After Dr Lu released me from the medical bay, I made it just in time to attend a memorial service in memory of Zane. Officials had spelled out his full name, Lieutenant Junior Grade Zane Hunter, call sign, Arrow, on the side of a black ceramic urn containing his ashes. We had stood around it in a small chapel on the far end of the airbase, a solemn silence permeating the air. A recovery team had retrieved his remains from the crash site. Admiral Sky and Captain Grey had paid their respects, both speaking on behalf of Zane. They explained they would send his remains to his family for a private ceremony. Apollo and the rest of our flight team had stood around me, all of us comforting each other, knowing we had to get over the loss quickly. We never knew when the next attack would come, and we had to be ready, couldn't allow distractions because we had to be strong.

Dr. Lu had said I had made a full recovery, given me a clean bill of health, and cleared me to fly. I suppose I have the nanobots to thank for that. Now I can begin serving my weeklong sentence of extra classroom time with Apollo, or as I'm supposed to refer to him, Lieutenant Ganymede. Thinking of his name gives me a pleasant warmth on the inside even now, although I admit, the more I say it in my head, the more familiar it becomes. So, as I sit at my desk, I sense I'm becoming more comfortable in his presence. I think that's a good thing, but I can't allow the thoughts of a relationship to interfere with my goal of graduating Flight School.

While Apollo grills me on flight protocols, the other members of Star Squadron watch reruns in the Virtual Reality room of previous battles to study tactics and sharpen their skills. As much as I enjoy spending time with Apollo, I would prefer to hone my abilities with the rest of the team.

I huff at the thought, my gaze falling on the tablet on my desk and the electronic version of the MDF Flight Manual. A former admiral had authored it who had once led the colony, the foreword from Admiral Sky. The word is Admiral Sky has the sole authority to edit the manual, and has done so once before. I suspect he might do it again.

"Something wrong?" Apollo asks.

I look up at his sapphire irises beholding me like a pair of blue diamonds smoothed to perfection. "Just daydreaming."

"You're supposed to be paying attention. This is punishment, you know."

"It's just..." I can't help but remember our encounter in the secret cave. I think we both know that can't happen again, and no one can ever find out about it, not as long as he's my flight instructor.

"You don't enjoy hanging out with me?" His brow arches.

I suppress a smile, but it slips free. "No. I enjoy our time together." I glance away for a moment and then look at him again. "It's enlightening. Educational. It'll go a long way in helping me get my wings."

"Don't patronize me." He glares at me.

"I'm not."

He grins. "I'm joking."

"Of course you are." A playful smile warms my cheeks. "Do you really think spending all week studying flight restrictions will benefit me?"

"That seems to be the chapter that's caused you the most trouble so far." His expression turns serious. "Kiera." He moves toward me and sits in the desk-chair combo next to mine, leans toward me. "Do you think the captain tells you anything that she doesn't tell me?"

My brows furrow. "Like what?"

"Like, you know."

An uncomfortable feeling slides over me. "No. I don't." But I do, I think. Is he talking about me being an orphan? Or something else? He still doesn't know, as far as I'm aware, and I'd like to keep it that way.

"I'm talking about what it will be like when you graduate. I won't be your flight instructor anymore, which won't prohibit us from pursuing, you know, other interests."

"As in?" I know where he's going with this, but I'm not biting.

His mouth opens to speak, but he doesn't, and I swear his cheeks flush slightly. He leans away from me, sitting more upright, his broad shoulders and arms turned toward me. He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, exhales. Apparently, this conversation has nothing to do with the fact that I'm an orphan. He doesn't know my secret.

His eyes open, and I feel the weight of his stare.

"I don't want to make you uncomfortable," he says. "What happened in the cave is something I would never allow to happen. But I can't help the way I feel." He swallows. "You understand this is an awkward topic to talk about with you. It's difficult to just say the obvious. After all, I'm your direct superior as your flight instructor. At least for now."

