by Amie Kaufman
“Jie-Lin, I need you.”
But her eyes harden. She shakes her head.
“The signs of infection on a person’s body are obvious. Colonists infected here on Octavia must have infiltrated the GIA, got the planet interdicted to help keep it hidden. But if they could spread the infection person to person, there wouldn’t be any humans left after two centuries.” She glances at the star map, those pulsing red dots. “I don’t think the Ra’haam is strong enough to spread while it’s sleeping. I think it can only infect people who stumble onto one of these nursery planets. But it’s still mostly dormant. It’s weak. We still have a chance.”
“To do what?” Zila’s voice is quiet. “How do you fight something like this?”
“With the Weapon the Eshvaren left us. With me. If we can stop the spawning it talked about, if we can keep these twenty-two planets from spreading the infection through their FoldGates, maybe we can stop this thing once and for all.”
“We’re wanted criminals,” Scarlett points out. “We attacked Terran military ships and broke a Galactic Interdiction. We’re going to be chased by every government in the galaxy. We can’t rely on anyone for help.”
Kal folds his arms. “Then we do it alone.”
“The six of us?” Finian scoffs. “Against the whole galaxy?”
I reach under my shirt for my father’s ring, hanging on the chain around my neck. I feel the metal against my skin, wonder what he’d say if he could see me now. I’m staring at the star map. Thinking about the odds arrayed against us. The impossibility and insanity of it all.
Asking myself if I still believe.
“It’d take a miracle,” I finally murmur.
We sit in silence for a moment. I glance at Shamrock, tracing the line of the eyebrow scar Cat gave me with my fingertip. My chest is hurting so badly, I actually check to see if I’m bleeding. The bridge is quiet except for the hum of the engines. The beat of our broken hearts.
And into that silence, Zila speaks.
“Almost every particle in the universe was once part of a star,” she says softly. “Every atom in your body. The metal in your chair, the oxygen in your lungs, the carbon in your bones. All those atoms were forged in a cosmic furnace over a million kilometers wide, billions of light-years from here. The confluence of events that led to this moment is so remote as to be almost impossible.” She puts her hand on my shoulder. Her touch is awkward, as if she doesn’t quite know how to do it. But she squeezes gently. “Our very existence is a miracle.”
“What are you saying?” I whisper, looking up at her.
She meets my eyes dead-on. “I am reminding you of wisdom you have already shared with us.”
“And that is?”
“That sometimes you must have faith.”
I look at her. At my squad. The hole in space where Cat should be sitting is like a hole in my chest. But then I look into my twin’s eyes, just as tear filled and hurt as mine. And she speaks to me without speaking a word.
Show the way, baby brother.
I stand up. Run my gaze over these five who flew into the mouth of the beast for me. We might have the whole galaxy gunning for us. We might not last another day. But as I walk to the pilot’s chair, pick up Shamrock and put him on the displays above Cat’s console, I know they’re all thinking the same as me. We owe it to Cat to fight this thing. With everything we’ve got.
“We don’t have to do this alone, Kal,” I say.
I look at the five of them one by one.
“We do it together.”
Aurora smiles, weak and watery, but true. “Squad 312, forever.”
Kal looks me in the eye. And slowly, he nods.
“We the Legion,” he says.
“We the light,” Scarlett replies.
“Burning bright against the night,” we say in unison.
I sit in the pilot’s chair, punch in coordinates for the Fold. The bridge breaks into motion, my squad taking their places, the engines spooling up, light rippling across our consoles in all the colors of the rainbow.
“Where we headed, Goldenboy?” Finian asks.
I stare at the star map in front of my eyes.
Twenty-two warning signs.
Twenty-two question marks.
Twenty-two targets.
“Seems to me we’re in a war here.” I nod to Aurora. “And seems we’ve already got our Trigger.”
Our engines flare, bright against the darkness.
“Let’s go find our Weapon.”
SQUAD MEMBERS
▶ BLOOD DEBTS OWED
▼ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
IT IS WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED THAT WRITING A BOOK REQUIRES MORE BRAINS THAN THE HAJJI COLLECTIVE OF EEN III AND MORE HANDS THAN A ROOMFUL OF CLOCKS. THE AUTHORS ARE NOT IN POSSESSION OF THIS QUANTITY OF BRAINS OR HANDS AND HAVE REQUIRED CONSIDERABLE ASSISTANCE. THE FOLLOWING LIFE-FORMS HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AS CONTRIBUTING TO THE EXISTENCE OF THIS STORY:
SQUAD MEMBERS: SINCE THIS JOURNEY STARTED WITH ILLUMINAE, WE HAVE BEEN CONSTANTLY GRATEFUL FOR AND ASTONISHED BY THE SQUAD WE’VE GATHERED ALONG THE WAY. BOOKSELLERS, LIBRARIANS, AND READERS—WE ARE SO, SO GRATEFUL FOR YOU ALL. YOU ALLOW US TO DO THIS THING WE LOVE, AND WE LOVE SHARING IT WITH YOU. HUGE THANKS MUST ALSO GO TO ALL THE VLOGGERS, BLOGGERS, TWEETERS, BOOKSTAGRAMMERS, AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO HAS HELPED SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT OUR BOOKS—WE COULDN’T DO WHAT WE DO WITHOUT YOU!
