Starhold Vesta

Chapter 4.3

Mid sleep cycle, I wake Nuna with a kiss.

"Where are you going?" She asks, her arm falling off my shoulder as I rise from our bed.

"Can't sleep. I'm going to take a walk. "

"Don't stay up all night." She turns on her other side and pretends to doze. While her slow breathing fills the cabin, I can tell she's awake. I hear her heart's steady thump I shove my boots on. She's tracking my movement, watching the dark outline of my body navigate our space as I prepare to slip away for a few minutes. I make a show of avoiding the emergency duffle bag in the corner of the room.

"I'll be back in a little bit," I say.

Slinking through the halls in the sleek exercise pants and shirt that cling to my fuller curves, I arrive at the hangar that holds my personal getaway vehicle.

FOOT, the hangar signage reads at the door. The ridiculous name of my broken segment of ARC10 makes me smile. Moon called my ship an appendage enough times to make it stick.

Speaking of the devil, I tap my code into the lockbox and turn around.

"Don't follow me, Moon," I say to the empty passageway where I know he's lurking, listening for my movement. "I need to clear my head without you."

The door shuts behind me as soon as John tik tik tiks his way through the opening. The hangar ignites as I set in, the lights blinking on to showcase my ugly, blackened ship with the number of pustules oozing orange slime increasing each time I visit. It smells burnt. The air around it buzzes with magnetism, drawing atmosphere to it like the ship itself was breathing. As I approach, I pass Ledi's lifeless body piled in the corner and stand before the heap of silver limbs. My hands rest on my hips as I scowl at the parts.

Looking at the blank slate of his body, I itch. The burning inside me bubbles again, flames licking the underside of my too-cool skin. I've let this fester long enough and I need to get it out now. I need release.

I stoop to grab his limp wrists and drag his heavy metal carcass to the Foot.

A blinking blue light activates in his left eye. As I struggle to hoist him up the ramp, his mechanical head tilts to gaze at me.

"What are you doing, Lorn?"

"I need you."

"You promised me you wouldn't do this again."

I grunt as I strain against his weight. "I can't. Do this. Without you."

"This is not a healthy pastime. All of my data and research into the Earthen psyche has referenced this as destructive behavior. Did you know that, Lorn?"

"Does it look like I care?"

"Do you need medical assistance?"

I let go. He slides back down the ramp. "Listen, I don't need a psych eval from you right now. But, I need you, Ledi. Can you just... just please? One more time?"

His blue, digital eye blinks. "I am programmed to do as you command."

I hate this part. "Ledi. Get in the ship. Please."

His robotic body rises, building itself up from his feet to his slick metal dome of a head. "Shall I change now?"

"Go for it," I say.

Before my eyes, his metal structure glows and shifts one pixel at a time. He builds himself into a form I know so well.

The perfect memory of Dean's hazel scrutiny meets me at the bottom of the ramp. "Let's go."