“Take it,” Indigo said. “On the top there is a hidden switch; press it, and the light can be used as a communicator even if we’re not in sight of each other. Messages will be felt as vibrations against the skin. We can communicate that way, if anything goes wrong.”

The collar-light dangled, ghostly violet.

“Take it,” Indigo insisted.

I took it. “What are you leaving for yourself?” I asked. Tamara looked strange, half-alien, with a Minister’s gauntlet strapped over the sleeve of her Republican jacket and two Minister blades in her hands. One’s collar-light was warm and heavy in my palm.

“I have my knife,” Indigo said, and knelt beside me. “Is this the error message?”

Continue? The computer asked again, plaintive and confused. I quickly hit Continue and the transmission started up again.

“Yeah, you hit the button I just pressed whenever it shows up,” I said. “Indigo, we’ll be back soon.”

“I know.” He lifted my hands from the sides of the box to place his hands there instead. “Go quickly, or you may not make it to the Viper in time.”

“Let’s go, Sean,” Tamara said. She’d tucked the two knives into her belt, one on either side.

I lingered at the door, despite her urging. I’d taken Benny’s flashlight, and the absence of the narrow beam meant the only light in the room was Indigo’s collar light.

“Shay,” I named him, and at the same time I flashed out Indigo’s true name with One’s collar-light, a slow blossoming brightness and a heartbeat-pulse.

He turned to me with an expression like a riverbed exposed to the sun.

I couldn’t forgive him if he was dead. “Promise me you’ll be alive when we get back,” I said to Indigo. “Don’t tell me about odds and likelihood and when the sun might nova. Just promise me.”

Indigo’s eyes reflected the blue glow of his collar light. “I promise.”

“Promise me in Kystrene,” I said.

“I promise,” Shay said, in the language of my people, the language spoken in Itaka, whose people he and I together had made extinct.

“We’ll be back,” I promised, and I left Lab 17 with Lantern-Eyes.

CHAPTER EIGHTY FIVE:

Memory

“Okay, it’s not far, but we’ve got to be fast,” Tamara said.

“Preaching to the choir,” I said. One’s collar-stone felt heavy at the base of my throat while I fumbled through fastening it. I wasn’t used to wearing necklaces, but it seemed to feel extra heavy, like I was carrying the weight of its bearer and not just her jewelry.

“We’re near a vent,” Tamara said, looking around the room. “There should be a chimney sticking out the hull near here. Once we’re in the Viper, we can use that chimney as a landmark.”

I finally got the necklace fastened. “Great, let’s go.”

She grabbed at my arm. “Not that way. Follow me.”

Right. I wasn’t on my own anymore. I followed Tamara when she went to the left. Even in the hidden lab, she knew how to get around.