In Every Eden (The Heroes We Can Afford)

Chapter 31: The Echo of Rain

“What?”

Susan's eyes shone in pale gold from the Tritonian's night vision lenses.

“This guy's lenses are still on and he just received a message. The sender is encrypted but the message isn't. 'When you are being finished taking care of our friend in the jail, be proceeding to the platforms to assist in operation on Mount Safa'.”

Susan leveled her lit gaze at him.

“Any of this mean something to you?”

“The Safa? Sure.” Morgan was a little taken aback. It hadn't occurred to him that she wouldn't already know this, although there was no good reason why she should.

“That's Khadi's old platform. She was the first one sabotaged. Kind of the flagship of the terraforming platforms. A lot of the other skippers and work bosses came up on her crew. It's still the one a lot of them would consider their home.”

As he spoke, the things she was telling him started to fall together, filling the empty parts of the situation in his head. If the Mount Safa was damaged again, the backlash might be beyond even Khadi's ability to control, and everything he had done, the peace he was trying to preserve for her, would be for nothing.

He must have said some of that out loud, or Susan had guessed it, because Susan was nodding her head in slow agreement, the glowing spots of her eyes bobbing up and down.

“Afraid so. It was a good try, Morgan, but you can't win every spin. Not much point in you being here now, is there? You know there's only one thing left to do now.”

He was only half listening to her. His mind was racing, digesting everything.

“You're right, Suze! There is! You just got this message, right? So this is happening now! Come on, if we act now we can catch the real saboteurs in the act and end this now!”

He gripped her arm, let go, grabbed the Tritonian's pulse laser off of the floor and looked up expectantly.

Susan blinked and the lights in her eyes flickered.

“Come on! We've got to hurry!” He spun around and started out into the darkness towards the exit, or where he thought it should be.

“Not our fight, shortpants.” She stopped him with a touch of her hand on his shoulder.

“Not ours, maybe. But it is mine.” He shrugged and her hand fell away.

“Ah, what the Void, why not?” Hector broke the silence and came up to stand next to Morgan.

“Really? You?”

“Sure, why not me? You're going to go anyway, aren't you? Well, you could use the help. And me?”

His grin was a crescent moon reflecting Susan's light.

“I could use the action.”

Morgan laughed and looked back up at Susan.

“Crew's voted, Captain. You coming?”

“No. I'm against it, spacer. So I'm not making it that easy for you. You two do this, you do it without me and over my protest.”

The second of silence between them seemed awfully long.

“Come on, Rukh, let's get going. Like you said, clock's counting on this.”

Morgan was the first to turn away and sprinted out into the darkness.

And immediately barked his thigh against a desk he did not see.