I stay seated a while, thinking about what Caasy said. I don’t like the idea of someone more powerful than Ophiuchus out there. Maybe that’s not the deception.
Even though I have a ton to prepare for, I feel homesick. Stepping on foreign soil made me think of the last time I set foot on Cancer. And since I can’t concentrate on anything else, I search for the thing on this ship that brings me closest to home.
Equinox is small, so I don’t have far to go. “Mathias?” I knock on his round metal door. “Can we talk?”
When he opens it, he’s shirtless and holding a stretch band. Droplets of sweat cling to his hair, and his chest is swelling in and out like he’s been exerting himself. His body is so smooth and sculpted that soon the homesickness is replaced with fantasies of what his skin would feel like if I touched it.
When he pulls on his blue Cancrian tunic, I look up.
“I can loan you the band if you want some exercise,” he offers.
“Thanks, maybe later.” The way he eyes my Libran uniform makes me wish I hadn’t put it on.
I edge a little farther into his cabin, which is as narrow and cramped as mine. It’s chrome green, and there’s a sleeping cocoon, a few storage bins, and a desk that folds down on hinges. Unlike my cabin, though, his is neat and tidy, without a single item strewn on the floor. “Caasy just told me what he saw in the stars. He says I’m being deceived somehow. He thinks someone else is pulling Ochus’s strings.”
“Do you believe him?” Mathias stows the stretch band.
“I don’t know. I don’t think he was lying when he said it.”
“Well, I don’t trust him.” He turns around and faces me. “Or Hysan either. Although I admit we wouldn’t be alive without the Libran’s ship.”
“Yeah, this place is starting to feel like a safe harbor.” I rest my side against the wall. “I just wish I knew how the Psy shield works. Hysan won’t spill.”
Mathias takes a small device from his belt and waves it in a broad sweeping pattern, as if brushing away cobwebs. When he continues this strange behavior, I ask, “What are you doing?”
“Checking for eyes and ears.”
“You mean Hysan may be eavesdropping?” I glance around for cameras, but of course they would be concealed. “Well, as Cancrians we have nothing to hide. Right?”
“Yes. We’re not sneaks.” Mathias announces this to the walls, as if the cabin itself is listening, and I have to smile. In spite of our disagreements, his Cancrian nature comforts me and reminds me of our people back home.
We head to the nose and find both Hysan and Caasy planted at the front tip, gazing at Helios. Our sun’s light flickers through the glass, setting every surface aglow. At this distance, it nearly fills our view, and although the glass has automatically polarized and darkened to protect our eyes, the light is intense. The surface boils like liquid fire in hues of violet, crimson, brass, and gold, with bursts of white so extreme, my eyes sting. Around its horizon, a scarlet corona blazes like a holy crown, and here and there, superheated jets of gas spew outward in luminous blossoming fountains.
“Hail mighty Helios, womb of heaven.” Mathias murmurs the Zodai chant, and we all join in. “Star maker, heat giver, doorway from death to light. Preserve our Houses now and in the ages to come.”
I study the three enraptured faces around me. It’s easy to see why Helios stands at the center of all our sacred texts. The Libran Seddas. The Gemini Book of Changes. Of course our own Holy Canon. Even the famous eight-volume Covenant of Scorpio, the most secular and scientifically advanced House in the Zodiac, speaks of Almighty Helios. Many people believe our galactic sun holds the gateway to paradise, and seeing it, I understand why.
Youngest looking, but oldest by far, Caasy watches Helios with reverent adoration, like one gazing at a great beauty from afar, knowing he can never hold her.
An hour passes while we gather in the glass nose. None of us seems willing to move while the sun’s still in view. Only when our transit’s complete and Equinox hurtles away toward Libra do I settle back into my skin. The sun’s behind us now, visible only in the small square frame of Equinox’s rearview screen.
Hysan returns to the helm, and Caasy goes back to the galley for something to eat. He says the sight of Helios always gives him an appetite.
Mathias comes over to me. “Our course is locked in. We’ll be on Libra by morning.”
“I thought it was farther off,” I say, rubbing my neck.
“This bullet-ship has a photon pump, so we can travel at hyperspeed. And thanks to our loop around the sun, we’ll go even faster.” He peers over his shoulder at Hysan, then lowers his voice. “The Libran’s totally unreliable. He encrypted the ship’s controls and locked me out.”
“That’s a little paranoid.”
“He’s a spy. Spies don’t trust anyone.” Mathias’s jaw tightens. “Problem is, we need him to fly us to Virgo.”