Chasing the Stars

by Malorie Blackman

  10

  Darren was about to do something that we’d all regret. I couldn’t let that happen. I spun round and put myself between Vee and him, my back to Vee.

  ‘Darren, you need to calm down,’ I said.

  ‘Nathan, get the hell out of my way,’ he hissed.

  ‘No way. You need to back up,’ I warned him. ‘If it wasn’t for Vee and her brother, we’d all be dead. Like Aidan said, if you want to blame someone, blame the Mazon.’

  Vee moved to stand beside me. I risked a quick glance at her. She stood with her chin up, her head held high.

  ‘Darren, is it? Well, I’m sorry for your loss but believe me, Aidan and I did everything we could to help you. To help all of you,’ Vee said.

  ‘We couldn’t stay any longer,’ said Aidan. ‘The odds weren’t in our favour for rescuing any of you. If it wasn’t for the time bought by my sister when she sabotaged each of the Mazon ships, none of you would be here now.’

  What did Aidan mean by that? How could Vee have sabotaged the Mazon ships singlehandedly? A whole army would have had trouble doing that.

  ‘I don’t care what the odds said about getting us out of there in one piece. She shouldn’t have left anyone behind.’ Darren turned both barrels on Aidan before turning to Vee. ‘My wife and boy are dead. I’ll never forgive you for that.’

  Next to me, Vee flinched. It was almost imperceptible but I saw it. I felt it.

  ‘Why weren’t your wife and child with you?’ Aidan asked.

  Darren’s eyes narrowed. ‘They were in our living quarters and I was working outside of the compound when the Mazon opened fire.’

  ‘Why didn’t you go back for them?’ said Aidan.

  ‘I tried.’ Darren was getting more angry with Vee’s brother with each uttered word. ‘Once the bombing started, I couldn’t get to them.’

  ‘Then you didn’t try hard enough, did you?’ Aidan challenged. ‘I mean, you’re here and they aren’t. Every man for himself?’

  Darren launched himself at Aidan. There was no other word for it. A second later, they were both rolling on the ground and Darren was punching the bloody hell out of Aidan’s face. Some of us had to rush forward to pull him off. Darren was so full of rage, it took four of us to do it.

  Aidan got to his feet, a satisfied half-smile on his face as he considered Darren. Aidan’s lip was split and a couple of drops of blood clung to the corner of his mouth. Slowly, his tongue snaked out to taste the blood on his bottom lip. Wiping at his lip with the back of his hand, Aidan’s head tilted as he contemplated the blood smeared across it. As he raised his head to look at Darren, a strange expression rolled over his face. He was still smiling but there was an unnatural focused calm about him that made me want to take a step back.

  ‘Aidan, stand down,’ Vee urged her brother.

  Aidan took a step forward.

  ‘I said stand down. Damn it, Aidan, I mean it.’ Vee moved in front of her brother. ‘Don’t you dare . . .’

  Aidan turned to look at Vee as if her words were only just registering. The strange, focused expression faded. He stepped back.

  ‘Vee, Aidan, I can only apologize for the behaviour of my second-in-command,’ said Mum. ‘I assure you, we are all . . . grateful for everything you did to rescue us.’

  Wow! Mum’s gratitude was a meagre dish, watery at best. I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Aidan and Vee exchanged a pointed look before Aidan sat back down. Vee stepped further away from me to stand closer to her brother – and I couldn’t say I blamed her. As first impressions went, we were all making a pretty piss-poor one. A tense hush reigned for a few moments as we all waited for someone else to break the silence.

  ‘How long were you all on Barros 5?’ Vee asked at last.

  ‘Just over three Sol months,’ Mum replied.

  ‘Had the Mazon ever attacked you before?’

  ‘No,’ I answered before Mum could. ‘They only became aware of our presence a day ago. That’s when they warned us to leave their planet immediately and go back to where we came from or suffer the consequences.’

  Vee looked at me. ‘Which you took to mean . . .?’

  ‘You’d have to ask my mum that,’ I replied. No way was I jumping in front of that question.

  Looking deeply unimpressed, Vee turned to Mum and waited for an answer.

  ‘I was hoping that with our actions we could persuade them that we were no threat to them,’ said Mum on the defensive. ‘That we might even be a benefit to their community. And besides, we had no way of leaving the planet surface.’

