Fractured Futures Read online

  “Mira,” Lucy whispers. When I nod, she asks, “How was it, seeing Mira at the bounding base after all this time?”

  She’s the first person to ask me that. Sure, Waters wanted to know everything about Mira and the Youli, but he didn’t care about my feelings. Marco and Addy had plenty to say about Mira’s arrival and the Youli’s demands, but they didn’t ask me how I felt about Mira. It probably never occurred to them that it was a big deal, or any bigger of a deal than seeing the others. They hadn’t seen anyone from my pod until the reunion at the bounding base. Since then, we’ve all been busy with prep for the talks and all. But still, it would have been nice if someone had checked in with me about Mira.

  “Thanks for asking,” I say to Lucy. “It was strange, intense. I don’t have the words to explain it, really. It was like Mira and I were connected at our core.”

  “Your brain patches?”

  “Yes, but it was more than that.”

  Lucy places her hand on top of mine. “We felt it, too, Jasper. Mira was able to communicate with all of us brain-to-brain.”

  “I know, and that was amazing, but this was something different, something heightened. For a moment when Mira and I were alone, it felt like time froze. It was just me and Mira, and we were all that mattered in the universe. Then it ended. It felt like she ripped my heart out of my chest and took it with her.”

  Lucy tips her head to the side. “You miss her.” When I nod, she adds, “You’ll see her soon.”

  “I know.” In just a few days, we’ll be headed to the Youli home world. It may be my last chance to persuade Mira to return to Earth. I need a plan, and Lucy might be just the person to help me execute it. “I need your advice, Lucy. I need to convince Mira to come home.”

  “Of course she’ll want to come home, Jasper.”

  I shake my head. “I’m not so sure.” How do I explain this to Lucy? I might as well tell her the truth. “When we were in the rift, Mira told me she wanted to go with the Youli, that it was her own choice. And when I saw her at the bounding base, she claimed she couldn’t come home. Do you think you can help me change her mind?”

  Lucy smiles. It’s the old Lucy smile, not her new signature smile. Something inside of my chest unclenches, and I smile back. If the Lucy I know and love is still there beneath all that makeup, then maybe there’s hope things can get back to how they used to be. Friendship, a future worth fighting for, a pod united. If we can rekindle even a flicker of that, then maybe there’s a chance that Mira will come home.

  “Of course, Jasper!” she says. “Can we talk about it after the rally? I need to hook up with my stylist for some final prep.” She leaps up from the couch and waltzes across the room, morphing from Lucy, my friend, into Lucy Dugan, the new face of Earth Force, as she goes. When she gets to the door, she turns back around and blows me a kiss.

  I take a huge bite of pizza and lean back on the soft sofa cushions, feeling a tiny bit optimistic about Mira for the first time in a while.

  4

  THE RALLY GOES BY IN a blink. The script was the same except for Lucy’s melodramatic introduction of me and Denver and our heroics, injuries, and swift recoveries. With all that’s happened in the past several days, the roar of the crowd doesn’t rev me up like before. There’s too much at stake now. And the narrative sounds even more hollow and silly than before. Plus, Denver got me a bit freaked with his talk about the narrative being dangerous. What if some passionate player on the periphery of the Resistance—someone without the facts about what’s really going on, like probably every single protestor holding an anti–Earth Force sign at each rally we’ve had—gets sick of all the lies and tries to finish what the Resistance started in Americana East?

  The sooner the Lost Heroes Homecoming Tour is over, the better.

  After the rally, I track down Lucy and ask her to go exploring, something I loved to do with Jayne (although I’m not going to tell Lucy that). At first, she’s skeptical since we’re really not supposed to leave the hotel, but I do a bit of begging and promise we can pretend we’re living the Parisian glam life of yore. She eats it up and practically skips out of the hotel.

  We exit through a side door of a connecting building and head for the main road.

  Dusk settles in as Lucy links her arm in mine, and we stroll through the Parisian streets. Most people we pass recognize us instantly. Soon, we’re followed by whispers and the flash of cameras.

