They were back at square one. This wasn't a surprise, it was exactly how the loop worked. Only she and Loco were able to remember the previous day, for whatever reason. Of course Svend wouldn't remember their day together.
That didn't protect her from feeling gutted. They had come so far, but it didn't matter. Nothing that happened during these loops mattered, because nothing could change. Svend would always be awkward around her, every single day.
Svend looked at her with concern. “You alright, Bentley? You look pale.”
She just about leaped out of the bed, startling Svend, but she did not want to face him right now. “I'm alright. I just need to go. Busy day. See you later.”
“Wait, aren't you at least going to get dressed?” Svend called after her as Bentley stormed out of the room and sought solitude deeper in the ship.
Chapter Five
Olofi scrubbed the toilets vigorously. Bentley had to admit to being impressed by how diligently he attended to his duties, even the shitty ones. It was inspirational, in a way. Not in a 'want to get down on your knees and help' kind of way, but in a 'feel kind of bad for not doing so' kind of way.
“How many times have you lived today?” Olofi asked.
Bentley had already explained it to him several times, but she knew he wasn't taking her seriously yet. They had been through this before. “About thirty or so. There were a couple I decided to sleep in all day which I might not be counting correctly, so the number might be thirty-one.”
He didn't look up from his duty. So committed. “And how many have I been through?”
“The same number, you just don't remember. Most of the time you spend the day cleaning the bathrooms.”
That made him frown. “Well that sucks.”
“It does. I've gotten you out of it before, but I don't have time to do that every day.”
Olofi got up from that toilet and moved on to the shower. “I appreciate the effort.”
They were circling the part of the conversation where Bentley proved it. “Alright, look, we've been through this before. So here's exactly what you're going to do. You're going to grab the white brush. Now you're going to drop it to prove me wrong and try to grab the blue brush. Now you'll realize you left the blue brush behind you. Now you're going to say, 'That's just a coincidence.'”
“That's just coincidence,” Olofi repeated simultaneously.
“Now you're going to say, 'How are you doing that?' And then, 'Okay, fine, I believe you.”
Olofi obediently said the exact words in unison with Bentley. He was staring at Bentley in shock as if she was some kind of witch, his cleaning duties finally forgotten. “So is this some kind of tech-magic that you were taught by Legba, or are you really repeating this same day over and over.”
She smiled, satisfied. “I'm really repeating the day. It starts with me getting smacked by Svend in bed, and ends with the destruction of the ship.”
His face paled as he contemplated what this meant. “The ship's going to be destroyed? We need to do something? What can we do?”
Bentley shrugged. This isn't what she wanted to talk about right now. “There's nothing really we can do. It's too late in the day to even try. But everything will be fine and back to normal after, you just won't remember any of this.”
Olofi seemed like he couldn't decide whether he should be in panic or confused. “So why even tell me this?”
“Because I need your advice.”
“On how to save the ship?”
She frowned. “Don't be ridiculous. I need… moral guidance, I guess you could call it. And you're the only person on this ship who is consistently making the effort to make the right, 'good' decision.”
Olofi was embarrassed to have it put so bluntly. “I try. It's not easy, but… it means a lot for you to say that, Bentley.”
Bentley slapped him on his shoulder in an act of camaraderie. “Oh, Olofi. I would never say that to your face if I thought you were going to remember it tomorrow. It would go right to your head.”
That deflated him quickly enough. “Oh.”
Bentley took a seat atop the lid of the freshly cleaned toilet. She wasn't worried about ruining her clothes, she knew that after Olofi had cleaned it that toilet was clean enough to eat off of. “I've been using these loops as free time, but I'm starting to feel guilty. I mean, you guys don't remember the pranks me and Loco play on you…”
“Loco?”
“Oh, yeah, he remembers, too. Anyway, what I want to ask is: do you think what I'm doing is immoral? I mean, no one is hurt, in the long term, anyway, and I get a bit of stress relief. But it bothered me when Svend didn't remember our day together. We bonded, and today he's back to treating me like a stranger. I have this experience, and he doesn't, and it makes me… uncomfortable. What do you think?”
“I think you're being completely and totally selfish.”
Well, that didn't go as she expected. Bentley realized that she had been seeking reaffirmation that what she was doing wasn't wrong, and grew defensive when she was challenged. “What? How am I selfish? I'm always giving up everything for the sake of others. My memories, my safety, my life. How is spending a little time to myself selfish?”
Olofi removed his big blue cleaning gloves and set them on the sink. “Because you are getting that time at the expense of others. How many times have we died so you could have your fun?”
Bentley was desperate to get him to understand. “It's not like you actually die. You are always fine the next day.”
“But we don't know that when it happens. We experience terror, fear of our demise, maybe even pain as the ship is destroyed, and we don't realize that it is all going to be okay. And that's not mentioning the cruelty of your 'fun.' We might not remember it, but we're still people, your friends, and you're fine with upsetting us? That's cold.”
A stabbing guilt hit her hard. Olofi wasn't holding back here, and unlike him, she would remember this conversation. “But… Loco said…”
He shook his head. “If you're on the same side as Loco, that should be your first indication that you're in the wrong.”
