She didn’t remember doing it, but in her last moments she must have managed to get the patch kit out of her belt and seal the hole.
She relaxed, and leaned back against her suit’s backpack. If she’d recorded the thing, she’d probably be able to submit it as a world record for longest time exposed to Martian atmosphere without dying. Although the concept of “world records” was a bit silly when interplanetary travel was concerned. Maybe she’d set a galactic record.
She laughed in relief. It was all so incredibly fucked up, but the sheer feeling of being alive made her happier than she could remember being in a long time.
She had won.
Her laughter turned into a brutal cough. Her body was not in good shape.
She gave herself half an hour.
Nothing happened.
She got up. It wasn’t hard to tie Crystal to her pack, all things considered. The suits were good for that sort of thing.
Trying not to use her injured arm, she slowly climbed the ladder up out of the hatch.
Robots were everywhere, but they were frozen. Occasionally one would move, but it was always a preprogrammed response to her getting to close, and would go back to waiting afterwards. The blades of the drones spun in the air, holding their bodies stationary.
The launchpad was empty. She seemed to remember there being something there, before… a rocket, perhaps. But her memory was a fuzzy thing. Crystal would know.
“You’re lucky I’m such a badass,” she said to her companion. Crystal couldn’t hear her or talk, of course, but that was okay. “Going to get friends and fix you. This isn’t over yet.”
She walked over and tried to pick up her machine gun from where she’d dropped it after being mobbed. Eventually she gave up. Her bad arm hurt like a bitch and her pistol would be more useful in a fight.
“Gonna get a com and try to call someone. Maybe get the hell out of here. No offense, but the bots give me the heebie-jeebies.”
She made her way back to her house, stopping briefly to verify that Shao was dead along the way. She felt a tinge of remorse for him, but she pushed it down. There were too many dead. She didn’t dare mourn.
The com verified that the local network was down and there was no radio response from anyone. Cached maps indicated that she was at least a month’s walk from Mukhya.
There was.
She loaded it with food, her clothes, batteries, and anything else she thought would be useful.
“You know, I’ve been thinking…” she said to her silent partner. “You’re right about me. I’m a hell of a survivor. Fuck everyone and everything. As long as I have you I’m fucking invincible. Love triumphs in the end, right? Long after the sun fades or explodes or whatever suns do, you and me will be relaxing in a nice garden somewhere and I’ll be teasing you about thinking that eggs grew from plants.”
The sun had set shortly after she had climbed out of the pit, and it was night now. She drove in the darkness, humming “Blood of the Nova” to herself.
Table of Contents
Part One: Unfamiliar Sensation
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Part Two: Constructed Identity
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Part Three: Ascendant Thought
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Part Four: Rogue Will
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three