3. Molly
3
MOLLY
T he next days became an exercise in frustration in more ways than one. It was impossible to avoid Karnac, and with him came an awkwardness, draped over us like an annoying blanket.
Worse, even when he wasn’t around, my thoughts drifted to him. It didn’t matter how hard I tried to stop them, or what objections I raised. He was a pirate. A Prytheen. An enemy. But my horny mind refused to let go of just how handsome a pirate he was, especially since he worked topless.
Aside from that odd choice, he was a skilled engineer. Malfunctioning systems people had grumbled about came back online for the first time in months as he worked through all the Prytheen technology performing routine maintenance. I glanced across at him, bent over the heating unit pulled from a Prytheen transport and bundles of wiring that linked it to the base’s power supply and control network.
My attention wasn’t, I admit, focused on his work.
Sneaking a look at Karnac was always a mistake, for three reasons. First, I had no interest in him, and had no reason to look at the flexing muscles of his bare back. Second, those muscles, like everything else about Karnac, were unreasonably hot. Every time I looked over at him, I felt a heat inside of me, a tingling across my skin, and bit my lip.
Third, and worst of all, he always knew. Somehow, he’d look up at just the right moment to catch me staring at him, and he’d give me one of his infuriating grins.
Blushing, I tried to look away, but that smile of his had me caught like a rabbit in the headlights of an on-coming truck. You know it’s true, it seemed to say, you know you need me. And damn it, he made it easy to second guess my decision.
“When are you going to finish the heating repairs?” My voice had more of a snap to it than I planned, but if Karnac noticed, he gave no sign. He never seemed to notice my anger, which was one of his most infuriating habits.
“Whoever pulled it from one of the Silver Band’s ships did not know what they were doing,” he said, shaking his head. As though he was an adult bemused by a child trying to fix a car. “They didn’t bring the alignment crystal.”
One of the first rules we’d established was to not worry about accuracy when translating technical terms; alignment crystal might be a meaningful description in his language, or a brand name. I didn’t need to know. What he was telling me was that a vital part was missing, which explained why I hadn’t been able to get it working.
“That doesn’t answer my question,” I reminded him, and he laughed.
“At my current rate of work?” I nodded. “Then my best estimate is now.”
Behind him, on the workbench I’d grudgingly cleared for him, a crystal glowed and emitted a high-pitched whine. The rats’ nest of cabling leading to the odd Prytheen technology vibrated.
And the room warmed up.
It was like magic. The heat didn’t radiate from the glowing crystal, it didn’t seem to come from anywhere. The air was simply, uniformly, warm. Too warm, in fact — overheating, I pulled my coat off and threw it aside.
Karnac watched me, the intensity of his gaze impossible to ignore. Perhaps the heat in my cheeks just came from the sudden rise in temperature. That’s what I’d tell anyone who asked, but I knew better.
It’s not like I’m underdressed or anything, I told myself. It was true, too. Defense against the mountain chill came in layers, and I’d only taken off the outermost. Under it I still wore the red knitted sweater I’d brought all the way from Earth.
“How does that even work?” I asked, trying to force my thoughts away from the smoldering look Karnac gave me. “The heat isn’t coming from anywhere.”
He grinned, holding his hands wide. “I do not know. The heater sustained damage in the crash, made worse by heavy use — it’s not designed for so large a volume of air. It went out of phase, and without an alignment crystal, hard to compensate for. An easy fix when you know what to look for, but it tells us nothing about the principles it works on.”
I blinked, confused by that, and intrigued enough to keep talking to him. As long as we kept it about business, it would be okay. I could stay focused. Really.
“So, you don’t understand your technology any more than I do? You just know which bit plugs in where, and what to look for if it doesn’t work?”
His forehead creased. “I am an engineer, not a scientist. I have never studied either physics or metaphysics. When would I have had the time? I do not even remember the Homeworld, we lost it when I was a kit.”
“Wait, what?” That came from nowhere for me. Perhaps it was common knowledge, but I’d never wanted to learn about the Prytheen. “What do you mean, you lost your homeworld?”
“It is not something I care to talk about,” he said, face blank and unreadable as sheet metal. “That wound cuts too deep. Suffice it to say that there’s a reason the only Prytheen you meet are warriors and pilots, and there was a reason we tried to seize your colony ship with its terraforming equipment. Not a good enough reason, but a reason.”
