Spectator

Chapter Thirty-two: Then

"Where's Harriet?" Lee asked as Kali all but fell through the hatch door. He glanced up once, twice, as if waiting for the girl follow through closely, but all that dropped through the aperture was synthetic snow.

"I have to check the ground floor," Kali muttered, unable to answer, not directly. "She fell."

Lee didn't speak, but his eyes flashed with understanding. Simulation or not, the height was real. The consequences would be real. She had to know for sure. Maybe Harriet managed to find purchase over the edge. Maybe she was still holding on, or at least found some ways to slow her fall. On a narrow tower.

She made it to the hangar bay just as it was opening, and her beating heart pulsed with cruel relief. Not Harriet, but—

"Jae. You made it."

"Did you think I wouldn't?" He flashed a smile at her, more forced than usual. He dismounted from the rover and moved behind to the roll of clothes Kali dimly recognized as a person. Laura. She wasn't moving much but she was breathing, and Jae spoke softly to her as he helped her off the vehicle. "Help her upstairs, into the sleeping quarters, and have Archie turn up the heat there until she melts. She's a might cold."

"Where are you going?" Kali asked as he sat back down on the rover. "The storm is getting worse—"

As Jae would well know, but she couldn't resist trying to tell him that. To risk himself again, after he just walked in in one piece. It was painful. But he merely shrugged.

"I won't be far. We found Harriet's body outside. I'm going to bring her in."

Kali's heart plummeted. "And she wasn't still—"

"Not with that broken neck," Jae sighed. Kali felt wretched.

"She went up with me to fix the satellite, and she slipped. It's my fault."

"Kali," Jae said, holding out a hand. "There's plenty of blame to go around. Don't be greedy with it. I think we all know whose fault it is."

His gaze flickered briefly up. The overseers, Kali thought.

"They'll probably.... Remove the body soon," she said, feeling clumsy.

"Probably," Jae agreed. "But I'm not going to let her freeze while she waits."

By the time Laura was settled and given some medication to counteract her symptoms, Jae was coming back up to the command center. Kali didn't know where he had put Harriet, and she didn't ask, instead returning to her station.

"Alright," Jae said. "Give it to me. How bad is it out there?"

Bad.

The research center was having massive power fluctuations, and the main compound was struggling with an initiated lockdown. Kali's blood flushed like ice. It was possible it was due to the storm, but more likely it was one of the traitors. But they still didn't have any ideas who they were—and whether or not there was one on the communications tower too. It would have been too easy otherwise. Kali could only hope that it was Harriet, but it didn't seem likely, not with the lengths she had gone to to get the satellite back online. To save Jae. But they had an extra person now, with Laura being successfully rescued. Or rather, back to seven.

If the research center was going to ask for her back, Jae said he would refuse; if they didn't get their power back in order, they'd probably have an exodus of their own. There were limited amounts of rovers, too, and Alrich's still wouldn't navigate properly. He was sent to try a shift of sleep while Lee was set to work on it. It felt eerily calm for the next couple hours after everything that had happened already. Communication was off and on, but they suspected it was more from the other sides than their own. Kali kept an eye on the consoles, but she couldn't stop thinking about Harriet. Jae must have noticed; she was sent for a sleep shift next, though her eyes closed for barely a second before she was back up again.