New Dawn by Andrew J. Morgan

Author:Andrew J. Morgan [Morgan, Andrew J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18 – Day 240, 2.1ly from Gliese 370 (final destination), 209.4 trillion miles from Earth

I didn't say another word until my evening shift with Emily.

'You've been very quiet,' she said. 'Everything alright?'

'Yeah,' I lied.

She watched me for a moment before she spoke again, considering me in that telepathic way she seemed to have. I tried to ignore her, looking as unfazed as I could, but I knew I couldn't make it last. 'Is it Byron?' she said at last.

I realised I'd been holding my breath, and I breathed out, relief flooding in. Somehow, being unable to hide the truth from Emily made it easier to talk to her, and that gave me peace, or something close to it. I wondered if she knew how I felt about her, and then I felt stupid for thinking that, because of course she did. I cut that inner diatribe short by chastising myself for letting my mind wander down that path at all. Emily would read it if I was not careful, expose it and me. 'Sort of,' I said, keeping my eyes on my screen.

'Sort of?'

I debated sharing what Jason had told me, but I couldn't bring myself to do it; his threat was so fresh I could still hear it.

'You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to,' Emily reassured me.

But I did. I wanted to tell her everything. I wanted to go, her and me, down to the rec room where Jason and Sophia were probably sat right now having something to eat, and confront them both, find out the truth. 'It's . . . it's complicated.'

'Isn't it always?' Emily said smiling. Then she turned back to her own screen and we continued on with nothing more than the sound of the ship to fill the space between us. I waited and waited, pursing my lips together as though anything less would let the truth slip out, sitting rigid in my seat as long as I could. I looked at the clock on my screen; three minutes had passed. We had hours to go yet.

'There's something more going on,' I blurted, unable to hold out any longer.

'If you mean Byron's lineage,' Emily said, 'we've been talking about that, Grant, Clip and me. We have a theory.'

I didn't expect that. Intrigued, I said, 'Go on.'

'I don't know if you know any different, but this is what we think. We think that Byron was put here by his father, you know, as a favour.'

'Okay.'

Emily looked about, then leaned in, a hint of a grin on her face, as though she was about to share a most tantalising piece of gossip. 'You know how you said ages ago that Byron didn't seem to get on with his father? And that he went through years in the dockyard fleet to get his deep space license?'

'Uh huh,' I said.

'Well, we think he's trying to prove something to his father, and to make up for years of absence, Peter Ash gave him the transfer just to appease him.

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