How the heck did I end up in the exact same lite ship as last time?

There were countless ships in the hangar, but, somehow, I was drawn to the same one I had used on the Jupiter mission. I didn’t realize it until I walked into it and gagged from the gassy stench of Jupiter. Not only did it smell awful, but it brought back memories.

I saw the bloody gas of the Scarlet Storm. I felt the rushing wind, threatening to blow me away. That mission had been a partial success, but, to me, it had been a huge failure. Kaela would never have gotten hurt if I hadn’t resurrected those AI. Maybe I shouldn’t have come on this mission…or any missions.

“Uh, Wander?” Laura said. I looked to my left, where she sat beside me. She pointed at my hands, which were softly crackling with electricity. I shook them until they stopped. I could still feel the ghost of the electricity tracing my fingers. “What was all that about?”

I’d forgotten that we had already taken off. The starry darkness of space drifted by the windows. Manning sat in the captain’s chair since this was his mission. It was weird seeing him pilot, almost as weird as the fact that I hadn’t piloted in a while. I would have to change that if we survived this mission. Oh, right. Laura had asked me something.

“Nothing. Everything. Jupiter.” I struggled to make sense of my racing thoughts. “Last mission didn’t end well. Makes me wonder why I volunteered for this one.

“We’re doing it for Instructor Manning, duh. Can you imagine having another Humanity’s Oath member around? What kind of Implants do you think they’ll have?”

I shuddered as that sank in for the first time. All Humanity’s Oath members were Implanted. We were about to meet and rescue a new Hybrid. Hopefully, they had more answers than we did. I wanted to know why and how Hybrids existed. No one else seemed to know.

“Hopefully, they have the power of knowing all the answers. I know that’s basically Manning’s power, but he’s not great at using it.” I rubbed my hands to make sure they were crackle-free. I lowered them and caught a glimpse of Laura frowning at the floor. I knew what that look meant…well, everyone knew what a frown meant. “What about you? Are you sure you want to be here?”

“Don’t you think you should have asked me before we left the planet? Anyway, it’s cool. I know you’re worried, but I’m more sleepy than depressed right now.” She fiddled with the piercing in her left ear. “There’s just one thing that bugs me: who am I supposed to be now? Everything about me came from wanting to impress them. My dyed hair, this piercing, my good grades; none of them mean anything anymore. Who is ‘Laura Genki’?” She noticed my confused expression and chuckled. “Sorry, I know I sound like I’m a middle schooler again.”

“You sound like a dunce.” Nessa sat to my right, facing the window. I’d forgotten she was there. For the first time ever, she was wearing her full silver and black space suit. It was so weird seeing her in it. All I could focus on were her arms.

“What?” Laura’s fierceness snapped back like a switch. “Trying to pick a fight or something? You don’t even know me!”

“You don’t know yourself.” Nessa whipped around, scowling. It had been such a mistake to sit between the two most aggressive girls I knew. “You never should have relied on parents. All they ever do is disappoint. Just look at how lost you are without their safety net. Now is the time for experimentation. See just how much they’ve been holding you back.”

Was that supposed to be advice? I guess I couldn’t expect Nessa to say anything heartwarming. I couldn’t help but feel that she was speaking from experience, though.

Laura crossed her arms and slumped in her seat. “I’ll show you experimentation. Stupid silver girl.”

Thank goodness she didn’t explode. I would have hated to be caught up in that. Now I just had to figure out what Nessa was talking about. Her dad must have done something to disappoint her. Something worth scratching out his face and running away to become a rebel.

“Hey, Rookie, hold out your hand,” Nessa suddenly said. I hesitated because this felt like a trick you fell for in school: you’d hold out your hand, and someone would put a bug in it. I’d fallen for that one too many times. “I’m confident that I didn’t stutter. Do it before I change my mind.”

Now I was too curious to resist. I looked at Laura for support, but her eyes were shut and her head down. She was asleep. That had been fast. She really deserved that nap.

I gulped and held out my hand. She placed hers on top. Despite the fact that both of us were wearing suits, her touch was warm. She dropped something into my hand and yanked hers away. Sitting in my palm was a blue pen with glowing silver lines racing down it. I recognized it immediately. I had had one before a ruabrum had destroyed it and sliced my palm open. My hand stung just thinking about it.

“A vivepen?” I tilted my hand back and forth, rolling it around. “How—when did you make this? Is it why you wanted me back at the forge so badly?”

“Partially,” she said. “I don’t make gifts too often. It would have been nice to give it to you back on Earth, but this is fine too. I even modified it to include that illuminated text feature yours had. It’s as if you never lost it.”

