“Airlock cycle starting now,” said Dulcie over their private communications. “Good luck.”
“Pendt?” That was Fisher. “Are you still there?”
“I’m just about to start,” she told him, “but I knew you’d want to talk first.”
“Just . . . be careful, okay?” he said. “And, Ned, do whatever you can.”
“I will,” Pendt said. “Charge Arkady twice the normal docking fee for me.”
“I love you too,” Fisher said, and the channel clicked off.
“Well?” said Ned. Pendt held her hands up to the plate behind which was the gene-lock that ruled their lives. “Dying’s not all it’s cracked up to be. I don’t recommend it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Pendt said. She started to reach for the familiar pattern, so close to her heart. “See you on the other side.”
She stretched.
She twisted.
She found her way through.
It was as simple as she thought. X marks the spot.
But it was hard. So hard to actually do.
She hadn’t eaten enough.
There wasn’t enough food in the whole galaxy.
A body couldn’t hold it.
A soul could.
Isn’t that what she had learned?
That there was something about human life that changed the rules?
Something that made people choose to do the right thing when it was hard.
The hard thing when it hurt.
The hurtful thing because they liked the pain.
Messy and complicated.
Full of life.
Full of love.
Full of something, at last, for once in her whole life.
She found the thread she needed.
And pulled.
* * *
• • •
Captain Arkady Harland walked off her ship like she had conquered Brannick Station. The boy who was left here couldn’t cause her any trouble, even with her idiot niece trying to pull his strings. He was alone, and she was powerful. Everything in the universe turned towards her right now. It was her time.
Beside her, Lodia was almost as determined. If she’d ever felt anything for the girl she bore, space had driven it out of her. It had been years since Arkady had been bothered by flashes of maternal instinct. She felt none when Tanith’s baby was born with no connection to the æther and she’d ordered it spaced. Lodia had borne children more recently than her sister, but she was still a Harland. She knew how to act.
The Brannick boy stood alone, waiting for them. He looked almost bored. Whatever Pendt had conned him into doing, he clearly had no idea what he was getting involved with. Probably she didn’t either. Arkady had spent a lot of time keeping her in the dark.
“Captain Arkady, welcome back,” Fisher Brannick said. “We weren’t expecting you for some time, of course, but we’re always happy to see familiar ships in port.”
It was a canned greeting, stale as recycled air.
“We received your supplementary message,” he continued. “I’m afraid your request to take your niece back with you cannot be fulfilled.”
Arkady grinned. No idea at all.
“I have a document here signed and witnessed by the Stavenger Hegemony,” she said, brandishing her datapad in his face. “It annuls the ridiculous marriage between our two families and returns custody of Pendt to me. So much the better, I’m sure you’ll agree. She clearly cannot be trusted to make her own decisions.”
A muscle in the boy’s cheek twitched. The fool had come to like Pendt Harland.
“It doesn’t matter what documents you have,” Fisher said. “Your niece is dead. We think she panicked when she heard your ship had docked, and she tried to connect to the æther and overextended herself. She’s on a slab in medical right now, if you want to see her.”
“Dead?” said Lodia. “But she— We need her to— She can’t—”
“Take us to your medical facility immediately,” Arkady ordered. “Lodia, remain here and make sure the other exchange does not take place until I return. Fetch Dr. Morunt. I want her with me.”
Pendt’s mother nodded and went back to the ship.
* * *
• • •
Arkady was furious by the time they arrived in medical. It made Fisher feel a bit better. At least she was distracted and not coming up with ways to humiliate him. She hadn’t asked how the station was still operating, but maybe his Dr. Morunt hadn’t given up all their secrets after all. The Harland’s Dr. Morunt was quiet. She had to know that if Pendt was dead, Arkady was unlikely to let her go. It was so much trust to place in a woman he didn’t know, but Pendt seemed sure of her.
“This way, please.” Fisher ushered them into the bay where Pendt had been laid out. Dulcie was with her, monitoring the feeds and changing the “embalming” fluid as necessary. Ned was somewhere close by, Fisher was sure. “Here she is.”
“What are you doing to her?” Dr. Morunt asked.
“She was married to the Brannick,” Fisher said. “Our people expect a public funeral. This is how we prepare her for it.”
“Check,” Arkady gritted out.
Dr. Morunt stepped forward and put her hands on Pendt’s chest. She was so, so still. Fisher could barely look at her. The IV dripped, and he hoped, but it was still very hard to watch.
Morunt pulled back from the body.
“She’s dead, Captain,” Morunt confirmed. “The embalming process has already started to work.”
She looked right at Fisher when she said it and blinked very slowly. Arkady was too incensed to notice. Fisher knew it wasn’t a power play on the doctor’s part. It was a choice to be better. He wished he could give her the world, and was even more grateful to her, because she had to know he couldn’t.
“Take us back to the Harland,” Arkady snapped at Fisher. She grabbed the doctor by the arm, squeezing hard. “I’ll tell your brother the deal is off.”
Sylvie Morunt didn’t say another word, all the way back to the docking bay. It was the longest wait of Fisher’s life, watching them cycle through the airlock. He went back to operations and walked them through their departure like it was a normal one. He didn’t ask where they were going. He didn’t think Arkady knew.