“We’re going to try something.” I removed a palm-size disc from my pocket and slapped it on the middle of the hatch.
“Oh, the phaser!” Elio straightened. “You fixed it?”
“Not quite.” If the phaser worked the way it was designed to, it would disrupt the molecules in any solid object enough that we would be able to slip easily through. Of the two phasers I’d built, the better one was currently being used by my family to get into the vaults. This one always struggled to work properly no matter how many times I crossed and uncrossed the wires.
Still listening for the sounds of approaching guards, I turned the phaser on. The slush-streaked side of my pod ship glowed, then shuddered, blurring like I was looking through the hatch from underwater. The image flickered for a second, the hatch hardening before turning liquid again.
“Go! Go before it backfires!” I shoved Elio toward the door.
Just as I started to follow, the guards barreled around the corner in an armored transport, snow crunching beneath its wide tire treads. A delivery pod soared off the road to avoid them, crashing into an awning hanging over the front of a diner. Pedestrians ran as smoke filled the street like a low-hanging fog. I couldn’t tell if the guards had spotted us yet or not.
I took my first step into the hatch, but the phaser flickered again, short-circuiting. Elio’s eyes flared bright with alarm while his hands flew across the control panel, powering up the ship. I tried slogging forward, my muscles tensing and burning as I struggled to push through the hatch. It was only a foot thick. It should have been easy.
A blast of light flew over the ship, exploding into the face of the building behind us. The pod started to solidify around me, and I had a flash of fear that I would get trapped inside, half in and half out of the ship, struggling to breathe until Elio could track my family down and get the other phaser to reverse the damage.
But before my panic had a chance to reach meltdown levels, I felt a hand on my arm, pulling me out of danger as if dragging me through mud. With an earsplitting pop, Elio and I landed in a heap in the bucket seats at the front of the cockpit, and the hatch sealed behind us.
“Up! Go, go, go!” I yelled.
We lifted off, crashing into the parked pod in front of us in the process. The guards shot at us a few more times, but they hadn’t accounted for us having an escape pod. In seconds, we were out of range.
A grin pulled at my lips as we hurtled through the atmosphere around Vaotis. We were coming up on the Triangulum Galaxy’s only wormhole, our ticket home. Elio pushed forward on the ion thrusters. The wormhole sphere bulged and spun before us like a bubble. And just like any bubble, the wormhole could only exist for a few precious seconds at a time before popping.
The pod ship shuddered as the thrusters ignited. A shiver raced up my spine. Jumping galaxies always put me a little out of sorts. Something about the speed and the pressure made my body feel like a jar of putty.
Double-checking my harness, I watched as white light flared from the widening sphere, obscuring the front viewport. Then, as always, time seemed to slow, and that beautiful rip in the universe opened. Straight as an arrow, the pod ship soared through.
Good riddance, Vaotis. A pleasure you were not.
My harness cut into my shoulders as the ball of energy bent around us and we were launched out the other side at top speed, only slowing once we hit deep space and the peaceful expanse of stars. Every time I saw the view, I could barely breathe. I knew that space was just … nothing. A vacuum. But even so, that quiet void brought me more serenity than any planet in the universe.
My smile faded only when Elio adjusted the propulsion controls and switched course, sending us down the five-hour trek toward home. In five hours, I’d have to face what I’d done. I’d drawn too much attention. I’d nearly gotten us all killed.
But maybe it wouldn’t matter. If they got their hands on the ten million ritles, my family would overlook one mistake.
Fingers shaking, I sent off a quick comm to Blair. How did it go down there?
He responded immediately.
We failed.
I gripped the straps of my harness in both fists as an all-consuming dread welled up inside my chest.
His next message simply read: Your mother is not happy.
2
The darkness on our tiny planet made it the perfect locale for crime to flourish. And it was an even better locale for hiding my family’s heaps of junk.
Condor’s permanent blackout was courtesy of our empress, Verena. During the few minutes of the day that sunlight touched our borders located in the farthest corner of the Andromeda Galaxy, Verena released a dark tint on the dome that warmed our planet, leaving our streets and neighborhoods in dank, dreary blackness. Why she chose to do it, no one knew. She rarely stepped into the public eye, and I’d heard every rumor from she was a monster that would burn in sunlight to she had skeletal deformities and didn’t want anyone to see her.
I disagreed on both accounts. I never believed that Verena preferred the dark over the light; I thought she just didn’t like change.
I was similar to her in that way.
By the time Elio parked my pod in the filthy alleyway behind our house on the east side of Condor, my nails were bitten to nubs, and I’d worked myself up into a nervous frenzy. Another pod, a far cleaner and fancier one, was parked just in front of us. I didn’t have to squint through the shadows to know it belonged to my parents. If they beat me and Elio home, then my mother must have been flying ridiculously fast.
Meaning she was ridiculously mad.
Elio and I hurried up the walk to the front door, almost tripping on a pile of trash strewn across the stones. Another day in paradise. Any one of us could have cleaned it up, but every member of my family put an enormous amount of effort into pretending we weren’t swimming in stolen gold and priceless artifacts.
