“What do you hope to find on Dicore?” Franklin asked me.

  “Find?” I hadn’t thought that far ahead, and told him so. “What about you?”

  “Not sure.” He was probably ten years my senior, hair thinning. He was thick, wide in the chest, with hefty arms, and he smiled, revealing a missing canine. “Wouldn’t mind carving out a home of my own on another planet. I’ve always been a bit of a survivalist. Lived off the grid in western Canada for a while. Instead of worrying about aliens, I had to fend off bears.”

  “Which is worse?”

  “Bears don’t have guns,” he said, lightly punching my arm.

  We moved ahead, until I was only about ten people from being scanned. Where was Indie? If they tested me, they’d quickly see I had Xeno, and I’d be sent packing.

  There were ten doors, feeding the same number of lines, each with one hundred recruits. They were moving quickly. I dabbed my brow, sweating more than ever. I billowed the jumpsuit at the collar, trying to cool myself.

  Then I saw her. Indie Hart, the Assistant Director, entered the warehouse, her eyes searching the plethora of white-uniformed recruits. I raised a hand, trying to be discreet, but knew I was anything but. There were five people in front of me.

  She finally spotted me, rushing for the door I was about to enter. An Angor stood with a tablet at each entrance, and Indie whispered to the woman positioned at my entry point. Three people in line. Then it was my turn to be scanned.

  “What’s she doing here?” Franklin asked.

  “Indie?”

  “You know her?”

  “No,” I lied, then instantly regretted it. “Okay, that’s not the truth. But I haven’t seen her in years.”

  “I’m surprised they let her out of the Tower.”

  I clenched my jaw and stepped forward. It was my turn. The Angor woman handed the tablet to Indie and walked off, disregarding me.

  “Next,” Indie said casually. I walked beside her, and heard the gentle whisper, “Don’t stand in the middle of it. Stay close.”

  I proceeded through the door and saw the medical unit. It was the size of a bedroom, with a floor to ceiling screen, and white molded plastic covered in blinking lights. A man wearing a jumpsuit entered from the opposite end of the space and placed a finger on his lips. He was about my size, hair the same color. Hell, he could have played me in a movie. I stayed where I was, letting myself be scanned, and the green light blinked on. The door across the room opened, and he slunk out. I followed but found no trace of him. He was gone.

  “Mr. Beck. Here is your button. Please secure it to your lapel.” Indie’s aide handed me a blue button, and I fastened it onto my jumpsuit as instructed. There were other recruits mingling in the distance, and I joined them, heading out into the midday heat.

  The ten transports each had a color painted in a circle, and I spotted the blue one, second from the end.

  Everyone was cheerful, enjoying their successful first day.

  I patted my chest, noticing how fast my heart was beating. My lungs began to burn, and I froze in place. Don’t do this. Not now. I’d just passed the test. If I had a Xeno reaction at this moment, it was all over. I closed my eyes, picturing the ocean lapping onto a Malibu beach. The sunsets from the barge. Indie’s smile.

  My lungs still ached, but the pinprick sensation faded enough for me to breathe. My heart slowed, and I inhaled, knowing the air was just toxic enough to kill me slowly. That didn’t matter. I was leaving Earth before that happened.

  I’d never been able to prevent a full-out Xeno attack, but today was special. Nothing was going to ruin this, not even my defect. No. Not my defect. It was the Angor’s doing.

  “I’ll be damned.” I saw the mustache, then the smile under it when I turned around.

  “Desmond Locke.” I glanced at his button. “I see we’re going to be flying together.”

  “Blue’s the color of the sky,” Des said, smirking at me. “How did you pull this off?”

  He was aware I hadn’t been accepted into the Expedition by the old-fashioned method. “It pays to have friends.”

  “Then I’d better stick close to you,” he said. “I think you have a horseshoe somewhere.”

  I had the opposite, but didn’t tell him that. “Let’s grab the good seats.”

  We walked to the transport.

  I met Indie Hart at the ship’s entrance and noticed the blue button pinned to her top.

