Lily could not make out the words that Kai was saying into her ears. All she could hear was her blood rushing and the terrible coughing and rasping that was coming from Davyyd.

She reached up, trying to help him, wanting to do something. She’d have given anything if just for him to not be making these sounds.

There was nothing she could do.

The medical drone came over, moving far too slowly in her mind.

“Hurry up!” she nearly shrieked.

Davyyd jumped at her voice, and she immediately froze in terror.

“Lily,” Kai’s voice said. It was louder, stronger, commanding – and Lily listened.

“Lily,” Kai repeated. “Take a deep breath and calm down. Davyyd needs you now.”

“. . . o-okay,” she replied, her voice a hoarse whisper.

“The medical drone will give him what painkillers it has left. I need you to speak calmly to him. Comfort him.”

Lily knelt, heedless of the blood, and reached out again, this time for his hand. His right did not seem burned, and she slipped her fingers into his.

His head moved slightly, and his breathing grew quieter, the cough fading, as the drone injected him.

“Davyyd,” Lily said softly. “I’m here, Davyyd.”

His lips moved, but she could not tell what, if anything, he was saying.

“It’s okay, Davyyd,” she said. “You don’t have to say anything. It’s okay to be scared – I’m here, Davyyd, and I’ll be here.”

His head moved a fraction – a nod? She was not sure.

“Thank you,” she told him. “You got me out. I wouldn’t have made it off the ship if you hadn’t helped me. You . . . you were so brave. And I’ll always be grateful.”

His hand squeezed hers slightly, and she reached up, stroking back his hair. It was slick with sweat and blood, but now she did not care.

“I’ll stay here with you,” she said again. “You’re not alone, Davyyd.”

“You’re doing great, Lily,” Kai said. “All we can do is make him comfortable.”

She did. She spoke softly, stroking his head or his hand. His breathing grew slower, and he seemed to no longer be in pain. He was just drifting on the painkillers. She took it as a blessing.

Stolen novel; please report.

Then he suddenly took a breath, louder than any that had come before. It came out as a wheeze and then stopped.

There was a terrible silence.

“Davyyd?” she asked softly.

The drone hovered closer. “His heart has stopped. Time of death-“

The words faded out into a ringing sound in her ears. She fell back, almost stumbling away from the body, panic overtaking her for a moment.

Or maybe minutes. She had no idea, she just realized that Kai was calling out to her, trying to get her attention back.

But the woman’s words, no matter how important or commanding, seemed to have no meaning.

She’d just watched Davyyd die. Everything else paled in comparison.

She turned off the call.

----------------------------------------

“Commander, we’ve got less than one minute to cut-off time!”

Pirra heard the words and weighed them.

“Are all other shuttles heading back?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Finish the connection,” she ordered. “We’re moving fast.”

“Aye!”

During Team Four’s connection to their first pod, a water line on the outside of the pod had burst. The water inside had become flying knives that had damaged her connection tube. They had a spare, but it would take too long to deploy it.

Team One would pick up the last pod.

There was just one person aboard this pod, she knew.

Watching the timer click down, she saw her team set a new record for sealing and getting down to the bottom.

It filled her with pride, even if she could not take the time to verbalize it now.

“Opening!” Kiseleva called. The pod’s hatch opened easily, but black smoke poured out, and she heard coughing from within.

“We’re at cutoff,” she heard in her ear.

“Everyone else back aboard the ship,” she ordered, swinging herself down into the pod. “If I’m not back aboard in 30, cut loose. That’s an order.”

She knew that her team would have moved heaven and earth to save her, but they had too many others aboard that they had to get out.

They would obey.

Going down into smoke, she cycled through optical views until she could see the person inside.

Infrared could barely make them out; the pod interior was hot, and she cursed that they hadn’t gotten this information before.

“Come on!” she said, grabbing the person.

They coughed, fighting her briefly before curling up slightly and letting her take them.

Using her thrusters she moved them towards the hatch, she looked up to gauge a push-off. The smoke made it hard to see exactly, even with sensors, but she took her best guess and pushed off the floor hard.

Wrapping her arms around the person’s head and body to shield them, she smashed her shoulder into the hatch rim, but caught with her leg to keep them from tumbling awkwardly in the tunnel.

Burning her thrusters again, she went up into the Response Shuttle, arms grabbing her and pulling her in.

Her chrono read that she’d been thirty-six seconds.

“Pull away, cut the tunnel!” she called.

“Brace!” she heard the call come.

The arms still held her, and she still held the man, as they began a hard burn.

“Debris field?” she called out. It was hard to get words out under the g-forces, but she forced them through.

“We are ahead of it,” she heard Y’s voice in her ear. “Though you have cut it far closer than I thought you might. We can visibly see debris approaching – though we are thankfully outpacing it.”

The burn began to slacken, the man in her arms coughing violently. It hadn’t been easy for him, but it had been vital.

Y and Mwanajuma moved to help him into a medical cradle, and Kiseleva helped Pirra move into a sitting position.

She felt exhausted, drained.

But she connected to the Craton.

“This is Commander Pirra. All pods evacuated. We are on our way back.”