Chapter One

 

 

The crowd in the rooftop café buzzes with excitement, and even though my stomach is twisted in a thousand knots, I can’t help but smile as the blinking lights of the Stargazer grow larger and brighter amidst the stars. The night is warm and clear with a faint breeze. Perfect weather for a landing.

Home. I’m finally going home.

I’m sitting at a table near the café’s exit, two bulging suitcases at my feet. The only belongings I’d brought to Tallia two years ago are stuffed inside, hastily packed after I managed to snag a return ticket to Earth at the last minute. By the time Harry notices the credits missing from our account, I’ll already be long gone.

On the other side of the Anders-Perkins Wormhole.

My heart pounds and hope rises in my chest.

As a child, I’d marveled at the creation of the wormhole and the pristine tropical planet that had been found on the other side, only to learn from Harry years later that the wormhole hadn’t actually been created by humans, but rather it was a naturally occurring passage that humans simply made larger in order to send ships through.

In order to profit and conquer.

But right now, the details and the government cover-ups don’t matter, because I’m finally going home.

Like everyone around me, my gaze remains glued to the night sky. When a ship is due to arrive on Tallia, all of Capital Acres ventures outside to watch it land.

Tonight, the blinking white lights moving away from the blue wormhole represent my freedom, and I can’t wait for the Stargazer to descend to the nearby platform. After the passengers disembark, I plan to be the first Earth-bound traveler in line for boarding.

Though my tea has grown cold, I take a sip and attempt to will my nerves to settle, but my hands won’t stop shaking. Space travel scares me, and it doesn’t help that I’m traveling alone.

But I must get away from Tallia. There’s nothing but heartache left for me here.

A sudden wave of fury heats my blood, though I’m not sure who I’m angrier with—my soon-to-be ex-fiancé, Harry, or myself for falling for the sadistic asshole. I’d thought it sweet when he proposed marriage and asked me to accompany him to Tallia only a month after first meeting, but that impulsive and over-the-top romantic gesture had been just one of many red flags.

I swallow past the burning in my throat and peer at the two orange moons sitting high in the sky, watching over the planet like two strong guardians.

How many nights have I slept outside on a bench in Capital Acres after Harry kicked me out during a heated argument, the moons as my only companion? I stopped counting after a dozen.

Two years has felt like an eternity. If only I’d stayed on Earth. I would still have a good job and a place of my own. I wouldn’t be running away, and I wouldn’t feel like an utter failure.

I’d always prided myself on being independent, but Harry’s temporary charm had won me over, seduced me to take a risk for the first time in my life.

It didn’t take long for that risk to blow up in my face.

In my stubbornness and pride, I had clung to hope that everything would somehow work out on Tallia, that Harry’s frequent mood swings would cease and we’d finally set the date for our wedding.

Now I’m about to return to Earth broke and homeless.

I’m sure my parents will take me in once my mother finishes saying I told you so for the hundredth time, but I cringe at the thought of showing up on their doorstep, jobless and penniless and no longer engaged to the renowned scientist they admired.

I’m confident I’ll find another teaching job eventually, but until I’m back on my feet, working and living in a place of my own, I’m not sure I’ll be able to hold my head very high. The prospect of enduring the disapproval of my entire family, especially my mother, weighs heavy on my heart.

When I announced my engagement to Harry—an emerging xenobiologist—I’d never seen my mother so delighted, as if snagging a super smart and successful man was my greatest achievement, and she finally had a reason to be proud of me.

Until I became engaged to Harry, I was jokingly referred to as the “free spirit” and even the “black sheep” of the family. I’ve long been considered the least successful individual in a family full of overachievers, and a family function isn’t complete without at least a handful of snide comments directed my way. Of course, I never find the jibes very funny.

My older sister is a renowned surgeon who’s married to a wealthy businessman, and my younger brother is a successful engineer who has graced the cover of many tech magazines. Both my parents are lawyers who frequently represent high-profile clients, and it’s not unusual to turn on the television and see them giving interviews on late night news programs.

To top it all off, I have a huge extended family, with lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins, each one of them as equally successful and admired in their professions as my siblings and parents.

My family has always looked down their nose at me, making hurtful just a teacher comments. It didn’t matter that I’d loved my job, or that I’d been nominated for numerous teaching awards. In my family’s eyes, I was always little more than a glorified babysitter.

You could have been so much more, my mother used to say, shaking her head in disappointment.

I hope the two-year gap on my resume doesn’t make finding a job quickly too difficult. I fight down a wave of panic as I imagine facing my parents with nothing but the meager contents of my suitcases. What little savings I had went directly into a shared account with Harry. I should have emptied it and called it even for all the shit he’s put me through, but the return ticket home cost more than I originally added to our joint funds, leaving me feeling guilty over the prospect—as well as dirty.

He’s done terrible, unspeakable things to earn his hefty paychecks on this planet.

Of course, I never thought I would end up depending on Harry financially for so long. After I agreed to marry him, he had promised Earth governments would soon start sending children to Tallia with their parents who came here to work. He said I would easily land a job teaching elementary school, but the Tallian government—a new council of elected leaders in charge of Capital Acres and the surrounding areas inhabited by humans—had once again unanimously voted to continue excluding minors from visiting Tallia, let alone living here.

All the other jobs available in Capital Acres are Earth hires shipped in by the various companies that own businesses here. I can’t walk into a hotel, café, or store and apply for a job. It doesn’t work that way on Tallia, so for two years I’ve lived with Harry and relied on him for everything—a fact he has held over my head from the first week, when he not so eloquently laid out his expectations for me.

