by Gwynn White
Earlier, Torek had mentioned that one of the people they were rescuing was going to install a grill extension onto the p-drive to help funnel the power for the long jump without blowing any circuits or main parts. Cullen had never heard of such a device, and was curious to see it beforehand.
"No. He was a little preoccupied arranging a prison break." Torek tapped a final command onto the screen before a box appeared that read: Memory locked. "See. Kid's got it," he said as he fitted his mouthguard in.
Jolnes's screen twisted two golden ropes of slowly transferring light into his eyes. At this stage of the process, the program set the pilot into a trance to enhance focus on the memory. In the silence of the cockpit, Cullen could hear the high-pitched combined whine of the p-drive and generator underdeck in the ship's stern.
Cullen unfolded a seat from the wall, buckled in, and put his mouthguard in. He liked to clear his thoughts prior to the bubble so that whatever unstudied damage that might happen during the pullspace transfer would be lessened by his mind being malleable to the sudden disturbance.
The vibration of the Mericure engine deep in their ship coursed through his chair and into his bones. He rested his head in the cushion of his chair and gripped the armrest.
One of the bonuses of piloting a Mericure bubble was that you were so attuned to the connecting of two points in space that the vast distance seemed to wrap itself around you in a bonded cocoon. The hum disappeared, the vibration in your insides became an empty stillness, and your tongue itched, as though dipping into the power that created it all.
As the hum of the p-drive resounded loudly enough to drown out his loudest yell, Cullen accepted that he would miss the blessing of the Mericure kiss this time around. Even if there might be plenty more opportunities, it was still sweet enough that he envied Jolnes in that moment.
Any second now, the—aah. The vibration bled away like a stinger shot to the elbow, and that was it. Except for the mind twist of knowing how far they'd just traveled without having lifted a toe.
Cullen took his mouthguard out, tucked it in its case, and slid it in the opening under his armrest. He unbuckled, and stood. This bubble had been successful. Not everyone survived a bubble, because when one popped, it was better to be buckled in than have inertia throw you into the nearest hard object.
Reaching toward the dash, he turned on the exterior lights, illuminating rock walls mere meters from the Talis's nose. Torek tapped a button to place a rectangular screen view on the windshield to show the bow of the ship. Behind them, the rock wall had more distance and traveled off down a tunnel where the Talis's light cast shadows past stalactites and stalagmites. No enemies in sight, for now.
Jolnes shook out his arms and made a sound like a happy squirrel.
As he unbuckled, Cullen said, "Nice pull, pilot."
Jolnes smiled up at Cullen in a silent thank you.
Torek stretched and stood, running his tongue over his teeth. "Thanks for not planting us in that rock. This here's a tight landing."
"My pleasure."
"You weapons trained, too?" Cullen asked him.
Jolnes nodded. "Sure am."
Cullen turned. "Good." He led the way down the ladder to the lockers immediately on the left. The metal door clanged against the bulkhead as Cullen reached inside for the first levitor rifle hanging inside. He handed it to Torek and followed up with another two, along with blue vesparan cans for each.
They loaded the vesparan cans into the rifles as they walked to the ship's stern. At the exit, Cullen popped a button. The hatch opened, and the exit ramp hissed as it separated like a tongue from the floor, extending until it reached its limit and lowered to the ground.
Metal ground against rock, magnifying the silence awaiting them.
Cullen slid on the flashlight on his rifle barrel to scan the dry stone walls that curved along the tunnel into darkness. The light landed on a spider as thick as a fist, curled up and hairy, motionless, and one with the wall.
Jolnes had his rifle light on too, and took up flank beside Torek, who reached out to clear spider webs.
Thin fingers of spider web clung to Cullen's face. He grunted and swiped it off his skin.
Galloping footsteps echoed down one of the tunnels.
Torek and Jolnes noticed, too.
"Do you have a call sign to alert them that it's us?" Cullen asked.
"Yeah," Jolnes started. "Hoot like a monkey. You first?"
