Aetherbound - E.K. Johnston Page 0,70

so much for not saying them. She wanted to be free of the Harland forever, and that was going to take an incredible risk. She loved Fisher—she knew it now—and she loved him in part because he trusted her enough to let her do this.

Ned gave them space, even though he too was clearly on edge about the whole thing. He checked his communications. The only person who could send him anything right now was Dulcie. There was a notification from her.

“Operations says the Harland is due in four days,” Ned reported, looking up from his datapad. “Is that enough time?”

“It’ll have to be,” Pendt said. “I’ll make a schedule.”

“All right then,” Ned said. “What do you want for dinner?”

26.

PENDT STARTED TO REGRET her decision on the third solid day of eating. She had to be careful about it: too much and she’d vomit, too little and her body would turn it into regular waste. She could feel every calorie in and out, measured every effort she took against the efforts she was going to make with the energy she had when the Harland arrived, and she hated it. It was, she realized, the life she was destined for if this didn’t work. If the Hegemony got her, she doubted they’d be as nice about it as Fisher and Ned were.

The Harland drifted ever closer on the charts. Pendt had begun exploration of the gene-lock, carefully exploring it without triggering anything that might shut it down. She was paranoid enough to assume the Stavengers had left traps around it, but no matter which angle she took, she couldn’t see any.

“It was the last thing they did,” Ned reminded her. “They couldn’t exactly come out here and check it. They just made it work.”

It was a valid point.

Still, she was very careful as she circled closer and closer to the centre of the gene-lock’s pattern. She knew what Ned’s chromosome looked like, of course. She carried a copy of it inside her. It was a matter of picking the lock far enough to find the chromosome, and then changing the specific tumbler without disturbing anything else.

“Does it help to picture it like that?” Fisher said. “It just confuses me.”

“Yes,” Pendt said. “It’s how I think about the Net and Well, so it makes sense to me to think of it like this. I know the pattern and I know the key. Usually I just turn it, but the principle is the same. It helps me reason out how I’m going to do it.”

The airlocks would take two hours to cycle after the Harland docked. Pendt was sure that would be enough time, and Dulcie said they could always manufacture a stall if they had to, without raising too much suspicion. The foreman was the only other person on board who knew what they were trying, and while she wasn’t exactly thrilled about it, she wouldn’t stop them either. Dr. Morunt was under unofficial house arrest in his quarters and would not be permitted out until it was time for him to meet with his sister. Pendt did not believe he would betray them any further, but Fisher pointed out that if they used the other Morunt as leverage, he could become unpredictable. Fisher needed to control as much of this as he could, Pendt knew, and so she stopped arguing.

The Harland came in exactly on schedule, so Pendt was already sitting in the repair bay with Ned when it docked. Fisher had to be in operations to make everything look normal, which she knew was driving him up the wall. He’d come down as soon as he could.

“Airlock cycle starting now,” said Dulcie over their private communications. “Good luck.”

“Pendt?” That was Fisher. “Are you still there?”

“I’m just about to start,” she told him, “but I knew you’d want to talk first.”

“Just . . . be careful, okay?” he said. “And, Ned, do whatever you can.”

“I will,” Pendt said. “Charge Arkady twice the normal docking fee for me.”

“I love you too,” Fisher said, and the channel clicked off.

“Well?” said Ned. Pendt held her hands up to the plate behind which was the gene-lock that ruled their lives. “Dying’s not all it’s cracked up to be. I don’t recommend it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Pendt said. She started to reach for the familiar pattern, so close to her heart. “See you on the other side.”

She stretched.

She twisted.

She found her way through.

It was as simple as she thought. X marks the spot.

But it was