All the Stars Left Behind

by Ashley Graham

  Now she felt powerful, and yeah, there was the whole “I’m a weapon” thing, but underneath the same old exterior was a new girl, Leda 2.0: stronger, braver, better. Still, there were so many holes in Leda’s past, and she needed answers she couldn’t get—Dad wasn’t around to fill those holes. But Mom had, for whatever reason, stuck around.

  She’d hoped to have another moment alone with Roar, but every time he’d come by her room, Arne or Grams were never far behind. Swell. They wanted to keep an eye on their precious weapon. Well, it had been a while since this “weapon” had felt the simple pleasure of having a boy who wanted to kiss her, even if she’d discovered that their intense attraction was based more on her being a kind of biological beacon for him.

  Yet another reason why she couldn’t give in to how she felt about him. She just couldn’t catch a break. How long now before his feelings for her disappeared, just like the other boys who thought they liked her until they saw her crutches?

  Leda heard her mom’s voice carrying through the house, harsh and commanding with a sultry undertone. Dad used to say Mom’s voice was a clash of steel against steel—seductive and terrifying, all at once. Leda never understood what her dad had seen in her mom; they were polar opposites, ice and fire. Dad had always been kind and loving, while Mom couldn’t have acted more aloof or uncaring if she tried. If she wanted answers before she left, Leda would have to corner her mom and press her for as much as she could get out in a short time.

  Halfway down the steps, her mom’s voice vanished, replaced by Roar’s, and Leda’s heart did a funny flip. He had avoided having any kind of real conversation with her over the past few days, even though they’d been alone all night. He spent every day sitting on her bed, his back against the headboard, and twined his fingers in hers; he spent every night sitting in Grams’s rocking chair, pushed close enough to the bed that he could hold her hand as she slept.

  “Um, yeah,” Roar was saying, “Charlie said he wasn’t feeling well and he’s been in bed for the last couple of days.” He paused, and a muffled feminine voice came across the line. Roar palmed the back of his neck, his fingers curling in unease along his shirt collar. “I’ll tell him you called, again.”

  Roar ended the call and tucked his phone in his back pocket. He stood in the doorway, bracing himself on the frame, his knuckles white.

  “Trouble?” she said.

  Roar turned around, and Leda sucked in a breath, wholly unprepared for the look in his eyes—a combination of emotions she couldn’t get a lock on, but his smile said everything she needed to know. He was happy to see her. Her belly shot fireworks into her heart, which burned bright and hot and felt so full it might burst. Temporary feelings or not, the guy’s smile lit her up like the fourth of July.

  “It’s just the government. They keep trying to get a hold of Charlie, but, for obvious reasons, can’t.” He sighed, leaning against the wall, tension in his chest and shoulders causing his shirt to bunch, and his muscles seemed more pronounced. “The sooner we leave, the better. I can’t fend them off forever, and I know someone’s going to come looking for him again soon. I don’t…” He swallowed, the sound thick. “I don’t want to have to hurt anyone else.”

  Leda smirked. “Isn’t that what we’re going to be doing back on your planet?”

  “Well, yeah, but the Woede, who enslaved Aurelis, kind of deserve it.”

  She blew out a breath, thinking about how she hadn’t actually agreed to do anything yet. “Well, when you put it that way.”

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  “I know.” She squeezed his hand. “Have you seen my mom? I need to talk to her.”

  “She just headed out.” He squeezed her hand in return, the warmth and pressure a confusing reminder of their unsolved issues. “I’m sure she’ll be back,” he said, but Leda could tell he didn’t believe it any more than she did.

  “Well, I guess there’s nothing left to do but check out this spaceship of yours.” She had been dying to see it, even if she might not be leaving Earth. Where else was she going to get the chance to set foot on an interstellar spaceship?

  “Soon,” he agreed. “How about some breakfast first?”

  “I am kind of hungry.”

