I pressed the communication button, leaning close to my microphone.

“This is Sekai Rodriguez, piloting Europan Trade Shuttle Number Six-Eight-Three. My ship is currently experiencing a critical failure and we require immediate rescue. My primary reactor was knocked offline, and due to human error, the secondary system was left unfunctional. If anyone can hear me please respond.”

I let go of the button and leaned back in my chair, letting out a heavy sigh.

“How was that?” I asked, glancing at the nearest camera.

“Concise and to the point,” Elliot replied.

“Let’s just hope that someone responds.” I looked at the timer and groaned. “Soon.”

Twenty-nine minutes and fifteen seconds.

Twenty-nine minutes and fifteen seconds that I was in communication range of the outer fringes of Saturn. Twenty-nine minutes and fifteen seconds to try and beg as many dust miners and shuttles that were prowling these parts as possible. Twenty-nine minutes and fifteen seconds to save my life.

“Maybe there’s a military craft out there,” Elliot said. “I hear that sometimes Earth likes to send them out just to show that they still have influence in these parts. They’d be…”

I snorted. “Let’s not get too wishful, Elliot. No point getting our expectations up if…”

A light blinked upon the communication array.

An incoming message.

I pressed the button as fast as I could and the monitor in front of me blinked to life, showing off another ship. It was a dreary looking vessel with a stern-faced captain at the helm. He was old enough to be my father with greasy olive-coloured skin and a head of grey hair.

“This is Captain Sun of the Mining Vessel Yukon, what is your situation?” he asked.

I flashed a strained smile at him. “Oh, thank god someone actually picked up. I’m uploading my situation report to you as we speak.”

I motioned towards the nearest panel and Elliot’s light brightened in response. It took a moment but the data started streaming across the smallest bandwidth I’d ever had to work with. Still, it was functional, climbing at a steady enough rate.

“Essentially my reactor went down during my deceleration burn, leaving me stranded in the middle of space,” I explained. “I was supposed to deliver fresh water to Titan, but well, I’m currently careening past the planet with only a small window to relay this message.”

Sun nodded as the report was finally delivered to him. However, after receiving it, he visibly winced.

That was not a reassuring sign.

He looked up at his camera and seemed like he was about to speak, working his jaw. I prayed that he would at least make an effort, do something to help.

“My ship can’t survive the burn required to save you,” he said, sighing. “I am so sorry, Sekai. At the very least I will attempt to send this message to colonial authorities on Titan. They may have a vessel capable of saving you.”

I tried to speak, to say a hollow thanks, but all I could do was nod.

With that our call came to an abrupt end.

“Do you think Titan can help?” Elliot asked.

I sighed. “The colonial administration is ruled by the gas barons. This isn’t Earth or Ceres. They only do shit when there’s money on the table. And unfortunately, our cargo isn’t quite that valuable.”

“Well that was only a single call,” Elliot offered, trying their best to sound reassuring. But even an AI had its limits. “We still have plenty of time to try another.”

I nodded and drew in a shaky breath. “Let’s do this.”

The red light blinked again and another ship was revealed. Only there would appear to be no crew aboard.

“Son of a bitch,” a deep voice grumbled on their side.

Suddenly the camera was manhandled and pointed towards yet another gruff looking cargo captain. He had chocolatey skin, no hair, and a bountiful black handlebar mustache. He looked like the chief of police from an old buddy cop comedy that I had once watched.

It was something from the 2010s or 2030s, I couldn’t quite remember.

Elliot instantly started to upload the data.

It took a moment but after it was finished, the screen on the other side brightened. The captain immediately sneered, and just like that, ended our call. I wasn’t even allowed to get a word in edgewise.

“Fucking… fuck me!” I groaned, flicking my wrist. “Dude didn’t even give us a chance.”

“Next call coming in,” Elliot said, trying to sound bright.

Though even the reality of the situation seemed to be wearing down upon them. Their voice seemed strained, laboured with something.

Could an AI even feel duress?

Before I could even push the button, the next captain came into frame. I breathed a sigh of relief as a woman appeared on the other side.

