When she finally stopped crying she remained where she was, holding him tight and breathing heavily against him. “Sorry,” she said, “I know that was a lot to lay on you.”
“It’s fine,” he reassured her, despite his extremely tenuous grasp on everything she’d sobbed out. It had been something about her mother, her job, and pirates, but Darragh was far from clear on any of it. “I’ve got you.”
She relaxed against him. “I’m tired.”
That game as no surprise at all, given that she’d barely slept since they’d raided the false mausoleum, but Darragh understood that she meant more that simple weariness. Life had left her exhausted in all the ways that really mattered.
“You can sleep here if you want,” he suggested.
“Okay,” she agreed, nodding gently against his chest. “You’ll stay with me?”
“I’ll stay with you,” he promised, and laid back down on the bed with Keffa snuggled in to his side. Not exactly how he’d have wanted the situation to arise, but maybe it was the only real way forward. Even when flirting, Keffa had always kept him at arms-length, remaining emotionally isolated no matter what they’d been through. Now he realised that there was never any chance of success while nothing changed.
He remained awake while she closed her eyes, listening to her breathe and, after some time, begin to softly snore. This right now, he thought to himself, was okay.
The beep of the shipwide comms made him hiss through his teeth, but it made no difference to Keffa. She was too deeply asleep to be roused by that alone.
Darragh hit the button from where he lay, turning the volume down with a swipe of his hand before he answered. “What!?”
“We’ve arrived,” Askit replied without apology. “You should both get up here.”
He was terse, as usual, but there was an obvious urgency that implied something was wrong.
“Is something about to kill us?” Darragh asked.
“Not yet,” Askit replied. “But I would still prefer for you both to be here.”
Maybe it was something that Keffa would need to know about, but for the moment she needed sleep more. Darragh extracted himself gently from her grasp. “I’m on my way. Alone.”
He didn’t explain the situation, but the words had carried a lot of meaning. Having spent enough time around humans to understand, Askit did not force the matter, and simply waited for Darragh to appear on the command deck before he continued their conversation.
“What’s wrong this time?” Darragh asked impatiently; he didn’t like the idea of Keffa waking up to find him missing after promising to stay with her.
“It’s too quiet,” Askit replied, gesturing to the console before Darragh could misunderstand. “There should be network traffic.”
Darragh was at the console in an instant, checking over the sensor readings. It was exactly like being alone in the depths of space—nothing like what should be found around a mature colony world. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have thought the planet was still unsettled, and the spacecraft simple debris. If he hadn’t known better, he wouldn’t have the slightest idea of what happened here.
“I suppose it’s too much to hope they were slaughtered by the Hunters?” he asked—times were bad when that would have been the better explanation.
“No signs of damage to any of the spacecraft,” Askit replied, having already prepared this answer. He made an unpleasant gurgling noise as he winced. “My virus may have been more effective than we’d thought.”
“Then everyone on this planet…” Darragh began as he joined the dots.
Askit nodded. “Most likely, yes.”
“We should check to be sure,” said Darragh, although he already suspected what they’d find. Without access to technology, civilisation would have collapsed even if the virus had left survivors. “Just in case.”
It was then that Askit said something Darragh had never expected to hear. “We should help them if we can.”
Darragh nodded. They had a working starship, and the means to fix other starships, which was considerably more than they’d had mere days ago. “Let’s go take a look what we’re dealing with. Then we can figure something out.”
“I’ll take us into the atmosphere,” said Askit, turning to his console. “Do you think this warrants Keffa being here?”
Darragh shook his head. “I’d rather she slept. No point in getting her involved in this if we don’t have to.”
Meaning that if everyone was dead, they would just salvage what they could and head straight back to the Ark. Despite its general lack of connectivity to the galactic network, there was a chance the Ark had also fallen victim.
“Askit,” Darragh began as they made their final approach towards the largest settlement, “I’m sure you’ve already thought of this, but if your virus made its way here…”
“Then it probably made its way everywhere else,” Askit bleakly finished the thought. “There’s no way to tell how bad things are until we’ve got a working galactic network connection, but it’s very likely it’s gotten absolutely everywhere. I may have entirely killed galactic civilisation with the tap of just one finger.”
“Nearly there,” Darragh said, advising their position. “The city does not look good, but everything isn’t on fire and the sky isn’t snowing ash.”
“Yes, things are improving already,” Askit joked without humour. “Anything better than that?”
Darragh quickly searched the scanner results as they closed the distance. There was no sign of working technology anywhere, and—
“Saw something,” he said, quickly recalibrating the scanners. “Do a flyover.”
Askit complied, putting the ship into a holding pattern around the city until Darragh had answers.
“There might be survivors,” he said. “I’m seeing signs of settlements being set up in the streets, and it doesn’t seem likely they had those before the end of the world.”
Askit was looking at the same data. “You’re right. Any people?”
“Not yet, but—“ Darragh paused, zooming in on the latest settlement. “Found some. I’m forwarding you the coordinates, best take us down just outside their barricades. No need to scare them any more than they already are.”
The relief on Askit’s face was practically tangible, though he switched back to his normal scowl a moment later. “Taking us in. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Darragh replied. He didn’t know how much he’d done, but he wasn’t going to dismiss that phrase when it came from a typically ungrateful Corti. “I’d suggest we don’t tell them who caused their problems to begin with. They might get a bit riled up.”
Askit eyed him in the usual way—full of judgement. “Clearly. They’ll be worried enough with two humans coming to rescue them. You’re not exactly popular right now.”
There was no need to mention the irony there. That the Corti was the most dangerous one was not something the locals would understand unless they were told the truth. Being feared may also give them an edge in any negotiations they put forward. “My only question is: how do we talk to them?”
“I have good news there,” Askit replied. “That Corti soldier had functional implants. I downloaded a copy of… well, everything she had.”
“So our translators will start working again?” Darragh asked, tapping the side of his head.
“Well, my news isn’t quite that good,” Askit explained. “I’d need to connect directly, and neither of us want that. We’ll need to use the usual type.”
This was one bit of bad news that Darragh was totally fine with. “Not a problem, I think I’m about done with implants.”
“Then you’ll need this,” said Askit, handing him a data tablet. “I’ve already set up several of them in case we needed them. They aren’t as good as the purpose-built items, but they’ll do the job.”
Darragh took the data tablet and checked it over. Besides the operating system being somewhat dated, there were no other problems to be seen.
“We’re landing,” said Askit, getting Darragh’s attention. “Looks like we have their attention, because we’ve also drawn a crowd.”
“Alright,” said Darragh, standing to leave. “You stay here, and make sure Keffa is okay. If I don’t come back…”
“I’ll destroy this place with every bit of firepower we have available,” Askit finished with a nod.
“No! Just… get back to the Ark!” said Darragh. “It’s more important that we make sure everyone there is still alive.”
With that he headed towards the exit, and stepped out to find himself surrounded by wary Vzk’tk wielding a variety of sticks and makeshift blades.
“Hello!” he called out, and gave the data tablet a chance to translate. “I come in peace!”
There were a lot of answers—too many for the data tablet to keep up with, so he pointed to the nearest individual. “You… yes, with the head wound! I’m going to need you to do something for me!”
The crowd turned towards the Vzk’tk in question, who glanced around for a moment before realising everyone was looking at him. “Me? What do you want me to do?”
Darragh smiled, glad he was able to repeat the clichéd line. “Take me to your leader.”
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End of Chapter