Chasing the Stars (21 page)

This was insane! She’d never agree to what I had planned but that wasn’t going to stop me from trying. Even I couldn’t believe what I had in mind. I was definitely losing it, but I didn’t care.

All Vee had to say was yes and our lives would never be the same again.

‘Vee, are you all right?’ asked my brother.

‘Yeah,’ I yawned. ‘Why?’

‘That’s the eighth time you’ve yawned in ten minutes,’ said Aidan.

I frowned. ‘Don’t exaggerate.’

‘You know I don’t do that.’

‘Why are you counting how many times I yawn in any given amount of time?’ I said, irritated.

For heaven’s sake! Couldn’t a girl even yawn in peace? And though I knew I’d done nothing wrong, my face and neck were growing steadily warmer. Erica who was perched at the edge of Aidan’s console chatting to him, looked at me curiously.

What?

Luckily for me, the commander, Anjuli and everyone else on the bridge couldn’t give a damn how often I yawned. I needed to pull myself together. We were still travelling through Mazon space and weren’t out of danger yet. I needed to be on top of my game.

Focus, Vee. Focus!

Nathan chose just that moment to step through the door and, yep, he was yawning.

Crap!

‘Morning, Nathan,’ said Aidan.

Aidan’s greeting almost made me feel sorry that I’d spoken in private to my brother about being more open and friendly with the crew.

‘Someone else who didn’t get much sleep last night,’ said Erica pointedly.

What was that girl’s problem? And thanks to her words and Nathan’s untimely entrance, my face was now on fire.

‘Nathan, are the oxygen levels on board too low?’ asked Aidan. ‘That might explain why both you and my sister are yawning. I shall check—’

‘Aidan, where is everyone?’ I asked, desperate to get my brother off the topic of the ship’s lack of oxygen.

‘Doctor Sheen and Rafael are in the medical bay. Alex is in the science lab with Max. Dooli is with the two children in the cargo hold. Mike is in the hydroponics bay, Ian, Maria, Harrison and Corbyn are in the engine room—’

‘I really don’t need to know the exact whereabouts of every single person on board,’ I interrupted.

‘But that’s what you asked me.’ Aidan turned to me with a frown.

Sometimes he could be so irritatingly literal. ‘I just meant . . . Never mind.’

I glanced at Nathan who winked at me.

Bastard!

I smothered a laugh beneath my hand which I placed over my mouth as if I were contemplating something deep and meaningful – which in a way I was.

Nathan walked over to me and squatted down. ‘How’re you feeling?’ he asked softly.

‘Tired. I didn’t get much sleep last night,’ I replied equally quietly.

We grinned at each other, at that moment the only two on the bridge. But only for that moment. I looked up. Erica was watching us, a dawning light of realization in her eyes. She opened her mouth. I quickly shook my head at her. A satisfied gleam in her eyes, she closed her mouth again. With one gesture I’d been stupid enough to confirm her suspicions.

Damn!

I really was entirely out of practice at being with people. Erica resumed her conversation with Aidan, probably knowing I was watching her. She wasn’t going to tell my brother, was she? But hell! So what if she did? What Nathan and I got up to in our own time was none of her business, or Aidan’s business, or anyone else’s for that matter.

‘Thank you for my present,’ Nathan said, bringing my attention back to him.

‘Are you wearing it?’

‘Are you kidding? I’m never going to take it off.’ Nathan smiled. He unfastened the top of his work jacket making it seem like a casual gesture. There, against his black T-shirt, was the V pendant my dad had promised to me and I in turn had passed on to Nathan last night.

‘Be careful with it. The clasp is a bit fragile,’ I warned.

Nathan nodded.

‘Don’t lose it,’ I said softly. ‘It’s very precious to me, that’s why I gave it to you. OK?’

‘OK.’

‘Vee, I’ve been going through all the logs recorded since we arrived on board the
Aidan
,’ the commander turned to tell me. ‘Are you convinced by your assessment of yesterday’s airlock . . . incident?’

I forced myself to look straight back at the commander rather than looking around to see who was monitoring our conversation. ‘With the data I’ve analysed so far, yes I am.’

The commander nodded and turned back to what she was doing. She reminded me that I needed to get my head out of the clouds and back to work. Three people had died. I needed to find out why.

Beside me, Nathan straightened up. ‘I wasn’t given an assignment for today,’ he said at his normal volume. ‘Is there anything in particular you’d like me to do, Captain.’

I looked from Nathan to his mum and back again.

Oh, he was talking to me!

Nathan pressed his lips together to stop himself from laughing. Resisting the urge to kick him in the shins, I asked, ‘What’re you good at?’

With a devilish glint in his eyes, he replied softly, ‘I’m good with my hands.’

God! My face was on fire. Again.

‘Er . . . if you could help out on the landing craft down in the cargo hold, that’d be great. I haven’t managed to get it running and I believe some of your colleagues are currently working on it. I’m sure they’d appreciate your input.’

Nathan bent down to whisper in my ear, ‘I like it when my input is appreciated.’

Oh. My. God!