She looked like what the Vikings of old would’ve called a shieldmaiden. She had a bold head of red hair and a form sculpted through years of hard labour. She wasn’t much older than myself, maybe only a decade at most. Still that decade had done wonders to her, triggering the part of my brain that was so incredibly gay.

Focus Sekai. Focus!

I had a good feeling about this one.

“H-hey,” I stuttered.

She flashed a cocky smile. “A lot to take in?”

I nodded slowly as I reached up and fiddled with a lock of my hair. “A little.”

“Focus,” Elliot hissed. “Your time is rapidly running out.”

I winced and glanced at the clock, confirming that this was true. What had once been a fully thirtyish minutes had faded rapidly into the late teens.

“I’m uploading our ship's status report to you,” I said, watching as Elliot started to send over the file. “But essentially we suffered a reactor malfunction during our deceleration burn and desperately need assistance. What I’m uploading to you is the status report for our ship, our cargo manifest, and a list of potential maneuvers you could perform in order to reach us.”

She nodded.

As the file finally finished uploading, her brow furrowed.

My heart immediately plummeted as I recognized that look. It was the look of a captain who was already operating on a razor thin margin, wondering if the salvage would be worth the cost of such a stressful burn.

“That’s a whole lot of water you’re carrying,” she murmured.

My ears perked up. That was the first sign I’d received that there was something positive on the horizon. Water was a highly sought-after commodity after all. It was a wisp of hope but it was more than any of the other captains had given me.

“The real stuff too,” I commented. “Not that synthesized crap that they make by fusing oxygen and hydrogen in a plant.”

“Would make you a lot harder to slow down,” she whispered.

My heart sunk. I hadn’t thought about that. Newton's Laws and all that bullshit. Every kilogram of weight that my vessel bore, would require an equal amount of energy in order to slow it down and salvage it.

The shieldmaiden worked her jaw, probably crunching the numbers and giving herself a rough idea of what she was working with here. She then reached out and pushed a button.

“I need Taylor and Selena to the deck immediately,” she ordered before looking back at me. “How long do you have until you slip out of radio range?”

I glanced at the timer that was ticking down beside me. “Sixteen minutes and change, miss…”

“Call me Sara,” she said.

God she really did seem like a Sara.

Sara the Shieldmaiden.

It had a nice ring to it.

“Thank you,” I whispered. Then remembered that I hadn’t given my name either. “I’m Sekai, by the way.”

She snorted. “Don’t go thanking me yet, Sekai. Still haven’t figured out if we’re even able to save your sorry ass. Let alone if we want to.”

I offered a weak smile. “At least you’re the first captain who didn’t hang up on me.”

“Yeah? Well you’re cute. So, I wanted to do you a favour,” she said.

I noticed Elliot’s light dim a little at that comment. Though what did they honestly expect. Wasn’t their whole strategy revolving around me flirting and bargaining my way out of inevitable death.

“I’m going to consult my crew,” Sara said. “And we’ll hopefully have an answer for you in around eight minutes. Until then I’d suggest that you continue to try calling. Always nice to have a plan B if this falls through, right?”

I nodded. “Right.”

And, just like that, our call came to an end.

“Not jealous, are you?” I asked.

Elliot snorted. “Not even a little bit, Sekai. You must do what you can to save yourself.”

“I’m saving both of us, Elliot,” I said, flashing them a coy smile. “Don’t think I’m leaving your sorry ass behind when I get off this death trap.”

“I highly doubt that you have the hard drive space to haul me around, Sekai,” they said. “I’m not a video game or TV show. I’m terabytes of code and neural interfaces.”

“Then we’ll remove the ship's computer system,” I suggested. “Bring the whole thing with us.”

They sighed. “Let us continue calling, shall we?”

I nodded and once more we ran the gauntlet.

More gruff pilots of rust buckets, more people hanging up upon seeing my status, more empty promises of passing my message onto the authorities. There were even a few cute women in there who could offer nothing but good luck and beseeching me to have hope.

The minutes slowly ticked away, until we were essentially circling the drain. A dozen or so calls and all we’d been able to achieve was one promise of potential support. I felt drained, like I’d just gotten off a twelve-hour shift.