So many questions buzzed around my brain. Who had done this to them? Why didn’t they lead with a trade deal to get what they wanted? What was he doing on a warship, so young he didn’t remember his homeworld at all?
I didn’t ask any of them. Perhaps there would come a time to ask, perhaps not, but this was not it — Karnac’s muscles tensed, his eyes cold, his teeth bared.
Apprehensively, I crossed the workshop and put a hand on his arm. He needed contact, someone to ground him in the present not the failures of his past.
His skin felt strange under my hand. Rough, not human, but pleasant. As soon as I touched him, my mind decided to spin off on a fantasy, wondering what the rest of him would feel like, would taste like.
Karnac growled. Not a threat, not a warning. Something more direct, personal, primal. A shiver ran through me, my breath catching, my heart racing.
I’d met some of Crashland’s wildlife. I was familiar with the fight-or-flight response. But who’d ever heard of a fight-flight-or- fuck response?
I froze, trying and failing to hide my reaction. Karnac turned his head to look at me with an intensity that should have burned my clothes off.
“I, uh.” Stringing words together was a challenge. I bit my lip, thinking, and his cat-like eyes watched my mouth. Drifted lower, to my throat, his own smile widening. “I don’t think that, um…”
Glitch’s static-filled hiss stopped me from having to answer. He sat on a workbench, watching the door — or most of him did. His forepaws still rested on my bench, disembodied, and his tail wasn’t visible at all.
“ Again , Glitch?” I asked, pulling my hand from Karnac’s arm as though his skin had turned red hot. This was why I’d set Glitch up as an early warning system.
Glitch had no chance to answer before the door slid open and Allison strode into the room. Still running with the pink theme which I thought looked even more ridiculous than her outdoor outfit — at least there, the pink served a purpose, making her easy to find in the snow.
Here, her otherwise sensible business suit made my teeth itch. Why would she waste maker credits on something so saccharine? Or, worse, had she brought it here from Earth?
I’d never realized how annoying her color choices were. Though I’d had no cause to find out until now: since Karnac’s arrival, she’d been a constant visitor, stopping by several times a day. I’d seen her more often than I had in any previous month.
“I see you’ve got the heating back up and running,” she said, or rather gushed. Karnac’s lips narrowed, his only response a nod. Allison showed no sign of noticing his discomfort, but then her eyes weren’t on his face. Her attention was lower down, tracing the muscles of his torso with her eyes.
Which suited me fine. If they got together that would make life so much easier for me. It would be madness to object to her trying to get her hooks into him. I definitely believed that, one hundred percent.
So why were my hands balled into fists? Why were my muscles trembling?
Get this straight, body, I snarled internally. I am not interested in this Prytheen or any other. Yes, he has the most bangable bod I’ve ever seen, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s one of the assholes who stole my life.
“While we have your attention, boss,” I said as politely as possible, hoping to interrupt before she jumped Karnac right in front of me. “I’ve got some requests for the next supply run? Karnac’s been using a lot of parts, and we’re still low on?—”
“Fine,” Allison glared at me, making a brushing off motion. “Send it over. It’ll be easier to justify now that Karnac is doing something worthwhile with the parts.”
That was almost a physical slap. Allison had been nasty before, but she’d never come so close to calling me useless in front of someone else before.
Karnac growled, a low, angry, dangerous sound. “Allison, that is unfair. Molly has handled vital maintenance, work without which this station would fall apart. I’ve made one repair.”
“Oh, you’re right of course.” All smiles again, Allison turned back to Karnac, leaving me seething. “It’s not that I don’t recognize the work Molly does, just that I have to justify my requests to Captain Joyce, and when there’s no change to report that’s not easy.”
I will not rise to the bait. I will not. Allison aimed her apology, such as it was, at Karnac instead of me. More than that, she was lying. While I didn’t know Captain Joyce well, she’d been the Wandering Star’s engineer before the Crash. She’d understand the need for regular maintenance, even if Allison didn’t.
“ Anyway, I must get going, there’s the weather forecast to put together,” she said with another bright, plastic smile. “There’ll be a little get together this evening though, to celebrate the new heating — I’m sure that lots of us will be glad of the chance not to bundle up, so why not make it a party?”
With that she swept out, leaving a cloying scent of perfume behind her.
I’d never looked forward to a party so little, but I didn’t see any way out of attending. It was in honor of the technical staff, at least that’s what the message on the datanet said. Karnac’s honor, really, but still, I should be there when they celebrated my department.
