The Worst of All Possible Worlds by Alex White

Author:Alex White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2020-07-27T23:00:00+00:00

Boots sat by Nilah’s bedside as Malik adjusted the pumps and prepared to bring her out of deep sleep. A duraplex splint had been wrapped around her stump, but there wasn’t much work to do on it—the cut had been clean and cauterized below the knee.

It was way nicer than what Mother had done to Boots’s shoulder. She’d never forgotten the scrape of metal claws on bone.

Cordell had told her to be there when Nilah woke up. Boots felt it was Orna’s job, but that hadn’t carried water. She was the only one who could understand, he’d argued, eventually winning out.

The scanners chimed lightly, and Nilah smacked her lips. A pulse pattern traveled up her dermaluxes as they initialized, ending at her wrists.

“Water,” she croaked, and the med bot served her a straw through which she sipped.

“Morning,” said Boots.

“Ugh,” Nilah replied, rolling over and pulling the covers up. Then she scrunched up her face and began to shake her stump. “Sodding leg fell asleep.”

Boots grimaced. Nilah was technically correct.

“I’ll be nearby if you need me,” said Malik, abandoning Boots. “Good luck.”

“What time is it?” said Nilah, continuing to try and flex her missing appendage.

“Almost day cycle,” said Boots. “You need to open your eyes, because I have some bad news.”

Nilah opened her eyes with a face like she smelled something rotten. She sat up in her bed, and it took her no time at all to figure out what was wrong with her right leg.

“Oh,” she said.

As initial reactions went, at least she wasn’t screaming in horror.

“I—” Nilah squinted, visibly searching her memory. “Orna saved me, didn’t she?”

Boots raised an eyebrow. “She did. How are you feeling?”

“Incomplete. Where is she?”

“You’re taking this remarkably well.”

A cautionary look. “Would you rather I start weeping like a schoolchild?”

Boots stroked her own metal manipulator, unconsciously running a finger along the seam where it met her shoulder. “Well, you’re putting me to shame. I started shouting at the doctors when I found I was missing a hand.”

“Not my style. Haven’t cried since I lost my shot with the Driver’s Crown at Vorlanti four years ago.”

The loss of a limb and the loss of a championship hardly struck Boots as equivalent, but she held her tongue. Nilah had always been so much braver than most, willing to dive into hopeless situations like punching out springflies or hacking demented ancient warships.

And she’d been doing so much crying recently.

“That is one hundred percent false,” said Boots.

“Yeah, but I don’t feel like admitting it.”

She reached over to press the bed raise button, sitting up, and Boots saw her lip tremble. She blinked a few times as if testing her eyes, then swung her leg over the edge of the bed.

“I have to be honest with you, Boots,” she said, “I was getting a little jealous. Here you’ve been traipsing around with an arm cannon, and I—a galaxy-renowned mechanist—have no big implants at all, just the dermaluxes.”

“That’s one way to find a bright side. It isn’t exactly a picnic.”

Nilah looked at her sidelong, then examined her stump as her dermaluxes dimmed.

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