“Fuck,” Vale whispered to herself. A billion things were trying to wrestle their way to the forefront of her mind. Friends from forty years ago. Enemies from thirty years ago. Chaos and calm. Blood and water.

“Vale.”

She felt the light pressure of a hand on her elbow. She pulled away from it.

“Vale. It’s okay. Really. Come on.”

Vale allowed herself to be pulled away from the containers and guided over to the exit. She refused to look at Felicity. Finally, at the large doorway, the one that could be closed off from the rest of the ship at a moment’s notice, she pulled away from her much smaller escort.

“Thanks,” she said. Felicity looked up at the security officer, a sad smile on her face.

“Tell me about the Prism,” the girl said, floating out into the hallway. Vale followed her. She pulled up her tablet absentmindedly, sending a quick message to the captain before continuing on their way.

“Well…” Vale started. Her voice sounded foreign to her - her tongue rasped against the roof of her mouth like sandpaper. She swallowed, but there was no spit in her mouth to unstick her throat.

“Tell me...what you know about it,” she said.

“Well...we’re told that God put it there to help save us from persecution. And that on the Judgment Day, we will return from the portal, all of us, to reclaim Earth from the enemies of Christ.”

“Mm. Okay.” There was a pause that Vale found awkward. “And?” she continued.

“Well, that’s it, really. “

“Oh. Okay. Well...we’re not sure how long it’s been out here, in Uranus’s orbit.”

Felicity giggled. Vale looked at her with mock disapproval.

“Really?” she said. “I didn’t think you guys were allowed to laugh at stuff like that.”

“I’m Christian,” Felicity replied. “But I’m also human. It’s universally funny.”

Vale smiled, and her heart twinged a tiny bit. “Anyway. It was discovered in the ‘30s. Sometime around when humans started taking space seriously. It was kept under wraps by the bigger nations who were able to detect it, until its existence leaked in the fifties, right before the tensions with the religio-fascists really began.”

“And how does it work?”

Vale slowed. At their current rate, they’d get to the land and launch module before the conversation could finish.

“Do I look like a brain to you? Or a bad-ass bitch?”

Felicity cocked her head. “A bad-’A’ ‘B’, I guess,” she said.

“Damn right,” Vale murmured. “Long story short, the brains call it an omni-directional wormhole. You fly into the Prism at a particular speed, at a particular angle of approach, and it takes you to another part of the universe. Anybody who flies in at the same speed and angle as you end up in the same spot, but if you change the one, or the other, or both…”

“You end up someplace different,” Felicity said.

“Exactly. And some very smart people with too much time and defense dollars on their hands have figured out about a thousand or so speed and angle combinations that lead to other parts of the universe that have Earthish planets.”

“And as a means of getting rid of people like us without having to deal with the bad PR of killing us,” Felicity said sweetly.

Vale gave the girl the side-eye. “What in the world has gotten into you?” she said. “I mean, I’m not complaining. But for the short time I’ve known you, you’ve been terrified to say two words to me. But now…”

“Well,” Felicity said, “it might be the fact that I’m about to enter into a lifetime of hardship and servitude and I’m feeling pithy.” She held something out to Vale, who realized it was one of Captain Patek’s flasks.

“Where the hell did you get this?”

“Stole it from my mother, after she passed out,” Felicity said. “There wasn’t much left in it. But like Philippa likes to say…” The girl continued in a loud whisper, as if sharing a secret. “I’m rather underdeveloped for my age. So this shit hit me hard.”

She giggled again, even louder.

“Jesus,” Vale said, sliding the now empty flask into one of the large pockets on the side of her pants. “You better sober up before your mother sees you.”

Felicity groaned. “I thought she was going to be locked up in her landing couch,” she said. “I thought I wouldn’t have to deal with her until we were on the other side of the Prism.”

“She’s locked up and drugged, God willing,” Vale said. “Or Doc Diego willing, at least. But your mom is…”

“Obsessive? Overprotective? Insane?”

“Well,” Vale said, “let’s say that it’ll take more than a few restraints and some drugs to keep her from checking to make sure you’re alright.”

“Vale,” said Captain Patek in the security officer’s ear. “You okay? Just got your message. What’s taking so long?”

Vale pressed a finger to the tiny transmit button on the surface of her earpiece. “Yeah, Captain. Like I said, I’m on my way. Felicity is in tow.”

“Well get a God damn move on,” Patek swore. “I’ve just been told to standby to receive Prism coordinates. You’ve got to get back here and into your launch and lands right away. I’m not losing this window.”

“Roger that, Captain,” Vale said. She reached out and grabbed Felicity by the arm, marveling at how her fingers could touch each other even when wrapped around the girl’s thin arm bone.

“Come on,” she said, pushing herself off of a protruding instrument panel, carrying both of them through the corridor with a good amount of speed.

Nought was waiting for the pair of them as they got back, the only person left floating outside of the launch and land modules.

“Nice job finding her,” Nought replied. Vale squinted at the woman.

“Sarcasm?” she asked.

Nought shook her head. “Naw,” she replied. “Philippa was freaking out for quite a bit. Diego had to double-dose her just to get her to calm down. I think she’s...sleeping?”

“Oh thank God,” murmured Felicity. Nought was taken aback. She blinked three or four times, then cocked her head towards the sixteen-year-old.

“I’m sorry, what was that, Felicity?”

“Thank God,” Felicity repeated with a sweet smile. “She’s slept so terribly this whole trip, but was too prideful to ask the doctor for help.” Her face shifted, and she looked down between her feet, floating a foot or two off the ground.