“What do you think?” I asked Glitch. The mirror in my room was too small to get a good look at my outfit, and he was the only one who’s opinion I’d trust.
I didn’t trust my judgement — I’d been back and forth on the outfit ever since I spent the maker credits to have it printed. It belonged on someone with more self-confidence than me, someone who knew they looked good in it.
Black with a subtle pattern, more a texture than a color, it emphasized my figure without showing off. Was it too low cut, though? Too short?
A thousand memories of people I’d thought of as friends mocking my fashion choices cried out that it was wrong, somehow. I shoved them aside to look at Glitch.
The hologram cat looked me up and down, purred, and rubbed up against me before dissolving into static and reappearing on my bookshelf. A bright green tick-mark appeared with him, glowing above his head, and an audio clip of applause played. I passed the Glitch test. It was enough reassurance to let me relax.
As nice as warmth was, I’d enjoyed the cold and the way it forced us all to wear layers. The fixed heating let us dress up again, and that wouldn’t be optional for events like this. I’d never enjoyed that kind of thing.
Okay, a little lie there: I enjoyed dressing up for the right person. There just wasn’t anyone here I wanted to impress that way.
Glitch watched me, his static-filled eyes amused, an impish smile on his lips. All in my mind, obviously — he couldn’t read my thoughts. Still, I blushed, heat spreading across my cheeks.
“I am not interested in Karnac,” I protested. Glitch’s smile didn’t change, he just cocked his head to one side. I grabbed a book and threw it at him, the much-annotated air recycler manual passing through the hologram with no effect. “Oh, shut up.”
Glitch licked a paw, looked back at me, and disintegrated. Only his smile and eyes remained, and then even they faded.
I laughed, shaking my head. “How very Cheshire Cat of you, Glitch. I swear, sometimes I’m sure you’re putting this all on.”
One last look in the mirror, one last round of doubts, and it was time to go. Stepping out of my room, I heard the music playing in the commons, someone singing badly over the lyrics. Great. We’d skipped straight to the karaoke part of the evening.
My heels clanged on the metal floor, making me wince self-consciously. I almost turned around and changed back into t-shirt and jeans. Each time I paused, though, the image of Karnac flashed before my eyes, and somehow gave me the strength to carry on.
The ridiculous welcome banner hung on one side of the commons, and I winced to see it. I spoke no Prytheen, not even the scattered handful of words most colonists had picked up since the Crash, but the sloppy lettering made me itch. I wondered what Karnac thought about it.
Opposite hung a newer banner: “Thanks for the heat, Karnac.” My fingers flexed, face darkening — fair enough if the crew wanted to single him out for praise, he had gotten it done. But they hadn’t even asked me to contribute. That stung.
Other than the two banners, the commons looked the same as ever. Ratty, patched seating, mismatched tables, an empty area optimistically referred to as a dance floor. The low lighting might have been for the party or a result of more issues with the power supply — I’d only know if I checked my jobs list.
Music played through the speakers; someone’s playlist of songs brought from Earth. The current one was pleasant enough, though the lyrics were unintelligible. The public announcement speakers were cheap, and not designed to play music.
I was the last of the station personnel to arrive, it looked like. Everyone else gathered with their friends, chatting over the music or drinking. Their hologram companions buzzed around the room, chasing each other and giving the party a playful look.
“Molly, you made it!” Michiko pounced before I got two steps into the room. She had the bouncy enthusiasm that always clung to her while drunk, and her arms were around me before I knew she was there. Her rainbow-maned pony clip-clopped up to Glitch and headbutted him, inviting him to play. “Love the dress! It suits you!”
She nearly knocked me over with her hug, giggling and swinging me around, and I couldn’t help smiling. Michiko sober was a dry loner, but a few drinks in and fun Michiko came out to play.
“You look great too,” I said, though I hadn’t gotten a look at her outfit. I didn’t need to; Michiko always looked stunning, on air or off. I almost felt sorry for the guys, being trapped in close quarters with someone so attractive and so unavailable.
Heat spread over my cheeks again. I wouldn’t know anything about that, would I?
As though my thought summoned him, Karnac stepped into view. My breath caught and I stared.
His long coat flowing almost like a cape, Karnac surveyed the room as though it was his domain. Long dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, chest and scars on display, he looked every bit the pirate king. Every bit the sexy space warrior, come to snatch me away.
He’s a Prytheen, I reminded myself. Yes, he’s a pirate, but not the sexy fictional kind. The real, murderous kind. So keep away.
