I closed my eyes, took another swallow of water, and thought about how I’d react if I found out Rune had been lying to me all along, that she’d secretly jettisoned the aliens herself despite arguing against it. Cage knew these people better than me. They were just coming to trust me as Kenzie, instead of the Omnistellar guard representing all their fears. I supposed there might be a few other corporate citizens on this ship, but most of them were probably government kids who’d grown up with only the most basic supports. Even if I hadn’t been a guard, I was still a representation of corporate citizenship and all the benefits and privileges that came with it, especially in a huge corp like Omnistellar. It was only natural that they viewed me with suspicion and resentment.

Now, finally, I was getting past that surface, convincing them to see me for who I was and not what I represented. If I threw that away, if they turned on me, I couldn’t protect myself, not even with Cage’s support.

But that meant I had to carry the burden of what I’d done all by myself, see my guilt reflected in the growing trust of my friends. Feel it widening the gulf between Cage and me with every word we didn’t say. “Look,” I tried again, searching for the words to change his mind, or maybe my own. “I don’t . . .”

Voices rose in the distance. Our eyes met, and as one, we heaved ourselves to our feet and jogged in their direction. Tensions ran high on this ship. If we didn’t break arguments up before they got out of hand, they tended to escalate in a hurry.

But by the time we got there, the situation was under control, thanks to Reed. He stood in one of the waist-high crevices scattered across the alien ship, only the tip of his dark hair visible as his voice echoed through the corridor. “I’m not kidding,” he said, his voice somehow teasing and yet carrying a hint of authority. “If the two of you get into any more fistfights, I’m not patching you up.”

Cage groaned inaudibly at the word “fistfight,” and we both quickened our step.

A boy sat on the floor of the crevice with Reed crouched over him, fingers against his temples. The boy twisted his head to scowl at us, revealing blood caked along his face, but before my eyes his nose twitched, repositioning itself, knitting back into shape.

“Again?” said Cage irritably. I bit my lip against a similar response. At least Reed had the presence of mind to pull them into a more isolated area. More fights were not going to help the already tense mood on board this ship.

The boy—what was his name? John? Jason? Something with a J—scowled. “Tell Keith to stay away from my boyfriend and we won’t have a problem.”

“I’m not telling anyone anything, and you need to figure out how to solve your problems without punching each other.”