Grey understood they had just a few minutes.
The Lift made another groan.
Jupiter gave a whimper, even as she put away the command sheeve into the bag. Grey's arms tightened on the girl's thin shoulders, and they lifted her higher on their hips.
"Hold on, youngling," they whispered.
As the Lift shuddered around them, Grey leaped. Jupiter pressed a muffled scream into their neck, as she gripped tighter on their body. Grey let go of Jupiter. Arms reaching. The youngling's grip became painful, little nails digging into naked flesh. Grey only kept reaching. Their three-fingered hand caught the very edge of the emergency exit. The bottom of the Lift dropped just seconds after. The weight of Jupiter, and their own dangled over what was miles and miles of the lift's shaft. Blue particles, the precursor to the more modern, freer, Lift technology fluctuated wildly across them. Grey hissed out a curse, voice a high pitch worble. They gripped desperately at the lip of the emergency exit. They felt their arms strain at the weight of the little girl, themselves, and the bag. They were strong, but it was dead weight at the top of the Lift was still bucking widely as it struggled to stay on course. Grey twisted in place, to keep Jupiter somewhat level, and climbed through the exit. It was difficult, and with Jupiter's cast even more so. However, it was not an option to fail.
It was not an option for them to die.
They reached the top of the Lift, still clinging to each other. Grey looked around them, trying to understand what was the next course.
The technology was of the highest class. The highest stability. But it was failing. The system had not engaged the safety of speed nor taken into account of the state of the shaft of the Lift. What was that word that Nina had been fond of saying? Fuck.
"Grey!" Jupiter was screaming, her voice higher with the rush of chemicals her body was producing.
"It will be alright," Grey told her.
They calculated. Low chance of survival beyond this point. Chance, forty percent with Jupiter. That is doubled if I leave the youngling. An insidious, tempting thought. If they threw her to one of the passing levels- She was a quick youngling. She would reach the appropriate ledge and be able to find her way out from there. Eventually. The bag had water and substance leftover from their long trip. Not much, but enough to hold her over, and she would ration it. The same could be said if Grey lept for a ledge themselves. But is my life any less than her's? A rebellious thought. Unthinkable for a mere Keeper. NO. I cannot even think of leaving her for my own life. If I save her, she would be grateful. My Kind will never be forgotten by her. Any and all Broods will be saved. What is one life to all of us? Grey knew the survival of Jupiter was arguably the most important thing.
Grey knew they had been selfish since the Cleansing. They had been too cowardly to join in with their Brood's rebellion. They had turned a blind eye when their siblings had been killed in front of them, had pressed on with their tasks of raising humans as livestock despite what they knew was true of their own sentience. They had never seen a Harvest, original to Earth that they were, but they had been prepared to see it through.
I just wanted to live. But I did not live. I survived. But waiting for a human Cleansing of the planet Earth was killing me.
Grey looked at the frightened face of the younglings in front of them. Green and brown eyes looked at them, for instruction, for hope, for life.
"Jupiter… Jupiter be ready."
For a moment… For a moment it was as if I stood in that new Verse that she wanted to make. But such a Verse will take sacrifice.