Reason didn’t stop my body reacting to his appearance, a tingle spreading through me and a sigh escaping my lips. I might have put Karnac off limits, but my body rejected that decision with every hormone it could throw at me.
Michiko giggled and relaxed her hug, looking around to see what had caught my attention. “Ooh, juicy. So you’re interested in our newest arrival too? I don’t see the appeal myself.”
“There might be a reason for that,” I said, smiling. Michiko spent as much time as she could on the comms to her wife in the colony proper, and I’d never been able to imagine her interested in anyone else.
“Yeah, yeah, fine,” she said, elbowing me in the ribs. “You may mock, but at least I’m not throwing myself at the aliens like some people.”
“I am not throwing myself at him,” I said, aware that I was protesting too much. “Or anyone else.”
Taking a step back, Michiko looked me up and down.
“Sure you’re not,” she said with a shake of her head. “That’s why you’re showing more skin than ever. You’re even wearing heels for heaven’s sake.”
I bit back an unkind response. I hadn’t picked this outfit for Karnac… had I?
“You’ll have to work fast, though,” she carried on while I was still trying to think of a reply. “Allison’s already working on him.”
And there she was, appearing next the Karnac like a vampire from an old horror vid. Her arm linked with his, she pulled him towards a table laden with refreshments.
My mouth twisted. He deserves better.
“I didn’t dress up for him,” I said, not sure how much of a lie that was. “I just thought it would be nice to have some fun.”
“That’s the spirit,” Michiko grinned up at me. “C’mon, let’s enjoy the party. Let’s dance.”
Fun Michiko can be an experience , and I didn’t waste energy on futile resistance as she dragged me onto the abandoned dance floor. I did catch Alf’s eye and mouth ‘help me’ but he just grinned and went back to feeding his holographic parrot. Everyone was on the receiving end of Michiko sometimes; I didn’t blame him for not wanting to get involved.
I’ve never been a good dancer, Michiko was drunk, and we were the only two on the dance floor. I couldn’t imagine a combination to make me more anxious, especially when Karnac was in the audience.
Being self-conscious made everything worse, and my already limited dance skills went out the window. Michiko didn’t seem at all embarrassed, and I wondered how she did it. Her flailing limbs were no more controlled than mine, but somehow she made it look good. Or, if not good, fun.
My logical brain pointed out the obvious — perhaps I looked just as good. Perhaps you should shut up, my anxiety replied. Not a reasonable argument, but a winning one.
Still, it was fun. No one laughed, Michiko danced as badly as I did, and Rod pulled Amy onto the dance floor. Once we weren’t the sole focus of attention, I started to enjoy myself.
“May I join you?” He phrased it as a request, but the tone left no doubt about what would happen now. Karnac loomed over me, a smile on his scarred, rugged, too-damned-handsome face.
I opened my mouth to answer and it just hung there. Silence. No words emerged as my brain came to a screeching halt, torn between the desire to tell the Prytheen to fuck off and the urge to leap into his arms.
“Sure, you kids have fun,” Michiko said after the silence dragged on for approximately five billion years. “I need some water anyway.”
With that she vanished, abandoning me with Karnac. My heart thudded so loud I was sure the whole room heard it. I couldn’t decide whether Michiko leaving was a favor or a betrayal, but either way I had no words to respond.
Karnac took my hand in his, the contact overwhelming. Like lightning shooting through me, his touch lit up my nerves and I gasped as his rough thumb stroked across the back of my hand. Suddenly my anxiety and self-consciousness vanished, and we were the only two people in the world.
The rest of the universe could go hang. Nothing mattered apart from us.
The moment stretched into infinity before Karnac pulled me closer, slid an arm around my waist, and led.
“What are you doing?” I gasped, my body pressing to his. Suddenly my dress felt like too much clothing — I wanted to feel his body against mine, nothing between us.
Karnac moved with grace, precision, and no skill at all. His hip slammed into a refreshments table, spilling punch, and I couldn’t help giggling.
“I do not know,” Karnac said, laughing too. Pressed against his chest as I was, I felt the laugh more than heard it. A deep vibration that made my body want.
