Piece Simul ✔

Chapter 28-Tiptree-Not My Voice at All

Samuel argued with Forster and Russ, repeating his position for the third time:

"Leaving someone out here amounts to murder, and I'll have no part it."

And for the third time, Forster countered the argument with:

"I don't give a shit. We're doing it."

Russ refereed occasionally, mostly agreeing with the Captain. Tiptree listened to both sides, not putting up an opinion one way or the other, until Samuel called for a vote. Predictably, Russ voted with the Captain, and Samuel leaned over to Tiptree expectantly.

"Well?"

Guin had strong-armed her way onto the mission, denying Tiptree of Kass. She thought of the arrogant, insensitive comments, particularly the ones she puffed out about Tiptree's sexuality.

None of it added up to anything significant. Then again, the fundamentals of the mission had changed.

Getting rid of Guin now might be your only chance.

The voice wasn't hers, and she shivered. No. Not hers at all.

"I don't wanna leave anybody." She delivered the answer as if it were obvious.

"Ha!" Samuel threw up his arms. "A tie."

Forster frowned. "There are no ties on a ship. There's the Captain, and that's it. Guin stole a pod, and hasn't contacted us. We need to move on to signal Control."

Russ glanced sharply at Forster. "She did try to contact us. Genly decoded a message on the ansible while we were ground-bound. She agreed we're not alone, and they know we're here."

"Who's they, and are you sure it was her?" Forster asked.

"C'mon." Samuel hovered the ansible near his mouth. "These things are supposed to work anytime, anywhere. Hello, Control? Hello?" He shook the device and spoke into it again.

"Tried that already," Tiptree muttered.

"It's like trying to call an old girlfriend," Forster said. "She's changed the number."

Samuel slammed the ansible on the table. "But what if she kept the same number? Yeah, we might not be able to contact the Control from ten years ago, but how come we can't talk to who they are now?"

Forster shrugged. "Another question for our lapsed physicist."

"Who you want to abandon, and I can't figure why," Samuel said, his voice low but strained.

Tiptree tracked an incoming craft from her seat near an interface. While the two men bickered some more, she whispered instructions to a bot, who then took off.

Ever vigilant, Russ remarked, "What's that about?"

"A pod is about to dock," she announced, silencing the background argument.

Everyone's eyes settled on the interface, watching as a green dot aligned with the airlock.

"Looks like we'll get to ask Guin those questions after all," Samuel chuckled darkly.