Aaron turned to her and took her hands, looked into her eyes. “I love you, Em,” he whispered, then leaned in and kissed her.
Stunned, she tried to process what was happening. Caph and Ford suddenly flanked her, their hands resting on her arms.
Aaron met her eyes. “I will always love you, babe. You take care of these two guys for me, okay? Promise? Keep them out of trouble?” She nodded, numb. Surely he wasn’t saying what she thought he was saying?
He released her hands and kissed Ford, whispered something to him. Ford nodded and whispered something back, tears in his eyes.
Then Aaron kissed Caph and whispered something in his ear. He looked at Aaron and finally nodded, his face sad. Aaron quickly stepped away from them. Before Emi could stop him, Ford and Caph grabbed her arms and held her.
Realizing what was happening, she screamed, “No! Aaron, you can’t do this!”
He turned and smiled, but it was full of sadness and regret. “It’s okay, Em,” he said softly.
“No, it’s not¯”
“Emi, please,” Caph pleaded in her ear. “Don’t make this any harder on him than it already is.”
She crumpled in their arms, sobbing as Aaron walked away from them, heading toward the curtain and disappearing behind it.
“It’ll kill him,” she whispered in a tortured voice. “He’s volunteered. The chip will go off and kill him if the alien doesn’t.”
“He’s our captain,” Ford said, his voice thick with emotion. “He’s given us his order. I know it sucks, but no matter what, the bottom line is he’s our captain first.”
“We’ve got to save him,” she begged.
“Emi, we can’t, sweetheart. One of us has to stay behind, and we will not sacrifice you. He’s ordered us to go. I hate it as much as you do, but he’s given us his orders.” Tears ran down Ford’s cheeks, and she knew how final this was, no chance to go back and change anything.
No chance to tell Aaron one more time she loved him.
She cried, her heart breaking. She wanted to stay¯she couldn’t stand the thought of losing any of her men. She’d gladly stay and die if it meant they would live.
Ford and Caph forced her from the room, half-carrying, half-dragging her as she screamed and struggled against them to get to Aaron. A low tone sounded as they reached the doorway. They all looked up as an intercom cut on.
“Simulation complete,” a soft female voice spoke.
They froze. Ford started to say, “What the fu¯” There was sudden, deafening silence, followed by a moment of blackness. Then a light invaded Emi’s eyes and she realized she was laying down, the technician from the New Phoenix DSMC brain scan center bent over her.
“Dr. Hypatia?” He looked at someone. “She’s awake.” A male voice from somewhere else said, “They all are.” Confused, Emi struggled to sit up, wobbled, disoriented, and the technician helped steady her.
“It’s okay, Doctor. That feeling will go away in a few minutes as the sedative wears off.”
Emi looked around and realized she was dressed exactly as she’d been the day she first went for the interview at the DSMC. “What’s going on? Where am I? Where’s Aaron? Where’s the twins?” She wiped at her face and realized she’d been crying.
“The simulation is over.” Dr. Graymard walked into her field of vision. “I’m sorry, Emi, but this was necessary. We can’t throw you into space together for five years without seeing how you would handle realistic situations. I apologize for the deception, but the initial simulations are always more accurate if the subjects aren’t told about it up front.”
“They weren’t real?” Part of her was slowly starting to accept that Aaron wouldn’t die, but part of her was already grieving for her boys, her new family. Her friends, her lovers.
Her crew.
“Oh, they were real. They were in the simulation with you.” Grief quickly swung over to anger. “They were using me?”
“No!” Graymard quickly said. “They didn’t know it was a simulation either. The other two crews you met at first you really did meet—they were all tied in. As you rejected them, they were pulled from the simulation and their experience altered so they thought they really met and were rejected by you. That way, the next time they’re scanned they won’t know it was a simulation. The next step is real-life training with your crew to ensure compatibility. We can’t let subjects know it’s a simulation ahead of time or it might invalidate the results. It’s okay for training, but for the initial scans it has to be a surprise.”
“How long have I been here?” She remembered much of what happened, but it was swirling, starting to lose clarity, like a vivid dream flowing away at dawn.
Dr. Graymard looked at his watch. “Barely two hours. That’s why your sense of time in the simulation frequently seemed skewed, as were your senses of taste and smell, and why you rarely felt pain. We obviously had to speed it up to get through as much as possible.
Congratulations, you made it much further than any crew has ever made it. Successfully, I might add. Most of the time we have to stop the simulation earlier.”
Emi stood, the strength returning to her legs. She heard familiar voices from across the room and turned to look. Aaron, Caph, and Ford were sitting up in their scanner beds, looking as confused and stunned as she felt.
Unable to help it, she screamed when she saw them. She stumbled over to them and fell into Aaron’s arms, sobbing tears of relief as he held her, nearly crushing her in his desperate embrace.
“It’s okay, Em,” he hoarsely whispered, stroking her hair. “I’m okay, babe.”
Caph and Ford also put their arms around them. “Dude, that was rough,” Ford said.
Aaron glared at him. “No shit. You’re telling me?” Emi sat back and looked at him, touching him to ensure he was really there and okay. The others, too. “It didn’t happen. None of it happened,” she said, awe-struck.
Graymard had followed her. “No, but you were all in the simulation together, went through it together. As far as we can tell, you’ll be a perfectly matched¯”
He couldn’t continue, because Emi launched herself at him, screaming, decking him. “You son of a bitch! I thought he was going to die!”
The men pulled her back, Aaron catching her around the waist and dragging her into his lap. “Hey honey, try thinking you were the one gonna die.” He turned her to face him and kissed her, and that last little bit of what was missing slammed home. He smelled like oranges and cinnamon and tasted like apple cider.
Sobbing with relief, she pulled him close again as they formed their group hug. Their bodies pressed firmly against her, enveloping her with their warmth.
Graymard laughed and rubbed his jaw. “Well, Emi. Do you want to sign with this crew?”
She looked into Aaron’s deep brown eyes and smiled. “Damn fucking straight I do. These are my boys.”
“That’s my girl,” Aaron whispered, kissing her again.
“Hey, what about us?” Ford playfully griped.
She turned to him and laughed. “Give me some sugar, baby.” He kissed her, long and sweet, and she felt the familiar thrill run through her. He smelled faintly of cologne, a warm, musky scent she absolutely adored.
“Ahem.” Caph smiled, and she fell against him.
“There’s my buddy.”
“Thought you’d forgot me.”
“Never.” His kiss was even better in real life, tantalizingly seductive and lighting fires inside her. He had a natural, almost sweet scent, and his kiss reminded her of their afternoon spent alone making love by the small stream.
Something that hadn’t happened in real life, but she felt was a part of her memory.