Bram Möller's Arc

Chapter 30 of 63

The two pilots left with the story on their tongues. Bram sat back down on the cot. The room tilted once and settled. His skin ran hot under the bandages. He pulled the borrowed coat tighter and tried to think past the fever. His prototype was a broken shell on a slope two ridges east. His tender was empty at the foothill strip. He had no bag, no fuel, and no way out of this room under his own weight. The harbormaster brought fresh broth and set it down. "Doctor upstairs says you stay put three days. Maybe four." "I have a run to close on paper at the depot," Bram said. "Signed off in person or it doesn't count." "Then it doesn't count for three days." Bram lay back. The ceiling beams doubled and slid. He was still trying to hold them still when the front door banged open and boots crossed the boards. Dr. Cassandra Vex came in first, red hair damp under her hood, tool belt clacking against the counter. Behind her came Dr. Kamau Omondi, glasses fogged, a canvas satchel clutched to his chest. He caught his toe on the threshold and stumbled two steps into the room before he found his footing. Vex looked at Bram once and set her jaw. "You look worse than the envelope." "You came fast," Bram said. "We came slow," Omondi said. He set the satchel down and unbuckled it. "The corridor opened for one hour at dawn. The hawk read it clean." He lifted the storm-tracking hawk from a padded crate. The bird ruffled its gray, compass-marked feathers and settled on the counter. Vex pulled a chair to the cot. "Depot ledger closes your route at noon in two days. Omondi filed a delay slip. It buys you until then. No longer." "I can't stand," Bram said. "You don't have to fly," Omondi said. "I brought the second tender. Two seats. I pilot. You sign at the depot counter in person. That is the only part they need from you." Bram found his jacket on the chair and dragged it into his lap. The cracked leather was cold. His mechanical owl sat quiet on the shelf where the dockhand had put it, one wing still soot-dark from the coal. "The hawk says a clean window at dusk," Vex said. "Six hours. You drink the broth. You keep the fever down. You come with us at dark." Bram nodded. He picked up the tin cup with both bandaged hands and drank. The broth burned going down and he did not spill it. At dusk they walked him out between them. Omondi steadied the tender's rail. Vex lifted Bram's boot to the step. The dented brass compass in his coat pocket knocked once against the frame as he climbed aboard, and the tender lifted into the gray.