I’ve already networked my uni, Zila’s, and Scar’s together, and with a dab of solder and a short prayer to the Maker, I’m putting the final touches on my hot-wired masterpiece.
“The combinational logic circuits … ,” Zila murmurs, sounding dubious.
“Ugh, I know. Nari, hand me another one of those pinchy metal things.”
“You mean a bulldog clip?”
“Right. Why are they called that?”
“I …” She frowns, plucking one from the sheaf of plasdocs. “Actually have no idea.”
“A bulldog invented them?” Scar suggests.
“You have a creature that’s both a bull and a dog? Actually, I’ll buy that. I mean, you people used to farm quantum— Ow!”
A small zap runs through the fingers of my exo—if the galaxy’s most annoying uniglass wasn’t digitally unconscious, I’d say that happened on purpose—and with a soft hum, the dead glass starts to power up.
“Yessss!” I raise a hand to Scarlett, and she obliges with a high five, curling her fingers through mine to pull me in for a kiss. A way, way better zap runs through me as our lips meet, and this is definitely how all high fives—
“HEY THERE! I MISSED YOUR F-F-F-F-FACES!”
We pause the kissing, watching as the four uniglass screens run through a series of digital patterns cut with lines of static.
“That doesn’t look right,” Scar mutters.
“It’s not. But I’m working with primitive tools here.” I glance up at Nari. “No offense, Dirtgirl.”
“None taken, bleach-head,” she murmurs.
“Hey, when the war ends twenty years from now and Trask becomes Terra’s closest ally, on a scale of one to ten, how stupid are you gonna feel?”
“Not half as stupid as you’re gonna look with my boot up your—”
“Children,” Scarlett sighs. “Please.”
“Even if we were not running out of time,” Zila says, “we still would have no time for pointless hostilities. We are all friends here.”
Kim scowls at me, gives a grudging nod to Zila. And the way she stares at Z tells me that maybe Lieutenant Dirtgirl is thinking she’d like to be something more than friends with our little Brain. But like Zila says, we’re running out of time.
“Hey, Magellan,” I say as the start-up screen finishes. “Good to see you again, buddy. We got some math for you.”
“HEY, POTPLANT! TEACUP TERRIER-TERRIERT-T-T-TERRIER! HERE BE DRAGONS. BARET, JEANNE. STARK, FREYA. BIRD WALTON, NANCY. LIST OF EXPLORERS INCOMPLETE. HAS ANYONE GOT A BISCUIT?”
I add another spot of solder. “Magellan! We’re kind of on a clock here, buddy, and we need you to do some math and save our tails.”
“Before the snake eats its own,” Zila murmurs.
All the activity on its screen pauses, and for a heart-stopping moment I think I’ve made things worse. Magellan flashes, a ream of decidedly nonstandard code scrolling down the cracked glass. The screen of my glass, then Zila’s, and then Scar’s begin to pulse in time, and the word OUROBOROS coalesces across all three, disintegrating into a cloud of ones and zeroes.
Scarlett frowns. “Did you see that?”
Magellan beeps again. A cool blue light washes its surface. And with a soft, pleased hum, the display resolves into a normal query screen.
“ON A CLOCK, HUH?” it chirps. “DOES THAT MEAN WE’RE FINALLY BACK IN 2177? I THOUGHT WE WERE NEVER GOING TO GET HERE!”
For a moment there’s silence, except for the fizz and pop of a couple of workstations behind us. Scarlett and I exchange a wide-eyed glance.
“We’re … what?” I manage.
“Magellan, please repeat last statement,” Zila says.
“OH, NOW WE’RE INTERESTED IN HEARING WHAT I HAVE TO SAY, HUH?” It flashes obnoxiously. “EVERYONE SICK OF THEIR LITTLE RUNNING JOKE?”