‘Nathan, behave!’ I muttered.

‘That’s not what you said last night,’ he replied.

I glared at him. What was he like?

Before I could say another word, Nathan was heading for the door. And I knew that he knew I was watching him.

I had it really bad.

Focus, Vee.

In spite of everything else that was going on around me, there was a peaceful, easy feeling inside me that I’d never felt before. For the very first time in my life I was in love and loving every minute of it.

I was almost late for the memorial ceremony. The moment I entered the mess hall, I immediately scanned the room for Vee. It was only as I looked around for her that I realized I did the same thing whatever room I entered. The first thing I did was look for Vee. It was as if I couldn’t relax properly until I knew where she was and that she was OK. I moved to stand beside her as Mum cast me a disapproving look for my tardiness. I nodded my apology then turned to look at Vee. She wore her work uniform but beneath her jacket I could see her purple sleeveless shirt. The contrast between the purple of her shirt against her brown skin made me want to take her and hold her. Or better still, to hold her and take her. Highly inappropriate thoughts given the reason for this gathering, but damn it, if a memorial service didn’t make you appreciate love and life then nothing would.

I placed my hands behind my back and waited for Mum to speak. Vee stood with her head bowed. I looked around. Everyone on board was present – except Aidan. Someone had to stay on the bridge in case the Mazon put in an unexpected appearance. The mess hall wasn’t completely silent. Some were trying – and failing – to suppress their sobs and tears. Darren wasn’t the only one who’d lost his entire family on Barros 5. Maria had lost her mother-in-law who was the last member of her family and Dooli and Rafael had also lost loved ones. To escape from Callisto only to lose the ones we loved now was especially cruel. Erica was fidgeting like she couldn’t wait to leave, but then she’d lost all her family back on Callisto a long time before we’d escaped, so this ceremony was probably just hammering home that fact. And there was Max. He’d never had any family, but he had to be the most optimistic person I’d ever met. I’d never heard him say a mean word against anyone. As far as the rest of the crew were concerned, the deaths of Mei, Saul and Jaxon had been a tragic accident, nothing more. Mum reckoned, and Vee had agreed, that there was no point in revealing the truth. It would only spread fear and suspicion around the ship. I could understand their point of view. So here we all were with more lost lives to be remembered, more deaths to mourn.

It wasn’t often that we had the time and space to collectively mourn our dead. As sombre as this occasion was, maybe it was the start of a new way of doing things for us. Maybe out of this commemoration of so much ending, we’d find a new beginning.

And maybe I was just deluding myself.

‘We are gathered here to pay our respects to all the loved ones we have known and lost – on Callisto, on the
Galileo
, on Barros 5 and aboard this ship,’ Mum began. ‘There’s not one of us on board, who hasn’t suffered the grief of a loss. But we must continue to use that grief to unite us and to make us the stronger for it.’

Silence.

Vee was radiating sadness. Her hand moved to her chest, then dropped back to her side. Anyone watching probably thought she was about to cough or was placing her hand over her heart in a very over-dramatic way. But I knew that’s where her dad’s pendant used to lie against her skin. She was probably thinking of her parents and the rest of the crew of the
Aidan
who had died. I clasped my hands in front of me, forcing myself not to reach out and take Vee’s hand in mine. I could only guess what everyone present would make of that.

‘We may have lost loved ones,’ Mum continued. ‘But all is not lost. Everyone, look around. You are standing beside your old friends and we are, all of us, your new family. We will endure and we
will
make it to Mendela Prime where a better life awaits all of us. The best way to overcome a fear of death is to live and live well – and we will.’

But would we?

As I looked around, an unwelcome question sprang into my head.

Just how many of us currently standing here would make it to Mendela Prime? Something told me our troubles weren’t behind us, but lay ahead.

Over the next few days, I’m sure more and more people were giving me funny looks,
knowing
looks. At first I tried to tell myself I was imagining things. But the smiles as I approached people in the corridors and the whispers as they passed me weren’t all my imagination. Nathan insisted Erica didn’t know a thing but she must’ve shared her suspicions.

Once or twice, Nathan and I almost got caught, twice whilst kissing in the lift when we unexpectedly found ourselves in it together alone and once in the malfunctioning landing craft when I went down to the cargo hold to enquire about progress. That really was all I went down there for – honest! Ian and Harrison were outside the craft, recalibrating the engine, and Nathan was inside the two-man craft, relaying data back to those outside. When I entered the craft to tell Nathan that we had to be more careful about public displays of affection, he answered by kissing me breathless. When the data ceased to be forthcoming, Ian decided to come into the craft to find out what was the problem. The problem was Nathan had his tongue in my mouth, not his eyes on the screen. That one had been close . . . but I think we got away with it.

And I was actually making friends. The commander and I now had a grudging respect for each other and I often asked her advice on matters regarding the ship and crew. To be honest, it was good to have someone willing to take on some of the responsibility of running the ship. The only thing I hadn’t shared with any of the others was the executive command code which allowed me amongst other things to lock out or lock down any computer function at a moment’s notice.