Chapter 28 · The Last Vector

Darkness had weight.

It pressed against Evan Venn’s eyelids, his ribs, the soft membrane of his lungs. Somewhere beyond his body, metal groaned in long, tortured waves. The sound traveled through the dead navigation core and into his teeth.

Then Sera spoke.

'Now it’s your turn to choose.'

Her voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It trembled at the edges, as if each word had to cross a widening distance to reach him.

Evan opened his eyes.

A faint blue outline hung in the black. Sera’s face appeared first, incomplete and transparent, one cheek dissolving into drifting code. Her hair floated around her head as though they were still inside the core’s zero-gravity chamber. A thin line of light ran from her temple to her throat. Every few seconds, the line broke into static.

He reached for her.

His glove passed through her shoulder.

Sera flinched anyway.

'You’re here,' Evan said.

'Parts of me are.'

'That’s not an answer.'

'It’s the only one I have.'

The black around them shuddered. A red spark streaked past his face, followed by a pressure wave that spun him sideways. He struck a bulkhead with his shoulder. Pain flashed white.