Red. Black. Red. Black. Flash.
I walk back out of the wreckage, knowing we don’t have much of a chance, but needing to share hope with the others.
I tell the others that the red flashing coming from the wreckage is the emergency beacon. “If any New Terrans are out there,” I murmur, “maybe they’ll pick up our emergency signal.”
Sloane snorts. One of thosepleasesnorts.
Piper grins, wincing as she adjusts her posture. “If they do, tell them to bring snacks. We don’t have any food.”
I whirl. “They didn’t put any aboard?”
Piper shakes her head. “If they did, it must have fallen out.”
“We could look for it,” I say, as the jungle hums. Nobody moves. We’ve made quite an entrance. The broken trees around us and under the craft drip with viscous blue sap. Insects—or something like them—click and chatter. An insectlike creature the size of two of my hands put together zips past the opening in the hull. Too many wings. Too many legs.
A sound rises in the distance, and it’s got to be a very large animal. The sound is like a chainsaw crossed with a growl.
Across the valley, something answers it.
My skin gets goosebumps.
The others settle in beside me. No one speaks. No one talks about the people we lost on New Terra. No one says the wordhome.No one dares to ask what happens next. We just sit, watching the flash of the beacon.
Because whatever’s coming, it’s probably not from New Terra.
CHAPTER 4
COUNTING
ELENA – XYTHEOS
Sophiaand I stand watch near the wreckage, in the scar our crash-landing made in the jungle. "My head feels weird," I tell Sophia. Static presses in from the jungle around our clearing, like standing too close to an ungrounded transformer.
Sophia scans overhead. “Mine does, too. It almost feels like pressure changes in an artificial atmospheric bubble, but that’s impossible. We would have torn right through anything they had. Unless they opened it for us.”
I nod. “Could they have something portable? Ground level?”
Sophia’s hand brushes the wreckage as if she’s marking a line only she can see. “You tell me. Maybe some kind of shield? Is that possible?” Sophia waves her hand. “Never mind. Of course it is. Look, Elena, we’ve got nothing to defend ourselves with. Our best chance is to look weak.”
My head snaps to her. I look her right in the eyes for a good minute. There’s no fear there. “Weak,” I repeat slowly. “You’re not going to fight.”
“I didn’t say that. I said,lookweak. Let them think we’re no threat. Study them. Find their weakness.”
"Looking weak might buy time. It also gives them the idea that we'll put up with anything they do." I turn, studying thejungle. There could be a million tiny eyes just beyond the tree line, waiting. “I thought you would die rather than submit to some alien male. What about the human race?”
Sophia’s face clouds. “Do you want children?”
“Yes,” I say, surprised.Of course I do.We all do, don’t we? It’s our duty.“Human children.”
Sophia turns away, turns back again, and rubs her arms. “Stay alive. Don’t start a fight you can’t win. For now, stick with the present problems.” She motions subtly with her hand.
I follow the gesture. Dana and Quinn are behind me, arguing over the small bit of inventory we have.
Dana’s lining up water canisters in a perfect grid. Quinn records it all in a notebook.
“We have twenty-four hours of water, tops,” Dana says.
“Unless someone drinks like a camel,” Quinn mutters.
