CHAPTER 1

Artemis

S pittle flew from the Griknot’s mouth as he hissed at me. I uttered a mumbled apology, looking everywhere but at the tentacles twitching angrily around his mouth like a writhing mass of worms. According to my research, Griknots were considered to be one of the more attractive species, all genders finding their unique facial features… pleasurable. Personally, I wasn’t so sure I agreed.

Without sparing me another glance with his jewel-toned, dual-pupiled eyes, the Griknot walked away, going about his business. That was one of the reasons I chose this specific space station. Everyone here was too busy wrapped up in their own personal spheres, hardly interested in what anyone else was doing unless it somehow affected them. The anonymity provided a feeling of safety.

I followed the signs, careful to avoid bumping into anyone else. I had been too focused on keeping my head down and my hood up to pay attention to my surroundings. A rookie mistake I wouldn’t be making again. No one else was trying so hard to be invisible, which was making me stand out. So although I kept my hood in place I lifted my chin, squared my shoulders, and hoped it looked like I knew what I was doing and where I was going.

The holo-board to my left lit up as I walked by, automatically scanning my papers. A map appeared with directions to the boarding gate I needed, and I committed it to memory with a quick glance. I was only two floors away, a lot closer than I had originally thought, and it took only ten more clicks until I was at my destination.

A crowd of young men had already begun to congregate around the gate, bags on their backs and suitcases at their feet. Many were chatting, forming small groups dotting around the space. I did spot a few other loners hanging on the outskirts, watching rather than participating. I wondered how many of them were like me. Most likely, none. I doubted anyone was in the same situation I had found myself in. The idea was so ludicrous that I chuckled to myself, a smirk twisting up the corners of my lips.

The sound caught the attention of the closest group, and they all turned to see what was so funny. One of them, the shortest and stockiest of the bunch, met my gaze. Silvery eyes scrutinised me as he arched a single white brow that matched the long, pale, intricate braid running down his back. I lifted my shoulders in an awkward shrug, not knowing how to respond to their attention on me.

The boy turned around, a clear dismissal, and something twisted uncomfortably inside me. I wasn’t good at interacting with people. It didn’t matter the age, species or gender, I was completely unprepared to make friends. I’d only ever had one, and it was the worst mistake I had ever made.

My chest ached at the reminder of the only person I’d ever trusted. My heart was breaking all over again and I could feel the sting of tears building behind my eyes. Refusing to let those thoughts gouge any more scars, I shook it off.

Thankfully, a booming voice called for silence and order, interrupting my quickly spiralling thoughts and dispersing the discomfort from the small interaction. In the grand scheme of things it was not that significant, but I committed the boy’s face to my memory anyway so I could avoid him in the future. Call me a coward, but I didn’t want to subject myself to any more awkwardness if I didn’t have to.

‘Attention cadets! I am Captain Hironimus. You are about to board The Carina, and she is my ship, so as of this moment I am your superior, and you are my subordinates. You do as I say without question and without hesitation. Am I understood?’

A chorus or yeses called out weakly from the crowd. Captain Hironimus scowled, his brows pulling low over shockingly yellow eyes so bright that they managed to attract my notice from all the way over here.

‘I said, am I understood? ’ he bellowed, a vein ticking in his forehead.‘Yes, sir!’ we shouted, much more enthusiastically this time.

‘Form an orderly line with your papers at the ready so I can ensure you are who you say you are before you board my ship.’ I wondered if he was expecting the new intake of cadets to contain spies, and suddenly my disguise seemed flimsy, my reason for being here even more dangerous. If I was caught…

Everyone rushed to do as instructed, and I managed to score a space in the middle of the line, doing my best to look as if I belonged. Boy after boy held up their papers and were allowed entrance onto the spacecraft. Soon enough, I was at the front of the line. My heart raced with anxiety as I lifted my boarding pass and acceptance letter for the captain to scrutinise, sure he would take one look at it and see right through my carefully curated facade. Instead, he barely glanced at me to verify my ID was a match before I was ushered onto the ship.

