The moment the Harland’s engines flared to life, pushing it away from the station at speeds too fast for it to return anytime soon, Fisher was off like a shot. He was out of his chair and running for the lift. No one got in his way. The trip back to medical took just as long as everything else seemed to take on this day of extended eternities, but finally he was there.
Pendt still lay on the medical cot, but Dulcie had switched her IV for something more healthy than the fluid they’d used to fool Arkady. Ned was hovering beside her, holding her hand as the drip of nutrients restored their hope to her blood. He looked up when Fisher came in.
“Gone?” he asked.
“Gone,” Fisher said.
Ned put his head on Pendt’s chest and breathed deeply, like he was trying to put the world back in order.
“We’ve almost done it,” Ned said. “Now it’s up to her.”
“It’s always been up to her,” Fisher said, and it was true.
This girl who came to him from the middle of space and learned how to love for his sake. She was the most wonderful person he had ever met. He needed her. He needed her to wake up. Fisher stepped up to the side of the cot opposite his brother and took Pendt’s shoulder. Her hand was full of needles, and he didn’t want to disturb any of them.
“Pendt, my amazing girl, they’re gone. They’re gone for good,” he said. “It’s safe now, and I need you to wake up. Please. Please wake up.”
It was hard.
It was the hardest thing she’d ever done.
The job was finished.
She had been successful.
The lock was changed.
The boys were safe.
The station was safe.
She could rest.
NO.
NO.
NO.
She couldn’t rest yet.
She had more things to do.
Pendt Brannick, who had been a Harland and had learned which parts of that she wanted to carry, began to pull herself out of the abyss.
* * *
• • •
“Wake up, Pendt,” Fisher said. “We have a station to run.”
Green eyes opened.
27.
THE DAY NED BRANNICK left the station of his birth the second time was unremarkable. He was dead, after all, and very few people had known about his return. The most complicated part was finding a new group of rebels that would take him in, but his supposition had been correct: As a dead man who had escaped from one of the Hegemony’s most mysterious prisons, he was quite useful to the cause. His new captain made him no promises about when or if an attempt would be made to rescue the surviving crew of the Cleland, but Ned didn’t expect one. This time, he had a better idea of what he was getting into.
Only Pendt had come down to see him off. Fisher was up in operations, where he was needed to work the Well.
“Try to send us the occasional message this time,” Pendt said, throwing her arms around his neck.
“Can two dead people write to each other?” Ned asked, grinning. It was his favourite joke.
“They’d better,” Pendt said. “Or your brother will kill us both again.”
Ned had no last name now. He hadn’t picked one yet. He didn’t need one for the register on this ship, and Brannick was too obvious. Pendt Harland was no more, either. Pendt Brannick had taken her place.
“Maybe you can come and visit,” Ned said. “Separately, of course.”
Brannick Station was slightly more secure now, with two inhabitants able to control the gene-lock. Pendt and Fisher would never be able to leave the station together, but neither would they both be trapped here forever.
“We might,” Pendt said. She had other plans, but she didn’t doubt their paths would cross again someday.
Ned picked up his few belongings and his new weapons chest and walked up the ramp to the airlock. The captain had not come out to meet him, but a crew member stood waiting for him.
“Goodbye, Ned,” Pendt said. It was a simple farewell for anyone who was watching. The previous night, when the brothers had spoken, was much more emotional.
“Goodbye, Pendt,” he said.
She waited until the airlock was finished cycling, and then she took the lift up to operations, where Fisher was beginning to coordinate the departure. She watched him work, so happy for him that she thought she might burst.
“Calculations are cleared, Fisher,” said one of the techs. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Fisher smiled and turned the key. The lock recognized him, and the Well flared to life. The rebel ship streaked towards its destination, leaving rainbows of light in its wake. As the ship disappeared, Fisher breathed out.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that,” he said. Pendt crossed the floor and took his hand.
“I’m sure the people who live here will be glad to hear it,” Pendt said.
The operations staff laughed. Pendt squeezed his fingers and pulled him towards the office so they could speak in private.
“I can’t believe Ned is gone again,” Fisher said once the door closed. Pendt began to make them tea. “I mean, of course I can. It’s just, I was used to him being alive and here, and now he’s gone. I have so many questions for him about the station. Things I didn’t even know to ask before you changed everything.”
“You’ll figure it out,” Pendt said. “We’ll figure it out. We’ll make a new system and iron out the bugs as we find them.”
“Dulcie will kill us if we mess with the schedule again,” Fisher said.
“I think I’ve worked it all out,” Pendt said, a bit defensively. “And anyway, she told me she likes the changes, now that people are starting to settle into them.”
She brought the tea over. Fisher took both cups out of her hands and set them on the side table so he could pull her into his lap. She didn’t resist.
“I miss him too,” she said, resting her head against his shoulder. “And I worry about him, even though he’s only just left. And in a way, that makes me happy. I had five brothers, and not a single one of them cared about me. Now I have one, and he’s perfect.”
“I’m really glad he didn’t hear you say that,” Fisher said. “He’s already insufferable.”
Pendt laughed. Fisher took a sip of tea. It wasn’t so bad.