  ‘How did you get there then?’ asked Aidan.

  Mum and Darren exchanged a swift, calculated look, but not swift enough because Vee caught it. Her eyes narrowed slightly.

  ‘A transport left us there,’ Mum answered.

  ‘Why would a transport ship deposit you on a planet in hostile Mazon space with no means of escape?’ Vee looked to me for answers. Answers I couldn’t give her. I met her gaze directly but didn’t say a word.

  Was that disappointment I saw in her eyes? I’d only just met her and yet I felt that in some way that I’d let her down by not being honest with her.

  ‘When you first arrived on Barros 5, why didn’t you send out an emergency signal immediately so that you could be rescued a lot sooner?’ Vee asked. ‘I know you could do that because that’s how my brother and I managed to track you down.’

  Another look exchanged, between me and Mum this time. No one spoke.

  ‘When the Mazon started firing on you, why didn’t you fight back?’ Vee asked.

  Darren frowned. ‘How d’you know we didn’t?’

  ‘I was monitoring the situation as we approached the planet,’ Vee replied. ‘All the weapons fire was coming from one direction.’

  Mum’s lips thinned. ‘We were trying to establish a non-violent colony, to prove to the Mazon that they had nothing to fear from us. All we wanted was a safe haven and peaceful co-existence.’

  ‘Are you serious? You do know that the Mazon hate us humans – right?’ Vee said scathingly. ‘They’re the worst xenophobes in the quadrant. You can’t preach peace to those who revel in hatred and hostility towards anyone who is different.’

  ‘We had to try,’ said Mum. ‘Actions speak louder than words. We wanted to prove to them that they had nothing to fear from us. Besides, with no way off the planet, we had no choice.’

  ‘You had a choice between living and dying,’ Vee pointed out. ‘And another thing, when this ship landed on the planet, some of you initially ran away from us, not towards us. What was that about?’

  No one said a word.

  ‘Well, Aidan, break out the dictionary. We have a ship full of scintillating conversationalists,’ said Vee with enough sarcasm to make me wince.

  11

  Disillusionment was rapidly setting in. Is this what I’d risked my life for? Each and every one of them was hiding something. I didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure that one out. Catherine asked a lot of questions but answered very few, Darren did his thinking with his fists and none of the others had much to say about anything. And the one with the dark hair – Nathan? – he was the biggest letdown.

  When I first saw him and he’d smiled at me, I thought . . . I could’ve sworn . . .

  Well, no matter. I’d been mistaken and that was all there was to it.

  I glanced at my brother. The pointed look he gave me told me that he knew something wasn’t quite right here too.

  We may have been alone for the last few years, but I’d had direct dealings with the Mazon before, which was obviously more than this lot had done. There was no reasoning with the unreasonable. No appeasing the unappeasable. Every word I’d read or heard about the Mazon said it was best to leave their planetary system alone and give them a very wide berth. They were a race who were terrified of change and as a consequence would do anything they could to make sure it never happened. The status quo was their religion. It was pure arrogance to expect the
Mazon to change just because Catherine and her other colonists wanted them to. Where had they been that they didn’t know that? Or maybe they were convinced that the Mazon would make an exception in their case? I had to admit, part of me grudgingly admired these people’s optimism, misplaced and dangerously foolish as it was.

  ‘I’m assuming you had weapons down on the planet?’ I said.

  ‘Enough to protect ourselves against the indigenous wildlife. Not enough to wage war,’ said Catherine.

  ‘Protecting yourself against the Mazon isn’t the same as waging war.’

  ‘We didn’t have the fire power to effectively protect ourselves against them. Besides, how could we hope to convince the Mazon of our good intentions if we fired at them? Sometimes you have to show that peace is more than just a word.’

  ‘By letting them kill you? That’s showing them all right,’ I said with scorn. ‘And just now, Darren was ready to tear my head off.’ I looked straight at him. ‘If my brother hadn’t deliberately provoked him to draw his fire, it’d probably be my mouth – or worse – bleeding by now, not Aidan’s. So you’re not all quite as peace-loving as you like to make out.’

