Chapter 30
THIRTY
ELAINA
She swung by her cabin to get her toolbelt, then the commissary for a much-needed coffee.
Her body felt light, worn limbs relaxed. Unlike the lightness that came with the reduced gravity of the orbital station, this was different—this was nice. This was a lightness borne from Cyan. His mind, his body, his hands… Her wrists were sore.
Elaina replayed the moments from last night, and that morning. Something seemed to have been unlocked in them both. Whatever happened at that ship last night, they’d overcome it, together. Now, finally, they could explore whatever this was between them. What it could be.
And handing over her duties to a replacement would finally give Elaina the time and breathing room to do just that.
She swung onto the bridge, where Bor was already waiting with a tall light-haired man at his side.
“There she is,” Bor said, pushing himself off the wall. “Elaina, this is Konstantin Stone. He’ll be taking over from you.” He turned to the man. “Elaina’s been keeping us alive with back-to-back shifts over here. ”
Konstantin Stone looked her up and down, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “You’re Elaina Fairan?”
“…Yes?” Elaina cocked her head. “Have we met?”
She tried to ascertain if she’d seen him before somewhere. Konstantin was certainly memorable in face and stature, but she wasn’t the best with remembering people.
“Not yet.” Konstantin held out a hand. “But I’m based over at Glacial Twelve and…. I know Ptoley.”
Ah.
There was a name she hadn’t heard in a while. Ptoley and Elaina’s three-cycle relationship was a tumultuous one. And when it imploded, it didn’t take long for Elaina to move on and move out to Earendel for a change of pace.
Bor cleared his throat, shuffling from one foot to the next beside them.
“Let’s get started,” Elaina said.
Elaina meticulously went through old and new diagnostics logs with Konstantin, and transferred over all her docs from the prior segments. She’d briefed him on the virus’ mutation patterns and how she’d learned to excise him. She’d filtered out the more nebulous observations and theories. The hunches, and the virus’s apparent… sentience? That was for her and Cyan to figure out. Her replacement didn’t need to know about that—all Konstantin needed to know was how to bring equipment back online to keep the ship running when it got fucked.
“You’ve come a long way,” Konstantin said three hours later, thumbing through one of her logs on the console between them. “I’ve been watching your progress from the other side of the quadrant. You’ve got quite the rep for yourself, you know that? ”
Elaina shrugged. “I like my job.”
“You’re not going to be here much longer, are you?” Konstantin asked, looking up from the logs and leaning back, arms crossed on his chest. “I mean, you’re not known for sticking around, from what I hear.”
Elaina stared at the screen. What had Ptoley told him? Who did he think she was?
But he’s right.
“Sorry,” Konstantin muttered and turned once more on the screen between them. “None of my business. I was just sniffing out work ops, to be honest.”
“With how things are going there’s always work on Earendel,” Elaina assured him. “So if you’re up for living in the middle of nowhere…”
“Been thinking about it. Great place to get some training, seems like, with everything going to shit. And cute coworkers.”
“Right…” Elaina focused on her terminal. “Well, I think that’s everything. Do you have any more questions?”
“Just one. Have dinner with me tonight?”
“I don’t think there’s anything more to?—”
“Not work dinner. Just dinner.”
Elaina had to admit she appreciated the assertive directness. But her focus was elsewhere.
“I’m sorry, I’m seeing someone.” She supposed she could say that now? Finally, it felt more real.
Konstantin didn’t hide his disappointment. He smiled sadly and pressed a hand to the side of his neck. “Too bad. I’ll see you around then.”
Elaina returned the polite gesture. “I’m not sure when I’m going back to Earendel yet, but ping me if you need anything. For work, I mean.”
She tracked Captain Rennart to his quarters in her system. Abuse of access, technically. But he had questions to answer.
“Fairan.” Rennart looked surprised to see her. “Is everything all right? I mean… obviously it’s not, with?—”
“Everything’s fine,” Elaina cut him off. “We need to talk.”
“Fairan, I’m a little?—”
“It’s about the ship.”
“What ship?”
“The one hidden in the decommission dock.”
Rennart seemed to deflate a little before her. He stepped aside. “Come in.”
The captain’s cabin was a spacious two-roomer, the first of which took Rennart four entire steps to clear. He walked to a small hatch built into the wall and pressed a button on the side. A frosted cover slid open with a mild hiss, a puff of chill dispersing into the air. Rennart extracted two tiny glasses, balanced in one hand, and an unlabeled flask. He poured a light green liquid into the glasses and set the bottle aside, then handed one to her.
“Bootleg booze?” Elaina eyed him carefully as she took the glass.
“Bootleg booze, bootleg ship,” The captain shrugged a shoulder as he tossed his drink back, wincing with the swallow. Elaina sniffed the offering, but opted not to partake.
“I suppose you’ve tracked it down. It’s what you do and all,” Rennard sighed.
