On her 15th Birthday in April, 2169 CE, Emily watched the sun rise over the southern slopes of the volcanos in the west, as she did every day. This time she wasn't listening to an asari audio book. She was thinking. She intended to complete Xenolinguistics, and then push to be captain of a military ship to learn how space operations worked and study stellar cartography. From there she would pursue work in the diplomatic corps to gain friends in high places while she studied xenobiology. When the time was right, she would finally put together a ship, a crew and ongoing funding to explore deep into uncharted space, far away from the relays.
The asari were the most likely species to invest in such a long term mission, but they would be too nervous of triggering another rachni or krogan war. They would certainly not trust a human to lead first contact. The salarians would be more eager if they were persuaded of the research opportunities, but would have neither the patience to see it through nor the faith in a human to get it right. Turians would see it as a trivial pursuit that was both irresponsible and impossible. Quarians might humour her for a while as part of their search for a new homeworld, but their interest would wane as the expedition got further from the relay network. The volus would hear that there were no profits and walk out. Some wealthy humans might back her, except that the council species those rich humans did business with would frown on them for doing so. The Elcor weren't predisposed to say no, for what that was worth, but they were slow to gamble.
Even with the right resources, there was a good chance nothing could be found in one human lifetime. How much would she miss by chasing such a long shot dream? How many times had she already missed the sunrise because she had her nose in a textbook? Emily decided to redouble her efforts to enjoy every breath.
Later that day, Sophia helped the crew of a freighter, who were dying from something odd. The crew said they quarantined the neurotoxin, but they failed. Sophia was exposed, and didn't know it. She performed five spinal surgeries in thirty-nine hours, because she was the only doctor in the sector who knew how. When her own symptoms presented during the last of the surgeries, there simply wasn't time to get to one of the other ten surgeons in the galaxy who could stop the damage short of the brain.
Meanwhile, Emily was lying on the branch of a tree on an extranet call with Professor Hamilton going over some grammar she was flummoxed by in a practice exam. Gina was on her back on the branch below, studying for her end of year assessments and occasionally saying something hilariously creative about how someone should have murdered Shakespeare. Of course Professor Hamilton could never resist a haughty return, which always made the girls look at each other in not quite silent amusement. Alice and Fiona were also revising for their literature assessment on the picnic rug at the foot of the tree.
They were by the river, about two miles upstream of the small marina and the only road back to Mindoir. Emily had her sidearm and her knife, just in case, but provided nobody did anything stupid this part of the jungle was more or less tame. When the call ended, they were going to celebrate Emily's birthday with and afternoon spent swimming in the river and basking in the sun at the water's edge. Gina, Alice and Fiona had brought a picnic hamper which they wouldn't let the birthday girl near until later. It was a perfect day until Gina's omni sang to say she had a message.
"It's your dad, Em. Isn't he, like, a hundred miles away with that research team?" Gina asked as she finished the sentence she was writing on her pad.
"He's probably just bored of nerd speak. Ah – no offence professor."
"Hmm. Don't forget how expensive your distractions are on an interstellar call, Emily."
Emily shrugged and said, "I get line ninety now, but if we translate that your way, what's the deal with lines thirty and one hundred and seven? It changes the whole structure. I mean, line thirty can't be saying "he demanded that the army demand of him dot dot dot." So…"
"So the alternatives are what, in the context?" Professor Hamilton asked. "You've got the right structure, but what do you always miss?"
"Oh." Emily steepled her fingers to her forehead and scrunched her eyes for a moment. "S***. Yeah. Which explains why I couldn't crack the damned future tenses. Is this whole thing just…"
Gina suddenly reached up to grab at one of Emily's belt loops. "Em!"
Emily's chest tightened at Gina's urgency. "What? Is he ok?"
"Em, it's not him, it's your mom. We should go, like, now. They've got her in surgery. Come on, it's like two miles to a transit point!"
