Clockwork Twist : Dreamer by Emily Thompson

edged with cold unease, but the cool, billowing, calm mist still managed to soothe Twist's spirit.  Twist glanced up to his friend's face, but found no signs of pity in his placid expression.  He found no dread either.  Somehow, knowing that Jonas wasn't ready to panic yet gave Twist a little more courage.  Twist glanced over the others around him and found them all silent and still.  In the dim glow from Niko's little ball of light, everyone looked tattered and fragile.
    “Well...” Myra said suddenly, with forced brightness. “At least we're all together.” She took Twist's hand, spilling unease over his Sight despite the brave smile she gave him.
    “For now,” Jonas grumbled.  Myra shot him an ungrateful look.
    “Don't give up yet, sonny,” Steve muttered darkly.
    “Sonny?” Jonas snapped back.
    “The day you stop trying to survive is the day you die,” Steve said gravely.  Twist frowned, confused by the curiously circular statement.
    Not bothering himself with the others' conversations, Niko was looking out one of the slits at the side of the ship, watching the desert glide by below. “Well, looks like we're not going to town,” he said with a sigh.
    Twist leaned closer to the slit nearest him and looked out to see that they had climbed nearly a mile in the night sky.  A small, dusty-looking town lay in the otherwise empty desert like a tiny island of humanity in an ocean of wilderness.  Dim candle and gaslight betrayed the rough shapes of shacks and simple buildings, with no obvious train tracks or airship docks in sight.  Twist wondered how much help he and his companions would have found if they hadn't been picked up by the moonship.
    “Where the hell are they taking us?” Steve asked, watching the town slip away behind them. “Who are these people?  What do they want from us?”
    “Calm down,” Jonas said softly.
    “Calm down?” Steven growled. “We've just been captured by space aliens!”
    “No, they're human,” Tasha said gently.
    “And they can hear us,” Niko hissed at him, his blue eyes almost luminous in the dimness.
    Steve glared at the woven ceiling above his head and grumbled something rude to himself. “I don't know about you,” he said, his voice low now, “but I'm coming out of this ship swinging.”
    “That's not a great plan,” Jonas said, frowning.
    “Oh yeah?” Steve asked acidly. “Why not?  Because you'd rather just lie down and die?”
    “Because there's no telling what will be out there when we land,” Jonas said with measured patience. “There could be an army waiting for us.  We could find ourselves outnumbered and vastly outgunned.  If you just tear out like a mad dog, they might put you down like one.”
    Twist smiled, indulging a moment of pride in his friend's wisdom.
    “Oh.”  Steve's anger seemed to chill as he fell quiet. “But who are they?  What did we ever do to them?”
    Jonas slipped his goggles up to his brow and peered out through the nearest slit, apparently removing himself from any more of the conversation.
    “We won't know anything more until we land,” Tasha said to Steve.
    “I'm not sure we're going to land, actually,” Jonas said, now staring wide-eyed at a point in the sky ahead of the moonship.  Everyone instantly moved to look as well.
    “I just see stars,” Niko said, echoing Twist's confusion. “What do you see?” he asked Tasha.
    Tasha squinted into the darkness. “I see … the wrong stars.  Those shouldn't be there.  It's the wrong time of year.”
    Twist stared out, not detecting anything amiss whatsoever with the empty night sky.
    “Just wait,” Jonas said, smiling now. “You'll see.”
    Twist watched the stars shine gently, unsure what to expect, as the moonship continued to climb and glide.  Suddenly, the image of the sky itself rippled like the disturbed surface of a lake, and fell away around them as if they were passing through the invisible edge of an enormous soap bubble.  Beyond the