. Will I see you in
The Spark
later on?”

“Oh, the bar where you first spurned Alen’s advances?” Lana winked.

“He told you that?” her friend spluttered.

“Yes, he did. Now get out of here. You can tell me more about that bad start later.”

Silence descended in the barely-furnished room after Tori left. Lana looked around, mentally trying to figure out where to put what before opening a single box. She’d have to get the rest of her belongings from Mars soon – provided she could pay for that. Her first paycheck had yet to materialize. She’d have to get new clothes, too. Parading around in Elite outfits was out of the question now. She was no longer a trade liaison for the Elitists on Desida One, and the fictitious Lana Petrova wasn’t Elite – her alter ego had been a scholarship student.

Just as she set course for the adjacent room to inspect the bed and the bathroom, a rumbling sound filled her quarters. In fact, the whole station seemed to vibrate, as if it were a ship about to be hit by a massive wave.

Lana screamed at the top of her lungs when the floor suddenly quaked under her feet, a potent shockwave from space rippling all over and through and around Desida Two. The tremor was so powerful it knocked her to the floor. What the hell was going on? Was the station under attack?

A blaring alarm in the corner made her jump out of her skin. “Attention, all station personnel,” a calm, female voice announced. “Please make your way to the nearest emergency assembly point in an orderly fashion. There is no need for panic.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re a computer!” Lana snapped at the intercom above her head. “
Bozhe moi
.” She scrambled to her feet, staggering to one side as a second wave struck the station.

When she emerged into the hallway, droves of people were making their way to the escalator she’d used to get here. Deciding that the herd mentality was the way to go for now, Lana fell into step beside an elderly man staring straight ahead. “What’s going on?” she addressed him.

“I have no idea,” he replied, his voice remarkably steady for a man his age. “It could be an ion storm, but that must be the biggest one in history, then. It felt more like a giant explosion.”

An explosion – could the Promethean war have landed at their doorstep? “Why aren’t they telling us more?” Lana grumbled.

“Commander Kelso probably doesn’t know what’s going on either.”

For now, the waves rocking the station had abated, but Desida Two was still trembling slightly. Downstairs, Lana bumped into her group of friends, who’d all assembled in front of the big fountain near the security office.

“I wonder what just happened,” Alen said, keeping an eye on the crowd around the fountain to calm people down if need be. “Pavel’s waiting in the office for further instructions. He said we might have to evacuate.”

“Damn,” Anna gasped, looking around with a wild look in her eyes. “I wish I knew where Jari is.”

Lana froze. Speaking of which – where was her dad? She pulled Tori’s arm inconspicuously. “Where’s the assembly point for Geotechnology?” she hissed.

“On Deck Thirteen. Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. Let’s just stay put for now.”

Several minutes went by, during which the station wouldn’t stop shaking. The people on the Boulevard were starting to look increasingly alarmed, a buzz of impending doom going around like a swarm of bees.

“Where’s Pavel?” Tori asked anxiously. “Shouldn’t he have received more detailed instructions by now?”

Right at that instant, the overhead speakers crackled to life and an authoritative, booming voice addressed the congregation near the fountain. “This is Commander Kelso. Desida Two will not have to be evacuated. I repeat, no evacuation will be necessary.” He paused for a few seconds. “We’ve just received word from the authorities on Mimas. The shockwave we experienced was caused by a giant explosion. Apparently, Prometheus has been destroyed.”

Lana’s mouth fell open. The entire moon was
gone
?

“What the...” Alen was a pale as a sheet. “They nuked the moon with all those rebel troops on it?”

That’s when it dawned on her.

Bruce was dead. They’d bombed Prometheus to take out his troops.

A shaky gasp escaped her throat as she sagged to her knees in the middle of the hallway, clasping a hand over her mouth to stop herself from crying out his name. “No,” she whispered. “Oh, God, no. Not like this.”

It was too late to ever try and see him again. He was gone – taken in the line of fire, because he’d wanted to somehow change the world. Dark as his soul might have been, she could have tried and taken him closer to the sun to chase away his shadows.

And then, she felt Tori’s gentle arms around her shoulders. “Calm down,” her friend tried to soothe her. “Just hold on to me.”

Lana complied, not knowing what else to do. Hot tears burned in her eyes. They were tears of loss and regret. She’d lost someone she didn’t know she cared this much about, and the fact that she realized it too late filled her with deep sorrow.

As the crowd around her dispersed, she softly cried in her best friend’s arms. Slowly but surely, the station stopped shaking, yet the tremors in her body wouldn’t subside. When Lana finally looked up again, her father was standing over her, his hand on her shoulder, watching her silently with a helpless look in his eyes. He knew – surely he knew why she was crying. Whom she was shedding her tears for.

“Come,” he said. “Let’s go upstairs and have a drink. I sure as hell need one.”

