Chasing the Stars (35 page)

‘Careful, Vee. Beware the green-eyed monster which mocks the meat it feeds on,’ said Aidan.

‘So I’m supposed to be happy that Nathan is screwing someone else, am I?’

Aidan shrugged infuriatingly.

‘Why would he do it?’ I whispered.

‘You wouldn’t hand over the ship to them,’ Aidan pointed out. ‘Commander Linedecker probably felt she had no other course.’

‘The commander is behind this?’ I asked, aghast.

‘Sounds reasonable to me.’

‘So what was the plan? To have her son seduce the ship’s command code out of me? He was so good I would’ve handed it over believing it was my idea, not his,’ I said bitterly.

It had nearly worked. It was just a matter of time before I would’ve told Nate anything and everything.

‘It’s not your fault. Like Anjuli said, Nathan is a user, that’s all, and he used you to get what he and the rest of the refugees want – which is this ship.’

‘I told them I’d take them to Mendela Prime—’

‘But playing devil’s advocate, you could’ve changed your mind at any time,’ said Aidan. ‘You might’ve decided to alert the Authority to their whereabouts at any of the outposts we would’ve passed on the way. As far as they were concerned, the safer option was to have complete control.’

Gullible. Naïve. Incredibly stupid. Reckless. The list of my better qualities went on and on. As if anyone could fall in love and want to spend the rest of their life with me, let alone after such a short acquaintance. I’d been dancing through a fairy tale and the music playing had drowned out all rational thought.

But now the music had stopped.

Nathan and the others must’ve hatched their plan soon after coming on board. Maybe it was after I’d refused to hand over my ship to the commander that first time. Had it been so obvious that I was attracted to Nathan from the moment I saw him? It must’ve been and they’d decided to use that against me. And idiot that I was I’d swallowed every kind word, every touch, every caress had deigned to thow my way. That was the hardest thing of all to bear, just how easy I’d made it for Nathan to deceive me.

I realized something at that moment which squeezed my heart until I could hardly breathe. I’d been so desperate for love, had longed so much for someone to share my life with, that I hadn’t taken very much persuading on Nathan’s part to go through the joining ceremony with him. It wasn’t desperately romantic as I’d originally thought, it was merely desperately pathetic.

But the truth of it was, I really had fallen for Nate.

Love at first sight.

Before I met him, I thought such a thing only happened in the films and stories, but the first sight of Nathan had made my heart beat faster and my mouth go dry and made me very aware of my erratic breathing. Talking to him, being with him, making love with him after that had made those initial feelings deeper, more solid, much more real – or so I’d thought. It was love built on shifting sand.

Why did I join with Nathan? It’d been such a rash thing to do. Why did he join with me? I mean, why go along with it in the first place? A new sexual conquest? A brand-new adventure? A ship and his freedom at stake?

Nathan couldn’t keep his hands off me. I’d been stupid enough to mistake a high sex drive for an extremely loving nature. I’d seen in him what I wanted to see and had believed that I’d be enough for him.

And yet . . .

And yet I would’ve sworn he only had eyes for me. I thought he was all mine, just as I was all his. I guess not all of him was mine alone. He felt free to satisfy his sexual appetite with anyone he wanted, he was just trying to be discreet about it. Discreet? Not if everyone knew what he was except me. What had Anjuli called him? A whoremeister. A master manipulator. Someone who wasn’t above using sex and playing on the feelings of others to get what they wanted.

Stupid. I was so very stupid.

Reckless.

Foolish to join with him.

Now I couldn’t get the image of him and Anjuli out of my head. It was poisoning my mind, cell by cell. I closed my eyes and I could see them kissing. I opened my eyes and I could see them in bed together. In her bed or in the bed Nathan and I shared, the one that was supposed to be exclusively ours.

I sat up slowly, self-loathing scorching through me.

‘So what do we do now?’ I asked Aidan. ‘There’s fifteen of them, not including their children, and only the two of us.’

‘Does Nathan know you’re on to them?’ asked Aidan.

‘No, I don’t think so.’

‘As long as he and the others don’t know for sure, then we do to them what they wanted to do to us, only we do it first – starting with Nathan.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Meaning we do whatever is necessary to survive,’ said my brother.

‘What about the ones who were killed? D’you know who was responsible for that?’ I asked.

‘I’m still working on that,’ said Aidan. ‘Though I suspect they were got rid of because they refused to go along with the plans to dupe the two of us.’

Appalled, I stared at him. ‘You really think that was the reason they were killed?’

‘What other reason could they be? They lived on Callisto together, they travelled on the transport ship
Galileo
together, they lived on Barros 5 together. So why would someone suddenly decide to bump them off one by one now? The reason must have something to do with us and our ship. We have it, they want it.’

I hated the fact that Aidan’s logic made sense.

‘Vee, I hope you’re not going to argue with me on this,’ Aidan replied. ‘It’s us or them. We need to neutralize Nathan, his mum, Darren and Sam. They are the refugees’ leaders. We get rid of them, then we strike at the others before they have a chance to regroup.’

No!

Think, Vee. Think.

This was all moving way too fast.

Nathan was my husband and that meant something to me. I wasn’t going to rush to believe Nathan could be such a treacherous rat. Our time together deserved more than that. Nathan smiling at me, hugging me, holding me, feeding me when I was almost too tired to hold my spoon – they were all images that played in my mind. I shook my head. I couldn’t give up on us that quickly. I just couldn’t.

