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“Wait a second. You were fucking with me?”
Caligher wandered closer. “I was wondering about that,” he put in. “It sounded like a load of shit.”
“Yeah,” she said with narrowed eyes. “What the hell?”
“Like I said, I’m sorry,” Morwong said. “I sent out a notice the day you told me about the place. We were ripping the skies apart. And I was waiting to see if you would come out with the truth”—his eyes darted between Lucca and Caligher—“but it all worked out, didn’t it?”
“Goddammit, Morwong, no,” she muttered. He cackled.
She tilted her head, taking in his outfit. “Why are you wearing clothes?”
That question seemed to embarrass the laughter right out of him. The shock sent his fins into a perturbed flutter.
“Um… you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” she assured him. He wiped his face and looked away, leaving her feeling awkward.
He dropped the subject and prompted her to take in the rest of the open garage, which she gladly did. The noise, activity, and air quality had the soothing energy of a morning rush.
It felt like her life had just started over.
They gave her space to do a full visual circle, scanning the tools on the naturally hewn asteroid wall that extended high and wide in the back, then the ships. So many ships. Mechanics scaled over them and used their built-in spark to perform their work. They climbed a few feet, inspected a part out of place, then glowed bright like a bulb… and then the thing in question was fixed.
In the bellies of some of the ships, she saw the engines. Infinitesimal details poured out. Their intricacies confounded her to no end.
She turned to stare at the thin, clear membrane that separated them from outer space. That was the weirdest thing in the entire room. It moved like fluid when something passed through, wobbling before going serenely flat.
The great beyond lay just outside that filmy wall, enormous and dark. It freaked her out, honestly… She could slip through it too easily. Or it could slip in there.
“How is this possible?” she asked.
“Thespark,” said Morwong, playing the tour guide. “We do all this with our spark.”
Caligher glanced at her with concern. “You’re shaking, Lucca. You alright?”
“Just t-terrified.”
But she couldn’t stop staring at it.
His hand cupped her lower back, offering stability. “The atmosphere won’t fail.”
“It’s self-sustaining,” Morwong said proudly. “Andverystable.”
Caligher tugged her closer to him. His tone bottomed out so only she could hear his words. “If you fall out, I’ll bring you back in. Nothing will stop me from that.”
“If I slip out, I’lldie.”
“There’s a grace period,” he said mildly.
As if she shouldn’t concern herself with the pain and fright and the very real injuries that the vacuum would render. Peoplehadsurvived it, but that didn’t make her eager to take on the Hoover challenge. She wrung her hands together in distress.
“Fantastic fit!” Someone’s exclamation drew her attention back to the Selkie. “No one will see this coming!”
“Fine work, my friend.”
Two mechanics clung to the wing of the Selkie, attending to the front of the fin. On closer inspection, she spotted the tiny muzzle of the gun they’d buried in the wing. Someone would never see the weapon until it started spitting fire.
“Now I can shoot people,” she said with wide eyes. “Amazing.” Not amazing in a nice way. She justdidn’t like guns.
“The plan is to demolish the jump point when we see it,” Caligher said to her.
