Spaced Out

Lost In Time And Lost In Space...And Meaning

Hysterical laughter filled the scraper. Lily's laughter.

"Oh, my God," she uttered in the midst of her fit, "can you really not move?"

Vlex's brow crinkled. "It would seem so."

Veeing her arms, Lily punched her fists into the air and cheered. She did it. She did the tertiary hold when it really, really mattered. The escalating thrum of the charging fade field dimmed the afterglow of her triumph. She had to terminate the launch sequence then she could bask more. Cackling, she pushed herself up along the wall.

The chamber wavered when Lily stood. She put a hand to her forehead and waited out the head-rush. Using the wall for support, she tottered to the navigation alcove. Control clusters winked at her. She found the one Vlex used to generate the fade field for the void shunt. The last time he terminated the sequence she paid attention. Patterns and colors were easy for her to remember. Implementing the deactivation sequence was simple.

Lily touched one of the motes on the correct cluster and tried sweeping it to the right place. The light wouldn't move. She tried again with a different mote. That one stuck in place too.

"What's wrong with this stupid thing?"

"My scraper responds only to me," Vlex said. He turned his head—the one part of him not paralyzed—in her direction. "The system is DNA synched to me."

Right. Reesa and Vortrand told her that.

"Shit!" Lily hollered. "Now what?" She chewed the fingers of her barriersuit's glove while she mumbled to herself.

"Now, we wait for the shunt to suck us in and deposit us at my plotted checkpoint. If I'm not mobile by that time we will be boarded, I will be recognized, and we will be escorted to my dysonaught."

Hands clamped over Lily's ears. She would not listen. There had to be something else she could do. Something she hadn't thought of. Her talk-round popped. Hands lowered. A burst of static blasted from the speaker/receiver along with a blip of sound. She hit the captain's private channel button.

"Vortrand? Hello? Vortrand!"

Static answered her. Lily wandered around the scraper and repeated her page, searching out a clear transmission point if one existed.

"Are you there?" She called out over the 'rounds a final time.

"Ab—" A pop of interference cut off the rest of the word. Lily tilted her arm at a different angle. "Abadie? Abadie, are you getting this?"

"Yes, yes!" Lily laughed, jumping while tears welled in her eyes then stopped when she remembered what she'd done to Reesa and the rest of the crew. "I...I thought you were going to turn me over. I thought Luthe was going—"

"I understand why you did what you did. We'll sort it later. What's the Utori's status?"