  “Can you believe we’re walking down the Champs-Élysées?” she asks me. “Did you ever imagine… well, actually, I imagined this dozens of times… but still, we’re in Paris, Jasper!” She’s talking too loud, and I’m pretty sure it’s on purpose. She’s always loved to be the center of attention.

  Me? I have no interest in gathering every Parisian pedestrian within a half-mile radius like I’m the Earth Force pied piper. There’s definitely no way I’m going to talk to Lucy about Mira with all these people around. “Ready for some real fun?” I ask her.

  She looks at me skeptically, but doesn’t say no, so I grab her hand and take off running. We dash down the long promenade until we reach the gardens, shaking the crowd as we go. I weave us in and out of hedges and around benches and flower beds until we reach a large glass pyramid at the end of the greenway. I steer us off the main path and down a side street to the banks of the Seine. When we finally pause to rest and catch our breath, we’re alone.

  “Well, that was a thrill, although a better warning would have been nice,” Lucy says, kicking off her high heels. “My feet are killing me.”

  “Here’s an idea,” I tell her. “Wear different shoes. Why do you wear those, anyway? It’s like you’re walking on stilts.”

  “I need to look the part,” she says, rubbing the arch of her right foot.

  “You mean your signature style?”

  She laughs, even though she’s still trying to catch her breath. “Exactly.”

  “I prefer your original style. You know, the one with the ribbons.” When I think of Lucy, I still picture her braids tied in multicolors.

  “And that’s why I love you so much.” She leans her head against my shoulder.

  I tip my head against hers and take a deep, relaxing breath. It feels good to be with someone who knows me so well. Comfortable.

  That’s how I used to feel with my pod mates almost all the time. Now, even if everything goes seamlessly, even if Earth Force and the Resistance reach a lasting peace, and Earth commits to comply with the requirements of the Intragalactic Council, and our planet’s future looks promising, even then things might not be all good for the Bounders.

  “Have you thought about what might happen to us after the negotiation?” I ask.

  She sits up straight. “I thought we were going to talk about your love life.”

  “I never said that.”

  “Yes, you did. You said you wanted to talk about Mira.”

  “Okay, fine, but that doesn’t mean my love… whatever. Just hear me out first about something else.” I tell her how, on Gulaga, Marco and Addy sat me down for a serious talk. “They’re members of the Resistance negotiation team, but they have their own agenda: Bounders rights.”

  I talk to Lucy about my sister’s fears. If Earth is ushered into the Intragalactic Council, if we’re no longer at war with the Youli, what need is there for the Bounders? We were bred specifically to fight that war.

  At first, Lucy doesn’t understand. How could anyone not see the value in the Bounders, which of course means the value of Lucy, herself? I remind her that the Bounders genes had been eliminated from the population, that it took an actual alien war for them to bring us back.

  “The Bounders have value, Lucy. We have value beyond being war machines. We need to make sure our efforts at inclusion move forward, not backward. That’s what Addy and Marco are focused on.”

  Lucy doesn’t argue. She doesn’t even make any snide remarks about Marco. She listens, then lets a heavy pause hang in the air between us.

  “I need some time to think about it,” she finally says. She grabs my hand and leans close. “Jasper, I’m going to tell you something, too, although I really shouldn’t.”

  “Okay.”

  She blinks her eyes, her enormous lashes fluttering like tiny moths in front of her face. “I’m not sure Admiral Eames is going to keep her agreement with the Resistance.”

  It takes me a second to process what she said. “Wait… what?”

  Lucy exhales in a loud puff, like she’s been holding her breath. Then she lets loose a flood of ramblings. “I’m not sure. I could be wrong. It’s not like I’m in the inner circle. Cole probably knows more. But maybe not. I think she’s been shutting him out. She knows that he gets uncomfortable breaking a promise. And she knows he has a relationship with you, Marco, and Addy. So Cole might be in the dark, too. I really don’t—”

  “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” I interrupt her to ask. “Admiral Eames isn’t going to honor the truce?”

