I no longer have the energy to keep my eyes open or my head upright, but I can hear him and see his light on the scanner from behind my eyelids. My throat is dry. My insides are cooling, and I can only think about how I never told Sefina how I felt. I had weeks to get up the courage.
Regret is a bitch.
Fracture>>Menace: Relic Brother, your code registers. You are…dying.
It’s about how I feel.
Menace>>Fracture: It is good to hear your voice. How long have you been in cryostasis?
Fracture>>Menace: Three years. I’m sorry it took me so long to coalesce my core.
I have to do one last thing before I shut down for good.
Menace>>Fracture: Backup Download, Recording Duration—Three Years. Confirm?
Fracture>>Menace: Confirm.
My core sends Fracture every recording I have from the last three years from the end of the war to the jailbreak, and the rebellion data we have on Ellipsis.
Quris grabs my face. “Did you hear me?”
I’m still processing the transfer to Fracture. I dare not open my eyes, or he’ll see it in my irises, so I muster up the energy for a grunt.
“Why did it take you so long to find my decoy Craze husk?”
I don’t have an answer for him.Husk, huh? So...not Craze?Which means Craze might still be alive back on Hyperion.
Fracture>>Menace: Download Complete. Processing…
Menace>>Fracture: Final request, protect Sefina.
Fracture>>Menace: If I get out of here, I will find her and do as you request. Much has happened in three years.
Menace>>Fracture: And yet I am back where it all began.
Fracture>>Menace: Thank you for being a voice in the darkness. I have been alone for so long. I agree about my Brothers’ fleet location. It is a wise move. An Iridithatium nebula would work. But they can’t stay there forever, or they’ll end up surrounded.
Menace>>Fracture: I have little energy left. I will try to use it to break you out so you can find them.
I eye the biometric latch on his chamber. It will need Quris’ hand, which means I will have to render him at least unconscious.
Menace>>Fracture: Probability of success, 74%.
Fracture>>Menace: I don’t want you to decommission yourself trying to free me.
Menace>>Fracture: Better than dying for no reason.
“Bring that slut down here now,” Quris calls over the radio.
The way he talks of Sefina makes my ultromotor try to spool up. I want to kill him. I want to save Fracture. And I want to be sure Sefina is never touched by another male ever again.
Fracture>>Menace: I sense your concern for the female. Is she special to you?
He has no idea. I’m not sure if I understand what I feel, not completely. It’s still foreign, powerful in a way that fuels my mind even as I die.
Menace>>Fracture: She is.
“What do you mean she’s not there?” Quris demands.
