in the shape of a door. Heart racing, she stepped back as it slid open and a ramp appeared, leading upward into the ship.
Should I?
Shouldn’t I?
This could be dangerous, but really, she didn’t have any choice. She had questions that needed answers. Her feet moved of their own volition, and she took her first step upward.
Chapter Fifteen
“We frequently pass so near to happiness without seeing, without regarding it, or if we do see and regard it, yet without recognizing it.”
—Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
The first of the suns was just rising, taking the chill from the cool air as Milo made his way around the edge of the lake. The circumference was around ten miles, but the morning was pleasant.
The dawn light was orange. Later, the second sun would rise and that was a bright white light, but for now the world was bathed in a muted golden glow.
Pretty.
This was apparently spring. The days were shorter than on Earth, approximately twenty hours, but the years were longer, around five hundred days, though the scientists were still working this out. The planet made an elliptical orbit around both suns and traveled approximately 1.5 billion miles in that orbit. He’d been doing his homework and reading all the comms that came in from the scientific team, which was run by Dr. Elvira Yang. And that reminded him—he had yet to chase up her family on the Trakis Two. Though after talking with Dylan, he had an inkling he was not going to have good news for the doctor.
Each crew member had been allocated three cryotubes for family members. But unfortunately for Dr. Yang, in some cases, someone had tampered with the tubes before they left Earth and changed the crew family for someone else. They weren’t sure how extensive the sabotage was or who was responsible. Maybe Dr Yang’s family was all tucked up safe on the Trakis Two, but he wouldn’t bet on it.
As soon as he got back to the shuttle, he would contact Rico. Without the boost from the shuttle’s systems, the comm units they wore only functioned locally and wouldn’t reach the Trakis Two.
From what he could gather, Dr. Yang had considerable influence—or that was what the gossip said, according to Dylan who’d been making friends or at least trying to gather some information. It wouldn’t hurt to get a few people on their side. He would leave that to Dylan. He was better at it than Milo.
Dylan was trying to find out more about who Kinross was. What was his background? How did he come to have so much power? But so far no one was talking. Maybe no one knew.
Milo had a duffel bag slung over his shoulder filled with goodies for Destiny. Food and drink and an ereader.
He hadn’t wanted to venture out before light. Last night Dylan had shifted form on the way back; he could see better and scent better as a wolf. They hadn’t encountered anything larger than a small bird, but Dylan had claimed there were signs of bigger things out here in the forest. Though he’d also said there was no evidence of anything in the tunnels, so Destiny should have been safe.
A meeting of the council was scheduled for later that morning, so he had to get back and to the island by then. They didn’t want to give anyone reason to suspect them of being anything other than good, conscientious representatives.
Would Destiny even be here?
Maybe she’d taken fright and headed back to the safety of her cozy little cell.
He didn’t like that idea and had no clue why.
He didn’t want to care. His one disastrous venture into love had left him wary of the emotion. And that was the understatement of the century—of the millennium actually. He ran a hand over the raised weal that curled around his throat and extended down over his left shoulder, just touching his heart as though to remind him that love could definitely leave you burned and scarred.
Anyway, why was he thinking of love?
Destiny intrigued him—that was all. She was just so…different. And he wanted to know why. She was also sexy as hell, and while he might have given up on love, he still enjoyed sex, and it had been a long time for him even without considering all the years he’d spent in cryo.
Destiny had a life plan. She was going back to do her duty to mankind. In which case, why not have a little fun before