A perfect picture in time, all of their faces suddenly clear to me. Scud, I missed them. I needed to get home, to be with them again.
More, I needed to protect them. From the delvers.
I’m trying, I thought. And I’m coming. I promise.
“That was disgusting and wonderful together at once,” I said to Maksim and Chet. “It’s so strange that it is so strange. I only left the somewhere…” How long ago had it been? I forcibly brought out the numbers M-Bot gave me each morning. “…just under a month ago.”
“This place changes you fast,” Maksim said. “And then makes you feel like you’re in limbo…” After trying the beat, he walked back to the table to get some other samples.
Chet wandered over to Shiver, who was talking about how odd she found our means of ingesting. So inefficient, in her words. Better to just grow over patches of minerals and use them as you need them. I rested back against the wall and found myself smiling again.
I belonged here. Granted, I’d belonged other places too. I could faintly remember similar evenings with my friends at the DDF headquarters. But I also remembered pain. Fear. Loss. Hurl’s death. Worry for Jorgen.
Here, I didn’t have those same fears. And scud, I had to admit these last few weeks had been invigorating—exciting. First the exploration, then infiltrating pirates? Now earning their trust, defeating their champion?
This had been thrilling. Like a story, like the things I’d always imagined myself doing. As before, while exploring with Chet, I felt a faint sense of guilt to be enjoying myself while my friends back home were in danger. But then again, the real danger was the delvers, and I was working on that as best I could. And didn’t I deserve to rest between fights?
Every warrior needed a break, didn’t they? A Valhalla? An Elysium? The stories understood. In the greatest of warrior societies, there was a reward for those who spent their days killing.
The group began calling for me to tell another story, so I walked back toward the light. I’d offer them three different options, like Gran-Gran had done for me when I was a child.
I did love my friends, and I was doing everything I could to help them. So I determined not to feel guilty for finding a place where I could live the life I’d always wanted. I had been exiled. But in that, like Satan from the stories, I had found a place I could make into heaven itself.
Right then, the base’s scanner’s alarm started going crazy.
“Imminent collision of this fragment with…” Nuluba trailed off, glancing up from the scanner data toward all of us, gathered around the machine.
“With what?” Peg demanded.
“With another fragment,” Nuluba said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. The fragment is coming in so quickly… Scanner says impact is in only half an hour.”
I shared a look with Chet, whose expression was grim. Last time, the incoming fragment had completely annihilated the one we were on.
“Get people to ships and ready to evacuate,” Peg announced.
“Captain!” Nuluba said. “We have five ships down for maintenance to prepare for the assault! We can get them up and flying, but in a half hour? Plus, if we abandon the base, we’ll lose equipment, spare parts, diagnostics…”
Scud. As we’d been getting ready for the party earlier, the ground crews had started their jobs—assuming they’d have three days to fine-tune the starfighters for our upcoming assault.
“Evacuate anyway,” Peg said, “just in case.”
“Also, Nuluba,” I said, “send the scanner data to my ship.”
“What? Why—”
“Do it!” I said, running for M-Bot, Chet on my heels. I hauled myself up on the wing, then helped Chet with a hand up. M-Bot popped open the cockpit, and we leaped in as he lit up the ship’s dash.
“I’m getting data direct from the scanner,” he said. “Oh my. That’s bad.”
“Math it!” I said. “Can we do anything?”
“Calculating… That one coming in is a lot smaller… The Broadsiders have access to six light-lances for maneuvering ships…” A bunch of figures popped up on my screen. “Done,” he said. “There’s time. Barely.”
“We lift the entire fragment that’s coming toward us?” Chet said, reading the instructions. “Bold!”
“And possible,” M-Bot said. “Only if you move quickly, Spensa. I mean, I know you really enjoyed the last collision, but…”