The Diamond Deep by Brenda Cooper

like a faint promise, but not quite a lie. Colin’s death seemed so big, and so awful.
    She checked the work she’d done on his arm, left her fingers on his shoulder. “I get it that they wanted to steal the cargo. I guess we learned a lesson there. But why hurt people?” Her voice sounded thin and high, like she might break. “Why kill Colin? What did they get out of that?”
    Her fingers had tightened on his shoulder, and the human contact felt good. “I have no idea.”
    â€œWe almost died,” she said.
    â€œWe might die yet. Who knows what other surprises that ship has for us?”
    â€œI want to live.” She bent over him and kissed him on the lips. He didn’t have the strength to turn away, and before he knew it he was returning her kiss as enthusiastically as she was delivering it. She smelled like stale sweat and fear and concern, but it was also the scent of life. He could feel it in her pulse, in her lips, in the way she put weight on him carefully, avoiding his arm.
    He was already naked under the towel.
    The heat of her erased the pain in his arm and the robot spiders and everything else he should be thinking about. It almost erased the pain of the last sight he had of Colin.

The mood in the map room felt thick and dark.
    Ruby sat on one of the benches along the wall, still fuming even though the command staff had been gone for at least twenty minutes. Haric had fallen asleep near her. His head and arms were pillowed on the bench and she could just hear his soft snores.
    She stared at her journal as she struggled with words for speeches. All of her phrases came out awkward, but it was better than staring at the map table and waiting for news. Even though she was shut out of the real discussions, Ix did occasionally provide updates. The last had been unhelpful; a reminder that while they were trying to blow up the invader, it might be trying to blow them up, too.
    Any moment could be her last. Their last.
    As if sensing her thoughts, Haric moaned in his sleep.
    There were a lot of people on the ship who knew less than she did. They would know enough to be frightened; rumors were social blood through every level of the ship.
    She shouldn’t be writing about speeches, she should be giving one.
    â€œIx?” She whispered so she wouldn’t wake up Haric.
    â€œYes, Ruby?”
    â€œCan you broadcast throughout the ship from here?”
    â€œYes Ruby. But I will not. Only command staff are allowed to broadcast from here.”
    Of course. The anger fisted even tighter in her, like a screw being turned slowly. “Where can I broadcast to everyone?”
    â€œFrom any common.”
    â€œWill you also run a feed for me? So I can see what happens in the cargo bay with the robots?”
    â€œI can run it to your journal.”
    It could do more, but she could live with this much. “Run the feed to Haric’s journal, too. And Ani’s. And make an announcement that I’ll be talking. Tell everyone.”
    â€œYes, Ruby.”
    The AI couldn’t feel, but she was almost certain it understood sarcasm, at least on some level.
    Ruby stood up quietly so she wouldn’t wake Haric. She went home and took a shower and put on the best clothes she had: a pair of neat red pants and a deep green shirt with a blue vest the exact pale shade of her eyes. She circled her neck with multi-colored beads and pinned her hair up. Remembering the unexpected hike through the below corridors the evening of the festival, she slipped on comfortable boots that she could run in. She stopped back by the map room and shook Haric’s shoulder softly. “Wake up. We’re leaving.”
    Ani lay stretched out on a bench, her tall form folded and one foot hanging off. Ruby shook her shoulder. “Come with me?”
    Ani opened her eyes and blinked at Ruby. “What’s happened? Did the bombs work?”
    â€œThey’re not there yet. We may have