  “It seems I’ve been recruited,” she said when I arrived. She didn’t seem pleased about it.

  “How is that possible?” I leaned close, letting some of the other recruits wander past me onto the vessel.

  “It’s a mystery. Director Ulison contacted me an hour ago. Said he decided our organization needed full representation on the colony. Asked if I’d like to join.” Indie’s gaze scanned over the parking lot full of people.

  “And you said yes?” I was surprised.

  She studied me, lips pursed. “Not exactly. When I suggested they send someone with… fewer credentials, he said he could just strip my rank, and then we wouldn’t have a problem.”

  I tensed, despising the fact that the Angor Director had threatened her like that. She was a different person from the affable, carefree woman that I’d shared dinner with. She’d stayed for hours, well into the night, catching up on the last twenty years. It turned out she had a lot more to talk about than I did. I think my rendition of my past had only taken ten minutes. Hers was full of intrigue, Angor education, and back-alley handshakes. It was fascinating.

  “What did you tell him?”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t have much of a choice. I guess I’ll be with you on Dicore.” She motioned me inside when Cyris, her Angor aide, approached with two large pieces of rolling luggage.

  “Is he coming?” I whispered.

  “Can’t very well operate without my sidekick, now can I?” She chuckled.

  Cyris didn’t acknowledge me as he set to softly relaying a message from his tablet. He looked comfortable in his uniform.

  I found Desmond in the transport, holding a spot for me near the front of the ship. The seats were in pairs, running on either side of the aisle like an old airplane. I guessed there were twenty-five rows, making enough room for all one hundred of the Team Blue members.

  “Everything good, my friend?” Des asked as I slumped into my seat.

  That experience had been too close for comfort, but the threat of a Xeno attack felt distant, and I smiled at him. “We’re about to fly from New York to Angor City, before departing for space. Things are looking up.” And I meant it. All of it. I was going to die, but I’d have one hell of an experience before that happened.

  The crew was comprised of Angor and humans, and I saw a lanky alien lowering to the pilot seat before the crew cabin sealed shut, separating us. Indie and her aide were in the front with the others, already creating a barrier between her and the rest of Team Blue. I supposed that made sense. I didn’t suspect she’d be enduring rudimentary training with us grunts.

  “Have you seen Miya?” I asked Des, craning my neck behind to scan for her blonde hair.

  “She’s with Orange. Poor girl,” Des muttered.

  “Why?”

  “Because she doesn’t get the pleasure of hanging out with me,” Des replied. “I have a lot of wisdom in this old dome.” He rapped his knuckles on his skull.

  I did see Franklin, the guy from the line, near the back of the transport, and was relieved I didn’t have to squeeze in next to the big man. He waved at me, his gap-toothed grin signaling he was having the time of his life. I guessed anything was better than fending off grizzly bears.

  “Prepare for takeoff,” a voice said, and I closed my eyes. I never was much of a flyer. As a kid, we didn’t travel often, and even during the last few years, I’d stuck to ferries and land transportation as much as possible. Taking the hovertrain had been outside my comfort zone, and look how that had ended. With us crashing into a wheat field.

  “Taking an Angor ship is—”

  “I know, the safest mode of tran—”

  “Kind of awesome,” he finished, surprising me.

  The engines hummed as the undermounted thrusters fired on, and I felt the pressure building as we sat there. A moment later, the transport lifted straight up, before shooting north.

  We were destined for Angor City. I’d managed to convince Indie to add me to the roster, and had miraculously bypassed their medical system into keeping my Xeno a secret.

  I was officially part of the Expedition.

  SIX

  I hated the cold. Growing up in Arkansas, we had winters. Quite often, we’d be lucky enough to get snow on the ground for Christmas, but not every year. After living in California for a decade, I understood why people longed for the warmer climates.

  Witnessing Angor City for the first time was unreal. It was blanketed in snow, with the expansive ice and tundra stretching for miles in all directions. I’d seen pictures before, but even those had showcased a bright sunny sky with melted terrain. This was something else.

