Then her grip falters, and I look up to find her nibbling her lower lip, fear making way for something else. As I watch, her eyes light with that fire I’ve come to admire—and fear—so much. That fire that means she’s about to suggest something insane. “Wait—Jules. If they’re sending Undying forces to blend in among the people down there, that means they’ve got some way of getting from the ship to the surface and back.”
And suddenly I know what she’s realized. “They’ve got shuttles.” I straighten so quickly I bang my head on the wall that slants in toward the ceiling of the Junction. But I don’t care, because for the first time, there’s hope. “If we can figure out where they are …”
“That’s our way off this ship.” Mia grabs for the headset and presses it into my hands.
I hesitate, fingers curling around the band of the headset. “But, Mia, they’ll spot us if we try to steal a ship—and we don’t even know how to fly it. Neither of us are pilots, and even if we were, these are alien ships, and—”
Mia makes a wordless sound of frustration. “We’ll figure it out as we go, Jules, we always have! We’ll tackle the next problem once we’ve solved the first one.”
I gaze at her, at that terrifying light in her eyes, and know that if I take this first step, she’ll start running with me until I can’t stop either of us as we rush headlong off a cliff.
“Put on the headset, Oxford.”
Her hand on my arm is warm, and familiar, and grounding.
I put on the headset.
JULES MUTTERS SOMETHING UNDER HIS BREATH, A LEVEL OF IRRITATIONthere that even our increasingly frequent brushes with death don’t inspire. His body next to mine is rigid with effort as he tries to navigate the Undying’s headset system. It’s been hours, but my gentle suggestions that he take a break have gone unnoticed. I did insist at one point on taking over, but no sooner did I put the thing on than the whole display flashed with blinding, searing lines of scattered text, bringing with them an equally searing headache.
“It’s like an advanced prosthetic leg or something, controlled by nerve impulses, but for the whole brain.” Jules’s explanation was almost apologetic as he took the headset back from me. “It just takes practice.”
I’ve got no problem admitting that Jules is smarter than I am, at least when it comes to the kind of precision thinking these contraptions require. Still, my voice was a little sullen as I muttered, “I don’t suppose the idea of a keyboard ever occurred to these aliens.”
A shift in the muscles rigid against my side draws my eye backto him, and I notice there’s sweat gathering at his temple and along his collarbone. I know we need this information, and I know he’s got to keep working, but before I can stop myself, I reach out to wrap my fingers around his wrist.
“Easy, Oxford,” I murmur, when he jumps at my touch.
Jules flips the glass over his eye up so that he can blink and refocus on me in the blue glow of his watch. “How long was I in there?”
“Long enough,” I tell him. “Take a break, eat something. Tell me what you’ve found.”
Jules reaches automatically for one of the sponge-like food cubes, easing his arm away from me again so he can point the display of the watch toward the map we’ve scratched into the wall of the Junction, copied from the images Jules is getting from the headset. “I was right about this being the shuttle bay,” he announces, gesturing at a large open area at the opposite end of the ship.
I raise an eyebrow. “Why don’t you sound more pleased?”
“Because I still haven’t found a single thing about how to actuallyflyone of the shuttles.” Jules squishes the rest of his food cube between thumb and forefinger with a little grimace, as though it’s taste he’s objecting to rather than lack of success in his research.
Staring at the map, such as it is, I wish we could actually get a look at the shuttle bay in person. But there’s Undying personnel everywhere, and no ventilation bulkheads to hide in around the shuttle bay—which makes sense. You wouldn’t want your ventilation system connected to a room that opens out into space.
“Maybe we don’t have to fly it,” I say finally. “Maybe we can sneak on board one of them. Stow away, like we are now.”
“Maybe.” Jules’s voice is dubious, and for once I don’t disagree. It’s one thing to hide on a ship the size of a small skyscraper. It’s another to hide on a shuttle the size of someone’s bedroom. “Maybe we can use their own tactics against them. Blend in with them like they’re blending in on Earth. If we could get our hands on a couple of those suits …”
He trails off, carefully not looking at me, and I know why. I rise up onto my knees with a grimace. “We haven’t seen a single one of them under six feet tall. Even if we could steal matching outfits, I’d look like a kid wearing one of her mom’s pantsuits.”
Jules stifles a laugh, the sound cutting through the bands of tension around my heart like a knife through butter. “You paint quite the mental picture.”
I grin a weary grin at him, but it fades before I can get the next words out. “But you could go.”
Jules’s smile vanishes too. It takes every ounce of my willpower not to show how terrifying that idea is to me, because I know he’d refuse if he saw me frightened. If I can’t get out of here alive, knowing Jules had gotten away would be the next best thing. But then I’d be here alone.
“Don’t be stupid,” Jules says finally, whisper rising hoarsely.
“If you could get away, you’d be able to warn someone at the IA about the Undying. They could hurry preparations on the shuttle and be here in no time. Or don’t you think I could survive that long on my own?”
He doesn’t rise to the bait. “We go together. We both go, or we both stay.”
“Jules, don’t be—”
