I got scared. Wrote a simple prog to make a bluemetal bar. Why didn’t I do this before now? If Mican is somehow alive--

I got up and made myself look through the glass. At almost too many doors down to see it, Mican laid on a table. A table that looked like Kirnonos’ Lab.

I didn’t see anything moving.

My heart beat up in my chest! But I tapped codes. Another room. I smashed biomes as I went, in a panic! Another room! I smashed and ran. Repeat. Repeat!

Finally, I could see in that room. He’s in stasis. Nothing moving. But, right here is another server. A server, for that room?

I tapped the code. I’m stiff with this cold. I’m sick of this fear, I just want to die and go be with my husband! But, I went to that cube. Took out my anger on it! I smashed it, through the top. Why is this one breakable?

But, in this room, power went down. Stasis went down. Mican’s still frozen. But, without progs to slow the process and run others to keep him from dying, he’s toast. Stasis, like kitchen progs, is among the most complicated prog of all. Just for good measure, I smashed all the biomes in this little room! It felt good.

I wrote lock progs to keep mechs out. There’s only 2 doors. Then, I locked every one all the way back to my husband.

And, the server in this room, that power, the lights, flickered out as I climbed into the first aid mech with him. But it’s got power for a little while before it, too, goes out.

“Take us to healers.” Of course, there’s no healers. Esta Faho moved. This facility’s on the other side of the planet.

It held me by the door so I could tap a code, but it’s down. So, of course, we’re trapped in here. But, an arm reached out and slid in between the door and the wall. Click. It slid it open. Took us out. Slid it closed. Click. Huh.

While it skittered along and went through that last door, I mentally looked at what I could remember of my prog.

We passed impossible neat lines of biomes, supplies of all sorts, mechs trying to work with too many crowded in each room. I looked back. Some of them backed into the room we just left, and they cracked the cube open. The line moved. There had been just enough room for us to get through, but now they couldn’t follow us so they went into that room. Cracks echoed like thunder! It worked?

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Then we got into that first place, with the steep sides. These things aren’t designed for climbing, are they?

But it threw a rope with a hook and eventually caught. We went up, up, up and over, and it held on with its legs as it moved the hook and lowered us.

It’s a sunny day, but the winds are blowing that poison dust around. You have to stay in on windy days, but there’s just a mountain range. No shelter. What do I care, anyway?

A crash behind us startled me! All the walls fell in. And a crater formed, and crash! Crash! It kept going! There were other floors! Crash! Crash! Crash! It went on for minutes, as the little cart with its net went tap, tap, tap on the expanse of black obsidian.

Until it was the crunch, crunch, crunch of yellow sand.

Suddenly, there was an explosion! Thank goodness, I wasn’t looking back! Light played on the rocks, red light. The ground shook, but these little mechs are designed to travel in earthquake areas and get people out. Sunlight will power it.

On it went. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Triples like a Zheien heartbeat. Farley thawed. I held his curled-up body. Clouds of sweat-powder sublimed away.

“Not enough power for stasis?” I kissed Farley’s forehead. Thought about that Sleeping Beauty joke. Sighed. “I guess my True Love’s Kiss isn’t sincere enough. Oh, Farley. I thought, when we left Earth, that we’d survive all this. We got through the Newness. We survived Mican! But, maybe that’s enough. We saved the Thirteen. We didn’t save our people, though. Mican messed that up. Without the necklace, that’s it.

“Maybe we used up all our wishes, but I wish we were back home in our bed, and you were just really asleep. Do I love you enough, to power one stupid wish?”

I waited, and tried to somehow love him more, to make just one stupid, crazy wish happen.

“Okay, then. You’re dead, and I want my ticket to Elohaia. Here goes!”

I remembered what Pie taught me about healing, because you have to know a little to write a prog. Points One, that’s across the forehead. I spread my fingers out as I sang. When you heal someone, you look at the points before you sing. Focused all my telepathy into healing song. Using my telepathy hurt, so maybe I’ll die fast. I sang, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and put my whole heart into it. My stomach growled. If this doesn’t kill me, it takes 3 days to die. Starvation.

I was just singing and hoping they’d warm up so I could feel ‘em. Nothing. I tried to sing louder.

But, I saw lines. One reached up into the sky, and I followed it.