I got scared. Wrote a simple prog to make a bluemetal bar. Why didn't I do this before now? If Mican is somehow alive--

I got up and made myself look through the glass. At almost too many doors down to see it, Mican laid on a table. A table that looked like Kirnonos' Lab.

Didn't see anything moving.

My heart beat up in my chest! But I tapped codes. Another room. I smashed biomes as I went, in a panic! Another room! I smashed and ran. Repeat. Repeat!

Finally, I could see in that room. He's in stasis. Nothing moving. But, right here is another server. A server for that room?

I tapped the code. I'm stiff with this cold. Sick of this fear, I just want to die and go be with my husband! But, I went to that cube. Took out my anger on it! Smashed it through the top. Why is this one breakable?

But, in this room, power went down. Stasis went down. Mican's still frozen. Without progs to slow the process and run others to keep him from dying, he's toast. Stasis, like kitchen progs, is among the most complicated prog of all. Just for good measure, I smashed all the biomes in this little room! It felt good.

I wrote lock progs to keep mechs out. There's only 2 doors. Then, I locked every one all the way back to my husband.

And the server in this room, that power, the lights, flickered out as I climbed into the first aid mech with him. Got power for a little while before it, too, goes out.

"Take us to healers." Of course, there's no healer. Esta Faho moved. This facility's on the other side of the planet.

It held me by the door so I could tap a code, but it's down. So, of course, we're trapped in here. But an arm reached out and slid in between the door and the wall. Click. It slid it open. Took us out. Slid it closed. Click. Huh.

While it skittered along and went through that last door, I mentally looked at what I could remember of my prog.

We passed impossible neat lines of biomes, supplies of all sorts, mechs trying to work with too many crowded in each room. I looked back. Some of them backed into the room we just left, and they cracked the cube open. The line moved. There had been just enough room for us to get through, but now they couldn't follow us, so they went into that room. Cracks echoed like thunder! It worked?

Then we got into that first place, with the steep sides. These things aren't designed for climbing, are they?

But it threw a rope with a hook and eventually caught. We went up, up, up and over, and it held on with its legs as it moved the hook and lowered us.

It's a sunny day, but the winds are blowing that poison dust around. You have to stay in on windy days, but there's just a mountain range. No shelter. What do I care, anyway?

A crash behind us startled me! All the walls fell in. And a crater formed, and crash! Crash! It kept going! There were other floors! Crash! Crash! Crash! It went on for minutes, as the little cart with its net went tap, tap, tap on the expanse of black obsidian.

Until it was the crunch, crunch, crunch of yellow sand.

Suddenly, there was an explosion! Thank goodness I wasn't looking back! Light played on the rocks, red light. The ground shook, but these little mechs are designed to travel in earthquake areas and get people out. Sunlight will power it.

On it went. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Triples like a Zheien heartbeat. Farley thawed. I held his curled-up body. Clouds of sweat-powder sublimed away.

"Not enough power for stasis?" I kissed Farley's forehead. Thought about that Sleeping Beauty joke. Sighed. "I guess my True Love's Kiss isn't sincere enough. Oh, Farley. I thought, when we left Earth, that we'd survive all this. We got through the Newness. We survived Mican! But maybe that's enough. We saved the Thirteen. We didn't save our people, though. Mican messed that up. Without the necklace, that's it.

"Maybe we used up all our wishes, but I wish we were back home in our bed, and you were just really asleep. Do I love you enough to power one stupid wish?"

I waited, and tried to somehow love him more, to make just one stupid, crazy wish happen.

"Okay, then. You're dead, and I want my ticket to Elohaia. Here goes!" I focused all my telepathy into healing song. Using my telepathy hurt, so maybe I'll die fast. I sang, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and put my whole heart into it. My stomach growled. If this doesn't kill me, it takes 3 days to die. Starvation.

I remembered what Pie taught me about healing, because you have to know a little to write a prog. Points One, that's across the forehead. I spread my fingers out as I sang. When you heal someone, you look at the points before you sing. I was just singing and hoping they'd warm up so I could feel 'em. Nothing. I tried to sing louder.

But, I saw lines. One reached up into the sky, and I followed it.

