Page 7 of Every Almost

"Three Aetherfin," Reyna said. "We need to get them from their current location onto this ship and into the zero-G chamber."

"We have a zero-G chamber? When did we get that?"

"The Coalition wants us to use the zero-G 'containment field' in the middle of the ship." Tavi was silent for a few moments, his gaze fixed on Reyna.

"They want us to put three Aetherfin in the... I'm sorry, what zero-G containment field in the middle of the ship?" Tavi looked utterly baffled. "I've been here more years than I care to admit and I've never seen one."

Reyna paused and closed her eyes. It really was a shame she could never master meditation. She knew she was going to need it today.

"The zero-G 'containment field' in the middle of the ship. The big glass thing that goes through the whole center? Six floors big?" Reyna explained, trying to point Tavi in the right direction.

Tavi continued to stare at her until his eyes went wide. "They want us to store the Aetherfin in the space art?!"

Reyna sighed. "Yes, but first we have to figure out a way to even get them in there," she paused to stare at him hard. "Alive. Unharmed. And we have three weeks to figure it out."

Tavi didn't shift, but his eyebrows climbed high enough to compensate.

"Three weeks."

"That's what the Admiral said."

"Three?"

"Three."

"Three?!"

Reyna blew out a huff. "Tavi, it doesn't change no matter how many times you say it, it's still only three weeks."

"They're giving usthreeweeks to move Aetherfin from wherever it is that we have to rescue them, from the shuttle itself,intothe Emberkind, and then into the zero-G 'containment field' we apparently have masquerading as a space decorative art installation spanning four decks, six floors, and the width of a small space cruiser?"

"That would be the plan, yes," Reyna admitted. "And we have to move three of them."

"Three weeks, I know," Tavi grumbled.

"No," Reyna protested. "ThreeAetherfin."

This time, Tavi's eyebrows shot up quickly instead of gradually as he looked at Reyna. He leaned back in the chair and looked at the ceiling. Reyna could practically hear the calculations running.

"Okay," he said. "Okay, okay. If we're going to do this, then the field generation isn't the problem. I can maintain a stable zero-G environment inside the chamber. The software can handle that. I mean, it's already doing it, technically, since the chamber's been running for years." He sat up. "The problem is the transition."

"The transition?"

"Getting the Aetherfin from point A, which is a shuttle operating in standard gravity, to point B, which is the zero-G chamber. Every meter in between is normal gravity. And Aetherfin can't survive in gravity. It crushes their bones and flattens them solid, like a pancake." Tavi smashed his hands together in a mighty clap.

"Let's not have Aetherfin pancakes on our ship. That could be the mistake that decommissions the Emberkind," Reyna pleaded.

"Yeah, but, I mean, they were born in zero-G, they live in zero-G, and if they encounter a full gravitational environment, even briefly—" He made a sound with his mouth that Reyna interpreted asbad things happen.

"So we need to extend the zero-G field out from the chamber," Reyna said.

"That's what I thought too. I could run some simulations." He pulled up his datapad, tapping on the screen. "But, yeah, see? The problem is here, with the boundary. When you generate a zero-G field, the edge is hard. Gravity is either on or off. And when a biological organism hits that boundary?—"

Reyna's comms chirped.

"Captain?"

"Captain here." Reyna recognized the voice of her Brontari chef, Borran.