To their muffled snickers, Cullen just shook his head. "If I shoot—"
An emerging shape in the shadows drew Cullen's rifle light as the other two trained theirs on the source of the footsteps. Approaching them was an Osuna wolverine, a beast as large as a grown bear, but more muscular and agile. Bigger teeth, too. Its black coat allowed it to meld into the shadows as it maneuvered low to the ground with a killer's grace. On its back were two boys, about twelve years of age, hunched over and holding tight against the bounces of the beast's gallop.
"Don't shoot." Jolnes pushed Cullen and Torek's rifles down. "That's one of them."
The beast slowed to a calculated walk fifteen paces away. It snorted as it came closer.
"Emmit?" Jolnes called out.
"I am. And this is Adi. Who're you?" Emmit stopped his wolverine five paces from Jolnes.
"I'm Ocia's pilot. We're here for you, Ocia, and your mother. Where are they?"
"He'll be here, with my mom and a guard, who'll join us back to Kaimerus." Emmit swung his leg over the wolverine's back and jumped off. "First, I need to get into your ship and start on affixing the grill to your p-drive. You guys got water? I'm thirsty, and I bet they are too," he said, thumbing over his shoulder to indicate his friend and beast.
He stopped before Cullen. "Who're you?"
"Captain Re." You're the one fixin' my p-drive? He didn't say it out loud.
"Yes, I am," Emmit said, and pointed away from him. Cullen redirected his rifle light in that direction, and illuminated a chest on the ground he hadn't noticed before. A blanket of weeds hanging off the wall hid all but the base of a handle.
Yes, I am? What?
Emmit let go of the rifle and looked Cullen in the eye. "Yes, I am going to fix your p-drive. I could see your doubts. Are you coming?"
A long chill bristled nerves under Cullen's skin. This boy had just shot a flare of warning as bright as a sun. This close, though, all he could do was go along and observe its path until he knew how best to react.
"Relax," Emmit said. "I'm not a threat. If we want to get out of here before Warden Fletcher's guards find us, then I need to get started now."
Cullen nodded. "Okay, but I'm coming with you."
"Of course." Emmit walked toward the case. "I need your muscles to carry this anyway."
Who is this kid?
Emmit wanted to reply to Cullen's thought, but he didn't know how best to describe himself since reading the note Ocia had left for him.
He had changed, but he was too soon into the process of discovery to describe it or himself. When his wolverine had leapt over the ledge of the quarry toward its first of many bounding angles in a controlled fall to the bottom, and he first heard Adi think, We're gonna die, his first response was that they couldn't. Ocia had given him an amazing gift, and there was no way life could set him on a plateau this high only to yank the floor out from under him—at least, not so soon. Not before he could enjoy his life for more than a few minutes at a time.
He waited to smile until he'd turned from Cullen's shocked face. He hadn't said much to Adi on their thrilling journey down the wall of the quarry and through the mine tunnels. He'd lied about knowing why the wolverine hadn't killed them, and about not knowing where they were going, but when he read Cullen's thought about him being the one to fix Cullen's p-drive, he couldn't help but say, Yes I am, leaving out, Captain Butthole of the mighty Talis. Yes I am, and it won't be long before you thank me.
He pulled the damp blanket of weeds off the chest and slid it out from the wall, grunting
as he tugged on its cargo. Ocia's note had informed him what was inside: ten liters of fuel, the grill, and all the parts and tools he'd need to install it. Reading the note had also unlocked memories of their last session, during which he'd installed a grill inside the neuronet under Ocia's instruction. If that memory worked as well as the one that had guided him to mount the wolverine and ride it successfully down here, then they should all be fine. You're all welcome.
"Did you just say something?" Cullen asked, pausing as Torek helped him with the case.
Does this work both ways? Emmit thought that one quietly, and when Cullen didn't say anything, he just shook his head. "Nope."
He turned his head to hide his smile.
4
The cart carrying Ehli and Nassib leveled out and slowly lost its speed. Nassib stood and jumped out before it stopped. Ehli climbed onto the ledge and jumped soon after, landing in the soft dirt beside the tracks. The cart's headlight shone past the end of the tracks and into a tunnel littered with picks, tool belts and helmet lights.