“It was wrong of me to let my fear push me to hide,” she said. “But if nothing else, Mother will get a few hours of rest out of it.”

Nought’s eyes narrowed and she peered at the girl. She switched her gaze to Vale, who held her hands up and out.

“Do you remember where your launch and land seat is?” Nought asked. The girl nodded, keeping her eyes on the floor.

“Alright,” Nought said. “Go on over to it and strap yourself in. I’ll be along shortly to make sure you’re ready for acceleration.”

“Thank you, Mr. Nought,” Felicity said. “And thank you too, Security Officer Vale. I’m sorry for the delay and the worry I’ve caused.”

Nought nodded at the girl to be on her way, and she and Vale watched as the stunted sixteen-year-old floated over to one of the free launch and land pods, the one, of course, next to the one holding her sedated mother.

“Am I right in thinking she can’t be trusted, S.O. Vale?” Nought asked.

Vale shrugged. “I don’t know enough to say,” she replied, “but at the very least it’s clear that there’s more to her than she normally lets on.”

“Hm,” Nought said. She put a finger to her ear. “Go ahead, Teek,” she said, listening closely. “Okay, well, keep an eye on it, and if the level gets above point six-” she listened some more to the chief engineer. “Yep. Great, thanks.”

“Everything okay?” Vale asked. Nought shrugged. “Standard stuff. Teek’s on it, so I’m not worried.”

Vale crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, earning herself a rare laugh from the first mate.

“Okay, well I’m not overly worried,” Nought said. She nodded to the S.O. “Checks all complete?”

“Yessir,” Vale said.

“Alright, why don’t you strap in. I’ve got our little runaway to check on, along with a dozen or so final items before I-”

“Hey all,” Captain Patek said through the system-wide speakers. “Just so you know, Prism Control is starting our release protocol in about sixty seconds. Everybody needs to be buckled in pronto, passengers and crew all.”

Nought swore. “Since when is Prism Control early?”

“Just so you know, if we miss this window, our next chance to head through will be three weeks out. Just so you know, I love you all, but I don’t think we need to spend any more time locked in here with each other than is strictly necessary. So no more shenanigans, get buckled up, and let’s get on our way.”

A half second after his voice clicked off, it came in again, more intimately, over the crew channel and in every person’s earpiece.

“Crew,” he said. “Sound off and systems check.”

“Cargo okay,” grunted Fungko.

“Security okay,” Vale said.

“Medical okay,” Diego replied.

“Engineering good, boss,” Teek said.

“Captain, I need-” Nought began, but the captain cut her off.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Nought,” he said, “if we stay in orbit any longer, we’re all going to kill each other from cabin fever. You’ve got, tops, two minutes. Fucking figure it out.”

“Yes, sir,” Nought said, her face turning red. Vale nodded at her. “Want to split the list?”

Nought opened her mouth, indignant, but then her shoulders slumped. “Sure,” she said. She pulled up her tablet and flicked a finger across its surface. Almost immediately, Vale felt her own tablet buzz.

“On it,” she said.

“Thanks, Vale,” Nought said. “Oh, and do you mind checking on the brat?”

“Sure,” Vale said. She floated over to the pod that Felicity had pulled herself into.

“Alright, buckle check,” she said, just as she reached the edge. Felicity had one arm thrown across her face, and her shoulders shook with silent sobs.

“Hey,” Vale said, reaching out a hand and gently touching the girl’s hair. Felicity pulled away from her as if her hand were a burning poker.

“Please,” the miserable girl said, her voice thick. “Please just…do your checks and leave me.”

“Felicity,” Vale said quietly, leaning in close. “Felicity. Talk to me. What’s going on.”

“Nothing,” the girl said, her voice almost inaudible.

“Hey,” Vale said. She leaned in close. “Hey. Look. There are laws. Laws designed to protect people in cases like this-”

Felicity began shaking her head from side to side, without removing her arm from her face.

“No,” she said. “I can’t.”

Vale leaned in, reaching out a hand to touch Felicity’s hair once more, but stopping herself. “Hey. You can.”

“I won’t, then,” Felicity said, her voice flat and cold. She closed her eyes and removed her hand from her tearstained face. “Are my straps okay?”

“Felicity...”

“Are my straps okay?”

A voice crackled to life in Vale’s ear. “Everything okay, S.O.?” Nought asked.

“Fuck,” Vale said. She looked at the girl lying down in the horizontal half-bed, half-couch that the crew called the launch and land. Tears dried up in tracks along her face. Her chin was no longer trembling, but the slight bulge in her cheeks showed that she was clenching her jaws pretty damn hard.

“Vale?”

“Fuck,” Vale hissed again. She tried to say something more to Felicity, found that she couldn’t, and instead pressed a finger to her ear.

“Yeah, had to resize something real quick,” she said, turning away from the girl in the launch and land. She felt physically sick, like her stomach had been scooped out and the void spray-painted with liquid nitrogen. She pushed herself down to the end of the row of launch and lands, ignoring the twin pairs of beady eyes following her, the ones belonging to the Thomases.

Just as she reached her couch, situated between Fungko and Diego, another voice crackled in her ear. “We just got the clear and the bearing from the PC. Final check, everything and everyone good?”

The crew went, once more, through their “all goods”, with only Vale lying as she only half-way strapped in by the time she spoke. But by the time the crew and passengers felt the massive engines rumbling to life, and felt the weight slowly return to their bodies as the ship accelerated to a full G.

Well, Vale thought as they changed their position in Uranus’s orbit, gunning for The Prism, this is it.