  Darren’s lips disappeared altogether at that, not so much as a gash as a paper-thin line. In that moment, I knew I had made an enemy. Probably more than one. How many other survivors on board my ship had loved ones who had been left behind on the planet surface? How many others now hated me because of it?

  ‘What is wrong with you people?’ A woman in her early forties with short, dark-brown hair and sad, pale blue eyes pushed past Darren. She cast a glance at Aidan, then took a step forward to address me directly. I braced myself, ready for another onslaught. ‘Vee, I’m Doctor Liana Sheen. I don’t blame you at all for what happened. I know you did your best and none of us would be here now if it wasn’t for you. We don’t all think – or act – like Darren.’

  ‘Liana, I think I can—’ Catherine began.

  ‘I don’t understand why you’re all so ready to crucify this poor girl and her brother,’ interrupted Liana, shaking her head. ‘She risked her life to help us.’

  ‘Thank you,’ I said to the doctor, only slightly mollified.

  ‘I’ve already apologized for Darren’s actions . . .’ Catherine began.

  ‘Save it,’ I dismissed. ‘What it boils down to is you’re all too principled to stand and fight but you have no qualms about condemning me for doing what you wouldn’t.’

  ‘We had no weapons that could affect the Mazon ships. They were way out of the range of our weapons,’ Darren protested.

  ‘Then isn’t it lucky for all of you that I came along?’ I made no attempt to disguise the contempt in my voice.

  These people had been on my bridge for less than fifteen minutes and already I had a crashing headache and a pain in my chest like I hadn’t felt since Mum and Dad died. It was going to take me another ten Sol months to get back to Earth’s solar system. Ten months with these people.

  Ten months of sheer and total hell.

  12

  Well, I’m not sure how our initial meeting with Vee and her brother could’ve gone any worse. The tension on the bridge was a living, breathing thing. Darren was an arsehat at the best of times and this sure wasn’t one of those. Yes, he’d just lost his wife and son, I understood that. We all got that. The Mazon were too powerful and too far away to blame. Vee and Aidan were right here. But he was being so damned unfair. I turned to face Vee. The beautiful dark brown eyes that had been soft and uncertain when we first came onto the bridge were now cold and hard as stone as they surveyed all of us – including me.

  I didn’t like that. At all.

  ‘Aidan, get us as far away from the Mazon ships as fast as possible. Reconfigure our energy signature every few nanoseconds so they can’t track us,’ Vee said to her brother. ‘Then could you scan and register these people. Provide any orientation they may need to help them find their way around the ship and settle in.’ She turned to the rest of us. ‘After that I recommend you all meet up in the mess hall on this deck whilst my brother and your commander work out your various assignments. Aidan will also assign your sleeping quarters, most of which are below us on the middle or mid deck. In the meantime we shall resume our original heading back to Earth.’

  Oh God!

  There were gasps and groans at Vee’s announcement. One person in the background exclaimed a very audible, ‘No!’ I think it was Jaxon, though I couldn’t be sure. I looked at Vee. Her frown had deepened, bewilderment narrowing her eyes. Why didn’t Mum just tell her the truth? Vee looked around the bridge, still puzzled.

  ‘You’re taking us to Earth?’ said Mum, her tone sharp.

  ‘That’s the plan. We’re ten Sol months, two weeks and five days away so I suggest you all make yourselves comfortable. It’s going to be a long trip,’ said Vee, adding under her breath, ‘for everyone.’

  ‘We can’t go to Earth. We need to head for Mendela Prime in the gamma quadrant,’ argued Mum.

  Vee stared at Mum. ‘Are you nuts? Mendela Prime is over twelve Sol months in the opposite direction. And to get to the nearest wormhole to make it to the gamma quadrant in that time, we’d have to travel for at least five weeks through Mazon space. In case you hadn’t noticed, the Mazon are now actively hunting us. If we try to double back, we stand little to no chance of sneaking through their territory undetected. I’m not prepared to risk my ship like that. If you don’t want to go back to Earth with me, then fine. I’ll take you to the nearest neutral starbase from where you can send a sub-space message to Earth or Mendela Prime or wherever. No doubt you’ll find a convoy that will pick you up and take you to where you want to go.’

  ‘That’s not acceptable,’ said Mum.

  I winced. Could she sound any more arrogant? Not in this space-time continuum, I suspected.

