Running Toward Home

by M B Panichi

  Seconds passed. Perhaps minutes. She wasn’t certain. She felt the shift of the weight pinning her down.

  “Morgan, stay still.” Shaine’s voice, firm but comforting. “We’re going to lift the glassteel up, then pull you free.”

  “Okay,” Morgan mumbled. Her lips felt stiff and frozen. She was shivering constantly now. Her breath fogged the faceplate. She couldn’t see the sand anymore. Tiny crystals of ice formed on the glass and in the blood splattered on it. Pretty.

  Morgan felt the weight lifted from her back. Sand grated under her faceplate as she was dragged backward. The world shifted and she was on her back. She almost threw up from the motion. Sunlight glared on the ice covering her faceplate. She closed her eyes. It hurt. Shaine’s voice echoed vaguely in her ears. “Morgan, talk to me, can you hear me?”

  Morgan tried to nod, but didn’t have the energy. She tried to say something, but managed only a weak grunt. She wasn’t cold anymore.

  “Hang in there. Three more minutes.”

  Morgan felt them lift her onto the back of a skimmer. Dizziness washed over her. She wished she could hold Shaine’s hand. The world slid from gray to black.

  * * *

  Shaine snapped out orders as she rode toward the temporary dome. Sitting beside Morgan’s prone, suited form on the flatbed, she took in the information fed to her, automatically assessing and delegating. “Get the area locked down and guards on it.”

  Josef’s voice responded in her helmet speakers, gruff and brusque. “Doing that now.”

  “Shaine, the cable’s been cut!” Whippet reported.

  “What?”

  “We just pulled the crane cable down. The break is too clean for it to be anything else. There’s a cut about three quarters through. The other strands are stretched and twisted apart.”

  Shaine took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Lock down the whole site. Now. Everyone in quarters. I want to know who was out on the site and when. I need to know who had access to that crane. Del and Whippet, go through background checks again for everyone on-site.”

  “We’re on it.”

  “I’ll be with Morgan. Josef, you’re on point.”

  “Roger that, Shaine.”

  Shaine rested a gloved hand on Morgan’s arm. Morgan’s faceplate was frosted over and it scared the hell out of her. Shaine demanded, “Can’t this damned thing go any faster?”

  “Doing the best I can, ma’am,” the driver replied, but she felt a slight increase in their speed. The skimmer kicked up a little extra red dust as they sped toward the temporary dome.

  * * *

  Cold. Why am I so damned cold? Morgan blinked gritty eyes open to a dimly lit room. Her head pounded. Cautiously, she tried to move her body. She could move her fingers. She could wiggle her toes. She felt the softness of blankets tucked up to her chin.

  She remembered the instant when she saw the cable snap, diving to the ground and waking up facedown in the red gravel. She trembled, partly out of delayed shock and relief that she was alive, and partly because she was freezing. The shivering made her whole body feel tense and achy. She wondered just how close she’d come to dying. She tried to look around without moving her throbbing head. She heard and sensed movement beside her.

  Shaine said, “Morgan, you’re awake.”

  “Uh.”

  Morgan realized she was in the infirmary. Shaine tapped a com unit on the wall at the head of the bed and said quietly, “Lei, she’s awake.” Then she turned concerned eyes on Morgan. “How do you feel?” She caressed Morgan’s face with a feather-light touch. “You scared the shit out of me, babe.”

  “Cold,” Morgan whispered.

  Shaine nodded. “I’ll get more blankets.”

  Morgan shook her head just a tiny bit. “Just climb in,” she whispered. “Body heat is good.”

  Shaine grinned. “Okay. In just a minute. I want the doc to check on you first, okay? You want some water?”

  “Yeah.”

  Shaine got a cup with a straw from the bedside tray. Morgan managed a couple sips of the warm water before turning away. “Alec and the guys okay?” she asked.

