“What about the ssuppliess?” Walter hissed.
Molly turned to face him; the Wadi hissed in her ear as if startled by the sudden movement. “We’ll worry about the supplies later. Right now we should—”
“What kinda supplies?” Pete asked.
“Food and water,” Scottie said.
“And camping gear, just in case,” Cat said. “Blankets, at the very least. And clothes.”
Pete surveyed the foursome as the dust continued to settle around them. He seemed to arrive at some conclusion, then spat a sticky string to the side, a long trail of it clinging to his lip and sagging with incredible viscosity.
“Town’s making a run on items like that, but I got sources of my own.” He nodded toward Molly and Walter. “Why don’t you youngins stay here. I’ll have the stuff delivered.” His eyes darted to Cat for a moment. “You two should come with me. See about stopping them shuttles.”
Molly stepped forward to complain. She didn’t like being coddled, or told what to do, but Cat placed a firm hand on her shoulder and held her back.
“He’s right,” Cat said, never taking her eyes off Pete. “You two stay here. We’ll see about Ryn and the others.”
“Just need a credit chip,” Pete said. “I’ll call in for the stuff and have it delivered.” He looked to Scottie and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “You ready to go?”
“The sooner the better.” Scottie turned to Molly. “We won’t be long. I’ll get your fuze as soon as we get back.”
Molly nodded. “Just be safe.” She turned to Walter and waved him forward. “The chip,” she told him. Walter squeezed between her and Cat to hand over the Navy credit chip, which he had insisted on being in charge of. Scottie tugged it from his reluctant grip, then moved to put it in his pocket.
“Hey,” Walter said. “Jusst sscan it and give it back.”
“Scanner’s in the office,” Pete said. “I’ll keep it safe. I promise.”
Walter hissed as the chip disappeared. Molly put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back by her side.
“Alright, let’s get out of here,” Pete said. He gave Molly one last look. “I’ll have my dockhands round up everything you need. Might take a few hours, so just stay put.”
Molly nodded. The two men turned and stomped down the ramp; Cat paused to squeeze Molly’s arm. They exchanged a look, and then she turned as well, her bright, blond ponytail whipping around as she hurried off after the others.
“Well this sucks,” Molly grumbled as she watched them go.
“Are you kidding?” Walter tugged on Molly’s sleeve. “We’re getting room sservicse! All the ssuppliess and none of the lifting!” He dragged her back into the cargo bay with one hand and pulled out his videogame with the other. “Thiss iss ssweet!”
After closing the cargo ramp, Walter lounged sideways across his crew seat, his feet in Anlyn’s old chair as he lost himself in his videogame. Molly roamed around the cargo space jacked up with nervous energy; she tried her best to straighten up the clutter from having so many people moving through the ship of late. She snapped an attachment on the air hose and blew dust from one surface to the other before deciding the exercise was pointless. Rather than get anything cleaner, it just won her annoyed glances from Walter, who seemed to cringe at the air hose’s hissing sounds.
Molly sighed and put the hose back. “I’m gonna take a nap in the cockpit,” she told Walter. “Come get me when those supplies show up.”
He nodded, then wiggled across the two seats to get more comfortable. Molly strode into the cockpit and keyed the door shut. Grabbing her helmet off its rack, she settled into Cole’s seat and pulled the dome down over her head.
“Mom?”
For once, Parsona didn’t respond immediately. Molly checked the switch on the side of her helmet to confirm the mic was on. It was. She reached forward to the dash controls—
“Yes?”
“Oh, hey. Everything okay?”
A pause. “Yes. I overheard the conversation with Pete. Those poor Callites…”
“This whole planet is flanked—” Molly stopped herself. She felt a sudden wave of heat in her flightsuit for having cursed in front of her mom. Her time on Lok was wearing on her nerves and surrounding her with bad influences. And without Academy professors around to chastise her poor behavior, or Cole around to always try and impress, she could feel herself growing up too fast in some ways. Thankfully, her mother now had some semblance of a presence in her life, which helped. Presently, however, Parsona forced Molly to bear the shame of her word choice in silence, rather than lecture her.
“When your father and I were here,” Parsona said after a long moment, “there was talk about scrapping the colonization efforts on Lok completely. The Navy wanted to move everyone off and abandon the entire planet. They even wanted to mark it off-limits to future expansion.”
“You’re kidding. Why?”
“They couldn’t stop the flow of fusion. That was the official version and the crux of your father and I being here. Your dad was the great Navy hope, you know. He and Lucin came back heroes from the war. They could’ve taken any post they wanted. Lucin chose the Academy, said he could do the most good there.”
“Yeah, for which side?” Molly asked, unable to conceal the disgust in her voice.
“If you and Saunders are correct, it makes a lot of sense. That’s the front line, really, in keeping up their efforts to break through to the rift. SADAR has nothing on hindsight, but I bet your father would’ve put all this together if he hadn’t been blinded by his love for the man.”
“I wish he were here right now,” Molly said softly.
“Me too. And I wish I could be there for you in more than voice.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry to wish him here and not you. After Dakura… well, I don’t think I’d be any more comfortable if you were here in person. No offense.”
“None taken.”
“It’s just that this is how I’ve only ever known you. I like thinking I could have you in my life forever.”
Parsona didn’t answer at first.
“Forever’s a long time,” she finally said.
“Not for you—”
“Sweetheart, your father didn’t lock me away solely as a backup. He—I could go just as mad in here as I could on Dakura. Cheating death isn’t natural. Our brains just can’t cope after a while—”
“What’re you saying?”
“Just that I need you to be prepared, as any child must be. You might not have me around forever. If something happens to the ship, I’ll be gone. There might even come a day when I’d ask you to—”
“No. Don’t say it and I wouldn’t do it.” Molly looked out her porthole as another ship pulled out of the stables, slow and low.
“Maybe they should’ve abandoned this place long ago,” Molly said. “Maybe none of this Bern stuff would’ve happened.”
“Or it would’ve happened sooner,” Parsona said.
“What do you mean?”
“The official reason we were here was the fusion fuel, but we kept getting bogged down with missing persons reports.”
“The election fraud.”
“If it’s that,” Parsona said. “What doesn’t fit is that the number of Callites disappearing seemed to match the rate of Humans. Only, nobody was much put off by
“But why would the government want