  “I’m just not sure, Jasper. Maybe she’ll act like she is, but I have this feeling that she’s planning something.” She bites her lip and stares at me with her wide eyes.

  “A feeling? That’s not much to go on.”

  “I know, but I’ve got to trust my gut. Plus, it doesn’t take my gut to notice that the admiral’s been acting strange ever since you showed up with the lost aeronauts. She’s moody and mean. She wasn’t exactly nice before, but she was always steady.”

  What if she’s right? What if Admiral Eames plans to renege on the agreement? This could be disastrous. “Does Cole know she’s shutting him out?”

  She shakes her head. “I don’t think so. He’s not exactly the quickest with that kind of stuff.”

  “No kidding.” I press my hands together. We need to do something, anything, to stop the negotiations from getting off track. “I have to talk to Cole.”

  Lucy’s hands are trembling. “I don’t know when you’ll see him next. He left for the space station with the admiral immediately after the rally.” Admiral Eames and Denver got in a big blowout earlier. I wonder if that’s why she left Earth so quickly.

  “You’re kind of dropping a bomb here, Lucy. Are you sure you don’t have any details?”

  She shakes her head. “I’m sorry, Jasper. If I find out more, I’ll let you know. I promise.”

  I bow my head to my knees. If Lucy’s right, the admiral could be planning to derail the peace talks. From the things she was shouting at Denver earlier, it actually seems plausible. We can’t let that happen.

  Lucy rubs her hand across my back. “Now let’s get to why we’re out here in the first place. You need help with Mira.”

  “I’m not in the mood, Lucy, not with what you told me.”

  “Oh, come on, there’s nothing we can do about that now. We might as well talk about your love life.” She draws me up by the shoulders. “I think it’s obvious what you need to do.”

  Hope flickers in my gut. Could Lucy actually have a solution for getting Mira to come back? Could it be something easy?

  When I look at her, she smiles. “Plain and simple, Jasper. You need to confess your love for her.”

  I open my mouth to protest, but Lucy raises her hand.

  “Don’t deny it. The only person in denial about your true feelings for Mira the last few years is you. And maybe her.”

  “Lucy, I’m not going to just—”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, of course you’re going to. So we should practice.”

  “Practice?”

  “Of course.” She turns her whole body to face me on the bench. “Now pretend I’m you, and you’re Mira. It should be pretty easy because you (meaning me) will do all the talking, and Mira (meaning you) won’t say anything. Like normal.”

  I so don’t want to do this.

  “So first, take her hands.” Lucy scoops my palms up in her own. “Then look deep into her eyes.” She leans close, opening her eyes extra wide. Framed with the spidery lashes, they look scary. “Then profess your love.”

  “Saying what exactly?”

  She drops my hands and sits back, letting a neutral expression wash her face. “Give me a second to get in character.” Then she resumes her romantic pose, hands clutched, eyes staring deeply into mine, supposedly in the role of me, Jasper Adams. “I’ve waited far too long to say this, but I can’t deny my feelings—”

  Oh my God. Puke. There is no way I’m going to do this.

  She leans even closer, like she might try to kiss me. “The truth is, I’m in love with you.”

  A bright light blinds me, and a rustle of noise makes me jump off the bench.

  “Is it true?” a stranger’s voice asks. “Are the two of you dating?”

  What is happening? I blink back into focus. A man holding a camera is standing right behind the bench.

  “What?” His question replays in my head. Are the two of you dating? “No!”

  Lucy grabs her shoes with one hand and my shirtsleeve with the other. “What he means is ‘no comment.’ ” She takes off at a brisk pace, dragging me behind her.

  “Miss Dugan,” the man calls, “is it true you’ve been pining for Jasper Adams ever since you first met at the EarthBound Academy?”

  “You want the truth?” Lucy says over her shoulder. “The truth is we’re leaving.” We’re already halfway up the bank, heading for the road back to the hotel.

  “Mr. Adams,” he yells after us, “can you describe your reunion with Miss Dugan after escaping the rift?” he yells.

  Lucy tightens her grip on my hand. “Say nothing,” she whispers.

