Redshirts

Dahl looked over to Kerensky for help. “Just do it, Hartnell,” Kerensky said. “Before you get us all killed.”

Hartnell frowned but took his sampler and jammed it into Hester’s arm, then took out the sample container and gave it to Dahl. “Here. Now someone please tell me what this is about.”

“Andy,” Hanson said. “To get to Xenobiology from here you’ll need to go through deck six.”

“Right,” Dahl said, and turned to Kerensky. “Come with me, please.”

“Who’s going to tell me what’s going on?” Hartnell said, and then Dahl and Kerensky were out the door, into the corridor.

“What’s with deck six?” Kerensky asked as they ran.

“It has a tendency to blow up when we’re attacked,” Dahl said. “Like right now.”

“You’re using me as a good-luck charm again, aren’t you?” Kerensky said.

“Not exactly,” Dahl said.

Deck six was exploding and on fire.

“The corridors are blocked!” Kerensky said, over the noise.

“Come on,” Dahl said, and slapped open an access door to the cargo tunnels. There was a gust as the heated air of deck six blew into the opened door. Kerensky went through and Dahl shut the access door as something erupted in the hall.

“This way,” Dahl said, and the two fished their way around the cargo carts to an access door on the other side of the deck and then back into the main corridors.

Lieutenant Collins did not look happy to see Dahl.

“What are you doing here?” she said. Dahl ignored her and went to the storage room, pulling out the Box.

“Hey, you can’t be using that around Kerensky,” Collins said, moving toward Dahl.

“If she tries to come near me, take her out,” Dahl said to Kerensky.

“Got it,” Kerensky said. Collins abruptly stopped.

“Take her tablet,” Dahl said. Kerensky did.

“How much time?” Dahl asked. He set the Box on an induction pad.

“Seven minutes,” Kerensky said.

“That’ll work,” Dahl said, slipped the sample into the Box and pressed the green button. He walked over to Kerensky, took Collins’ tablet, signed her off and signed into his own account.

“Now what?” Kerensky said.

“We wait,” Dahl said.

“For how long?” Kerensky said.

“As long as dramatically appropriate,” Dahl said.

Kerensky peered at the Box. “So this was the thing that kept me from turning into mush when I got the Merovian Plague?”

“That’s it,” Dahl said.

“Ridiculous,” Kerensky said.

Collins looked at Kerensky, gaping. “You know?” she said. “You’re not supposed to know.”

“At this point, I know a lot more than you,” Kerensky said.

The Box pinged and the tablet was flooded with data. Dahl barely glanced at it. “We’re good,” he said. “Back to sick bay.” They ran out of Xenobiology, back to the access corridors to return to deck six.

“Almost there,” Kerensky said, as they emerged out of the access corridors into the fires of deck six.

The ship rocked violently and the main corridor of deck six collapsed onto Dahl, crushing him and slicing a jagged shard of metal through his liver. Dahl stared at it for a moment and then looked at Kerensky.

“You had to say ‘almost there,’” he whispered, the words dribbling out between drips of blood.

“Oh, God, Dahl,” Kerensky said, and started trying to move debris off of him.

“Stop,” Dahl said. Kerensky ignored him. “Stop,” he said again, more forcefully. Kerensky stopped. Dahl pushed the tablet, still in his hands, to Kerensky. “No time. Take the results. Feed them into the sick bay computer. Don’t let Hartnell argue. When the sick bay computer has the data, the Narrative will take over. It will be done. But get there. Hurry.”

“Dahl—” Kerensky said.

“This is why I brought you with me,” Dahl said. “Because I knew whatever happened to me, you’d make it back. Now go. Save the day, Kerensky. Save the day.”

Kerensky nodded, took the tablet, and ran.

Dahl lay there, pinned through the liver, and in his final moments of consciousness tried to focus on the fact that Hester would live, the ship would be saved and his friends would make it through the rest of their lives without being savaged by the Narrative. And all it needed was one more dramatic death of an extra. His dramatic death.

It’s a fair trade, he thought, trying to reconcile himself to how it all played out. A fair trade. Saved his friends. Saved Matthew Paulson. Saved the Intrepid. A fair trade.

But as everything went gray and slid into black, a final thought bubbled up from the bottom of what was left of him.

Screw this, I want to live, it said.

But then everything went to black anyway.

* * *

“Stop being dramatic,” the voice said. “We know you’re awake.”

Dahl opened his eyes.

Hester was standing over him, along with Duvall and Hanson.

Dahl smiled at Hester. “It worked,” he said. “It’s you. It really worked.”

“Of course it worked,” Hester said. “Why wouldn’t it work?”

Dahl laughed weakly at this. He tried to get up but couldn’t.

“Stasis medical chair,” Duvall said. “You’re regrowing a liver and a lot of burned skin and healing a broken rib cage. You wouldn’t like what you’d be feeling if you moved.”

“How long have I been in this thing?” Dahl asked.

“Four days,” Hanson said. “You were a mess.”

“I thought I was dead,” Dahl said.

“You would have been dead if someone hadn’t rescued you,” Duvall said.

“Who rescued me?” Dahl asked.

Another face loomed into view.

“Jenkins,” Dahl said.

“You were right outside a cargo tunnel,” Jenkins said. “I figured, might as well.”

“Thank you,” Dahl said.

“No thanks necessary,” Jenkins said. “I did it purely out of self-interest. If you died, I would never know if you ever delivered that message for me.”

“I did,” Dahl said.

“How did it go over?” Jenkins asked.

“It went over well,” Dahl said. “I’m supposed to give you a kiss for her.”

“Well, maybe some other time,” Jenkins said.

“What are you two talking about?” Duvall asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” Dahl said, and then looked back to Jenkins. “So you’re out of your hiding place, then.”

“Yes,” he said. “It was time.”

“Good,” Dahl said.

“And the great news is we’re all heroes,” Hester said. “The ‘message’ was extracted out of my body and broadcast by the Intrepid, ending the religious war on Forshan. How lucky is that.”

“Amazing,” Dahl said.