“What is that thing? Where did it come from?”
“I sure as shit don’t know,” he scoffed. “We spotted it entering detection range three cycles ago. No ID.”
Elaina frowned… Three cycles was well before the anomalies began. Either the ship was just a coincidence, or it was smart. Biding its time .
“I saw it, in the dock. It didn’t look like any ship I’ve seen before.”
“It’s not, Fairan.” Rennart stared into his glass. “It’s not from known space.”
What?
“What do you mean?”
“It didn’t have an ID or ping an origin, but it did transmit a radiation signature that I had my navigator examine. The signature was from outside the quadrants. Somewhere near Eros.”
That was impossible. How could a craft come from unknown space? There was no human presence outside the quadrants—that was the point. It was unexplored! Eros was a barely visible galaxy outside of explored space, detected only by long-range satellites. The galaxy itself was surely gone by now—it was too far for light to reach before its own destruction. So what was there now?
“A pocket?” Elaina tried to find an explanation. “Or a mistake.”
There’d been rumors of scrappy human expeditions venturing into the unknown to start their own colonies. Pockets of civilization that didn’t officially exist. Most of the claims were bullshit stories—the stuff of science fiction.
“Can’t be a pocket… That wouldn’t explain the tech. And it isn’t a mistake. I trust my nav. Rad sigs don’t lie, Fairan.”
“So nonhuman.”
“The tech sure suggests it. That thing is like nothing we’ve ever seen.”
“Why didn’t you report it?”
Rennart smiled wryly. “Do you know how much that thing could bring in on the open market? A craft from goddamn Eros ?”
Elaina gritted her teeth. “You were going to take a potentially alien bit of tech and just… sell it? Auction it off? Are you kidding me?”
“What else was I going to do with it, Fairan? Donate it to science?”
“Yes!”
“You have too much faith in the captain of a derelict station orbiting a derelict planet that no one gives two shits about.”
Elaina’s grip stiffened on her glass and she set it aside before she did something stupid with it.
“That thing is responsible for all this crap. The failures. You know that, right? You know your greed might kill everyone here?”
But the way Rennart’s eyes widened told her he hadn’t made that connection. She couldn’t exactly blame him… The craft arrived well before the problems began. And Elaina didn’t even have proof that it was related. But she could tell. And so could Cyan. Especially after last night.
“I have a buyer,” Rennart said. “A salvage company that’s already on the way from Glacial Twelve. Their scout already arrived.”
Pirates. That was all a salvage company really was.
“Their scout? I thought Konstantin Stone was meant to be my replacement.” How many lies were being weaved around this place?
“He’s that too. But he’s also an advance inspector.”
As soon as she was out of Rennart’s cabins, Elaina pinged Cyan.
Ship came from unexplored space. External entity??? Chime me when you’re done.
She dropped into her chair with her dataslate, pulling up everything she could find about Eros. A rogue snippet of civilization? Amateur explorers? It made sense that pockets might exist, but no one had ever confirmed them. And Eros… it was too far. No one had the resources to get there, not even the big megacorps.
Elaina bounced between the anomalies and the tech they’d seen on the ship. There had to be more answers, but every time she hit a dead end, she thought of Cyan. He would want to know this. They could figure it out together, explore the mystery.
Still no ping from him. Was this the sword distorting his time perception again? Surely he knew they were on the cusp of something big here, and the something was right there .
Unable to wait any longer, Elaina grabbed her jacket.
Her heart hammered as she reached Cyan’s cabin, tapping the access request. She expected him to take a moment to respond, but the door slid open immediately.
Her heart dropped into her stomach.
The cabin wasn’t just empty—it was cleared out. No signs of life. No signs of Cyan.
Elaina stared, her mind refusing to accept what her gut already knew. He’d said they’d check out the ship together. Where was he? Had he gone to the ship without telling her?
The whisper of panic grew louder as Elaina made a beeline for the decommission dock. Her pace quickened with each step. She ignored the chatter of station comms buzzing in her ear. None of that mattered right now .
Then a snippet slipped through her hyperfocus, and Elaina froze just outside the dock.
“Unauthorized departure in sector ? —”
She didn’t want to believe it. But deep down, she already knew.
She stepped inside, her stomach twisting. Darkness swallowed the tech around her, shadows stretching over the abandoned machines. And then she saw the empty spot where the ship had been.
Gone.
Elaina scanned the space, hoping—desperately willing—she’d missed something. But it was useless. The ship wasn’t there. Cyan wasn’t there.
Why would he do this without her? She’d been helping. She’d been useful. They’d… She’d thought they had something. She thought he’d felt it too, last night. Was it all just in her head?
Her comms line pinged and she stared at the transmission on her dataslate.
I’m sorry, Elaina. There’s too much at stake. Can’t risk this. Can’t risk you. I know you deserve more. Someone who can be there for you—I can’t.