He felt pleasantly surprised with his apparent ability to translate math into real, physical force, because it soon became apparent that he was slowly gaining on Rake. At least it’d been fast enough. Maybe too fast, but only slightly so. A handful of terrifying seconds later, he caught up with her. He reached out and closed his arms around her shoulders as he clunked into her. She sped up along with him.
“Can you read me, sir?”
“Fucking void, Mercer,” she cursed.
“Is that a yes? Listen—”
“What did you do that for?”
“Rake, fuck, just let me save you!”
“Void—”
“You need to have a good hold on me,” he insisted. “All the strength your Imprints can muster.”
She let out a sharp breath.
“I’ll use mine too,” he continued. “But when these tethers run out, we’re gonna snap back pretty hard. The Divide’s pulling us and the generator’s pushing us. We’re riding a wave. There’ll be quite a bit of force at the end of the line. If we don’t have a good hold on each other, I might lose you.”
“If the tethers don’t break and we don’t both go careening off into the Divide?”
“Right.”
Rake sighed, then shifted to wrap her arms loosely around his chest. They stared back at the impressive, looming station as they drifted away. The edges glowed, as if the opposite side had lit up, basked in a soft, white light.
“How long are these tethers?” he asked.
“Fifty meters.”
He swallowed hard.
For a few silent seconds, they watched the expanse between them and the station slowly grow. Again, it felt weirdly peaceful. He could do nothing but wait.
The slower Cavalon’s pulse became, the more his body began to ache. Not only his already-injured guts, but everything. Everywhere. Organs, skin, muscles, hair. His head throbbed, and a constant, onerous thrum reverberated in his ears. His stomach roiled with that same unnerving nausea that’d launched him into his vomiting episode on his last EVA. However, this time, he wasn’t sure he’d be throwing up the contents of his stomach. Any organ from the neck down felt like fair game.
“Rake?”
“Cav.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Go ahead.”
“Do…” He took a long, deep breath. “Do you think that gave us superpowers?”
Rake let out a breathy scoff and didn’t respond at first. After a few seconds, she said, “Probably.”
“I always thought X-ray vision would be great. How about you?”
“Invisibility.”
“Oh, good one.”
“Although, teleportation would be great about now.”
He gave a short laugh, heartier than he thought he had in him. The station continued to drift away, and the slack in the tethers started to disappear. “I think my eardrums are bleeding,” he said.
“Mine too.”
“And maybe most of my internal organs.”
“Cav…”
“I know.” He watched as the snaking tethers grew tauter.
“This is going to hurt you.”
He shook his head, clunking his helmet awkwardly into hers. “Don’t worry about that, I’ll be fine. Hold on as tight as you can.”