I glance out the viewing panels, see Heath standing beside the bird. He’s positioned it in the precise center of the runway, and is motioning for Leo to join him. “Guess that’s your cue.”
He takes one last, long look at me.
“Don’t lose yourself out there,” I say, recalling our conversation back in the lab.If you ever lose yourself, I’ll come find you, I told him. What a broken promise. At least I intended to keep it when I made it. Back then, I thought I could save everything. Everyone.
“Deal works both ways, remember?” he says. “If it takes losing myself to save you... then... that’s what it takes.”
That’s not how it works, I want to say.
Losing him would kill me a thousand times, not save me.
A loud buzzing noise crescendos outside the viewing panels,and we both snap our heads to look just as it reaches full volume—then cuts off to silence—and the electric-purple glow blinks out to pitch blackness.
“What the—what wasthat?” I depress the button that will put my voice directly into Heath’s helmet. “Are you okay?”
The lights flicker back on just as he starts to respond—just in time for Leo and me to see both Heath and the bird slam down onto the runway.
“Did thegrav forcejust go out on you?! Are you hurt?” My voice spirals toward panic, but then Heath stands, slowly, shaking out his left arm. He moves to inspect the bird’s tail, on the side I can’t see, and is limping almost imperceptibly. Hopefully neither of them are badly damaged.
I’m getting an incoming buzz, so I motion for Leo to take over with Heath. A piercing alarm sounds, drowning out the voice in my ears as it says my name.
“Zesi?” I say, glancing down at the name on the incoming call. “What the hell is going on? Are they here already? Did we get hit? What is that alarm?” My questions burst like tiny bombs.
I hear him trying to respond, but the alarm is so loud I only get bits and pieces, fragments of curses. Another call tries to cut in—Haven or Natalin, to be sure—but I ignore it. I have so many questions for Zesi; I need to know if we’re under attack. Leo’s out on the open deck now, working with Heath to inspect the bird. Do I call them back in? Send them out as planned?
The piercing wail dies out a few seconds later.
“That was all my fault, sorry, all of it—it was—” Zesi’s breathless, more panicked than I’ve ever heard him. He pauses, takes a breath so loud it crackles in my ear. “I was just testing our defense shields, trying to see how fast I could get them up. Required more energy than I realized to shift ’em at top speed—glitched out the power in some sectors of the station.”
“And set off an alarm, apparently.”
“Apparently. Yes.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “So no one’s shooting at us?”
“They will be, if Heath doesn’t get out there, like,now.”
“Got it,” I say. “Thanks for working on the shields—don’t go with top speed again unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
As soon as we end the call, my buzz screen goes off again—Natalin, like I guessed—but as much as I need to take it, I let it go. Whatever’s going on down in the safe room... it can’t be good, but it can’t beour station is about to get decimatedlevels of urgent. I’ll call her back as soon as I can, but I have to get Heath and Leo out of herenow.
“Are you good?” I ask, putting my voice directly into Heath’s and Leo’s helmets. “Is the bird good?”
They’ve moved on from the tail, each with one hand firmly on the bird’s body—like they’re trying to hold everything in place to minimize the damage if the glitch happens again. I look down, find myself gripping the edges of the motherboard; I wasn’t even out there when the grav force went out, yet my knuckles are turning white.
Gravity: one more thing that’s proven unreliable as of late.
We all trust in the world we know until it proves it shouldn’t be trusted, I guess.
“Good enough,” Heath says.
I don’t want to say goodbye, but it doesn’t matter. There isn’t time for that anyway.
“Gofast, okay?” I grit my teeth until I feel pain in my jaw, will my eyes to keep dry.
They climb in, pull their straps tight. The protective shield lowers over them. Seals them inside.
I blink and they’re gone, a tiny blip of a vessel out in the endless, glittering sky.
