Malcolm felt his face burning with shame. It was only made more intense by the anger and hurt he could hear in Tapestry’s voice. He’d kept secrets from her for far too long. How could he expect she’d react to the truth?
“He told me that you loved her,” said Tapestry, in a quiet voice. “That you and her were… involved like that. And that it was more serious than what we…” She paused, and blinked her eyes several times. “Anyway, I know about it. So don’t waste your time making yourself sound like a fool with more lies.”
Malcolm hung his head. He didn’t have any defense for what he’d done, for what he’d kept from her.
“I’m sorry, Tapestry,” he said. “I wish… I’d done things differently.”
“I do, too.” For a moment, it seemed as though she’d leave it at that. But then Tapestry shook her head, and a cracked smile came across her face. “I don’t think you fully understand how much it hurt when… he betrayed me. The callousness of it. I’d actually fallen in love, with him. Your copy, Malcolm. Not you. And then…”
She closed her eyes and let out a small, bitter laugh.
“He didn’t stab me in the back,” she said. “He stabbed me in the heart, and twisted the blade. As though it wasn’t enough for him to turn into a demon and push me away… He had to explain it all to me, and make me aware of just how badly duped I’d been. It was a double betrayal, once by him… and once by you.”
“Tapestry…” Malcolm wanted to apologize again, and again, if he could. But he knew she wouldn’t let him. It wouldn’t do anything to solve her pain or change the past.
Tapestry waited, as though expecting more from him. Several seconds went by, and Malcolm realized that by saying nothing, he’d also done the wrong thing. He could already feel her pulling away from him, trudging up old emotions, and reminding herself of all the reasons why he couldn’t be trusted.
She gave up, both on the communications console and on him. He reached for her as she floated by him and through the connecting hallway. She slapped his hand away, not hard, but with enough deliberateness to be a solid rebuke.
CHAPTER 20
Malcolm spent several hours in the exercise room, trying to tamp down his emotions with exhaustion. The stationary bike worked about the same as it would have back on Earth, though it felt much floatier without gravity.
He found clean clothes for the both of them in one of the storage rooms. There was a small bathroom and shower, specially designed for the sealed environmental conditions of the ship, and he rinsed off his sweaty body before changing into one of the plain blue jumpsuits that composed the standard astronaut wardrobe.
Tapestry had already zipped herself into one of the sleeping bags and managed to fall asleep, or was at least very good at pretending. It was a bit unnerving to look at her. Her head peaked out from the top of the sleeping bag, but the rest of her was securely zipped in. It was like looking at a cross between a body bag and a balloon on a string.
Malcolm settled into one of the sleeping bags himself. He closed his eyes once he was zipped in. He thought about comforting memories from back on Earth. He thought about what Melvin might have to report to them and how things would change when they finally got Savior back to earth.
It took him far longer than expected to drift off. The lights on the ship were bright and omnipresent, and between the glare and his usual troubled thoughts, he slept fitfully.
When he awoke, Tapestry had already left her bag and was in another part of the ship. Malcolm took his time getting up, dreading having to talk to her after the discussion they’d had the night before.
But if Tapestry was holding a grudge against him, she was doing it on a backburner. She gave him a small smile as he floated into the meeting room, tossing a vacuum sealed granola bar in his direction.
“Melvin got in touch through the communications console,” she said. “I already sent him a message back letting him know I was about to wake you up.”
“And you let him know about Melanie?” asked Malcolm.
Tapestry’s smile widened slightly, and she nodded.
“It was close to an hour ago when I sent my message,” she said. “His response should reach us pretty soon.”
Malcolm nodded slowly, chewing his granola bar thoughtfully.
“We’re going to have our work cut out for us,” he said. “If we can’t rely on Jade for portals anymore, we’ll have to carry out this mission in the same way the original crew would have.”
“I know,” said Tapestry. “Think you’re up for it?”
Malcolm grinned at her.
“I was about to ask you the same thing.”
He ate quickly, and then followed Tapestry into the cockpit, trying not to admire the pleasant effect weightlessness had on her butt. A few minutes went by before a chime sounded, indicating an incoming message.
“Hello there,” said Melvin. “Amateur astronauts! We have a lot to cover today.”
It wasn’t just him in frame. Close to a dozen members of ground control were clustered around him, and the expressions on their faces spanned the spectrum, from hope, to anxiety, to disbelief. Melvin held a piece of paper in front of him, probably instructions given to him by the rest of his team.
“The good news is that the ship is almost entirely intact; the bad news is that there is at least one major repair that will need to be performed on the ship,” he said. “Now, this is going to get complicated, so keep this video message on hand for later review.”
Calling Melvin’s instructions complicated was a bit like calling a volcano “hot”. He went on and on, veering off occasionally into what seemed like pointless digressions until his ground control teammates prodded him back to his main point.
Some of the ship’s solar panels were damaged and would need to be replaced. Melvin explained how this would entail one of them performing a spacewalk and doing the repair manually. Malcolm felt a prickle of nervous excitement at the prospect. Tapestry, on the other hand, looked as though she’d been given a death sentence.
“There’s much more to get you up to speed on than just repairing the panels,” said Melvin. “But this is, uh, how should I say, priority number one? It’s why the ship was running on reserve power when you first came aboard. If the solar panels aren’t repaired… most basic functions including CO2 scrubbing will fail within 48 hours.”
“Great,” muttered Malcolm. “A timed mission. Just what we needed.”
“Generally, this would involve the entire crew,” said Melvin. “It’s possible to do with just two astronauts. One should stay inside the ship and relay instructions. The other will… go outside the ship and perform the repairs as carefully as possible.”
Melvin’s tone was nervous and a little worried, which didn’t do wonders for Malcolm’s confidence in their ability to complete the task. Melvin went on to give specific explanations of where the replacement solar panels were located, how to detach the old ones, and how to connect power cables to them.
By the end of it, Malcolm was thoroughly overwhelmed. Melvin wished them good luck before ending the message, and instructed them to send an update to ground control as soon as the repairs were complete. Malcolm glanced over at Tapestry and raised an eyebrow.
“Well?” he said. “What do you think?”
She slowly shook her head.
“I think this is going to be a lot more difficult than it sounds,” said Tapestry.
Malcolm nodded. “I’ll do the space walk. The flying I used to do with my wind manipulation has given me a strong threshold for vertigo.”
It feels like it’s been an eternity since I last used it.