The house buzzed with activity when we stepped over the threshold. White lights bounced off the high ceiling in the entryway, giving me an instant headache after the darkness outside. I could hear a few of my cousins arguing from one of the upper hallways, and when I closed the door with a snap, a group of them poked their heads over the banister.
“Cora’s home!” Mina yelled, her aura glowing like pink soap bubbles as she threw her hands in the air. She was four years old—and the only person in our house who was ever happy to see me.
Mina waved, then ducked back into her bedroom, four of my other cousins following suit. That left only Blair, who mounted the banister and slid backward from the second floor to the foyer, dismounting with a sloppy grin on his face.
“I can’t believe you actually came home. You have bigger balls than me.”
“Shut up.” I slapped his arm and he swayed before grabbing Elio to steady himself. Elio immediately scooted closer to my side. “Where are my parents?”
“In the kitchen. Probably planning your funeral.” His smile widened. He looked strangely happy for someone who wouldn’t see a payday this week because of my screwup.
I leaned forward to smell his breath. “Have you been drinking?”
“You insult me, Cora. There are children up there.” He pulled a fat pipe out of his pants pocket. “I’ve been smoking. Just a bit of moon dust.”
“You’re repulsive.”
Blair shrugged and took a long drag of the pipe. “It’s perfectly legal … just not on this planet. You might want to take a hit before you go into the kitchen and talk to Mommy Dearest.” He turned to Elio, saying in a false whisper, “You know, Cora couldn’t steal a bag of cash if it had two feet and no clothes and … and…”
“And was dancing naked in front of me?” I finished. “At least I can finish a sentence, human blunt.”
The tips of Blair’s ears filled with a dark blush. “Don’t hate.”
“That stuff is going to rot your brain.”
His bright yellow eyes narrowed at both Elio and me. He puffed a cloud of red smoke in our faces before headi
ng up to his room. “At least I’ll be rich.”
“Always a delightful boy,” I muttered once he had locked himself behind his door.
With Blair gone, I had no choice but to continue through the house and confront my parents in the kitchen. Sure, I could hide in my room for a while, but they would find me. And then everything would be a million times worse.
“I feel like we’re heading to the gallows,” Elio said. His tiny fingers gripped mine and squeezed. “Earthans used to kill people that way. I saw it in a net program.”
“Stop worrying. They won’t be angry with you.”
We crossed the foyer, stepping carefully over several crates of rare geodes that were due to be smuggled to traders on the outer fringes of the galaxy, and continued down the long passage to the kitchen. The hall was always too messy to walk in a straight line. Every few steps we had to dodge boxes and bags and more crates, each one full of objects that my family either stole for our trusted buyers or stole for ourselves with the sole purpose of turning around and selling back to the owners for double or triple what they were worth.
This had been going on for as long as I could remember. Longer even. The stealing, the conning. We hit up every planet and moon in both the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies. Triangulum was the newest conquest, and it was also proving to be the one that was making us the wealthiest.
When I finally pushed open the kitchen door, I noticed that my parents had assumed their usual positions—backs to me—standing halfway between a table filled with protein pouches and a table covered in “priceless materials.”
Many things in this house were considered priceless, but others could be loosely translated to useless piles of junk. Case in point: The headdress that my mother snatched right off the brow of the long-ruling Queen Adona of Oprora VII? Priceless. A set of Earthan badminton shuttlecocks from 1985? Junk.
Cruz and Evelina Saros were hoarders, plain and simple.
“Someone will have to go back to Vaotis and take care of the guards,” my father said, tearing into the shiny silver wrapper of a protein pouch. “They saw too much.”
“Killing over a dozen guards will draw the kind of attention we’ve been working so hard to avoid.” My mother tilted her head, considering. “But if we really have no choice…”
I made a noise halfway between a gasp and a whimper, forcing both Cruz and Evelina’s attention my way. I’d never killed anyone, but if those guards died, wouldn’t that make me partially responsible? I was the reason today’s job had failed, after all.
Evelina yanked out a chair from the elegantly carved ivory dining table. It was a new addition to the kitchen, meaning she had recently stolen it. “Cora. Exactly who we were looking for.”
I sank into the chair while Elio cowered behind me, his ears twitching nervously. “I can explain.”
“Can you?” A threatening black storm cloud pulsed like a heartbeat around her head. It was almost unbearable to look at her when she was this angry. Just like the rest of the men and women born on Condor, Evelina and I had the same bright yellow eyes, the same pointed ears, the same silver hair that I preferred to tie up, because otherwise it fell in a frizzy mess down my back. We had the same pigmentless, pale skin, an outcome of living in an endless night, but right now hers was flushed pink with fury, and I knew I was about to get it.
“Listen,” I said, “I know what happened today looks bad, but—”
“Looks bad?” Evelina screeched. “Looks? That was the biggest job we’ve had all year! Not only are we out ten million ritles, not only did you ruin our relationship with our client, but we have to send someone back to Vaotis to clean up your mess. Your face must have been on every security monitor on the planet—the galaxy even! And now that the guards saw that infernal device you made, they’ll be on high alert!”
I brushed my fingers over the VED concealed in my pants pocket. “It was fully charged. I don’t know what happened.”