  Shaine’s expression darkened and she took a long breath. Morgan felt her stomach churn. Shaine said, “Wrenn and Piper are okay. Alec—um—the crane cable broke through the windshield and sliced through his suit. We couldn’t get him back inside fast enough. I’m sorry, Morgan.”

  Morgan swallowed and a tight wave of pain contracted around her heart. Fuck. Alec, man, you didn’t deserve that. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She didn’t bother to try to stop the tears that spilled down her cheeks. And here I am, again, surviving. I don’t know why I deserve it.

  Shaine gently wiped Morgan’s tears away. “I’m so sorry.”

  The door to the room opened, and Dr. Nguyen strode in, pausing as she studied the scene before her. “Is everything all right?” she asked quietly.

  Shaine looked up. “I told her about Alec,” she said.

  Lei frowned. “Ah. Sometimes I hate this job,” she muttered.

  Shaine said, “There was nothing you could have done, Lei. He was gone before we got him to you. The suit was compromised. He was frozen before we even got him out of the crane cockpit.”

  Lei sighed, then visibly shook it off as she turned to Morgan, running a body scanner over her. “How do you feel, Morgan?”

  “Cold. My head hurts.”

  Lei nodded, reading the scanner. “Your body temp is still down a little, but the concussion seems stable.” She shined a light into Morgan’s eyes, and nodded. “Your pupils are starting to respond to light,” she noted briskly. “You need to rest and stay warm.” She looked at Shaine. “You’re going to stay with her? I want you to wake her up every hour or so, make sure that she doesn’t fall unconscious again.”

  Shaine nodded. “I’ll set my chron.”

  Lei nodded. “I’ll leave you to it then. I’ll be in my office. Call if you need anything.”

  “Thanks, Lei.”

  The small doctor nodded and slipped from the room. Shaine looked down at Morgan. “Want more water?”

  “Please.”

  Shaine gave her another drink from the straw, and Morgan smiled tiredly. Shaine set the cup aside. She stripped down to her boxers and a tank, folding her clothes into a neat pile on the floor. She peeled back the thick pile of blankets tucked around Morgan’s body and slipped under them, wrapping herself around Morgan and the blankets back around both of them.

  Morgan relaxed into Shaine’s warmth, breathing her in, feeling better just from the contact, feeling her body slowly stop shivering. She wrapped her arms around Shaine and slid her hands under the tank to feel Shaine’s warm skin. Settling her head on Shaine’s chest, she could hear the strong beating of her partner’s heart and let it lull her. Closing her eyes, she drifted to sleep.

  * * *

  Shaine dutifully woke Morgan every hour, just long enough to get her to say something coherent before she let her partner slide back into sleep. She lay awake most of the time, overly warm under the piled blankets but dealing with it because she knew it was for Morgan’s benefit, and Morgan hadn’t complained of being too warm.

  Her brain was on overload. When she let herself think about how close she’d come to losing Morgan, it sent shudders of dread through her heart. Another five minutes, maybe ten, and Morgan would have frozen to death. Just the thought of not having Morgan in her life made her almost physically ill. Holding Morgan in her arms felt so right and so comfortable and so complete. When the call went out about the accident, fear had nearly sapped her ability to think. It had taken all her military training to function and take control.

  Morgan mumbled in her sleep, shifting and wrapping herself tighter around Shaine’s middle. Shaine kissed the top of her dark head. “I love you, Morgan Rahn,” she whispered. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  She hadn’t expected those words to come out. It was something of a revelation—certain and final. With sudden, cry
stalline clarity, she knew what she wanted and needed. To be with Morgan. To be married to her. Forever. She wondered if Morgan felt the same way. She knew Morgan loved her. But they’d never talked about marriage.

  She caressed the soft skin under her fingers. Would you spend your life with me?

  She didn’t know if they were ready, yet, for that. Maybe it was too soon. There’d been so much change, so much upset in their short time together. They were still learning each other. Even so, Shaine knew in her heart she’d never felt so certain of anything in her life.

