“Stop it.” Audrey gave me another sharp shake. “You can’t do anything about whatever SpaceTech is doing. You’re a worker. That’s it. And worrying about all this other crap is just going to distract you. The only thing you need to be thinking about is getting officially transferred to mining duty, and then not dying while mining.”

I pulled away from her to lean against the wall again, banging the back of my head against it a few times. “I don’t know if I can ignore it.”

“And what can you do about it?”

I closed my eyes. “Nothing.” Absolutely nothing. There wasn’t a goddamned thing I could do about any of this, but it still felt like it was my responsibility somehow. I was here. There had to be something I could do…

“Listen to her.” Ahiga’s sharp tone had me opening my eyes. “Whether you know it or not, your spirit—watching what you’ve been going through the last thirteen days—has affected just about every person on this base. The ripple you’re causing is having a bigger impact than you can see. So you keep kicking ass. You keep fighting and surviving, and trust that I’m doing everything I can on my end about the rest of it.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just watched him.

He got up and cracked open the door. “Twenty-two hundred. I’ll get you into the bar. I’m going to send another goddamned message. See if I can hurry things along somehow.”

I nodded. “I’ll be there.”

“Come on,” Audrey said. “Let’s go get you some food.”

I made a face. “It’s between mealtimes. It’ll be disgusting.”

Audrey scrunched up her nose. “Sure, but it’ll be calories. Which you need. I bet Della will sneak you some dessert.”

I gagged. “That stuff isn’t dessert. It’s toxic.” As was everything on Abaddon.

Audrey pulled me into the hallway with a laugh. “So dramatic. You make it sound like you’ve almost died a few times.”

I elbowed her, and she laughed harder. Audrey’s joke might not have been enough to make me laugh, but it was enough that I smiled. If there was one bright spot out of all of this, it was Audrey.

Chapter Thirty-One

That night, I waited just down the hall from the bar. I didn’t want to be too close, but I didn’t want to miss Ahiga either. I leaned against the wall, tapping my fingers on my leg. The cameras were watching me, but no one had come to tell me to move. I wasn’t doing anything wrong by being in the hallway. At least not yet.