I cursed to myself. For all intents and purposes, my papers were legitimate. Unless someone stripped me naked, no one would know it was a lie. I had to be better at curbing my paranoia, at least outwardly. Acting suspicious would get me caught faster than if I’d shouted it through the speaker system. All the same, I considered myself lucky to have avoided the start of the line and his keener observations.

That was another thing I’d learned in my personal studies: people, no matter their race, tended to get bored very quickly and their focus would begin to diminish. A fact I was more than prepared to use to my advantage.

The ship’s hangar was plain: steel, steel and more steel, the large round room had more than enough space to accommodate the hundreds of cadets waiting to embark on their journey to Nova Academy, the elite, all male institution that provided military training for the best of the best. Or, well, the richest of the rich. I had snagged myself one of the few scholarship places available for the newest intake of cadets.

I might have had to fabricated my name and my past, but passing those tests was a breeze. I wasn’t sure how much I could learn from Nova Academy, but I would try to absorb as much information and learn as many new skills as I could before my time here came to an end.

Without any direction, everyone spread out, utilising the entire space. When the last cadet stepped on board, Captain Hironimus joined us, barging his way through to the centre of the room. Somehow, despite being shorter than quite a few heads, namely pureblood Tornus with their oversized bulk, he managed to stand taller than us all, his mere presence one of assured authority. And rightly so. He would have earned his badges and probably grew up one of the rich, entitled kids, just like most of the people here. It would have been intimidating, but I wasn’t cowed by much anymore. Certainly not by someone as low down the food chain as a captain. Not that he didn’t hold authority; I was just used to people who held much more power than the even the military commanded.

‘All right, listen up!’ he called. ‘When you step through these doors, find your name and bunk assignment. You will be bunking four to a room, no arguments ,’ he stressed when a few boys began to protest. ‘You are no longer at home with your mummies and daddies. You are young adults on the precipice of manhood. But above all that, you are starting at the bottom . If you want to achieve any level of authority you will do as you are told without complaint, learn well and learn fast, or you can go ahead and go home right now.’

He glared down at the entire group, his eyes briefly grazing over me before moving onto the next. A couple of the guys around me shifted their weight from one foot to the other, a sign of their nerves. I debated mirroring their behaviour but couldn’t bring myself to. I was used to regiments and military-like expectations. My feet stayed planted firmly on the tiles of metal grates that made up the hangar’s floor.

‘We are scheduled to arrive at Nova Academy in two weeks. We will be heading straight there without any pitstops, so get used to seeing these metal walls. You will behave as the adults you are. I have a zero-tolerance policy for bullying. If I see any of you pushing anyone around, you will earn a demerit. Accumulate enough demerits, you will be dismissed from duty and expelled from your studies. The military – and Nova Academy – prides itself on order and discipline. That starts now.’

Without another word, the captain turned on his heel and walked to the double doors set on the far side of the room, the crowd parting for him eagerly and without instruction.

I was pleasantly surprised when the doors opened and he disappeared inside the ship, for each and every boy followed his orders and proceeded in his stead calmly and orderly. It took weeks before we learned to do that back in The Program. But we were a lot younger then. I, myself, had only been five solars old when I’d arrived, and hadn’t had much – if any – experience with structure. I should have expected more from these boys. They were far older than five and their affluent upbringings did not define them. I knew better than most that the way a person was raised did not account for who they were as a person.

I followed the crowd away from the hangar, waiting in line behind a boy I recognised from the group that had caught me snickering to myself earlier. He didn’t spare me a second glance, and I didn’t see the shorter pale boy nearby, so I let myself relax and go with the flow. In the grand scheme of things, he didn’t matter. None of them did. I wasn’t here to make friends. I wasn’t even here to learn at the academy, even if I did consider the opportunity a bonus. There didn’t believe they could teach me that I didn’t already know, but I was interested, nonetheless. The skills I was searching for lay more within the practical practice of the things I had learned academically. Like flight training. I knew the theories but had never had the opportunity to actually fly an air- or spacecraft.

