Of Smoke and Stardust [[COMPLETE]]]

CHAPTER 25-ALYA

A silence had consumed every corner of the bridge as the Kerostasia made its way through space. The entire crew buzzed with the undercurrent of a live wire ripped from its circuit.

Alya sucked in a breath. Everything happened so fast, like time itself had sped up. It felt like the night before had happened light years ago, in another millennia, in another life; when she was another girl, a completely different person. Reborn. Renewed. Rejuvenated. She was a new Alya.

Kaz's slender fingers worked the control, maneuvering the Cytius through the planet's airspace, past the satellites that Jorrit had, hopefully, disabled. His hands were steady; the only indication that he wasn't completely calm was the firm line of his mouth. Alya knew that if she was in his position, her hands would be shaking.

Alya looked out the window of her station; her fate loomed closer and closer in an eerie fog of anticipation and dread as the ship descended.

As the ship floated down at an excruciatingly slow pace, it was as if the entire universe held its breath. One wrong move, one bump, one jerk, and it would all be over before it'd begun. Alya's grip tightened on the armrests, knuckles painfully white. Even her first mission as a HAWK hadn't been so stressful. She had to remind herself to breath; had to remember that a simple breath wouldn't cause the ship to jerk and kill them all.

The Cytius landed with a slight jolt that made Alya's teeth clack. For a moment, her heart stopped dead in her chest. Thump thump—thud. Time stretched into infinity as they all waited with bated breath for something to go wrong, for an alert, an attack, sirens, or gunshots. But nothing came; no swarm of soldiers or barrage of anti-spacecraft missiles. Collective sighs broke the spell. Jorrit's hacks had worked. Now the rest was up to her, Parker, and Rowan.

Alya turned from her seat to find Parker and Zion exchanging a nod. Something had changed between them. The animosity was gone, and something else had eased in between them; they almost looked like friends— Comrades even. Her eyes fell on Nyx, who had her game face on. Strong set jaw, and eyes blazing with strategies. She noticed Alya and tried to fix her face into something more assuring, but it didn't quite fit. Nyx was never much for a comforting presence. Somehow, that made Alya feel a bit at ease anyway.

"Your retinas and fingerprints should be in their system," Jorrit's voice was quite in the silence of the ship. "You just need to get some uniforms as quickly as you can." He handed each of them a key card with their picture on the front complete with holographic foiling. Alya had no idea how Jorrit managed to forge the seemingly authentic IGS badges, but it was incredibly ingenious. There was nothing the kid couldn't do when it came to tech. "These are just to clip on the front for show, so no one asks any questions."

"Let's get this over and done with." Rowan cracked his knuckles. He reached for an electrogun and strapped it underneath his jacket. "This place isn't going to break into itself."

There was no time for goodbyes. It was for the best anyway. Alya didn't think she could walk away from everyone as if it were a suicide mission. The three of them marched down the oddly silent corridors to the bay door at the rear of the starship. Alya's heart hammered in her throat with every step she took. Her palms were slick with sweat inside her gloves. There was no going back now. She kept her pace steady, and snuck a glance at Parker.

His dark eyes were unreadable, and his strong set face expressionless. Of course he would be good at masking his emotions, even under the most extreme pressure. That's how he survived at mellowmont. Alya couldn't tell what was going on in his head—all the inner turmoil of half anticipation and half fear, the desperation of gaining and losing at the same time. But he was Parker, the man with one wing, the man who had been through hell and back, and he would never let any emotion crack his resolve.