  Angor City was larger than I’d been expecting, with dozens of skyscrapers rising from the Earth. Numerous lights could be seen in the distance, and I wondered how many Angor it could house. At best guess, I’d estimate two hundred thousand or so, based on the layout and size of the city’s boundaries. The structures matched those built in our cities, such as the Unity Tower in New York, or the countless others that crowded the L.A. skyline.

  “Why are they comfortable here?” I asked Des as we began our descent. The other nine transports were close, and I glanced out my compact window at the nearest. I watched the people’s faces as they gawked at the white mass of snow from a distance.

  “No one knows for sure. Rumor has it they prefer the snow because it was similar to their own planet of Trum, but again, that’s conjecture.” Des’ mustache moved as he spoke, and I wondered why we’d continued to remain ignorant on such matters. If we signed this Unity Accord, it was done so out of fear. Our previous leaders had probably figured there was no real choice, much like Indie Hart had no option but to accept the role on this Dicore mission. They would have felt there wasn’t room for negotiation.

  “Then why are they pushing us to the coast?” I spoke low, but wasn’t sure I could handle the answer even if I received one.

  “That’s a good question, Colton. Maybe you’ll figure it out. Until then, I suggest you keep it zipped and follow my lead.” Des rose as our ship settled to a cleared parking lot near the outskirts of the city.

  A gust of wind sent a flurry of snow against my seat’s window, and I shivered. Only an hour ago, I’d been sweating inside my jumpsuit at the facility on Long Island. How quickly things changed. My tablet chimed, alerting me of a message from Amy Horowitz. I read it, smiling at the contents. She’d met someone who claimed to be making headway with Xeno. There wasn’t a specific cure, but maybe something that might help slow the degeneration. That could have been promising early on, twenty or even ten years ago. Not anymore.

  Her message was devoid of anything resembling affection, and I knew our night together was more about finishing what we’d started years before, rather than our current states. I’d needed comfort that day, and she probably recognized that. I was going to miss her in a sense.

  The other messages were from my parents. Indie had made me promise not to speak a word to them about leaving for Dicore, because it might be traced to her if they knew their son, with Xeno, was on the Expedition. I scrolled through the concerned texts, contemplating my response.

  “Are you going to block the aisle all day?” The voice was pretentious, and I didn’t have to turn around to know I was going to despise the man behind the words.

  He was slim, taller than me by an inch. Maybe two. Young. Twenty or possibly twenty-five. His chin was bare, but I doubted he had to shave it often.

  “Sorry.” I stepped aside, choosing to ignore his abruptness. We were on the same team, after all.

  The guy chuckled, bumping my shoulder as he strode by. Desmond glanced at me, and I shook my head, answering the unasked question.

  “As I was saying, he’s almost higher ranked than the Director, but they prefer not to talk about it. He should have come and led the charge, but he’s working on a big project for the Angor,” the guy bragged to another recruit. I had no idea to whom he was referring, and I didn’t care.

  Most of the ship was empty when Des and I entered the aisle, slowly marching from the transport. The cold wind bit against my cheeks when we stepped outside, and we were ushered onto hovering buses, like the ones I’d used back home.

  Home. Had the barge on the California coast ever been my home? I think my house in Fayetteville was the only real consolation I’d had. It was an older property, with wooden panels, and a strange scent embedded into the basement carpet, but I’d loved it just the same.

  Des must have picked up on my shifting mood. “Colton, you have to let it go.”

  “Let go of what?”

  He waved a hand in a sweeping arc. “All of it. We’re leaving Earth. I think there’s a good chance we’ll never return. Can you accept this reality?”

  “If we build a River Checkpoint…”

  “Don’t waste your time on that. Even if the Angor do give us Dicore, and it’s habitable, do you really expect us to connect the world to Earth? In our lifetimes?” He wasn’t aware of my impending death, but his words rang true regardless. Desmond was already older, and we had no information on how long it took to construct the complicated gateway device. It might be years. If there was a River.

  I was freezing while we chatted outside the bus.

