NirSighted Chapter Twenty-Two: Make It, Break It, Take It

River stretched her arms out as far as they would go, looking for what she sought. The rope holding her to Nir caught and tugged at her pack, and she fingered it thoughtfully with her left hand.

Nir said, "All right, Miss Tam. Remember when I asked you to use the communication board?"

"She remembers."

"This is just like this."

"Completely different," River disagreed. Her right hand found what she wanted, and she gripped it tightly. With her left hand, she removed her pack and stepped away from Nir.

Nir had been prepared to tell River what to do, but now she saw that her vocalizing instruction was completely unnecessary. Even Catie was getting the point. Nir decided to help instead of watching aimlessly.

They stood in a circular room, roughly five feet in diameter, the only entrance the one they'd just come through. The walls were covered in rickety metal shelves, and all of these metal shelves contained miles and miles of plastic tubing. The tubing wound around the shelves' supports, coiled on the shelves, and impeded the floor. The tubes were attached to each other with red nozzles and couplings. A large monitor on the sole blank space on the wall showed a diagram of the tubes, which looked surprisingly simple compared to the mess in front of them. And all of the tubes were responsible for controlling the Council's computer system, which was in absolute disarray.

River had approached one section of tubing, which was disconnected from the others and was hissing loudly. She threw back her head and laughed. This was going to be fun.

The three Readers, moving together, began to reconnect tube to tube, twisting the red nozzles into place. One to another to another and a circuit was completed, lighting up blue. One to another to another to another; the circuits were never ending. As each circuit was completed successfully, it lit up in a different color. Nir was going to explain to Catie and River that the different colors controlled a different part of the computer system, but she realized that River was blind and Catie was a Reader, and neither of them needed explanations for what they did.

Nir turned her back just for a second, but then there was a great flash of light and a loud noise that sounded like a boom-stone. The entire ceiling of the room fell in. The last thing Nir saw before darkness swept her was Catie and River, both lying prone on the floor.

"What was that?" Mal wanted to know. The entire outpost was shaking with reverberations.

"I don't know," Albert said worriedly. He checked his watch; it had only been ten minutes since the girls had entered the control chamber.

Another boom echoed throughout the outpost.

"That's it, we're goin' in," Mal said. Without waiting for Albert's approval, he threw open the door and marched into the control chamber.

All three Readers were on the floor. Catie and River lay on their backs, as though they had fainted, while Nir was curled into the fetal position on the far side of the room. An alarm was blaring, and there were four Love-Bots in the room. The ceiling had completely fallen in.

Mal took aim and shot at one of the Love-Bots. There was a tinny noise, like a coin hitting a tin plate, and the Love-Bot turned to face Mal.

"Don't waste yer ammunition," Albert yelled at Mal. He had crossed the room and was taking Nir's pulse. "The only way to override the P-56 circuit is to disable the entire system."

"Sir, how do we do that?" Zoë asked.

Mal looked wildly around the room. The Love-Bot he had shot was walking towards him, an angry expression on its usually passive face. The other three were looking blankly around the room for an enemy. Their robotic limbs seemed contorted in confusion.

Albert stood up and removed something from his pack. Mal couldn't see the object clearly because it was quite small. But as Albert attached it to one of the lengths of tubing, Mal understood what was going on. Albert meant to destroy the Council outpost, and that object he'd pulled was one of the smallest – and fastest-working – explosive devices in the black, known as a Red Robin.

"Grab them!" Albert hollered, running back towards them. He knelt and scooped up River, gesturing wildly at Zoë and Mal to do the same with Catie and Nir.

Only one Love-Bot followed them as they ran out from the control room, and that was the one Mal had shot, and even it was moving drunkenly. Mal thought the Love-Bot revolution might have ended and they had gotten lucky.

As they ran from the outpost, the Red Robin detonating behind them, he found he was very, very wrong.

River opened her eyes and saw the strange face of a man above her. She didn't know what it meant, only that she was no longer blind. She felt very sleepy and her body felt heavy. She wondered where Simon was, but she figured she would find out soon enough.

She closed her no-longer-blind eyes and succumbed to the darkness.

Nir opened her eyes to find that she was in Zoë's arms. The capable first mate was carrying her. Nir couldn't hear anything, but she could read Zoë's lips: "Lao tian ye!" They were in trouble, Nir surmised, but she also knew her body was useless. She submitted to the darkness and its warm grasp.