“You neglected to account for the possibility that it might not work. And then your pod got ticketed. Oh yes, I know about the ticket.” She grinned like she’d just won a criminal of the year award. (Though that ceremony wouldn’t occur for another six months.) “For all you know, the officer who ticketed you also put a tracker on your ship. What will you do when they come knocking on our door? How will you explain everything that’s in this house?” She spread out her arms, showcasing the stolen goods stacked in the corners.
I looked back at Elio to see his eyes wide and fearful. Neither of us had thought there was a possibility that we might be followed.
“There wasn’t a tracker on the pod,” I said. “I checked.” Or I would check, just as soon as this conversation was over.
“You didn’t check.” Evelina bared her teeth in triumph. I imagined them slicing into my jugular. “But your father did. There’s nothing there.”
She almost looked disappointed.
“See? I didn’t completely mess up,” I said.
“You were lazy,” she snapped. “We taught you better.”
“Did you? Because last I checked, you taught me how to hack a computer system and build a blaster from scratch. You never made me a distraction. You never put me in the line of fire. I could have died.” I gestured to Elio. “We could have died.”
Elio shuffled his feet. “I would prefer you leave me out of this.”
Evelina pouted, as if she actually cared. But unless my skin was suddenly made of gold, her caring was highly unlikely. “We wouldn’t have let you die, Cora. Oh, don’t look at me like that, we wouldn’t have. And calm down. I can see your aura spreading all over the room.”
“Been practicing, have you? Congratulations.” Everyone native to Condor had a slight talent for reading auras, but my skills far surpassed anyone else’s in my family. It was probably the only thing I was better at than them.
The corner of Cruz’s mouth quirked at my sass, but Evelina’s nostrils flared. She tapped her long nails across the tabletop. She’d taken to filing them into points recently, making them a deadlier weapon than almost any blaster.
She looked about ready to skewer me with them when the door creaked open and my Nana Rae shuffled through. Seeing Nana was like looking into Evelina’s future. Her back was bent like a crowbar, her milky skin soft and full of wrinkles. She dug through the protein pouches, ignoring us completely while she hummed the low notes of the Condor national anthem.
“Evelina, about today—” I started.
She shushed me. “Don’t complain while your grandmother is in the room.”
“It’s not like she can hear us.” Despite having bionic implants, Nana Rae always had her ears turned off.
After scooping up half the box of protein pouches, Nana Rae pivoted, swaying a bit under their weight. When she finally noticed the four of us, she gasped, and a few packets fell to the floor.
“Oh!” Her humming started up again, louder now. She paused only long enough between verses to peer out the window and mutter, “It’s darker today than it was yesterday.”
Evelina stepped forward. “It’s the same, Mother. It’s always the same.”
“No.” Another verse of humming. “Definitely darker.” Her neck arched as she peered up into Evelina’s eyes. “Or perhaps that’s because you’re in the room, dear.”
Elio snickered.
Evelina’s golden eyes appeared to be spitting sparks. “Mother, go to bed. Cora will bring those to your room.”
Nana Rae heaved her bundle of pouches a bit higher. “I am perfectly capable of getting a meal on my own. What’s next? You’re going to hand-feed me? I’d like to see you try.” She continued to hum as she exited the room, loud and off-key and disruptive enough to hopefully draw all the attention away from me and Elio. I tried sliding quietly out of my chair to creep after her, but Evelina snapped her fingers in my direction, her deathly nails clicking.
“Where are you going? We’re not done with you yet,” she snarled. “We’re holding back two months’ pay after
what happened this afternoon.”
“What?” I looked desperately from her to Cruz, who only shrugged. “No! I need that money.”
Elio and I both needed that money.
“Cora. Sweetheart.” Evelina placed her hands on my cheeks, squeezing slightly. She didn’t appear to be mad anymore, which I knew was even worse. She was like a snake, waiting to strike until the time was right. Cruz wasn’t any better. Always silent, always standing in her shadow. Why he put up with her, I didn’t have a clue.
“I need that money,” I repeated pathetically.
“Cora, I know it’s hard,” she cooed. “I remember when I was your age. Seventeen.” She pinched my cheeks a bit harder. “So young. You just want to help, right?” She jerked my head up and down. “Right. You are the future of this family. You need to take on more responsibility, but perhaps you just aren’t ready for it.”
Her soft words took on an icy sting that I saw coming a mile away.
“Maybe you really are no better than a distraction.”
Forget running a crime empire, Evelina Saros had one true talent: she always had an incredible knack for making me feel worthless.
“Do not disappoint me again, Cora.” She pinched my cheeks one final time, hard enough that I felt blood rush to the surface. “I’m doing this because I want the world for you. Your mother knows best, do you understand?”
I nodded, but as soon as she let go of my face, I grabbed Elio’s hand and bolted from the kitchen. My skin felt like it was crawling. Mother. I hadn’t called Evelina that since I was a child.
I knew it would be easier to go along with her, to please her. Eventually, this mess of a family business would be mine, and I would have more money than I’d ever need.
But by then … it might be too late.
3
The Good for Nothings Page 2
