Chapter 42 #2
“A jetpack?” Alred repeated. “You’re not thinking about trying to get to their ship, are you?”
She frowned. “You’re being right. Flying there won’t working. I can use the boring tunnel to get around. Do we have a metal cutter somewhere? Besides the workroom, I mean.”
“Haven.” Alred tried to appear in front of her, but she didn’t stop, walking right through him and continuing on her way.
She was pretty sure there was a metal cutter in the center command room. Vytln needed to cut through to get to her old room to fix the broken pipe. It might still there. And she’d need it.
As she came around the corner, however, she came up short.
Tanin was there, standing in the hall as he helped Garnet, obviously pregnant, step down into the shelter room.
Rok was already inside, using his four hands to guide her down.
Grace wasn’t there, neither was Sway or Trove, so she imagined they were already below.
Goldie was standing in the hall, however, along with Sorbet and Tebros, waiting for their turn to go down.
Goldie was a bit back, however, biting her lip, holding her arms across her chest.
The moment she caught sight of Alred, she ran his way.
“Alred, your core-!” She started, reaching for him. She didn’t touch him, of course, but she came up just short, her hands up like she might be able to touch him.
“Haven, you next,” Tanin said, gesturing with his head to her.
“I’m not going,” she repeated, needing to get past them.
“That was an order, Haven,” Tanin repeated. “Get in the shelter room.”
“No,” she said again. “I am not being a member of your crew. I am a prisoner. I do not obeying you. And I am not going in there. I’m going after Vytln.”
“Absolutely not.” Tanin shook his head. “Both of you, get inside, now. We can figure out the rest once we survive the explosion.”
“I’m not.”
“Me either,” Goldie agreed, her voice more desperate, less firm, than Haven’s. “I can’t. Alred! Your core!”
Alred gave her a sad smile, reaching up as though he was going to touch her cheek. But, of course, he couldn’t.
“My core is shielded,” he said. “It would likely survive an explosion.”
“Likely?!” She repeated, her voice high and terrified. “That’s not- Alred, let us bring your core in with us. You’re safer there.”
“My odds would be better in the shelter room, yes. But yours would be less. If there is anything left of the ship that is usable, I can only use it from outside the shelter. The only chance we have is if I stay out and try to find a way to summon help.”
“No! That’s not-” Her voice broke and she shook her head rapidly, trying to deny the logic of the only plan they could come up with.
The tight look on Tanin’s face spoke to his hard agreement with her sentiment. They’d spent the last day trying to think of something else. Vytln had already sacrificed himself. Tanin was risking losing a second crewmate by letting Alred stay behind.
But they had no choice. Once they were trapped in the shelter, they were essentially blind, deaf, and dumb.
The only possible hope they had was that Alred would be able to do something with whatever remained of the ship.
If his core survived. It was built to survive small explosions, but that didn’t guarantee it would be able to do so without some kind of damage.
And this certainly wasn’t a small explosion.
Still, it was their best bet.
And Haven really meant theirs, because she wasn’t getting in that shelter.
The four of them stood there, staring at each other. Alred and Goldie with a soft smile and terror respectively; Tanin and Haven with hardened determination both.
“What exactly are you planning to do?” Tanin asked, like she was being foolish.
And maybe she was, but-
“I’m going after Vytln,” she declared, head held high. “I can getting into their ship. I knowing I can. I’ll finding him. I’ll getting him.”
“You are going to die,” he snarled, quills starting to raise. “And you will render the entire purpose of giving himself up as pointless.”
“No. He boughting us time. He was successful. I’ll taking advantage of it.” He opened his mouth again, but she cut him off. “You cannot stopping me. I’m going. Focusing on Goldie, because I willing not be changing my mind.”
“Me either!” Goldie shouted, tears swimming in her eyes, not looking away from Alred. “I won’t get in there without your core. I won’t do it!”
“You will,” he said calmly. “You will go, and I will keep you safe. However I must.”
“No!”
“Captain. Take her down.”
“Alred, please!” She wailed, even as Tanin took her by the shoulders and pulled her back. “W-We can figure this out. We can. Don’t do this!”
“You cannot stop me, my love,” he chuckled.
“I cannot touch you. I cannot please you. I cannot do the things for you that a male normally could. But what I can do, and what I will do, is make sure that you are safe. And you will be. Go inside. I’m counting on you to get my core afterwards. I know you will take care of it.”
“No,” Goldie cried, burying her face in her hands.
Tanin handed her off to Sorbet and Tebros, who worked together to lower her through the hatch to Rok, who she clung to desperately, crying bitter tears.
Tanin nodded his head and Sorbet and Tebros jumped in after her. He then looked back at Haven, his expression hard. For a long moment, he just looked at her. She held her chin high, meeting his gaze with a hard one of her own.
“I will tell you one more time to get in,” he said simply.
“You are not my captain,” she countered. “I won’t go.”
“Then your death is on your hands.” He turned and stopped before looking back. Both at Haven and at Alred. “All of our lives are in your hands.”
With that, he stepped down. Rok, three hands still cradling Goldie, reached up and grabbed the hatch.
He pulled it down and, with a hard clang, it closed.
The floor blended right back into place, and all sound was cut off.
Haven and Alred were alone in the hall. The entire ship eerily quiet and empty around them.
“He must think you have a chance,” Alred said, infusing hope into his voice that he couldn’t get to sound fully genuine. “If he thought it really was impossible, he would have just grabbed you.”
“I’m having more than just a chance,” Haven declared, fists tight. “I’m going to get him back.”
Turning, she frowned at Alred.
“You… Is your core really going to surviving?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. It was designed to survive a great deal of damage. I might have… slightly exaggerated it. And it’s been a long time since it was built.”
“Your odds are…”
“About as good as yours, really.” He chuckled, but there was no humor in it.
“I don’t expect to survive. That wasn’t the point.
If I’m out here, I can try to help them.
If there’s anything still functioning in this ship after the explosion.
But it doesn’t matter if not. The moment we swing out, I’ve got an emergency message set to send to Ikvar.
It has our rough coordinates. It includes our distress details.
I’ll hopefully have enough time to get it sent before they can send the signal setting off the explosives.
I will see her safe, even if it costs my life. ”
Haven nodded. She could only respect his decision, considering she was doing the same thing herself. “Okay. Where is it? Your core.”
He looked at the ceiling. “The upper bridge. In a console behind the hatch. I’ll unlock it for you. If you manage to get out and happen to find it. If there’s anything left of it.” He looked back down again. “What about you? What’s your plan?”
“The explosion will destroying the ship,” she said, not needing his nod of confirmation to know it was true. “But there are no shockwaves in space. Not from the pressure, anyway. It will be contained.”
“The shrapnel won’t be.”
“I can survive that. Probably. I don’t needing to get far. I’ll get out through the trash chute. Same way I getting in here. I just need a way to getting to their ship. I need the metal cutter.”
Alred hummed thoughtfully. “We don’t do repairs on the outside of the ship often, but Vytln still has the tools to do so. A metal cutter strong enough to cut through a hull would be there.”
“Where?”
“Main storage. He keeps them where the exit would be.”
She made a face, crossing her arms. “I can’t getting there.”
“No,” Alred smiled. “But your termites can. I have an idea.”