  “You haven’t eaten much since…” He let the word dangle as they walked into the kitchen where Grams and Arne were busy setting out bowls and spoons, and bringing a pot of steaming oatmeal to the table. “And I looked up vegan stuff this morning, while you were asleep. Everything here is, uh, cruelty-free and healthy.” He scrunched up his nose, staring at her.

  Leda sat down in her chair, her brows pulled high. She noticed everything on the table—fresh fruit, chia seeds, a small bowl of ground flax, raw agave nectar, and her favorite cashew milk—and warmth blossomed in her chest. “Thank you.”

  “Thought we should all try it,” he said, blushing.

  “Well, that’s all I can ask.” Leda heaped her bowl full of hot oats, and she topped them with a little of everything. “So what’s the plan for today?”

  Grams reached for the blueberries. “You still need rest.”

  Leda slumped in her chair. “In other words, I’m still under house arrest.”

  Stretching a long, bear-like arm across the table, Uncle Arne ruffled Leda’s hair. “There are worse things when it’s cold outside.”

  Leda took a bite of her oatmeal and chewed thoughtfully, going over everything she’d learned in the past few weeks since arriving on Vardøya. Many loose ends had been tied up, except for the door behind her. Leda set her spoon down. “If I asked for full disclosure on all this alien stuff, Grams, would you give it?”

  “I thought I had.”

  “She means that.” Arne pointed to the door. “Don’t you?”

  Leda bobbed her head. “What’s behind door number one?”

  Roar slurped his coffee, then set the mug down. “Hey, do you guys have a bunker or something under the house?”

  Arne grinned, stroking his beard as he said, “So you’ve discovered the remains of Æsir.”

  “Æsir?” Roar repeated. “Aren’t they the Norse gods?”

  Leda swatted Roar’s shoulder. “Wait a minute, you hijacked my question.”

  He grinned, unapologetic. “I thought maybe the two were linked.”

  “And you would be correct.” Arne paused for a quick guzzle from his mug. “Behind that door is one of two entrances into the Æsir. The remains of the ship Grams came here on. And Roar, you’re correct, in a manner of speaking. Remember, these lands were settled by our ancestors many centuries ago.

  “The original Aurelite settlers brought with them the ideals and cultural beliefs we used to have, and the humans who lived amongst them took those ideals and interpreted them in their own way. Yggdrasil wasn’t a tree, but the name of the ship those first settlers arrived on, and the humans who saw it envisioned the craft as a tree. It’s what their minds were capable of conceiving at that time.”

  “Hang on,” Leda said, a mixture of outrage and wonder swimming in her head. “There’s an alien spaceship under the house and no one told me?”

  Grams chuckled. “It is dangerous down there, if that’s any consolation.”

  Leda pouted. “A little.”

  “A few years back we had a minor quake,” Arne said. “An underwater volcano broke apart, causing a shift, and now Æsir is at an angle. There were cave-ins, and much of the ship is lost to us now.”

  Leda’s heart squeezed. “That’s so sad.”

  Arne shrugged, lifted his mug to his lips, and downed the rest of his coffee. “In the end, Æsir is a relic of a time long past. The future is here, and we’re prepared to fight for it.” He looked directly at Roar. “All of us.”

  Leda leaned forward and rested her arms on the table. Confusion filled her chest like a balloon.

  “If that’s your way of saying you’re coming with us,” Roar said, “I agree. Leda’s going to need her family with her.”

  “But I didn’t s
ay I was going,” Leda said.

  Arne aimed a darkness and despair and Ten Commandments look at Leda. “If you won’t do it for your people, do it for your father.”

  “Well, when you put it like that,” she mumbled into her cereal bowl.

  Grams pushed back her chair, her gaze fixed on Roar. “Should we go see this ship of yours, then?”

  Chapter Twelve

  Not even in his wildest dreams had Roar imagined he’d see the day Leda boarded the ship he’d flown to Earth on. Leda walked onto Equinox’s bridge, her eyes wide, jaw slack, as if she didn’t believe where she was.

  Her disbelief and awe weaved a golden loop around every second that Roar doubted this mission. Leda turned to him and smiled, and he held his breath, wanting this moment drawn out for his own selfish needs.