Words failed me as I held the pen up. I’d only mentioned my old pen once. I didn’t even know she had heard me. Now I felt bad for skipping work. How was I supposed to know that Nessa was secretly generous? She really did like messing with me.

“Your turn. Give me your hand.” I held the pen up as if I were about to draw on air. She eyed me with suspicion. “What, you’re the only one allowed to do that? Come on, it’ll be quick.”

She sighed and held out her hand. I lowered my pen to the back of it and drew a circle. I added two dots for eyes, and a smile. A smiley face. She glared at it, but I knew she secretly loved it.

“Why?” She sounded more annoyed than curious.

“Just testing the pen with something I don’t do anymore.” I clicked the pen. The smiley face faded from her hand. The drawing’s data was saved inside the utensil, ready to be unleashed whenever. Now I could annoy her anytime I wanted. “I used my old pen to express myself back when I shut everyone out. I feel gross just thinking about it. Now I can go back to sketching ideas. I know you’ll kill me if I don’t pull my own weight.”

“That’s exactly right. I’m glad you said it before I had to.” She smiled but quickly realized that she was smiling and went back to staring out the window.

I hadn’t had someone to work on tech with since the Moon. My dad’s best friend, Opifex, owned a hardware store. He’d taught me everything I knew. He was my current legal guardian even though I’d left the Moon without telling him. Hopefully, Frost would let him know before he started putting up fliers everywhere. I really needed to apologize if I ever saw him again. That had been such a messed-up thing to do.

“Remember,” Manning said, “we are not warping. We need our cloak to infiltrate the xeno ship. We also need our warp in case of a hostile welcome. We’re manually flying along the path that Mr. Antant outlined for us. Hang tight; reaching our destination will only take a moment.”

A moment? Nothing in a ship took less than a few hours. That was why warps existed in the first place.

The first thirty minutes were fine, but I began to lose my mind as soon we hit thirty minutes and one second. My constant fidgeting wasn’t enough to keep me sane. Despite being in space, my phone hadn’t regained any sort of signal. It was for the best since Surge was so paranoid about Frost tracing us. His fear had spread to me. Wearing this space suit made me feel like Frost was looking over my shoulder. Now I was even thinking like a member of the Oppressed. Was I one? No, I wasn’t falling down this rabbit hole.

I switched between checking our window and the front windshield for any signs of the xeno ship. Occasionally, a lite ship would streak by, and I’d have to stop myself from asking Manning to turn around. Every ship was just so cool: from the scrappiest to the most luxurious. A xeno ship sounded like it leaned toward the latter. Why hadn’t Frost given me a xeno ship? I probably would have refused it in favor of my comfy exploration ship, but still.

“There!” Manning pointed out the windshield as the monitor flashed. A white dot hid behind his finger. It could have been a star, but, since it was growing, it probably wasn’t. “We’re approaching the ship; be on your guard.”

“How are we going to infiltrate?” Nessa asked. “We can’t just fly inside.”

“After I cloak, I propose that we wait until another ship that has business with this one comes along,” he said. “We can sneak onboard while their parking bay is open.”

“That sounds like it’ll take a while,” Laura murmured while rubbing her eyes. Thank goodness I didn’t have to wake her up. “We could be sitting here for hours.”

Manning glared at the dot. “Whatever it takes to get this right. There’s too much riding on our success. We can’t settle for anything less than perfection.”

“Yes, that could achieve results, but there has to be a faster way of…wait.” Nessa stood up and ran to the windshield. She peered out of it like it was a pair of binoculars. “Impossible. That xeno ship is already open.”

Manning tapped the monitor and peered at it. “You’re correct. The parking bay is already open. I don’t understand why, but it is of no concern. We have a way in.”

“No, we have a suspicious situation.” Nessa stepped back from the windshield. Her eyes glowed green as those lines popped up on her forehead. She was using that cerebral implant as usual. “The chances of this occurring naturally are astronomically low. It’s a trap.”

Laura scoffed. “Now you want us to turn around. Your boss is the one who sent us here. You want to disappoint him?”

“Want to know what I don’t want? An early death. If we take their bait, then that’s exactly what we’ll get. Wander, you’re the true leader here, right? Tell them how idiotic this is.”

The xeno ship inched closer by the second. I could just make out the dark opening on the otherwise white ship. Nessa was right to call it suspicious. She was even right to say that we shouldn’t take the obvious bait. But we didn’t have any other options. Especially since the life of a Humanity’s Oath member was at risk. This could have been our only opportunity. If I couldn’t get the generator back for Manning, then I at least had to do this for him.