  * * *

  The next time Shaine woke, Morgan was lying awake beside her, a sleepy smile on her face as she regarded Shaine. Shaine smiled back, relieved to see a sparkle back in Morgan’s wide gray eyes. “Hey, love,” she said softly, reaching up to brush a few strands of dark hair from Morgan’s face.

  “Hey.” Morgan’s voice was rough with sleep.

  “How are you feeling? Warm enough?”

  “Yeah. But thirsty.”

  Shaine pushed up on her elbow to reach the bedside tray table and the cup of water on it. She got the cup for Morgan and put the straw within reach of her lips.

  Morgan took a few sips. “Thank you.”

  Shaine returned the cup, then settled on her back, pulling Morgan down on top of her. Morgan sighed and rested her head on Shaine’s chest. “Mmmm. That’s nice.” Morgan snuggled in. “You warmed me all up.”

  “Glad I could be of service,” Shaine teased lightly.

  Morgan gave her stomach a tickle. “I’m hungry, too. Any food over there?”

  “Sadly, no. But I can get us some.”

  “Eh. Stay here a while. Then maybe I’ll get up too. I feel okay.”

  Shaine said, “We’ll check with the doc first.”

  Morgan sighed. “So, what happened? How in the hell did the cable snap?”

  Shaine frowned. “The crane cable was cut three-quarters of the way through.”

  Morgan stiffened and pulled back so she could look Shaine in the eye. “Seriously?”

  Shaine nodded.

  “What the hell, Shaine.”

  “Yeah. Well, the gang is on it, and I trust Josef to do what needs to be done. We’re on full lockdown.”

  Morgan studied Shaine’s expression for a few seconds, then sighed and lay back against her chest. “You stayed here with me,” she said.

  “I did.” Shaine kissed Morgan’s hair. “You’re more important than any of this other crap.”

  Morgan felt tightness in her throat and tears burned her eyes. “I love you,” she whispered thickly, hugging Shaine tightly.

  Shaine returned the hug. “I love you too, babe.”

  They stayed like that for some time before Morgan shifted. “I hate to say this, but I really have to pee,” she muttered.

  Shaine chuckled. “Let me get Lei. She’ll want to check you out before you get up.”

  Shaine managed to untangle herself from Morgan and the blankets and slid out of bed. She quickly pulled on her pants and tunic and went in search of Dr. Nguyen. She found her in the office inside the infirmary.

  Lei looked up when Shaine knocked and walked through the open door. “How is Morgan doing?”

  “Pretty good I think. She needs to go to the bathroom, but I told her you needed to check her out before she got up.”

  Lei stood. “Good. Let’s do that.”

  They returned to the infirmary where Morgan was the only patient in the room of four beds. She was sitting up with the blankets still wrapped around her.

  Lei ran her diagnostic scanner up and down Morgan’s body.

  Morgan asked, “Will I live?”

  Dr. Nguyen’s serious demeanor didn’t shift. “Yes, you will live. Your head looks good. The concussion was minor. Your body temp is back to normal.”

  “Can I leave then? I’m starving.”

  The petite doctor nodded, pocketing her scanner. “You may leave. Don’t do anything strenuous. You should rest. If your head hurts, take a couple painkillers. If you start having blurred vision or dizziness come back and see me.”

  Morgan nodded. She knew the drill. She’d had enough concussions to know what to do.

  Morgan pushed the blankets off and shivered in the cool air. Shaine handed her a tunic, which she pulled on gratefully. Shaine hovered over her when she stood, a little shaky, and walked her to the small restroom. She took a couple minutes to splash warm water on her face and dry off with one of the towels on the narrow counter. She felt much better just doing that and moving around. Food, she thought, and then a nap. She’d be good as new.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Shaine’s gaze took in her core security group, gathered around the conference table. “What do we have?” she asked.

  Del said, “So far, nothing popping up on the deep background checks.”

  Josef handed across a folder of plas-sheets. “These are the crane maintenance records, which included cable replacement. That was five days ago.”