  He hoped this memory would block out the image of Leda’s lifeless body and Charlie holding up his gun. Roar could almost feel the weight of her body in his arms, the feel of blood on his hands. But he didn’t want to focus on things he couldn’t control. Every few heartbeats, Nils’s words repeated in his mind: we’re really leaving Earth.

  “What is this for?” Leda had moved toward a long, flat panel in the center of the bridge.

  Roar pressed his palm against the clear panel, activating the systems. A monitor rose from the panel and a series of back-lit options scrolled across the display. “This is navigation. Over there”—he indicated the smaller station behind them—“is the helm.”

  “Where the captain sits?”

  “Well, we don’t have a captain, per se, but yeah. If there was a captain, that’s where he’d sit.”

  “So, none of you is in charge?”

  He shook his head. “In this mission, each of us was assigned a special role. Oline knows the stars better than the rest of us, so she’s the navigator. Stein knows strathdrives better than most, and Petrus is our science officer.”

  “And you?”

  “Well, I don’t really have a—”

  “Roar is the Jäger,” Oline said.

  “What’s that?”

  Oline raised a sculpted blond brow. “Want to explain this one?”

  Staring at his feet, Roar said, “My job was to find the weapon. It’s sort of…” He paused. “Your family has the weapon’s genes. Mine has the gene that finds yours.”

  “Oh.” Something flashed in her eyes that looked almost…pained. But she looked away from him and around the bridge again before he could get a better sense. “What’s a strathdrive?”

  Roar moved so that he could find her gaze again. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Tell me about the strathdrive.”

  He considered pushing her to tell him, but they weren’t alone. Maybe this was a conversation for later. “All Aurelite starships run on strathium—what humans call dark energy.”

  Leda’s jaw dropped. “You guys actually proved the existence of dark energy?”

  Oline laughed. “Long before humans started painting in caves.”

  Ignoring Oline, Leda said, “How does the ship run on dark energy? Obviously you found a way to harness it.”

  “Dark energy is all around us,” Stein said. “Surrounding the ship’s exterior are millions of tiny sensors, and when they’re activated, they use the dark energy in a sort of slingshot way to propel the ship. Imagine you’ve got a hollowed-out cucumber covered in oil, and you throw it into a large body of water—it’ll keep on going until the water’s resistance slows it down. Equinox uses the same basic principle, except those sensors can control the ship’s speed, harnessing the dark energy and storing it for future use. Kind of like your solar panels.”

  “So basically, Aurelites are hella smart.” Laugh lines creased the outer corners of Leda’s eyes. “All this stuff aside, I still don’t get how a ship doesn’t have a captain.”

  “Well,” Roar said, “everyone’s equal on Aurelis. There are no rulers or dictators like you have here on Earth.”

  “What about these Elders?”

  “They’re more like advisors. When the people aren’t sure which path to take, they consult the Elders, who look after all knowledge, past and present.”

  Leda frowned. “How can you not have leaders? Like, a president or something?”

  Oline answered this one. “Aurelis is a democratic society with complete transparency, where every citizen holds the same rights. If a bill is proposed, we all study the ideas put forth. Often changes are made before a bill becomes a law, but so long as the idea supports our way of life, and provides security and prosperity for all, then it will most likely be passed. Every person living on Aurelis has access to the information at all times.”

  Leda scrunched her nose. “And that works for you guys?”

  “It has for thousands of years,” said Oline.

  “Wow.” Leda puffed out a breath. “Well, go you guys.”

  Oline grinned. “Go you, too. You’re one of us, Leda.”

  She seemed guarded for a moment, but then a slow, sly grin spread across her face. “I guess I’d better get started on this cloak, then.”

  Since she’d be working with Petrus, and Roar didn’t fully comprehend the shielding tech on Equinox, Roar left Leda to it, taking a seat next to Stein at tactical across the long, oval shape of the bridge. Busy checking Equinox’s video database for signs of detection, Stein didn’t notice Roar yet. On these rare occasions when Stein was caught unaware, his face lost the hard edge, his eyes less pinched and narrowed. He seemed almost relaxed.

