Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
JETT
“Head back to the Shibuya.”
“Negative, Shibuya. I have time to search for the black box and return to the shuttle.”
“I said come back to the Shibuya.” Eddie’s voice brooked no argument, but Jett wasn’t about to give in. He had time, he just needed to move fast.
One more loop around the room, purposely avoiding the body of Adonis Mox, turned up nothing. The black box was gone.
“It might be on one of the lifeboats,” Jett said as he exited the room.
His team stood with their backs toward the gore. A wise choice, Jett thought, as he picked his way over and around dismembered limbs.
“I will have them checked as soon as they arrive at Caelus or the Neo-Tokyo. Now get back here.” Eddie’s voice rose in pitch as he barked out the order.
Jett heard anxiety breaking through the cracks in Eddie’s mask.
No matter how hard he’d reassured the man, Jett knew that Eddie didn’t have the experience, the memories, the knowledge that he had.
He couldn’t see worse scenarios when he tried to sleep at night.
He didn’t know about the incident that had changed Jett forever. Not yet, anyways.
Kepler turned to Jett as he stepped into an open space between him and Hash.
“Been quiet out here, boss.”
Jett nodded as he looked both ways, expecting something hidden in the darkness. But there was nothing there. “We’re going back to the Shibuya the way we came. Keep your minds on where you put your feet.
Beneath his feet, the ship shook. A slight movement, but noticeable. They had plenty of time, but they needed to be quick and careful.
“Move out.”
As they reached the top of the stairs back to the Atrium, the ship rocked beneath their feet, tossing Jett into the window that led into an office.
Liquid heat ran down his hip as his helmet said “Suit breached.”
The ship shook Jett awake, a deep rumble that ripped through his limbs as they regained feeling. He tried to push himself upright, but pain lanced through him. Lightning flashed before his eyes, brighter than far distant Sol, before darkness descended once more.
Jett woke to voices in his helmet. Frantic, fast speech exchanged between two people. He couldn’t make out what they said or who they were.
He opened his eyes and watched the ceiling flow by.
“We’re moving as fast as we can, Captain.” Jett recognized the voice now, Kepler. He spat the words through pressed lips and heaving breaths.
“We need to be gone in twenty minutes.”
Eddie. Jett’s Eddie; the man he loved beyond the sum total of everything else in Sol, Centauri, Ceti, and beyond. It was hard to piece his thoughts together, punctured as they were by white hot pain and calming darkness.
“Eh…” He couldn’t find his voice, lost as it was in a copper-tinged gargle of blood and spit in his throat. His eyes opened and closed slowly, everything around him dimming to a chaotic blur.
“Fuck, we’re losing him. Auguste, give him the second stim!”
Jett’s feet hit something. Fresh, sharp pain gave way to cooling flesh and blood burning down his leg. Something, some pressure in his back, made Jett squirm before clarity flooded his senses and he could once again think and feel and see.
Propped on his feet between Kepler and Hash, Jett looked to either side. Blood pooled on the floor beneath his feet, dripping from an open gash in his suit between two solid plates.
“F-fuck,” he sputtered, red splattering his helmet screen, running down his chin and neck.
“Stay still, Valla.” Auguste held up a tab and a yellow light flashed in the dark between them.
Thoughts still muddled, the pain in Jett’s side dulled to a throbbing ache that he could live with.
Testing the limits of his movement made something solid sink deeper into his abdomen, slicing through skin, muscle, and perhaps more than that.
Gut wounds were hard to come back from too many delicate systems joined together there.
Jett knew time was running out. He needed to get back to Eddie.
“What happ-pend?”
“Something blew in the ship.” Eddie’s voice strained and strived to convey calm, but Jett knew better. “Get back here now!”
Jett felt strain in the bond. He felt terror in Eddie, who was so far away Jett wondered if they would see each other again.
“We stopped to stim you, boss. But we gotta get moving again…” Kepler adjusted something, jostling Jett as he did. “Is he cleared to move?”
Auguste’s face, lit by his helmet light, was unreadable as Jett’s vision faded and returned. “We have no choice. We just gotta get him down the fucking stairs and we’re home free.”
The ship rocked beneath their feet.
THIRTY MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION
Despite the stims, Jett felt queasy as he put one foot before the other, limping down the hallway and onto the top level of the Atrium.
Hash and Kepler did what they could to alleviate the weight and pain, but it wasn’t enough.
Jett felt every shake, every breath, every time they adjusted their grips and weight.
Every step was torture, his breath ragged in his throat as pain mounted and his vision swam.
Everything lurched.
Hash lost her footing and tumbled down the stairs Each drop brought screams, then moans, then nothing.
Another lurch brought Jett to his knees, helmet slamming into the railing before him. A crack in his guts tore a scream from his mouth, echoing the one just loosed from Hash. Black gloves came away drenched in red.
The stims were no longer enough.
Jett screamed once more as darkness took him.
White lights burned above him as Jett woke for what felt like the final time.
People clustered around and over him, each as out of focus as the last several months in his memory.
Only one stayed steady in his sight, close enough to touch if Jett could but raise his arm.
His mind filled in the details, each curl and freckle flashed to life as Eddie came into view.
“Eh…” He couldn’t speak.
Pain shot through him as something or someone lifted from his chest, his shoulders, his legs. Warmth flooded in where ice had crusted against his skin and Jett opened his eyes once more, straining to get one last glance of Eddie.
In his hammering ears, Jett’s heart slowed to an inconsistent beat. He counted to ten, lost track, and started again as his eyelids drooped and his eyelashes caressed his cheeks, soft and feathery.
“Jett?” a voice called out, breaking through the slowing trickle of life left in him. “Jett!”
The voice was louder, clearer. Soft and mournful, it repeated his name over and over until Jett opened his eyes. Details flooded his brain. At least six doctors or nurses surrounded him in a featureless white room.
Jett counted again, turning his head with minute movements, looking for Eddie. “Eh…” He tried once, but still couldn’t form the word, dear to his heart though it was.
“Eh…de.”
“Eddie…” he finally got the word out as Eddie came into view.
Every detail, every freckle, curl, and hair on his chin dimmed in his vision as his peripherals dimmed. Green eyes burned as tears fell freely, some splattering on Jett’s face.
“Eddie.” He sounded like himself. But he knew it would be for the last time.
Darkness dimmed Eddie’s features until just that green glow remained.
“Jett, stay with me! Please!”
Jett’s heart ached, but the warmth in his chest, the bond that connected him to his true love, faded.
“No, Jett. You can’t go. Please, please, please stay with me.” Tears choked that soft, sweet voice.
“Ed?” Jett asked as the darkness consumed all light.
“Jett?”
His lips quirked into a smile.
“Say it again, Eddie.”