Brothers in Exile_Sons of the Starfarers Page 11

  Aaron’s face fell. He looked at Isaac, then back at their father.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “It was the only way to make sure that you didn’t go tell Mom,” said Isaac. “I mean, the only way to make sure she wouldn’t find out and stop us.”

  “It’s your choice, of course, whether to stay or go,” said their father.

  Aaron was starting to panic. His eyes were wide, and a sickeningly sober expression crossed his face.

  “My choice? Wait, what about my things? My clothes, my—”

  “I already brought them on board,” said Isaac. “The important things, anyway. They’re stowed in the footlocker under the bunks.”

  His brother frowned in anger and disbelief. “You mean you went through my things without asking me?”

  “That’s not important,” said their father, stepping between them. “Look, boys—look at me.”

  He placed his hands on their shoulders and looked them each in the eye. A somber silence fell over them.

  “I know this isn’t easy for either of you. It certainly wasn’t easy for me when I was your age. It’s a vast and lonely universe out there, full of dangers and risk. Once you leave, you’ll probably never see us again.”

  “Then why are you sending us out?” Aaron asked, his voice shaky.

  “Because it’s the only way to give you both a chance at a better future. You remember how hard it was to leave Megiddo Station, don’t you? How much we had to sacrifice just to get here? Well, the prospects around here aren’t going to get any better. If you’re going to build a future for yourselves, you’ll have to do it the same way I did—by seeking your fortunes across the stars.”

  Isaac swallowed and nodded. For Aaron, though, it was too much to handle. He pushed their father away and turned to face the bulkhead, burying his face in his hands.

  “I can’t believe this is happening. You want me to leave everything behind? Just go and never see any of you again?”

  “You won’t be leaving everything,” Isaac tried to reassure him. “I’ll still be with you.”

  “Yeah. Right.”

  “Like I said, the choice is yours,” said their father. “If you want to stay, you can take back your things and return to the apartment. I’m not going to force you.”

  “But Aaron, do you really want to?”

  The words left Isaac’s mouth before he could hardly think about it. If Aaron decided not to go, that would leave him entirely alone out there. Even though he’d been steeling himself for this moment his entire life, now that it was here, he realized he was terrified of going it alone.

  Aaron turned and wiped his face with the back of his hand. “You’re going for sure, then?”

  “Of course. Dad was younger than me when he left, wasn’t he?”

  “But you’re the oldest. It’s expected of you.”

  “Perhaps,” said their father. “That’s the tradition, but there’s space on the Medea for both of you. So as long as you can get along and work together, I don’t see anything wrong with sending you both out.”

  Aaron nodded. He took a long breath, and his eyes began to clear.

  “Think of it as an adventure,” Isaac told him. “You don’t want to spend the rest of your life at Alpha Oriana, do you?”

  “I don’t know,” Aaron muttered. He turned to their father. “Am I really never going to see you again?”

  “Only God knows for sure. But probably not.”

  “And Mom? Mariya?”

  Their father shook his head.

  “Is the cargo hold full?” Isaac asked.

  “Yes,” said their father, sighing a little. “I had it loaded this morning. The inventory should be in the computer.”

  “Great. Where’s the best place to sell electronics?”

  “Damned if I know, son. It’s been almost twenty standard years since my last trade run. Just keep your ears open and check the prices wherever you go, and you’ll be fine.”

  “This is really happening, isn’t it?” Aaron asked. His gaze was distant and he looked more than a little dazed.

  “Only if you want it to,” Isaac said softly.

  For a soul-wracking moment, Aaron said nothing. It seemed in that moment as if their future tottered on the point of a blade and could fall to either side. But then, to Isaac’s immense relief, he nodded.

  “Right. You’re leaving now?”

  “As soon as I can. Are you coming?”

  “I’m coming,” said Aaron, his voice low but firm.

  Isaac smiled and slapped him on the back. “Then welcome aboard, brother.”

