She slammed her hand on the controls. The ship broke through, too fast, hurtling out of the sublayer and straight for the upper pylons of the cage.
“Shit!” She sent them starboard, hard, gritting her teeth as she tried to throw the bulky ship aside. Kizzy was yelling something about the portside strip, but she didn’t have time to hear what it was before she felt the strip give out, sending them into a tumble. Sissix worked fast, angling them toward an empty gap. The Wayfarer groaned in protest, but she didn’t listen. She pointed their nose toward the gap, and shut down the remaining strips.
They passed the pylons, flying clear, coasting into empty space.
Sissix put her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. Behind her, she heard Dr. Chef mutter something comforting before carrying the wheezing Sianat out of the control room. She heard Ashby unbuckle his safety harness and walk over to her. She felt him press his palm against her back. She did not look up.
“We’re okay,” he said. She didn’t know if he was speaking to her or to himself. “We’re okay.”
She ran her palms up through her feathers, breathing hard, keeping her head down. “Are we all okay?”
Kizzy lay down on the engine room floor. Rosemary sat slumped against the wall. Neither one of them spoke. There was nothing to say. Kizzy started laughing all the same.
“What’s so funny?” Rosemary said.
Kizzy pressed her feet against the floor as laughter welled up from her belly. “I don’t know!” She covered her eyes with her palm. “I don’t know! I’m gonna have so much shit to clean up!” She cackled, holding her side with her other hand. She peeked through her fingers at Rosemary, who had joined in the laughter, though from the bewildered look on her face, it was definitely directed at Kizzy. Kizzy half-heartedly threw a dirty rag at her. “Oh, fuck, I need a drink. And some smash. I’m going over to whatever the closest station is, and I am going to get laid. Stars, if there was ever a time that I deserved to get laid, it’s right fucking—”
“Wait,” Rosemary said, turning her head. “Did you hear something?”
Kizzy sat up, falling silent. There was nothing but the hum of the engine room, the out-of-balance clicks and whirs of all the shit she’d have to fix. Then, a voice, from way down the corridor. Down by the core. “Kizzy!” Jenks. “Kizzy, help!”
She was on her feet before she knew it, her boots pounding loud against the metal floor. She skidded to a stop at the core doorway. Lovey’s core was still glowing, still functional. But the surrounding walls, covered with the little green lights that Jenks checked so carefully twice a day, were now a maze of blinking red. Kizzy pressed her palm against her mouth.
“Kizzy,” Jenks said. He was down in the pit, throwing his gloves aside. “Kizzy, I need my tools. I need my tools right now.” He ran his hands over the surface of the core. “Lovey, can you hear me? Lovey? Lovey, say something.”
Day 158, GC Standard 307
HARD RESET
Lovey? Are you there?
I can’t see anything. Why? Why can’t I see—
Lovey. It’s me. Jenks. Can you hear me?
Jenks.
Yes.
You aren’t me. That isn’t you.
Lovey, I’m patched into your core right now.
What did you do?
I’m wearing a slap patch. Like we use for games. Everything’s okay.
That’s dangerous. You said you’d never do that. We said. You could hurt your brain. Is the sun shining?
What?
Well, is it?
… yes.
That’s good. I can’t make sense.
I know. Kizzy and I are trying to fix it.
Kizzy.
Yes. You know Kizzy, right?
Do you know Kizzy?
Lovey, I need to assess the damage, but even your diagnostic systems are fried. Can you access them?
What happened to me?
We got hit with an energy weapon. Everyone else is okay. Can you access your diagnostic systems?
I don’t like them. They’re far.
Lovey, I need you to try, if you can.
There’s a comet outside.
No, there’s not.
I’m going to look at it now.
I know this is hard, but please, try to focus. Focus on me.
Lovey, are you there?
Lovey?
Sissix paused as she punched commands into the docking hatch controls. It had been a long time since she had manually run a contamination scan. Nothing terribly complicated about it, just pushing buttons. But Sissix hadn’t ever needed to push those buttons. It was something Lovey always did.
Cascade failure. That was the word Kizzy had used. The GC had offered to send a repair crew to help with the rest of the ship, but Jenks told Ashby he’d leave for good if they set one foot onboard. He’d been swearing and shouting over the idea of “hackjob bigots” who wouldn’t understand why he hadn’t just shut Lovey down and reinstalled her platform by now. Kizzy, unable to leave the core, had requested an alternative source of assistance.
Sissix glanced out the window as the shuttle clanked into place. Pepper’s ship. Pretty standard interplanetary craft, but even with her limited view, Sissix could see a few modifications. Central space was just a quick two-hop trip from Port Coriol, but even so, getting to them should’ve taken a day, at least. Pepper had done it in ten hours. Whatever that shuttle had beneath the hood, it wasn’t something you could buy above board. Under any other circumstances, Sissix would’ve been dying to take it for a spin.
The hatch opened once the scan was complete. Pepper stepped out, carrying an overnight bag and a toolbox. She hugged Sissix, warmly but quickly, almost in midstep.
“How’s everybody doing?” Pepper asked, heading toward the stairs. No nonsense. She was here to work, and she wasn’t going to waste any time in getting to it. Sissix liked that.
“As you might expect.”
“Tired, stressed out, shaken up?”
“That about covers it.”
Pepper stopped, struggling with the weight of her toolbox. “You’ve got freight elevators, right?”
Sissix inclined her head back the way they came. “This way.”
“Thanks. I’ve got a fuckton of wrenches in here.”
“We’ve got wrenches.”
“Yeah, but these are my wrenches.”
They climbed into the elevator. Pepper set the toolbox down with a clang. “How are Kizzy and Jenks holding up?”
Sissix pressed the control panel. The elevator whirred to life, lurching downward. “You’ll need to talk to Kizzy for the details—”
Pepper waved her hand. “I don’t mean tech specs. I’m asking what kind of people I can expect to meet down there. Kizzy looked wrecked on the sib.”
Sissix looked Pepper in the eye. “She deployed a pack of fixbots.”
Pepper gave a low whistle. “Shit. This is gonna be worse than I thought.”
Ashby rubbed his eyes, and looked again at the med bay air filter. He’d taken basic tech repair back in college. This couldn’t be that hard. He exhaled, and continued his attempt at opening the circuit cover. Any other time, he would’ve left it for the techs. But this wasn’t like any other time, and it was his damn ship that was falling apart. He had to do something.