Cousins Esther and Tempest have been separated by cities, countries, and continents all their lives; but now, when both girls need each other the most, they are separated by lightyears.
Tempest is stuck on a vessel to Janus, forced into keeping the...
"The technological developments of the Deathless are truly all incredible in the definition sense of the word. They are all unbelievable. The only trouble with all of the advances we create as scientists is that depending on who has their hands on them, they could mean the advancement or the ruin of us all."
-Dr. Phoebe Clark
TEMPEST
The door of my room closes behind Neo and I, and I just barely hear him tell my parents that he'll take care of me over the white noise of my panic.
"I don't want to talk to you," I say, hunching over to brace myself on the window.
"Ok," he says from the doorway. "But I will be right here if you change your mind."
I take a deep breath, and between the fresh oxygen and the determination not to mix business with pleasure with Neo, I find the strength to turn around and stand tall.
"Look, I appreciate you wanting to help me, but I'm not backing down on what I said earlier about Yuri, especially given the new information I was told."
He scoffs. "What? Your cousin call you again."
I narrow my eyes at him. "No... my parents called hers, and it's not a conspiracy. It's real. You should probably call your sister too, to make sure she is safe in Hicksmon, what with all these exploding teens running around."
His smile drops. "So if I go into the hall and ask your mom and dad...—"
"—They will tell you it's true." He stares blankly at me. "Yeah, now you know why I was freaking out just now. Why I'm still freaking out a bit. We are actually on a ship traveling through space—maybe for thirteen years, maybe for less—with however many Perfects on board, armed to explode with the shift of an emotion. And if that happens—"
"—We will all explode," he says, completing my sentence with shock in his voice. He lets his gaze fall to the floor. "We have to get that FTL drive going."
"Ya think?"
He doesn't respond to my sarcasm like he normally would, and even though that's what I asked of him—to stop the playful banter and, really, all banter, period—I don't like it.
"Sorry," I say. "Sarcasm is my go to response."
"Well," he replies after a long exhale. "At least it's not an explosion."
"That's the other thing that made me freak out earlier...."
"What?"
"Some of us Perfects won't just spontaneously combust. Some of us have nuclear explosives, so that any one of us could cause mass casualties. Even on Earth."
"Awesome," he responds, throwing his hands up.
"Right? Good thing you missed being a member of the exploding Frankenstein generation," I say.
He cracks a smile and tilts his head to lean it against the doorway wall. He's looking at me like he wants to say something about us, about our kiss or about any one of the reasons he and I should kiss again. But then the phone rings.
"These still work out here?" I ask.
He nods. "We are all state of the art out here."
The phone rings again, and I dive across the bed to answer it. "Hello?"
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