Isolation

Chapter 32

When Tim woke up, he was all kinds of confused.

"Wh... where am I?"

"Alive and breathing, old timer!" Cassidy said.

"He asked where, not how," Sara corrected.

"Right! We're in the academy's courtyard."

He blinked. "What?"

"You're alive and well, old timer!"

Sara rubbed her face. This was painful to watch.

"Did you say... courtyard?"

"Well, courtyard is outside. We're in the school right now."

"How?"

"The laws of physics? Gravity and all."

He scratched his head.

"Not what I asked, smart one."

"Ooh. He's got some bite! I like him!"

"Sara," he said. "I thought I died."

"She saved your ass," Cassidy said. "We chatted for a while. Caught up on current events. You need to get back to the ship, right?"

"Yes?"

"Then we can go now! I need to see my brother. He's on your ship, you know."

"Your brother?"

"Married to my brother-in-law, Fraser. Was married."

She cracked her knuckles.

"I'm going to get my hands on that woman and strangle her, bring her back, and strangle her again."

"Cassidy!" Sara chided. "She's just trying to keep the peace. Mansell manipulated her into it, too. He's the one you want, not her."

"Nah. He's already dead. Doesn't work that way."

"Cassidy..."

"Fine. Fine. I might slap the shit out of her, though. No promises."

"Aye..." Tim moaned. "She's got a chatterbox bigger than Maria's."

"I know this..." Sara said unproudly.

"Hey. You try being alone for a week and see how you turn out."

"You've been alone?"

"Yeah, dummy. I was by myself until you clowns showed up. Now everything is a circus, dimensions and all that."

"English, please? Or Gaelic?"

"We're in some kind of dimensional rift," Sara said. "When the Drax fired on the colony, a part of it crossed into a... what do you call it?"

"A pocket dimension."

"It crossed into that, making it unaffected by the blast."

"Yup. Your girl is a Rifter," Cassidy said.

"Cassidy... Cass... are you the only survivor?"

"Seems that way. It's been several days. I don't know how it's this stable, but it won't be for long. There will be a rubber band effect when it projects itself back into normal space."

"It will cause a second explosion," Sara said. "One almost as big as the first blast."

"We need to get on that ship," Tim said. "Everyone is in danger."

"Yeah, right. There's... a slight problem..." Cassidy said.

She picked up Sara's helmet.

"It's cracked. I used all of the reinforced glass to make my helmet, but... there's not enough to fix hers."