“I have to get back home. I can’t—I’m not going to let that alien asshole touch me—” I swallow back a small sob, realizing how screwed I really am.
“And what of Rune?” His eyes narrow, waiting for my answer.
“If you think I will tell you where he is, I won’t,” I say, poking my finger into his iron chest. “He saved my life too many times. I’ll find my way off this thing alone.” I back away, easing open the door to another long hallway.
“What a fierce little warrior my general has found,” he says sharply at my back.
I stop short and glance at him over my shoulder.
“You will die if you refuse my help.”
Oh, I dislike him so much. But I steel my nerve and walk back toward him, folding my arms across my chest. “Why would I trust you to help me?”
“Because I know you didn’t kill General Rune. You couldn’t have. He would have never been bested by a female.”
“Jeez, you are just as egotistical as Rune is.”
For some reason that makes him smile again. “A fierce little thing, indeed.”
“If you say the words fierce but scrawny, I will punch you in the throat.”
He ignores my threat with a small smile and gestures me toward a hidden door in the stairwell. Outside in the hallway, I can hear the stomping of metal feet as a slew of— “What are your people called again?”—rush pass.
We quickly step through the secret passage, and he slides the wall back into place and hurries me down a dimly lit narrow corridor. “We’re the Caelum.”
“And where do you come from? What planet?”
Jex stops short and I slam into his back hard.
I freeze, fearing I’ve said something wrong. “One of the maintenance guys told me you were from my planet, but from the future.”
He shakes his head, and rakes a hand over his head in frustration. “Come, let’s not stop,” he says, gesturing for me to follow. “What he said was true, but no one aboard this ship has ever stepped foot on your planet in their lifetime until now, the last generation to have lived there was my great-grandfather’s.”
“And that was in the year 2056?” I ask.
“That’s what our historical data says.”
“How is that possible? It’s nowhere near the year 2056. That’s like thirty something years from now. I’d be almost sixty years old then!” My pulse rushes in my temples and echoes in my ears.
Slowly he turns his entire body to face me. Even in the darkness of the hallway I can see his eyebrows rise up questioningly. “The year is not 2136 here?”
“That would be a hard NO. That’s over a hundred and fifteen years in my future.” I’m breathless, hovering somewhere between screaming and crying. This is all impossible. All of it.
He steps back, stumbling almost, and stands against the wall. “Ifyou’re telling the truth—none of this makes sense.”
“Welcome to my world.”
His expression flashes to something between terror and disbelief.
From somewhere above us, metal gears move and grind. Jex’s eyes dart up quickly.
“What’s that?” Fear washes over me, and I cover my mouth with my hands to stop myself from crying out.
Jex grabs my arm and pulls me forward into a dead run. Wearing the Caelum armor makes it easy to keep up—the steel legs practically run for me—through twists and turns and a maze of hidden passages, until we reach a dead end and flatten ourselves against a dark wall, barely out of breath.
“Give me your faceplate,” he whispers, barely loud enough for me to hear.
I pretend I don’t hear him, because I don’t trust him. Not yet. And probably not ever.