“I have watched several videos,” he continued, pronouncing the last word as though he’d never heard of this primitive tech before. Maybe he hadn’t — Prytheen culture, from what I’d learned, was entirely about war. “Dancing with one’s khara is always shown as romantic, so…”
He swung me, and I tried to keep up only to hit a wall and bounce off, back into his arms. “You just learned from videos? That’s…”
I trailed off rather than insulting him, and he took over. “It’s ridiculous and foolish, I’m sure. You will have to show me how to do better.”
My blush was bright enough to signal spacecraft with, my face against his chest. How did I answer that?
Yes. You say yes, thank whatever lucky stars sent him your way. I didn’t get the chance to say anything. Allison stepped into the circle, her hand closing on Karnac’s upper arm.
“I’m so sorry, Molly, but I need to steal Karnac away,” she said, with a credible impression of sorrow. She might have fooled me if not for the vicious look in her eyes, a look which vanished as soon as the Prytheen turned to her.
This was why I didn’t want to risk my heart, aside from the piracy thing. I hadn’t even opened up, not really, and here were my hopes being smashed again. How would I compete with Allison, beautiful powerful Allison?
Pulling my hand from his, I backed away from Karnac. As soon as I lost contact with him, my cloak of self-confidence vanished as though blown away by a gale.
“I’ll leave you two to have fun,” I said, echoing Michiko’s earlier words, and turned before either could respond. A glass of punch called to me from the refreshments table, and I grabbed it. Downed it in one, my throat burning in the aftermath.
Whatever booze was in there, it wasn’t subtle. Good, I didn’t want subtle. I refilled the glass, drank a little slower, and finally dared turn around. Allison had her arms around Karnac, the pair of them swaying to the music.
Never had a wish coming true hurt so much. I couldn’t stay here and watch that — and worse, if anyone paid enough attention to me to ask what had upset me, I’d have to talk about it.
No thanks. Not happening. I put down my glass and, keeping my feelings as bottled up as possible, I made my way to the commons’ door and out into the hallway again.
My emotions flowed around me like a cloud of chaos, impossible to even identify. Oh, there was some lust in there, some anger. Sadness too. And relief, but not as much as I’d expected.
He’s a pirate. A killer. His people killed god knows how many people in the attack on the Wandering Star, and the rest of us might still die from it. Why the fuck would I feel jealous over him? Let the two of them bang it out and be happy.
Except that thought hurt, made me want to… I didn’t know what. Sighing, I leaned against the cool metal wall and tried to sort out my emotions. It wasn’t easy, not when the storm of them still raged in my mind.
Focused on figuring that out, I didn’t realize I wasn’t alone until someone big blocked out the light behind me. For a moment, the wild hope rose — had Karnac come to check on me? I had no clue what I’d say if he had, but my heart raced at the thought.
“You’re not going to slip away.” An angry hiss, accompanied by a cloud of booze. Not Karnac, then. Hope dashed, I grimaced and turned around.
“I just want to get to bed, Harmon,” I said, tetchy and weary. “We can talk in the morning, when you’re sober.”
Perhaps, if I hadn’t had those last two drinks. If I hadn’t felt so drained, if my limbs hadn’t felt like lead. If I’d had my wits about me, I’d have remembered just how touchy Harmon was about his drinking. His already flushed face darkened, a tremor ran through him, and he snarled.
“I am perfectly in control,” he snapped. “And you won’t put this off.”
His vehemence made me take a step back, then another. Harmon might be our resident poet, but he hardly fit the skinny, sensitive guy trope. Much of his bulk was fat, sure, but under it he had formidable muscle.
I glanced over his shoulder, hoping someone else had heard that, but he’d slid the commons door shut. Drunk enough to get angry and belligerent; sober enough to isolate me before making a scene. A dangerous combination.
“Look, I don’t know why you’re angry at me,” I started, trying to defuse the tension as I took a careful step back. He followed, keeping the distance the same. Too close.
“Don’t give me that, it’s perfectly clear what you’re up to,” Harmon hissed. “You’ve set your, your alien friend to seduce my darling Allison away.”
A burst of laughter escaped before I could clamp down on it, and Harmon’s face darkened even more. His fists clenched, knuckles white, his self-control slipping dangerously. Laughing at him was a mistake and I’d known it, but in my defense, I’d never heard an accusation as ridiculous as that.
“Harmon, I can’t control him. I’ve not set him to do anything. Even if I could, believe me, I wouldn’t be throwing him at Allison.”
I’d be keeping him all to myself.
“I’d have sent him away if I could,” I finished with much less conviction than I’d started with. Harmon sneered at me, not believing a word I’d said. Beside him, the holographic polar bear cub growled at Glitch, who stood his ground.