Bentley couldn't argue the point. “You're right. I… I need to fix this. I'll find a way to save the ship.”
Olofi gave her a very serious look. “There is one more thing. A very important thing.” He put his hands on her shoulders in a pleading gesture. “Please, please, don't leave me cleaning these bathrooms for all eternity. I'm a god, you know. I've already suffered enough coming here, I don't deserve this kind of fate!”
She returned the look. “I promise, your days of scrubbing toilets are numbered.”
Bentley marched off with praises of gratitude following behind her. She went up to the main deck, where it didn’t take her long to find who she was looking for.
Loco grinned when he saw her. “Hey, 'Fun Bentley.' That's the nickname I've given this new laissez-faire version of yourself. Been up to anything fun this pass?” He saw the look on Bentley's face and his grin faded. “Oh, no. 'Fun Bentley' is dead, isn't she? 'Stickler Bentley' is back.”
She put her hands on her hips and stared him down. “I should have never listened to you. We've been wasting all this time while our friends have suffered because you convinced me it was okay.”
“Hey, in fairness, you didn't need much convincing.”
Another stab of guilt. “Fair enough. I'll take my share of the blame for our wasted time. But it's over now, so you may want to put off doing anything stupid you don't want your friends to remember, because this cycle is going to be broken sooner rather than later.”
He put on his 'charming' smile, the one he used whenever he wanted something. “Come on, there's no reason to be so hasty. I have a bunch of irons in the fire already. Surely you can give me like … another week to have my fun? Oh, I know! Did I tell you I found where Shango hid my special stash? High quality booze, fresh in the bottle every day. I'll share with you, if you give me some time.”
The anger in her face sh
owed she would not be swayed again. “It's over, Loco. You can help, use your ability to remember the loop to get your friends out of this danger, or you can continue to be a selfish bastard, but either way, I'm going to save our ship and our friends.”
Loco was stunned speechless for perhaps the first time in his life. Bentley turned on her heels to find Shango and gather the rest of the crew.
She needed to make up for lost time.
Chapter Six
“We all agree this is crazy, right?” Olofi, who had been the one to convince her to do something in the first place, was ironically proving to be her biggest skeptic this time around.
She had not succeeded to gather the crew in time on the last pass, but as soon as she received her wake-up slap today she had been rushing to Shango to ask him to call an emergency meeting. Everyone was gathered at the center table on the bridge, but unfortunately she was having a tough time convincing them of the danger they were in. Loco was being unhelpfully quiet, as she might expect from him.
Shango tapped the edge of the table with is fingertips. “Pretty crazy, yes. But not unbelievable. We have all been through many strange and usual things since joining together. Why should this be any different? Do we really want to take a chance that she's telling the truth and do nothing while the ship is destroyed?”
Jade was tapping on her console to get readings from the engine. “I'm not seeing anything unusual from the engines. Everything is reading normal, no sign of the strangely shifting readings that Bentley says should be there.”
Bentley was getting frustrated at their skepticism. Perhaps she should have come privately to Shango like she had those first two days, since he was quick to believe her and could order the rest of the crew to help without telling them why. Then thought it would be best if everyone knew what they were up against and were working together. She was regretting that decision.
We really need to have code-words for these kinds of things. Stuck in a time loop: Clock Spinner Red. Possessed by an ancient alien entity: Double Trouble Blue. Loco has been arrested by a hyper-religious culture for blasphemy: Average Tuesday.
She leaned over the table. It was a good thing it was bolted to the floor or she might have flipped it. “Why would I make this up, Jade?”
Jade waved her hands in front of her in a placating gesture. “I'm not saying you're making it up. I'm saying the evidence doesn't support your version of events. Maybe there's another explanation. In your story, you say you fell a couple of times, right? Maybe you got a concussion and it gave you a weird dream?”
Jelly Bean was standing at her usual spot along the wall closest to the table. “Should I perform an examination on Bentley's head?”
The look that Bentley shot Jade was fierce enough to cause her to recoil. “The only one who is going to have a concussion is going to be you in a second. Look, you never call for assistance until a couple of hours after we all split. The engines must behave normally until then.”
Olofi scratched at his stubble from not shaving yet. “Why are you the only one who remembers?”
Bentley looked over at Loco, who had opted for complete silence in this meeting. She could point out Loco also remembers the loop, but that would put him on the spot, and she still remembered how he behaved when she had brought him to Shango that first time. He could sink her entire argument just by denying it. “I don't know why I remember. Maybe that's one of the keys to figuring out how to break the loop.”
Shango clearly wanted to believe her, but the others made good points. “Do you have any proof of what you say?”
She stopped to think about it. Her only strength was knowledge of how this day would usually play out. Maybe she could use it. “You were going to call a different meeting today, Shango, to assign us cleaning duties. You have a whole list of duties on your corteX you were going to send us. You found Loco's hidden stash of alcohol and were going to hold them ransom unless he picked up all the trash. Olofi was going to be tricked into cleaning the bathrooms. I was going to be assigned the kitchen. And you intended to do nothing yourself on the grounds of 'supervising.' Oh, and you were going to have Jelly Bean clean the floors, but neglect to tell her to put down the wet floor signs. A real hazard.”
