Malcolm settled himself into the seat, pulling the seatbelt across his stomach and chest, and then examined his surroundings. He’d been hoping for something obvious, perhaps a dimmer switch with “POWER” written beside it only turned up halfway. No such luck.
“Alright,” he said. His heart was pounding faster in his chest. What if he pressed the wrong button? He could damage the ship, and put them in even more dangerous circumstances…
“Don’t press anything,” said Tapestry. “Look, maybe… we passed by a manual, or something.”
“Maybe,” said Malcolm. “But I’m guessing the astronauts spent years learning the ins and outs of their roles.”
There was a red button. That was tempting. He let his finger hover over it, considering why a button might be colored red, and what that might imply it would do when pressed.
It probably shoots the lasers.
“Uh…” Malcolm scratched his head. “Hmm. Okay, here we go.”
He settled his finger onto a series of buttons labeled, helpfully, one, two, three, etc.
You wouldn’t need that many buttons labeled in sequence for something that could be potentially dangerous, right?
“I’m going to press one of them,” said Malcolm. “Okay?”
“Why are you asking me?” Malcolm could see Tapestry’s reflection in the observation window. She had her arms crossed, and was chewing on her lower lip.
“I just want to make sure you’re on board,” said Malcolm. “No pun intended.”
Tapestry didn’t say anything. Malcolm took her silence for assent, and pressed his finger down on the first of the labeled buttons. One of the monitors to the right of his chair turned on, but didn’t show anything except a black screen.
“Well, that’s encouraging,” said Malcolm.
Tapestry frowned. “How is that encouraging?”
“We’re still alive,” he said. “Nothing bad happened.”
He pressed the second button. Nothing happened. He pressed third, fourth, and then the fifth.
A bald man appeared on the screen. Malcolm furrowed his brow.
“Hello?” he called. “Hello? Can you hear us?”
There was a tiny webcam built into the top of the monitor. Malcolm waved his hand in front of it, trying to get the attention of the bald man on the other side.
“He’s not going to react right away,” said Tapestry.
“Why not?” asked Malcolm. “Do you think the webcam is off?”
“Malcolm,” said Tapestry, in the voice of a patient teacher. “We are billions of miles away from Earth, at the moment. So far away that there is a communications delay measured in minutes, rather than seconds.”
“How many minutes?”
Tapestry shrugged.
“I guess we’ll have to wait and find out,” she said.
CHAPTER 18
The two of them waited. Malcolm was hungry, and he started to wonder about some of the crates that had been labeled as food back in the storage room. He was about to pitch opening one of them to Tapestry when the bald man on the monitor reacted.
It was reminiscent of watching someone have a heart attack. The man pushed his chair back and brought a hand to his chest. Malcolm and Tapestry could hear him gasping in surprise. The man shook his head in disbelief, and then finally focused his attention back on his own webcam.
“How… is this possible?” he asked. “Is this some kind of prank?”
“It’s not a prank,” said Malcolm.
“He’s not going to hear you for another half hour,” said Tapestry. “Let me do the talking.” She floated over Malcolm in his seat and crouched beside him. “Hello, whoever is on the other end of this connection? My name is Aubrey Kennison, and this is Malcolm Caldwell. We’re both former members of the Champion Authority who were transported here by a spryte with teleportation abilities.”
She went on to explain what their original plan had been, pausing each time the man spoke so they could listen. It was surreal, a conversation where neither party was able to listen to the other in real time, but both were desperate to get information across.
“Don’t press anything else,” said the man, who’d introduced himself as Melvin. “Wait! No! Actually, press the fourth button from the left on the third row. It should look a bit like the space bar on a computer. Then press the button directly to the right of it twice.”
Malcolm glanced at Tapestry. She gave a small nod, as though giving him permission. He pressed the button sequence.
The LEDs lighting the ship switched to full power, and a new, gentle hum came from some newly activated machine.
“We have power,” said Malcolm. “Thanks, Melvin.”
“You’re in a very tricky situation,” said Melvin, his words still out of sync with the moment. “We don’t know how the crew was lost. Ground control doesn’t have feeds from the cameras outside of the cockpit, so I don’t know the current state of things. If their bodies are aboard, you will need to dispose of them”
“We haven’t seen any bodies,” said Tapestry, talking quickly as not to speak over Melvin as he continued.
“It will take time for me to run a full diagnostic of the ship,” said Melvin. “I’ll have to call in the rest of the ground control team. We were not expecting… We’d given up the mission. This is so impossible, but so wonderful. We might be able to accomplish this! The first manned mission to Europa!”
Tapestry frowned.
“We aren’t interested in completing the mission,” she said. “Look, please, we came here through a portal. There is a spryte in Halter City, at the Lady of Mercy Hospital. If you go there and find her, she can bring us back.”
Malcolm listened, but he could already tell from the excitement he saw on Melvin’s face that it would be a dead end.
He’s not going to do that. He’ll give us an excuse as to why it’s too dangerous.
The conversation continued in a confusing, delayed back and forth for close to two hours. By the end of it, Melvin had given them a list of things they should and shouldn’t do. At the top of the list was for the two of them to stay calm.
The ship’s features were more automated than Malcolm had expected. Melvin explained that it might actually be possible for them to fulfill the crew’s original mission if they were very attentive and listened to the instructions of the ground control team.
Tapestry fumed at Melvin’s refusal to even acknowledge her request to find Jade Portal. Malcolm tried to lighten the mood a little with his jokes, but she was clearly in no mood for them.
“That’s all I can do for you, for now,” said Melvin. “I have to meet with the rest of my team. It might take several hours for us to come up with a solidified plan for you. Don’t do anything in the mean time! Actually, perhaps it would be good for the two of you to get some rest. I know this is a lot to take in.”
The connection cut off. Tapestry made a noise and glared at the black monitor. Malcolm squeezed her shoulders from behind.
“Hey,” he said. “This is good. We’re making progress. At least now we have hope.”
“Malcolm,” said Tapestry. “We’re still days out from Jupiter, and that’s only the halfway point for this mission. If we don’t get a portal out of here, we’ll be stuck on this ship for more than three months.”
He wasn’t sure what to say to that, so instead, he gave her an awkward, zero gravity hug.
“It will be okay,” Malcolm finally managed.
“For you,” said Tapestry. “What about Melanie?”
Malcolm scowled.
What about Rose? What’s she going to think if she starts remembering me, and I’m nowhere to be found?