“Did you find them? Your family?” she asked, while trying to picture herself racing through the streets of Mumbai, only to find her mom dead, or worse. She almost didn’t want to hear his answer.

Skyler shook his head, and for a few minutes he said nothing as he finished connecting her suit to an air pack. Then he moved on to the gloves. While slipping the first over her left hand, he said, “Never got close. The whole city had gone insane. An absolute nightmare. I took a gun from a dead policeman and managed to sneak and fight my way back to the open road. That’s when I met another immune, a guy named Skadz. He told me the feeds were abuzz with a rumor that Darwin was somehow unaffected, so we stole a transport plane from the base and flew there, more or less.”

The man became quiet. Tania sensed he could have included enough detail to scare her away from the journey they were on. Yet something in the calm, methodical way he went about suiting her up instilled confidence in her safety.

After the gloves and boots, Skyler pressurized her suit. A hiss of air was the only evidence that something changed.

“Breathe normally,” he said.

“Sorry.” She hadn’t even noticed her rapid breathing, and willed herself to calm down.

The pilot’s voice came over the intercom. “Five minutes, guys.”

Jake and Samantha stirred in unison. Instinct kicked in as both of them immediately checked their harnesses.

“Suit checks out,” Skyler said. He took her arm and guided her across the cabin. “You’ve got about eighteen hours of Aura-scrubbed air compressed in that pack, more than enough for the time we’ll be in the Clear.”

With his help, she drifted back into her seat. The bulk of the hazard suit made movement awkward for her, but at least the gloves were formfitting. She managed to reattach the safety belts on her own.

“Might want to hold on to that bar,” Skyler said.

She took his advice, gripping it firmly with both hands. “Thank you.”

He winked at her and smiled.

Tania decided she liked him.

It seemed like an eternity passed before Angus’s voice came back on the intercom. “Ten seconds. Grab on to something.”

Tania could see Skyler mouth the countdown. He pushed hard against his restraint bar, preparing to fight against the force of acceleration she realized was imminent. At “one,” his entire face seemed to clench tight.

There was a loud, muffled thump, as the ship was released, followed by a backward somersault of the entire vessel. Tania felt at ease in zero-G conditions, but not sudden acceleration upside down. She closed her eyes.

A rumbling sound started soft, then grew louder. Somewhere behind her, Tania heard something break loose and tumble across the floor. She didn’t dare look.

She barely heard the pilot over all the commotion. “Engine’s at full.”

The sound became deafening.

“You never told us what’s in the case,” Samantha said, after ten minutes of intense acceleration ended. The ship now glided just above the atmosphere, in serene silence.

“Right, sorry,” Tania said, her own voice sounding strange to her inside the helmet of her suit. “Perhaps we should go over the plan?”

“Two hours to kill,” said Skyler, “good a time as any.” He tapped the intercom. “Angus, come back here, please.”

“How much do you know?” she asked.

“Our fence had few details,” Skyler said. “Take an Orbital out to some telescope in Hawaii and back, that’s about all we know.”

“Beats Darwin,” Jake said.

Samantha grunted. “Amen.”

Tania struggled briefly against her safety harness, to get enough room to remove an envelope from her bag. She handed it to Skyler. “Hawaii is correct, but it’s not a telescope. Our goal is inside the University of Hawaii at Hilo.”

“A college?” Skyler asked. A pang of worry flittered through his mind. Telescopes were isolated, and at high altitudes. A hostile environment for subhumans. A university could be considerably more dangerous.

“There’s a data vault there,” Tania said. “Part of a joint venture with NASA, decades ago.”

“More data cubes?” Jake asked.

Tania patted the top of the sleek case, made of some kind of brushed metal that Skyler did not recognize. “The facility is much older, before they had such technology. We’ll be capturing the data on site, with this.”

“What is that?” Samantha asked.

“A Ferrine multi-interface cube array …” She noted all their blank stares. “You plug it into old computers and it pulls out the data.”

“Is it fragile?” Skyler asked. “From the way you’ve been cradling it, I’m guessing so.”

“Just because we have so few left now.”

Samantha said, “How long does this, whatever the fuck, take?”

Tania shrugged. “Depends on how many records are there, and how well organized it is.”

“You got photos of the site?” Jake asked.

Skyler pulled two satellite picture from the envelope and handed them across the aisle.

“I’ll check those out when you’re done, Jake,” said Angus.

Jake flashed a thumbs-up.

Skyler unfolded a larger piece of paper. “Blueprints, even. Excellent.”

“Gimme,” said Samantha.

He ignored her and studied it.

Tania pointed out the data vault for him. “The data vault is in a basement, here, below these four structures. This building on the right has a landing pad on the roof,” she showed him. “I suggest we land there.”

The captain sucked in his lower lip as he surveyed the layout. “We could dust off from that, I think. Tania, will this gadget of yours work if there’s no power?”

“There’s a backup generator,” she said, pointing at it on the blueprint. “Thorium, never turns off. We’ll switch to it manually if need be.”

Samantha cleared her throat. “May I please see the blueprint, oh glorious captain?”

“Study the layout, everyone,” Skyler said, and handed it to her. “Ninety minutes until jump. Angus?”

“Yo!”

“Slight course correction, I think.”

“On it.”

The others pored over the images and blueprints, working out their strategy.

Tania stared at Skyler. “Did you say jump?”

From a storage locker bolted to the floor of the craft, Skyler produced a large backpack with a complicated set of straps.

“This,” he said, “is a tandem parachute.”

Tania, standing a meter away, made no move to come closer.

“It won’t bite.”

She looked at Skyler and cocked an eyebrow. A few seconds passed. Skyler imagined her wrestling with an inner voice, telling her to forget this foolishness. But she crossed the cargo bay to stand in front of him. “How does it work?”

