Math Girl

Hari’s feet touched the ground. Home. Her entire body felt relaxed and safe.

It would have been better if people weren’t screaming and panicking around her.

There was a loud cracking noise, and then Colonel Young was flung out of the stargate directly toward Hari. She caught him and crashed to the ground.

The Colonel groaned.

The room was mostly dark, so Hari took a chance. She cast a diagnostic charm on the Colonel. Concussion. Broken ribs. His knee was a mess. It probably would have been worse if she hadn’t broken his fall.

Hari cast a few healing charms. He’d still be sore and have a concussion, but he’d be mobile.

His forehead was pressed against Hari’s neck.

“You should buy me dinner first, Colonel Young.”

He groaned, tried to shift his weight to his arms, and lifted his head a few inches. Confused, pained eyes met hers.

“Ms. Black?”

“Easy there. Easy.” She checked his head for a wound.

He leaned into the touch before his eyes snapped open again. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine.” She smiled.

“Colonel!” Lieutenant Scott shoved his way to them and helped Young roll off of Hari. “Are you ok?”

Hari sat up. “I think he has a concussion. Maybe whiplash.”

“TJ!” yelled Scott.

“I’m fine, Lieutenant.” Young grabbed Scott’s arm and hauled himself up to his feet, wincing.

Hari cast a few light diagnostic charms on the people around her. Luckily, it didn’t seem like anyone was severely hurt. There were a few twisted ankles, a couple cuts, and a number of bruises, but nothing worrisome. It was lucky the stargate was active before the attack started – it might have been devastating if the evacuation had taken longer.

“Where’s Rush?” growled Young.

“He went this way,” said a civilian woman, pointing down a corridor.

“Everyone, stay in this room. We’ll be back.”

Hari fell into step with Young as he walked into a corridor. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

The first door they opened held a phenomenal sight. Otherworldly. Eerily beautiful.

Rush was standing in front of some sort of window, looking out into space. Stars were streaking by.

“We’re traveling faster than light, but not in hyperspace,” Rush said without turning.

“We’re on a ship!” Young was startled.

So was Hari. “It’s so beautiful!”

“The design is clearly Ancient.” Rush sounded awed and distracted.

“Rush, we need to dial Earth.”

“Of course. Once we do a check of the systems. This ship is very old, Colonel.”

“How long until–” Young was cut off by his radio.

“Scott to Young. The air vents in the gate room turned off.”

Rush finally turned around. “We should do something about that.”

_______________________________________

People were seriously panicking in the gateroom.

“Quiet, people!” Colonel Young shouted.

The room was silent.

Hari always respected people who could command a room like that. Even Snape, the git.

“We are on an Ancient ship. A really old ship. Nobody touch anything. I need a few small groups to search nearby rooms for some sort of computer, bridge, command console… Rush, will it look like this?” Young pointed to a waist high desk with alien monitors near the gate.

“Very likely.”

“Right. Greer and Black, you’re one team.” Young assigned a few more teams.

Hari realized Young was putting one soldier and one civilian in each team. Why not assign all military personnel? Were the civilians all computer people? Engineers?

Rush wasn’t assigned to a group. “Colonel, I should really–”

“You’re with me, Rush. Scott, stay in charge of the gateroom. No one leaves.”

Hari walked over to a soldier named Greer. He was 100% muscle and looked at home with a large gun in his hand.

“Hi,” Hari waved. “You’re Greer right? Sorry – I just got to Icarus a few hours ago and I don’t know how to tell rank from your uniform yet. What should I call you?”

“Sergeant Greer.” The man didn’t waste a single world or movement.

“I’m Hari.”

He didn’t so much as blink.

“Right. Errrr. Shall we?”

Greer spun on one foot and stalked into the corridor, gun out. Hari fell into step beside him.

When Hari had dreamt of the Department of Mysteries, she always knew which turns to take. Walking through the ship was like that. Whenever they reached an intersection of corridors, she automatically took a path. Greer said nothing and let her choose.

Without thinking, as if by muscle memory, she hit a button to open a door. It whooshed open. The ship may be old, but man…the Ancients had style.

She flicked her eyes to Greer.

“Greer to Young. We found a room with several consoles.”

“Acknowledged.”

Ten minutes later, Rush and Young joined them.

Rush tapped on a console with Hari looking over his shoulder. He moved through several displays before stopping.

“This says trajectory,” he murmured, tapping on an icon.

An image appeared on a large screen in front of them.

“Is that the Milky way?” asked Young.

“Hmmm. Yes.” Rush touched the screen again.

“Is that our location?”

“No. No, that’s the ship’s launching coordinates.”