  The memory played out in Isaac’s mind as clearly as if it were only yesterday. He stared up at the underside of his brother’s bunk, his heart hammering in his chest, and wondered if Aaron regretted his decision. Everything he’d said about Isaac controlling him and making all of his decisions for him—it stung, but only because he was right.

  Isaac took a deep breath and sat up. “Aaron? You there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Got a moment?”

  His brother didn’t answer, but considering that they had nothing to do until the jump drive recharged, the question was moot.

  He rose to his feet and walked into the cockpit. Aaron stared straight ahead, pretending like he didn’t notice him.

  “Hey,” he said, taking a seat in the pilot’s chair. “I’ve been thinking.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah. What you said is right. I can be a bit too controlling sometimes, and for that, I’m sorry.”

  “I’m still going to go get her back. You’re not going to change my mind on that.”

  “I know I’m not.”

  Aaron cocked his head and frowned. “What do you mean, ‘you know’?”

  “I mean it’s your choice. Really. I’m not going to stand in your way.”

  “But… ?”

  “But what?”

  “There’s always a ‘but,’” said Aaron. “Come on, what’s the catch? Just a minute ago, you were dead-set on keeping me out of this. Now you’re suddenly okay with it?”

  “There’s no catch,” Isaac said softly. “It’s just that we’re brothers. We shouldn’t let anything come between us. If that means joining up with Argo and the resistance, then so be it.”

  “You really mean that?”

  “Of course I do.”

  Aaron narrowed his eyes. “What if I don’t want you to come with me? What if I want to strike out on my own?”

  “That’s fine, totally fine. But that doesn’t mean we have to part ways forever, does it?”

  For a gut-wrenching moment, Aaron hesitated. But then, to Isaac’s immense relief, he shook his head.

  “No, I guess it doesn’t.”

  “When we set out on this starship, we said that we’d stick together. Our home is gone, our friends and family have been scattered. The only thing we have left is each other.”

  Aaron nodded slowly. “You’re right.”

  “I know I’ve been hard on you in the past. For that, I’m sorry. I’ll let you strike out on your own, if that’s what you want. I’m not your boss.”

  “But you are my brother.”

  Isaac smiled. “Yeah. Brothers.”

  The tension left the room immediately. They shared a few moments of silence together.

  “You know,” said Aaron, “she’s in the same situation that we are.”

  “Who?”

  “The henna girl. No home, no family. She’s lost everyone she’s ever known.”

  Isaac took a deep breath. “You really want to get her back, don’t you?”

  “Yeah. I do.”

  “Well, I don’t know if it’s possible—I seriously doubt that it is—but if that’s what you want to do, I’ve got your back.”

  Aaron smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks, man. That means a lot to me.”

  “All right, then. Let’s set a course for that recruiting post.”

  “Yeah. Let’
s do it!”

  With that, they took up the controls, bound as brothers to the very last.

  Author’s Note

  When I first got the story idea that became Brothers in Exile, I was finishing up parts 7 and 8 of my Star Wanderers series and getting ready to move on to the next big thing. It was the summer of 2013, on vacation with my parents at Cape Cod, where I thought I would just keep writing like I normally do, except at a different place. Instead, this awesome idea for a new series in the Star Wanderers universe unfolded in my mind, and I knew almost immediately what I was going to write.

  Most of the groundwork and world-building for the Sons of the Starfarers series was laid by the Star Wanderers books. The two main characters, Isaac and Aaron, are both sons of Jakob, the main viewpoint character for Benefactor. I wrote that book as a sort of node, fully expecting to expand into other storylines. At the time, though, I had no idea where I would take things. I knew I had to return to Mariya’s point of view and resolve some of the things that weren’t fully wrapped up in the first four books, but other than that, I only had a vague idea of the story possibilities.

