‘Hey, look at us,’ I manage, snapping back to reality. ‘Already a team.’
Cleo fixes me with a look and pretends to wave a cheerleader’s pom-poms in the air. Attitude is better than fear, though, so I let her have it.
I haul over a crate to use as a chair and link my cuff to the console, then trigger the virtual keyboard commands. Some things are easier to do the old-fashioned way, and I want to tiptoeverycarefully through the electronic landscape just now.
Cleo watches me for a moment, then, apparently satisfied I’m doing what I’m supposed to, she turns away. Out of the corner of my eye I can see her quietly turning the place over, going through piles of possessions with a quick efficiency.
I speak softly, partly to distract myself from the bunch of potential murderers a few rooms over, and partly to distract her. ‘Looks like a family lives here, I guess. Did you come out here with yours?’
‘No, I’m on my own,’ she replies, just as quiet, in a tone that doesn’t invite a follow-up question. ‘Your mother’s at your family compound, though, isn’t she? I saw her on the news. And your sister?’
‘Sure are,’ I agree. ‘Unfortunately, they have no ideaI’mhere.’ And if they did, my sister at least would laugh herself sick. My mother would fold her arms and wait for me to prove myself.
‘What, they think you’re still up on Orbital?’ Cleo asks, peering inside a storage box.
I hesitate, but now isn’t the time to get into a conversation about the fact that my remaining family thinks I’m still on Earth. And anyway, why would I explain that to a girl I don’t even know?
‘I didn’t get logged in here before the alarm went off,’ I say, which is true, if incomplete.
She snorts softly and shakes her head, moving on. ‘I found some protein bars. I’ll start a stash. If I get really lucky, I might even find you a shirt.’
I look down and blink. ‘Huh. I think I left it on the bridge.That was a limited-edition Mirrorball Scoundrel shirt, too. Did you hear their new album?’
She makes a noise I can’t interpret, but that I think might be disapproval.
We both fall silent as I work, my fingers flying over a keyboard made of light, carefully navigating my way through the station’s menus. Walking through them is like walking in my grandfather’s footsteps – thirty-one years ago, he sat only a few hours away from here by rover, wrestling with these same menus inside a small domed encampment. The first man on Mars – the genius who gave us the red star.
This planet is his resting place. It won’t be mine.
‘So,’ I say eventually, trying and failing to fight off a sinking feeling. ‘You want the bad news, or the worse news?’
Cleo sighs and sits on the edge of one of the bunks. ‘Warm me up slowly. Give me the bad first.’
I swallow. ‘I’m trying to get a message out to GravesUP, or any of the neighboring compounds. I know the West African Union, Ares Tech and FreyaCo aren’t far from here. Our new friends have the system ring-fenced, though – nothing’s getting out, and if I try to brute-force it, they’ll definitely know.’
‘Would you know how to do it, if it came down to it?’ Cleo asks.
‘I could, but they’d be able to trace it right to the terminal. They’d find us before help could possibly arrive.’
‘So we can’t tell anyone we’re here, or ask for help,’ she says, voice muffled as she scrubs at her face. ‘What’s theworsenews?’
‘There is one message getting out. The station actuallyisbroadcasting on the emergency channel. It’s saying the venting procedure is now complete, which means—’
‘That even when your people do work out you’re here, they’re going to think you’re dead.’
‘Right. And nobody’s going to show up here until the station tells them it’s done repressurizing. Why would they risk it, when I’m a corpse? No need to rush in for a dead guy.’
That’s assuming Nathan even thinks to tell someone I’m here. And why would he? As far as he knows, I was registered upon arrival. Will the woman who didn’t check me in say something? Probably not – she took me right to the evac garages. She’ll assume I got away.
God, what a cluster.
Cleo peels her hands away from her face. ‘Okay, so our best bet is, what? Hole up and hide, and hope they leave at the end of their countdown?’ She doesn’t sound optimistic. ‘Keep our pressure suits near?’
‘I just wish we knew what they want,’ I mutter, turning back to the screen, letting the enviro displays scroll idly by. ‘Are they trying to claim the territory because the base is abandoned? Maybe yes – they don’t know you’re here. Or maybe no – they got here pretty fast to be jumping on a chance.’
‘Unless they created the chance,’ she points out. ‘But would anyone really make that kind of move on the United Nations?’
I shake my head slowly. ‘Graves sure wouldn’t,’ I say. And I can tell that sheltered though she might be, even Cleo reads the subtext:Ifwewouldn’t do it, then nobody would.‘Maybe it’s some sort of Mars For All protest?’