“This is Manning’s mission, not mine. The final call is his. Besides, Frost isn’t expecting us. She doesn’t know we’re out here or that we even know about the Humanity’s Oath member. We have the element of surprise.”

Nessa narrowed her eyes. “We can’t underestimate Frost. She’s always ten steps ahead.”

“And I am the smartest man in the galaxy.” Manning glared at Nessa. “My Hybrid abilities enhance my brain, so why don’t you just trust my judgment?”

“Because it’s biased! You just want to take whatever shortcut you can to rescue your teammate as quickly as possible. It’s understandable, but please consider the rest of the team.”

Manning looked at each of us. I could see the conflict in his eyes, his intelligence arguing with his emotions. I knew from experience which was going to win.

“We’re pretty used to things going wrong, Nessa,” I said. “Usually, it’s because of me, so this is a nice break. The point is, we’ll handle it. Don’t worry.”

Manning nodded. “Thank you, Wander. I’d just like to say that I wouldn’t lead any of you into danger on purpose. Not after the event that defeated my team in the first place. Everyone, back to your seats, please. I’m taking us in.”

Manning frowned as we swooped toward the ship. Nessa scowled all the way back to her seat. I wasn’t sure who I sided with on this. Manning didn’t like sharing things, so I was sure he knew how high the risk was, but he wasn’t telling. As long as we stayed safe, it didn’t matter. I’d keep everyone safe. That was what a leader did.

The xeno ship looked like Surge’s hologram. It was white except for a handful of blue stripes. Massive jets surrounded the opening that we were drifting toward. I gripped my seat as we passed through the transparent barrier that separated space from the ship. Its role was to ensure that no one got sucked into the ship. The monitor blinked green, indicating that the ship had its own atmosphere. Its well-lit interior replaced the total darkness that we had drifted in from.

This parking bay was white, huge, and held nothing except for a red and black cruiser. The room was emptier than Laura’s house on a weekday. Manning pushed a button for the landing gears, and brought our ship grinding to a halt on the spotless floor. Funny how I hadn’t mentioned those gears too often. Then again, I’d crashed my first ship, so I couldn’t have activated them then.

“Do you guys see anything that classifies as ‘cargo’?” I asked as I scanned the barren room. My gaze lingered on the gamer-colored cruiser. It seemed so familiar.

“As if it was going to be that easy.” Nessa stood and stretched. Her metallic limbs whirled as she did, making surprisingly pleasant background noise. “We’re still alive, so at least the trap wasn’t sprung immediately. It’s also possible that this ship has been boarded by pirates. The crew could be captured or dead. This might be a ghost ship now.”

“Cool,” Laura said as she stood up. “Not the possible deaths of the crew, the pirates. Maybe they’re ghosts now. Wander, can’t you just sense where the ‘cargo’ is with your Hybrid magic?”

I had a lot of problems with that question, but I just rolled my eyes. “I can’t even sense Manning, and he’s right in front of me. I haven’t mastered these stupid powers yet. I don’t know how much help I’ll be.”

“You have a cloaking device, electric hands, and technology manipulation,” Nessa said with a raised eyebrow. “If you don’t end up helping, I’ll tear out your ‘Implants’ and become the new Alpha. Now let’s move.”

She stepped outside, leaving me to wonder if what she’d said would actually work. It’d definitely kill me, so I guessed it didn’t matter. Laura followed her out, but Manning just gazed into the monitor. The vacant look on his face spoke volumes. I’d expected him to be the first one out.

“This must be hard to take in.” I walked up beside him. “You spent years thinking that you were the only one left. Now it’s like you mourned for nothing.”

“Speaking from experience, are you?” Manning stood up, but he still seemed a million miles away. “Apologies if that came off as rude. I’m just not sure how to process all this. I’m thrilled that one of my friends is alive, but I’m more nervous than happy. I feel as though my brain isn’t useful anymore. Usually, our situations don’t surprise me, but I never considered the possibility that President Frost was keeping a Humanity’s Oath member captive. Reality is getting stranger all the time, and I can’t keep up.”

Manning literally couldn’t handle how weird things were getting. From his perspective, the woman he’d trusted with his brother’s fate had kidnapped one of his best friends. On top of stuff like Hybrids and working with the Oppressed, who knew where our reality was headed?

“When all this is over, we’ll be back with Frost in the First Division, and we can confront her about this. Maybe she’ll have a good explanation and things can go back to normal.”

