Page 82 of Mutant Mine

“He was our bunkmate,” Rory murmurs to me. “Shared a room with me, Tommy, and Ellis.”

Ah. Now I understand. There was so much chaos and confusion on that night, when I gained my freedom and Rorylost hers. It is easy for me to forget that she lost more than that, too.

Without thinking, I move closer, take her free hand in mine, and squeeze it comfortingly. She holds my gaze, squeezing back.

When we both look away, we find the crew in all three cells staring at us silently.

“Huh,” says one of the men.

Rory flushes crimson. I tense, ready for conflict — will they, like the prisoners, assume that I have hurt her?

But if anything, they seem relieved.

“I’m into it,” shrugs the one called Ellis. “I guess you’re less likely to kill us if we’re an elaborate gift for your boyfriend.”

“His girlfriend, actually,” mumbles Rory, looking as if she wishes she could disappear into the ground.

Startled again, the men all look back at her, their eyes traveling up and down her body as if for the first time. Her hair has softened out of its close crop, and her breasts are no longer bound.

“Well, shit,” says Ellis. “That explains some stuff.”

“How did you even get on board?” gapes Tommy, looking equal parts hurt and admiring. “You could have told uth!”

And that is the extent of their reaction. I suppose that, in the midst of a life or death situation, what Rory keeps in her jumpsuit does not seem terribly important to anybody.

“Okay,” says Reginald. “That’s enough gossip. Get us the hell out of here.”

“I will go and lower the force fields,” I say, excusing myself.

“Wait,” Rory says, “The computer will need you to give it a reason before it deactivates them. Tell it there’s a medical emergency.”

I nod.

“Oh,” she blurts, “And mute it before you do anythingelse!”

As I walk away, I hear some whispers rise up behind me. I suspect that it is not a bad thing to give Rory a moment alone with her colleagues. She will be able to reassure them better without me breathing down their necks.

At the top of the corridor, I approach the control panel. I swipe to enable fully manual controls, muting its voice, and then proceed.

PLEASE SCAN A VALID CREW ID CARD.The text appears scrolling across the screen, without any sound. Good.

I scan the ID. The computer accepts it without query. When it prompts me to record a reason for lowering the force field on three cells, I enter ‘Medical emergency’, as Rory advised.

The computer accepts. And down the corridor, the force fields blink out of existence.

Inside the cells, Rory is helping the weak, wounded men to their feet. Once they are all past the force fields, I hand them each a stun-gun.

“I hope it does not come to needing them, but I would feel better if you had them,” I say.

I do feel better — but not much. Although they were trained to use these simple weapons, they must have assumed that the ship’s barriers and force fields would prevent them from ever actually having to fight. I am not sure any of them has ever been in a combat situation, except the night of the breakout. Evidently that did not go well for them, since they ended up in the cells.

Nevertheless, they each take a gun. At last, with the more able-bodied among us propping up those who are frailer, we begin walking away from the maximum security cells for the last time.

As we make our way up the corridor, I remember whenRory first appeared before me. Swamped in her too-big uniform, she made a fearsome guard indeed — as if I could not have killed her in seconds were it not for the force field between us.

She knew it as well as I did. Her eyes were so wide as she blinked up at me, her lips parted on a gasp. I thought, at the time, that it was fear on her face. Repulsion. But she says now that I was wrong. That is not what she was thinking at all.

Even if she was drawn to me, she was afraid, too. I know that to be true. The two feelings were swirled together: an intoxicating cocktail. I could smell it on the air. She stood in the darkness before me, afraid, but so brave — such a fragile, fierce, lovely thing.

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