by M. D. Cooper
Instead, she mastered her feelings and said,
asked Isa.
Isa asked.
Martin said,
If the situation hadn’t been so serious, Isa might have been amused by yet another tetchy conversation between Martin and Erin. As it was, all she felt was terror about what might happen to her wife.
she demanded.
Erin’s vision opened in Isa’s mind.
If it was day where Erin was, it sure didn’t look like it. She was speeding through a dark, smoky haze. Lush vegetation surrounded her, but the leaves were already thick with dust and ash. Ash was everywhere, smoldering dully, and still dropping from the sky.
Isa could also hear Erin’s breathing—she was panting, coughing, and choking in the heated, sooty atmosphere.
Martin asked.
Isa was wondering all this too, but she hadn’t wanted to distract Erin from reaching safety.
Through Erin’s eyes, Isa saw the outline of a skiff. It was covered with ash, but the vessel was recognizable.
Sweet relief burst in her chest. Erin will make it out of there.
Then the connection was gone.
Isa blinked. She searched for Erin on the Link, but there was nothing of her in the present, just the memory of what she’d seen a moment ago. She turned to Martin. He was staring blankly, disbelieving.
“You lost her too?” he asked.
“Yes.” Isa had gone numb.
She realized the fireworks display had carried on despite the eruption on the other side of the planet. Jude continued to watch the lights and colors in innocent wonder, but to Isa, the sight and sounds of the display were not real. All she could hear was Erin’s labored breathing right before their connection had cut off. All she could see was an ash-covered skiff suddenly disappearing.
Then she felt Martin’s hand on her arm, clutching her. He was pale in the glow of the exploding fireworks.
“I can’t raise Walter, and neither can Eamon.”
Eamon announced, a note of heavy concern present in the AI’s mental tone.
Isa swallowed. “Maybe she’s only been knocked out,” she said, though she knew her words were absurd. If Erin was unconscious, she would still be visible on the Link, and they should still be able to speak to Walter.
Something terrible had happened.
Isa couldn’t move. Reality had receded into the background, and her heartbeat pounded in her ears. Martin’s shocked face held her gaze.
Isa’s words seemed to echo across the space that separated her from her wife.
Why won’t she answer? She has to answer.
Time beat on.
Isa called Erin’s name again, clinging to the hope she would receive a reply. A single word. A breath. Something. Anything.
Nothing came.
Martin had turned away. He faced the lights that continued to dazzle above the lake, but his gaze was unfocused.
Perhaps he is speaking to Eamon, Isa reasoned. Or perhaps he, like me, is trying to comprehend what happened.
In a lull after one set of fireworks, she said, “She could still be alive.”
Eamon said.
Martin didn’t speak. He didn’t look at her. As if by instinct, his arms curled protectively around Jude’s torso.
“Ow! Daddy, you’re squeezing too tight!”
Isa stood up, finally getting Martin’s attention, while the person sitting behind her complained she was blocking his view.
“What are you doing?” asked Martin.
“I’m going to find Erin.”
“You’re going to the site of the eruption? Are you kidding? Emergency Services doesn’t need you flying in there too! It’s a disaster zone. You’ll die—”
But Isa was already edging along the row. She couldn’t just watch fireworks while Erin was out there somewhere. Maybe there was something that could still be done. Martin had been brought back from the dead, so could Erin.
Martin was following her, pulling a protesting Jude by his hand.
“But it isn’t over yet,” Jude said. “I want to see the rest.”
Isa reached the end of the row and began to descend the stairs. As she stepped downward, the fireworks petered out.
“Isa,” said Martin, catching up to her. “You can’t go there, you know it. Have you pulled the satellite feeds? The pyroclastic surge already hit where she last….” His words ended in a choke as he glanced down at Jude, who was watching a man walk by with a balloon.
The lake view was silent and dark again, though now the Cradle’s reflection was obscured by a light haze.
Athens’ planetary AI spoke into their minds, overriding all network traffic.
Isa was shocked. Leave Athens? When Erin might need me?
She wasn’t going to evacuate any more than she was going to sit and watch fireworks. What she needed to do was find a skiff or a shuttle and fly to Mount Poros.
She walked across the grass outside the stadium to the street that led to the maglev terminal, where she could catch a train to the spaceport. Crowds of people surged around her, but Martin kept pace with her, swinging Jude up into his arms to carry him.
None of the Athenians seemed panicked, but they were moving with purpose, trusting that if more haste was necessary, official services would tell them. Isa suspected that they’d drilled for this over the years, given the nature of the world they lived on.
“Did you hear Phaedra’s announcement?” Martin asked. “We’re going to the hotel, then leaving right?”
“You should leave with Jude. Get him away from here. But I’m going to look for Erin.”
