Read Online Legacy Code by Autumn Kalquist - Free Book Online

exhaled and leaned against the wall. Sublevel workers calling traitors martyrs? She’d never even heard of this. It was the kind of talk that could get someone airlocked. That had .
    What else did his crew members say that Dritan hadn’t shared? Did he say these things, too? Era opened her mouth to ask, but Dritan held up a hand.
    “My crew. Or, what’s left of my crew,” he said. “We got transfer orders today.”
    Era’s pulse quickened at the anguish in his voice.
    “They’re sending us down to Soren.”

 
    Soren.
    The word sucked the air from the cubic, left Era struggling to breathe.
    “It’s only one solar cycle,” Dritan said.
    Era placed a hand over her stomach. “This is a mistake. The Paragon ’s exempt from the draft.”
    “Not anymore,” he said. “They’re sending three crews down.”
    “When?”
    “I have to be at the hangar bay tomorrow. First shift.”
    Less than nine hours. “You can’t go. I’ll talk to Zephyr, have her—”
    “No,” he said. “It wasn’t right for us to be exempt in the first place.”
    “They’re just doing this to punish you for what those traitors did.”
    “The workers on the London did their duty. It’s my turn.”
    Something broke inside Era, and she jumped off the bunk, tears brimming in her eyes. Her lower abdomen ached in response to her quick movement, and she gritted her teeth. “By ‘workers,’ you mean sublevel workers. You think the president would ever send Tesmee down there? You mean nothing to them. You’re expendable, just a body to use up in the mines. I’m starting to understand why Sam felt like he needed to do what he did.”
    “Dammit, Era. Don’t say that kak.”
    “Zephyr said they’re not even working on the jumpgate anymore. She thinks they’re expanding the subcity. That we’re never leaving here.” Era lowered her voice. “I didn’t believe her.”
    Dritan crossed his arms and gave a slight shake of his head.
    Era picked up her boots and hurled them at the door. “Fuck.” They hit with a loud thunk and dropped to the tiles.
    She sank to the floor and held her hand to her mouth. Hot tears spilled down her cheeks, and she tasted their salty warmth on her lips.
    Dritan knelt in front of her, placing his hands on her shoulders. “I’m going to come back to you.”
    Era sniffed. “I bet everyone says that.”
    “But I mean it. I will come back. I’m doing my job, and I’ll be here with you when…” he placed his hand over the curve of her belly. “I promise. I’m coming back.”
    Era stared into his hazel eyes and forced her jaw to loosen. “How can you promise something like that? Did your parents tell you that, too, before they went out on hull duty?”
    Dritan recoiled from her, his face creased with pain.
    Era placed her hands on either side of her and dug her fingernails into the spongy, gritty surface of the rubber tiles. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
    Dritan got to his feet and returned to the bunk. He sat there, shoulders hunched, and stared straight ahead. “You knew my job when you decided to pair with me. I’ll never be a tech or a member of the guard. This is what I was born into—what I’ve been trained to do.”
    Era had promised herself she’d never shame him, and now she had. She stumbled to her feet and went to him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I just…I’m scared. But you’re right. You’ll come back. Of course you will.”
    When Dritan looked at her, his eyes had tears in them. He took her by the arms and pulled her onto the bunk.
    They laid together, the pain between them a living thing, pulsing in the silence. He stroked her hair, and she pressed her ear to the coarse fabric of his suit, listening to the reassuring thump of his heart.
    A dull ache throbbed in her chest, a certainty that nothing would ever be right again. If she could do it over, make different choices, she never would’ve asked Zephyr to get them a term here. Things had been simpler on the