“Give me my blade back, and I’ll show you suffering.” Iris strained against the vines again, and his efforts released a flow of blood; nothing more. A guttural moan pushed past his lips as Iris’s head dropped to his chest. Face bloody and stained with tears, Iris stretched his lips into a benevolent smile. “I need you to do something, quick.” He wanted the ship to overhear him. Let it. He wanted it to be known what his last concern was before he perished. He watched, half conscious, as the vines collected his pulsar blade and disappeared with it, slithering down the corridor.
Of course.
“You still have whatever it was you pulled on Yan,” Iris whispered. “Find a way to contact him. Find anything, a social, a number, a ping code.”
He has no social. No ping. I have his work message box.
“That’ll do.” Iris broke into a sharp cough and spat out a glob of blood onto the moss. Time was running out far too fast. He was already growing cold. Shock was setting in. “Take the pulsar blade schematics you have and send them to the message box.”
That’s highly—
“We’re not going back to the temple. This is the least of our worries. Send the schematics, please.”
When the time comes.
When the time comes,Iris thought. It wouldn’t be long now.
He had to take breathing breaks now. The blood loss was numbing Iris to any pain, but it was also dizzying. He would have dreaded his passing more if he weren’t feeling so utterly satisfied. After all the years spent lost, he had found a way to be a better Vessel. The sutras all made sense now. How could he possibly tend to people in death when he had so little appreciation for their lives? How could he ever believe that distancing himself from the mess of living would be the correct way to honour the Light? The world was closing in around Iris, his vision fading, his plan minutes from completion. It was as the Light had willed it. It was a lesson finally learned.
Then, at the far end of the corridor, a door slid open. It couldn’t have opened, shouldn’t have opened. The ship would neverlet itopen. Unless of course, the ship had had no choice.
“Oh, fuckno,” Iris groaned.
Someone’s here, VIFAI said, two seconds too late.
For a moment, Iris lost all consciousness because the next time he opened his eyes, Yan’s face was a mere inch away from his, bloody and grinning.
“I told you to get to the airlock,” Iris rasped, and his eyes rolled back into his skull.
“And I did.” Yan wrapped something around Iris’s arm and pulled hard. Iris moaned through his teeth and nearly passed out again. The pain was enough to wake him but also enough to hitch his breath. “Jesi is safe. We broke through to Station. They’re coming. Now just let me free your arm, and we’ll be on our merry way.” Yan leaned in close to examine the wounds and the places where the vines had embedded themselves in the wall. He gave a vine a hard yank, but the only response was a soft cry that escaped from Iris’s cracked lips. “It’s fucking stuck.”
“Now you see my problem,” Iris whispered, teetering on the edge of awareness. The tourniquet around his arm was slowing the blood loss, and it was easier to stay conscious, but the pain had also returned with a vengeance.
Yan tugged at the vines again, hard as he could. The tendons along his forearms strained, but the vines did not move. “Shit.”
“Please don’t do that again.”
The door at the end of the corridor was still open. Yan had overridden the ship’s signal, and yet the ship lay silent. What was it waiting for? “You still have time. If you run, you’ll make it. It wantsme, my AI construct. It’ll keep me alive for now, but I don’t know for how long.” Iris prayed it wasn’t much longer.
“You see, I also have a problem,” Yan said, breaking into a soft laugh. “I told Jesi to get out the moment Station arrived. I told her not to wait for me. So, I’m effectively stuck here with you.”
“Liar,” Iris whispered.
“Does it matter?” Yan smiled. “I’m not leaving, Iris.”
“Idiot.” Iris was drifting in and out of consciousness, and his head bobbed to and from his chest.
“May I?” Yan reached out, one hand hovering near Iris’s cheek, the other by his side.
Iris closed his eyes and nodded. There was no sense in modesty in his current state. Now that there was no reason to guard his most personal thoughts, Iris let them roam wild until they trampled everything in sight, and he could no longer ignore them. They were plenty and multiplying, and no amount of meditation would cull their numbers.
What a shame, VIFAI chimed sadly, jumping from thought to thought. Playing one memory after the next.
What a shame, indeed.There was no pain now. The only sensation Iris registered was the steady pressure of Yan’s handagainst his side. He wanted to apologise for getting blood all over Yan’s clothing, but the engineer wrapped his arm around Iris’s torso and pulled him close, and all thoughts were forgotten. With his other hand, he guided Iris’s head to his shoulder. Iris pressed into him on instinct. The ship was still watching them, but he didn’t care. He’d never dreamed of being fortunate enough to pass as someone held him.
“I lied before,” Yan whispered. “I said I’d never forgive you for Tev, but I do. I forgive you. You tried. You tried your best. This thing is just so much bigger than we are.”
Iris chuckled into Yan’s shoulder. “You have no conviction, Yan.”
