On the first, engraved in large letters, the words:
YOU CAN TRY A THOUSAND TIMES MORE, IT CANNOT BE DONE.
And carved into the second, even larger:
YOU ARE OUT OF TIME.
This is our last chance.
We stand once more in Pinkerton’s office. A broken half circle of us. The massive storm of dark matter churns out there beyond the station’s hull, our future waiting to pulse within. Our path out. Our journey home.
If only I could see the way …
Finian’s desperate voice brushes past my consciousness. “If we could modify the Stun setting, get the disruptor to emit a broader pulse …”
“Medical personnel required immediately, Deck 12,” calls the PA. “Repeat, medical personnel, Deck 12.”
I let him drift away. A labyrinth unfurls around me as I try every possible permutation of the facts, but each time I meet a dead end. Every what-if and perhaps-we-could trips up somewhere. And all the while we are following the same steps that have killed us every time. Marching toward the same fate, going knowingly to meet our doom.
“Maybe there’s some way to secure the probe chamber to give me time,” Nari says, the same note of desperation in her voice. “Something manual that station security can’t override.”
“But that will mean you’re locked in when the core blows,” Scarlett says. “You have to get out, Nari, or all this is for nothing.”
This is unacceptable. We cannot be in a no-win scenario, or we would not have come from a reality in which Nari founds the Aurora Legion.
There must be a way for her to survive.
There must be.
There must—
And then the numbers suddenly stop scrolling. The endless fractal of possibilities stops unfolding. And I see the answer.
I open my eyes to find Scarlett studying me intently. Even now, exhausted, worn thin by grief and fear and relentless pursuit, she cannot hide the gentleness in her gaze. Despite her carefully cultivated outer shell, she has a limitless heart. I am glad she has discovered the same is true of Finian.
“You figured it out?” she asks quietly.
“Yes.”
She simply stares. Part of her already understanding. And I begin to see the genius in her ability to do that. Here at the last. At the end.
I am sorry I shouted at her.
I am sorry for many things.
TICK.
TICK.
TICK.
“Nari,” I say. “The hallabongs your cousin brings to your halmoni’s house. They’re good?”
“Delicious.” She’s startled. “But what … ?”
I look into her eyes. And when I do, I know… .
I am not feeling nothing.
“I would like to taste one,” I tell her.
I would like to be in a home like that. With a large family coming and going. With traditions, and family jokes and stories, and fruit so juicy it runs from your wrists and drips off your elbows.
“I wish you could,” she frowns. “But—”
Finian finally begins to understand what Scarlett already knows.
“Zila, no. No.”
“What?” Nari protests, looking between us. “What’s happening?”
Scarlett shakes her head. “Zila, there must be another way… .”
“It cannot be done alone,” I say simply.
Finian’s voice joins Scarlett’s in protest. “No, Z, we’ll figure it out. We still have time, we—”
“With the current force arrayed against her, Nari cannot survive to eject the core. She must survive if she is to found the academy, or we will never come here, never plant the seed for Aurora’s victory against the Ra’haam. Eliminate the impossible, and what remains, no matter how improbable …”
I look to Fin
“… or painful …”
then to Scarlett
“… or sad …”
and last to Nari
“… is the truth. Someone must stay behind and help you.”
I let their voices drown each other out.
“—left Cat behind, left my brother behind, and if you think—”
“—just have to think again about the way we’re using the—”
“—this time I can—”
I stand. I stare. And eventually they are silent. They have argued themselves out. They see the simple truth, plain as I have. And they know in their heart of hearts, each of them, that we do not have the minutes to waste.
So I speak again. “Many years ago, I watched from my hiding place as raiders threatened my parents and friends. If I revealed myself, they would be shot, and I would be taken. So I remained hidden, hoping a solution would reveal itself. Eventually, our captors tired of waiting, and killed my family anyway, and left. Never again will I allow those I love to die through my inaction. This time, there is something I can do.” “You were a child, Zila,” Scarlett whispers. “You don’t have to make that right.”