Page 73 of Alliance
[Range of motion overextended]
I didn’t have time to investigate. Instead, I devoted one of the s-ion slabs housed in my charging port to bodily repair and instructed my parumauxi swarm to address the misfiring of heart tissue first. The responsive net embedded in my unit’s skin whirred as heat distributed through my extremities like dousing myself in boiling water. I hissed, shaking and mewling in pain as my vitals deck went to work trying to save my fingers and toes.
[Rebooting…] My optional systems shut down. A digital monotone listed off tasks and system status notifications as it worked. Fás held me through it all, humming songs he would sing to Misila and Safia before bedtime.
“Compromised tissues scraped. Preparing to expel dead tissue,” my mouth said. Then I threw up black, oily grizzle right on Fásach’s chest. And even though my non-vital systems were down,Ifelt ashamed that I didn’t have the control to move my head to the side and avoid him. He seemed to understand, rubbing his claws through the fine silk around my chargingport, cleaning us both up, whispering encouragements as I did it again.
Once my temperature and heart rate were stable, my sight kicked back on. We were sitting on the floor of a medbay the size of a closet with a compact surgical arm bolted into one corner and three bunks lining the opposite side of the room. Fásach had his back to a Murphy desk still locked against the wall. When our eyes met, his were haunted and tired. He fit his socks and boots on my feet, picked me up, and carried me out into the cold, dark wind without a word.
We were standing on a flat cement courtyard covered in drifts of snow, like sand on the landing strip of a desert airport. I curled my hands into fists to keep my fingers warm and hid them inside Fásach’s unzipped coveralls, my ear pressed against the fur poking out over his sweater. I synced myself to the rhythm of his heart because it made me feel more secure listening to them beat in time.
It wasn’t until we reached the lift on the side of the cliff that I realized we were on the roof of the relay station.
As we descended to the cove in silence, Fásach’s shoulders buffeted the wind coming in over the ice sea, turning me towards the warmth of the horizon. I stared at where the glow of daylight bled across the curvature of the moon with a blackened anvil of foreboding in my chest. The back of my neck prickled, and I swallowed hard. The relay station I’d been enjoying since our arrival now seemed like a tombstone, silently overlooking the graves of hundreds or thousands of people. I curled my fingers tighter into Fásach’s clothing, trying to ignore the serpents of unease winding around my guts, warning me of… what?
Termination,something whispered at the back of my mind. A buzzing itched under my skin that something was wrong.
Withme.
The Buoy entrance was jammed open when we returned. As Fásach cleared the doorway of snow, the wall of controls and meters pulsed with lights. Blue blinks and pulses littered the system, some emitted transmissions into the ceiling. [Warning] I approached the wall on jittery legs, hugging myself.
I couldn’t read all of them, but many produced messy halos that dribbled out into the air. Loss of operator comms. Door obstruction. Relay lift breach. Remote distress signal. SOS transmission on repeat…
Fásach grunted and pulled on the lip of the door still stuck in its side rail within the wall. It flew closed, and he stepped back as the lights glowed awake and life-support systems kicked back on, just like our first night.
“Welcome to the Buoy—” SVAPAN began.
“Cancel,” Fásach interrupted. The AI faded to a stop without comment.
“Clear all control notifications and transmissions,” I directed, my voice tremulous with uncertainty. Fásach watched me, but my gaze was fixed on the wall of meters. Several blinked out, but a few remained.
“Operator biometrics required for emergency transmission override.”
[Warning] I bit my lip and took a deep breath as Fásach rubbed his palm into my shoulder.
“Where is Gilladh?” I asked, afraid of the answer.
“They—” He cut off, holding onto me harder. “They shot that wound in your side with a harpoon gun. I tried to explain that you’reyou,but they wouldn’t listen.”
“I see.” Tears sprang to my eyes. “So they’re… gone.”
“Yes.”
I glanced out the window at the relay antenna from beneath my lashes. What had I been doing up there? [Priority]Maybe… Maybe after I recovered a little, I could go back up and find out.
It felt like a reasonable thought. Acknowledging it lightened my spirits a little bit.
But it shouldn’t have. Going up there was allwrong.How could I feel something was so right when I knew it wasn’t? That buzzing kept up in my mind, getting louder as I creased my brow. A terrible pitter patter washed over me, like someone chasing my heels in a dark room.
[Warning] I didn’t want to go back up there.Ever.
I told myself that I hated heights, even if I liked looking at them. I told myself that the relay station wasn’t beautiful, even as I admired its engineering. Whatever was happening in my brain, in my LMem, it wasn’t all me.
[Warni–Analysis] There was something in my coding, the parts that skirted around the edges. Something inevitable that made me feel calm despite all of the danger and pain and uncertainty. A flash of pink on Fásach's neck caught my attention. His dewlap had been sliced open, leaving a rip in his skin like a tear in a pair of tights.
What if Gilladh had killed him first?
Thinking about the possibility physically pained me. My eyes stung and my skin tingled as if in shock.
