Aetherbound - E.K. Johnston Page 0,56

his normal job in operations, so she brewed him a tea instead. It had no stimulating effects, as far as she could tell, but it tasted nice and it was warm to hold, and maybe that would help.

“Ned never questioned who I was, you know,” Fisher said when Pendt handed him the cup and sat down with her own. “He said he’d watched me grow, and he knew better than anyone. Which is ridiculous, and was even more ridiculous when we were five, but it still helped me a lot when things were challenging.”

“Ned had a way with people,” Pendt said. “I don’t exactly trust easily, and his opening line was terrible.”

“Right? I thought we’d lost you for sure,” Fisher agreed. He took a sip of the tea, which Pendt counted as a win. She knew exactly how many calories he’d eaten in the past few days, and it wasn’t enough. The tea didn’t have much to offer, but perhaps it would remind him to put things in his mouth.

“I think we could have resented each other, you know?” Fisher said. “I wanted what he had, and he wanted what I could do, and neither of us was content with what life gave us to start with. But instead he made us a team, and we did everything together.”

Fisher’s voice caught in his throat, and Pendt braced herself. Fisher hadn’t shown much emotion to her since they’d got the news, and she didn’t mind. Fisher needed to grieve in his own way. But if he was going to fall now, she was going to do her best to catch him.

“I knew he’d leave,” Fisher said. “I always knew he’d leave as soon as he could. And I thought about being alone, but I didn’t think about being alone forever. I thought he’d come back. We were always a team. But no one comes back. Brannicks go into space and the Hegemony takes them, one way or another.”

There was an edge to his voice she’d never heard before. He was angry, beyond furious, and she couldn’t help him.

“Will you go to avenge them?” she asked delicately. “No one would blame you if you wanted to join the rebellion now.”

“I can’t leave you here alone,” Fisher said.

“Yes,” Pendt said. “You can.”

It hung there for a moment between them.

“I won’t leave you alone,” Fisher said, his promise low and harsh. “The Hegemony has taken my whole family, and I want to hurt them, but we will do it from here, you and I. We will find a way.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Pendt said. “We still need a true Brannick.”

“After today, they’ll all think you’re the truest Brannick in a generation,” Fisher said.

He set his cup down, and Pendt noticed that his hands were shaking. She set her own cup down and reached out to take his hand in hers. He looked at her, wild grief in his eyes as the tears started to fall.

“I miss him so much.” Fisher’s voice was hoarse with tears. “I’ve never been without him and I don’t know what to do.”

“We’ll find a way,” Pendt promised. “I don’t know how, but we’ll find a way.”

Fisher hiccoughed as the tears started to fall freely. He pitched forward and landed with his head in her lap. She stroked his hair as he cried himself out, running her fingertips across his scalp as his breathing evened and he fell asleep. It could not have been very comfortable, but she wouldn’t have moved him for all the ore in the Harland’s hold.

“We’ll find a way,” Pendt said, as much to herself as anyone else.

Brannick Station hummed around her. Home and safe, very sad, but hers. And she would risk everything to keep it that way.

21.

THE FIRST THING PENDT did was make sure everything was still legal. Not wanting to bother Fisher, she arranged to borrow Dulcie’s office for an afternoon. The foreman immediately understood her purpose and granted her access to the files she was going to need. Then Dulcie went to the quartermaster to see about getting Pendt her own workspace—between hydroponics and the apartment, Pendt had never really needed one, but she was forced to admit that Dulcie had a point—and Pendt got to work.

Marriage was such an antiquated concept that she wasn’t sure how or if death factored into it. She felt awful, reducing Ned to a line on the page of questions she had to answer, but she had no choice. For the safety of everyone on