colony that wasn’t supposed to exist, and TDF birds likely to fall from the sky and land on our heads at any moment.”
“Cat,” Tyler says, flashing a pair of dimples that could explode ovaries at twenty paces. “I keep on telling you. You gotta have faith.”
•••••
Twenty minutes later we’re standing on the Longbow’s loading ramp, almost ready to get under way. Of course I’m the walking wounded Cat was referring to—I guess it’s more obvious than I hoped—but I’m also the one with the best chance of jacking a working core for us, so at least I won’t get left behind at the ship. The ocean stretches out behind us, a short stretch of sand dunes ahead of us, blue-green hills beyond. The sound of the waves seems strangely out of place.
“Which way to the colony?” Ty asks.
Cat purses her lips, tapping her finger against the visor of her biosuit. “I think it’s maybe west? Although now I think of it …”
“It’s that way,” Aurora says, pointing.
“You sure?” Ty asks.
She nods, and when she speaks, her voice is certain. Stronger than I’ve ever heard. “I studied this place for two years to get my spot on the Hadfield. I was supposed to be in cartography when I arrived. We’re about twelve kilometers northwest of the colony site. Rough ground. Maybe three hours away on foot.”
Ty nods, impressed. “We better get moving, then.”
The rolling dunes around us are eerily quiet as we trudge down the ramp, the planet around us is all smooth lines and endless sky. The air is laden with what I mistake for snow at first, covering the ground, but stepping out of the Longbow’s loading bay, I realize it’s some kind of …
“Pollen,” Zila says, peering at the semi-luminous dust falling from above.
I swallow hard, holding out my hand to the tumbling blue.
Aurora leads us over the dunes, away from the crashing waves, our wounded ship. There’s an audible hiss from my exosuit every time I take a step, and I struggle on the incline, sand crumbling away beneath my boots. Scarlett hovers nearby, close enough to let me know she’s there if I need her. But I push on, finally cresting the hill and looking out at the landscape beyond.
“Maker’s breath,” I whisper.
Past the beach, the rocks, the ground, everything is covered with a low scrub that has teardrop-shaped, juicy leaves—just like the ones we saw bursting out of the late Patrice Radke’s eye socket. It almost seems to be all one plant, a continuous, creeping spread. The trees are choked with it, long twisting tendrils rising up and spreading across the bark. There are long patches of flat, silvery grass, too—it reminds me of the mossy growths we saw on the faces of those GIA goons.
“… Is it supposed to look like this?” Tyler asks.
“No,” Aurora replies, shaking her head. “No, it’s not.”
There’s an old communications tower a few hundred meters off—the only visible sign a human colony once existed here. But it’s cocooned in that same weird plant growth, thicker stalked, heavier, winding around the supports like the tentacles of an Ospherian seldernaut. The plants look ready to pull the whole structure down beneath the dirt, like a ship vanished beneath the sea.
It’s like fungus, almost. And it covers everything.
“I’ve …” Aurora blinks rapidly. “I’ve seen this before.”
“Me too …” I whisper, unsteady.
The squad look at me questioningly. I reach toward the Maker’s mark at my collar, but it’s covered by my biosuit. My heart is thumping in my chest.
“I dreamed it,” I say, looking at Auri. “What I thought was blue snow falling out of the sky. It covered … everything, just like this. But it wasn’t here on Octavia. The planet I dreamed about …” I shake my head, looking to the others. “It was my homeworld. Trask.”
“I would advise nobody touch anything,” Kal says.
“Roger that,” Tyler nods, his face pale. “Everyone keep your eyes open and hands to yourselves.” He hefts his disruptor rifle. “Let’s move out.”
With nothing really left to say, we set off again, out into the swaying blue-green scrub. Aurora’s expression is hard, her eyes locked on the ground and the plants in front of her. Kal stalks along behind, violet eyes smoldering, a disruptor rifle in his hands, too. Every so often Auri turns her head, just enough to check he’s close. But they don’t make eye contact.
Scarlett’s sauntering along beside me as if the fine silver material of the biosuit is a Feeney original design, and