Common Bonds by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: fra
Format: epub
Publisher: Claudie Arseneault
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

It should’ve been a long two months, but between chess and their old favorite movies, time flew. Dad played every classic space holovid he could download, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Firefly to the newly released Asimov Foundation trilogy. Soon they were passing Pluto. Communications back to Earth took an hour and required precise calculations to hit the planet. It was time for the Jump, and Elanor was alone. Almost.

“We’re far enough away from the gravity pulls of Jupiter and Sol,” Dad reported. It wasn’t something he would’ve normally said, making the voice sound more like a computer. “The ship can now perform the Jump.”

It was time. Time to end this. Time to join her friends, José and Damien. Then she could wait for her father on the other side.

“OK, start the Jump sequence,” Elanor said.

“No.” That was her Dad’s voice and a slap to her face.

“Excuse me?”

“There were times you played chess because you wanted to spend time with me, and there were times you played chess to win. Supergirl, I can tell from your face, you’re not playing to win.”

“What do you know! You’re not my real Dad! Dad’s back on Earth dying, and there’s nothing this space Jump will do about it!”

Elanor sucked her breath down her throat. Had she just yelled that? Out loud?

“Can you delete that from the ship’s records?”

Her voice was tiny. The voice of a little girl who had just made her Daddy cry.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Supergirl,” Dad answered. “The last thing I have on record is me saying ‘you need to play to win.’”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

But in her mind, Elanor saw Dad touch his finger to the side of his nose. That was his version of a wink; his way of saying, this is just between us.

“You know FTL is possible,” Dad said. “You don’t have to solve the whole puzzle, just the next move.”

“And live to tell the tale.”

But her voice had grit in it. Her love of the puzzle was rising. Elanor could envision the problem as a chessboard.

But it was bigger than any game she’d ever played with her dad. It was like the chess games from the old Star Trek series they’d watched together. Three levels of chess boards with pieces above and below. Elanor couldn’t win the entire game alone.

But maybe she didn’t have to. Maybe she just had to figure out the next step. After all, she had an entire army of brilliant friends back home ready and able to win this together. They just needed the next move.

Elanor could figure out one move. She could win that small battle.

“I’ve got an abort sequence all lined up,” Dad said. “If you figure anything out, just say the word.”

Her face hardened into her chess face. Elanor couldn’t save her Dad, but she could save his family. She couldn’t bring back her friends, but she could save their families.

Elanor had trained for this. No, Dad had trained her for it, to solve puzzles, one step at a time.

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