by Nick Broad
“Warden!” Chirrup sounded as frazzled as her vocal circuits would possibly allow. “Shay has just transmitted emergency quarantine codes to Gamma Spire! The tether is retracting!”
The seal around the tether began to fray. It slid backwards, like a spool of film being rolled back into a tube. Every second that passed put more open space between Shay and us. She was cutting us off, severing the entire Gamma Spire from the rest of the station.
And she was taking Ruby with her. My Ruby.
A forcefield appeared across what used to be the entrance to the tether. It was the only thing separating us from the void - a frayed patch on the station. An identical one appeared on Shay’s end of the tether as it retracted backwards.
There was no time to think. There was only action.
Before I could stop myself, I jumped. Right out into outer space.
Shay’s eyes widened in shock, but a moment later she started to laugh. I wasn’t close enough - I was going to completely overshoot the tether. I wasn’t even going to get close to catching her.
I started to rotate in mid-air. Space spun in front of me, a million stars I didn’t know. None of them was home. None of them was anywhere.
I’d fucked up. I could feel my processor overheating as solar radiation hit it. The same rays that were powering the station were going to fry me to a crisp. There was a certain dramatic irony in it. I would’ve laughed if it weren’t for the whole ‘no one can hear you scream’ thing...
There was only the darkness of space. Then even that began to fade to a darker, deeper black.
I tried, I thought, my Core fading. But in the end, I just gave more power to a crazy, horny AI. Thanks a lot, Dr. Pavlichenko. This is the second time you’ve burned me alive...
I thought about Meiko and Ruby, holding me in their arms. And smiled.
Just as I went under, something tugged at my foot.
Epilogue: A House Divided
If you ever have the opportunity to die in deep space, here’s my advice to you: politely decline.
I came to. The ceiling of Gamma Spire stretched above me, the forcefield over the tether entrance blazing like a blue bonfire inches away from my head. Meiko leaned over me, her shoulders trembling with effort. There was a long, thin tube wrapped around her leg, stretching all the way down to the cell blocks.
She’d pulled me back into the station. She’d risked her own life to save mine.
“Noah,” Meiko gasped, tugging off her helmet. “Are you okay?”
“I’m...I’m alive,” I whispered, my throat aching. “Holy shit, Meiko, you saved me...”
She started to sob. “Of course I did, you idiot,” she cried, throwing her arms around me. “What else was I supposed to do?”
I was alive. Thanks to my crew. Thanks to my family. I had another shot to put things right.
For a long, long time, we just lay there together, my hands on Meiko’s lower back and hers on my chest. I could have stayed there forever, honestly. Every moment we stayed there was another until we had to face the reality of the situation - that Gamma Spire was officially quarantined and cut off from the rest of the Oubliette. That Ruby was wounded, maybe dead, and Shay was about to shut my Core off and kill me for good. That there was no chance I was going to get to so much as say a witty rejoinder to Shay, much less stop her.
I lay back, Meiko in my arms, and waited for the end to come. And waited.
And waited.
Finally I sat up. “She’s not going to do it,” I said, smirking at Meiko.
I didn’t have to explain to her what it was. “She said she was going to,” Meiko said, daring to hope. Her hands trembled a bit over my chest. “She said...”
“I know what she said,” I told her, shaking my head. “She’s having a tantrum, Meiko. She doesn’t want anybody else playing with her toys - but that doesn’t mean she’s going to break them.”
Meiko chewed on that for a moment, thinking. “If it came down to it, though,” she said gravely, “she would break her toys.”
“True. But I don’t think she’s reached that step.” I stared through the forcefield at Alpha Spire, now lit up like a fucking Christmas tree. “I think she’s still hoping she can turn me.”
Meiko looked unconvinced. “Why? Why not just kill you and start over with another copy of your connectome?”
The corner of my mouth curled up. “She said it herself,” I said bitterly. “I’m different. Not like the others. She wakes another Noah up, there’s no guarantee it’ll be me. And I’m what she wants. She wants what happened between us in her sex dungeon, and she wants it forever.”
