2. Astrid

2

ASTRID

11 Years Later - Nebula Outpost

Fingers brushed against my neck, their grip slowly tightening until the flow of air cut off and I couldn't breathe. I struggled against the hold, trying to tear the hand away, but no matter how much I fought, I couldn't get a grip on what had me.

I was going to die.

I struggled even harder as black circles dotted my vision and my lungs burned. I'd come so far, survived so much. I couldn't let some invisible force finally do me in.

My eyes popped open.

A dream.

I batted the edge of the sheet away. It had been brushing against my neck, no doubt triggering the nightmare. I was in my quarters on Nebula Outpost. I was safe.

Ish.

My whole existence here still felt sort of like a dream. For the last ten years, I'd been subsisting down on the planet of Nebula after a mine disaster left us stranded and thought dead. Our only company was a nasty group of criminals who'd tried to enslave me and my fellow survivors and destroy our camp.

For years, I'd thought I would die down there one day, and I nearly had. But now I was in Nebula Outpost, and I got to enjoy luxuries like baths and my bed and regular soap.

I'd never known those were the things I'd yearn for, but it really was life's little luxuries that mattered.

I checked the clock. It was the middle of the night. The station hummed with the noises of the engines that kept us afloat in orbit over Nebula, but just about everyone would be asleep right now.

No one was coming for me. Not right now.

But I'd been sure they would when I woke up in the hospital a week ago. The mine owners had chosen not to search for survivors on Nebula, and it wouldn't look good for them if we started talking. I feared they would send someone to silence me before I could get the rest of my friends off the planet.

Everyone except Alice was still down there, waiting for ships that I had to make sure showed up. I hadn't chosen to leave. I had been unconscious, bleeding out on the ground, and my only chance at survival was a desperate run in a stolen ship back up to Nebula Outpost. But now, it was my life mission to make sure everyone else got rescued.

I settled back down onto my bed and breathed deeply. Everything was fine. It was just a nightmare. I was as safe as I was going to be. I closed my eyes and tried to let sleep engulf me.

I didn't realize I was screaming until the door burst open and he looked in.

Zyrus.

The peculiar Detyen who was in charge of keeping me safe.

I clutched my blankets to my chest, breaths heaving in and out. "I'm fine," I said before he could ask.

Zyrus looked at me, expression somehow both blank and intense. He didn't show much emotion. I couldn't get a read on him, but there was something familiar about the guy, something that had been nagging at the back of my mind since the first moment I saw him in the infirmary. He was watching me as a favor to one of his friends, using his hard-earned vacation time to stay with me almost every hour of every day.

No one had tried to hurt me yet. Maybe it was just my own paranoia.

"Was there a threat?" Zyrus asked.

"Just a nightmare." I should have sent him away then. I was a grown woman; I didn't need an overgrown blue teddy bear in my bed to keep me safe.

Definitely not in my bed.

Zyrus had an icy demeanor; nothing about him was inviting. I was pretty sure he didn't fuck. Not that I should be thinking about that at all. I was still recovering from my injuries, he was here to protect me, and I didn't have room in my head for complications.

"Would you like me to sleep in here?" Zyrus asked. There was no change in his intonation, no hint of judgment.

The bed was plenty big, and I scooted to one side to make room. I had spent the last decade sleeping on a salvaged cot from the remnants of the destroyed mine. The bed I had now was almost too spacious.

"I meant the floor," he said.

"There's plenty of room for both of us here. Don't be ridiculous." He hesitated for a moment before sliding in beside me. All I could feel was his body heat, but something in me relaxed at the knowledge that he was right there by my side, keeping me safe.

Still, it was quite a while before I fell asleep.

* * *

My quarters seemed spacious when it was just me and Zyrus. When we were joined by Noelle, Ryklin, Drex, Pippa, and Alice, they began to feel a little strained. I liked the luxuries on Nebula Outpost, mostly the hot running water. But I had gotten used to all the space down on Nebula. It was easy to find privacy, easy to run away and hide in the forest for a little bit, only a few feet away from the encampment and yet in a world of one's own.

Nebula Outpost was all cold steel and technology. It had to be. It was a space station in orbit above the planet of Nebula. There was greenery in some of the atriums, but none of it was enough.

I supposed I would get used to it. I had moved plenty of times in my life before, had found plenty of new homes. This was just one more change.

I didn't know Drex and Pippa very well. I supposed I didn't know Noelle or Ryklin very well either, but they had saved my life and were the reason my people were not going to be stuck on Nebula anymore. I trusted them. Alice was there too, and I'd known her for a decade. Her, I trusted with my life. She'd come with me in the transport ship, using what little medical care she knew to keep me alive until we found a doctor. This was everyone I knew on Nebula Outpost. My whole life condensed into one room. These were the only people I could trust.

I hoped I could trust them.

"Have we heard anything about the others?" I asked. There were a hundred or so people down in the encampment. More, maybe, after we'd rescued some people who had been forced to work in the defunct mine. There was plenty of room on the space station, so I didn't know what the holdup was.

"Nothing yet," said Pippa. She made a frustrated face. "I don't know why station security is dragging their feet on this. I swear they would do anything as long as it meant they didn't have to do their actual jobs."

"Is that fair?" Noelle asked. She and Pippa were best friends, had known each other for years, apparently. It was one of those things that was easy to tell just from looking at them.

"You have just as much reason as I do not to trust station security," Pippa responded.

Noelle didn't say anything back to that.

My impressions of station security weren't great either, but I didn't know enough to really make a judgement. Ten years ago, I had arrived at Nebula Outpost and only spent a few hours here before heading down to my job on Nebula. I'd gone through a basic security check, but it hadn't been particularly thorough. Since I'd come back, nothing seemed to have improved.

"My contact in security says they're working on it," said Ryklin. He and Noelle's hands were clasped together.

I glanced over at Zyrus. He had the same expression he always had, but I thought he was looking at me, only for a second. He looked away, as if it was nothing. Maybe his eyes were just taking in all of the room.

"What about the danger?" asked Alice.

"No one has approached me. No one tried to stop me from contacting my family. I'm not sure anyone wants to hurt us."

My every instinct said that was wrong. Someone had pulled a guard off my room when I was in the hospital wing. Someone had made me vulnerable to an attack. At this point, it would be easy to get rid of me and Alice and hurt anyone down on Nebula. This was the time where they could stop the story of our survival from getting out.

"I will watch Astrid for as long as she needs," said Zyrus.

"What about your shifts? You've only got so much leave time," said Drex.

"I'll watch her for as long as she needs," he repeated.

Alice didn't have a bodyguard. She kept saying she didn't want one. And maybe I was just being paranoid. I should probably tell Zyrus right now that I was fine and he could go back to work and stop worrying about me.

I kept my mouth shut.

The meeting broke up not too long after that. It was almost lunch time, and I was hungry, but I didn't want to stay in my room and eat some sort of prepared meal from the food processor. The main cafeteria was slightly better, and maybe being around people would make me feel better.

Zyrus was my silent shadow as we walked down the hall. I was only a few doors down from where Pippa and Noelle each lived with their partners. We passed my door and kept going toward the cafeteria. In the first day or two, while Zyrus was watching me, I had tried to make small talk. He was bad at it. He answered questions as succinctly as he could, preferably using one word or less. Now, I didn't ask him anything.

We turned another corner down the narrow hall that would feed us into one of the activity hubs of this area of the station. My stomach grumbled. Then the lights went dark, and somebody barreled into me from the side.