Despite my knowledge and the academy a place for furthering one’s knowledge, I couldn’t do too well in my classes. it was in my best interest to stay under the radar. No one would look for a missing girl at a male only school, especially when I was already inundated with military knowledge and experience, but that didn’t mean it was a good idea to outwardly express my talents. That would completely defeat the purpose of my disguise.

Soon enough, I was facing a stern-looking man with thinning blonde hair tied back into a low ponytail at the base of his skull, and a crooked nose. I wondered if the cause of his crooked nose was the reason why he was sulkily performing the menial duty of passing out room assignments.

‘Name,’ he deadpanned.

‘Arthur Mercer.’

I placed my hand on the scanner like I’d seen the others do, and it brought up a number.

‘Room seventeen, deck three. Next.’

Adjusting my bag where it had slid from my shoulder, I slowly edged my way out of the crowd and followed the signs towards the elevator. Deck three was the lowest it went before you started to enter the storage, maintenance and engine areas. Basically, it was the last place any of these boys wanted to sleep. I heard much mumbling and grumbling from the rest of the cadets relegated to deck three. To them, it would have seemed like a punishment, but it was nothing I wasn’t already used to. I was just happy to have a place to sleep that wasn’t open to the elements .

Room seventeen was easy enough to find, and I found myself waiting in line behind three others for my turn to scan my hand and enter the room. It was sparse. A small room with two bunk beds on either side and barely enough room to walk in between. There was a single storage cupboard connected to each bunk, and I tuned out the others when some of them began to whine that there wasn’t enough space to store their things. Honestly, I didn’t even know why they brought so much to begin with. Our uniforms were provided by the academy upon arrival, and no military personnel – yes, that included cadets – were permitted to wear civilian clothing while on duty. Which meant the suitcases stuffed with a wealth of fine clothes and expensive trinkets were completely useless.

A couple of them eyed me when I shoved my small backpack into the tiny space leftover, but I continued to ignore them. They’d all chosen their bunks already, so I settled myself into the last one (thankfully, it was on the bottom), and waited, keeping an ear out for further instructions. I’d spotted a speaker on the ceiling when I’d entered, so I deduced that was how we would receive our orders and wake-up calls.

With my back against the wall, my head resting uncomfortably on the cool, hard metal, I studied my new roommates. There was the possibility they were a temporary assignment, or we could find ourselves bunking together for the foreseeable future. Only time would tell. Either way, I wanted to know who I would be sleeping next to.

There was a Tornu settling into the bunk above mine, the sharp spikes along his spine and forearms scraping noisily as he tried to get comfortable. I was surprised he picked a top bunk for his sheer size would have made it difficult to squeeze into the small gap between the mattress and the ceiling. His burgundy colouring was similar to one of the only other Tornus I had met, and I shoved down the pang of hurt and betrayal that twisted my heart whenever I thought about him. I could hear him snorting through his flat nose and prepared myself to endure nights filled with intense snoring.

The man on the bottom bunk opposite mine was another Griknot, his skin a pale blue like the surface of a smooth, clear lake. His facial tentacles were shorter than the one from the station, though this one seemed to have more. They wriggled around the bottom half of his face, jutting out from right under his nose and below. I still found it entirely disturbing, but his eyes were soft and kind when they met mine. His cheeks pulled up, indicating he was smiling beneath the mass covering his mouth, and I forced my lips to stretch into a small smile in return. The grimace he gave me proved that it looked just as fake as it felt, so I cut my losses to examine the third and final man.

Already lying prone on the bunk above the Griknot, an arm and a leg dangled lazily over the edge, swinging like dual pendulums in front of the blue man’s face. He seemed to be a Terran, though it was not immediately clear if he was a purebred or a mutt. Born on Earth myself, I was considered a pureblood Terran… or I used to be.

A stab of envy pierced through my thinly erected walls, a desperation for a life I would and could never lead, a life taken from me by cruelty a pain raged through my body. Refusing to allow those emotions to take root, I vowed to strengthen my mental armour against such traitorous thoughts. It was an oversight. Logically, I knew I would face other Terrans, but the reality of it was not something I had adequately prepared for, clearly.