Now that the dwindling squeak of wheels let her ears take a respite, along with the absence of terror that the cart would throw them into a hard landing, she chose to speak her concerns. "Where are we going?"
Nassib found two headlights, and handed her one.
A new beam of light cast against the wall beside Nassib. "I've procured a ship."
Ehli turned to track Ocia's voice as he walked past the mine cart from a tunnel she hadn't seen, adjusting the focus of his headlight. Ehli held up the levitor pistol. "Will I need this anytime soon?"
"I hope not." They hugged, and he kissed her head. "It was just a precaution, though we're not clear yet. Emmit's gone ahead of us—"
"Oh good." Ehli's next question was where he son was, and a great relief filled her at that news.
"Yes. He's fine. He is getting started on the ship's enhancements we require to get out of here. We should run, though, if your leg is feeling up to it."
Her stupid left leg. She'd pulled her hamstring last fall, and still had problems reinjuring it after long days on her feet. Today was a better day, but she didn't trust it. "How far?"
"Take it easy at first, and go as far as you can. We'll get you some treatment on Kaimerus." Ocia pointed to Nassib behind him. "We'll lead. You guard our tail."
"From what?" Ehli asked.
"In case they find out where we went. Warden Fletcher will regroup, and when he finds out you're missing, he'll come searching."
Ehli managed a healthy pace for at least ten minutes before her hamstring sharply tightened up into her backside. She hobbled to a stop. "Okay, I need a break." The decline of their path made it more difficult for her to control the length of her steps. She reached out for Ocia to come up and help her.
He did, though being more than a head taller than she was, laying her arm over his shoulder was too much of a challenge. He settled on lifting her behind her knees, his other arm under her back. Nassib caught up to them and offered to help, but Ocia shooed him away. "I'll be fine. We're almost there."
Ehli felt stupid being carried like a child to bed—oh how her life had changed since that reality with Emmit—but if it meant being able to walk later that day instead of hobbling for a week or more, she'd accept Ocia's help. "Thanks, Dad," she teased.
"Any time, cuddle bunny."
Ocia had never had a daughter, but from what he'd shared about his family, she had a feeling he'd have been a good father to a daughter. She hoped he'd find his wife and son someday, and that when he did, somehow—beyond likelihood—the Osuna would not have tortured or changed them too much.... The way he told the stories of the experiments and surgeries he'd performed while they held his family hostage, it didn't seem likely that his escape and failure to rescue them could have led to anything but harm for them. That had been six years ago.
Six years. The pain of losing Schaefer had barely dulled in the same amount of time. If she'd lost Emmit, too? She rested her head against Ocia's chest, smelling his sweat and more than a few days since his last bath, but loving him regardless. Her dad hadn't reached his fortieth birthday, and her mom had been taken by the Osuna weeks after her birth, so this was as close to a father as she'd get. I'm glad Emmit has you too. You're so good for him.
In the engine room, Emmit tapped as quickly as possible as his computer lagged through various link ups with the Mericure system. While he sat on the floor typing, Adi stepped over the wires connecting the laptop to the humming p-drive, pacing back toward the hatch Cullen had just left through.
Emmit swallowed the urge to tell his friend to go sit in the corner, and continued blazing through the installation requests. He couldn't really explain what he was doing as much as that he did it from rote memory.
Adi huffed and made another turn at the door.
Emmit's patience bottomed out. "Yes?" he asked, not looking up as he resolved another link step.
"Yes?" Adi laughed. "Yes? As in, oh, is there something out of the ordinary that maybe you'd like to talk about? Or yes." His tone dropped from joking to mocking. "Is there something wrong with me throwing rotten peas in your face?" Adi barked another joyless laugh, and paced one more round of left to right. "What is going on with you?"