  “But—”

  Her glare is enough to shut me up. We dash through the streets of Paris with the photographer on our tail. Our journey is punctuated by the periodic flashes of his camera, which only pushes Lucy to run faster.

  We make it to the office building next to the Earth Force headquarters. Lucy waves her key card against the door, and it buzzes. We duck inside and race through the halls to the hotel entrance. We run past the guards and into a side hall. Finally, Lucy pulls me into a dark, empty banquet room, and we collapse against the wall, catching our breath.

  “Lucy, why didn’t you tell them—”

  “Later,” she whispers, “they could be anywhere.”

  “But why’d you say ‘no comment’?”

  “Later,” she hisses.

  We sit in silence—the only sound is our breath, which eventually slows to a normal pace.

  Lucy buries her head in her hands. “I’m so stupid.”

  “That wasn’t your fault!”

  “Of course it was.” Her voice is thick, like she’s holding back tears. “I should have known better. There are eyes and ears everywhere, Jasper. They followed us down the Champs-Élysées, for goodness’ sake.” She grabs my arm. “What if they heard what I said about the admiral?”

  I hadn’t considered that. “I’m sure they didn’t.”

  “I’m sure they did! They probably tailed us all the way through the Jardin des Tuileries waiting for the perfect compromising shot.”

  She leans her head against the wall and closes her eyes. A tear carves a path down her cheek, leaving a dark trail of mascara. After a minute, Lucy leans forward. She lifts her foot and shines the light from her wristlet. Her foot glistens with blood.

  “You’re hurt.”

  “I think I stepped on some glass.”

  “Let me help.” I illuminate my own wristlet while she examines her foot. She gently runs her fingers along her skin, then grabs something and pulls. The shard brings with it a gush of blood. I remove my shoes and socks. “Here,” I say, handing her the socks.

  She makes a face. “That’s gross. I’m not going to wear your stinky socks.”

  “Not any grosser than your bloody foot. At least you won’t leave a crime scene trail on the way back to your room.”

  “Fair point.” She slips my socks onto her feet then tries to stand. She moans when she tries to put weight on her foot.

  I grab her beneath her elbow and help her up. We quietly make our way down the hall to the elevator, Lucy limping by my side. Fortunately, no one stops us.

  Once the elevator doors close, I turn to her. “Why did you say ‘no comment’ when they asked about us? You could have just denied that we were in a relationship.”

  Lucy shakes her head. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m giving them what they want. If I get them excited about you being my boyfriend, maybe they’ll ignore what I said about the admiral.”

  “I’m sure they didn’t hear that,” I tell her, although if they were spying on us from the bushes, they might have. “Even if they did hear what you said about the admiral, they’d have no idea what you were talking about. It’s not part of the narrative.”

  “Maybe not, but be prepared to run with the love story as a diversion.” The door dings, and we exit on the thirty-first floor.

  Great. I can almost see the headlines. Jasper Adams, No Longer Single. Lucy and Jasper, a Match Made in Space. A Great Bounder Affair. That kind of news won’t help me convince Mira to come home. Although she’d never believe I was dating Lucy. Would she?

  I walk Lucy to her room. “You need to find out more about the admiral’s plans,” I tell her when we reach her door.

  She scans the hall. “Keep your voice down!”

  “I’m serious, Lucy,” I whisper. “We have to find out if your hunch is right. We need more information!”

  “Then find some! You have connections, too, you know!” She opens her door and steps inside. “Go to bed, Jasper. We’ve got a busy day tomorrow. And I need to put this night behind me. It’s been a total crapfest.”

  “Gee, thanks, Lucy!”

  “It’s not about you, Jasper. Not everything is about you. I thought you’d finally figured that out.” She shuts the door in my face.

  Ouch. I shuffle the rest of the way down the hall in my sockless shoes.

  Once I’m in my room, I double-check that my bounding gloves are still safely sewn into my jacket. If Admiral Eames is seriously considering steering us back into war, I need to be ready. Lucy’s right: tonight was a crapfest. I crawl into bed and tell Florine to wake me in the morning.