‘I’m not going to move against anyone without more proof,’ I said at last.

‘How much more proof do you need, Vee?’ Aidan asked, exasperated.

‘More than I’ve currently got.’

‘Do we have to be floating out into space before you believe Nathan is no good?’ asked Aidan. ‘Nathan is cheating on you, and not just him but everyone on board is having a good laugh about it at your expense. He’s using you to get what he and the rest of the drones want. And once they have this ship, they’ll have no further use for either of us. It’s us or them.’

Everything my brother said made sense, I still wasn’t prepared to believe it. Not yet. I had to think rationally about this.

‘Let me speak to Nathan,’ I said. ‘Then we can decide what our next move will be.’

‘If you insist on speaking to him first, then do me a favour. You’ll know exactly where you stand if you ask Nathan one simple question,’ said Aidan.

‘What question?’

‘Ask him where the pendant is you gave him?’

‘I know where it is – round Anjuli’s neck,’ I said bitterly.

‘Yes, but Nathan doesn’t know that you know that. Ask him. See what he says. If he’s honest, if he respects you, he’ll come right out and tell you the truth. But if he lies or, knowing him, tries to change the subject . . .’ Aidan left the rest unsaid.

I nodded reluctantly. Aidan smiled, satisfied.

I stood up, more tired than I’d ever been in my life. Every part of me was folding in on itself and I wasn’t fighting it. I wanted to be as small as possible until I faded away from all the sorrow, the pain overwhelming me.

‘Vee, you know I love you, right?’ asked Aidan.

I turned to him and dragged a smile onto my face. ‘Yeah, I know.’

I headed back to my room, sealing the door. I sat on the bed, my knees drawn up, my head resting on them. Every hope and dream I’d had which featured Nathan and me together was slowly but surely withering inside.

What the hell was going on? I placed my hand against the palmlock for a third time. Once again the door failed to open.

‘Computer, put me through to Vee in room U-02,’ I ordered.

The image of Vee’s face appeared on the control panel in front of me beside our door. ‘Yes?’

‘Vee, I can’t get into our room.’

Damn! What was that look Vee giving me all about? Her eyes were narrowed and there was no spark of warmth or welcome in them. I must’ve been mistaken because, a moment later, she’d moved away from the screen and I heard our door unlock. I entered the room.

‘Why’re you here, Nathan?’ Vee’s voice dripped with enough venom to kill at twenty paces. So I hadn’t been mistaken.

I frowned. ‘Why did you lock me out? I live here now. Remember?’

‘I remember. You obviously don’t. Could you get whatever it is you came for and leave please?’ Vee turned to walk away from me but I grabbed her arm, spinning her round.

‘What’s going on, Vee? Why’re you mad at me?’

She looked me up and down in the same way that her brother had done when he’d barged into our room and found me naked. It’d irritated me when he did it and it was doing the same thing now. Vee was looking at me like I was somewhere beneath contempt.

‘Where’s my dad’s pendant that I gave you as a joining gift, Nate?’

‘What?’

‘You heard me. Where is it?’

Shit! I’d lost that thing and still hadn’t found it yet. Time for some fast talking.

‘Never mind the pendant, why did you seal the door against me?’ I asked, figuring to get Vee’s mind on something else.

‘Where’s the pendant I gave you, Nate?’ Vee repeated with slow deliberation.

‘Don’t try to change the subject,’ I said. ‘Why did you seal the door? If Darren or one of the others has threatened you then you need to tell me. We have friends on board, Vee, friends who won’t let Darren or anyone else harm us. And talking of friends, when are you going to get round to recalling Anjuli to the bridge? Seriously. Don’t you think she’s suffered enough?’

If I thought Vee’s look was cold before, it was at absolute zero now.

‘Nathan. Where. Is. The. Pendant?’

‘We’re talking about Anjuli here.’ I blustered. ‘Not some stupid pendant—’

Vee’s hand flew out as she went to slap my face. I grabbed her wrist, but only just before her palm made contact with my cheek.

‘If you slap me, I warn you, I’ll slap you back.’ I was just as pissed off as she was now.

‘Let go of me,’ Vee ordered, her voice low.

I let go of her wrist as if it was red hot. Vee had actually tried to hit me. I swore when I left Callisto that no one would ever strike me again.
No one.

‘I’d appreciate it if you got your shit together and left,’ Vee told me.

‘Just like that?’

‘Just like that.’

We scowled at each other, neither of us moving, neither of us saying a word. Something ugly was in the room with us and it was writhing, coiling ever tighter around us. Was that it then? Was our joining over before it had barely begun? It couldn’t be because I’d lost the pendant she gave me. No one broke up over the loss of a piece of jewellery, for God’s sake. Had Vee finally woken up to the fact that I was a drone and she’d realized just what she’d tied herself to?

An alarm blared. It sounded like it was coming from the upper deck. God forgive me but my first thought was, ‘Thank God!’ Closely followed by, ‘Now what?’

I ran for the door, closely followed by Vee. Our issues would just have to wait. We both sprinted along the corridor to where the alarm was coming from – the mess hall.

We entered the mess hall to a scene of absolute chaos. Max, Dooli, Rafael and a number of others were doubled over, clutching their stomachs. Simone and Khari, the children, stood beside Dooli, crying at her evident distress. Simone tried to stroke Dooli’s hair as the woman groaned in agony. Others were actually being physically sick where they sat. The smell was horrendous, bad enough to make me recoil the moment I entered the mess hall.

‘What’s happened?’ I asked.