“Then why did you take his side?!” I let out a guttural sound that was half growl, half sigh. “DJ’s ready to give up and wait to be rescued, but I’m not interested in waiting around to be saved. I mean, this whole situation is—”
“Ridiculous?”
“Totally absurd,” I said.
“Bonkers.”
“Bananas.”
A look of unrestrained longing spread across Jenny’s face. “Do you know how many people I would kill for a banana right now?” She fished a Nutreesh bar from her jacket pocket.
“How many of those have you had?”
“I stress-eat, Noa,” she said. “And, frankly, I don’t appreciate your judgment.”
I held up my hands. “I’m not judging you for eating; I’m judging you for eating that. Seriously, how much of that crap are you going to put in you?”
Jenny bit off the end with a vicious tear. “As much as I damn well please. Any other questions?”
Fighting was the last thing I wanted to do. Actually, a fight might have been a nice way to work out the seething knot of frustration that had grown in the back of my head, but I didn’t want to fight with Jenny. She scared me.
“I don’t suppose DJ changed his mind about rebooting the computer?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.
Jenny shook her head.
“Any chance I can convince you to switch sides?”
“I’m not on DJ’s side either.” Jenny stretched her legs and kicked off her boots. “I’m on my side.”
“Okay, but—”
Jenny cut me off. “You’ve got opinions, I get it. And, like I said, I’m with you on wanting to go home, but DJ seems a lot smarter than you.”
“Hey!”
“I’m sure when it comes to baking or dreary poetry, you’re a genius, but I have to go with my gut. It’s not personal.” Jenny finished with a smile that made it difficult to stay angry at her. She was also right. Even about my love for melancholy poets with cold, black hearts, but I wasn’t ready to quit.
“Let me see if I understand your position,” I said. “You want to go home, but you don’t want to die in the process.”
“Exactly!” Jenny said.
“And you’d rather wait for rescue because it’s the safer of the two options.”
Jenny patted my arm. “I knew you were more intelligent than you looked.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “Okay, but how do you know rescue is coming?”
“Because the chatty hologram told us so.”
“And you’re just willing to take it on the word of a computer program?” I asked. “How would the hologram know whether the distress signal was broadcast or not?”
Jenny’s eyes narrowed. I had planted the seeds of doubt. Now I needed to water them.
“Qriosity was minutes from exploding when I woke up, and we still don’t know what caused that damage. Isn’t it possible that our long-range communications might also be compromised?”
“I guess,” Jenny said carefully.
“Rescue might not be coming. But we won’t know until months from now when it either arrives or doesn’t. By then, it will be too late.” I’d done the best I could. I had no clue if anything I’d said was true, but it sounded plausible, and that’s what mattered.
“Do you know what the last thing I remember is?” Jenny asked.
“Tell me.” This was the longest Jenny and I had spoken. DJ and I’d had time to get to know each other while I was floating in space, waiting to die, but Jenny had been locked in the restroom, and since meeting, we hadn’t slowed down long enough to talk.
“I was reading a book. The sequel to a series I’d been waiting to get my hands on for over a year because the first book’s cliffhanger was…” Jenny clenched her fists. “It was a lot. But now I might never know what happens. Do you know how frustrating that is?”
“Extremely?”
“I would easily sacrifice you or DJ for another copy of that book,” she said.
I laughed, hoping she was joking. “Where are you from?”
“Warwick, Rhode Island.”
“You don’t have an accent.”
Jenny shrugged. “My parents move a lot for their jobs. We’ve only been there a year.”
“Do you like it?”
“I’ve tried not to like or dislike any of the places we’ve lived. It makes them easier to leave.” Jenny spoke about it with an ease that felt practiced though not necessarily sincere. “As long as I have my kitties and my books, anywhere is home.”
“Is that why you’re not as freaked out about our situation as I am?”
Jenny threw me a frown. “Oh, I’m freaked out. At the same time, I’m used to being dropped into unfamiliar places and situations and having to make it work. Waking up on Qriosity wasn’t the same as waking up in Warwick, Rhode Island, but they’re both basically outer space.”
Knowing more about Jenny hadn’t exactly helped me understand her cautious approach to the reactor or how I could change her mind, but it did make her slightly less scary. “I’m sorry you’re stuck out here with me and DJ.”
“Could be worse,” she said. “At least you’re both pretty.”
I laughed in spite of myself. “Wow. Thanks?”
“Have you seen DJ’s butt?” She grinned. “Of course you have. How could you not? It’s too bad you have no ass to speak of, but your face makes up for it.”
“Way to objectify me, Jenny.” I winked. “You’re not wrong, but I am more than just a devastatingly handsome face.”
Jenny patted my shoulder. “Sure you are.”
I sighed heavily, feeling slightly better about Jenny but still frustrated by my inability to convince her I was right. “What are we going to do?”
Jenny pulled her legs onto the bench and retrieved another Nutreesh from her pocket. She seemed to have a never-ending supply of the things. “Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to sit by this serene little lake, in this weird garden that defies all explanation, and contemplate the impossible nonsense that’s happened to me over the last couple of hours. After that, I might take a nap.”
“What about me?”
“Don’t know,” she said. “Find DJ and tell him what you told me. Maybe you can change his mind, though you might try being a little nicer. You’ve been kind of a dick. Either way, I don’t have the patience for you right now. I need some Jenny time.”
I envied Jenny’s ability to ignore the crisis to focus on her own immediate needs, and I wished I could fix my own problems with a meal-replacement bar and a nap. Sadly, there was only one solution to my dilemma, and I was going to have to go through DJ to reach it.
SIX
I SEARCHED QRIOSITY FOR NEARLY an hour before I finally found DJ standing at a console in Reactor Control with his back to the door. He didn’t notice me when I walked in.
“So this is the reactor?” I said. “I was expecting something with a little more flash.” The center of the room was dominated by a massive dark cylinder that had dozens of pipes and tubes running into and out of it. It had an industrial quality to it. Like equipment that belonged on an oil rig instead of on a spaceship.