Alyssa Redd's Arc

Chapter 3 of 15

Alyssa cut panels until her hands shook. The suit lay half-assembled on the bench. The ship sat in the yard, ribs open, hull plates stacked beside it. She had built for months and still needed weeks. She had hours. Marla came through the workshop door without knocking. Green hair wet from the rain. She set a bag on the bench and looked at the ship through the open bay. "Zarr is asking at the port," Marla said. "Two people pointed him here. You have maybe an hour." Alyssa's hand stopped over the wiring. "I can't finish in an hour." "Go to the crystal lady." Marla did not blink. "Noel. She cuts navigation stones. She has parts. She owes me a favor." "I don't know her." "You will. Move." They ran three blocks in the rain. Noel opened the door before they knocked. Short black hair, goggles pushed up, lab coat stained at the cuffs. Behind her, a tall cabinet hummed, growing something bright inside a sealed chamber. A finished crystal sat on a cloth on the counter. "Marla," Noel said. She looked at Alyssa. "You're the one they're hunting." "Yes." "Show me the ship in your head." Alyssa closed her eyes. She saw the hull, the seams, the gaps. She named every weak point in order. Noel listened, arms crossed. When Alyssa stopped, Noel walked to a shelf and pulled down a case. "Nav crystal. Two years old. It holds." She set it in Alyssa's palm. "Your seals leak at the third rib. I have plates. Suit visor needs a gasket I can print in twenty minutes. Bring the suit here." Marla went for the suit. Alyssa stayed and worked beside Noel at the bench. Noel did not speak while she worked. When she finished the gasket, she pressed it into the helmet ring and handed it back. "One test flight worth of calibration," Noel said. "After that, you're on your own." "Understood." They ran the parts back to the workshop. Marla sealed the last hull plate while Alyssa fitted the crystal into the nav slot. The ship's panels lit green in sequence. Alyssa pulled on the suit. The chest display woke: air ninety-eight percent, radiation low, AQI good. A siren rose two streets over. "Now," Marla said. Alyssa climbed into the cockpit. Marla climbed in behind her and pulled the hatch. The ship lifted before the yard lights finished blinking. It cleared the roofs, then the clouds, then the last thin skin of sky. Space opened around them. Black, and full of things Alyssa had only seen in stolen feeds. She had planned every step of this and forgot all of them looking out the glass. She turned to Marla. Her helmet monitors glowed between them. "When we get to Earth," Alyssa said, "will you marry me?" Marla looked at the stars. Then at her. "Yes." Behind them, the planet shrank. Ahead, the coordinates waited.