Not long after our arrival, he announced that I must cook, clean, and keep house for him, because in his mind, I owed him. I would have been happy to contribute to our household in any way, including performing all the domestic chores, but when he repeatedly said things like “Try not to fuck up dinner tonight” or “Christ, woman, did you never learn how to iron a shirt properly?” I realized too late what an awful mistake I had made.

To keep his insults at bay, I tried to be the perfect homemaker, only to hear things like, “About time you learned how to make a simple dish like spaghetti” or “I bet you took these shirts to the cleaners and spent more of my money.”

Of course, not all of his insults revolved around my housekeeping skills. Many of them targeted my appearance. Just last week he said, “I’m glad you finally got those laser hair removal treatments. Your legs and pussy used to look so gross on the days you were too lazy to shave,” and “Your face looks chubby when your hair is that long.”

Sickness rises in my stomach. I shouldn’t dwell on the awful putdowns, but sometimes his spiteful words play over and over in my mind, stuck on repeat no matter how hard I try to block them out.

The twin moons become a blur and I blink rapidly to dispel my tears.

I refuse to cry over Harry.

Not ever again.

He never loved me, not really, and the love I’d felt for him has already dissolved under the endless barrage of his harsh insults.

Thank God he’s working late tonight and won’t be around to stop me. I know he would do everything in his power to keep me here. His status as a lead scientist in Project KH09 makes him one of the most powerful men on Tallia.

With a single phone call, he could have me thrown in jail or detained in a top-secret location.

A cold shudder passes through me, because no matter how much I don’t want to believe it, I know he could probably have me killed too.

He’s that ruthless and obsessed with his work.

I gaze at the crowd in the café, wondering if any of them know about the research that goes on in the secretive labs that sit outside Capital Acres, the tall buildings that rest beyond the landing platforms. I wonder if any of them know about the aliens who call Tallia home, the humanlike beings unethical scientists like Harry are studying.

Kleaxians.

My heart aches as I think about the aliens.

Another reason I need to sneak back to Earth.

Harry wasn’t supposed to tell me about Project KH09, nor was he supposed to show me images and videos of his horrific experiments on the Kleaxians. But he has. Many times. The fucker sure likes to brag.

Gasps draw my gaze back to the sky.

What the hell?

The Stargazer has come to a standstill. Numerous blinking lights surround it, blue and green lights that appear to belong to other ships.

Other ships.

My stomach flips. No other vessels are scheduled to travel through the wormhole anytime soon. In fact, an interstellar ship only travels to and from Earth once every few months.

Something is very wrong.

The crowd grows tense, and hushed voices and gasps ripple across the café, a wave of fierce apprehension that prompts my sudden unease to deepen. The knots in my stomach twist tighter with each passing second. I shift to the edge of my seat.

One of the unknown vessels shoots a white beam directly at the wormhole.

I grab my suitcases and stand up at the very moment there’s a blue flash behind the Stargazer. The flash is so bright, the crowded streets of Capital Acres are illuminated for a brief instant, a sea of wide-eyed frozen bodies bathed in blue.

Oh God.

Something has happened to the wormhole.

The flash fizzles out until nothing but blackness is left where the Anders-Perkins Wormhole should be located. Screams ring out around me, and I drop my suitcases.

A thought strikes me, and the implications grip me with coldness.

Could it be the Kleaxians?

I can’t imagine who else has destroyed the wormhole. Or who else would open fire on the Stargazer. Unless there’s another alien race nearby that even Harry doesn’t know about.

The blue and green blinking lights rearrange into a triangle and direct multiple white beams at the Stargazer.

Panic consumes me. This can’t be happening. It can’t. Not on the very night I’m supposed to depart this planet that has brought me nothing but misery.

I run out of the café and join a group taking the elevator down. A man next me is crying that his wife is aboard the Stargazer. Others are shaking and sobbing, muttering to themselves and each other that this can’t really be happening.

Once the elevator hits the ground floor, I race into the street, but then pause in the middle of the crowd. Almost everyone remains standing still, looking at the sky. I glance up again to find the shooting has ceased, but the other vessels are now closer to the Stargazer, practically on top of the ship.

“The wormhole is gone! Oh my God!” a woman screams.

“How will we get back to Earth?” a man laments.

How indeed? Disbelief envelops me and I start walking toward the condo I’ve shared with Harry for the last two years. I doubt the Stargazer is going to land on time—if at all. My ticket is still in my back pocket though, just in case.

For a moment, I consider returning to the café for the bags I’d abandoned, but I don’t want to spare the few minutes it’ll take to grab them, nor do I want anything weighing me down.

My gut whispers we’ll all soon be running for our lives.

If the Kleaxians destroyed the wormhole and opened fire on the Stargazer, chances are they’ll visit Capital Acres to wreak their devastation next.

I think of the images and videos of Kleaxians that Harry’s showed me and shudder. Most of their males are over seven feet tall and freakishly muscular, built like fierce warriors. And if they can destroy a wormhole, they also apparently have technology superior to humans. None of our vessels intended for space travel possess weapons.

The Kleaxian ships suddenly veer away from the Stargazer, spreading out in all directions. Then the alien vessels resume firing.

A blinding explosion lights up the night sky.

It’s gone. It’s fucking gone.

The Stargazer has been destroyed.

I take a deep breath and race back to the condo, weaving through the panicked masses, and grab Harry’s extra ID card.

No matter what happens, I’m not going to die here. I’m not.