Lara was pushed back into her seat as the shuttle rocketed from the terminal and into the blackness. She pushed the controls to the maximum, horribly and totally aware that each second mattered, that even one of them would mean the difference between life and death—
“Nemesis—!” Jess shouted.
“No time, fail-safe’s gonna go any second!”
And if we’re not out of initial EMP range, we’re gonna go with it—
For an eternity of tense silence, they waited. Lara watched the distance elapse in a line of growing numbers across the shuttle’s small system monitor, dismally waiting for it all to shut down as they were caught in the shock—
—and the tiny shuttle reached minimum safe. Lara stared at the numbers in disbelief, opened her mouth to tell them—
—and DS Terminal 949 exploded, a white-hot light blasting across the visual monitors as the nuclear device triggered the station’s reactor. The intense light hung suspended, a swirling mass of burning air and ash—and then it was all gone.
Lara collapsed against her seat and looked numbly at the controls, the elation draining away with the souring adrenaline as she caught her breath. Behind her, Jess fumbled at the Max suit.
Lara punched up the shuttle stats, felt the last of her relief dwindle and fade as she tapped in numbers and read the results.
They had about three days before the air recycler stopped working.
She sighed, closed her eyes—and discovered that the thought wasn’t so terrible that she didn’t still have hope.
A lot can happen in three days…
The worst of the nightmare had to be over—and if they had gotten this far, they might as well pretend that they could make it a little farther; stranger things had happened.
It ain’t over till it’s over. Or so they say.
Lara smiled faintly and sat up straighter at the console. She punched up the distress beacon and set it to automatic, then called up navigation and started to lay in coordinates wearily.
* * *
Jess eased Ellis out of the suit and cradled his weightless form gently. The kid looked like shit; blood formed tiny droplets in the air around his face, hair matted to his fragile-looking skull in red-stained sweat. His eyes were closed, and although he breathed deep and even, he didn’t wake up.
No answer, but one of his eyelids fluttered at the sound of Jess’s rasping voice, and his pulse was strong and fluid. Whatever the suit had done to his mind, Ellis’s body had come through.
For what it’s worth. We’re in deep space on a transport shuttle, our chances are up to .01 of a percent of a billion…
Ellis mumbled softly and fell silent and still again, unconscious or just deeply asleep, Jess didn’t know. The suit had fucked up something inside of the young tech, and only time would tell if he was gonna pull out of it…
You saved us, kid. No matter what happens now, you saved us.
He held on to Ellis’s relaxed body and tried to believe the hard part was over, let the clean air fill him up, the tension leaving his body with each deep exhalation.
“Will he live?” Lara asked, sounding as tired as he felt.
“I don’t know. As long as any of us, I guess.”
Lara answered musingly, her voice weary and sad—but not despairing, not yet.
“Why did this happen? That’s what I want to know; what information was so important to the Company that they were willing to sacrifice all of us, even a Max?”
Jess shook his head. “Doesn’t matter much now, does it? Everything’s gone.”
For a moment, there was only silence. Jess stared down at the kid’s still face and wondered if it was worth it, wondered if there was any point to it all; unless they got picked up in a few days, they’d be dead. And only the Company knew they were out here…
When Lara spoke again, Jess was surprised to hear a grin in her voice. “Know any good jokes?”
He was just as surprised by his own smile as they sped through the ocean of dark, a speck of dust in a silent sea.
“We’ll have to make some up,” he said, and closed his eyes for a while.