Chris’s mind was a riot of color, thought, and feeling. It was amazing really, seeing his teammates in this fashion. Of course, sharing Duncan’s thoughts and emotions had been a heady experience, but he hadn’t known then what Duncan really felt for him, that Duncan truly desired him. Now that he knew, the connection between them seemed even stronger than before. When they’d practiced with the devices yesterday, Chris had had to make a conscious effort to pull Duncan’s thoughts to him. Now, however, they flashed brilliantly into his mind as if he were actively inviting them in, which, in a way, he supposed he was. To accept Duncan’s reciprocal invitation into his own mind was something Chris could not have refused had his life depended on it. He felt his newfound love for Duncan explode within him and burst outward in a great wave of happiness.
It was also extraordinary to be sharing the connection with Jessica and Corrin. Unlike his connection with Duncan, he’d first had to focus on their thoughts to access them, but even that process was becoming less of an effort as the connection between the four of them grew. Chris knew that it was Duncan’s doing—that Duncan’s drive and need to join their thoughts were making the connection a reality through the operation of his genes on the connectors and the great net itself. Chris wondered whether it was all a clever trick of the Atarans’ Forebearers, making specific genetic activation necessary for these most specialized of devices. Perhaps ensuring that they couldn’t be used even if they were to fall into enemy hands.
It was a wrench to pull enough of his attention away from their connection in the great net in order to check on the progress of the antivirus. Despite his disregard of Duncan’s assertion that they could power a shuttle from the excess energy the great net produced, Chris had to admit that now it wasn’t at all farfetched. With the virus knocking out the reactor’s connection to Argo’s power grid and draining their backup generators, Chris had to rely on last-minute inspiration to work out a way of funneling the excess power generated by using the connectors into the power grid itself—another skill that had definitely been honed by Thessalia.
Thankfully, his skill hadn’t let him down, and he’d been able to quickly adapt one of the small power capacitors one of the exploratory teams had been using to collect geothermal energy when on a mission, to tap into the connectors instead. The ephemeral nature of the great net had thrown him momentarily, until he had recalled that it had been Duncan who’d been in control of their interactions via the great net, and so it seemed logical to conclude that his connector would be the one with the best access to the excess energy. Now the energy they were creating from their shared thoughts and feelings was being funneled into the capacitor and, from there, directly into the main power grid.
When he finally managed to distance himself sufficiently from his teammates to get an accurate look at the progress of the antivirus on the CPU terminal, he was relieved to see that the sweep of the entire system was nearly complete. It shocked him to discover just how long they’d been joined. The swirling current of thoughts and emotions they’d shared had been so engrossing that Chris had hardly noticed the hours pass. Even now he could feel Duncan’s touch caress his mind, running enticingly through his consciousness as Duncan tried to tempt Chris back into the midst of the net.
Chris….
Chris was on the brink of following when a flashing light caught his attention.
It’s done, he thought joyously into their connection and felt the answering celebrations of his teammates. Argo is free.
The return of personnel to Argo after Chris had confirmed that the station was once again virus free and the reactor was back online had been just as speedy as the exodus. He’d barely had time to talk with any of his teammates since they had stopped using the connectors, his energy instead being put into completing the system reboot and ensuring that it was once again safe to put the reactor back online.
As soon as Argo was powered once more, Duncan and Corrin had headed down to Argo’s command center to deal with the still-lingering threat. With the probe that had deployed the virus destroyed by one of Duncan’s well-aimed missiles and the station’s defensive shield raised to full power, Chris had taken another look at the ships they had spied lying in wait to prey on a defenseless Argo. He’d noted with satisfaction as they appeared to finally realize that the probe had been unsuccessful in destroying Argo’s defenses and had then melted away out of range.
It wasn’t until late that night—when he and Jason were still in the midst of repairing the damage wrought by the virus—when Chris realized that he hadn’t seen Duncan all day. Jessica had been with him constantly from the time they broke their connection until the first shuttles had started returning. Then she’d left him with a smile and a squeeze to the arm to help with the arrivals. Corrin had dropped by the lab sometime in the midafternoon when Chris was deep in the CPU’s coding. He’d been carrying a tray from the commissary with a couple of sandwiches, some tormack chips, and a fresh pot of coffee. He’d sat and eaten with Chris, not saying much of anything in particular, which had been absolutely fine by Chris, whose brain had been pretty much fried at that point anyway. He’d then left Chris to his work, mumbling something about going to hunt down Duncan and telling Chris that he’d better remember to stop working in time to eat dinner or else.
Realizing that it was probably well past time for dinner, Chris pushed back from his desk with a groan. He rubbed his eyes and blinked, still seeing line upon line of binary code whenever he closed his eyes. Yes, definitely time to call it a day. He turned around slowly in his chair, looking out over the rest of the lab. There were still a large number of people working—computer scientists trawling though the base code and strengthening the station’s defenses, engineers working on the parts of the power grid that had been affected, and a number of physicists working with Chris and Jason on the implementation of their new protocols across the whole of Argo’s system.
But it was late, they were all tired, and Chris was now convinced that Argo was safe. He reached over and tapped Jason on the arm, meeting his bleary-eyed gaze with one he knew was equally exhausted. He nodded toward the rest of the room. “We all need a break,” he said softly.
