All the Space Between Us (A Deathless Series Story)

Episode Twenty-One: Revelations

"When everything else seems hopeless, find someone or something to invest your love into, and hope will reappear."

-Celia Guzman

TEMPEST

My parents are furious. I've never seen them like this, and if I'm being completely honest, I'm glad they're furious. Finally, they are responding in the way you would expect parents to respond when confronted with this entire situation we've gotten ourselves in.

We sit in Emperor Oshiro's meeting room, which is actually the same room in which Yuri and I had our romantic dinner, and even though the rest of the diplomats on board the Mayflower—including the emperor—are seated, my mom is standing with her back arched like a cat and her palms pressed against the table.

"So you not only are essentially threatening our daughter, but you are now telling me that you're unconcerned about the Perfects' DNA being compromised with explosives?" she yells.

I cross my arms and stare Emperor Oshiro down.

He appears unmoved by her raised tone. "My son comes first. And I am unconcerned, because I already knew about the explosives."

My jaw drops.

"What?" Mom shrieks.

"Yes, I knew."

"And you still believed packing us onto a space ship would... what? Not be a big deal? Not be a stressful situation for any of the Perfects on board, and if it was, oh well?"

Emperor Oshiro blinks slowly, indignantly. Then he turns to me. "Tempest, please excuse yourself. The adults need to discuss this, and I wouldn't want you to become too stressed."

His tone mocks us, but I'm so angry at this point that I agree. Not because he told me too, of course, but because I can literally feel my blood boiling and I don't want that to cause any sort of spontaneous combustion.

As I stand, I push my chair out with my legs so forcefully that it falls back. Then I storm out. I slam the door behind me, and when I do, I realize someone is sitting there in the hallway, someone who I probably hit with the door when I swung it open. Yuri. He puts his finger up to his mouth to gesture me to be quiet.

I crouch down to whisper to him. "What are you doing? Are you spying?"

His suit jacket is on the floor beside him, and he's pushed his white shirt sleeves up since the party. His tie is draped around his neck, and the top button is undone. This is Yuri Oshiro: Relaxed Edition.

He smiles at my question. "Would it be immature if I was?" he whispers in reply.

I can't help but smile too. At least the person I'm being forced to love makes me smile. And is cute. And is one of my childhood crushes. Life could be much worse. Then I remember that it sort of already is, since I'm on a ship that could explode at any moment. I shake my head no. It's not immature for Yuri to want to know what's going on.

"Did you hear what we were talking about? What my parents found out about you and me and the rest of our generation?"

He sits back against the wall and shakes his head. "The doors are really thick. I only heard words here and there."

I take a deep breath. "We could spontaneously combust at any time. I know how ridiculous that sounds, believe me; but someone back on Earth already did. It was written into our DNA by Gunther Quail back before the war ended. My cousin told me. She has it in her DNA too. I trust her. She said some of us might not, but then some of us might have it even worse. Some of us could go nuclear."