Professor Hamilton's voice told Emily, "Go. Just make sure to do your other practice paper tonight, or I won't have time to…"
Emily hung up and jumped down. She urged Alice and Fiona to hurry, because they weren't allowed outside the colony boundary without Emily and her sidearm. They grabbed their stuff and ran two miles to the transit point. The next pickup from that end of the colony was in fifty minutes. Emily could run the remaining three miles in half that, so she and Gina left the others to carry the hamper and ran on without them. Gina pulled up ten minutes later, hands on her knees, and panted, "Don't wait for me, Em. Go, I'll catch up."
So Emily kicked up through her gears and managed the last two miles in twelve minutes flat. It took her longer to find out where her mum was. She paced around the waiting room until Gina arrived with her curly blonde hair falling out of the ponytail, either plastered and wet around her face and neck or sticking out uncontrollably. They hugged hard and Emily told her about the toxin. They were operating but the doctor had never done the procedure before, and it was as likely to kill Sophia as save her. Alice and Fiona turned up later with the hamper, and they shared a renewed round of hugs.
Emily's ceaseless movement became tighter and more aggressive as the hours ticked off, despite the best efforts of her friends. She felt confined and wished for a tree to kick.
Elijah called. The garrison was putting together a volunteer team to fly out and cover for him so he could come back, but the earliest ETA was tomorrow morning.
Alice and Fiona got recalled by their parents. Gina's mum brought a sleeping bag in case the surgery went on that long. Gina argued with her mum and demanded to stay. She won.
In the middle of the night, the surgeon finally came out. Gina was asleep on the chairs. Emily was doing press-ups faster than normal. She leapt to her feet and counted three interminably long heartbeats before the surgeon finally met her eyes and said, "The good news is, she's alive. We…"
"YES!" Emily screamed, running to shadowbox the wall for a moment before she wondered why and leapt over the coffee table to pull Gina, bleary eyed, to her feet. She threw her arms around Gina and span her around as she shouted, "Yes! F***ing bl**** hell yes!" and started to sob.
Once she'd near enough squeezed the life out of Gina and rocked around in her arms for a moment, Emily wiped her eyes and tried to collect herself.
The surgeon said, "We don't know how much more time she has. The toxin reached a critical phase before we stabilised her. We did what we could to slow it down, but it's too far advanced. I'm sorry. She may only have a few weeks to live."
Emily blinked. Her face fell. Gina grabbed her to stop her breaking her hand or the wall. They hugged and Emily stared at nothing over her shoulder. Pressure mounted in her chest and throat, but she quietly pulled away to open her omni tool and call Elijah.
He took one look at her, shook his head and snarled at the sky. Emily watched the view on the screen fall away and he unleashed the most dangerous bark she'd ever heard from him. She reckoned he jump kicked something at chest height, really, really hard. He followed his bark with a roar. The camera spun again, probably when he span his other foot around to hit whatever it was he abused before.
Emily urged him, "Dad, breathe. Please. We – she… She's not gone – she's – not yet. We have a few weeks." Gina squeezed her from behind and Emily swiped her wrist over her eye. "Dad – I…"
"I'm coming, Em," he told her. "Hang tight, I'm coming. But be there, Em. I don't care what anyone says, or who says it, you be there when she comes around. Tell her… F***!" The camera view moved violently again and from what Emily could see he had his forehead pressed to a tree. "Just don't miss it, Em. Please. Not a second. I'm going to call Commander Sullivan again and tell him what'll happen if he doesn't send an emergency airlift, tonight. I'm coming. As soon as I can. Ok? Breathe with her for me, Em. I love you kiddo." He bared his gritted teeth at the sky again and repeated, "I'm on my way."
The call blanked and the screen closed, leaving Emily swaying slightly, and gripping Gina's arms that were around her waist while tears started to flow.
Sophia made it through the surgery. Emily was by her bed when she came around in the small hours.