The stars faded even with my eyes open and I drifted, cold and swollen.
Maybe this was the end of my air? My fall into sleep?
I had become so much, but I hadn’t yet really flown.
Tsawo would be the only ambassador left.
Something bumped my foot.
I grunted, opened my eyes, and tried vainly to twist around and see if it was a robot with six claws.
A piece of silver metal flashed in my poor peripheral vision. Then it came around, right in front of me. One of the battle drones from the Lily Star. It was the size I would be if I curled into a ball and cut off my wings.
What did it want?
It brushed against my hand.
Oh.
A rail would clearly serve as a handle. I reached for it with one hand, then rolled onto my belly as if I were swimming in air and grabbed it with my other hand as well. My fingers were bloated. They refused to curl far. Even a light grip made it feel like my skin wanted to split open.
I held on. My fingers burned.
The drone began moving.
I could see the Anvil now, behind the drone, way too far away.
The drone rotated, turning. The bulk of the far Lily Star obscured a swath of stars.
I smiled.
A voice trickled through my helmet, and I recognized the master of beasts, Romi. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” My voice sounded thin. I said it again, louder. “Yes!”
“I’ll meet you in the hold. How much oxygen do you have?”
I glanced at the thin red line on my HUD. “A minute?”
A long moment of silence stretched inside of my short minute, and then Romi snapped, “Hold your breath when you have to.”
The drone pulled me through the void, my arms aching, my feathers trailing behind me. I focused on the pain of curled, fat fingers and the pain of each breath.
Romi waited in the open doorway of the Lily Star. As we came close, he took my arm and pulled me toward him, helping force my feet to the ground in the low gravity. He unzipped the empty oxygen bottle I still clutched in my right hand and twisted a new hose into place.
I tried breathing.
Nothing.
He held up a finger, then nodded.
Air flowed. Air. Beloved, sweet, painful air.
He backed into my distended stomach and bent over, pulling my arms over his shoulders. From there, he dragged me to a low cart and lay down on it on his back, pulling me on top of him. The cart zipped off.
I almost choked, shut my mouth, and fought the pain of moving this way.
The cart headed straight for a cargo airlock. Once we were inside, the door clanged shut. As the chamber filled with air, I lay there, cold and fat, new pains screaming for attention.
Air tasted golden. Sweet. Pressure was a gift of the gods. My skin hurt, my head throbbed, and I drifted in and out of regret and hope.
Romi slapped me. “Stay with me!”
I choked, and then laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
Life was the funniest thing in the universe, the best thing, the most whole and complete thing. I laughed because I had been saved, and when I could manage it, I clutched Romi to me.