Starbreak (38 page)
Authors: Phoebe North
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Science Fiction, #Family, #General, #Action & Adventure
Otherwise life is good. Busy. On some days I help Mara in her lab. On others I hunt or paint. On still others I take command. It’s a different sort of life from the one my mother lived, working one job day after day after day until her hands were stiff, arthritic. I fear it’s not what she dreamed for me when she spoke to Ben Jacobi about “liberty.”
I imagine she wanted a life of leisure. But my life is a good life. My days pass quickly and are full of new joys.
Why, just two weeks ago, in the dead of winter, a boat arrived from Aisak Ait. In it was a young Xollu, half dead from the cold. A child, blue-skinned and alone. A
lousk.
I knew on sight who he must be, and I sent a messenger to fetch Esther from her grandmother’s house. She came at once, her hair a dark net around her face, and immediately threw her arms over his shoulders.
“Help me!” she cried out. “Help me bring him to the winter caves!”
And so we did, all of us carrying his cold-heavy body, loosing the roots that tried to plant themselves in the frozen dirt as we dragged him along. I see her sometimes when I come to visit you. She sits by his side and speaks to him, just like I speak to you. Telling him her story, her dreams. She’s only a child—just turned eleven last week. She doesn’t even know his name. But she tells him that she loves him, that he’s her best friend. I don’t doubt it. Not for a second.
He’s not the only new arrival. Koen has made a child for himself in the hatchery, a brother for Corban. He told me he plans on naming him Arran after my father. I told him he could do better—a misstep. My old friend so wanted me to be pleased by this news. But maybe this new Arran will have a better chance at this life. He’ll start it with a loving family, after all. Two fathers and a mother to teach him the meaning of hard work, affection, kindness. That’s twice the family that my father
ever had. Ronen and Hannah are also expecting. A son, Solomon. And Alyana will be walking before we know it. This spring will be a fruitful one, I hope, full of new joys.
As for me, I don’t know if I’ll ever have children of my own. I’m only seventeen, and lately I feel younger than I ever have. I laugh more easily than I ever did before. I joke and swagger. I even sing sometimes. I’m not the same girl I once was, strange and serious, old before my time. I have time, I think, to be young yet.
But I know that you’ll grow old before me. I remember the night you told me, just before the winter’s frost set in. A Xollu lives until only sixty or so, you said, and you’re older than me already. Sure, it made me sad to think of it. Someday I’ll be an old woman, my hair streaked silver, and you’ll be gone. What then?
Well, I think I know. We’ll never be able to have biological children, you and I. Our bodies are too different for that. But I know that Velsa still waits for you in the funerary fields of Raza Ait. Someday, when my eyes are feeble, when my hands are knotted from years of work, I’ll take your lifeless body to the city where you were sprouted. Your skin will be as red as a pomegranate, as red as wine, as red as human blood. I’ll scatter your body, and then I’ll wait.
A season later, when your children are born, I’ll tell them about you. I’ll tell them of all the things we sacrificed for each other: you, your first love; me, an entire ship, my best friend, the life among the
stars that I once knew. Then I’ll tell them about all the things that we accomplished. The city we built. The peace we brokered. I’ll tell them of my pride for you, Thosora Vadix Esh, the father they’ll never know.
Then I’ll kiss them, take their three-fingered hands in my hand, and carry them home, across the sea.
It takes a village to launch a spaceship. Infinite gratitude and thanks to the following individuals:
The bloggers, reviewers, librarians, booksellers, and readers of
Starglass
. Thank you for letting me put planets inside your head. Your enthusiasm made all the hard work worth it.
James Dashner, Jodi Meadows, and Lenore Appelhans, for lending their kind words of praise to my first book. I hope you enjoy this one, too. SPAAAACE!
The Bruisers—Douglas Beagley, Nicole Feldl, and Fran Wilde—for reading early chapters and drafts of
Starbreak
, and especially to Wayne Helge, for pointing out precisely where Terra needed to be when the book began. An extra high five to Kelly Lagor, for assuring me that psychic plant people are, in fact, possible.
The women of YA Highway, Kirsten Hubbard, Stephanie Kuehn, Kody Keplinger, Kaitlin Ward, Kristin Halbrook, Kristin Otts, Amy Lukavics, Sumayyah Daud, Sarah Enni, Leila Austin, Kate Hart, and Lee Bross, for sharing snippets and support. You will always be my favorite community of writers.
My dear writer friends: Veronica Roth, for her beta letters and her sanity. Jennifer Castle, for coffee and kvetching. Sean Wills, for stories and snark. Rachel Hartman, for her empathy. I’d be lost without you.
Michelle Andelman, the best agent a nerd could hope for, who has
supported Terra and her journey from the time it was nothing more than a snippet on some blog. For your killer eye and your even deadlier pen,
Nocki Vot
! (That’s “Thank you” in Tenctonese.)
My team at Simon & Schuster: Lucy Ruth Cummins, Anna McKean, Ellen Grafton, Bara MacNeill and Angela Zurlo. Thank you for all of your work getting the
Asherah
off the ground!
And especially Navah Wolfe. When I was thirteen years old, I used to stay up late watching reruns of
Star Trek
. I once dreamed of leaving the solar system; you’ve helped me do the next best thing—to invent an entire universe. I am so, so proud of what we’ve created in these pages.
My family: Phyllis Fineberg, Emily North, Elayne Rudbart, Frank Etzel, Barbara Etzel, and Jason Etzel. And my friends, who are as good as family: Nicole Talucci, Andrew Wirick, Tarah Dunn, Patrick Artazu, Eric Zuarino, John Zuarino, John Penola, and Jeffrey Krachun.
And finally, Jordan and Sammy Katz. My home, my loves. Without you, there would be no books.
© 2013 BY JORDAN ETZEL
PHOEBE NORTH
is the author of
Starglass.
She received an MFA in poetry from the University of Florida. She lives in New York state with her husband and cat. Visit her at
phoebenorth.com
.
Simon & Schuster • New York
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ALSO BY PHOEBE NORTH
Starglass
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Phoebe North
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Book design by Lucy Ruth Cummins
Cover design by Lucy Ruth Cummins
Cover photographs copyright © 2014 by Aaron Goodman
Jacket photo-illustration by Aaron Goodman
The text for this book is set in Bembo.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
North, Phoebe.
Starbreak / Phoebe North. — First edition.
pages cm
Summary: After five hundred years, the Earth ship seventeen-year-old Terra and her companions were born and raised on arrives at Zehava, a dangerous, populated world where Terra must take the lead in establishing a new colony.
ISBN 978-1-4424-5956-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4424-5958-8 (eBook)
[1. Science fiction. 2. Space colonies—Fiction. 3. Life on other planets. 4. Love--Fiction. 5. Friendship-—Fiction. 6. Jews—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.N8153Sst 2014
[Fic]--dc23
2013011703