36
Aiden
Aiden squeezed Darren’s hand,the solidity of it acting as an anchor to reality while his mind worked to catch up to what his eyes were witnessing. There were two suns and not one. Two bright stars that gave the silver forms of the cruisers a tinge of orange and made the Maine’s cockpit look like it was on fire.
“We made it,” Darren whispered in a slightly shaky voice.
“We fucking did.” Bea shot up, her eyes wide and shocked. Her hands flew across the central console, but the Maine had lost all its power and refused to respond. “C’mon, baby, don’t be dead on me.”
“Bea!”Nyle’s voice rang in their earpieces, crisp and full of worry.“Can you guys hear me? Are you okay? Oh, please, tell me you are okay!”
“Nyle! Shit, baby angel…” She grinned, flopping back into the chair with an audible sigh. “This was so awful.”
“Bea…I thought we lost you,”Nyle croaked, sniffling on the other end.“I’m so glad you are fine.”
Something in Nyle’s voice twisted Aiden’s stomach. A bad feeling raised his hackles and lodged a lump in his throat.
“Nyle, is everyone okay on your end?” Darren cut in, walking over to Bea and draping an arm over her chair. Aiden followed, scanning the lifeless tech around them. “And, also, I think we might need a lift.”
“We… lost one cruiser,”Nyle said, his voice turning somber.
Heavy silence replaced the air of relief in the cockpit. Bea’s expression dropped and Darren’s jaw clenched.
“Nyle, is Nan…?” she said carefully, furrowing as she glanced out of the viewport.
Aiden did the same, counting five cruisers where there should’ve been six. The lingering discomfort from the jump made him shudder. It still felt like there was static buzzing right under his skin, a leftover side effect of whatever the process of going from one universe to another really was. They’d known the risks of course, they’d been prepared for them, but it still hurt to lose so many people who’d willingly chosen Darren’s side.
“She’s fine!”Nyle rushed out, exhaling deeply.“And everyone else, too! Just a bit shaken up from the jump, but otherwise… holding up. As for needing a lift, Kristen and I are almost at the Maine’s airlock.”
Bea stood up, flicking red curls off her cheek. “I’ll come down and let you in.”
Kristen halted her. “Wait. I… think I can see the problem.Nyle… go get suited up. I’ll need your help.”
“Suited up? You’re going out?” Bea protested, crossing her arms and frowning. “We don’t even know if our suits are any good here!”
A silent pause ensued. Aiden looked at Darren and then at Bea, concluding that Nyle and Kristen were currently putting on the suits despite Bea’s concerns.
“We do and they are. We already tested them,”Nyle said on the other end, trying his best to channel his usual self.“Oh shit, Kristen. I can see where they got hit. There’s something attached to the hull.”
“That’s gotta be what killed our systems,” Bea said more so to herself than Nyle.
“Yeah… Uh, Kristen and I will take care of it, so I’m gonna click off! Be right back,”Nyle said, sent her a kiss, and clicked off.
Bea sighed and folded her arms behind her head as she stared at the ceiling. “Guess we wait now.”
“I guess we do,” Aiden agreed, then shifted his attention from her to Darren who’d moved over to the weapons system near the elevator, likely to inspect them. He wasn’t doing that though; he was looking at Aiden with a tight expression on his face.
Aiden approached him, clasping his shoulder gently.
“We made it,” Darren said, sounding both ecstatic and tired. “Us and…” He clenched his hand in a fist. “Almost all of the cruisers. And Marcus can’t follow us here.”
A sense of something fundamental spread through Aiden, making his breathing hitch. Marcus didn’t know about the multiverse. He didn’t have the jump drive schematics. They’d left him behind and in the dark, along with the rest of humankind. They didn’t have to run anymore or to hide. They didn’t have to pretend they didn’t know the truth. They were… free and about to start a new life.
“He can’t,” Aiden echoed, wrapping his arms around Darren and pulling him close. “We really made it.”
They held each other, content just to do that until the adrenaline had left them both. Then they returned to the bench and waited alongside Bea in companionable silence until Kristen’s call came. He instructed them what to do so they could restart the Maine and the custom system purge Nyle had designed could flush the virus that had taken its systems down.
“Okay, B, reboot and it should work now,”Kristen said when Bea finished following the last of his instructions.