It hits me. I know what Captain Grey had shared with him, the conversation we had before Apollo showed up in the air hangar, before we went out on our excursion to the subterranean lake, before the battle ensued. Our little beach trip. I still feel the starburst impression of his lips on mine and the heat of his body pressed against me. Our forbidden kiss. I'm not saying I didn't mind it, but it's something I don't want to ponder right now... because it makes my current jitters even worse.

"What if after Flight School," he says, "we wanted to become more than friends?"

"Yeah... Can you be more specific?"

"This is so hard." He leans toward me again, places his hand next to mine on top of my desk, pinky to pinky, heat radiating between us. Our eyes lock onto each other, our gazes like a binary star system, caught in each other's orbit, destined to crash into each other... again. The thought makes my eyes fall to the spot where our fingers touch. I look up at him. "I know it's inappropriate for an instructor to touch a cadet," he says. "Like this."

"What about like in the secret cave?"

"I wanted that to happen, but I shouldn't have allowed it."

"I allowed it too."

"I know..."

Just that simple connection of our pinkies seems to transmit so much information between us. What he wants. What I want.

He doesn't hold my hand or do anything that would be absolutely wrong, but he raises his pinky finger and slides it over mine. My breath catches in my throat, and my mouth parts.

"I won't say more than this," he says. "I risked so much by allowing the contact between us in the cave. From here on, this is as far as it can go... for now. After Flight School, after you graduate, I'd like to pursue more."

Before I realize it, I'm gnawing on my bottom lip, lost in his stare. I'm trying to breathe. It's such a simple task to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Most of the time, I can do it with little thought. Right now, though...

"Captain Grey wants me to convince you to quit," he says.

I pull my hand away.

"But I wouldn't dare." This time, he lays his hand over mine and squeezes. "I would never try to convince you to do something you don't want to. I know how dangerous it is, but I also know how much becoming a starfighter means to you. I can see it in the way you train, and the way you commit yourself to study, and the way you fly."

"I didn't pull my finger away when you first touched it because... I didn't want to."

He gives my hand another squeeze and releases it, drawing away. "I know."

"After Flight School, we can talk more about binary star systems," I say. "And how they attract each other." I emphasize the word 'attract'. My mouth feels dry, my lips pressed together, my eyes wide, not daring to look away from him.

His brow arches again.

"A binary system is where two stars orbit each other."

"I know that," he says.

And I know what he wants to pursue after graduation. Me. I smile.

His gaze lowers to my black pendant that dangles around my neck. "I like your necklace."

"It reminds me of how strong I can be, even when I'm alone."

"You're not alone anymore." He smiles and pops up from the chair. "So... back to flight restrictions, particularly not flying into space, against the admiral's standing orders."

And just like that, we're back to the flight manual.

After detention, I hope to stop by the VR training room to see what battles the rest of the flight team has been reviewing. Maybe it'll help take my mind off of losing Zane, and also off of a certain lieutenant and his debilitating sapphire gaze. Not to mention the thought of our pinkies touching, reminding me of our forbidden kiss and all the desires that hide beneath the surface. That... I cannot think about, at least for now.

After Apollo had entered his office and closed the door, I paced through the hallway, determined to reach the Virtual Reality training room before the rest of my flight team finished with their VR sessions. This late in the evening, a few cadets wander the halls, some heading for the cafeteria, others just out and about. As I approach the door, Cassie brushes past me with a grunt, bumping me with her shoulder. She doesn't look back to apologize or acknowledge the collision.

"Unbelievable," she says as she storms away.

"What?"

She spins to face me. "You know, Kiera. And you kept it from us. More than anything, it's just the fact that you lied to us. Hid from us who you really are. The truth wouldn't have been hard to accept. People are people, but finding out like this, that you lied..."

"About what?" Dread squeezes my heart like a vice-grip. I suspect I know the answer.

"Go see for yourself." Cassie turns and hurries away down the hall. Soon out of sight.

Inside the room, Perseus leans over Darius, who sits in one of the cockpit shells with a VR helmet pulled over his head. Perseus has a helmet on, too, synced to Darius's cockpit.

