Page 146 of The Space Between Stars

Fankalo stuck her head from the room and ordered one of the crewman, Melnar, to bring them an Aetech lamp. Minutes later, a knock sounded at the door and Melnar entered, skirted around Calver like he might bite, and pressed one into her hand.

“That will fetch seven hundred or more,” he said.

Everything about the lamp reeked of wealthy entitlement. The belief that worth could be based on rarity, status, or aesthetic—over physical function—was an affliction she would not allow her crew to suffer. She handed the device to Calver like it was rotten.

But Calver? He clutched it like it was his own beating heart. The hard lines in his face softened.

he signaled with one hand.

“What do you mean?”

Calver activated the lamp and stared at the light whirring inside. he signaled one-handedly.

Perhaps he’d used the wrong syllables. “Explosive. Distortion lamps?”

He nodded.

“To what extent?”

His face was so rigid, he must believe what he was saying.

“You mean as big as the ship?”

The paper pad flipped open. Back to scribbling. ‘I mean as big as the planet, if I intended it.’

Fankalo’s skin itched. That was insanity—and Fates, did Calver ever fit that bill.

Calver paused, rubbing the tips of his fingers against the charcoal. His deep brown eyes flicked to meet hers before returning to the glowing orb. He chewed at his lip. ‘There’s an energy retainer built into them. And I can pinch it off and move it. If I focus for long enough. Sometimes it takes a while to get to a state where I can find it.’

She understood, then: her brother did have magic like her, but it had found a different outlet.

“Can you show me?”

Calver nodded, eyes unmoving from the light.

“How long does it take?”

The charcoal flew over the pad. ‘If I have the right tools, maybe an hour. Two?’

Melnar brought Calver a number of fine instruments from their hold. Calver, suddenly a refined technologist and not a bloodthirsty monster, diligently pried the Aetech lamp apart.

While he worked, Fankalo walked.

She might have hated what Aethertech Mechanics represented, but she understood its fundamentals. Distortion technology was a manipulation of energy. The same magic the Ruxians used, but limited to the devices which contained their power.

Aetech’s technology was a well-guarded secret. Dozens had tried to recreate it. All had failed, her own father included. He’d once thought to pull a heist in replicating the technology for an Aetech core, only for a hired expert to inform him that the chance of success sat next to impossible. That was why Aetech could charge the exorbitant amounts it did: it held the secret recipe.

So if Calver could alter an Aetech lamp, what did it mean?

She had long since burned Methu’su’s journal as a matter of her own protection. Now, she forced her mind to remember all that she’d read half a year before. Each Ruxian’s grip over distortion manifested in different ways, depending on the Fate they aligned with. She and Calver were only conduits, but perhaps they also had their own manifestations? Calver didn’t feel Luck the way she did, or at least not to the same capacity. But the edge he’d always had with a dowaga must stem from some amount of foresight.

If Calver’s mind wasn’t completely saturated by its own slosh and he actually could manipulate the technology, what else could he do?

Calver worked through the darkest part of night. Fankalo stayed up with him, too wired to sleep. He remained silent, but it was a different silence to his standard—busy, not empty. She wanted to ask him questions. She wanted to tell him about everything, but worried she might say the wrong thing and send him into catatonia.

Seeing him like this, she remembered the times they’d huddled together under blankets in the corner of the shanty, breath and smiles mingling. He would tell her stories. Then she would tell them back, but exaggerated to make him laugh.