Page 12 of To the Moon
"We weren't supposed to shift in the airlock," I guessed. "Something must have gone wrong."
"The explosion that knocked us out of orbit must have destabilized the chamber too much." Sebastian shrugged. "Can't say I'm too upset about it. Photo evidence is the last thing we need." He turned to me. "I'll disable it when we're back on the space station."
I nodded. "Thank you."
"Thanks for letting me know, and thanks for disabling the direct feed."
"I hate secrets." I shrugged in an attempt to give my words some levity, but it was true. Too often, the state had kept their plans for me and my siblings quiet, especially when they'd split us up into different foster homes. We didn't know they were doing it until the van stopped and they kicked me out, leaving my wailing sisters behind.
"Then you should know I had no part in this. I guessed you were a wolf, but until you shifted, I didn't know for sure."
I swallowed hard, remembering the strange voice I used to hear in my head when I was a teenager. He'd been quiet for the last few years, but the shift had brought him to the surface. While I was a wolf, that voice could only talk about one thing. He insisted Sebastian was my mate.
"What does your dad want with wolves?" I asked.
"I don't know," he said. "If I had to venture a guess, I'd say superhuman ability. Super soldiers."
I snorted. "Seriously? That's comic book stuff."
"My dad funds several 'comic book' research projects. He calls them something mundane, like 'clean energy initiative' or 'save the ocean gala,' but the money is all siphoned into clandestine laboratories in Russia."
I didn't know what to say to that. I'd studied everything I could about the Paska family fortune, but even I could tell they only shared what they wanted the public to know. I'd looked past it, thinking Mr. Paska was beyond reproach, and anything he hid must have good reason.
As a super fan, I'd been willfully naïve. I didn't want to push my hero off his pedestal. Now here I was, tearing down the statue I'd built, all on the word of a man I'd once loathed.
When we dockedat the space station, the two-person crew seemed relieved. "We received a strange transmission from your headquarters, commanding us to refuse your request to dock for repairs."
"Thanks for disobeying the order." Sebastian rolled his eyes. "They must know what went wrong with the shuttle. We had no choice."
"What happened out there?"
Sebastian explained our failed flight in as few words as possible, sounding every bit like the arrogant billionaire I'd always thought he was. "We couldn't access the zero-gravity area to complete the experiments."
"Sounds like you need a spacewalk." Mari smirked. "I've been dying to get out there."
"Be careful," I said. "We don't know what triggered the explosion."
"What explosion?" Mari asked.
Sebastian pressed his lips into a thin line, halting the words in my throat. "I'll go with you," he said instead.
The Italian, Dom, shook his head. "You're not trained for spacewalks. Mari will assess any structural damage and let us know."
Mari left us, already doing her breathing exercises to aid in the vacuum of space. Dom dismissed us to the empty guest bunks.
"I can help," Sebastian insisted.
"You'll only be in the way. We can't even stay in contact with Paskal's ship. They never should have allowed private space flights." Dom did his best to keep his voice light, but his frown said it all. He'd lost his patience with nepo-billionaires and ignorant coders on the space station.
I shoved off the wall and floated toward the guest bunks, taking the same one as before. It was nothing more than a little cubbyhole with electronics surrounding the sleeping compartment. I zipped myself halfway into the sleeping bag to hold myself in place. Then, I unfastened my phone from my hip and stuck it to the wall beside my head.
I flipped through a few pages of a book on my phone screen, not really seeing them. Sebastian and Dom still talked on the opposite side of the station, but with all the machinery whirs, I couldn't hear their distinct words. Sebastian's voice got lower, while Dom's seemed to be getting higher and more heated.
Finally, Sebastian made his way to the bunk opposite mine. "He'll never understand," he grumbled. "They don't have the shuttle schematics. Mari can send us a video feed, but without being there to inspect it myself, I'm afraid we'll miss something."
"Have you done a spacewalk before?" I asked.
"No."
