The Final Six (The Final Six #1) - Alexandra Monir Page 0,79

of the control panel. . . .

“Trajectory adjustment confirmed,” the voice returns. “Prepare to rendezvous and deploy the Canadarm.”

Leo looks at me with a frenzied expression, and then turns back to the joystick. “Here goes nothing!”

He kicks up the speed as my fingers fumble with the panel, looking for the docking controls. And then, as the gravity of Mars pulls us into orbit and we match the supply ship’s velocity—that’s when I find the docking pane. I press the Deploy button, watching in amazement as the robotic crane slowly unfurls, pulling us toward the ship.

SLAM. Leo and I jump as our vessel swipes against the side pane of the supply ship.

“We went too fast,” Leo yells. “Let me try again and decelerate this time.”

I return my fingers to the control panel, ready to send the Canadarm back into the fray. This time it works, and I feel the rush of heavy gear clanking into place as we dock. I’m just about to cheer that we did it when our capsule starts spinning once again. And now the scene before our window transforms, sending us millions of miles away in a matter of seconds. I struggle to catch my breath as we descend toward an icy, red-ridged moon. Europa.

“We have to land!” Leo turns to me, an expression of both panic and glee in his eyes. “Should I fire the thrusters now, or—”

“Now!” I gasp. “We need to reduce our velocity fast if we’re going to make the landing.”

With one hand driving the joystick and his other working the switches on the pilot’s dashboard, Leo activates the thrusters, which ignite with a deafening rumble. As our spacecraft pitches toward the moon’s surface, I scan the control panel in front of me until I find the symbol for Deploy Landing Gear. But when I press the button, a red alarm pops up: SYSTEM FAILURE.

“Are you kidding me?”

“We’re going to miss it!” Leo shouts, and through the window I can see that he is right—we’re not slowing down quickly enough; we’re dangerously close to skimming past Europa. “Hurry!”

My fingers shake as I try a different tack, entering the command for “Initiate Capsule Separation.” A green light illuminates the control panel, and then the voice returns over the cockpit speakers.

“Final Stage Separation and Descent in three . . . two—”

My scream drowns out the countdown as the spacecraft splits in two. The engines and power propulsion modules fall away into the ether, while our remaining combined capsule drops hundreds of feet, our bodies flipping upside down in their seats. And then, finally, we come careening to a stop, our wheels kicking up ice.

The glass screen fades to darkness as the voice over the speakers says, “Simulation completed successfully. You may remove your headsets and detach from the sensors.”

I pull off the VR equipment and blink in shock. It looks . . . exactly as it did when we first climbed in with General Sokolov. There’s no smoke from the fire, no water from where I doused the cabin with foam. There’s not a single hint of the journey we just went on. It’s as though Leo and I somehow shared the same multisensory dream.

Leo leans back against his seat, and we turn to each other in exhausted, delirious relief.

“Well, that was insane,” he remarks. “But we did it.”

“We did it,” I whisper.

I inch closer to him, close enough to see myself reflected in his blue eyes, and the longing catches me off guard. Something electric runs through my body, something I haven’t felt before.

He reaches for my chin, gently tilting it toward him. I am too hopeful, too nervous, to breathe. And then, softly, he brushes his lips against mine.

We draw back for a split second, our foreheads pressed together and eyes locked, as if we are both taking in the magnitude of this moment. And then I pull him toward me, desperate to feel his lips on mine again. He cradles my face as he kisses me; he runs his mouth across my neck, leaving goose bumps everywhere his lips traced. It feels as though something is exploding in my chest, and suddenly—everything makes sense.

I know why I’ve been conflicted, why my heart and mind have been pulling me in different directions.

The answer was here, all along.

Nineteen

LEO

I WRAP NAOMI IN MY ARMS, KISSING HER LIPS, HER FACE, HER hair. I feel her responding to my every touch, her arms tightening around me as she kisses me back with urgency, like this moment is