Piece Simul ✔

Chapter 53-Tiptree- Finding My Religion

Tiptree geared up, trying her best to remember where each filter went and which zippers to close. Pro-tip? All of them.

For maybe the tenth time, she whirled around to check the launch area. The archways stretched to the main corridor, which she had sealed with a particle barrier. Jason and Kathar could easily bring it down, but at least when they did so, she would know they were here.

Instead of wasting time and effort in looking for him, Tiptree had gone where she figured Samuel was most likely to go. Like her, he was intent on finishing the mission, and so the probability that he would seek out the launch area was high.

As she waited, Tiptree continued readying for takeoff. She tossed aside the language converter and the ansible. Not having them would make for a lighter suit.

To herself, she reviewed the informal guidelines for a successful extraction:

-Secure the landing site.

-Locate plant life.

-Gather samples.

-Get the hell back to the ship.

Easy. Completely. Except that it hadn't worked out like that yet, and maybe never would.

For the sake of seeing Kass again, Tiptree resolved to make it work.

~*~

Not five minutes later, the onboard interface announced:

"Particle wall down."

Only someone with an override code could've brought it down. Tiptree gripped the dagger she had knicked from the training room. It had seemed wasteful to leave a room full of weapons in a situation such as they were all in.

Her grip relaxed when Genly appeared in the launch room archway.

The bot nodded a hello, then called, "All clear, sir."

Samuel emerged from behind Genly, edging cautiously as if he didn't believe what he'd heard. And Tiptree didn't blame him.

"Hey," she said, resheathing the dagger.

Samuel's face appeared gaunt. He looked like a man who had faced a crucible and was shocked to have come out alive. Tiptree thought she probably looked the same. Or worse.

"Hey."

She tossed him the necessary gear. Well, some of it, as the lot was damn heavy. "Gear up."

After donning his suit, Samuel stretched his arm out, palm up. "Here."

Tiptree plucked the small bud from him, turning it over in her fingers.

"It's like an ansible, but an older model. Goes in your ear, like this," he said, pushing his bud into his ear in answer to her confusion.

The tech was so small. Tiptree didn't trust the look of it. Still, she shrugged and gently pushed the bud into her ear.

Immediately, feedback blared forth, and Tiptree grabbed at her ear, crying out.

Samuel caught her, assuring her that it would stop. A moment later, the torture ceased.

"I gave one to Russ, and now we can talk without those traitors hearing anything."

Wiping away tears, Tiptree nodded. If only the tech worked long-range (like planet-to-planet), but she knew they didn't.

"Russ is okay?"

Her last image of her friend was a steely-resolve, gun in-hand, facing off against a fanatic.

"From what I saw, yeah."

That had to mean Jason was dead. Tiptree felt little in the way of regret for his supposed death.

"Then let's get going," Tiptree said.