Engaging the thrusters, I felt the ship rise, and I started turning it around. For better or worse, in a few minutes, I’d be out there, flying a ship in space for the first time. It wasn’t how I ever thought it’d be. I wasn’t fleeing Earth. I hadn’t bought this vessel. But I was still about to leave a planet flying my own ship. And that was at least one thing I could cross off my bucket list.

“What’re you waiting for? Go!” Carl yelled through the com.

I didn’t need to be told twice and gunned it out of the bay. As I rose above Abaddon’s sulfuric ashes, the ship shuddered. I lifted up out of my chair for a split second before antigrav kicked in, slamming me back down on the cracked vinyl seat.

It wasn’t a long ride to the moon. Only about fifteen minutes, but as I flew there, I realized this might be the last thing I’d ever do. Throwing the ship into a series of loops and twists, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“What the hell are you doing?” Carl yelled. “Your ship’s going to fall apart before you get there!”

“If I die today, at least I had some fun.” I tried to play it off as a joke, but my tone was wobbly at best.

“Shit, kid.” Carl’s sigh came through the tinny-sounding speakers. “Don’t let me stop you.”

I wasn’t in the habit of letting anyone stop me. My mother always said that was the di Aetes side showing through, but maybe that was just all Amihanna. “Almost there.” Apollyon was getting bigger by the second, and I was surprised that it looked more like Earth than I’d thought. I could see patches of green and brown surrounded by oceans of blue. “It’s pretty.”

“Yeah,” Carl said. “Reminds me of home.”

Declan snorted. “Except it’s much smaller. Not enough oxygen for breathing. Has a shit-ton of carnivorous plants. No real animal predators, but a ton of varmints. But the mines have been cleared of any life forms. You’ll have nothing to worry about except the crystals themselves.”

“Right.”

I slowed down as I approached the thin atmosphere, turning my ship slightly to put less strain on it, then flipped on the autopilot for landing. I could do it myself, but I wanted to be sure I ended up in the right spot since there were multiple mines. Going to one that had already been deemed tapped out wasn’t going to help me at all, and the ship’s nav systems had the exact spot keyed in where the last miner…

I couldn’t think about that. Not right then. “Touchdown in ten seconds.”

“Copy that.”

The ship strained as it hit the ground. I unclipped my safety harness and moved to the back.