He motioned to the thin computer Emmit was hunched over. "When in Lemae's One Eye did you learn how to do that? I've never even seen one of those, and you're talking like someone who's done this his whole life—like an old person who's done this his whole life." He turned to point beyond their room, to the bow of the ship. "And that's not even.... You.... We rode an Osuna wolverine down the face of a cliff! Dang it, Emmit. I even pissed my pants a little." He pointed at his crotch, but Emmit couldn't see a stain. Their pants were ten shades of dirty gray on a good day.
Emmit started laughing. "I'm sorry I brought you the best day of your life and forgot a fresh pair of underwear."
Adi laughed too, relaxing, then caught himself and forced a rigid posture. "No. This isn't funny...." His face cracked into a smile. "Okay, so that was a little funny. You never bring me fresh underwear. No," he said, wiping off his smile. "I'm serious." His pointed finger at Emmit's nose was at least one part serious, and grew more so with each breath. "Who the Lemae's Eye are you?"
"My name's Emmit," he said slowly, as though Adi were one step slow, and reached out to shake hands.
Adi swatted at him, but Emmit pulled back. "Shut up," Adi said. "That's not what I mean. You know what I mean. I thought we... I thought we were friends." His voice strained, and it looked like he was on the verge of tears.
That cut the humor from the moment with a tall blade. Emmit considered giving him a hug. "We are friends. Of course we are. Always have been. Always will be."
"Then tell me the truth." His voice growled with anger. "How do you know that?" Adi pointed at the computer. Then at the bow of the ship. "Since when can you ride wolverines?"
Emmit opened his mouth to respond—
"And if you lie to me right now, I swear I'll walk right back into my cell and pray the Darkness meets ten times the punishment you deserve."
Emmit looked his friend in the eye, and took a deep breath. His head slowly shook left to right. He shrugged. "This is as much, if not more, of a surprise to me as it is to you."
"Goat piss. What does that even mean? You jus—you don't just... talk like that. When did you learn those things? You're...you're like a completely different person."
Emmit thought back to when he'd approached the wolverine, how his mind had played back a life he'd already lived that would catch him and right his path if he veered too far in the wrong direction. In this moment, he saw no future. There were no bars to keep him safe. The openness terrified him, overwhelming him with vulnerability. "I am not a different person. I'm—"
"Then how? What's changed?"
He remembered the paper from the beacon. He'd set it inside the chest. "I'll show you." He produced the beacon, popped open the top and held it up for Adi to take the paper ou
t.
Adi did. He unfolded the paper. His face reflected curiosity, then confusion. He flipped the blank paper around for Emmit to see. "There's nothing on it."
Emmit snatched it and twisted it around to the second blank side, then back to the first. "How is…?" His legs lost their strength. He couldn't help but sit down. Sweat dripped off his cheek. His throat was as dry as the end of a trip to the third ridge.
"Is this part of the act? Because if it is, you can save it." Adi paced toward the hatch, and halted when it slid open.
Cullen just managed to stop before colliding with Adi. He shuffled two of the three bottles in his hands, before trapping them against his chest.
The condensation dripping off the clear bottles of water made Emmit salivate.
Cullen watched Adi go, then turned to Emmit. "He does realize this is a small ship, right? I mean, unless he would rather stay on Setuk." Cullen offered Emmit a bottle.
The cap released as Emmit hurriedly twisted it to get the contents into his mouth. He didn't know which he was more afraid of, passing out or throwing up, but both seemed a likely outcome if he didn't get something different into his system.
"Wow, if I knew you were that thirsty I would have run to get you that."
Emmit gasped, and almost choked on the sudden onrush of water. He coughed, and wiped his wet mouth on his sleeve.
"You can have mine too if you need it."
Emmit forced down his coughs to finish his bottle, and accepted Cullen's as well. He downed half of its contents, and handed it back. "Thanks. That was good." Really, it was. They didn't get cold water in prison.
"I appreciate you helping get this ship upgraded, and that we don't know how long we have before more guests arrive." Cullen glanced at the screen where Emmit was working, then back to Emmit. "But if you need someone to talk to, after what you just went through, I'm here."
Emmit studied him. His head was throbbing, and he figured he'd have the stamina needed to get the job done, but he also had questions about the twister that had changed his life in the last half hour.