The door to Bay 1B slides silently open, and Kady Grant’s knees nearly give in relief.
Evans starts the two-minute stomp back to Bay 1B, where that telltale open door is waiting.
Grant scrambles into the shuttle nearest the launching ramp and jacks into the engines. As they rumble to life, she coaxes the door closed behind her.
Evans turns a corner, now one minute and thirty seconds from Bay 1B.
[Surveillance footage now taken from interior cam of Shuttle 49A, in addition to exterior hangar bay and corridors.]
Grant accesses the autopilot list, scrolling through recent trips to select her route. She’s nearly hyperventilating as she finds it, and jabs at the screen to select.
Evans is sixty seconds from Bay 1B.
Grant turns her attention to opening the shuttle bay doors. Boll ordered a master override on all hangars and landing bays, in anticipation of more Alexander refugees, but the captain only has students working for her now, and they’ve done it the complicated, backwards way that takes forever to unpick. Now it’s Grant’s turn to issue a non-regulation curse, and she starts working through the sub-directories.
Evans arrives at the entrance to Bay 1B, clutching a hand radio unit. Which she starts screaming into as she spots the open door and the shuttle engines on warmup.
Security Squads 4 (ETA 60 seconds) and 5 (ETA 75 seconds) receive the call, and start running like motherfuckers (I believe the correct term is “proceed with all due haste”) toward Bay 1B.
Evans relays an emergency message to the bridge, alerting Captain Boll.
Neurogramming Student Michelle Dennis attempts to shut down the engines of Shuttle 49A remotely, on orders from Captain Boll. No dice.
Boll attempts to hail Shuttle 49A directly. No response.
Security Squad 4 arrives on scene in time to see the airlock doors closing.
Inside the shuttle, Grant isn’t shaking or hyperventilating anymore. She’s rock still, save for her hands, dragging across the multiple keyboards before her like a concert pianist, swiping at the touchscreens with quick, efficient gestures. She might not be the best there is, but today she’s the best the Hypatia has, and that’s all that counts.
The launch bay doors open, revealing the black beyond.
Security Squad 5 arrives on the scene to join the others in studying the closed door.
Shuttle 49A engages autopilot and departs, watched by two security squads and Security Officer (2nd Class) Evans via the observation screens.
Grant rises from the pilot’s seat and picks up the infirmary bag, pulling out a green biohazard suit. Her hands are shaking so hard she drops it twice before getting a leg in.
No blown kiss this time. No strut. But this victory matters a thousand times more.
CURRENT DEATH TOLL ABOARD BATTLECARRIER ALEXANDER SINCE ATTACK AT KERENZA:
853
PERCENTAGE OF REMAINING BATTLECARRIER ALEXANDER PERSONNEL AFFLICTED BY PHOBOS VIRUS:
22%
RADIO MESSAGE: HYPATIA INITIATED—HYPATIA/SHUTTLE 49A
Participants: Syra Boll, Captain (Acting)
Kady Grant (Shuttle 49A)
Date: 07/30/75
Timestamp: 17:45
HYPATIA: Shuttle 49A, you will respond to hails in the next ten seconds or we will open fire on you.
SHUTTLE 49A: Wow, Captain, you’re grumpy today.
HYPATIA: Who the hell is this?
SHUTTLE 49A: Three guesses.
HYPATIA: Goddammit, Grant.
SHUTTLE 49A: Wow, that was quick.
HYPATIA: The security footage just came through.
SHUTTLE 49A: You remembered me. Awww.
HYPATIA: You’re to return to the Hypatia and surrender yourself to security immediately.
SHUTTLE 49A: Or what?
SHUTTLE 49A: You’ll bring me back yourself, and flush me out an airlock?
SHUTTLE 49A: Can the bridge hear this? Don’t sniff, guys, don’t cough. Don’t shake. Don’t look scared, no matter how scared you know you should be. That’s dangerous.
HYPATIA: Grant!
SHUTTLE 49A: They could hear me, couldn’t they?
SHUTTLE 49A: You should know better than to be holding open mic night at a time like this, Captain.
HYPATIA: Grant, what are you doing?
SHUTTLE 49A: Saving lives.
SHUTTLE 49A: If I make it back, will you let me wait in quarantine?
SHUTTLE 49A: Or will you fire me out an airlock too?
HYPATIA: I refuse to justify myself to you.
SHUTTLE 49A: They trusted you. They came to you. You murdered them. For all you know, that pilot was just scared, he wasn’t sick at all. You didn’t even wait to find out.
HYPATIA: I have a responsibility you can’t even begin to imagine.
SHUTTLE 49A: I hope that helps you sleep at night.
HYPATIA: Don’t lecture me, you selfish little brat. We won’t wait for you. If there’s a chance to get away from AIDAN—
SHUTTLE 49A: Selfish?
SHUTTLE 49A: The only life I’m risking here is my own, Captain. I could have shut down your engines. Left you drifting in the black so you’d have no choice but to wait for me.
SHUTTLE 49A: I could’ve blackmailed you. Made you buy your own life by saving the one I care about.
SHUTTLE 49A: But I didn’t. I won’t.
HYPATIA: And why not?
SHUTTLE 49A: Because that’d make me just like you.
HYPATIA: If you come back now, Grant, we’ll let you on board.
SHUTTLE 49A: And you might be able to live with that, Captain.
SHUTTLE 49A: I couldn’t.
SHUTTLE 49A: Kady Grant out.
She is here.
Her shuttle soars through the wound in my hangar bay—blasted by the pilots who fled into Hypatia’s arms. Now floating silent in the void. Frozen to their cores.