want you to know that I put Tycho near Delphi for her. It wasn’t for the reason you think.”
It wasn’t because you were going to use them as weapons to destroy this station?
I want to say it. But I don’t. Instead I just restate the obvious. “They can’t be together,” I growl. “You know that better than anyone.”
She turns in a rush and then exits the room. Leaving Valor and me alone with Delphi.
When the door whooshes closed behind her Valor turns to me. He pulls two stools out from under the counter and rolls one towards me. “Tell me, Crux. What the fuck happened between you and Luck? And why are you acting so weird?”
I sigh. Me. I’m the one acting weird. Never mind that everyone but me has switched their loyalty to their new glowing princesses. “He went into the node while you were gone, Valor. And when he came back out, he was… different.”
“Different how?”
“Not him. It’s not him. And I don’t know how to explain that except… it wasn’t him.”
“Where did he go?”
“I don’t know for sure. But you remember the message you guys were carrying for ALCOR when we first arrived? They were spin node coordinates. I know that for sure now. Because when I was down in the spin node room I think that’s what I entered into the console. And then I went through it and I came out into another… place.”
“Earth?” Valor asks.
“No. Maybe? Probably? I’m not sure. It wasn’t so much a place as it was a time. But that’s not important. The important part is there was another me already there. And I think that when Luck went through after you guys left, Valor, I think he found another him. But it was the other him who came back. Not the real him. Because when he came back he tried to kill me.”
“Hmm. From all the accounts I heard, he did kill you.”
“Yeah. OK. He did kill me.” I look up at Valor. “But before he shot me he said something. He said, ‘You’re the problem here, Crux. You’re the reason all this is happening. And I can’t in good conscience let you live.’” I throw up my hands. “And that was it. Twenty-one years of brotherhood was erased in one moment. He shot me.”
“He killed you, but you didn’t die.”
“No. I went somewhere. I know I went somewhere. When I came to afterward, I just felt like… I’m not him, Valor! I’m not Crux!”
“Of course you are! Dude.” He gets up and crosses the distance between us. Grabs a hold of my upper arm. “You’re just… confused. I think. The time freeze. It fucks with you—”
“No!” I turn to him, so sure of this. “No. That’s not what it is. I have this feeling, Valor. Ever since Corla showed up here, I’ve had this feeling that something isn’t right.”
“Nothing is right! We’re all fucked up. But you’re not someone else. And Luck isn’t someone else.”
“Then how do you explain what he did? Hmm? He shot me. He left us. Does that sound like something Luck would do?”
“He’s walked through the spin node before, Crux. He always came back.”
“Did he?”
Valor huffs. “Yeah.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it was him.”
“I look like me too. But I’m not me, Valor.”
“Crux. I literally do not have time for this. We’re in the middle of a fucking time freeze. Outside the time freeze there is a war going on. And there are a few million people here, on this station, who have chosen sides. Most of them don’t even understand the difference between these sides. We don’t have time to play these fucking games!”
“Games, Valor?” I ask. “Why is it games?”
“Because there’s no other you. There’s no other Luck.”
“Really? Just like there’s no other ALCOR? No other Draden? He was alive. And then he died. And then he was alive again. And then he died again. He’s most definitely not Draden.” Valor has nothing to say about that. “We’re in a freeze, right? So who cares if we take our time? That’s logical, by the way. Time freezes. So normal. And all the women we love are bombs. Another totally logical thing for them to be. Nothing about this is right, Valor. All of it is starting to feel very much like a long, sick lie. The breeding ceremony. The escape. The ALCOR gate. The station. The princesses. The war. Lyra, and Nyleena, and Veila. How the fuck did we get here?”
Valor scoffs again. “I…