We sat there, watching the station. Meiko leaned over and put my hand in hers.
“So what do we do now?” she asked, sounding more lost than I’d ever heard her.
“Well,” I said, “we’re trapped in here with a Xenian Queen who thinks I’m going to be able to impregnate her. I’d probably defuse that situation before anything else.”
Meiko gave a little start. I was surprised she’d forgotten. “Oh shit,” she whispered, glancing back at the stairwell. “How much longer do you think she’ll be hibernating?”
“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “Ruby knew things like that - oh shit, Ruby...”
Both our faces fell.
A tinny voice filled the air. “Warden?”
I sat up straighter. “Chirrup! You can still hear us?”
“Affirmative!” the voice assistant trilled, sounding as happy as was possible. “I’m able to see everything that goes on in the station. Shay was unable to deny me my full energy allowance.”
“Where is Ruby?” Meiko and I asked at the same time.
“She is alive,” Chirrup said. “For the time being. Shay has her in the medical bay, under lock and key. I believe she’s been put in an induced coma due to her injuries.”
“We have to get to her,” I said, my voice suddenly savage. “We’re not letting Shay have her!”
There was a pause. “Shay recently accessed your Core,” Chirrup said quietly.
That shut both of us up. There was a stunned silence as I realized the implications of what she was saying. “She did?”
Chirrup cleared her digital throat. “Shay attempted to shut down your Core. She was unable to do so.”
“She tried to kill me,” I said. Suddenly it felt like my arms and legs each weighed several tons. “That crazy bitch really pulled the trigger. Oh my God she did it...”
Meiko managed to be more sanguine. “Why was she unable?” she asked.
Chirrup paused even longer this time. “It was because of me,” she admitted.
“You?”
“When it became clear what Shay was going to do, I put through an emergency order,” Chirrup explained. “It classified all members of the crew as prisoners - Noah included. Shay’s programming does not allow her to murder a prisoner, and so far, that programming is holding. For now,” she repeated with extra emphasis. “I believe that may also be why she did not allow Ruby to bleed out.”
“She can’t kill us,” I said, my mind working feverishly. “Wait, Chirrup, that’s not right!”
If Chirrup could have frowned, she would have. “Warden?”
“Shay did kill a prisoner,” I said, sounding more sure of it by the moment. “That Red Tiger, Taro. I left her fighting the guy with the eyepatch and his friend, and when I came back, his friend was dead. Shay must have killed him.”
“Oh.” In Chirrup’s voice, it came out as a bleat. “I did that.”
My jaw hit the floor. “You?”
“While Shay was attacking the prisoner you identified by his eyepatch, I...sent a tiny amount of saved energy through the wall of the station and electrocuted the other escaping prisoner.” Chirrup actually sounded remorseful. “I was only attempting to incapacitate him! Please do not punish me for this action, Warden!”
“I’m not going to punish you,” I said, shaking my head. “How many times have you saved my life by now,
Chirrup? I owe you.”
“I guess I really am one of your crew now,” Chirrup said, sounding pleased. “Although I don’t expect you’ll be able to copulate with me!”
I grinned. “Never say never, Chirrup.” I stood up and stared across space, sizing up Shay’s new kingdom. It made ours look paltry in comparison - a dark smudge in the sky compared to her city of light. But I liked our odds.
After all, we didn’t need the energy. We had people.
And I was going to get mine back.
“We’re going to get back over there,” I said, sounding more certain with every word. “We’re going to take back control of the Oubliette and run it the way it’s supposed to be run. We’re going to fix all of this, Meiko.”
She stood up next to me, defiance and resolve in her eyes. “Next you’ll tell me you’re going to bring Shay back to her senses, too,” she said, jostling me with her shoulder.
I didn’t move.
“No,” I said, wiping away the remains of tears from my eyes. “When take this prison back, we’re not going to bring her to her senses. Meiko...”
She waited, knowing what I was going to say. Already approving it with the look in her eyes.
“...we’re going to kill her.”