All eyes went on Shango, awaiting to see if he would confirm or deny all of this. He cleared his throat, likely hoping to skip past the whole part about him intending to do nothing. “Alright, Bentley. You've convinced me. Let's save the Chesed.”
It felt like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. The others still held their reservations, but they would listen to Shango. Together they would find a way to escape the storm.
Shango took control of the meeting from there. Unfortunately, his first idea was a familiar one. “So it seems the problem stems from not being able to get back into hyperspace after switching the sub-light and getting close to that storm. It seems then the answer is simple: don't leave hyperspace today. We should be able to skip right past the area of space bypassing your mystery storm. Jade can perform a thorough inspection of the engines tomorrow.”
Bentley hated to be the bearer of bad news, but it had to be done. “We tried that already. The ship dropped out of hyperspace on its own and was still destroyed.”
Shango's eyes narrowed in an expression that Bentley knew meant he was in deep thought. “Then I suppose the problem lies with the engines themselves. We'll put all our resources towards supporting Jade's investigations into the hyperdrive and figure out what the problem is before we reach the storm.”
Unfortunately, this plan had also not worked out for them, as Bentley then explained. “When we tried that, we ran out of time. Jade was just beginning to understand what the problem was, but said she might need days or weeks to fully understand it and devise a solution. That's time we don't have.”
Jade gave Bentley an interested look. “Do you remember exactly what I said? What had I figured out?”
Bentley wracked her brain, trying to dig back past a hazy month of misbehavior to a conversation she had overheard as the ship was torn apart. “Something about the hyperdrive attempting to operate in multiple states. I didn't really understand any of it.”
With the brightness in Jade's eyes, Bentley might have told her that her favorite celebrity was waiting in the Engine Room, as opposed to a catastrophic problem that could lead to all their deaths. “Very interesting. I wonder how that is even possible. This is pretty exciting.”
At least someone is having a good time with certain doom.
Shango rose from his seat and walked over to the viewport looking out into the blackness of space. The crew was quiet while they waited for him to give an order that would save them. Bentley never lost hope that something was kicking around in his brain. Something that his centuries of experience among mortals had taught him would help them out of this mess.
What he said was what she least expected. “I think we need to face the fact that the Chesed is doomed. This time around, at least.”
That caused a rabble from the people at the table. Olofi and Sven went immediately into the protests that it was wrong to give up, Jade was making assurances that she could figure out the problem, even Jelly Bean was getting in on the action, coming up with other possible courses of action that had not yet been explored.
Shango held up his hand for silence. “Listen to me. The problem clearly has to do with our engines, we’ve figured as much out in previous passes of this day. But we also know that Jade can't solve the problem in the small number of hours we have available. Bentley recalls her saying she needed days or weeks on this problem. There's just no way we are going to be able to get to the bottom of it in the time we have.”
Svend was looking dejected. “So, we just give up?”
That didn't match Shango's eyes, which shone with resolve. “No. We keep working. If Jade needs days or weeks, we'll give it to her. We won't quit until we've solved this problem.
Jade stopped tapping on her console at the mention of her n
ame. “Wait, but I'm not going to remember anything after the reset. My work will never make any progress if I can't get it all done in one day.”
“You won't remember anything, but she will.” Shango pointed at Bentley. “Just like now, when she told you about the hyperspace multi-phasing problem, something that had taken you an entire day to figure out you learned in moments. Start working on the next phase, then, before the storm destroys the ship, teach it to Bentley. She can pass that on to you in the loop and you can start from there, and then the next loop, and so on, until eventually you have come to the solution.”
Bentley saw one major hole in the plan. “Uh, excuse me, Shango. I don't know anything about engines, and I rarely understand what Jade is talking about when she's working on them. I just give her readings and try not to confuse L's with 1's. There's no way I could repeat back Jade's findings in accurate enough detail to be useful.”
“Not without context!” Jade chimed in, her excitement returned. “You know, I've always wanted someone I could talk shop with. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who gets excited about getting into the guts of a big-ol' engine and seeing what makes it tick. When I'm done teaching you, you'll be ready to maintenance your own hyperspace engines.”
And that's how Bentley found herself enrolled in Jade's Very Special Starship Engine Mechanics class. At first she was sure she would be the only student, but to her surprise Loco showed up to the very first class.
Bentley wondered what awful thing he was planning being there. Was he trying to sabotage her to keep the loop going? “Shouldn't you be off doing something dumb like setting Shango's shoes on fire?”
Loco just shrugged. “I'm bored, and like you said, I can't do too much stupid if there's a chance you're going to fix the loop. So I'm just going to sit here and mope and remind you of what you've done.” He thought for a moment. “But that whole shoe idea was a pretty good one. Wonder if I have time for it...”
Jade, for her part, was an incredibly eager teacher. “I'm going to teach you everything you need to know about how our hyperspace engines work, starting from the beginning. We're going to learn physics, guys!”
Galaxia Page 52
