Carriles met Vicks and Shad in the docking bay. Shad had a rifle slung across their chest. Their face was bloodied, but they were standing. The rest of the area was chaotic. Some people were still alive, tended to by Liu and other crew members.
The firefight that had cost Wu his life hadn’t been limited to his brawl with Stegman. The Carriles contingent had to engage with Delmar’s group—which included the mercenaries they’d initially snuck aboard to take on the Mutual.
Bodies were strewn around the docking bay. Some crew members. Some mercenaries.
The fallen included Penagos. Carriles didn’t need to check to make sure. The man’s body was still, motionless, his vacant eyes staring at the ceiling. Carriles closed his eyes, took a breath, and said a quick prayer for his fallen comrade.
But, for now, order had been restored. The remaining mercenaries had been subdued, their hands lashed behind their backs, held at gunpoint. Temperatures, for the moment, were cool.
“How’s Delmar?” Carriles asked Vicks.
“He’ll live,” she said. “But he won’t bother us anymore.”
Carriles thought he saw Vicks smirk, but when he looked again, her stoic expression returned. Maybe he’d imagined it.
They gazed out at the landing door, which would soon open to allow Telio and a team of whoever she brought on board. He hoped the ship would be able to fit and dock properly. He hoped this whole thing wouldn’t go sideways.
He hoped for a lot of things.
“Second thoughts?” he asked.
“No, I don’t do that,” Vicks said. “I also don’t feel like dying. Trust is hard to earn, but easy to lose. Delmar lost mine. I’ve had a bad feeling about this mission for a while now. It’s easy to romanticize it all, as you know. But it’s not just about the good in humanity. It’s about survival.”
“Thanks for having my back,” Carriles said.
Vicks laughed. “I don’t particularly trust you, either. Not all the way. Not with that last name. At the same time, you were willing to step up. I respect that.”
“But?”
“No buts. You can be the face of this all you want.” She patted the rifle. “Just don’t forget who made it happen for you. And know that my loyalty is to me. And to people who do what they say, and mean it. Understood?”
“Copy that,” Carriles said, taking a subtle step away from Vicks.
“Where the hell are they?” Vicks asked.
Carriles checked the screen next to him. “There’s definitely a ship out there. Just waiting for some kind of . . .”
Before he could finish, there was a sound behind them, like a steak sizzling on a grill, and the air grew hot. Carriles turned to find Telio’s swirling blue mist, along with two Reosian men. From the Reosians’ long white cloaks, Carriles guessed they were scientists. At their feet was a heavy black case made from a material that Carriles couldn’t be sure was metal or plastic.
“Hello, Carriles,” Telio said.
“That’s a hell of a magic trick.”
“I suspect from a human’s point of view, magic is a catch-all term for anything you don’t understand.”
“We’ll try to keep up.”
“This quantum communicator of yours,” Telio said. “We require access.”
Vicks leaned into Carriles, her voice a whisper. “What the hell is that?”
“Just roll with it.”
Carriles nodded to Telio and put up his hand, pointing them toward engineering. One of the Reos scientists leaned down and pressed the side of the box, which gently floated a few inches into the air. He and Vicks led them through the ship, the box following, and Carriles thought about how this was probably a whole new set of criminal charges, if things went wrong. Not only did he invite them aboard but he was giving them access to their tech.
He’d worry about that later, he thought.
If there was a later. If things went wrong, he probably wouldn’t make it out alive.
Carriles locked eyes with the chief engineer, Tommy Robinson, as they entered the main engineering hall. The room still felt charged. Carriles was still recovering from the last time he’d been in engineering—watching Vicks slice open the captain’s throat. He hoped this time would be a little more mellow. But based on the scowl decorating Robinson’s face, he couldn’t be sure.
“Commander,” Carriles said with a nod.
Robinson didn’t flinch. He turned to follow the group as they passed through the engine room. Robinson’s mechanics stood pressed against the walls, scowling.
“It bears repeating, Carriles, but the way this ship harnesses gravity waves is impressive for a species of your level of knowledge,” Telio said.
“I love how every compliment you offer us feels a little backhanded,” Carriles said.
“I enjoy your sense of humor. I would like one of my team to remain here and examine the engine. I see that it’s currently disengaged.”
Robinson stepped forward, his face smeared with grease, his barrel chest pressing out. “First off, I’m not taking orders from a cloud of smoke. Second, I’m not letting them touch my baby. Nonnegotiable.”
Carriles held his breath. Robinson was the kind of guy who looked like he got into bar fights as a hobby.
“Robinson, stand down,” Carriles said. “We’re going to play ball, or no one goes home, because home will be dust.”
“You’re not in charge.”
Carriles took a step toward the burly engineer. He was a head shorter than Robinson, and he knew that in any kind of showdown he’d end up crushed into a ball. But Carriles looked up and fixed Robinson with the best hard stare he could muster. “Right now, I am. And I’m saying they get to look at the engine. You can keep an eye on them, but if you want to act like an idiot and be responsible for the death of the entire human race, I guess that’s on you.”
Robinson took a deep breath, then offered an even deeper exhale. Then he gave a small nod.
“Gonna be checking their work. And they can’t use my tools.”
“Montzar,” Telio said, and one of the scientists stepped forward. “This seems to be your specialty.”
The tall, gangly scientist nodded, and pressed the side of the floating box. A seam appeared in it, and the box split into two equal parts. One side followed Telio, the other followed Montzar.
Carriles gave one final look to Robinson, who seemed incredibly unhappy but willing to collaborate, and then brought Telio and the other scientists to the communications array. Carriles presented it to them, and the remaining Reosian scientist stepped forward and took the box, which now developed another seam in the top and opened again. The third alien began pulling out and setting up equipment around the wire. It looked like smooth panes of glass that, once moved into position, stayed there, floating in proximity to the console.
“What are you doing?” Carriles asked.
“You understand how the wire works?” Telio asked.
“On a rudimentary level,” Carriles said. “It’s quantum entanglement. Take an atom, split it in two, whatever you do to one side is immediately reflected on the other side.”
“Do you understand how exactly they communicate?”
“No,” Carriles said. “Frankly, no one does. We just know that it works.”
“The universe is so much bigger than you know,” Telio said. “And also so much more connected. You saw a little of that, when you discovered that you could ride gravity waves in such a way that let you travel here in months instead of hundreds of years. These two halves of atoms that you use to communicate are connected by an invisible, microscopic wormhole. Right now you can only send messages through cause and effect. We can open that wormhole a bit more, to allow actual data to be transferred.”
“And how does that work?” Carriles asked.
“I only understand it on a rudimentary level,” Telio replied with amusement. “I just know that it works.”
“Well, if it works—”
“Testing,” one of the scientists said, leaning into the comms receiver. “Do you hear us?”