1.

 

"Dorogaya."

The sweet, gentle voice of her mother woke her up from sleep. Svetlana groggily turned around to pick up her pad and switch off her alarm clock, wincing when her hand hit a wall instead of landing on her night table. That's when she realized she wasn't in her old studio anymore.

"Dobroye utro," her mom's voice continued on the recording she'd had on her pad for the past five years. "Good morning, darling."

"Good morning, mom," she mumbled with a little smile before opening her eyes and casting a look around the room. Of course - she was in her new bedroom on board Desida One, not in her student room on Mars. And she knew her mother wasn't really here. Mrs. Ivanova was buried in the Elite cemetery under the dome of Novi Moscow.

Svetlana got up and stretched in front of her large window, currently looking out on the Great Red Spot, the gigantic hurricane raging on Jupiter's surface. "Amazing," she whispered to herself. It still hadn't completely sunk in that she was here, on the large Desidan space station orbiting Jupiter. Doing an internship here had been her dream ever since becoming a Business Economics student at North Mars Uni.

A few years ago, she'd had to move heaven and Earth - or actually, heaven and Ganymede, where she used to live - to convince her father to let her move to Mars. After her mother's death, Mr. Ivanov had been so overprotective of her that he'd practically smothered his only daughter. Svetlana could understand why. Her mom had been murdered by rebels, but they'd never found out why. In her father's mind, disaster could strike at any time and place.

For the past four years, she'd been going by the fake name of Lana Petrova. At North Mars Uni, nobody knew her real name, and here on Desida One, the people at the trade liaison's office had never heard of Svetlana Ivanova either. Sometimes, it almost felt as if she didn't have a family.

There was one person who knew her real identity, though - Victoria Weiss. Lana and Tori had become friends at summer camp on Earth when they were still kids. Even though Tori was three years her junior, Lana felt very comfortable around the ambassador's daughter. It was as if Tori was the younger sister she never had. They'd kept in touch throughout high school and uni. And today, her friend would drop by Desida One for the first time - bringing her new boyfriend, which was even more exciting.

'hey you! what time r u & ur lover docking?!' she typed out on her pad before hitting the shower.

By the time Lana stepped into the kitchen to heat up some porridge in the microwave, Tori had replied to her message: '@ 10! meet us there?'

'sure! i'm off 2day' Lana sent back. Whistling softly to herself, she poured some black tea into her favorite North Mars Uni mug.

Life was good! Her boss, a young man by the name of Mr. Stockton, had given her the day off because she was supposed to go on a diplomatic mission to Earth tomorrow, negotiating new trade agreements between members of the Desidan Alliance and Old Moscow Elitists. It was her first real assignment, and quite frankly she was nervous as hell. She wouldn't have to do this alone, though - Galina Yeltsina, one of her colleagues, would fly out and join her in Greenland by the end of the week. When she'd asked Mr. Stockton if she could travel on the same cruiser that would take Tori and her boyfriend to Earth, he hadn't objected, so she'd have plenty more time to relax and catch up with her childhood friend in the next few days.

Lana was just shoveling the last bite of porridge into her mouth when her pad beeped again. It was her dad on a secure channel. "Privet, papa," she said with a big smile. "You caught me at a bad time. I'm talking with my mouth full."

Her father nodded calmly. "Well, you answered my call while eating porridge," he said with a hint of a smile on his face. "You could have ignored me."

"I didn't want to," Svetlana replied. "I'm happy you're calling. I've been dying to tell you that Desida One is awesome! It's everything I've ever dreamed of."

Mr. Ivanov couldn't help grinning. "That's great to hear, Sveta."

"So, are you going to visit any time soon?"

Her dad frowned, shaking his gray head. "Well, I wanted to drop by next week, after you return from your Earth mission, but it's not such a good idea at the moment. There's a lot of unrest at the Jupiterian borders. Bruce Randall's fleet has allegedly attacked a convoy of our ships transporting ores and gemstones from Prometheus again."

Lana bit her lip. Her father owned the mines on Prometheus, which was the reason why a lot of people hated the Ivanov family. They were one of the richest Elite families of the Russian Realm and it made them the constant target of rebels, thieves and space pirates such as Bruce Randall. She'd never been face to face with the British lawbreaker, but she knew he was her father's biggest enemy, always targeting the ships carrying the most valuable Promethean gemstones that the Elite were willing to pay through the nose for. The Russian army had tried everything to make those transports secure, but somehow, Randall regularly figured out a way to outsmart the pilots and steal their precious cargo.

"That's too bad," she sighed. "You think it's going to look suspicious if you visit Desida One out of the blue?"

"I'm afraid so, my darling. Most rebels may have forgotten by now that I have a daughter, but some of them still remember, and they'll stop at nothing to hurt you too."

This was why she'd adopted a fake name to begin with. This was why she'd tried wearing blue contacts to conceal her hazel eyes and dyeing her platinum-blonde hair brown for a while until she got fed up with retouching her blonde roots every three weeks. This was why she always had to be vigilant - because she was never completely safe.

"Okay." Lana forced a smile onto her face. "Well, I'll just ask Mr. Stockton to send me on a trade mission to Ganymede next. I might be able to pay you a flash visit in Novi Moscow while dropping by the Desidan Exchange office there."

"When will you come home, dorogaya?" Mr. Ivanov asked her, sounding wistful. "When will you return to the Ivanov residence and stay within our safe walls?"

"I don't know, papa." But actually, that wasn't true. She did know - a sheltered life like that didn't appeal to her anymore. Lana wanted to be free. But the price she'd be paying for her freedom was very high. She would lose the only parent she still had in the process, or at least be mostly cut off from him for the rest of her life. "Hey, I gotta go, okay? My friend will be here soon."

"Victoria? Give her my best," Mr. Ivanov said, waving his hand at the screen. "Talk to you later."

Svetlana clicked off and absently stared at her pad. Gingerly, she opened up the app featuring the latest news. PROMETHEAN FLEET ATTACKED BY PIRATES. ESTIMATED LOSS: 5 MILLION DOLLARS. The headlines in the Desida Telegraph screamed at her, taunting her and her silly ideas that she could ever have a normal life away from this kind of turmoil.

With an exasperated groan, she shut down the online newspaper and stuffed her pad in her shoulder bag before strutting out the door to pick up her friend from Jupiter Boulevard.