That Greek fella used a ball of string to find his way out of the Minotaur's maze. This was a straight line, like a string. Where's it going? My telepathy, it's not working, because the necklace dust is blocking it? So how'm I seeing this string?

"Pirad, we can't give up! They're out there, somewhere." Molly threw her arms in the air.

Pirad sighed, and his lips gave a buzz. "I cannot determine where they went. Or how. It was not one of my portals, or I would know." He drummed his fingers on the table. This Pirad is in a red-violet room. Like a museum. Armor, pieces of sashes with pins. Weapons.

Ry'nao reached out his arms and Molly sat on his lap. Rested her head on his chest. "Could we send someone to Esta Faho?"

"I have an ScSv Team there, but they are preparing to leave."

"How close are they to where that weapons facility was?"

"They are there. My diplomat is on his ship waiting—he tells me there was a disturbance! The scientists were taking measurements outside when they saw a ship trying to take material from the sands, but an unseen force damaged it and they feared to approach."

"Can they search the area?"

Oh, my heart beat fast! "They know we're here! Molly knows! I don't know how—mech, look for a ship. Take us to it! The nearest ship!"

It stopped. Turned about 5 degrees. Another 5. Another.

"Farley! Honey, wake up! I see a ship! There's a diplomat in front of it! Please, Farley, wake up!" I barely made out the glint of a sky blue ship. Someone in Tom's family? He has lots of relatives, but it's probably not anyone from Esta Faho, anyway.

Farley's cold. No sweat-powder. I thought if he was sweating, he has to be alive. Stasis ran out, and his body's warm from the sun. He's not breathing. Zheien can breathe through their skin for a short time, but it's been hours and hours. The sun's getting low in the sky again. Do I want to be found? But his people can have a funeral. Then I'll just get in his stasis chamber in Burial Chambers with him. No cloned husband. My work's finished.

Why am I alive? I keep asking, but I don't have an answer. I should be dead, if he's dead. When a couple shares a mind link--

That diplomat went to the ScSv Team. Purple uniforms. One of them's pointing at us.

"Look! Isn't that a mech? What's it doing 'way out here? The facility's destroyed! If it came from there, it walked for hours! Somebody's in it!"

A portal whooshed and two Thordes took us out. The mech collapsed in a heap.

The one holding Farley sighed.

"Lady, what happened? Who are you?"

I couldn't look at 'em. "He's Farleikon, Master Diplomat Of Esta Faho, my husband. He died. Mican was here, and he took the necklace and broke it. Farley absorbed most of the dust and I absorbed some of it—but I found a way to break the server in the facility. You need to make sure it's all dead! I wrote a prog to manufacture things, so it would overload the server. It had Mican in stasis but I broke its server so stasis went down. Is he really dead?"

I babbled on and the ScSv Team promised to run checks. They put me and Farley's body on the diplomat's ship and he ran stasis.

I refused to eat, but he just ran nutrition progs.

"I beg, Lady, please eat—"

"I don't wanna live without my husband!" I just curled up with my back against Farley and cried.

Finally, I calmed down. He was talking to the ScSv Team. "I never saw anything like this! The facility has 256 floors. Apparently, the floor cracked in the first one and it pancaked down all the way. We sent a sim down to check. There is not one living cell in any of the biomes. There is no way to restore data from any of it. I'm a hub engineer and I ought to know! If the media is over 75% contaminated, there is no means to do dead cell work and get data. The facility itself is so damaged, it's not usable for a new install. Who would build the whole thing of melted obsidian? It's as if that was their failsafe, if they were attacked, so this site could never be used for anything again. Short of bringing a sandformer to build an entirely new facility. But the mine's depleted. There aren't any mines still in operation on this side."

I smiled. I did destroy it. But, whatever Mican was after is still here. We didn't finish the mission. I sighed.

They warmed the engines. "Let's get back to Alb fast so we can give this data to Pirad. He said we could use a white portal, and it's just 8 hours. Rikonaser, you'll need a day's rest after this. I'm sorry."

He laughed, and it was a baritone laugh, like Farley's. "What trial is that? I will lie down and sleep while we travel. Pirad said when I take a white portal, if I rest well, I shall only need a half day's rest. I wish to find more pirsees in the festival."

Pirsees, among sweet pastries in the festival, was something both of us liked. They started engines, and soon, I fell asleep.