Chapter 21 Bless Your Heart #2
“I feel we all knew I hadn’t, even if none of us would admit it.
I wanted to…I tried…but I couldn’t trust that Cyrus wouldn’t sit back, knowing we would die, and just let it happen.
And I was wrong. But Killian—” The man cut off when his voice broke.
A few of the tears that had flooded his eyes breaking free then, as Severo took another shuddered breath.
“H-he’s struggling, you know? He just seems so lost right now, and I—”
Killian pinched the Dweller’s nose. “Why are you such a crybaby?!” he huffed. “You know I don’t do well with tears.”
Severo growled, batting his hand away. “I c-can’t help it!” The Dweller sniffled, his face scrunching as the man likely tried to hold the rest back and failed. “I’m trying to be serious!” the man blubbered, before wiping at his eyes with his arm.
Killian let out an exasperated chuckle. “I know you are. But like I already told you, I don’t blame him.
As soon as he did what he did, everything was out of his hands.
I know him well enough to realize that Cyrus would have been paralyzed into inaction, into staying silent in fear of accidentally reversing the change he made.
“I’m miffed…mad that Cyrus kept things from me. Knowing and understanding why he did it doesn’t mean I still can’t be angry about it. But regardless, we are going to be fine, Severo.”
Well, they would be fine…unless whatever punishment Cyrus’ rule breaking brought ended badly…
Eyeing Soren warily, Ender relaxed back on the bed against the headboard, ignoring the stinging pain as he did. The Harpy was standing there, arms crossed, looking as stressed as he fucking felt.
“Ender, you need to inform them of the possible dangers that are coming.”
“Gee, and I thought you were all for me dealing with it without drugs.”
“Yeah, in a place you could be monitored, with the safety of others accounted for. Not on multiple broken ass ships in the middle of fucking space!”
“Well, we have a small supply of random narcotics, and they have one, not to mention whatever the fuck the traffickers kept. So between all that, if I take enough, maybe it will work.”
Soren scoffed. “It's more likely you’ll overdose before they do.”
“Which would be better than going on a rampage!” he snapped.
“The fuck it is!?”
In his mind, it was. An overdose could at least possibly be fixed, while accidentally eating someone was a little harder to reverse, especially after digestion, but what did he know?!
The Harpy took a deep breath, held it for a moment before slowly letting it out.
“We don’t need to tell them anything right away.
I know the engineers said that fixing the core engines isn't an option, but we still have all the secondary smaller ones on the ships. Maybe we can rig those up before it’s too late.
It could, at the very least, get us somewhere that we can contact help, if not home.
And if done quickly enough, we could still get back with plenty of time to spare. ”
Ender stared, and he really wanted to just nod and agree to that, but…he couldn’t…
Soren frowned. “Why do you look like you just ate something sour?”
He forced his face to relax before admitting, “We don’t have time…
Also, while they are called secondary engine cores, they are really just batteries, or rather the energy source for the rest of the ship.
I’m pretty sure if we could safely shift their purpose, without losing other important life-sustaining ship functions, Saffire would have brought it up. ”
“That second half aside, what do you mean we don’t have time? It’s only the 22nd. As long as we leave by the 27th, or early morning on the 28th, we’ll get back in time. Everyone is focused on trying to fix the climate controls and comms, but if we get them all to just—”
“Soren, I’m almost positive the dreams have already started…”
Soren’s eyes widened. “Impossible… It’s too soon! When?!”
“Yesterday morning, before we attacked…”
“Are you sure it wasn’t just a normal nightmare?” the Harpy asked, almost hopefully.
“I will admit…I tried to pass it off as that. But you know they’ve always felt different.
Leaving me feeling just a little less tethered to reality after each one.
It didn’t feel like a normal dream, and it was the start of it…
It’s how it always starts. We don’t have time.
” Ender sighed. “Was our holding cell damaged?”
“No,” Soren replied softly. “It’s fully intact.”
“Then that’s where I’ll start sleeping in a few days.”
“Ender, they have never started this early before. It’s possible things won’t devolve as rapidly. Maybe this just means it’ll be drawn out?”
Ender wasn’t sure, and he wouldn’t really know until the next nightmare hit.
“I’ll know soon enough…”
“You need to warn them then, about what is about to happen, just in case it can’t hold you.”
“It should, for a little while. It all depends on how quickly it ends.”
“Ender…” Soren sighed.
“Just give me a few days. Let’s see if we are worrying for no fucking reason, and then I’ll decide who needs to know what.”
“You have three days,” the Harpy said stiffly.
“Gee, and here I thought I was in charge.”
“Well, bless your heart. It’s adorable you think so. But Brother, it’s time to face facts. You officially ain’t in charge until you’ve passed the period of the year where you are at risk of literally eating people,” the man said in a southern drawl, as real and as thick as his own.
Ender glared, and flipped the bastard off. “I’m going to expose your accent one of these days. Bet.”
Soren smirked, his accent still out in full as he drawled, “Bring it on, little brother.”