“Isa.” Martin grabbed her arm and forced her to stop. The stream of people leaving the stadium split and rushed around and past them. “Please. You can’t go down there. If we can’t reach Erin or Walter over the Link, it’s…it’s because they’ve moved beyond our reach.” His features twisted as he spoke, trying to hold himself together.
“That doesn’t have to be true.” Isa snatched her arm from his grasp. “Maybe the Link has gone down in that area due to the eruption. Did you think of that?”
The anger conveyed in her words shocked her, but she couldn’t believe that Martin was giving up so easily. Erin could be badly hurt. She could need their help.
“You aren’t making any sense,” Martin insisted. “Did you look at the satellite feeds?”
“I did, and they show a lot of lightning and ionization in the area. That could be blocking her signal, and maybe she decided it’s too risky to take off right now.”
An expression of hope flickered across Martin’s features.
Seizing on his hesitation, Isa urged, “Take Jude back to Athens. You’re right, it isn’t safe here. I’ll go find Erin, and then I’ll bring her home.”
Martin’s expression grew doubtful. “No. You take Jude, and I’ll go and look for Erin.”
“This isn’t a job for you,” Isa replied. “Erin isn’t in the ocean. She could be trapped somewhere near t
he eruption, and I worked in hazardous conditions for years back in Sirius. I know the gear, and I know how to operate out there. I can link up with Search and Rescue at the spaceport and get out there. I need to help.”
“Isa, I can’t…”
“You can’t what? I’m doing this, Martin. I have to.”
Martin put Jude down and grabbed her. He hugged her tight, almost lifting her from her feet.
Pressing his head into her neck, he said, “I can’t lose you both.”
Isa hugged him back. “You won’t lose me or Erin. I promise.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
STELLAR DATE: 05.12.8942 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Attica
REGION: Athens, New Canaan System
After a quick stop at the hotel, Martin had journeyed to the spaceport where he now stood holding Jude’s hand tightly as they waited in line to board the shuttle to the Odyssey.
People were pouring into the main terminal, their behavior a notch higher on the panic scale as reports of Mount Poros’s ongoing eruption continued to come in. It wasn’t a supervolcano by any means, but with a five-kilometer caldera, it wasn’t a small hole in the planet’s crust, either.
Martin glanced down at Jude, making sure his son was calm and not eager to run off after some exciting thing he’d spotted. Martin didn’t want to lose hold of him. He feared the little boy could easily be swept away in the crowd.
The Odyssey wouldn’t hold everyone on the planet by a long shot, so Phaedra, Athens’ AI, had been allocating seats to people with young children first; others would be sent to the freighters and drone ships in orbit over the planet.
Few tourists took their kids to Athens—the place was too much of a playground for adults. However, the Landfall Day celebration had attracted some families, so they would be first off the planet.
Martin’s glance at his son confirmed that Jude didn’t seem to be aware of what was happening. He held on to Martin’s hand and looked around, his young brow creased in confusion. Martin was dreading the inevitable questions.
Isa had hugged her son and said goodbye before leaving to look for a skiff or aircar to take her to the eruption site, but she’d left quickly, without any explanation to Jude. Now it would be down to Martin to fill in the details.
How to explain to Jude that one of his mommies was probably dead, and the other one had gone on a perilous mission to find her? And what if neither of them came back? Losing one parent would be a terrible blow to a four-year-old, let alone two.
After a thorough look around, Jude asked, “Daddy, where did Mommy Isa go?”
“She’s….” Martin squatted down to Jude’s level and looked him in the eyes. “Mommy Erin is lost, and Mommy Isa has gone to look for her.”
“Oh no! Is Mommy Erin going to be okay?”
“Jude, I….” Martin didn’t know what to tell his son. He didn’t want to upset him, but he didn’t want to lie to him either. “Mommy Isa thinks she is. She says she’s going to find her and bring her home.”
Jude gazed at Martin’s face, as if reading what he could find there. He was trying to puzzle out what was going on.
The little boy had Isa’s eyes, Erin’s hair, and Martin’s own chin. The genes of his parents had expressed themselves evenly across Jude’s features, but, despite his love of swimming, Jude seemed to have inherited Isa’s character most. He’d become thoughtful, quiet, and sensitive. He could tell that Martin wasn’t telling him something, yet even at his young age, he’d developed the consideration not to push the issue; no ‘But what do you think, Daddy?’ would pass his lips. Martin was grateful for that.
The line moved forward, and Martin was forced to stand straight and move along with it.
The shuttle entrance drew nearer, square and luminous. What a contrast the flight to Carthage would be, compared to the one they had taken to Athens. Then after that, how long would he and Jude have to wait for Isa to come home? Would she bring Erin with her?
Despite his wife’s optimism, Martin couldn’t allow himself to believe it. The best he dared to hope for was that Isa would return to him, grief-stricken and defeated, and they would mourn Erin together. Until then, he would look after Jude.