The image changed. A line left the Milky Way and entered a nearby galaxy.

“Is that Pegasus?” whispered Hari.

The line kept moving. From galaxy to galaxy.

“Are those different stars?” asked Greer.

“No,” said Rush. “Those are galaxies.”

“Where are we?” asked Young.

“Several million light years from Earth.”

Holy Shit.

_______________________________________

“Life support is failing,” said Rush.

Because of course it is.

“We’re losing oxygen at an alarming rate, and the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is rising.”

“I don’t understand,” said Volker. “This ship has been functioning for 100,000 years. Why is it breaking now? Right when we get aboard?”

“Because we came aboard,” Rush hissed.

And yeah. Volker was a total idiot. Well, he was probably good at something. Just not common sense. Or maybe he was just stressed. Maybe Volker would be less of an idiot after some food and sleep. One could hope. Rush certainly didn’t seem to think Volker was acting unusually dim.

“So are we leaking oxygen? Consuming too much oxygen without any reserves? Or is the carbon scrubbing or equivalent not working well?” asked Hari.

Rush nodded to Hari and pointed to the console next to his. “Find out.”

Well, that was practically a glowing endorsement from Rush.

Hari’s hands flew over the console as if she’d been using it her whole life. Rush’s eyes lingered on her for a few moments before returning to his console.

_______________________________________

A few hours later, Hari’s head was starting to throb.

“I think I found a few areas where the shields are weak. That could be where we’re losing oxygen,” said Rush.

“I can take a look,” said Hari.

“Take Greer,” said Young.

Hari nodded. On her way to the door, she said, “Rush, I think I found the air scrubbers. It’s up on my console. Want to double check?”

Rush gave a jerky nod and waved her out of the door.

He really wasn’t so bad for a git.

_______________________________________

Hari opened the door to the shuttle docking corridor and peered into the open shuttle.

Her chest clenched. Part of the shuttle near the front was gone. The ship’s shield was flickering over the damage. The shield was all that was keeping her from being sucked out into space and dying a quick death. This was really not safe. Not safe at all.

And oxygen was being sucked out of the damaged shuttle at an alarming rate.

The shuttle door wouldn’t close. They needed to close that door.

While Greer reported their location to Young, Hari cast a nonverbal closing spell on the inoperative door. She sighed when the door whooshed shut.

“Greer to Young. Black shut the door to the shuttle.”

“Good work,” said Young.

“I’ll direct you to the air scrubbers next,” said Rush.

Hari looked at Greer and shrugged. They followed Rush’s directions.

“You know you can call me Hari, right?”

Greer didn’t answer.

_______________________________________

At the end of a corridor, they reached an odd wall panel.

“There should be a kind of grate covering the node,” said Rush.

Hari didn’t hesitate before touching the upper button on the grate. The wall panel opened and an air scrubber slid forward, pushing out black oozing sludge.

“Ugh,” said Hari.

“Greer to Young. We have a problem.”

“What do you see?” demanded Rush.

“A big problem.”

_______________________________________

Rush stared at the air scrubber.

Ugh. The sludge looked so gross. Doctors try to come up with images this gross when convincing people not to smoke.

“Can you fix it?” asked Young.

“I doubt this stuff can be cleaned off.” Rush poked the oozing sludge with a pencil.

“So what are our options?”

“Perhaps if there were stores of this substance in the clean form, or something else capable of CO2 sequestration – calcium carbonate, lithium hydroxide - then we could rig a replacement.”

“Right,” said Young.” Mr Brody, find an alternative tank and method of connecting to the ship’s systems. Dr. Rush, see if you can find a ship’s inventory on the console.”

_______________________________________

Hari was walking back to the console room when something caught her eye. There was something like a large, upside down pez dispenser with metal spheres at the bottom. She reached for one and then jerked back. It was floating!

A hand-sized thingymabob that looked like one of Dudley’s gameboys lit up. Hari reached for it and laughed. She was looking at herself from the sphere’s point of view. A camera? What else could it do?

There were several icons on the screen. Hari touched one. The camera sphere moved to about five feet behind Hari and stayed there. Something staying directly behind her made her feel curse happy. She sighed. She took one step and the sphere moved forward. She took two steps and the sphere moved the same distance. Huh. Would it follow her? Hari walked slowly and the sphere followed. Cool!

Hari walked into the console room. “Rush! Rush, look what I found.”

Rush looked up, annoyed, but his face morphed when he saw the sphere. He moved closer.

Hari pressed her shoulder against his, angling the screen so he could see it. “It’s a camera! I have it set to follow me. There are other modes, too!”

