Page 30 of Starlight, Starbright
This is what she meant about Christmas. The coming together. The refusal to surrender to darkness.
Below, a team successfully repairs a power junction. Cheers erupt. Paige grins, offering congratulations. Then she looks up. Finds me. Our eyes meet across the space. She touches her hand to her chest. Over her heart.
I descend to the main floor, navigating through the working teams until I reach her.
“What's wrong?” I ask, detecting moisture in her eyes.
“Nothing.” She wipes them quickly. “Everything's right. This is what Christmas means. People coming together. They're saving themselves.”
“You did this,” I say quietly. “You gave them the opportunity.”
“We did this.” She corrects. “You supported the plan when everyone else objected. You took my hand. You stood with me.”
“I am with you.” The words require no qualification. “Always.”
Her hand finds mine again. Fingers interlacing naturally. Around us, the work continues. Systems repair themselves through collective effort. Christmas lights remain illuminated. Music plays. People smile.
We're surviving. Not through superior technology or perfect protocols. Through connection. Through choosing each other. Through refusing to surrender to darkness alone.
My markings blaze gold throughout the shift. Everyone can see. Everyone knows. And for the first time in my life, I'm proud of what my biology reveals.
PAIGE
Christmas Eve arrives wrapped in controlled chaos and the scent of hope.
I stand on the catwalk overlooking the main habitation ring, watching humanity organize itself into something beautiful. Mrs. Perrin from Deck 4, seventy-three years old and barely five feet tall, balances on a stepladder holding a spanner while her grandson calls up instructions from his tablet. Three teenagers sprint past carrying cable spools, their laughter echoing off the metal walls. A little girl no older than six delivers messages between work crews, her red dress bright against the gray corridor.
The Starbright grid blazes along the corridor walls. Every civilian-installed light, every repurposed data conduit, every unauthorized connection that should drive me crazy but instead makes me want to cry. They have built this together. Build light in the darkness.
“Thirty-seven sections reporting stable power.” Jian appears at my elbow, her tablet glowing. “Eighteen more need adjustments but we're ahead of schedule. Chief, we're actually going to make it.”
“Yeah.” My voice catches. “We are.”
Below us, Giorgi Perrin waves up at me, his smile visible even from this distance. Yuki Tanaka coordinates three different work crews while simultaneously stringing lights along the support beams. The ship hums with purposeful energy, ten thousand people refusing to let darkness win.
Walsh hasn’t been seen since yesterday. Since Zoric confronted him in the briefing room, since Tobias started following him. The absence feels ominous, a held breath waiting to exhale.
My comm unit beeps. “Chief Martin, bridge.”
I recognize Lieutenant Morris's voice. Recognize the tension underneath. “Martin here.”
“We've got a fluctuation in the ship's core. Small but growing. Captain wants you to take a look.”
The core. Where all our primary systems converge. Where someone with enough knowledge can do catastrophic damage.
“On my way.” I catch Jian's eye. “Keep coordinating here. I'll handle the core.”
She nods but her expression shows she catches the same thing I have. Christmas Eve. Walsh missing. A problem in the most critical location on the ship.
I find Zoric waiting at the core access corridor. He looks at me and I can see the calculation in his eyes. The same calculation I've just made.
“This is a trap,” I say.
“Yes.” He gestures toward the sealed core entrance. “But the fluctuation is real. I've verified the readings myself. If we ignore it, we lose the ship.”
“So we go in, knowing Walsh is waiting to spring whatever he's planned.” I cross my arms. “That's a terrible plan.”
“Not if we're ready for it. I want to catch him in the act. With a witness. Undeniable proof. Tobias will follow us down, stayjust outside. When Walsh activates his trap, Tobias arrests him for attempted murder.”