  Roar wondered how much energy Stein used putting up his crusty exterior. Most of the time Stein was sandpaper on everyone’s nerves. Why couldn’t they see this side of him more often? It helped explain why Roar had often spotted Petrus looking at Stein with an unreadable expression. Maybe he was searching for this side of Stein.

  “I think I figured out where you went wrong,” Leda said, pointing to a string of numbers on screen. “The cloak and shield are parallel programs, and they cover the ship like a grid. If you used them simultaneously, and could see the pattern from the outside, they’d overlap, like a cross-hatch.” On a blank page of the notebook resting on her lap, Leda drew an example. “See?”

  Petrus nodded.

  “Each program has its own pattern and if you change just one decimal place or swap out a number, the pattern won’t work.” Leda scribbled on the page, her focus intense. “Essentially, what we need to do is go through the coding line-by-line and figure out where the problem is. Then we can fix it.”

  Stein looked up from his station and groaned. “How long is that going to take?”

  Fixing Stein with a fierce stare, Leda said, “As long as it takes to do it right. I’m not going to give you some arbitrary number, all right?”

  “Whatever,” Stein snarled. “In the meantime, I’ll just keep watching security footage of this weird space octopus trying to break through Equinox’s shield.”

  Roar’s heart somersaulted in his chest as he stared at the screen. Playing in slow motion was the same thing that had attacked the shuttle. Almost invisible tentacles snaked through space between dimensions, and at first, it tried squeezing the life from the ship, like it had done to the shuttle.

  That prickly sensation returned, burning down Roar’s neck to his fingertips. “How far back does the footage show this thing going at it?”

  “Gimme a sec.” Stein tapped a command on the panel. “About three hours after we parked Equinox here and hopped on a shuttle headed for Earth.”

  Leda had stepped behind Stein, and she shuddered as the video replayed. “What is that thing?”

  “No idea,” said Oline, “but it tried to kill us once already. I don’t think it’s a friendly space octopus.”

  Petrus frowned. “If it’s been here since we arrived, maybe we brought it with us? We should warn the humans.”

  Roar filled Leda in on what Petrus said, then he added, “Maybe. But if it’s been here that long, why hasn’t it attacked them?”

  When n
o one offered an explanation, Roar began pacing and said, “It makes sense that we brought it with us. But that doesn’t explain what it is.”

  “I think I can help with that.” Nils had been quiet up until then. Standing just inside the bridge with the door at his back, he chewed his index knuckle, his gaze riveted to the screen playing security footage. “My mom shouts out random things in her sleep. It’s loud enough that I had to start sleeping downstairs on the couch. Anyway, once she was screaming about the ‘reach of death’ coming to get her. I ran into her room and thought she’d woken up, because her eyes were open, and she was looking right at me. In the morning, she didn’t remember what she’d said, and she told me I shouldn’t worry about anything she said in her sleep.

  “I couldn’t forget, though. My mom said some seriously freaky stuff that night. She said there was a black arm slipping through time and space, searching, always searching for her. Sleek and changeable, and hungry for revenge. It can’t be a coincidence that that thing on the screen looks exactly like what she described in her dream.”

  For a moment, everyone on board Equinox froze in place, staring at the screen with the oily black tentacle. Roar ignored the tight squeeze in his chest, and the heavy sensation in his gut. How had he missed the connection? Of course the Woede were behind the mysterious and destructive thing.

  Roar scratched the stubble growth on his jaw. “So it’s safe to assume the Woede know where we are. Do they know what we’re here for?”

  The question was entirely rhetorical. At this point, the answer was anybody’s guess. And the Woede had never needed a reason to attack anyone before. He just hoped Earth hadn’t made their list of planets to suck dry. Even if it had, and they were busy with Aurelis right now, Leda might be able to stop them once and for all. He still didn’t know how the whole girl-as-a-weapon thing worked, but he didn’t need to. The Elders instructed him to bring her to Aurelis, and then all would be well.