She stood and stared.
She blinked at the bright light. There was the sun. Actually, there were two suns. A large yellow—almost white—ball just peering over the horizon and a smaller orange sun higher in the sky. The air was warm, and a light breeze tickled her skin as she held her face up to the sunlight.
It was so beautiful her chest ached.
The ship had landed on a plateau, and before it lay a shimmering lake of blue water, and beyond that a forest of small, stumpy green trees. She turned her head; behind them a steep mountain loomed over the ship. High above, some sort of bird or other flying animal circled lazily in the sky. So free.
How she would love to fly.
A man came up behind her, a large square box in his arms, nearly knocking her over; she stepped to the side, then watched as he carried the box down the ramp and placed it in the back of a large vehicle.
“Come along,” Dr. Yang said.
She followed her, but as they stepped off the ramp, Destiny came to an abrupt halt. For the first time in her life she was actually touching the ground. Not a floor, but actual dirt. A tremor ran through her. Then something caught her eye off to the right. A spaceship was coming in to land, small and sleek and silver. Dr. Yang had also stopped.
“Who is that?” Destiny asked, not really expecting an answer, but to her surprise, Dr. Yang spoke.
“They’re representatives arriving from the rest of the fleet. There’s to be a meeting,” she murmured. “That shuttle is from the Trakis Two—you can tell by the number on the side.”
The shuttle touched down lightly on an area of flat land near the ship. There were already three others parked in a row.
“They all came over on the Trakis Five,” Dr. Yang continued. “But the ship is remaining in orbit and they’re using shuttles to bring them to the planet surface. Come.”
The door to the shuttle slid open and two figures emerged. Destiny hesitated.
The first man was dressed similarly to Dr. Yang, though his shirt was yellow. But it was the second man who held her attention. She couldn’t look away.
He was quite possibly the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
Tall and lean, dressed in blue pants and a black shirt that fitted his form. His hair was short and black, and his silver eyes wandered restlessly over the scene in front of him. A scar ran down his right cheek. He looked wild and free like the bird in the sky, and she took a step toward him as though she were pulled.
The movement must have caught his attention, because he turned slightly, raised his head, and stared straight into her eyes. For a moment their gazes locked. He didn’t smile, didn’t change his expression in any way, but she felt a connection tug at her. A shiver ran through her and her skin tingled. Her mouth went dry as she hugged her arms around herself, yearning for something, but no clue what. Then the man beside him spoke and he shook his head, breaking the connection, leaving her bereft. They disappeared inside the shuttle, and she stared after them.
“Destiny?”
Dr. Yang was watching her, and she forced herself to smile. “Where are we going?”
“There.”
Destiny’s gaze followed the direction of the doctor’s pointed finger. An island lay in the center of the lake, bustling with activity. Already a building rose out of the flat land. Was this to be her new home? The walls were the same sandy color as the mountain behind them, and there were windows that would look out onto the forest and the mountain. She could imagine the sun streaming into it in the mornings.
Dr. Yang strode across the sandy ground to where a red vehicle waited for them and then opened the door and gestured for Destiny to get in. She climbed inside and the doctor got in beside her.
Clutching her bag on her lap, she stared out the window, then turned and looked behind them. The ship was huge. Her gaze shifted to the much smaller shuttle from the Trakis Two, but there was no sign of the man who’d caught her attention.
Would she ever see him again?
She wanted to pack in as much as she could. She would learn to swim in the lake, climb the mountain, lie under the warmth of the suns. Meet the mysterious stranger who made her body shiver and her skin tingle. Maybe learn about love. She’d read about love in The Count of Monte Cristo and it was high on her list of things to experience. Also probably at the top of the “never going to happen” list, but she could dream. Even Dr. Yang couldn’t stop her from dreaming.
“Have you ever been in love?” she asked.
Dr. Yang frowned. “What are you talking about, Destiny?”
“Nothing.”
Then they were moving. And the only world she had ever known grew smaller and smaller behind her. As they reached the water’s edge, with a shifting of machinery, they drove straight into the water and toward the land. It took only minutes to cross. She had seen pictures of old-fashioned castles on Earth. This reminded her of that, the tall building surrounded by a moat. For protection, she assumed, but protection against what? What dangers had they found on this brand-new world?
The vehicle pulled up outside the building, and she got out and stood looking around. There were people everywhere, working, building—would she be expected to work, too? Dr. Yang ushered her up a set of stairs and through an open doorway into a wide hall. A man stepped forward and they spoke briefly. She didn’t seem happy but finally nodded and came back to Destiny, giving her a tight smile.
“Your room is downstairs.”
Oh… She wanted to be high up. She wanted a view. But she knew better than to question the doctor when she had that closed-off, unhappy expression, and she just gave a brief nod.
The man led them through a door, down a set of stairs, through another door. The corridor was narrow and the light dim. He stopped in front of a metal door with a grill in the front. He turned the handle and the door opened. Stepping aside, he gestured for her to enter.
Her feet locked in place, her stomach churning as all the brightness oozed from the day.
The room was dark, and no sunlight reached here under the ground. She looked at Dr. Yang, but her face still held that closed-off expression, and Destiny knew there was no help there.
She clung to her bag and stepped into the darkness. As she entered, an orange light flickered to life. The room was small, maybe ten feet by ten feet. She blinked but held her shoulders stiff until the door closed behind her, and the lock clicked. She waited until the sound of footsteps faded, then she sank to the floor.
What have I done wrong?
Chapter Five
“Remember that two-legged tigers and crocodiles are more dangerous than those that walk on four.”
—Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
Elvira Yang blinked as she walked away. She wouldn’t let herself feel, but the look on Destiny’s face as she stepped into that cell would haunt her forever.