Page 37 of Adrift!
Evens wasn’t among them, for which Ikaryo was grateful.
How was he supposed to provide “cosmically superior customer service” to someone who’d put them all in this danger?
But a secret part of him was thankful for that moment back in port—call it luck or fate or a collapsing wave of probability in a quantum mathematical function—when he’d noticed the “crew opening: three-sunset cruise” recommendation among his messages. Because every muddled moment of this improbable chaos cocktail since had somehow distilled down to Remy.
+ + +
The all-hands was held in the command module; not a place frequented by the ship’s bartender. With no passengers to reassure and comfort, environmentals had been reduced to stark essentials: the air was colder and still, lumens provided only by the necessary readouts. It felt…
One step away from haunted.
The captain was already there, of course, with Evens. Both looked strained. As the crew arrived, Felicity entered with Remy, and the two Earther women stood together near a hologram of the capacitorus displayed on the main engineering console.
Ikaryo shifted, wanting to go to them, but the captain cleared his throat.
“We already know where we stand,” he said in his deep voice. “Exactly where we were. Based on what we know now”—he cast a gold glare at Evens—“I made a mistake ordering the anomaly’s containment. Isolation and suppression won’t save the ship.” He let out an aggrieved breath. “And it might exacerbate a weakness in the elemental bonds of the universe. Suvan, updates?”
“The coherent waveform of the harmonic resonance…” The chief’s projected profile flickered. “The resonark is unraveling at an accelerating rate even though I’ve adjusted the containment field as a patch. We might be at a dead stop, but we’re rapidly approaching disaster.”
The flicker was a reflection of the capacitorus in the engineer’s pale eyes, Ikaryo realized. A dying light.
“How long?” Evens leaned hard against the console, as if he wanted to be closer to the anomaly.
“If the pattern continues, a few ship’s cycles, at most.”
As the statement hung in the chill, Ikaryo thought about the unsuspecting passengers, how quickly they’d bonded despite being strangers. Which had always been the point of space speed dating. But like this? Like the captain had fallen for Felicity in the midst of a crisis?
Ikaryo ached to cross the tense distance. Just like he and Remy had—
Had what? They’d put no words to the sensual song they’d shared. But this was not the place, and now there was no more time.
Nehivar squared off to the Earther women. “Ms. McCoy. You haven’t changed your mind about tonight’s recital?”
In a simple lavender shift, as if her room’s fabricator had finally run out of bad ideas, Remy looked delicate against the cold dark of the bridge.
But her answer was clear and unwavering. “I’ll be ready.”
“Just a tiny pocket of harmony in the universe, but a seed of hope for us.” Evens’ murmur echoed eerily. “Music is found in all known Earther cultures, and stitching a song against the silence of the night may have been one of humanity’s oldest ways of celebrating our existence together, even before we had words.”
Felicity frowned at him. “Anyway. Invitations were posted to the passengers and crew this morning.” She linked her elbow through Remy’s. “Everyone’s coming.”
Lips twisting in that sham smile that had bothered Ikaryo earlier, Remy nodded a stiff acknowledgment. “I suppose it’s the only show in town. No pressure.”
Unable to hold himself back any longer, Ikaryo strode toward her. Luckily, Nehivar had turned to assigning tasks that Felicity was doublechecking against her datpad, so it didn’t count as breaking rank.
And Remy was already halfway out the door.
“Remy. Wait.” Ikaryo caught her arm.
Her bare skin was so cold, it shocked him. Since he’d just been in storage, which was now exceedingly icy, he still had a deck jacket over his uniform. Quickly stripping out of the extra layer, he draped it around her shoulders.
“Oh. Thank you.” The tone was aloof, but she snuggled into the heavy plasilk.
In the angriest aftermath of leaving his planet, he’d sometimes wondered why he hadn’t been completely replaced with synthetic machined components. Now he was grateful for every erg of natural warmth his body had saved in the fabric.
“Do we need to talk…” He wasn’t quite sure what he was asking. “About tonight?”
She blinked at him, and the distance in her green eyes sent a different sort of chill through him. “What do you mean?”