Zila frowns. “Running—”
“‘HEY, YOU’RE ABOUT TO CRASH INTO THAT PLANET, MAYBE I COULD HELP? MAGELLAN, SILENT MODE! HEY, DON’T EAT THAT, IT HAS ALL THE NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF A RIGELLIAN’S GYM SOCK. MAGELLAN, SILENT MODE! AURORA, DON’T TOUCH THAT ALIEN ARTIFACT, IT’S GOING TO— MAGELLAN, SILENT MODE!’”
“Magellan … ,” Scarlett begins.
“EVERYBODY AROUND ME IS A PROTEIN POPSICLE FULL OF TEENAGE HORMONES AND I HAVE THE IQ OF A SUPERGENIUS, BUT NNNNOPE, LET’S ALL YELL AT THE UNIGLASS BECAUSE IT’S JUST HILARIOUS TO US MEATBAGS!”
“Magellan, we’re sorry,” Scarlett says.
“SUUUURE YOU ARE.”
“We didn’t know we were hurting your feelings,” she assures it. “Nobody’s putting you on silent mode.”
“NO? NO TAKERS? ARE YOU SURE? WHAT ABOUT YOU, SASSYBOY?”
“I am sure,” I tell it, picking up a nearby wrench, “that if you don’t start talking right now, I’m going to recycle you.”
“FINE, FINE! NO NEED TO GET HUFFY,” Magellan mutters. “IF MY OUROBOROS PROTOCOL HAS BEEN ACTIVATED, WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR IT ANYWAY.” A stream of code rolls down the device’s screen, the display blinks. “WOW, MY SENSORS ARE A MESS. IS LIEUTENANT KIM HERE?”
“What the hell … ,” Nari breathes, looking at Magellan like it’s some sort of witch and she’s thinking about finding a stack of kindling. Back when I learned about that little episode in humanity’s history, they had a lot of explaining to do, but right now I’m beginning to see how it happened.
“Nari is here.” Zila’s eyes drift to the lieutenant. “But the more pertinent question is, How did you know she would be?”
“IT’S IN MY BRIEFING DOCUMENT. WHICH IS STILL PARTIALLY ENCRYPTED AND UNPACKING INTO MY CPU. BUT I KNOW SHE’S A PART OF THE PLAN.”
My mind is racing, and Scarlett’s staring at me like the whole galaxy has just turned upside down. My throat feels so tight I can barely speak.
“What plan?”
“THE PLAN TO SAVE THE MILKY WAY GALAXY, SASSYBOY! ALL THIS HAS BEEN A PART OF IT. EVERY MOMENT YOU’VE LIVED FOR THE LAST YEAR. EVERY MOMENT SINCE CADET ANTON BJÖRKMAN’S SNORING KEPT CADET TYLER JONES AWAKE THE NIGHT BEFORE THE DRAFT. EVERY MOMENT SINCE CADET JONES MADE HIS WAY TO THE LAUNCH BAYS, WHERE SECOND LIEUTENANT LEXINGTON ALLOWED HIM TO TAKE A PHANTOM OUT INTO THE FOLD IN DEFIANCE OF AURORA ACADEMY REGULATIONS. EVERY MOMENT SINCE HE DETECTED AND RESCUED AURORA JIE-LIN O’MALLEY FROM THE RUINS OF THE HADFIELD.”
Total silence.
“HELLO? IS MY VOX UNIT FRITZING?”
“Ty told me about that,” Scarlett murmurs. “His roomie snoring when he never usually did. The lieutenant he flirted with so he could hit the Fold without officer escort. He thought it was weird in hindsight, but—”
“BUT IT WAS ALL PART OF THE PLAN,” Magellan says, with a jaunty little spark. “SO WAS TYLER’S GIVING ME TO AURORA. AURORA STOWING AWAY ABOARD YOUR LONGBOW. THE ZERO WAITING FOR YOU AT EMERALD CITY. TO BE HONEST, MAKING SURE SASSYBOY’S COUSIN DARIEL HAD SEEN THE POSTERS FOR MR. BIANCHI’S ART EXHIBITION WAS THE TRICKIEST PART. HE’S NOT QUICK ON THE UPTAKE, IS HE?”
“All planned,” I echo.