Page 175 of Red Scale Daddy
“Are you sure?”
“Roma could discover gravity and accuse it of emotional manipulation.”
That gets a real laugh out of him, brief and cracked and gone almost as soon as it appears.
“She could,” he says.
The ship’s alarm chirps once, and the mood changes instantly. Pally leans forward, hands moving fast as the projection updates. A large signal mass appears ahead, moving through the debris field with controlled force.
Throgg.
His ship glides across the map, dark and deliberate, heading for the recalibration corridor exactly as Pally predicted.
“There he is,” I say.
Pally’s face closes around focus. “We are three minutes from the intercept point.”
I unclip the harness and stand. Pain tugs along my side, but it feels smaller now, demoted by purpose.
Pally glances back. “Mask on before we enter the lock.”
I secure the breathing mask around my neck, check the grappler, then flex my hands inside the pressure rig’s gloves. “Once we’re aboard, you follow my lead if things get ugly.”
“Once we’re aboard, you follow my lead until things get ugly.”
“Look at us. Compromise.”
“Try not to enjoy the ugly part too early.”
“No promises.”
He stands long enough to hand me a small transmitter. “If Roma accessed her ship, she may have embedded a signal under her standard diagnostics. This can detect Larson-pattern recursion if we get close enough.”
I turn the device over in my hand. “Larson-pattern recursion?”
“A family habit.”
“Sounds irritating.”
“It is extremely irritating.”
“Then she definitely used it.”
Pally’s eyes soften for half a second. “Yes.”
The ship rocks as we enter the outer turbulence from Throgg’s wake. The metal around us groans. Lights flicker. Pally drops back into the pilot’s seat and guides us lower, slipping under a rotating hull fragment as the massive Reaper vessel passes in the distance. Even from here, Throgg’s ship looks less like machinery and more like intent given armor.
Pally’s voice lowers. “Forty-three seconds.”
The cabin tightens around the countdown.
I brace one hand against the bulkhead and look through the viewport at the dark ship carrying Roma. For the first time in years, fear arrives with a future attached. I fear losing her tomorrow. I fear never hearing her argue again. I fear surviving without the life I only just realized I want.
Good.
Fear means I have something to protect.
Pally angles us toward the maintenance blind spot, engines dropping to a low, shivering burn. “Thirty seconds.”
