Eternity's Wheel (InterWorld 3)

“You don’t understand,” Joeb began, but Avery shook his head.

“Like hell I don’t. I know exactly what she’s asking you to do, and I’m telling you, it’s not a bad idea.”

“You’re insane!” I shouted, getting back to my feet. “You want me to use her like HEX does, then? Boil her down to nothing, keep her in jar? We don’t have a cryochamber here to freeze her like Binary does, but I’m sure we can build one! Hell, we’ll install it next to the showers, put it to everyday use!”

“Joey,” Joeb murmured, but I ignored him.

“I won’t use one of my own like that, no matter what TimeWatch says.”

I expected Avery to get mad, but he just calmly put away his sword, little flashes of electricity sparking blue as it slid into the metal sheath. “This is not a directive from TimeWatch.”

“Even if it was, TimeWatch can kiss my—”

“Joey!” Joeb was looking at me seriously, arms folded across his chest. He raised an eyebrow, glancing back down to Josephine, who was breathing shallowly, gaze fixed on us.

Everyone else was watching me, too, Jo with her white wings folded around herself in comfort, Josef with tears on his face. Jakon’s furry ears were cocked back uncertainly, her expression sad. I turned my back on all of them, glaring at Joeb.

“I won’t,” I said.

“I would,” said Jo, from behind me. “If I had a choice. If I was dying, and I could be part of InterWorld forever . . . I would.”

“So would I,” Josef rumbled.

“I’d donate my circuits and power core,” J/O admitted. “I wouldn’t be using them, and I’d give anything to keep InterWorld up and running.”

More voices spoke up from around me, adding their general agreement. Not everyone spoke up, but no one said they disagreed. Not one of them.

“You have mere minutes, Harker,” Avery said, though he was looking at Josephine rather than me. “The HEX witch will find her way here unless you act.”

“Wouldn’t . . . wouldn’t binding her to the ship keep that link?” I asked, grasping desperately at straws. “Wouldn’t Lady Indigo be able to track us, then?”

“I can break the link,” Avery said.

“Then why don’t you? Just—”

“Because breaking it will kill her,” he snapped. “And despite what you think of me, I am unwilling to do so without her permission.”

The room was holding its breath. Everyone was watching me as I stood there in silence, staring at the floor. I had no idea why, but I suddenly remembered when I’d first come to InterWorld with Jay’s body. I’d woken up in the infirmary and seen Jay’s funeral from the window, and after that the Old Man had come in to see me. He’d talked to me about InterWorld and our purpose and our enemies and our duties. He’d talked about our oath and our values and he’d told me when my classes started, but that wasn’t what I found myself remembering. It was when I’d asked if he blamed me for

Jay’s death.

Yes, he’d said. Of course I do.

“J/O,” I said, and the cyborg version of me looked up. “Can one of the PLSS units in the infirmary be modified to hook up to a transducer?”

“I think so,” he said.

“Figure it out, fast. Josef, go get one and bring it to the engine room.” I didn’t even have to look to know the huge version of me was doing as told. I could feel his footsteps thump, thump, thump down the hall as he left, like a heartbeat.

Josephine looked up at me from where she was propped up weakly against the wall. “I want to do this,” she whispered.

Joeb and Avery walked behind me as I carried Josephine down the hall to the engine room, ignoring the pain in my injured shoulder. I could hear everyone else following, the footsteps of thirty or so of me echoing in the dead ship.

I don’t remember much from the moment the decision was made to when I saw Josef bring in the PLSS—one of the portable life support systems we kept in the infirmary. I know at some point I’d sent a few others to get a cot, which was what Josephine was currently laid out upon next to the machines. She was paler than we usually were, her freckles standing out starkly against her skin. I imagined I was beginning to see the bones beneath, like Lady Indigo’s translucent skin. She was sweating and she kept telling us to hurry up so we could get this over with.

Once we’d gotten her set up on the cot, Avery had knelt next to her. He hadn’t moved since, and she was smiling faintly as they spoke in low tones. He was holding her hand. It seemed odd—hadn’t they just met?—but I had other things to worry about right now.

“That should do it,” J/O said, his voice subdued as he stepped back from the machinery. “The PLSS is hooked up to the solar power grid, so it’ll run. Theoretically, if she . . . when she . . .”