Manning shook his head. “Your youthful optimism is admirable. Unfortunately, life isn’t that simple anymore. Even if Madam President does have a reasonable explanation for this, are you sure we’ll even be seeing her again? Without the generator, would we be welcomed back? How would we even get back to the rest of the First Division? Why are we still with the Oppressed?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “It’s complicated. There’s so much going on that I don’t feel like it’s time to leave yet. But we have to go back eventually, don’t we? Unless we get abducted by another secret organization.”

Manning sighed. “Do you see what I’m referring to? Nothing seems to make sense anymore. Luckily, it doesn’t matter at the moment. We can plan after we save my ally. Also, there’s something that I’ve been meaning to reveal about my abilities—”

“Can we get a move on, please?” Nessa said from outside. I’d forgotten that the girls were waiting on us.

“You can tell me after we ‘get a move on,’ Manning,” I said as I stepped outside.

The huge, empty room smelled like a brand-new ship. Even the First Ship hadn’t smelled this nice, and its parking area had been just like this one. So the First Ship had been like the prime xeno ship? Weird.

Each of our footsteps bounced around the room. Since everything was white, it didn’t even feel like we were making progress. It felt like we were wandering through some sort of white abyss. Nessa broke through that abyss by opening a door in the back of the room. She peeked inside and gasped.

“Whoa. Wander, come look at this!” Nessa bounced on the heels of her feet. I’d never seen her that excited.

“What? Please don’t say it’s an elevator,” I said. “I’m so sick of elevators.”

She ran into the room instead of answering. It had to be something relating to technology. Nothing else could make Nessa so happy.

Laura shrugged and followed her in. Manning and I walked in side by side. The room’s walls were lined with transparent chambers. Tall robots stood inside each of them. They were humanoid up to their heads, which resembled space suit helmets. One wall held blue and green robots, while the other held red and purple ones.

“Robots?” Laura tapped on the glass. Nothing happened, thank goodness. “Weird. For someone who’s at war with AI, Frost has a lot of robots.”

“The glass is intact, so that eliminates the pirate theory.” I crossed my arms. I couldn’t shake the eerie feeling that had crept up my back. It was like standing in a room full of mannequins. Having learned that I had robot bits inside me, I didn’t hate robots as much as I previously had. They still gave me the creeps though. “I wonder what these guys were made for. Do they look after the ship or just clean up after the crew?”

“That’s all you can say?” Nessa’s eyes bulged out of her head as she ran from chamber to chamber. “How are you not as amazed as I am? A thin layer of glass is the only thing separating us from each of these mechanical marvels! Let’s break the glass and salvage some parts. I can use them to modify my suit.”

“No, no, we’re not doing that.” I tugged her shoulder, pulling her away from a chamber. “We don’t steal robots, especially not from President Frost.”

She lurched out of my grasp. “Yes we do, we’re rebels.”

“You’re a rebel.”

“And you’re not? You already failed to betray us once. You’re wearing the proof here.” She tapped the cloaking device attached to my chest.

“Yeah, I remember thinking that you were being too nice about the whole thing. Now I know you were only helping me under Surge’s orders. It’s like you were commanded to be friends with me.”

Where had that come from? I remembered feeling a twinge of annoyance back at Surge’s office, but nothing that extreme. It was just annoying when someone you liked was ordered to spend time with you. I felt like I had been lied to.

She frowned. “Surge doesn’t choose the few friends I have. I could have refused to help, and he could have found someone else to repair the device with you. Believe it or not, I wanted to do it. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

She turned her back and walked away. Why did I care so much about this? Maybe I just thought Nessa was cool. She’d given me a new vivepen. Why wouldn’t I want to be friends with someone so talented, generous, pretty, and cool? Wait, what was that third thing? Never mind.

The next room was dark until we stepped inside, and then a series of lights chased the darkness away. Weapons lined the walls this time. Guns, swords, daggers, and even robot parts? This was the armory? I’d always envisioned armories as being more hidden away or secured. Anyone could have waltzed right in and stolen something from this place.

“Whoa! This is mine now,” Laura said as she grabbed a dagger off of the wall. Its blade was black with a red outline, and it was no longer than a school ruler. “It’s about time I had a cool weapon. One that doesn’t require good eyesight.”

“These are amazing.” Nessa picked up a sniper rifle and cradled it. She reminded me of Kaela and the Gamechanger. “Frost has such amazing weapons in her arsenal. Let’s take them. All of them.”

