Page 278 of Every Almost

"That's affirmative, Bridge."

"Confirmation is required on Wickett. We lost communication."

"She's..."Maren started.

"She's not here, Bridge."Tavi.

Reyna's breath hitched.

She'd stayed behind.

The white heldfor just under a minute. Then it faded, draining back the way a flare goes out. Her gold came up underneath it, all wrong. It wasn't steady, or the same color gold Reyna had worn every day of her life like a coat of paint. It came up unevenly, guttering in places, dim through her forearms and toobright at her collar. It never righted itself. Reyna stood there, feeling her own body holding a wrong color by a thread.

She took the headset off and held it out toward Torvax. He took it from her without a word.

Reyna sat back down in her chair on the Bridge and stared at a display where a woman's channel had gone dark.

Twenty minutes later,not much had changed. The shuttle was en route and Kess was gearing up to go back with them planet-side to tend to the injured colonist.

And nothing had been heard from Charlie.

"Torvax. Update."

"Shuttle is at nineteen minutes to rendezvous, Captain. Palus vitals nominal."

"Kess."

Kess paused pulling on her utility belt to check her screen. "The third one is dropping, Captain."

"Understood," Reyna said.

She had saidunderstoodon this Bridge ten thousand times. It had never once meant so little.

Reyna saw Orion appear again over her right shoulder, approaching slow and gentle as if approaching a spooked animal. She didn't tear her eyes away from the communications display in front of her.

"Captain?"

"Not now, please, Orion," Reyna clipped.

"Captain, I have to insist. I really think you should see what I have found."

"Orion." Reyna didn't look up. "Charlie is down there."

"Yes, Captain." He walked closer to her. "But you see, that's exactly why."

Reyna turned around.

Orion was standing with his datapad in his hands. He'd been told 'no' once already tonight. He'd even watched what happened after. And yet he'd still come back anyway.

"What is it?" She asked, a bit softer now.

"Charlie's playlist."

Reyna straightened. Now she could admit that just the mention of Charlie's name did that to her. In fact, it had been doing it for months.

But then the rest of what she'd just heard caught up.

"Charlie's... playlist?"