“I’m going to die,” I said, throwing back my head and letting out a bellow of frustration. “I’m so fucking dead.”

Elliot’s light faded, barely offering any illumination at all. It was eerie how dark the cabin seemed without their presence.

“We have five minutes until we can finally write this off as a wasted venture,” Elliot whispered, their voice barely audible over the creaking of the ship. “If we don’t…”

Before they could finish, the ship received an incoming call. The monitor before me lit up and an animated phone jingled upon the display. It seemed to be coming from a ship known as Sappho’s Shuttle. I could only imagine who this may have been.

I drew in a steadying breath and let it out slowly. “Here goes nothing.”

The call blinked to life and there were now three women inside of the cockpit, looking into the camera. There was now static in their feed, probably due to the bad reception of being on the edge of our radio’s feeble range.

They all looked like they could be shieldmaidens.

There was of course Sara, who was flanked by an African woman with dreadlocks and someone from the subcontinent who wore a sleeveless shirt. Each looked strong, probably from Earth.

They seemed gravely serious, though they had at the very least kept up their promise to call back.

Sara nodded towards the African woman. “This is Taylor, she’s the ship’s quartermaster.” Then she pointed to the other woman. “And this is Salena, my co-pilot and also the best mathematics major I could get within my price range.”

Salena smirked. “I mostly just linger for the company these days.”

I cleared my throat and Sara promptly blushed.

“Right, right, we only have a few minutes.” She drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “So, guess who’s getting their pretty little ass saved?”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Really?”

Taylor nodded. “Just be thankful that we needed to top off our tanks when we were last in port. I don’t think many ships would have the fuel reserves for something like this.”

“Nor the motivation,” Sara whispered, just loud enough for me to hear. “But we have the fuel, the rations, and most importantly we aren’t going to shatter while undergoing an intense burn. I think Salena has the whole mission plan saved on our navigation system.”

Salena nodded and started to upload a file which made it towards my end at a snail’s pace. The problem with working with such limitations.

“Now, you’re going fairly fast,” Selena commented. “But thankfully you managed to complete about forty percent of your deceleration burn before your reactor conked out. So, what we’re going to do is burn after you at around a gravity and a half. It’ll take about a week or two but we should be able to reach you with ease.”

“Just as long as you don’t starve to death,” Sara said, leaning in close and reading something. “Your ship’s manifest states that your rations are running low.”

I glanced at the nearest camera. “Is this…”

Elliot light brightened a smidge before fading back to normal.

Ah.

“I may have been a little too liberal with my rations,” I admitted, offering a sheepish grin against the sea of critical faces. “But I know for a fact that I have enough protein bars to last me for the foreseeable future.”

Sara smirked. “Going to be a miserable couple of weeks.”

It was sure as shit better than dying.

I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. This earned me a cocked brow from Taylor.

“Sorry, sorry,” I murmured, waving my hand. “I just… I thought I was going to die. So, if the worst thing I have to look forward to is a couple weeks of flavourless soy, then I will happily accept my fate.”

Sara did actually smile at this. “That’s fair.”

“Though we do need to warn you,” Taylor cut in. “It’s going to take us awhile to build up enough speed to start closing the distance. Which means you’re going to be alone for a little while.”

I smirked, looking around the cockpit. “Oh, I won’t be totally alone. This ship has one hell of an AI.”

“At least they shelled out on something quality,” Selena said. “Which model did they get?”

I shrugged. “No idea but their name is Elliot.” I motioned towards their nearest interface. “And they’re pretty chill.”

The lights within the cabin took on a warmer hue.

“Anything else we should know about before we disconnect this call?” Sara asked.

I shook my head. “Just know that I’m probably going to cry like a baby when you finally save my sorry ass.”

Sara smirked. “Noted.”

No one was given a chance to say goodbye as the monitor suddenly clicked off. It was replaced by a flashing red memo that told me that I was out of range for a signal.

“I’m not going to die,” I whispered.

“Practically immortal,” Elliot joked. “Told you this would work out.”

“Less than a two percent chance,” I whispered, wiping away at the tears in my eyes.

Elliot chuckled. “My expert opinion states that you should probably buy a lottery ticket when you’re somewhere safe.”

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