EXPERTS: TO THE MANY EXPERTS ON MATTERS MEDICAL, CULTURAL, SCIENTIFIC, SOCIAL, AND OTHERWISE WHO OFFERED US THEIR HELP ALONG THE WAY, A HUGE, HUGE THANK-YOU—AND AS ALWAYS, ANY MISTAKES THAT REMAIN ARE OUR OWN. TO THOSE NOT NAMED HERE, AND TO JESS HEALY WALTON, AMY MCCULLOCH, YULIN ZHUANG, C. S. PACAT, DR. KATE IRVING, LINDSAY “LT” RIBAR, AND CLAERIE KAVANAUGH: WE OWE YOU ONE. WE OWE YOU MANY. PROFESSOR BRIAN COX, PROFESSOR CARL SAGAN, DR. NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, COMMANDER SCOTT KELLY, COMMANDER CHRIS HADFIELD, AND HANK GREEN AND THE SCISHOW SPACE TEAMS: YOU CHANGED THIS BOOK WITHOUT KNOWING IT. THANKS FOR THE INSPIRATION!
PUBLISHERS: ADMIRAL BARBARA MARCUS AND THE WHOLE RANDOM HOUSE TEAM: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, AND THANK YOU. OUR AMAZING EDITOR, MELANIE NOLAN, THE WONDERFUL KAREN GREENBERG, RAY SHAPPELL, KATHLEEN GO, ARTIE BENNETT, AISHA CLOUD, JOHN ADAMO, JOSH REDLICH, AND JUDITH HAUT, AND ALL THE LEGENDS IN SALES, MARKETING, PUBLICITY, PRODUCTION, COPYEDITING, AND MORE MADE THIS BOOK WHAT IT IS. WE WOULD TRUST YOU IN AN ELABORATE HEIST SITUATION ANY DAY. INTERNATIONALLY, WE ARE SO LUCKY TO HAVE HOMES AT MANY AMAZING PUBLISHERS, INCLUDING ALLEN & UNWIN, WHERE WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR ANNA MCFARLANE, RADHIAH CHOWDHURY, JESS SEABORN, AND THE WHOLE AUSSIE TEAM, AND ROCK THE BOAT, WHERE CAPTAIN JULIET MABEY LEADS AN AMAZING CREW. A HUGE THANKS TO THOSE TEAMS, AND TO THE TRANSLATORS WHO BRING OUR BOOKS TO YOU IN YOUR OWN LANGUAGES.
AGENTS: OUR LONGBOW NEVER WOULD HAVE ACHIEVED LIFTOFF WITHOUT JOSH AND TRACEY ADAMS, CATHY KENDRICK, AND STEPHEN MOORE ON THE CREW. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU DO FOR US, AND ALL THE TIMES YOU GO ABOVE AND BEYOND—AND A HUGE THANK-YOU TO THE WONDERFUL FOREIGN AGENTS WHO HELPED EXPAND THE AURORA LEGION AROUND THE GLOBE.
MAKERS OF MUSIC: THE SOUNDTRACK TO THIS BOOK WAS PROVIDED BY THE FOLLOWING GENIUSES: JOSHUA RADIN, MATT BELLAMY, CHRIS WOLSTENHOLME, DOMINIC HOWARD, BUDDY, BEN OTTEWELL, THE KILLERS, WEEZER, THE SCISSOR SISTERS, MARCUS BRIDGE & NORTHLANE, LUDOVICO EINAUDI, OLIVER SYKES & BMTH, RONNIE RADKE & FIR, TRENT REZNOR & NIN, DANNY WORSNOP & AA, MAYNARD JAMES KEENAN & TOOL, WINSTON MCCALL & PWD, IAN KENNY & THE VOOL, ROBB FLYNN & MH, CHRIS MOTIONLESS & MIW, ANTHONY NOTARMASO & ATB, JAMIE HAILS & POLARIS, AND ESPECIALLY SAM CARTER, TOM SEARLE & ARCHITECTS.
SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE CREW: WE WOULD BRAVE THE GREAT ULTRASAUR OF ABRAAXIS IV FOR THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE: MEG, MICHELLE, MARIE, LEIGH, KACEY, KATE, SORAYA, ELIZA, PETA, KIERSTEN, RYAN, CAT, THE ROTI BOTI GANG, THE HOUSE OF PROGRESS CREW, MARC, SURLY JIM, B-MONEY, THE GODDAMN BATMAN, RAFE, WEEZ, SAM, ORRSOME, AND THE HIDDE
N CITY ROLLERS. AS ALWAYS, THANKS TO NIC FOR INTRODUCING US AND GETTING ALL THIS STARTED, AND TO SARAH REES BRENNAN, STORY MIDWIFE EXTRAORDINAIRE.
FAMILY UNITS: TO OUR FAMILIES, AS ALWAYS, THANK YOU FOR YOUR NEVER-ENDING SUPPORT AND ENTHUSIASM, AND FOR EVERYTHING YOU DO FOR US, ASKED AND UNASKED. WE ARE SO GRATEFUL FOR YOU. WE LOVE YOU, AND WE OWE YOU MORE FAVORS THAN EVEN A BETRASKAN COULD COUNT.
SPOUSES: AMANDA AND BRENDAN—WITHOUT YOU WE COULDN’T DO THIS, AND WE WOULDN’T WANT TO. WITH LOVE, WITH GRATITUDE, AND WITH SECRET SURPRISE THAT YOU KEEP PUTTING UP WITH US, THANK YOU FOR DRAFTING US INTO YOUR SQUADS.
Christopher Tovo
AMIE KAUFMAN AND JAY KRISTOFF are the New York Times bestselling co-authors of the Illuminae Files. Amie has also co-written (with Meagan Spooner) the Starbound and the Unearthed trilogies. Jay is the author of the LIFEL1K3 series, as well as the Nevernight Chronicle and the Lotus War series for adults. Collectively, Amie and Jay stand 12'5" tall and live in Melbourne, Australia, with two long-suffering spouses, two rescue dogs, and a plentiful supply of caffeine. They met thanks to international taxation law, and stuck together due to a shared love of blowing things up and breaking hearts. Visit them at amiekaufman.com or @AmieKaufman; and jaykristoff.com or @misterkristoff.
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