Chasing the Stars by Malorie Blackman Page B

Nathan.
    ‘It was, but at least I had Aidan. I don’t know what I would’ve done without him, to be honest,’ I admitted.
    ‘You and your brother are very close, aren’t you?’ said Nathan.
    ‘He’s all I have. I’m all he has.’ I shrugged. ‘He kept me sane when our parents and the rest of the crew died.’
    ‘And you haven’t managed to figure out exactly what killed them?’ asked Mike.
    What should I say? The whole truth was out of the question. Best just to tell some of the honest edited highlights.
    ‘At first Dad thought we might’ve picked up a virus from one of the unexplored planets we landed on,’ I said, sadness folding its arms around me. ‘Our decontamination procedures were very strict though for unexplored, unregistered planets, so even Dad admitted that was highly unlikely. When the crew began to die, we wondered if maybe we’d been infected with a Mazon nano-virus. Some even thought that maybe the Mazon had deliberately infected us.’
    The truth, however, was a lot more horrifying.
    ‘Hang on, all of us were just down on the planet surface and now we’re on your ship,’ said Nathan.
    I gave him a pitying look. ‘You seriously think any of you would’ve made it past the cargo hold if you hadn’t been decontaminated first?’
    Nathan frowned, then his expression cleared. ‘The mist coming out of the vents . . .’ he realized. ‘You’ve set up the cargo hold to automatically decontaminate anything in there.’
    I tapped my nose and pointed to him. ‘Safety and security are the top priority on this ship. Nothing and no one makes it out of the cargo bay without being decontaminated first.’
    ‘And anything that doesn’t pass the decontamination test?’ asked Anjuli.
    ‘Stays in the cargo bay or gets ejected from the ship – no ifs, ands, buts or exceptions,’ I said.
    ‘So how, with all that in place, did the virus find its way on board?’ said Nathan.
    I looked down at my lap. I wasn’t very good at lying so I didn’t want to look any of them in the eyes as I did so. ‘I wish I knew.’
    ‘How come you and your brother survived?’ asked Mike.
    ‘No idea. This universe is full to overflowing with the things I don’t know.’ I shrugged. ‘What about all of you? Catherine said something about a transport abandoning you on Barros 5. I still don’t understand why any Earth vessel would do that? Where did it pick you all up from? And where were you going?’
    Nathan and the others exchanged looks which spoke volumes to those who understood the language. I didn’t.
    Nathan scrutinized me, then took a deep breath. ‘Vee, we . . . all of us . . . we’re
drones
. We used to live in the colony on Callisto, working the mines.’
    I stared at him. ‘You’re a
drone
?’
    I couldn’t believe it. Anjuli and Mike stared at Nathan, just as stunned as I was. Erica’s gaze moved from me to Nathan and back again, gauging my reaction. It was that more than anything that made me realize this was a joke. I laughed, more at my own gullibility than anything else.
    ‘Good one, Nathan. You almost had me going there. Almost. Like you could be a drone! They’re just subintellect labourers doing all the menial, manual work that’s too filthy or hazardous for normal people to do.’
    Silence.
    ‘Normal people . . .’ said Nathan quietly.
    Those two words and the look in his eyes wiped the smile right off my face. Oh my God. He was serious.
    Nathan was a
drone
.
    I stared at him, stricken. My last comment replayed in my head, destructive as an earthquake. The space between us opened up and grew wider with each passing second.
    I winced. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.’
    ‘Didn’t you?’ Nathan asked.
    We regarded each other, the only two people in our world at that moment, with a chasm as wide as the Earth between us.



16
    There it was – that look I’d seen so often and knew only too well. Why shouldn’t I recognize it? I’d worn it on my