  Earlier that summer, I had watched the movie Gettysburg for the first time since my childhood and was very powerfully affected by it. I’d read the novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara in 2012 while living overseas, but I didn’t get around to seeing the movie until five or six months after I’d gotten back. I was already familiar with the story of Colonel Lawrence Chamberlain and the charge of the 20th Maine, but the portrayal of those events in the movie was just soul-stirring. Later, at the Cape, I watched the Ken Burns Civil War documentary, which really expanded my appreciation for this amazing historical figure.

  In Gettysburg, though, it was the relationship between Lawrence and his younger brother Tom that stood out to me as a prototype for the relationship between Isaac and Aaron Deltana. I grew up as the oldest son in my family, so in a lot of ways I could relate to Isaac, even though I never had any brothers. Because of that, it was natural for me to tell Brothers in Exile from his perspective—the responsible sibling trying to keep the foolish sibling from doing anything stupid or rash.

  I started Brothers in Exile in September and soon got really into it. From the start, it was clear that the story was going to go longer than any of the Star Wanderers books, though I still intended to keep it at a short and intimate novella length. Other projects came up on the publishing side of things, taking time away from writing, but I kept steadily at it until I finished the first draft in late November. From there, I set it aside and focused on other projects so that I could look at it later with fresh eyes.

  In January, I made a New Year’s resolution to publish something every 6 weeks. When you’re a self-published career writer, new releases are the life blood of pretty much all you do—without them, it’s harder to gain new fans and very easy for your other books to fall off. Fortunately, I was able to land a good temp job in late January with a subcontractor for Google, installing Google Fiber in Provo, Utah. The job not only gave me lots of time to write, it also helped me to save up enough money to go for a few months without having to take another job. That, combined with increasing sales of Star Wanderers, helped me to support myself while I worked on the other Sons of the Starfarers books.

  When I finished Brothers in Exile, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to send it out to my first readers right away. I wasn’t sure how good it was, or whether I wanted to make any changes first. After a few months, though, I figured I’d just send it to them as it was and get their reactions. To my surprise, the response was quite positive. A few of them pointed out some inconsistencies and other things that needed to change, but overall the story seemed quite solid. I realized that I was a lot closer to publication than I’d thought I was, and started to get things moving in that direction.

  My plan was to publish the first three books of Sons of the Starfarers (Brothers in Exile, Comrades in Hope, and Strangers in Flight) all within six weeks of each other. That meant finishing up Comrades in Hope before getting ready to publish Brothers in Exile, and finishing Strangers in Flight shortly after that in order to give enough time for my first readers to vet everything. It’s a fairly grueling schedule, one that I’m not used to, but I’ve actually found it quite invigorating so far. The story is taking off in all sorts of directions, but the deadline pressure and the strict novella triad format helps a lot to keep the structure in line. As of the publication of Brothers in Exile, the second book, Comrades in Hope, is already finished and should be out exactly on schedule. My first readers really got into that one, most of them finishing it in one sitting, so if you liked Brothers in Exile I think you’re really going to enjoy the next one.

  If you’d like to follow me online, the best place to find me is my blog, One Thousand and One Parsecs (onelowerlight.com/writing). There, you can find links to most of my books, as well as regular updates on what I’m writing, what I’m reading, and any general thoughts or observations that happen to strike me. If all you want is an update whenever I have a new book out, you can sign up for my mailing list either here or from the sidebar of my blog.

  Thank you so much for giving this book a try! If you enjoyed it, please rate or review it so that someone else can enjoy it too. One of the awesomest things about being a writer is getting feedback from fans, so I definitely appreciate all that you guys do. Without you guys, I certainly wouldn’t be able to make a career out of this, since there’s no way I could get the word out without readers recommending my books to their friends. My job is to get more books out for you to enjoy, and I am definitely hard at work on that right now!

  That just about does it for this one. Take care, and as always, thanks for reading!

