Aetherbound - E.K. Johnston Page 0,66

She’d definitely do it again. They’ll show me the pattern I’m meant to mimic, and give me a time frame, and then they’ll launch me. And either I’ll die—”

“Or the Maritech Net will catch you,” Fisher finished. “And the Stavengers will have a foothold in that solar system again.”

One of the sensors affixed to Ned’s chest beeped, and Dr. Morunt moved to take it off him.

“Don’t touch me,” Ned said, tearing it off himself.

“Dr. Morunt, you have my sympathy,” Fisher said. “I don’t know what I would have done if the Hegemony had offered me my parents. You will take your sister and you will go to Katla. I don’t care where you go after that, but neither of you will be welcome on Brannick Station ever again.”

“Thank you,” Morunt said. He turned. “Pendt, I—”

She looked at him as cold as the void.

“I understand the difference between survival and cruelty,” she said. He bowed his head. “Get out.”

Morunt fled, leaving the three of them in the medical bay. Pendt put her hands over her face and took a deep breath. She blew it out hard.

“I need to process this, so try to control yourself even if I say something you don’t like,” she said to Fisher.

He nodded. Ned did too.

“Worst-case scenario,” Pendt said, “they take me. The station is fine, because Ned is here.”

“Unacceptable,” said Fisher. He caught himself. “Sorry, keep going.”

“Brannick becomes the jump point for Maritech, just like the old empire wanted,” Pendt continued. “You probably make a good amount of money. Human trafficking definitely increases—”

“Over my dead body,” Ned burst out. “I mean, again, I guess. Please, continue.”

“You can’t hide me,” Pendt said. “There’s nowhere I can go. My aunt won’t care if taking me off the station endangers it. They think Ned’s in prison, so they’re probably counting on Brannick dying, and then they’ll just . . . repopulate it. Probably with soldiers.”

“None of this is making me feel better,” Fisher said.

“I can’t run, I can’t hide,” Pendt said. “All of the best outcomes require my death.”

“What?” This time both boys interrupted her together.

“Brannick still has Ned, so it’s fine,” Pendt said. “The Stavengers never get a foothold in Maritech, so that’s fine. My family is bankrupted, and to be honest I don’t fucking care. But all of those things only happen when I’m dead.”

“We can’t just tell them you’re dead,” Fisher said. “They wouldn’t believe a medical certificate or only our word. They’d need a body. The whole station would have to believe it.”

Pendt took a long moment to think about it. There was a way. It was risky and it relied on other people choosing to help them. Pendt remembered the slow drip of an IV and years of whispered, clandestine instruction. She remembered the warning, given in enough time for her to save up the calories she would need to get off the ship and disappear into the crowd.

“The captain trusts her Dr. Morunt,” Pendt said. “But she was always as good to me as she could be. And we know they’ll have her with them. If she’s the one to confirm my death, they’ll believe her.”

“One, that is a huge amount of trust to put in someone whose brother just betrayed you,” Ned said, “and, two, none of that solves the part where you seem determined to die.”

“You didn’t stay dead,” Pendt pointed out. “We have some time. We might be able to come up with something by the time they get here.”

“I think we should keep my return quiet,” Ned said. He was uncharacteristically serious. “I’m happy to be the backup chromosome, but I am not going to stay here when all of this is over.”

“What are you talking about?” Fisher said. “We just got you back.”

“I know,” Ned said. “But the people who helped me get out of prison are still back there, suffering. They helped me as a last-gasp attempt to do something good. I can’t . . . stay here. I have to go back. I might be more useful to the rebellion dead than I was when I was alive.”

Fisher thought his head might explode, and once again, Pendt’s cool thinking prevailed.

“We’ll solve that problem when we get to it,” Pendt said. “Our priority right now has to be faking my death. I wish we could ask Morunt for help, but we can’t trust him. We do, however, have complete access to his office until Dulcie lifts the lockdown, so I think we should take advantage of