Infernal Sky by Dafydd Ab Hugh

Jill.”
    I appreciated Ken telling me that. “I want to go. Arlene and Fly wouldn’t know what to do without me. Besides, they couldn’t have saved me without you.”
    â€œThat’s true,” said Fly.
    Ken was sitting up in bed. He’d wanted to see us off from his wheelchair, but he’d been working hard and had tired himself. His face was a healthy coffee color again. When he was first unwrapped, his skin had been pale and sickly. They unwrapped him in stagesso for a while he had stripes like a zebra as his color returned. Now he looked like himself again, except for the knobs and wire things that they hadn’t taken out of his head yet.
    â€œI’m grateful to all of you,” he said. “Especially you, Jill,” he added, taking my hand. “But you’re so young. You’ve been in so much danger already. Why not stay here where it’s safe?”
    â€œSafe?” echoed Albert.
    â€œI should say safer,” said Ken.
    Arlene brought up a subject that Albert and I had avoided: “Before we left Salt Lake City, there were people who thought it would be better for Jill to stay there.”
    Ken coughed. He sounded really bad. I brought him a glass of water. “I feel so helpless,” he said. “You only need Jill’s computer assistance on the first leg of the mission. If only there were some way I could help by long-distance.”
    â€œYou’ve put your finger on the problem,” Fly told him. “We can’t anticipate everything we’re going to need. Too bad Jill is the best troubleshooter for this job.”
    â€œJust like before,” I reminded everyone. “You should take me to space with you, too.”
    â€œThat’s not part of the deal,” said Arlene, sounding like a mother.
    â€œWe should be grateful for this time together,” Albert pointed out. He was right. The only people with Ken were Fly, Arlene, Albert, and me. The mission would start tomorrow morning.
    â€œIf only they had launch capability in the islands here,” Ken complained. “They should have been better prepared.”
    â€œWe’re fortunate they have as much as they do,”argued Arlene. “There’s everything here except the kitchen sink.”
    â€œThe kitchen sink is what we need, and it’s at Point Mugu,” said Fly. “Thanks to Ken, we have a launch window.”
    â€œI never thought I’d do windows,” Ken rasped between fits of coughing. “I always say that when you take off for a body in space it’s a good idea for your destination to be there when you arrive! It’s also nice to have a crew to fly the ship. The primary plan to return Fly and Arlene to Phobos has all the elegance of a Rube Goldberg contraption.”
    â€œI don’t even feel homesick,” said Arlene. Everyone laughed.
    Ken had paid us back big time for saving him from the spider-mind. He was smarter than I was about lots of things. I also realized he cared about me; but I don’t think he realized how much I wanted to go with the others.
    â€œThere’s a fallback plan?” Albert asked.
    Ken smiled. “The less said about that the better, at least by me. Before you depart, I want to talk to Jill some more. I have some suggestions for her return trip.”
    â€œI want to go to Phobos,” I said.
    Every time I said that, Arlene repeated the same word: “No.”
    Fly sounded like a father when he said, “Believe me, if there were any other way, I’d never dream of taking Jill back into danger . . . well, greater danger, anyhow. We do need her for this.”
    â€œWe’re all needed,” said Ken in a sad voice. “We’ll all be needed for the rest of our lives, however short they may be.” He looked at me again. “But I agree with you about one thing.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œIt’s important to fight to the end. Sometimes I forget