Jewel and Alicia stare at the map, a thousand questions written on their faces. I like this about them—the humans express so much through their eyes that it’s uncanny. We’re hard creatures forged in the fires of Sunna, sharpened by war and misery. We persevere, but parts of us have died along the way. In contrast, the humans remain resilient and hopeful, still able to smile and look forward to the future, ready to handle whatever it brings. I admire them for it. Perhaps we’d be the same if we were made of the same cloth. Maybe joining our species with theirs will someday yield better people for this planet. Maybe their kindness and hopefulness will be passed down to our children.

I shake off the mental image of a pregnant Alicia and focus on the map again. “I’ve heard many stories about Red Rock,” I tell the others, “about Elian Daron and what he might’ve found down there.”

“One of the stories is that Red Rock was a testing ground for the plague,” Yossul says. “Elian may have found proof of it. I mean, his engineers did, but none lived to tell the story. The circumstances of their deaths were suspicious, to say the least, yet nobody could point a finger at who did it.”

“Tensions were running high at the time,” Alicia adds. “The plague was spreading rapidly, attacking one city after another. The people were scared and desperate. The government couldn’t cope with the surge of casualties. Elian’s engineers slipped through the cracks. A skirmish there, a territorial brawl here, and they were gone, the collateral damage of a crumbling society.”

“Elian Daron was assassinated, though, in plain sight for everyone to see,” Helios replies. “Of course, his attackers killed themselves before they could be interrogated, and that sparked our civil war. We all know what happened afterward. Looking back now, I can certainly see how the whole thing might’ve been orchestrated, but it still sounds so complex.”

“I know, which is why we need to confirm whether the plague was manufactured in a lab,” Yossul says. “If it was a natural occurrence, we only have our warmongering nature to blame.”

“But if it was lab-made, then everything that followed may have been planned: the skirmishes, the fights, the rising ideologies,” Alicia replies. “Somebody wanted to pit the people against one another. To what end, though? Who stands to benefit if your civilization is wiped out? It’s not like you have any neighbors to worry about in this solar system.”

“Not even in the galaxy,” Jewel scoffs, crossing her arms. “I’ve gone over the records of their astronomers. They never found signs of life in this galaxy, which is why they made their way to ours instead.”

As I gaze across the map, I settle my focus on Kaos Volcano. There’s a lot we don’t know about that region, which is why the entire area is unmarked, except for the geographical data and things we’ve learned in the archives.

“No one has been anywhere near Diamond City for over thirty years,” I say. “Do we know if any drones from the Sky Tribe might’ve surveyed the area?”

“I heard some of their fighters talking about it at one point,” Jewel replies, “when we were spying on one of their barracks just outside Ruby City. From what I understood, they certainly tried to look, but they kept losing their drones for some reason. Either they were shot down, which would imply that people are still living in that area, or they got trapped in volcanic activity.”

Helios nods slowly. “I suppose we’ll find out for ourselves soon enough.”

“We’ll be here if you need us,” Fadai says, offering a broad smile.

It’s not a reassuring smile, though. The Kreek men don’t know how to reassure anyone. Their whole lives, they’ve known only the art of war. They’ve witnessed deaths aplenty and inflicted many of their own. I doubt some of them can even sleep at night, but their blood thirst and military prowess have been instrumental in our advances against the Sky Tribe. None of us would choose to be here, and most of us still imagine a life beyond the plague and the civil war.

Not the Kreek clan, though.

No, they’ve devoted their lives to vanquishing the enemy and restoring peace on Sunna. They do not dream of taking wives—not that they have many options to begin with. They do not dream of raising children and building homes somewhere with a nice view. They only dream of blowing up the next starship, obliterating the next barrack, and retaking the next city. They are warriors through and through, much like Helios used to be. I look at him sometimes and cannot believe the tales I’ve heard about him and the stories that he once told me. It’s as if I’m dealing with a completely different man.

He could’ve fallen in with the Kreek clan. He had the makings of a real war hero. He was motivated enough, too, having lost his wife and daughters to the plague and his father to a bloody battle. Helios has buried more family members than most of us put together. Yet he chose peace and diplomacy, burying his head in books after a youth spent on the battlefield. I, on the other hand, chose the books from the very beginning.

I understand my origins. I know the stigma my first name carried. It took years for me to lose my Sky Tribe affiliation, even though I was loyal to the Tallas clan from the moment Helios’ father brought me in. Perhaps someday, we will all look back on these meetings and laugh about how we used to imagine a better world. Perhaps someday, we will thank each other for having made it. There’s no telling yet what the future holds.

“We’re ready to leave within the hour,” Alicia says. “Kingo is loading the last of the fuel canisters into the buggy as we speak. And your people were kind enough to pack more food for our journey. Thank you, Yossul and Fadai. You’ve been gracious hosts, spiked tea notwithstanding.”

“I do hope the honey cakes I had our cooks pack for you will make you forget any thought of revenge,” Yossul replies with a bright smile. “We’ve been nothing but repentant.”

“Oh, the universe will see to it that you’re punished for your transgression. I doubt I’ll have to lift a finger,” Alicia shoots back.

I have a mind to thank the brothers for pulling that stunt, but I do enjoy the mixture of fear and relief swirling in their eyes as Alicia declares a sort of truce. It’s almost funny. I’d laugh if the situation we’re about to face weren’t so dire, so frightening. That’s the thing about Sunnaite men. We always appear as if we’re fearless.

But fearlessness is a myth. Courage is not the absence of fear but rather one’s ability to overcome it. And the thought of someday raising children with this marvelous woman has ramped me up and I am ready to take on a thousand volcanoes and the entire Sky Tribe army if that’s what it takes to keep her safe. I am fearful, though, of what may happen if we fail, if we come across one too many Sky Tribe marauders if we find something worse than the plague in Kaos. I have no idea what we’re headed toward, and my determination may not be enough to keep us alive.

Helios and I may be Sunnaite men and clan leaders with a reputation for being warriors, but we are not invincible.

6

Alicia

The first part of our journey is relatively uneventful.

The road is clear as it takes us through Senesar Canyon—a breathtaking conglomerate of gigantic red rocks with lines of obsidian streaking through them. The topography of this area was the result of a powerful volcanic explosion that reverberated all the way from Red Rock, the lava flowing and flowing until it covered the land. What we’re seeing today is the result of eons of erosion and climate change, though one thing has always been constant from what I’ve read: the heat. It’s always been hot and fiery on Sunna. There are regions where the climate is more akin to our Mediterranean temperatures, but they’ve never seen a single snowflake fall in this world.

“It’s a good thing there aren’t any Sky Tribe sentinels around,” Kingo says from the back seat as our all-terrain vehicle makes its way out of the canyon. We’re leaving the red and black titans behind, and I feel a tad exposed without them. “I would not have wanted to deal with their kind this early in our trip. Frankly, I’d rather not deal with them at all.”

“Right, because you’re a lover, not a fighter,” I chuckle dryly from the passenger seat.