Lana wiped her cheeks, slowly letting go of Tori. “But – we can’t be seen together.”

“I don’t care,” Mr. Ivanov replied. “I want to be there for you.”

She smiled through her tears. “Okay. Let’s go down some vodka.” She turned to Tori. “Still up for a drink?”

The German girl let out a deep sigh. “You bet. We can watch the news on the big screen in the bar.”

Lana looked around. “Where did Alen go? And the girls?”

“Alen went back to his office to talk to the Mimas border patrol. They’ll know what happened exactly. An and Shir are waiting for us in
The Spark
.”

“Okay.” She staggered to her feet, grabbing her dad’s shoulder to steady herself. In a daze, she followed her friend upstairs to the balcony overlooking the boulevard, which was a part of Deck Nine. Tucked away in a less busy corner of the floor level was a quaint-looking, cozy bar with a glow-in-the-dark comet sign above the door. Lana felt the ghost of a smile pass over her face when she heard they were playing a Bowie song inside. No wonder this was her friend’s favorite hangout. The place looked great.

It was quiet. Anna and Shirley were sitting on a sofa near an old flat screen TV on the right, beckoning them over. They were both sipping wine and watching the latest news with disbelieving eyes.

“These images just came in,” Shirley pointed at the screen. “It’s surreal. The entire moon is gone. Imagine what this will do to Saturn’s rings.”

“What will it do to Saturn’s rings?” Lana repeated dumbly.

“Prometheus was a shepherd moon,” Anna explained. “Without it, the rings around the planet will no longer be constrained perfectly. They might start to drift apart.”

They all watched the video footage, shot from one of Mimas’s patrol cruisers. It was of poor quality, but the soundless explosion in the mute vacuum of outer space was clearly visible.

“All the gemstone is gone,” Mr. Ivanov burbled numbly. “I can’t believe they did this. It must have been the Brits.”

“What do you mean?” Tori asked.

“The Russians would never blow up that moon,” Mr. Ivanov clarified. “They wanted to recapture it and secure their position within the solar economic system. Tourmaline is power.”

“Then why would the Brits destroy their own moon?” Lana wondered out loud. “Aren’t
they
interested in securing a powerful position?” She stared at her dad wide-eyed. He stared back, the frown between his eyebrow deepening as he seemed to consider something. An incredulous smile slowly started to tug at his mouth.

“My God,” he said. “It wasn’t an attack at all.”

Before the meaning of his words had time to sink in, Alen burst into the bar, followed by a dark-haired man who looked just as Slavic as him. “We just got word from Mimas,” he said once he’d reached the couch, gesturing agitatedly. “Pavel talked to the guy leading tonight’s border patrol. According to him, the Russian and British troops were just withdrawing after another fruitless attack. Suddenly, they picked up a broadcast on all broadband frequencies, stating that Prometheus was rigged with explosives. The message warned everyone to keep clear. Randall’s fleet got out of there before anyone could say ‘bomb’, and then the whole moon got blasted to hell.”

“He destroyed Prometheus himself,” Lana gasped, clenching her hands into fists. “His billion-dollar moon.” She glanced up at Alen defiantly, as if to dare him to say one more bad thing about the British pirate.

This was what Bruce had ultimately set out to do – take away the corruption that had taken root in their society. And by blowing up the source of the precious tourmaline that fueled the Elite economy and showing the world what had been going on behind closed doors for all these years, he’d killed two birds with one stone.

“I – might have misjudged him,” Alen admitted. “I didn’t see this coming.”

“What’s going to happen now?” Tori asked squeakily.

“That’s anybody’s guess. There’ll be a monetary crisis for sure,” Lana replied, distractedly picking up a beer mat from the table. “Not to mention a manhunt for Bruce and his army. He just managed to get himself even more out of favor among the Elite.” But at least he was alive, she mused with a secret smile.

“I’m sure he’ll have won friends among the common rebels, though,” Pavel spoke up. “This is going to be huge. Imagine what this will do to boost morale among the commoners back on Earth. Randall will be their poster boy for revolution. An Elite man who turned against his own kind.”

They all sat down and ordered some more drinks. Lana suddenly didn’t feel the need to numb herself with alcohol anymore. Instead, she wanted to be as alert as possible. This evening was possibly the dawn of a new era – an age in which commoners and Elitists would work closer together, but not without a fight.

“Feeling better now?” Tori mumbled when they both got up to head for the restrooms.

“Yeah.” Lana gingerly smiled.

“So, maybe it’s time to admit to yourself – and me – that you have a very weak spot for the guy.”

They halted at the door to the bathroom. “You think my dad knows?” Lana whispered, biting her lip.

“Yes, I think he does.”

“You think he’s upset?”

Tori shrugged. “Well, he lost his fortune, his mines, and his old life within a few days. I think he’s just happy he still has you, whether you have the hots for some criminal mastermind or not.”