Nova by Margaret Fortune Read Free Book Online Page B

glance over my shoulder at the other track just in time to see the hub-ward arrow light. I nod in understanding. Two trains run on opposing schedules, one at the hub while the other is at the rings. It makes sense.
    I follow Michael onto the train and take a seat next to him along the opposite wall. He toys with something small and silver as we wait for the other passengers to board, quickly sticking it back in his pocket when he catches me watching him. I get the weird impression that he’s nervous. Strange, since he’s the one who sought me out. He couldn’t
suspect
what I am, could he? No, or I would be sitting in a holding cell down in the security station, not on the padded seat of a SlipStream train.
    A whistle sounds, and thirty seconds later the doors shut with a hiss. The SlipStream begins to move, slowly at first, then picking up speed. Picking up speed
a lot
.
    My stomach lurches at the kick of acceleration, and I gasp slightly. What was it Michael mentioned earlier? Motion sickness? Apparently, Lia and I have something in common, after all. Too bad it’s the propensity to get sick on fast-moving vehicles. I grab onto the seat in front of me, tuck my head down, and close my eyes. Perhaps it’s a good thing I haven’t eaten in two days.
    After a minute, my muscles unclench as my body starts to adjust. The ride is fast, but it isn’t rough, and the track goes in a straight line. I dare to lift my head.
    Without warning, the track drops out from under us. My lungs seize, breath stricken from my body as the SlipStream soars down a steep curve. Fear squeezes my ribs as I struggle to take a breath.
    *00:02:32*
    *00:02:31*
    Fear turns to full-blown panic as the numbers in my head suddenly drop without warning.
Oh, slag! Not here! Not now!
    The downward drop gentles and then suddenly we are curving up the other side of the slope. The pressure from the drop abruptly removed, my lungs release. At the same time, the train begins to slow, and just like that, the ride is ended. Around me, I hear the others get up, but I continue to sit, frozen as I stare at my inner clock.
    *00:02:31*
    Every muscle in my body tenses as I wait for the numbers to turn, but the time remains the same. Only after a good thirty seconds have passed with no movement do I start to relax. Whatever the reason the count started, it is now stopped. I just wish I knew why it started again at all. It’s been two days since my ill-fated countdown. I gaze at the numbers in consternation, a petrified realization dawning on me as I grasp their meaning.
    All this time I’ve been so focused on my failure, on the fact that I didn’t fulfill my mission, that I forgot one of the most basic tenets of unexploded ordnance.
    Even duds can be dangerous. Even duds can still blow up.
    “Lia? It’s okay, it’s over.”
    I raise terrified eyes to Michael’s face.
    He blanches. “Hey, I’m sorry. I knew you got a little motion sick sometimes, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.” He pats my shoulder awkwardly and glances over his shoulder at the door. “I don’t want to rush you, but if we don’t want to take another ride . . .”
    I lurch to my feet, immediately understanding. Quickly, we slip through the incoming passengers and off the SlipStream. As soon as my feet hit the platform, I feel myself calming. Was that why my time restarted? From the panic of being aboard the SlipStream? I shake my head. I don’t know. I just don’t know.
    The idea terrifies me, this new understanding that I could go off at any time without warning, but I push the fear away. Going Nova is my purpose; I’ve known that all along. So it’s a bit disconcerting not to know when or where it may happen. That doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I may not have failed after all. I may still have a mission, a purpose. An identity.
    “Are you sat now?” Michael is asking, and I turn my attention back to my surroundings. We are in a train station much like the one in