  “Let’s discuss it later. For now, I’m hoping they lead us to a mess hall.” Desmond rubbed his stomach.

  I saw Indie stalk onto another bus as I clambered on board, hearing the doors slam shut behind me. Despite my slight reservations of our hosts’ objectives, I was excited to see Angor City up close.

  The vehicle was full, and I stood near the front while the Angor pilot lifted us into the air. We followed a procession of buses around the city, never flying into its boundaries. We began to drop near a giant frozen lake a few miles from the edge of town.

  “We aren’t going into the city?” I asked the pilot.

  He responded in the melodic Angor language, and I didn’t know what he was saying. That was interesting. Every Angor I’d ever met could talk to me. English in the United States, French in France, and so on. I’d assumed they’d all been required to learn our dialect, but perhaps I was mistaken. Assuming that was probably short-sighted, and maybe a little egotistical.

  After a few minutes, the doors opened, and it was somehow colder in the barren wasteland. Through the blowing snowflakes, I spied three huge buildings.

  “Welcome to your training facility.” Desmond looked smug and he started to walk, following the rest of the Expedition members. The sky had darkened, and it was so cloudy, I couldn’t see a single star above.

  “This is it?” It didn’t seem that impressive. For the Angor, I expected more, a big show of their advanced technology. This resembled a vacant warehouse. Large, but extremely uninspired.

  Once the buses were offloaded, they began leaving, abandoning all one thousand of us. Another fleet landed while we surveyed the parking lots, and I realized the rest of our recruits were arriving from around our planet. Pretty soon, this area would be full of ten thousand humans, ready to leave Earth for the adventure of a lifetime.

  “Listen up!” It was Officer Bates, the same woman from the Long Island facility, barking at us through her drone-amplified speakers. I noticed a hint of impatience in her voice this time. “Please locate your colors on the appropriate residential wings of Building A. You will be sleeping, eating, showering, and training with your teams.”

  The left building was the largest, and I wondered how they were planning on housing so many of us, even for such a short period of time. The orange entrance was first, and I saw Miya chatting with another girl around her own age. I jogged over, hoping I wasn’t exceeding my boundaries. I’d only just met Miya, and didn’t want to assume we were friends. Surprisingly, she greeted me with a hug, finally breaking free with a big smile. Her grin was infectious, not nervous in the least.

  “Beck, you did it! This is Carly.” She indicated the woman next to her.

  We shook hands. “Hi, Carly. I’m…”

  “Beck. I heard all about you. Landing that ship. It must have been scary,” Carly said without a hint of the sarcasm I expected.

  I found it amusing that people were more scared of what a human might do to them than the Angor. “It was fine. You two ready for training?”

  “This is going to be incredible. I hope they let me pilot one of the Meteor fighters. Those things are killer.”

  “Meteor?”

  “Sure. Each of their vessels like Palora is equipped with two dozen Meteors. They’re designed to fly in or outside atmospheres, and have extraordinary firepower,” Miya said.

  “Where did you hear this? Does everyone know about them?” I asked, not recalling a reference to these smaller craft.

  She rolled her eyes and glanced at Carly. “I told you he was naïve.”

  I frowned at her comment, but stayed quiet.

  “Beck, you can always find information if you know where to look.”

  “Or you could tell me,” I urged.

  “Nice try.” People were pushing past us, eager to get out of the cold. I hunted for any sign of the blue indicator, but didn’t see one.

  “I’d better run. Catch you later,” I told Miya.

  “Good luck, Colton.” She seemed amused at the idea of being here, and I took off, trying to find Desmond. Instead, I saw Franklin leaning against the wall. His cheeks were bright red, and he regarded the people moving around with interest.

  “You good?” I checked in with him.

  “Maybe this was a mistake,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “Too many people.” The third series of buses had landed and taken off now, funneling another thousand recruits to the training facility near the lake. “I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this.” The area echoed the sounds of a crowd. Everyone was talking in low murmurs. If you tried to hear snippets of conversations, it was almost impossible.

 

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