  Acknowledgments

  First of all, a big thanks to all of my first readers who helped out with this one: Aisla Lillywhite, Amber Carlson, Ben Keeley, Logan Kearsley, and Stephen Dethloff. Thanks also to Josh Leavitt for the editing and Kalen O’Donnell for the fantastic cover art. I know I didn’t give you guys a whole lot of time, but you all really came through in a big way. Thanks so much!

  War brought them together, but only hope can unite them.

  Premonitions

  Aaron ran through the cargo bay, the assault rifle hot in his hands. Sweat ran down his forehead, mingling with his matted hair. He brushed a strand out of his eyes and took cover behind a crate.

  The bay was silent, but that didn’t mean he was alone—or that he was safe.

  His hands shook, and the gun seemed ready to slip from his hands. He was running out of time. Not much longer and the place would be swarming with Gaian Imperial soldiers. They knew he was here, and they wouldn’t let him leave with his life. Even now, they were on their way to kill him—or worse, the girl that he’d come for.

  I’ve got to find her, he told himself as he made a dash for the opposite wall. I can’t leave this place without her. The girl in the cryotank, the one he’d found at the derelict space station at Nova Alnilam. He and his brother Isaac had voyaged from star to star, looking for someone with the technology to wake her. Then, at Colkhia, the Imperials had seized her as contraband. Well, he was here to take her back. But time was running out, and if he didn’t find her soon—

  He rounded the corner and saw the cryotank sitting on a lift. There was no mistaking it, with the smooth glass face and the roughly welded joints. He could even make out the profile of the girl’s face inside, outlined against the light gray wall of the cargo hold.

  He started to run towards her, but his legs refused to comply. It was as if he were stuck up to his waist in a thick, syrupy sludge. With gargantuan effort, he put one foot in front of the other.

  “I’m coming!” he screamed.

  As he advanced, he saw something move in the cryotank, as if the girl had already started to thaw. He reached out for her, and the bond holding him back slowly gave way. With a staggering lurch, he dropped his assault rifle and broke free.

  She was quite possibly the most
beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. Her long, black hair cascaded around her naked shoulders, her dark lips and soft brown skin a stark contrast to the jagged machinery around them. Her whole body was covered with intricate henna tattoos that turned her into a work of art. The gorgeous fractal pattern all but mesmerized him as he traced it across the curves of her slender body.

  “I’m going to get you out of here,” he whispered.

  A green gas filled the interior of the cryotank, and her body began to spasm. He drew back in shock, as if he were witnessing a statue come suddenly to life. After countless ages of cold sleep, she coughed and gasped for breath, her chest rising as her lungs filled with air. Her eyes flew open and met his, sending chills up and down his spine.

  In that instant, something terrible happened. Her skin yellowed and began to sag. Her cheeks pulled back, exposing teeth that were old and rotten. Her chest and stomach sagged, revealing the lines of her ribs, and her fingers contorted into unnatural shapes. A hole opened up in her chest like a tear in a worn fabric, revealing blackened flesh and dry, brittle bones. Before Aaron’s eyes, her body disintegrated as death claimed her, the weight of all the years she’d slept come back to pay their debt.

  “No!” Aaron screamed. He frantically slammed his fists against the glass, but he was too late. Her lifeless corpse had decayed beyond all recognition.

  Heavy footsteps sounded behind him, and he turned just in time to see a whole platoon of Imperial soldiers come into view. Before he could react, they opened fire. The muzzle flashes from their rifles lit up the dimly lit cargo hold like a hundred tiny novas, and the bullets shredded through him like a meteoric rain. Blood—his blood—splattered in all directions. He opened his mouth to scream, but a bright light filled his vision as his head exploded with pain.

  “Aaron! Aaron, are you all right?”

  He opened his eyes and found himself staring up at the familiar bulkhead over his bunk on the Medea. A sharp pain split his forehead where a bruise was just beginning to form. His bed sheets and boxers were soaked with sweat, his heart pounding in his chest like an overworked jump drive. He took a deep breath and groaned.