  Vee’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Well, excuse me all over the place but, acceptable or not, that’s what’s going to happen.’

  ‘Are the Mazon really still after us?’ asked Mum.

  ‘Yes. As far as they’re concerned, if they allow us to escape, other Terrans will surely follow. You’ve thrown down a gauntlet which they’re not about to ignore,’ Vee replied. ‘I’ve been monitoring their comms. They’re coming after us and they’re not going to give up in a hurry. We can’t match their fire power so our only hope is to outmanoeuvre or outsmart them, preferably both.’

  ‘When was the last time you were at an Earth spaceport?’ asked Mum.

  ‘We set off nearly seven years ago on our deep space exploration mission and the last time we docked at an Earth spaceport was when we reached the alpha quadrant’s outer rim about three years after that. We haven’t docked at one since then,’ Vee frowned. ‘Why?’

  ‘So your ship’s computer hasn’t been linked to an Earth Authority hub in four years?’ asked Mum.

  ‘That’s right. Why?’

  ‘Then I’m sorry to have to do this but I don’t have time to babysit you and your brother,’ said Mum. ‘Computer, this is Commander Catherine Linedecker CYL-Phi-Epsilon-803-1995. I am hereby invoking Earth Vessel Override Authorization Code 26-theta-upsilon and taking command of this vessel. Acknowledge.’

  ‘Mum!’ My heart sank down to my boots. Mortified, I closed my eyes momentarily, but that wasn’t going to change this situation, much as I might wish otherwise. The faint whirr of the environmental control unit and the low hum of the ship’s engine that reverberated throughout the entire ship were the only sounds on the bridge. It was as if we were all holding our breath, waiting to see what would happen next. Aidan observed my mum with a great deal of interest and very little concern. He wore the same strange smile he’d had on his face after Darren decked him. Vee, however, was somewhere north, south, east and west of severely pissed off.

  ‘Seriously, Mum? Vee risked her life to rescue us and this is how you repay her?’ I asked furiously. ‘By taking her ship?’

  ‘Don’t argue with me, Nathan. This is far too importan
t to leave in the hands of a child,’ said Mum. ‘We need to travel to Mendela Prime.’

  ‘I’ve already told you, I’m eighteen, nearly nineteen, not a child.’ Vee’s tone was clipped and concise. ‘Plus Aidan and I have survived just fine for the last three years without any of you.’

  ‘Mum, this is so out of order.’ I shook my head, my embarrassment growing in leaps and bounds. How could Mum do this? I know we were all shaken up and still in shock over what had happened to us, but this was all kinds of wrong.

  ‘Nathan, stay out of it,’ Mum snapped.

  She looked stressed and, worse than that, guilty. I doubt if anyone but me could recognize that in her expression but I was her son and I could read her like a picture book.

  ‘Well, thank you for that demonstration,’ said Vee quietly. Her contemptuous gaze slid from me to Mum. ‘At least we now all know exactly where we stand.’

  ‘Vee, the rest of these people are wandering all over our ship, touching things,’ said Aidan, irritated. He was bent over his panel analysing something I was too far away to see but he was obviously tracking everyone’s movements and activities around the ship.

  ‘Direct the ones who aren’t already here to come to the bridge to be scanned and registered. Impress upon them that none of this ship’s utilities or functions will work for them until they do,’ Vee ordered.

  ‘I tried to tell you this was a colossal mistake but you never listen to me,’ Aidan muttered in a stage whisper.

  Vee wasn’t the only one to scowl at her brother. ‘Aidan, enough.’

  ‘They can’t be trusted, Vee,’ said Aidan.

  Vee’s gaze swept around all of us on the bridge, her disdain obvious but mixed with something else. She regarded me, making no attempt to mask her expression, and her disappointment was a cord that stretched taut between the two of us, pulling at my insides. All the hurt she felt at that moment, I wore as if it were my own. If this was a test, then we’d all spectacularly failed.

  ‘Aidan, I’m going to my quarters and then I’ll be in the hydroponics bay if you need me.’ Vee didn’t wait for a response, but walked towards the exit, her head high, her back straight. Those before her parted like the Red Sea to let her pass. We had all been effectively summed up and dismissed, even though Vee was the one who was leaving.