Following the direction of Chris’s nod, Jason nodded and rose to his feet, groaning slightly as he straightened fully. “All right, people,” Jason said, clapping his hands together to garner everyone’s attention. “We’re looking good. Our system is now clean and more secure than before, and the new protocols are near to being fully implemented. It’s been a long day. Get out of here, and we’ll finish it off tomorrow.”
There were some wide-eyed stares as Jason waved the scientists away and then turned to power down his computer. He rolled his eyes and glanced over at Chris. “What did they think, that I was going to keep them here all night? I’m not that bad, am I?”
Chris shot him a wry smile as he started closing down his own workspace. “You’d better be careful there, Jason,” he said, “or people will think you are going soft.”
“Please,” Jason replied. “We’ve all been working for hours, the critical stuff is done, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who is hungry.”
As if on cue, Chris’s stomach rumbled. “No,” he said with a smile. “It is just unusual for you to be the one to suggest it.”
“Hmm,” Jason grunted. “Well, it was your suggestion, but it was a good one. I’m famished and I think you have more than just food to contend with this evening, don’t you?”
Chris sighed heavily and nodded. “Probably,” he said. “But food first.”
The commissary was fairly quiet when they entered, but their large party soon had the place bustling. As was tradition amongst the scientists when they’d just completed a large project, they pushed enough tables together to make one long table where they could all sit together. Dinner that night was one of Chris’s favorites: pork chops—the regular color this time—peas, and mashed tormack with gravy. While Chris was getting his meal, he spotted Jessica and Corrin seated at a table by the far window, lingering over the end of their dinner.
“Hey,” he greeted them, weaving his way through the room toward them. “Come join us.”
Jessica smiled at him in greeting while Corrin cast an avaricious glance at his tormack. Chris frowned and pulled his tray out of swiping distance.
“We don’t want to intrude, Chris,” Jessica said.
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Chris replied. “Besides, I think you’ve both done more than enough to earn yourselves temporary scientist status today. Just… ah… bring your own food,” he finished, sending a warning glare Corrin’s way as he headed back to the scientists’ table.
He managed to snag a seat at one end of the table and started tucking into his dinner while the others were still getting their meals and seating themselves. Jason plunked himself down in one of the empty seats to Chris’s right while Jessica and Corrin joined them and sat side by side to his left. Chris was grateful to see that Corrin had helped himself to another plateful of mash, but nevertheless turned his plate so that his pile was as far away from Corrin as possible, just in case.
“So, we have you all to thank for saving Argo,” Jason said, looking around at Chris, Jessica, and Corrin.
“Harris too,” Corrin said. “He and Vabre both had the idea at the same time.”
“Yes, well,” Chris said, shrugging. “It was an emergency situation. We were grasping at straws, really.”
“But it worked,” Jessica said. “And you often have your best ideas when we are under pressure.”
Chris snorted. “Don’t remind me.”
“And where is Major Harris?” Jason asked, his expression deceptively mild.
Jessica and Corrin exchanged a look, and Chris frowned.
“What?” he asked in concern. “Don’t tell me he’s gone off into one of his avoidance modes, has he?”
Jessica shrugged delicately while Corrin nodded as he scooped up a heaping forkful of tormack.
“Oh, for goodness sake!” Chris said, lowering his voice hastily when Jessica shot him a censorious look. “What is wrong with him?” he hissed.
“You know what he’s like, Chris,” Jessica said. “He shared something very personal with all of us this morning.” She frowned slightly. “I guess that it’s going to take some time for him to come to terms with that.”
Chris supposed he could understand that, especially given that it was Duncan they were talking about, but still…. “Yes, well,” he muttered, feeling himself flush slightly as he recalled his own revelations to his teammates. “He wasn’t the only one.” He took a big bite of food to cover his nervousness.
Jessica’s hand came down to rest lightly on his arm. “None of us were unaffected by our connection, Chris,” she said kindly. “You—all of you—mean a great deal to me. I think you know that now.”
He raised his eyes to meet Jessica’s gaze and felt his face heat up even more. “Yes,” was all he could say.
“It’s a good thing,” Corrin pronounced firmly. “People are important—family is important—it’s why we fight. Harris should have said something to you months ago, Vabre.”
Chris could feel Jason’s curious gaze on him but found himself too caught up in Corrin’s words to care about what he might be revealing. “Months?” he questioned carefully.
Jason snorted. “Years more like,” he replied, amending Corrin’s assertion. “At least, that’s what I think,” he continued. “I was there when you guys first met, remember? I thought there was something going on between you right from the start. Then, I don’t know, he seemed to pull back for some reason.”
Chris let out a sigh and nodded. “He did, didn’t he?” he said softly.
“So are you going to let him do it again?” Jason asked, his gaze intent.
Slowly Chris shook his head. “No,” he said once, then again, more firmly. “No, I’m not. Besides which, it’s not like I could exactly hide my feelings on the subject from him either.” He wiped his mouth with his napkin and then balled it up and dropped it onto his now-empty plate, trying to gather his courage as he did so. “Well, then,” he said, glancing around the little group and seeing clearly, for perhaps the first time, the obvious love and support in their eyes. “I guess I’d better go hunt him down.”