He held it between the two of them. “I’ll wear it,” he said, “and you, well, you’ll wear me.”

Across the cabin, Samantha snorted back a laugh.

“Or you can jump with Sam,” Skyler said, “if that’s more comfortable.”

“No way,” Samantha said. “Sorry, princess, but I jump alone.”

Tania kept her attention on the parachute. “It’s fine. Just tell me what to do.”

He nodded. “Best thing is just to stay relaxed, and when we land, lift your knees as high as you can so that I can get my footing.”

“Sounds simple enough.”

Skyler removed a second harness from the locker. “I need you to put this on. I’ll help, don’t worry. Then mine connects to yours, and I’ll control the chute.”

Tania hesitated. “What happens if you have a heart attack, or pass out, or something?”

“Emergency rip cord,” he said, pointing to a red and white pull rope. “I’ll show you once we’re suited up.”

Across the cargo bay, Jake and Sam prepared their weapons. Skyler strapped on his usual complement of submachine gun and high-powered pistol.

“You people don’t take any chances,” said Tania.

“Sweetie,” said Samantha, “this whole business is one big chance.”

Skyler tapped his sidearm, looking at Tania. “Ever used a pistol?”

“I’ve never held a weapon of any kind,” she replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Okay,” he said, “now is not the time to learn. Just keep close to one of us.”

“Don’t worry.”

He looked at the briefcase. “Want one of us to carry that thing down?”

“I’d rather do it myself,” she said.

He studied her harness. “Well, let’s get it tied to you somehow then.”

To Skyler’s surprise, the metallic briefcase weighed almost nothing. After a few awkward moments of closeness, and one less-than-gentlemanly brush of his forearm, he rigged it to her chest strap in a way that she could wrap her arms around.

Angus’s voice filled the cargo bay. “Two minutes.”

Skyler punched the intercom. “Fly over at three thousand meters, then give me slow circles until Jake is in position.”

“Copy,” Angus said.

They all stood in silence as Jake finished securing his rifle to his harness. End to end, it stood nearly as tall as he did.

“Thirty seconds,” said Angus.

Skyler opened the rear cargo door. The sound of rushing wind filled the cabin.

“Broad daylight,” Samantha said. “Keep your wits and hide your tits, Jake.”

He offered her a mock salute.

“Mark,” said Angus.

Jake walked backward off the loading ramp and performed a somersault as he fell away from them, into the white clouds below.

Skyler shook his head and grinned. He glanced at Tania and found her to be frozen in place.

“Don’t worry,” Skyler said, “I’m no showman.”

Her eyes were locked on the sight out the back of the craft, the blanket of white that stretched out in all directions. “Clouds,” she said.

“Okay, let’s get you hooked up,” Skyler said.

She broke her gaze away and moved to stand right in front of him. Skyler connected the tandem harness together and triple-checked the buckles.

“Target in sight,” Jake said in Skyler’s ear, shouting over the hiss of rushing wind. “There’s a building with a tower. Heading for that.”

“How’s it look?”

“Good news. There’s a light on,” Jake said.

Skyler tapped his earpiece. “What, inside? Someone home?”

“No,” said Jake, “a beacon of some sort. A radio tower.”

“They’ve got power,” Skyler said to Tania. “He’s heading for the tall building on the north side. We’ll drop on the west building, across from the landing pad.”

“Why not on the pad? You could inspect it.”

Skyler shoot his head. “Don’t want to draw any subs to it until we’re ready to go.”

A quiet, tense thirty seconds passed. Then Jake’s voice: “Touchdown.”

The transmission stopped, followed by static.

“Are we clear to jump?” Skyler asked. “Jake?”

The static continued, then Jake’s muffled voice came through. “Clear” and “collapsed” were the only words Skyler could comprehend.

“Roger,” he said in his microphone. “Sounds like he hit a bad spot on the roof, but we’re clear. Get ready.”

The world below began to tilt and turn as Angus brought the craft around again.

Chapter Fifteen

Hilo, Hawaii

26.JAN.2283

Tania’s scream lasted four seconds.

From terror to bliss, in four seconds flat. She’d never experienced anything like it.

On the word from Angus, Skyler had literally lifted her as he ran down the cargo ramp. She saw Samantha, already impossibly far below them, before they left the aircraft themselves. Tania had closed her eyes and let her fear out.

The wind howled through speakers in her helmet and lashed at her protective suit. Relentless, violent, and ultimately exhilarating.

As soon as they cleared the aircraft, Skyler pulled a cord and deployed the drogue chute. Just before the jump he’d explained that it would slow them to the speed one jumper would normally achieve.

Still above the clouds, Tania took in the horizon. Cotton-ball clouds covered almost everything, but far to the west the wall of white ended. Beyond lay the dark blue Pacific Ocean, a stark border against the sky. Sunlight danced on the water, and Tania basked in it.

“You okay?!” Skyler shouted.

She barely heard him over the wind and the buffer of her suit. She couldn’t help but smile. “Never better!” she yelled back.

“Don’t close your eyes, as much as you want to!” he shouted. “This is the best part!”

For a second, she thought he meant their current situation. Then she looked down just in time to see the thick floor of clouds racing toward them. It took every ounce of courage she had to keep her eyes open. The solid white floor approached faster and faster still.

They hit the puffy whiteness at incredible speed. She felt nothing, as if a sphere of glass were around them, pushing the moisture away. She realized they must be creating a bow shock of air, and laughed aloud.

When they passed through the cloud layer, vertigo set in.

For the first time in her adult life, Tania saw the real Earth, beyond Darwin’s safe Aura, from a distance not considered outer space.