  Shaine asked, “The replacement cable was certified?”

  “And the packaging was sealed,” Josef said. “They used the crane the day after they did maintenance, when they were placing the primary girders and when they unloaded the glassteel plates from the supply shuttle and brought them to the construction-site. The cable would have given out on them when they were doing that if it had been cut at that point. Piper said this is the first time they’ve used the crane since then because of the sandstorm.”

  Whippet added, “Someone went out and came back in when that number three camera was down two nights ago. Nobody should have been out after dark.”

  Shaine said, “I hope I’m stating the obvious when I say we need to know who went out.”

  Josef nodded. “We’ve started interviewing people, seeing who was doing what at that time, who might have been missing.”

  “Who’s doing the interviews?”

  “Del and me.”

  Shaine nodded. “I want in on those. Somebody saw something.”

  Del nodded. “The natives are getting restless being in lockdown,” she noted. “So we’d better find something before they start beating the crap out of each other.”

  “What about com logs? Anything interesting incoming or outgoing?”

  “Ben and Allim have been sifting through those. Nothing so far. We put ’bots on the net links, and they’re monitoring those.”

  “No way to identify who was in and out when that camera was down?”

  Josef shook his head. “The airlock should have been logging suit IDs going in and out, but the software isn’t there. I don’t know if it was purposely removed or if it was missing to begin with, but nothing has been logged since day one. There’s no surveillance camera in the airlock. The outgoing and incoming codes recorded on the lock’s keypad are just general use codes that everyone has access to. So all we really have is time and date.”

  Shaine scowled. “Okay, well, let’s just stay on it. And get some fucking security on the airlocks. I don’t care if it’s two guys standing there twenty-four hours a day with a fucking clipboard logging people in and out. What else?”

  “Garren is talking with Maruchek and Rogan right now,” Del said.

  Shaine rubbed her forehead, a headache coming on. “I’m glad I’m not on that call,” she muttered. “Maruchek’s gonna be pissed and Rogan’s going to blame it all on me.”

  Josef said, “You’ve been running this by the book. No blame. Whatever we missed, Rogan would have missed too.”

  “Maybe yes, maybe no. Still on my head.” Shaine pushed to her feet. “Okay, let’s get a few more interviews done.”

  * * *

  Morgan walked slowly down quiet hallways. With the whole place in lockdown, all nonessential personnel were restricted to quarters. It felt a little creepy. Shaine hadn’t answered her com call, so she assumed she was in the middle of something. After she’d been released from the infirmary, she and Shaine grabbed a bite to eat, and then she had napped for
a couple of hours. Now she was bored.

  Bundled in an insulated jacket because she was still chilled, she made her way toward the operations center to see what was going on, hoping there was something she could do to help. She figured she could at least take over monitoring coms and video so the others could do more important work.

  The door hissed shut behind her. Amaar was at the main communications console. Over at the security console, Ben was watching vid feeds and monitoring net traffic. Del and Lukas had their heads together on the other side of the console, several windows open on their monitors. Del had a stylus in one hand, making notes on a virtual white board behind them.

  Morgan stepped into the security area. “Hey, Ben, what’s up?”

  The security specialist smiled. “Hey, Morgan. How are you doing?”

  “I’m good, thanks. Anything I can help with?”

  “I’ve got this. Things are pretty quiet with everyone in quarters. Del and Lukas might need another set of eyes.”

  Morgan nodded. Lukas was a good guy. However, Del wasn’t one of her greatest fans. Del decided early on that Morgan was just there to accompany Shaine, with no value of her own. It annoyed the hell out of Morgan, but it did seem that over the last couple of weeks Del’s attitude toward her had improved.

  She reminded herself that she wasn’t out to impress Del Marin. Fuck that. Even so, she wanted to prove to Del and everyone else that she was more than just Shaine’s girlfriend. It helped her cause that she was working with Joe Hailey, doing construction and monitoring the security cameras.