the kids. Brigit expected fear and possibly a riot.
But that was not what happened.
Each and every boy, when asked if they agreed with Canis’s plan, voted to stay with their leader.
So Tray and Brigit, outnumbered and outvoted, picked up the containment pod filled with a mass of minds and brought it on board.
Then they immediately plotted a course back to Harem Station, knowing full well that whatever was in motion at this point was completely out of their hands.
CHAPTER NINETEEN - CRUX
I can’t tell if time passes. I can’t even tell if I’m real or not.
I am nothing but dark, empty silence.
And then I’m not.
And then there is a cloud around me. A swirling dust cloud filled with tiny pinpricks of light that shimmer and flicker—giving depth to the blackness.
It begins to swirl faster, and faster until some of the particles collect into blobs. The spinning intensifies and soon the light gathers into long, spiral arms.
A galaxy.
I’m in the center of a galaxy.
Except I’m not me. I’m not Crux’s body, just his mind. Just a collection of knowledge and ideas. But with power. And as that word power manifests in my consciousness, more pinpricks of light begin to grow and swirl. Turning from one thing into another.
I get lost watching it happen. Wondering if this is what it feels like to be ALCOR.
Then Jimmy is there. Laughing as he swirls around in the dust. But he’s not Jimmy as I know him now. He’s the Jimmy that used to be my best friend. Before we left Wayward Station. Before we met ALCOR. Before we were torn apart by space and time.
“Jimmy?”
He’s floating in the dust of my galaxy. Slowly rotating. Always grinning. He was always grinning back then. “Did you see her hair?” he says. “Don’t you just want to run your fingers through it?”
I begin to answer him—but then everything changes and we’re suddenly back inside the piece-of-shit ship that took us to ALCOR Station twenty-one years ago.
He’s in the pilot seat. And I’m leaning down over his shoulder. Staring at the controls as he maneuvers the ship towards the flashing blue ALCOR gate. I yell, “Do you even know what you’re doing?”
“Back the fuck off,” Jimmy growls. “I said I got this and when I say I got this, I fucking got this. OK?”
But a warning lights on the control panel. Engine overheating. So obviously, he does not ‘got this’.
“Akeelians are closing in. They’ve locked on! Firing sequence imminent!”
That should be Valor in the seat next to Jimmy. But it’s not. It’s Delphi.
I just squint down at her as fingers fly across the controls. She’s very young. Not a small child like the other versions of Delphi I’ve seen on this trip, obviously. But early teens. Maybe fourteen. Fifteen at the oldest. And I’m suddenly intrigued at this new version of my daughter. “Delphi?”
“I’m sending the code to the ALCOR gate now,” Nyleena says. “Hold for transmission.”
Wait.
I turn and look towards the back of the ship. And where Tray should be, sits Nyleena. All serious as she looks up at a massive screen. Concentrating on sending her message.
“I’m arming the cannons, ready to fire back,” Luck says. He’s younger Luck too. Sitting at his battle station staring intently at his targets onscreen. Ready to blow shit up.
“What the hell is going on here?” Alarms begin screaming. Blasting my ears with high-pitched warnings that leave no room for doubt.
“We’re in a world of fucking shit,” Jimmy yells. “We’re not gonna make it!”
“Brace yourselves!” Delphi shouts. “Incoming! Incoming!”
“What do I do?” Luck screams. “What do I do?”
“Fire back, Luck!” I yell. “Fire back!”
But before he can, everything disappears in an explosion of white light.
“No!” I yell into the chaos. “This isn’t how it ends! This isn’t how it happened!”
No one answers me. Time passes. The light fades to black. And my friends do not come back.
I let out a deep breath and float in the sudden silence. Trying to calm down. Trying to forget the panic of those last few moments.
It’s just another glimpse, Crux. That’s all.
But it was yet another bad glimpse. Maybe not on par with craggy, old Corla, but we made it through the trip on that ship. Jimmy did know what he was doing. Valor was navigating, not Delphi.
Was there a reality—a time when this trip happened with this group of people instead of the ones who made it through that gate?
Is ALCOR trying to tell me something?
Trying to make it sink in that there is