// 789 words. Resistance fighters don't know how to use PTO. Part 3 of 3.
It was odd to be back. Nice, but odd. She caught Galena glancing her way as if she’d disappear when he wasn’t looking, though he tried to be polite about it and say nothing when she caught him. He’d only smile at her as she lay back on the couch and helped him review footage from another salvage run.
Distractions were welcome. Having been all hands on deck for so long had taken its toll on her more than she realized, but she still felt like she needed a task. Scrubbing through hours of footage on his tablet was close enough to a job that she could put her mind to it without feeling the creeping insanity of her life—all growls and hisses and hair standing on end—scratching around in the hallways she avoided.
When a chime at the door startled her, she was inwardly relieved that it was Galena who moved to answer it, though the stiff greetings and awkward hellos of a familiar voice caused her to sit upright.
Sure enough, Galena led a familiar long-eared figure to Pyrite, who was as wary about the unexpected visit as their visitor was uncertain about where to let her gaze rest in a colleague’s private residence.
“Shale,” Pyrite tried to offer a smile as she stood, “Shouldn’t you be off duty, takin’ a rest? Not that you aren’t welcome, ‘course.”
The eldite smiled back, finding her ease and a more sensible place for her attentions to be set despite it being obvious how strange it might have been to see Pyrite in her civvies. “Someone has to sift through all the new data we have. But don’t worry, I’ll take the long way back to the Stein after I finish business here.”
“Business? Should I take a walk?” Galena interjected between them, half in jest.
“Actually, I came with a delivery for both of you,” Shale said, her smile tepid.
Pyrite and Galena didn’t even need to exchange looks to sense the other’s unease as the eldite woman fished something from her pocket that was flashed at both briefly before being offered to Pyrite. A small case was carefully laid in her palm, a glowing data shard within. Thin, flat, barely the length and width of a hyune finger and pulsing with the familiar purple-red glow of electrope. Pyrite looked up from the case to its courier, confused.
“Among the data Cahciua left us were encrypted files with each of our names. Yours was also addressed to Galena.” She explained, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to one hip. “Your file has been uploaded to this device with a cipher. I didn’t decrypt anyone’s files myself, so I have no idea what’s in them.” She shrugged at both hyune lightly, only the suggestion of a smile on her lips. “She didn’t intend to leave any unfinished business, I suppose.”
Pyrite and Galena did share a look this time, and Shale took that as a cue to make a polite retreat. Cool and kind as she was, personal affairs were out of her depth—especially those of a group of rebels who'd all lost a dear friend and leader without warning. She was liable to skip the scenic walk and take the leynodes to scurry back to the safety of her terminal where she might put this mutually uncomfortable conversation out of her mind.
“That’s all. Let me know if you have any trouble with it.” She said as she parted, turning to leave the two before so much as thanks could be offered. Not that they had a clue how to disengage either.
As their door slid closed again, Galena looked to Pyrite to gauge a reaction that she was intent not to show. Not that it mattered much—they had both learned too well that an absence was its own kind of presence. Instead she closed her fingers around the shard case and breathed deep.
“Assumin’ you got some idea o’ wha’s on tha’,” Galena stated simply.
Pyrite nodded. “Some.”
He offered his palm, and Pyrite passed off the shard case carefully, as if afraid to drop it. With just as much reverence, he set it down atop a counter. He paused with his hand resting on it before tearing away to Pyrite, who stared at the shard, contemplative and yet vacant. His hands met her arms, his forehead pressed to hers.
“Then we’ll leave it be a while.”
“Yeah...” she agreed without any hint of investment in the word. It would only be a matter of time before not knowing drove her mad, but she wouldn’t do it alone at least. Not this time.
She took a breath to shake herself free of her thoughts and reasserted. “Yeah.”
