“What just happened?”
“The escape pod breached the walls of the qhov’rum.”
That’s what she’d thought. “What about the other escape pods?”
“Unknown. I detect none within range.”
“And the fighter craft?” She’d glimpsed a lot of fighter craft engaged in a very surrealistic, Star Wars–like battle as the pod had flown toward the qhov’rum’s walls. If any of the bad guys had followed her—
“No Lasaran or Gathendien fighter craft are within range.”
Her eyes widened. “The gray ones were Gathendien?”
“Affirmative.”
Those assholes! “What about the ship? Where’s the Kandovar?” She wasn’t seeing it through the window, and that ship was so gargantuan it was impossible to miss.
“Unknown.”
Her fear multiplied. “What do you mean, unknown?”
“The Kandovar is not registering on my scans, nor is it responding to my attempts to hail it.”
“What does that mean?”
“I am currently unable to locate it.”
“You can’t locate the ship?” she blurted as panic rose.
“Affirmative.”
“Do you know why?”
“Not with certainty.”
“Well, can you make a guess?”
“Affirmative. I am capable of fabricating multiple explanations, but will not be able to estimate the accuracy of each without further—”
“Just give me your best guess,” Ava snapped, nerves on edge. She needed to know where she was, what was happening.
“Based upon the rapid depletion of the Kandovar’s shields, the reduced maneuverability within the qhov’rum, the extent of the battle the escape pod passed through, and the large burst of energy I detected just before we lost contact, I believe it likely that the Kandovar has been destroyed.”
All breath left Ava in a rush. “The whole ship?”
“Affirmative.”
All those people…
Had her friends’ pods launched the same time hers did? Had the Immortal Guardians even made it to pods of their own? They had been helping the Lasarans the last time she’d seen them.
And what of the Lasarans? The Yona?
Tears welled in her eyes. “What’s your second-best guess?” The one that didn’t include the destruction of the Kandovar.
“We may be unable to hail the Kandovar because the pod is too far beyond its reach.”
“How is that possible? We just left it.”
“The qhov’rum propels craft forward at speeds that even the fastest engines cannot replicate. If the qhov’rum remained functional after the pod breached its walls, it has already carried the ship and other craft within it a distance that it would take this pod with its weaker engine many months to traverse.”
Ava stared through the window at the vast expanse of space.
When Prince Taelon had given them a tour of the escape pods, he’d told them that each one could sustain life for two months.
Not many months. Two months.
“Are there any Lasaran or Yona outposts near us?”
“Negative.”
“Are any members of the Aldebarian Alliance near us?”
“Negative.”
“Are there any habitable planets close enough for us to reach within two months?”
“Negative.”
Ava swallowed.
What the hell was she going to do?
CHAPTER ONE
Ava smiled as the wind whipped her hair. She, Eliana, Natalie, Simone, and Michaela had all piled into her sleek black seventies muscle car and now jammed to some oldies as they all but flew down a straight two-lane country road.
Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” blasted from the speakers as they all sang along. Ava and Natalie were the only mortals present. The other three were powerful Immortal Guardians. All five bore brown eyes, dark hair that ranged from chestnut to black, and wide smiles.
Since no curves or turns lay ahead, Ava floored the accelerator. She loved this car. Her dad had spent many weekends lovingly restoring it and souping it up while Ava helped him and the two of them bobbed their heads to oldies like the one she listened to now. She’d been so thrilled when he and her mom had given it to her as a high school graduation present. Still in excellent shape, the engine didn’t rumble. It purred. The updated stereo system rocked. She even adored the sleek black paint and the heavy-as-hell frame that would pulverize one of today’s cars or SUVs and keep her safe in an accident, not that she intended to have one.
Pretty fields and verdant forests raced past on either side of the road. A cheerful sun shone down on them. And instead of the cloying heat of summer, a cool breeze bathed them.
Usually, country drives carried her over bumpy, crappily patched cement or tarmac. This road, however, looked as though it had only recently been paved. Concrete so pale a gray it was almost white possessed nary a pothole or crack, perhaps because so little traffic navigated it. They hadn’t seen a single car since they’d begun their drive.
Ava glanced over at Eliana, who kicked back in the passenger seat.
Her friend winked as she belted out the lyrics.
Ava grinned. Of all the Immortal Guardians she’d befriended, Eliana was her favorite. Somewhere in the neighborhood of four hundred years old, Eliana was five feet tall to Ava’s five-three and had long black hair that whipped around her face in the wind that gusted through the open windows. She was also bold, fun-loving, and could totally kick ass.
Ava, on the other hand, had always been rather shy. Her life, thus far, had been very isolated. Like her mother, she’d been born with telepathic abilities that were difficult to control. The thoughts of others had bombarded her without ceasing. And she hadn’t gained control over it until her teen years. So her parents had bought a house in the country with no nearby neighbors and had homeschooled her until she was old enough to understand the danger of responding to other children’s thoughts as though they had spoken them. Even taking her to the playground had resulted in unpleasant incidents, so they’d kept her home and done their best to fill the gap of friendship themselves.
Some kids might have resented it, she supposed. To this day, her parents still questioned the actions they’d taken that had deprived her of a “normal” childhood. But Ava loved them for it. Yes, she’d been lonely at times. She’d seen children in movies and on television shows playing together and wished she had friends her age. But in the rare instances in which her mom or dad had taken her out in public, she’d heard the ugliness in the thoughts of the men and women—and even the children—they encountered and had understood.
Even so, she had begged her parents to let her attend high school, where she could meet girls and boys her age.
She hadn’t even lasted a year before she’d resumed the homeschooling. Movies and television shows often portrayed some of the vile things girls said and did to each other, how mean they were to new kids and eager to torment and ostracize. But that was nothing compared to their thoughts and the things they wanted to say and do but didn’t.
A few of the boys had been friendly. She’d even developed a huge crush on one. But hearing his lustful thoughts for another girl had squashed that.