Wolfram (October 2023)
“I think that’ll do it.”
Del crawls out from under the rear console, taking care not to further damage her left arm. She sighs as she pushes off the floor with one metallic hand. The explosion destroyed her arm: all that remains below the shoulder are a few dangling wires and a servo that refuses to stop spinning. She had shut off the pain receptors a few hours ago.
“How are you, Brother?” she throws a question to the large, robed Synthetic sitting at the helm and attempting to get communications back. The priest, Ram, has already accepted that he’s going to be late for this conference. It makes little difference in the grand scheme of things, he ponders, he’s just glad that he and Del are alive.
“I’ve had worse, a dent in my chest won’t kill me,” he responds.
“Still,” Del pulls a wire out of the wall, “I was told to get you to Mars for this and it’ll look real bad if you show up dead.”
Ram just shakes his head in amusement and gets back to work. He briefly wonders what strings someone pulled to get the young Synthetic as his pilot, for that matter how she became a pilot in the first place. Practically skipping up to the helm, Del sidles up to the left of Ram and dramatically reaches for the lever that controls main power.
“Watch this,” she says and cranks it to full.
Nothing happens for a moment, then sparks fly from rear console as something blows out.
Del visibly deflates, slumping her shoulders. Ram suspects that she might have begun crying if she was human. She’s young, too young to have to do work like this. Was she one of Euclid Station’s orphans? It wasn’t uncommon for them to be pulled into shadier parts of society. Every time he went to the station’s lower levels he could only watch in shame as children like her are forced to peddle wares and or steal in the shadows. The bosses had some kind of grip over them, and despite his best efforts, Ram couldn’t ever find their names. Del joked about it, but she’d be punished for a perceived failure. Ram didn’t want to think about what that would mean for her.
He reaches a powerful hand for hers and grips it firmly. She jumps slightly and looks at the priest.
“It’ll be alright. We’ll get there safely,” he reassures her.
“I…”
“This wasn’t your fault, I won’t let anything happen to you because of this.”
Del sways, hesitating. Ram pulls her closer in an embrace. It doesn’t really matter what her background is or what trouble is waiting for her back on Euclid Station. He had joined to Hockists to all those years ago when he wanted to escape trouble. The head priest and the deacons had accepted him without question, and it was his turn to do the same. The young girl slowly wraps her remaining arm around his neck.
For awhile, they just watch the stars drifting gently by outside the shuttle.
“Let’s just focus on getting communications back, okay?”
“…yeah.”