“What?” I said. “Why do you keep trying to take stuff? We’re here to rescue the captive, nothing more or less. What happened to it possibly being a trap?”

“If we can get all these weapons out, then the danger will be worth it.” She eyed the wall of weapons with greed. “If he has weapons like this, then I need them too.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Who’s ‘he’? Never mind, we just have to keep moving. Take a weapon or two if you want, but don’t let it slow you down.”

She scoffed. “Fine, but we’re coming back. I’ll carry these into the ship myself if I have to.”

What was up with her and weapons? It was fine if she thought they were cool, but that didn’t explain why she wanted her own arsenal. As long as it didn’t slow us down again, I reckoned it didn’t matter.

“This brings back stressful memories,” Manning said as he examined a pistol with two triggers. What was the second one for? Shooting harder? “Gearing up before deployment was the worst part of the job.”

I’d forgotten that Manning hadn’t really wanted to be a soldier. He’d just been following his older brother. Now he had people who followed him. Followed him into a perfectly normal ship free of traps. Please.

The next room was far less deadly than the other ones. Only bunk beds lined these walls. No robots, no weapons, just beds that would make any kid jealous.

“This ship really is meant for soldiers, isn’t it?” Nessa knocked on a wooden frame. “You ever have one of these, Rookie?”

“Kind of. My dad made one himself back when my sis and I were tiny. It was just a bunch of wooden planks screwed together and painted black. If you could even call it a paint job. More like someone just dumped the paint bucket over it.” I smiled at the fond memory before the current state of my family superimposed itself on the happy times. I wondered if Beth remembered the bunk bed. Wherever she was.

“Oh.” Nessa frowned as she caught a glimpse of my face. Sadness flashed in her eyes before she looked away. “Sorry I asked.”

“Don’t be.” I smiled at her. “It was a really happy time in my life. I’d almost forgotten about it. Thanks for reminding me.”

She looked shocked by my reassurance then she returned my smile. Hers was prettier than mine, obviously.

I noticed that Laura was frowning. I knew she remembered that bed because she’d slept in it once or twice. Up until we’d all gotten too big for it. Luckily for the soldiers, these beds were already big. I squinted at the top bunk. Its cover was disheveled, like someone had jumped out of bed and hadn’t remade it. It was the only one that wasn’t perfectly neat. Either this ship was full of tidy and organized people, or only one person inhabited it.

It seemed like things were going easier than I’d expected.

We passed through a few more rooms until we reached a room that was bigger than all the others. It was wide enough to fit a cruiser in and contained nothing except a coffin in the back. I hoped it wasn’t actually a coffin, but it seemed like one. A terminal was hooked up to it, and it beeped occasionally like the machines in hospitals.

“Could it be?” Manning stepped forward and knelt in front of it.

The coffin had a clear top, so you could see inside. Manning peered into it and gasped at what he saw. I ran over and peeked over his shoulder. Lying inside the chamber was a middle-aged woman with a reddish burn scar shrouding the left side of her face, including her eye. Long blonde hair draped the right side. She wore a pink and white space suit. The rubbery parts of her suit were strained by her, muscles? She seemed so familiar…she must have been the woman in the picture I had of the Humanity’s Oath members.

“This is her?” I asked him. “Your teammate?”

Manning nodded as his eyes filled with tears. “Rebecca Stein. Of course it’s her. If anyone were to survive, it’d be her.”

“Whoa, how much does this woman bench?” Laura wondered as she joined us. “Look at those muscles. She could lift a cruiser.”

“How did she end up here?” Nessa rested a hand on her hip as she scowled. “Why is she being transported on an empty ship? Is Frost planning something?”

“Hey, I’m the questions guy.” I jabbed my thumb at my chest. “If we wake her up, then maybe we could ask her. I’ll take a look at this terminal.”

SWOOSH!

“Holy crap. I can’t believe this worked!” said a voice behind me.

My breath caught in my throat. I recognized that voice. It was impossible for its owner to be here. No…impossible didn’t mean anything in this galaxy. Laura gasped, reinforcing my suspicions. I steeled myself and turned toward the voice.

A guy with feathery black hair sneered at us from a door to our left. A scar ran over his flat nose. It was hard to see, but I knew one of his teeth was chipped. Two of the robots from the first room stood by his side. I knew this guy way too well. He wasn’t some faceless grunt, he was someone from my past. From my school life, to be exact.

“Anderson?” I backed up into the coffin. “Anderson Oak?”

His sneer deepened. “What’s up, Locke? It’s been a while.”