‘So, boys. What now?’ the Griknot asked, his voice low and garbled through the squirming beard.

‘We wait,’ the Tornu grunted.

‘Okay. I’m Bromm, and the big guy up there’s Foryk,’ the Griknot introduced himself and the Tornu, solidifying my observation of his friendly disposition and informing me of their familiarity with one another.

At Bromm’s prompting gaze, I supplied my own name. ‘Arthur. Uh… Arty.’

‘Nice to meet you.’ He gave a kind smile. I wasn’t sure if I should have felt pleased that he was giving me a second chance at a first impression or worried he possessed a persistent disposition that could become a problem, so I merely gave him a polite but emotionally distant nod.

‘And I’m trying to catch some Z’s before our presence is required, so kindly shut up ,’ the Terran sniped. He held his non-dangling arm over his eyes even while he talked, his elbow almost scraping against the ceiling, and his pompous tone raised my hackles. It was almost as if he were talking down on us, but surely he wasn’t so antisocial as to be purposefully rude on the first day. He was more than likely grouchy from a long journey and lack of sleep, but his incivility left a bad taste in my mouth. Exhausted or not, it was no excuse to be mean. Either way, I let it roll over my back as if he had never spoken.

Bromm, however, winced at his bunkmate’s snappiness, the light in his eyes dimming slightly. Something about that stirred a protectiveness within me. No one should have their light dimmed because of an asshole with an attitude. I wasn’t exactly sure why I felt so strongly about it. Perhaps it was because his was the first truly friendly face I had encountered in a long, long time, but I couldn’t stand to see him cave in on himself like that.

Leaning forward, blatantly ignoring the rude Terran, I extended the Griknot a metaphorical olive branch. ‘We’ll probably get called up for a meal and orientation soon. Once everyone’s put their bags in their rooms.’

The grateful smile I received was bright. His beard parted to reveal a set of pearly white teeth, sharp like a shark’s, bordered by a pair of plump purple lips. It was the first time I had seen a Griknot reveal their face in such a manner, and I suddenly understood how so many found the species so attractive.

The shock of the revelation forced my eyes wider before I averted my gaze, unwilling to dig deeper into the discovery. But not before I caught the slight darkening of Bromm’s cheeks. They turned a purplish shade that matched his lips, and, to my dismay, my own cheeks heated in embarrassment.

The Terran let out an exaggerated groan, turning on his side to give us his back and burying his head beneath the pillow to drown us out. The room fell into the loudest silence I had ever experienced, and I decided in that moment that I hated him.

I wasn’t sure what had come over me. I needed to keep my head down, not make any waves, and keep an emotional distance from everyone. It was something Libby had always warned me about after my many failed attempts at making friends. And losing the ones I did have just proved emotional attachments of any sort were too dangerous.

The speakers crackled, jolting me out of my head, breaking the silence and cutting through the thick tension. ‘Cadets, promptly make your way to the great hall on deck fourteen. I repeat, promptly make your way to the great hall on deck fourteen.’

Before the rest of us could even move, the Terran had jumped from his bunk with an aggravated sigh and exited the room in a huff. I pursed my lips at the doors when they slid shut behind him but was on my feet and reopening them a beat later. In the hallway, both Bromm and Foryk caught up and kept pace with me for the trip up. Despite my blatant refusal to acknowledge them, my eyes remaining firmly fixed ahead, they remained by my side even as we congregated in the great hall.

Standing at attention in the cavernous room flanked by the two men, ice raced through my veins. Despite my anxiety screaming at me to push them away, a small part of me felt giddy that they stuck close, like we could actually cultivate a successful friendship. Yet, my ever-present trust issues alongside my delicate mission would make that an impossibility. I didn’t know these men, and I didn’t intend to ever let them know me. Not truly. Bromm and Foryk seemed nice enough, but that didn’t equate to trust. The last thing I needed was them paying close enough attention to me to notice I wasn’t who I claimed to be, and then outing me to the world.