They passed through the shuttle entrance.
the pilot was saying.
The cabin was bright and orderly compared to the gloominess and chaos outside. The passengers were slipping into their seats, moving aside for newcomers, helping each other. The children chattered, oblivious to the sober situation, while the adults spoke quietly to each other, stranger to stranger, discussing the eruption.
Vids of the event were arriving via the Link. Martin found two seats together for himself and Jude, and as he strapped Jude in, he watched the recording of the volcano’s eruption. A cone-shaped mountain rose from a carpet of lush green. Martin couldn’t see any sign of Erin’s skiff or the engineers. He guessed they must have been somewhere under the trees.
The massive peak began to billow smoke and vapor, rising in a gigantic plume. Then the volcano convulsed, and billions of tons of rock shuddered and rose into the air.
Martin stopped the recording, and the exploding volcano froze. He couldn’t watch it. Somewhere in the green landscape that surrounded the volcano, Erin had been working, tidying up after the long assignment, unaware of the cataclysm about to descend on her without warning.
Why didn’t she have any warning? And why couldn’t she have let the other engineers to do the work? She was their boss. She could have done whatever she wanted.
If she’d only remained in Attica and watched the fireworks.
Martin recalled the reason Erin had given for returning to help her team—she’d said that she had to say a formal goodbye to the TSF’s engineers, for the sake of diplomacy. It was what Tanis had wanted.
Martin’s hand tightened on his armrest. Damn that woman!
She was always putting his family in danger. If she was responsible for Erin’s death, he would never forgive her.
said Eamon.
Martin almost jumped. In his misery, he’d forgotten the AI in his mind.
Walter and Eamon had been good friends for many years, probably long before they had taken up residence in Erin’s mind and his own.
Martin asked, but then immediately regretted the question. He already had a good idea of the answer and didn’t want Eamon to confirm what he dreaded.
Eamon said.
Eamon’s incomplete sentence said everything.
The shuttle doors closed, and the pilot announced they would soon be lifting off. Jude had activated the seatback holodisplay and was playing a game. Martin hoped his son’s young mind had flitted on from the fact that his mommies were in danger.
Leaving Athens without Erin or Isa felt very wrong, but Martin knew he had to look after his son. Neither of his wives would criticize him for what he was doing. They would want him to take care of Jude. But as the shuttle pilot began to pull away from the terminal, Martin couldn’t help feeling like he was running away.
If Erin was dead and Isa died in the search for her, how would he live with himself?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
STELLAR DATE: 05.12.8942 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Attica
REGION: Athens, New Canaan System
Isa leapt out of the autocab that had taken her from the maglev terminal to the hangar where Search and Rescue was organizing.
Two heavy shuttles had already taken off, headed in the general direction of the explos
ion, and another was being loaded outside the hangar as Isa ran toward the ship.
“Hey, hold up!” a voice called out, and she turned to see a pair of Marines approaching from her right. “This is an official S&R ship, ma’am, it’s not heading into orbit.”
“I’m not looking to get off-planet,” she protested as the Marines reached her and blocked her path forward. “I want to help. I have training in hazardous conditions.”
“Ma’am,” one of the Marines shook his head. “The S&R teams train together for this. A new person in the mix will just complicate things, you—”
Isa noted the man’s company by the patch on his shoulder, and interrupted his rejection.
“Corporal, are you assigned to Major Usef’s battalion?”
“Yes, ma’am. The Fighting Fifteenth.”
“I need you to tell Major Usef that Erin is missing, and her wife Isa is here to help.”
The two Marines looked at one another, and then the corporal nodded. “Well, I’ll pass it up the chain, ma’am.”
Long minutes passed as Isa stood with the two Marines blocking her way, neither speaking, just watching her and the surrounding landing strip.
Eventually, a voice called out from behind her.
“Isa?”
She turned to see Usef step off the back of an open groundcar.
“Major, I need to help. There’s no way I can just stand—”
“Isa,” Usef placed a hand on her shoulder and nodded to the two Marines. “There are already S&R teams operating in the area, but the satellite feeds show that the pyroclastic surge hit shortly before Erin’s Link signal cut out…. An initial flight has already gone by, and they didn’t see any sign of her skiff where she’d landed.”
“Then she’s still out there!”
“Or the surge blasted away her transport,” Usef countered. “Look, I care for Erin too. But the S&R teams here know how to do their jobs.”
“Usef,” Isa said through gritted teeth. “If you don’t let me help, I’ll find a way to look for her. I’ll walk out there if I have to.”
The major stared at her in silence for almost a minute, and then shook his head. “Stars, Isa, I have half a mind to cuff you and throw you in a shuttle headed for the Odyssey.”