Scarlet Steel

“Come on Scarlet! One more!” Juno yells.

I’m drenched in sweat and my muscles are screaming. I grit my teeth and flex every muscle in my body, desperate to finish one last curl. A primal yell escapes my lips as the dumbbell reaches my shoulder, and I let it fall to the ground.

“That’s it, Kid!” Juno clasps me on the shoulder. “Other arm now, come on, keep them even.”

That’s easy at least. I catch my breath, pick up the weight with my left arm, and quickly bang out eight repetitions.

“I can’t believe how much strength I lost.” I mumble to myself. Every other time I’ve worked out with everyone, it was my left arm that held me back. Just a few weeks of not using my arm has ruined it.

“Getting part of your muscle cut will do that to you.” Juno picks up a bar with ease, puts it over her shoulders, and begins slow, rhythmic squats. I move behind her to spot. “No pain?”

“Nothing more than normal.” I run a finger over what’s left of my wound. It’s left behind a fresh scar, a small crater on my bicep.

“Good.” She grunts as her legs extend. “We’ll have you back to full strength soon enough.”

“I hope so.”

“I’ve gotten people back on their feet from worse than a shot to the arm. You’ll be fine.” She completes her set and drops the weight. “Go ahead and cool down.”

Both of us slowly go through a set of stretches, focusing primarily on our respective injuries. It feels like we spend almost as long stretching as we do working out.

“If you promise to take it easy, you can start working on your mech.” Juno says.

“On it!”

“Exa, watch her please.” Juno’s voice barely reaches me before I burst through the door into the warehouse.

All the other mechs have long since been fixed, but the scars of the last mission are still marring Hoppy’s hull. I pause when I reach her, a strange tightness gripping at my chest.

I shouldn’t have left her injured this long. That’s probably the source. I get to work removing the first piece of armor. I brace against it as I remove the last bolt.

“Shit!” My arm gives out, and I jump back to avoid being crushed by the plate.

“Way to take it easy.” Exa finally makes it to me.

“Yeah, yeah.” I drag the plate into the center of the warehouse and start cutting, filling, and annealing. Just as I finish, Exa brings a replacement for me to work on. “I missed this.”

“I can tell.”

Exa and I quickly burn through our work. She does all the heavy lifting, but leaves all the detail work for me. Externals, internals, it doesn’t matter. I’m glad to do it all.

Just a few hours later, I screw in the last bolt and Hoppy is back in perfect shape. I step back and take her in. She’s practically shining in the light, her armor gleaming. That feeling still remains in my chest, I must have missed something. I pull out my phone to do a quick systems check, and everything comes back green. The reassurance doesn’t help.

“I need to take her for a test, but I feel like Juno would be mad.”

“I’d be mad.” Exa corrects me. “You accidentally blow a hole in our hull while we’re in local space, and we’re all dead.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. But you’re not scary.”

“Alright, dummy. Don’t make me fix that.” Her elbow gently connects with my ribs. “What now?”

I should probably fire her up, make sure the engine is green. Maybe not right now. It can wait.

“I don’t know.” I admit. 

“Your Q line got a drop an hour ago. Two messages.”

“Really?” I pull out my phone and drop onto the ground, pulling up mom’s message first.

Dearest Scarlet,

Thank you for being honest, I know how difficult it is. And I’m sorry to hear what happened on your first mission. I’m sure you haven’t talked to anyone, probably just ran off to work on your mech like always. Just make sure you don’t let things bottle up. I’m sure Exa’s already told you the same, but you either talk about it, or it’s going to blow up in your face. I know, I know, I’m just an old mechie, but I know a few things. I’m definitely not the best person to open up to, but I’m here for you always. The delivery time on these things makes things hard though. Find a therapist on a station if you don’t feel like you can talk with your team. I think you’d be surprised what even an hour can do.

As for me, I guess I’m feeling a little nostalgic. I’ve started messing around in your workshop. The town replaced our old scrap hauler, and I went ahead and claimed the old one. They stripped all the good parts out of it before I took it, so I’ve been out scavenging some old wrecks. They’re all picked pretty clean, and I’m sure you have no idea how they got that way. It’s been nice.

That’s been taking up most of my time. I’m sure you’re busy out there and don’t want to hear me babble on about small town drama, so I’ll end my letter here. I’ll let you get back to work. Looking forward to your next letter.

Always with love,

Mom

I read her message a few times, taking in every word with a smile on my face.

Hey Mom.

I think I really do want to hear about the drama. It’d be nice to hear about everyone, even if I didn’t talk to them nearly as much as I should.

