ARC10

Chapter 24.2

After seven hours of staring into nothingness, I stretch my arms toward the sky and relent. Hatch duty resumes the familiar monotony of watching rust accumulate on a steel pipe. I sag against the pillar as the pink streaks the sky. Our anxiety dunks below the horizon with the sun.

"What do you think Hayomo did when she was up here for hatch duty?" I relax, pulling my half-mask down and dropping my helmet by my side.

"Same thing as the rest of us?"

I scrounge for a stone to throw. "You think she wishes the world had ended by zombies too?"

Dean smirks. "She was born in tactical position. If she ever had to serve, I bet she loved every boring second."

I snort.

"I'm glad you went to your dad," Dean says, squinting into the sinking sun. "I bet he appreciated the effort. Not that he'd ever say it."

"Yeah," I stare into the distance. "He told me some stuff, though."

"Like what?"

I hesitate. Do I want Dean in my personal space? Yeah. Yeah, I do. "I found out he knew my real father."

"It's the boyfriend he talks about all the time, isn't it?"

Exasperated, my hands drop to my sides. "You knew?"

"I guessed. With the way he looks when he mentions him, and the way he says he found you—I just connected the dots."

I have no idea what to say.

"So, what else did you find out?"

"You tell me since you apparently already know everything."

Dean's lip quirks upward.

"I had a different name. I forgot to ask Simon what it was, but I wasn't always the Incredible Janika Lorn."

Dean chuckles.

"I found out they met at a book club."

"That figures."

"Yeah, he started reciting some story or poem or something Roberto gave him." My father's name flounders on my tongue. "Mind at peace, heart all innocent. Some other mushy crap."

Dean chuckles. "Byron. I know that poem."

"You would."

"My Anthology of Romantic Poets—the one your dad borrowed the most from my mom's trunk of books."

"I can't believe your father, the most unpleasant human on the planet, snuck a box full of contraband into the URE. It's almost as if at some point in his miserable life, he had a heart."

"Supposedly. He must have lost it when my mom and brothers died in the Invasion. We Freyer men are good at holding grudges. My dad's still working on his twenty-five year-old vendetta against the world."

Hours tumble forward when we drop our tension. We lean against the pillars as the stars perk up through the dusk.

"Can you come by my place after the shift?" he asks to the open air.

"Yeah. Why?"

"I want to give you the trunk."

"The trunk of books? Why? It's absolutely the last thing of yours I want. Except maybe on a cold night when I have a box of matches lying around."

"It doesn't fit in my cabin. My dad said he's going to take it with him, but I don't believe he'll actually bring it. He doesn't appreciate reminders of her."

"Yeah, I'll do it." I scan the ground, searching for a reason to decline. "Are you sure you want me to have it though? Wagers are going around saying ARC10 has been named the ship most likely to explode in space. Pools have gone from 'if' to 'when' and 'how.'"

"That's not funny."

I chuckle anyway. "It's a little funny."

"You told me you'd wait. Exploding doesn't automatically exempt you from our deal."

For the first time since night ascended, my nerves fizz to life again. "I have no idea what you want."

Dean propels himself from his pillar across from me, abandoning his rifle at his post. He hovers. "I want you to promise me, when we arrive on NOHA, we'll go back to being together again."

"What's the point? You're contracted."

"I don't care. NOHA is a big place. Let them try and find us." He takes my face in both hands, and I am lost in the vastness of his grasp through his thick gloves.

"You've lost your mind, Freyer," My hands form a protective layer around his. Warmth flushes through my skin, pulsating from my core. I transform from a violent Reaper into a puff of smoke.

"You've felt it, too. We're good together. We've been the perfect fit since we were kids. I don't want to lose you to a ridiculous human experiment. Promise me, Nika. "

When I topple those barbed fences around me, I imagine Simon with my biological father. I picture what they must have experienced and what the world must have felt with them in it.

"Will you wait for me?"

"I'll wait," I say without hesitation. "Will you wait for me?"

"I'll wait."

"Even if my ship gets lost or set on fire and we have to rebuild the whole thing and we end up getting to NOHA fifteen years later?"

"I'll wait."

"Even if my ship gets hijacked by space pirates and we fall into a black hole and we don't come out for three thousand years?"

"I'll wait."

"Even if—"

"Janika." He rubs my lips with his thick, gloved hand, silencing me immediately. "I don't care if it takes the span of the remaining human existence, I'll wait."

"You're going to get the rod if you keep this up, you know."

"Worth it."

I spin away from him to hide my grin. "So which one do you think it will be?"

"Which one what?"

"Lost? Fire? Or black hole? I've already put two hundred creds on 'lost,' but the black hole is looking pretty likely."

His smile fades as his eyes roll back.