“Liar. What’s your plan? Isolating me so you can do away with me? Or do you have designs on me yourself?”
He was drunk, but the couple of drinks I’d had loosened my inhibitions too.
“Oh, get over yourself,” I snapped. Harmon reared back as though I’d slapped him, and his eyes narrowed. Real bright move, Molly, antagonize the huge drunk man. Too late to back off now. “Not everything’s about you, Harmon. I don’t care if you and Allison are fucking as long as you don’t break anything I have to repair. Get it? So if you’re losing her attention, go win her back. Scaring me won’t help.”
Afterward, when I had time to think this over, I decided that my mistake was suggesting that he wasn’t the center of the universe. Harmon Baltimore was a big man, but his ego easily outweighed his body, and like so many egos, was fragile enough for the slightest prod to hurt.
At the time, his explosion took me by surprise. With no warning at all, he swung a hand up in an open-palmed slap that sent me staggering backward. Unbalanced in unfamiliar heels, I tripped and fell to the floor with a clatter. My cheek numb from the power of the blow, I stared up at him not quite believing what he’d done.
Harmon advanced and I scrambled back, not even trying to get up. If I slowed to do that, he’d have me before I made it to my feet. Beside me, Ursa the polar bear rushed Glitch in a meaningless fight. Neither could hurt the other, but they could stop each other from interfering in our fight.
“You’re behind this, bitch,” Harmon shouted, towering over me. “I’ll not let you weasel out of it with words, mark me now. Why would you dress like this if you weren’t planning to seduce me? I’ll have the truth.”
He loomed over me like a storm about to break, face in shadow, voice like thunder. I didn’t try to reason with him, not now. Anything I said would somehow become proof of his ridiculous theory.
Instead, I reached for my wrist, fumbling for the emergency alarm on my comm bracelet. Eyes, narrowing, Harmon stamped on my wrist before I could trigger it. The painful crunch of the bracelet shattering followed by a static-filled howl that cut off abruptly as Glitch vanished.
My pulse raced, vision narrowed, hands curled into fists. “You fucker.”
I didn’t shout. Too angry for that. The icy rage in my voice gave Harmon pause, even in his state, and I lashed out, kicking the side of his knee with all my strength. With a cry of pain, my attacker stumbled back. I rolled to my feet unsteadily.
“You’ll pay for that, bitch,” he growled, and charged. Even limping on his left leg he was faster than I’d expected, and bulky enough to fill the hallway. No way to avoid taking this hit, and that would be that.
I closed my eyes and tried to brace.
Thump. The sound was so loud I felt it rather than heard it. I didn’t feel the impact, though. At first I thought it was one of those ‘you don’t hear the bullet that kills you’ things — I was dead or unconscious, and my mind hadn’t registered the blow that sent me there.
Harmon dispelled that theory with a howl of pain and rage and fear mixed in one terrible noise. Something else snarled, a noise that should have been terrifying but reassured me instead.
I risked opening an eye, then two when I didn’t believe what the first showed me.
Karnac stood between me and a fallen Harmon, who struggled to his feet. A bruise was already visible, the whole left side of his face dark and swelling.
“I knew you two were in this together,” the actor said, words slurred even more than before. Making it to his feet he staggered forward, waving a hand at us. “Fuck you both!”
He lowered his head, like a bull getting ready to charge, and although he’d attacked me, I felt an urge to warn him. To stop him doing something foolish and pointless.
Harmon was a big, powerful man. He had some experience in a fight, and he knew how to use his weight. But against Karnac, that was like a firecracker competing with the sun. Before I found the right words to warn him, he roared and ran at us.
Karnac stepped forward and slashed with vicious speed. His claws caught Harmon’s face, driving him back with a cry of pain and ending his charge on the spot. Touching his face, Harmon stared at his bloody hand in horror.
Serves you right for stamping on Glitch’s projector, I thought, looking at the broken comm unit to see how bad the damage was.
“No.” I breathed the word, looking at the cracked open shell of the wristband. Inside, the delicate projector was in pieces — that, I’d expected. What shocked and frightened me was that the datastore itself had snapped in half too. Glitch’s memories, his personality, everything that made him was in that store. They’d fade fast, now, leaving nothing of him behind.
I might be able to patch it. Might. Even if I could, though, running repairs to an active datastore risked messing up the information kept inside.
And that ‘information’ was my friend.