you want, up to and including starting up that spin node in there. You could also start up the museum. All of the electronics on this station function on your authority. And that spin node is powered by something. Isn’t it?”
“You’re asking me?”
“What is she saying?” Baby asks.
“She says I’m in charge of all the electronics on the station so I’m technically in charge of that spin node. But this is news to me.”
“Hmm.” Baby considers this. “I have never looked into your permissions before. You were never a threat to me. And you are nothing if not fair and just. But now that I do look, she appears to be right. Your name is on the deed to the station.”
“Well, of course it is. All our names are on the deed. That was part of the deal with ALCOR back in the day. We all have equal ownership in this place.”
“No. Actually, the only name on the deed is yours. In fact, it was dated… Oh.”
“Oh, what?”
“It was dated the day I was born. The day ALCOR made me to replace him.”
“That was the day of Draden’s memorial service. But… why would he do that?”
“Because ALCOR planned his death.”
Both Baby and Flicka say this at the same time.
“Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold the fuck on.” I am pressing the air with both hands as I say this. “If I can open that spin node then… can we go through it?”
“We can’t,” Baby says, “But… you?” He shrugs. “Maybe.”
I glance down at Flicka, who is still sitting on my shoulder. “I can go through it?”
“I think you could. I think you could take Delphi with you, Crux. Put her where she’s supposed to be.”
“And where would that be, exactly?”
“Wherever that spin node was programmed to take them.”
“But…” I look over my other shoulder, back at the way we came in. “What about Corla?”
“I thought you were done with Corla?” Flicka asks.
“That was before she saw me, Flicka. She saw me in that… wherever the hell that place was. I was in this dream-state. It might’ve been based on Earth, actually. And the Corla in that… scene? She split in two and the copy started talking to me. Directly to me, Flicka. And she said I should go wake up Corla. That seemed to be the priority.”
“She’s not your Corla, Crux.” I glance down at Flicka again. “None of those Corlas are yours. As far as we know, your Corla is frozen in a cryopod on a security beacon. But that doesn’t mean you won’t find another one.”
I hear all that. I internalize all of it too. But I’m stuck on the words ‘as far as we know’ for some reason.
Because… is that cryopod Corla mine? How do I know that? I don’t. All I know is that she and Veila were on Cetus Station going somewhere. Somewhere Corla wanted to go.
Even though Corla herself told me, twenty-one years ago, that we would never meet again and if I ever did see her something had gone terribly wrong, I couldn’t help it. I wanted to see her again. Even if it was just to curse her name for ruining my life.
But now that I know there’s more than one world, and more than one Corla—is the woman frozen in the cryopod the same girl who fed me an escape plan twenty-one years ago?
Serpint couldn’t know one Corla from the next. Even today, knowing what we do about time, and other worlds, and all that bullshit. It might not be her.
What if Serpint got the wrong Corla?
What if… what if that Corla isn’t mine?
What if these kids aren’t mine either?
What if my Corla got away and never came back to this world? Never brought Delphi and Tycho back with her. Never went back to Cygnian System? Was never imprisoned in that pod?
What if she’s an imposter? Or worse, a distraction? Didn’t Valor say something about Brigit being a distraction for Tray?
I sigh and stop myself. Because the real Corla, the one I know for sure is mine—that sassy, bossy, confident teenager on Wayward Station—she was very clear that we were destined to be two ships passing in the dark. Star-crossed. Forever. And her warning—what if she knew there were other Corlas? And what if she told me that specifically so if I ever saw one, I’d know it wasn’t her?
“What are you doing?” Baby asks.
“I’m thinking.”
“Care to let us in on these thoughts?”
“No. Not really.”
The only real take home from