Moondust by Gemma Fowler

Author:Gemma Fowler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicken House

Day-Cycle 13

A breeze ruffled Aggie’s hair.

Her father’s car, with its old sticky leather seats, floated into focus around her.

She could smell the dust and heat of the desert on the wind that came in through the windows. In the distance, the gleaming silver dome of the brand new lumite power plant rose up out of the red horizon.

‘This is against all known protocols, David,’ a familiar voice echoed from the dash. Aggie opened her eyes. A tiny Ether spun beside the old dials.

Her father’s knuckles were white on the wheel. ‘It’s a feeling, a hunch, that’s all.’

‘There’s no evidence to suggest that . . .’

‘I know, I know –’ her father shook his head – ‘but he’s stopped listening to reason.’

The Ether on the dash began to churn. ‘David . . .’

‘It’s an order, a directive, whatever you need to do,’ her father’s voice wavered. ‘If anything happens to me – please, she hasn’t got anyone else.’

The road thundered under the car’s old rubber wheels.

‘OK, David.’

The scene dissolved. Aggie swam in a sea of black so thick it felt as if she were inside the Ether itself.

The hospital pod came in and out of focus, floating in front of her for a second, then pulling away, lost in the darkness. Aggie pushed at the hospital monitor in her arm. The chip vibrated softly under her skin, administering the meds that kept her sedated. She felt her arm fall back down. If she tried to rip it out, the computer would only knock her out again. She doubted she had the strength, anyway.

This is how the days were. If they were whole days.

Aggie swallowed drily and shifted on the itchy sheets. She closed her eyes in an attempt to stop the nausea. She had to be quiet. She had to think.

When she mumbled and cried out, a nurse would shuffle in, place a cold hand on her forehead and tell her to relax, it was the healers, knitting her damaged body back together – she needed to be still, to let them do their job. She should be grateful that the guard’s buzzer was on stun. She was going to be OK. She just needed to be still for a while, that was all.

Her mind drifted to Seb. She imagined him out on the base, laughing at the custard cart with Mir, she saw him on his border patrols all alone. Out in the lonely Borderlands where he’d seen the—

The Rock-Aliens.

Something sparked in Aggie’s head, suddenly became clear.

She pulled herself up in the bed and opened her eyes. The room swayed around her. She felt as if something dark and horrible had crept up and bitten her. Why hadn’t she seen it before? It was so obvious now.

Aggie pulled the sheets off the bed and tried to sit up.

In her preoccupation with the Angel, Aggie had missed something. Something much darker. Something to do with the old suit under her bed. Something that, for reasons Aggie still didn’t completely understand, Celeste wanted her to see.

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