"Fuck..." I hissed as the monitor gave me the data I'd ignored for as long as I could. It had been two days since the Heretic had touched my face—two days since she'd called me Cædir and the memories had flowed like an endless stream.
She told me what her plan was, all because she thought me knowing my Mertonian identity changed things. It didn't. It... it couldn't.
And the way I'd chosen to respond to the change was to simply shut down completely. I don't think I'd said a word in two days, and that was part of the reason I'd put off trying to ration out the minimal charge we had left because it would involve discussing what she could live without until we reached Castellia.
"What is it?" She asked, and I contemplated not responding. But I had to.
"Would you be able to charge the ship again?" I asked gently, and she took a deep breath, her hand lifted as if reaching for the Aura. But the glow that flowed under her skin was barely distinguishable.
"Only if we get exceptionally desperate. I need to be grounded before I could do it again. Dealing with the pirates and then charging the ship..." she replied. Right, that meant if she tried again, it might kill her. "What's wrong?"
"We'll reach Castellia in about twenty hours, but to have enough charge for landing, we have to choose something to save power on." I knew what my choice would be in this situation. Artificial gravity was something I could live without, since I needed warmth to function properly.
"And our options are..."
"Navigation and propulsion. It will take us longer to get there, and we might go the wrong direction." That option was for when we were out of other options. Propulsion took a lot of power, but it was necessary to reach our desired location within a reasonable timeframe.
The Heretic sighed. "No. We need to land so I can ground myself. I feel naked without my connection to the Aura." Naked? Why did that... why did that make me think of...
"Okay, um..." I had to think of anything other than her skin and her tattoos and her warmth and her body. "We could cut the gravity, it uses the most amount of-"
"No." She cut me off before I could give her the reason it was our best choice.
"It's the biggest use of power, and it would only be temporary. Half an hour on, half an hour off." By my calculations, that would save us enough Aura.
"If you do that, I won't be able to navigate through this ship alone. I need my feet to touch something, so I can know where I am." There was that...
"Our last option is cutting the heat as much as possible."
"How much is that?" She asked, so I plugged the variables into the monitor.
"Ninety-five percent." I didn't like that number, but I guess when it came between my comfort and her being able to navigate the ship, the choice was obvious. "That would save us enough power while stopping us from freezing to death." Okay, maybe that wasn't the full truth if the monitor wasn't lying to me.
"How could will it get?" She asked, and my jaw clenched as I stared at the prediction.
"A point above freezing." Her kind were used to the cold. The land masses on Sælonis were far from the equator, and the regular temperature there was between 10-20 points above. Mertonis had land masses gathered at the equators, so my body was accustomed to 60-70 points above. It's why I would rather live without gravity than heating.
"A single point?"
"And we'd still need to turn it off for a few hours to be on the safe side." I finally looked away from the monitor and back towards her. "I can do the few hours off while you're sleeping. The cabin has extra insulation, so-"
YOU ARE READING
The Heretic of Sælonis ||A Sci-Fi Romance Novella||
Science Fiction"And what will you do if you have to destroy an entire planet to end this war? Are you really willing to become a monster?" Nierhæ turned towards me, a sombre look on her face. She already had an answer to my question, and it was one I wouldn't like...
