Gallowglass by S.J. Morden

Author:S.J. Morden [Morden, S.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2020-12-09T16:00:00+00:00

21

The estimated overall change in all natural mortality associated with a 1°C increase in maximum apparent temperature above the city-specific threshold was 3.12% in the Mediterranean region and 1.84% in the north-continental region. Stronger associations were found between heat and mortality from respiratory diseases, and with mortality in the elderly.

M. Baccini et al., ‘Heat effects on mortality in 15 European cities’, Epidemiology, 2008

‘Would you have let me be spaced?’ he asked in the darkness. The air thrummed, and the mattress they lay on was constantly in motion, a low-value earthquake, every minute of every hour. Exhaustion forced them to sleep, but the vibrations woke them too early. This was not the cradle of the deep, the slow, rhythmic swing between sea waves, but a jangle of white noise.

No one had thought about this in advance.

‘You know I can’t answer that,’ said May. ‘You shouldn’t even be asking.’

‘Does this, any of this, mean nothing then?’

‘No. Just that its meaning is orthogonal to the safety of the ship and the crew.’ She raised herself on one elbow, and he felt her breath on his skin. ‘You have to understand, Jack. You need to put that first. What we do is what we do. It’s … I’m not going to deny it’s nice.’

‘Nice?’

‘Better than nice. I like you. We’re good together.’

‘But?’

‘Yes, you have a nice butt too.’

‘That’s not what I meant.’

‘If I went bat-shit crazy, started to trash the ship and tried to kill you and the rest of the crew, would you stop them from throwing me out the airlock?’

‘I don’t know?’

‘Is the wrong answer. If I was trying to put a hole in the side of Control, or deliberately poisoning the breathing mix?’

‘I wouldn’t want to space you.’

‘No one wants to.’ She kissed his shoulder, and he shivered. ‘No one ever wants to. But we might have to. You might have to. To save yourself. To save Arush and Julia and Patricio and Marta and Runi and Kayla.’

‘And Andros?’

‘This isn’t about whether I’d space you, or whether you’d space me. We both know that.’

‘No one’s talking about it.’

‘We’re all thinking it, though. It’s up to everyone to come to their own decision.’

‘Shouldn’t we – you and me – at least discuss it?’

‘No. It’s too dangerous. Everyone is open to persuasion. Everyone is malleable. Especially you. You’re technically competent. Sometimes brilliant. But emotionally, you’re a mixture of a blank slate and a car crash. I could twist you around my little finger with a single word, and I’m not going to do that.’

‘Well. Thanks.’ Jack rolled onto his back. The deep, chthonic movements made his teeth ache. There had to be some way of damping them. It was the Coloma’s points of contact with the surface which transmitted the vibrations: the anchors that held them safely down, the landing shocks which provided them with stability also cursed them. A centimetre above the rock would solve the problem, but they couldn’t hover there indefinitely.

‘Is Andros NovaS?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know. Probably, yes. It’s a complication we didn’t need and can’t afford.

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