By Cassandra Hamm
“Death’s Door to your right, Z.”
“Do you have to call it that?” I say into the comm of my stolen suit. Sweat dampens my forehead as I turn the corner on Dad’s spaceship. The giant metallic door I meet certainly seems like it would hide world-eating tech.
“Isn’t that what it is?” Taz says from our home ship. I wish she could be here too, but her hoverchair is too conspicuous for sneaking around. Instead, she’s hacking her way into camera feeds and unlocking doors, like the one in front of me, which slides open.
A sleek black machine—far too complicated for me to understand—sits in the center of the room. This must be the Reset—the tech Dad wants to use to kill a planet, though he wouldn’t call it that. It’s “wiping Nesryx clean” to “ease the difficulty of terraforming.” As if it isn’t about mining the perstos protected by all that animal and plant life.
“All right, Z, give me a visual.”
I adjust the camera in my helmet so it records outside the suit. “You can’t see it?”
“This part of the ship is encrypted. I haven’t been able to get into anything.”
My breath spikes. “What? You mean you don’t know how to stop him?”
“Hey. It’ll be fine, Xerine.” Taz never uses my actual name. “Stop freaking out over there. I’ve got this.”
One breath. Two.
“All right, Z. Turn your head to the left—there. Okay. See the port in that panel? Plug me in.”
I pull the drive from my pocket and insert it into the opening. Another breath. “Did that work?”
No answer. I’m stuck in a room with a humming planet-killing machine and now she decides to go silent? “Taz?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah, sorry. I’m in.”
“Are you destroying the Reset?”
“Give me a minute, Z!”
All I can think of is Dad at the controls of the Reset, sending gas down onto Nesryx because it’s easier to start over than to work with what’s already there.
“Something’s blocking me from accessing the files, but I’ll find a way through.”
The doors swish open behind me. I swivel around.
“You’re not authorized to be in this room.” Dad pulls a blaster from his belt.
My mouth goes dry. I’ve never thought of him as violent, despite the harm he plans to inflict on Nesryx. Maybe other planets, too. I guess I don’t know him at all.
“You have three seconds to tell me why you’re in here.” He aims the blaster at me.
My mouth opens and closes. His finger twitches. I press the button to open my helmet.
He drops the gun with a muffled curse. “Xerine? What are you doing here?”
He almost shot me. I run my hand through my tangled curls, trying to calm my breathing.
“Hey, Z, I lost the feed.” At least the comm is in my ear instead of my suit. “Why’d you—”
“Kind of busy,” I hiss.
Dad’s helmet slides open. The same tanned face, styled hair, neatly trimmed beard, yet he somehow looks foreign to me. “Xerine…”
“You can’t do this, Dad.” My voice breaks.
His brow furrows. “I thought we’d talked about this. I know you have some qualms—”
“You’re destroying an entire planet for a few freaking credits!”
“That is not what’s happening here, and you know it. The Reset is a chance to start over.”
I snort.
“We tried our best to terraform Nesryx. The efforts failed due to hostile animal life. Without aggressive life forms, we can continue our terraforming efforts and make Nesryx a safe place for humans to live.”
“You mean so you can mine perstos?”
His jaw tightens. “I know you don’t understand, but perstos is the future of humankind.”
“Your future. How much money are you going to make through this?”
“That’s enough, Xerine!” His face flushes crimson.
“Did you even think about what will happen to the oxygen levels when you wipe out all its planetary life?”
“Our terraforming tech will—”
“Just because they’re wild doesn’t mean they’re dangerous!” I shout.
Shaking his head, Dad moves to the Reset’s control panel. I barely realize what’s happening until he says, “This is what’s best,” and flips a lever.
“No!” I peer through the viewport, waiting for gas canisters to drop into Nesryx’s atmosphere, but I see nothing. Maybe he’s releasing the gas into the atmosphere itself? It doesn’t seem like we’re close enough to Nesryx for that to be effective, though.
Dad frowns, flipping the lever again. A fragile hope builds in my chest.
“Thanks for distracting him, Z,” Taz says in my ear. “Helped me figure out how to get around the blockers.”
My mouth drops open. “I… What? That’s not what…”
Dad’s mouth contorts in a snarl as he faces me. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t…” I stare at the horrific machine. The broken machine.
“Should be gone for good,” Taz says. “I scrambled the files, took some key data. Wish I’d thought to give you an explosive.”
Dad grips my hand. His face has drained of color. “If you fix it, no harm will come to you, I promise.”
I shake my head, numb.
“Do you know how much I invested in this, Xerine? This will bankrupt me! It will destroy me!”
Maybe I should be afraid, but all I feel is bone-deep revulsion. I yank my hand free. “That’s your own fault.”
The room drops into darkness.
“The escape pod, Z!” Taz snaps.
I bolt into the hallway, dodging crew members. Footsteps echo behind me. I seal myself inside the pod just as Dad comes into view. His face is a blotchy red, his blaster held high.
I launch into orbit right as he aims the blaster at my pod. Space swallows the shot.
He won’t forgive me, I know. But I do know one place he won’t go.
“Hey, Taz,” I say. “How’s Nesryx this time of year?”
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An excellent blend of action and emotion! I was super invested from the start, and the story was entertaining and easy to follow. It was a wonderful read!