The Defiant
Chapter Forty Two

“It’s ready, but I’m not sure what it’ll do to the ship,” Four said, holding a programmable chip in her hand.

“What do you mean? Won’t it make it so we don’t need Five’s commands to run the ship?” Three asked.

“It’s essentially a virus, targeting the computer’s authorized access subroutines. It will allow us to command the ship, yes, but it might do irreparable damage. It could make it so the computer no longer accepts verbal commands, or it could give them to one person at random, or it could simply unlock verbal commands, meaning that anyone on the ship could change the course whenever they want to.”

“Isn’t that a good thing? Then we can all make commands,” Seven said.

“Including Eight and Five.”

“Oh. Yeah, that’s probably not good.”

“Can’t you make it more specific, so it returns control to One?” Two asked.

“These are delicate systems. They’re not meant to be hacked around. This is the best I can do, which is why it’s a last resort,” Four responded.

“We have to use it. Five won’t cooperate, and Eight definitely won’t,” Six said, glancing carefully at me like I was a bomb he was scared of detonating. “So there’s no other way to get control of the ship.”

Four looked to me.

“He’s right. We have to do it.”

Four shrugged, like, it’s your funeral, and plugged the chip in at the back computer console and started typing away.

An error message popped up on the screen, flashing red.

“Uh, Four, is that normal?” I asked.

“It’s fine. It’s working.”

The error message disappeared.

“Okay. Let’s test it. One, try making a command.”

“Computer, take us to Sorhna.”

The computer beeped. “Query denied. Coordinates necessary.”

“Hold on,” Four said, heading up front to the pilot’s console and strapping herself in. She entered the course.

“Now try.”

“Computer, follow new course.”

It beeped in confirmation, and the engines started up below. We all sighed in relief, glad to finally be moving again.

“Well, we know it works for One, which means Eight can do the same thing she did before and imitate her voice. We’ll have to keep her gagged,” Four said, standing up from the console. She did her best to sound business-like as always, but I could tell she was proud her hack had worked.

“We can’t keep her bound and gagged for the rest of the trip,” Seven protested. “What if we just disable the audio receptors in her room?”

“That’s actually… pretty brilliant,” Four said, considering. Seven blushed.

“And Eight’s still restrained from her talk with One, so you can just go ahead in and disable them now,” Two said.

“Oh, I don’t have to go in there. I can just shut off the computer’s access to that room…” Four’s voice trailed off, and she shouldered her way to the computer console.

I pushed the others gently toward the lift. “She’s thinking,” I whispered. “Let’s not disturb her.”

It was cold, and rain fell from the sky, drenching me. My teeth chattered as I stumbled around, trying to replace my way home. My feet were bare, and numb from cold, but still managed to feel painful pricks, like I was walking on a carpet of broken glass.

A laugh came from behind me, loud and crazed, echoing around me. I began to run, slipping on the wet ground and falling face-first onto the glass. Rivulets of blood ran down my face as I scrambled to my feet as I broke into a run again.

I found myself in an abandoned ruin, stone walls crumbling around me. The roof had fallen in long ago, and the rain sluiced in, soaking the stone beneath my feet so every step was treacherous. The laughter behind me grew louder, but no matter how hard I ran, I couldn’t budge from the center of the ruin.

A figure cloaked in black approached, drifting up to me like he took no steps. Stopping a few feet from me, he drew back his hood, revealing Five’s face. As I watched, it grew gaunter, the skin drawing back, the face growing thinner until I was faced with a grinning skull. I screamed.

“It’s all your fault,” Five’s skeleton whispered, fading to nothing as a crowd of thousands of people crowded around the ruins, pacing around the outside like spectators at a show. They cried for help, bleeding and bruised.

I tried to run to them, but no matter how hard I ran, I couldn’t move. The people’s cries turned to screams of hatred. They assaulted me with their words as they dropped, succumbing to their wounds. A lake of blood lapped up into the ruins, soaking my feet and steadily rising higher and higher until it closed over my head.

I awoke with a start, covered in a cold sweat.

Unable to stand being immobile even a second longer, I went for a walk, pacing the length of the ship several times. My mind raced.

Was all of this really my fault? Maybe if I’d tried harder to get to know Eight, she might not have tried to take over the ship…

But I remembered the hatred in her eyes when she’d told me her story, and I knew there was probably nothing I could have done to change her mind after all those years of prejudice.

So why was I still feeling so guilty?

I sought refuge in Seven’s garden. The automatic lighting had fallen to simulate night, a relaxing contrast to the hall lights, which were always on, regardless of the time. Humans weren’t meant to spend this much time in space, or at least I wasn’t. I needed a sky over me, a ground beneath my feet, fresh air on my skin.

I leaned against the back wall of the garden, listening to the slight thrum of the engines below my feet.

“One?” A confused voice roused me a while later from the half-sleep I’d drifted into.

I blinked blearily, looking around. “Seven?”

“Yeah, it’s me. What’re you doing here?” Seven came into the garden, wearing a baby blue nightdress she must have bought on one of our stops.

“Couldn’t sleep. You?”

“Same thing. I come down here to relax sometimes. Let me guess, you’re thinking about what Eight said?”

“Am I so obvious?” I said with a sigh as Seven sat down beside me against the wall.

“Well, after the things she said to you, I would be kind of surprised if you weren’t still thinking about it.”

“See, I know that what you said earlier is right, but I can’t help but blame myself. I keep thinking that if I did something differently, I could have changed the outcome.”

“Yeah, that’s probably true. You could have something different. But you can’t do anything to change it now, so you have to let it go.”

“I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. You just think you can’t because you’re a Hero.”

“Excuse me?”

“A Hero. There are two types of people in the world, One, Heroes and Sidekicks. Heroes have great potential to help people, but they cut themselves up about everything they do, and they become so unhappy they stop doing good. That’s why they need Sidekicks.” She took my hand. “We help them realize that the first person who needs to be rescued is themself.”

“You’re not a Sidekick, Seven. You’ll never be a Sidekick. You’re a quiet Hero, the kind of person that no one realizes how much they need until they’re gone. You save people without even noticing it.”

“That’s nice, but—”

“No, I promise, Seven, you’re the best person on this crew. You’re so selfless and great. If everyone were like you, the world would have a lot less conflict.”

She smiled a bit. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get some sleep.” I squeezed her hand and stood up to go back to my quarters, where I fell asleep right away.