Page 141 of Every Almost

Charlie walked beside the housing, one hand on its surface, feeling the vibration of the backup generator through the metal. Charlie felt the power draw higher than she liked, as though the generator was working harder than it should.

Then she heard it.

Not through her datapad attached to the console, but through the metal. A frequency shift in the housing's power system. It was subtle but entirely wrong. The backup generator was cycling irregularly, its rhythm stuttering in a pattern that Charlie's body recognized.

"Stop," she said.

The team halted.

"Charlie?" Reyna was the one to respond. "What is it?"

Charlie pressed her palm flat against the housing and listened.

"The backup generator is overheating," she said. "The cycling pattern is irregular. If we keep moving at this pace, the thermal load is going to trip the safety cutoff. The generator shuts down, the zero-G field drops, and?—"

She didn't finish the sentence. Everyone in the corridor knew what happened to Aetherfin in gravity.

"How long do we have?" Reyna asked.

"Minutes, if we're unable to reduce the load." Charlie was already thinking. Her hands were moving along the housing, tracing the power conduits. "The generator is trying to maintain the zero-G field AND compensate for the movement vibrations from the transport. It can't do both."

"Can we stop the vibrations?" Maren asked.

"Not without stopping the transport entirely. But I can reroute the vibration compensation to the shuttle's power supply instead of the housing generator." Charlie looked at the shuttle dock, twenty meters ahead. "I need to get to the shuttle's auxiliary panel and run a secondary bypass. One cable, one connection. It offloads the vibration compensation and lets the generator focus only on the zero-G field."

"How long?" Reyna asked.

"Two minutes."

"Go."

Charlie ran. Twenty meters of corridor, her boots hitting the metal floor, her brain already mapping the connection she needed to make. She reached the shuttle, found the auxiliary panel, pulled the access cover. The wiring was Coalition standard, different from Earth, but the principles were the same.Power was power, flow was flow. You just had to know where to put the bridge.

She made the connection and rerouted the vibration compensation. The secondary bypass hummed to life.

"Tavi, check the generator readings," she called through the comms.

A pause. "Cycling pattern is stabilizing. Thermal load is dropping." Another pause. "It's holding, Charlie. Generator is back to normal operation."

"Move them," Charlie said.

The team resumed while Charlie made her way back to the containment housing to help again. It moved slowly down the corridor before finally sliding into the shuttle's cargo bay. Charlie pulled away from the housing again, ran to the auxiliary panel, connected the primary power bypass and the shuttle auxiliary to containment housing, and the zero-G field locked to full stability.

"Field at full stability," Tavi reported. "Shuttle power holding."

Charlie exhaled. Inside the housing, the Aetherfin drifted, undisturbed, still shifting through their slow ballet of light and color. Safe.

"Way to go, human," Tavi remarked as he made his way onto the shuttle. "That was some quick thinking."

Charlie shrugged him off. "All in a day's work." Tavi chuckled.

"You keep making that your day's work, we're not going to let you off the Emberkind," Tavi remarked. Charlie stared at him wide-eyed. "I'm kidding. We'll get you home, don't worry." At that, Tavi winked at her. "But for now, get your ass back on board. I want to listen to as much Earth music as possible before we get back to the ship and you're back on Earth. That stuff is like Tartonia Acid on a clear day."

"Dare I ask, what is Tartonia Acid?"

"Uh," Tavi uttered nervously.

"Do you have anything that causes high-quality hallucinations on Earth, but that increase endorphins?" Maren asked from behind Charlie.