“Do I miss it?” I whisper to myself. No, no of course not. This is what I wanted. I’m just a little homesick, everyone gets that.

Things have been quiet here. I’ve been recovering from a small injury from last mission, so we haven’t done anything since my last message. It’s nothing serious though! And you’re going to call me a dummy, but I didn’t want you to worry about it, so I didn’t say anything. I’m better now though, just trying to get my strength back. 

“I should just delete the whole thing. She doesn’t need to know.” I know she said she wanted to hear everything, but she shouldn’t have to. Despite that, my fingers keep moving, keep typing.

I caught a ricochet in my arm while I was out of Hoppy, unhooking a generator for our mission. I had my survival suit on! If hit anywhere important, I wouldn’t have anything worse than a bruise, but there’s not much armor in the arms. I’m alright, really, I promise. There’s no lasting damage beyond a small scar.

I’ll let you know how the aliens are as soon as we meet one! I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been doing some reading about them in my downtime and they’re fascinating.

Looking forward to hearing from you again! Love you!

There we go. I hit the send button before I can doubt myself, and run my fingers over my scar. She knows now. Or at least she will in a few weeks. My fingers dig in, massaging the muscle. It feels different than the rest of my body, simultaneously like there’s a hard lump, and a void.

I know she said she wanted to hear everything, but I’m already regretting it. I don’t even know why. I doubt Dad got injured like this. He’s better than that.

It’s too late to worry now. I’ll just have to see what she says in response. I flick over to Tera’s letter and begin to read.

Three weeks isn’t bad for a round trip! Your message arrived way faster than I expected. A quantum bridge must have opened up recently, hopefully it stays that way. Apparently when the network first opened, these things used to be delivered almost instantly, but I guess you can’t stop humans from making more of us. It really could be much worse.

I’m so jealous you got to see the whole line! I’ve explored them in the Digital a few times, but it’s not the same. I can only really get visuals, not the whole body experience.

I’m glad your mission went well, and I had a little mission of my own recently! I had to install a washer for a guy. That’s it. I went to his house, hooked up the water and electricity, secured it in place, and I was done. I’m practically a mechie already, haha.

Next time you visit, can you do me a big favor? I’m really jealous you get to experience zero g. If you stay for a few days, do you think you could take me out to experience it? It’s been a dream for a long time, right up there with getting behind the controls of a mech. I feel like the zero g thing is easier to solve though.

I’m really looking forward to this weekend. My dad’s shipping route is finishing. It’ll be nice to have him home for a while, at least until he picks up another contract. It should be a few months at minimum. He rooms with me when he’s on station, which will be fun.

Hope you’re taking things easy, talk to you soon!

I feel… I don’t even know what I’m feeling. Not good, whatever it is. But I’ve always been excited to hear from her?

“I’m fine.” I insist to myself and start to type.

Hey!

I’ve been taking things easy here. We haven’t done anything for the past three weeks, but we’re almost at the edge of Mnemosyne space! I imagine we’ll pick up more work when we arrive, so I’ll be back to things before too long.

We picked up a new AI on our last mission, a mind rip named Luna. The two of you could make a planetary system together! I don’t think that’s the right term, but ignore that for the joke please.

Apparently she wanted an escape from the station we attacked, so we let her ride with us. She’s cool, I think? She’s not very talkative, or at least not to me. She’s been working hard at getting better at hacking, and that’s taken up most of her days. Apparently she’s talented according to Janus, and he’s a hybrid! That’s got to be super high praise.

During my downtime I had a lot of time to kill, so I ended up programming a little. I made a stupid little game that I’m attaching to this letter, let me know what you think. Just please don’t check the code. Also, you didn’t let me know what shows I should watch! I need something to do next time I have some downtime.

Oh, and yeah, I’m sure I can bring you onto the ship next time. I’ll convince Juno to let us stay for a few days so you can see everything.

Talk to you again soon.

I feel like that’s not enough, but I don’t know what else I could even write. I just attach my game, hit the send button, and slip my phone back into my pocket.

“You alright?” Exa asks.

“Yeah, of course.” I get up.

“Come on, you need to see something cool.” Exa heads towards the living room, and I follow close behind.

Juno and Elara are watching the windows closely. They’re displaying an image of a planet. Yellow clouds swirl in its upper atmosphere, and a massive tendril reaches into orbit, connected to what’s either a large station covered in some shimmering chitin, or a small moon. Ships, both made of steel, and the same material as the station swarm the place, entering and exiting what I assume are docking bays.

Juno glances over her shoulder before turning back to the video.

“Welcome to the gateway into Mnemosyne space.”

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