Perseus jabs a finger into the air. "See what I mean. Right there. There she is."

"Yeah, I see it, man." A resigned edge laces Darius's voice. "But maybe there's a reason she's there. The video isn't the best."

"But look! Slow it down right there... pause it. Zoom in."

"What are you guys looking at?" I ask. "You're supposed to be reviewing the battle archives."

Perseus jerks around and whips off his VR helmet. His jaw hardens like iron. "We are. We're watching the battle that took place just before we entered Flight School."

"What do you think you saw?"

"Don't." Perseus throws up a hand. "You lied to us about who you are. How can we trust you anymore, especially with Zane dead? You've had plenty of opportunities to come clean with us. We've never talked down about orphans in front of you. You could have told us, but you kept up this charade." He brushes past me and exits the room.

When I glance at Darius, he has his helmet on his lap, still sitting in the cockpit. "I suspected you didn't go to Mariner High like Lieutenant Ganymede had said when we first arrived at the base. But I chalked it up to the massive student population. I thought you might have floated in another circle. Another clique." He wags his head at me. "But I should have known better."

"What did you see in the battle archives?"

Darius rises from the cockpit and climbs out. Hands me the helmet. "See for yourself. You know, Perseus is right. You're not any different from any of us; it's just the fact that you lied. We have to be able to trust you, especially if we're going to fly with you. Now we find out this, and Zane is dead, and we're all messed up." With that, he lumbers off, leaving me alone in the silent room.

The moment he's gone, a deluge of emotion sweeps over me. I stare around the room and the empty VR cockpits, realizing I knew this day would come, the day everyone would know my secret. Gnawing on my bottom lip, I wander over to where Darius had been sitting, climb in and cradle the helmet he gave me. With the helmet on my lap, my hands shake. Tremble is more like it. My breath leaves my chest in a flutter as I lift the helmet and place it over my head, sliding it over my eyes.

My vision comes alive inside the virtual reality world, and I know right away where this scene from the past takes place. It's the day me, Astra, and Cygnus had walked to class for the final exam that would determine our placement in the hierarchy of our colony on Mars, the last known settlement of humankind in the solar system and anywhere else for all we know. On that day, I remember the action as it took place in the sky over my head, but now I see it unfold from the vantage point of an X22 starfighter as it blazes through the Martian sky. I realize what I'm seeing. It's a camera view from the belly of the fuselage, which I know about because I've used those exterior views while flying, especially on the last mission, the one where the alien space station's defensive guns shot me down.

Seen from that underbelly viewpoint, the vast canyon floor screams by below. I see the western edge of the colony, which contains the orphanage dorms and our school buildings, even the one shaped like a Quonset hut. The air shield seems to sparkle in the glare from the sun. I don't remember noticing that before, so it must be a trick of the camera.

As the image shakes, I realize a plasma round has hit the starfighter. The X22 plummets toward the orphanage school and a group of students below, and it strikes the invisible shield and skids across the surface, the hot air turning bright orange upon impact. The ship careens across the shield, out of control, and slams into the far canyon wall, exploding into a temporary fireball that dies when the carbon dioxide smothers it.

I rewind the video back to where the ship swoops down and soars above the canyon floor, the exact moment the group of high schoolers walk by underneath on their way to class.

I pause the action, but my world keeps moving in retrograde, like I'm losing the ground I've gained so far in my life, reversing forward motion, moving in the opposite direction. Backwards. Falling away.

I feel nauseous.

There I am, caught mid-stride with Astra and Cygnus... as clear as day. For all to see. Even my flight team. In the video, I'm glancing up at the starfighter as it rockets by overhead. The ship's camera had caught a view of my face, but it's from such a high elevation that no one could make out my identity from that alone.

I notice a zoom feature floating in front of me. I wince as I select it and watch the video draw closer to the students peering up from down below. The frozen image zooms in on the perfect view of my face, framed like a criminal mugshot of a colony prisoner.

There I am, an orphan. Always have been, always will be, and now they know.