Inherit the Sky & The Last Horizon
an excerpt

Chapter 1
Star 62, Orbiting Titania
April 4022

David sifted through the headlines. They were all the same these days. 'God or Devil? Messiah Runs AMOK!' 'Terror in the Skies: Goliath Cripples Valkyrie Satellite, Thousands Stranded.' 'Star 91 Waves White Flag, but War Rages On.'

The pilot of Goliath forced some air from his nostrils in disgust and removed his visor, dropping it almost roughly on the counter in annoyance. "They're making us out to be terrorists," he complained.

Shou looked up from where he was dicing up some celery and said rather evenly, "We are terrorists, David."

David wrinkled his nose in distaste. "I don't like that word," he said.

"Of course you don't," he said. "It makes you look like the bad guy. Now get up. If you've got time to complain, you've got time to fold the laundry."

"When did you become my mother?" David complained flatly, but got up and did as he was asked while Shou continued cutting up the vegetables for the beef stew they were having for dinner.

"Around the time I started picking your dirty laundry up off of the floor, I'd imagine," Shou said.

"It's not my fault you're a neat freak," David griped.

"And it's not my fault you're a slob," Shou answered. "Just go fold the damn laundry and stop complaining. It doesn't matter what EarthCore writes about us unless you're starting to think they're right."

"You know it's not like that," David said. "It just gets on my nerves that everyone is so damned oblivious about what's been going on all this time."

"Well," Shou said, dropping the vegetables into the broth. "What do you want me to say? Welcome to the world. Lifetime memberships are free."

David wrinkled his nose. "If they weren't," he said, "I'd be asking for a refund about now."

He pulled on zip-up sweatshirt and grabbed the laundry basket, and headed down to the basement level—always bitter cold no matter the time of year it was. It was his turn, so it was only fair, but he planned to make quick work of it. It was only the two of them for now, but there had been some discussion of Adrien and Isaak joining them soon. Adrien, especially, was concerned that Star 91 might be troubled if someone found out he was staying there, especially now that they'd surrendered their rights to Neptune's resources and waved the proverbial white flag. As for Isaak, he claimed he'd long since worn out his welcome on Star 3, and the Barton's old house was kind of creepy to live in alone—cold. David suspected he just didn't want to be the only one left out of the party, but he didn't mind. He thought having more people around would be good for Shou. It had been just under a year and a half since Star 4 was destroyed, and though Shou had managed to pick up the pieces for the most part, he still went into these long silences that David didn't know how to deal with. Most of the time, he'd start babbling until he cracked a joke so stupid even the moody pilot of Guan-yu called him an idiot and told him to shut up. Witty banter would then ensue. But there were other times when nothing he could say could even scratch the surface of Shou's foul moods. He knew Shou wasn't one for talking about his problems, his feelings, or anything that mattered, but that left a lot of awkwardness that he thought maybe a little more noise would be good for.

The dark-haired young man had been so family oriented, but after that first long day when he'd used David's shoulder to try and hide the fact that he couldn't make himself stop crying, it had become a taboo to even consider talking about it. He'd lost everything. Even now, David felt nervous leaving him to his own devices for very long. He laughed at himself for thinking like that—he knew it was some manner of neuroses, Shou was far too stubborn to do anything stupid, but he kept everything so bottled up that David kept waiting for what felt like an inevitable breakdown that he was in no position to do anything about.

"Get yourself together, David," he chided himself. "If you stay down here lost in thought too long you're going to catch pneumonia." He glanced at the two T-Wings crouched down in the basement on the other side of the room. "I don't know how you guys stand it down here all the time," he said. "To each their own, I guess."

When he made his way back upstairs, Shou had turned down the flame on the stew pot and was sitting at the kitchen table with his visor on looking terribly serious. His lips were slightly pursed. David put a hand on his shoulder to ask what was going on without interrupting. Shou's reply was to raise a finger as he continued to listen.

David decided to kill time by stirring the stew a little, but when he heard Shou remove his visor he couldn't contain his curiosity. "Well?" he asked.

"News bulletin," Shou answered curtly, resting the visor carefully on the table and pushing away from it to pull out two bowls and nudge David aside so he could check the stew. For some reason he didn't trust David in the kitchen. David thought it mght have something to do with that one burnt hot dog incident that had ended in Shou having to cut two inches off of his hair—but it had grown back ages ago! One little mistake and he was branded for life. It wasn't fair. Most of it's got nothing to do with us—ARLIS has been having some issues. Apparently they lost a bunch of the people in Singh Valley, but there was a blurb about Neptune and the war."

"Yeah, since Star 91 backed off, now the Tri-Star is fighting each other for it. It's all over the news, in between the good guy bashing." David apparently wasn't going to lay off the fact that they were the good guys for a long while, so Shou just ignored the latter comment.

"The GFA really is a pretty useless organization," Shou said. "But they do things right once in a while. They've finally instituted a temporary government hold on Neptune so the resources can be distributed where they need to go. They'll make a fortune on the deal, sure, but in the meanwhile we don't have to worry about Star 7's food situation and the GFA will be standing in between those idiots and the Tyrennium Mines. It's good news."

"Star 7, huh?" David said, tossing himself into a chair. "Well, I guess that answers that." They hadn't heard from the female pilot of Messiah in months. It was unlikely now that they were going to.

Shou nodded. "She probably won't contact us again," he said. "Right now, Star 7's future is looking pretty stable. There's no reason for that girl to fight. They call it a temporary hold, but in the end Neptune will probably be a GFA sanctioned resource. Even if they claim they want a peaceful world, even they won't let go of trade relations with Star 7 easily."

David thought about that for a while before answering. "Things may get worse before they get better," he said.

Shou nodded. "Everyone wants at those mines. All the more reason for us to keep up the way we've been going. Those people aren't really capable of defending themselves. Without Star 4, they're way too vulnerable. Things look peaceful now, but they're going to get worse. Even so, the GFA is a little more trustworthy than the usual enemies. They won't starve, and if that's the case then we probably can't rely on the Messiah any longer. I don't think we'll hear from that girl again."

David nodded slowly. "I see your point," he said, careful not to directly mention Star 4, knowing how hard it was for Shou to mention, even in brief, the annihilation of his homeland. "Even so, I kind of hope you're wrong. I don't even want to think about fighting the Odin without the help of that T-Wing."

"...if that's how it is," Shou answered. "Then there's nothing we can do about it. Let's eat."