Page 45 of Alliance
The heavy electronic bass and snapping snare drum mixed with male voices rapping in Spanish had always been like coming home to Rosy, even when she was very small. Anywhere she’d heard reggaetón, she’d felt safe and excited. It helped her sleep and relax, to feel hope and happiness. Exactly what Misila and Safia needed.
Like magic, they burst into laughter. Fásach too, even if he was trying to breathe through it instead of giving in. I smiled with pride.
“Did it help?”
“A lullaby, Roz!” Safia complained with a huge grin. “Like for sleeping? Not for dancing!”
I blinked. “Thatwasfor sleeping.” I frowned at Fásach. “You didn’t like it? Maybe I remembered it wrong…”
Fásach’s ear twitched, a lopsided smile spreading across his wide mouth. “Yiwren are connoisseurs of sound. Of course I liked it.”
“Me too,” Safia laughed. To my surprise, she took a deep breath and mimicked the electronic sound almost perfectly, her mandibles rattling like the cone of a speaker. We grinned at each other, and I opened my mouth and played a few more bars with her while Misila wriggle-danced in her harness.
Fásach butted heads with them while they were still laughing and told them each to sleep well, his tresses arching over his brow to tickle their spires. They put their arms down at their sides as the pod hatches closed, then they closed their eyes with smiles still plastered on their faces. Fásach stared lovingly at the holos hovering over each of their pods as they both relaxed into sleep, then minimized the projections of his daughters.
“Thanks,” he gruffed, clearing his throat. The veneer of confidence cracked apart as a frown drew down his features. “Our turn. Let’s get your mane under control first.”
Fásach twisted my silk into two fat braids while Traveler helped me don the Slab4, twirling me around so Fásach could learn how it worked too. The sodium-ion battery plugged into my charging port and overrode the protocol that required me to enter sentinel mode while charging. Like placing a cup inside another cup, I’d still be able to charge normally in any standard pod without taking it off, and the little dongle now magnetized to the plate behind my ear meant that it was paired with me and no one else. My parumauxi drifted towards the dongle with what felt like curiosity, learning the new addition to my body.
Half a turn later, we were ready to go. I wore a set of thick polar coveralls with encased feet and gloves that fit me perfectly, but Fásach’s were too large still. It was obvious he’d expected to transition more quickly as he belted on his backpack. The excess gathered up beneath his straps when he pulled the ones across his waist and chest tight.
“Here,” he said, handing me one of the bracelets that would tether the vital pods. I took Misila’s and secured it to my wrist. He activated them both and the pods’ keels began to vibrate, lifting them off the metal floor.
“Hold onto the rail, kids. Casting off in ten, nine…” TheMummergroaned as we all grabbed hold of whatever sturdy thing was closest. I hugged one of the ship’s transverse I-beams and pressed my cheek to the cold metal. This was the last time I’d see the beautiful river of code overhead.
“It was nice to meet you,” I said out loud. “I’d talk to you more if I knew how. I hope you don’t think I’m being rude—”
“Brace yourselves.”
KUNK.
The pressure compartment disconnected from the rest of the ship, and we fell straight down like one of those elevator rides at an amusement park. My lungs clamped up and I hugged theMummerfor dear life. I had memories of this sort of thing,but their fuzzy edges paled compared to the sudden surge of terror.
It didn’t last for long, though. Within seconds, the pace evened out as we descended from low orbit. The airlock was a massive levislab with no rumble of ignition or thrusters at all, just a magneticvwompthat felt like swinging on the playground. No heat outside of the ship’s vantaplates to track. It was genius.
Traveler punched open the pressure lock when we reached the ice sheet, and a frozen gust caught us all in the face.
The tundra was dark, our drop ship’s glaring white lights catching on a wind of snow pellets that raced through the black abyss, blinding in contrast to the absolute nothingness for miles. My stomach somersaulted, and I swayed on my feet, looking up at the sky.
Like every other sky Rosy had ever seen, I’d expected to see stars. Maybe clouds.
But the sky was clear without a single star in sight.
Instead, Big Blue blotted out the universe, its spiraling whirlpools larger than a city raging across its surface. An entire sky of dark teal water hidden from the sun’s view, filling its own atmosphere with poisonous gas and spray. The massive water planet glowed around the edges, but suffocated the sky as if I could reach out my fingertips and touch it.
It was terrifying. Exhilarating.
We were really on Yaspur. Even if Rosy had never seen anything like this, I felt it in my bones.
Traveler yelled over the screeching wind.
“Good luck!”
Fásach stopped in front of him. They shared words that were stolen by the howling tundra before my aural sensors could pick them up. Traveler bumped his head against Fásach’s and tapped his own forehead with two fingers, grinning. My friendsnorted, turning back to the vital pods and carefully setting them outside in the blaring white landscape.
“Goodbye, friends!” I hugged theMummerone last time, then headbutted it like Fásach and Traveler had just done. The captain leaned back on the wall, hands in his pockets.
“Aw, that’s precious,” he cooed as I stopped in front of him.