“It’s magnificent,” said Rush. He was staring at the sphere like he wanted to take it apart, put it back together, and suck its knowledge directly into his brain.

There weren’t many people who had stares more intense than Rush. Voldemort’s glares were single-minded and murderous. Dumbledore’s gaze pierced right to the soul. Snape’s was filled with disdain. Rush – his stare was an open yearning for knowledge that made Hari want to hug the stuffing out of him. He really was nicer than the other gits in Hari’s life. My previous life, she thought was a pang.

One of the scientists walked closer. “Neat! We should call it a kino.”

“Ms. Black, can you use the kino to search the ship?” asked Colonel Young.

“Probably. Let me work on it.”

Everyone went back to work.

_______________________________________

“Destiny,” said Rush.

“Errr. What?” Hari wondered if she should check Rush for a head injury.

“Destiny. It’s the name of the ship.”

“Oh. That’s. Oh.”

“They were never here,” Rush continued. “They sent it out unmanned. They wanted to use the stargate to travel here once Destiny was far enough into the universe.”

“And now we’re here,” said Hari.

“Yes. We’re here.” Rush didn’t look sad about that.

_______________________________________

“Oh, wow,” said Hari. “That’s…amazing, Rush.”

“Hmmm.”

“I’ll find the Colonel and tell him so we can–”

“That would be a waste of time.”

“No, it–”

“We don’t know if this will work.”

“If it does work, we need to make a plan,” Hari rolled her eyes.

Honestly, it seemed like Rush was even worse at planning than Hari.

Rush waved her away and went back to his console.

Fine then. Git.

Hari walked to the gate room where she found Young. “Colonel, if you have a minute?”

He nodded and held up his index finger then turned back to his previous conversation. After a minute, he turned his attention to Hari.

“Ms. Black. What’s our status?”

They fell in step and walked toward the control room.

“We think we’ve been able to tell the ship what we need to fix the air scrubbers. We’re basically on autopilot, but we think it’ll prioritize our needs.”

“Oh?”

“So, if this works, it’ll take us to a planet with the resources we need.”

“That’s great. Can we do the same thing for dialing Earth? If we need materials or power?”

“I hope so,” said Hari, grinning.

Young gave a quick smile. “Good work.”

“We’re not sure if it’ll work yet, but we’re learning a lot. And Rush did a lot of it.”

Young patted her shoulder and nodded.

They walked into the console room. Rush didn’t look up.

“I hear we’re going shopping,” said Young.

That got Rush’s attention. He pointed to Hari. “I told you. We don’t know if–”

“Yes, yes,” said Hari. “But it’s progress even if it doesn’t work immediately.”

An hour later, the ship lurched and lights dragged through Hari’s vision. “Ugh.”

“What was that?” someone asked.

“Is someone near the observation deck?” asked Young over the radio.

A few seconds later the radio crackled. “TJ here. We dropped out of FTL.”

Rush laughed from his console. “The gate is dialing!”

Everyone scrambled for the door. They didn’t make it to the gate room in time to see the wormhole form. But there it was…a gorgeous, rippling pond. Hari wanted to jump in. It felt like the moments before casting a patronus.

“What we need is on the other side of that wormhole?” asked Young.

Rush shrugged. “An educated guess? Yes.”

“Can we use our automated drone to find the conditions on the planet?”

“I bet the kino would work.” Hari hit an icon to take it off of ‘follow’ mode and used the buttons like a joystick.

“I expect that’s the purpose of this device,” said Rush.

“Go ahead, Ms. Black.”

“It’s Hari,” she said, before plunging the kino into the wormhole.

“I’m getting readings over here,” said Park.

“What have we got?” Young walked over the console.

Park looked excited. “Temperature, gravity, atmosphere composition, barometric pressure …”

Riley fiddled with another console. “Oxygen, nitrogen, very little CO2, extremely low humidity. Habitable, but just barely.”

An image from the kino appeared on another monitor. It looked like a desert.

“Good enough,” said Rush.

Brody was poking at a third console. “Looks like four other addresses came up here too.”

Rush frowned and walked over to look over Brody’s shoulder. Brody twitched.

“They could be other planets within range. Maybe we should think about dialling them up and–”

“No, no, no,” said Rush. “They're locked out. The ship chose this one, the Stargate is open. All we have to do is step through.”

“Alright, people. We need to form an away team,” said Young.

“Doctor Rush,” called Brody, pointing above the doorway.

Everyone looked. It lit up and the symbols were rapidly changing.

“Looks like our time might be limited,” sighed Rush.

“What is it?” asked Young.

“It's a countdown. Just over twelve hours left.”

“What happens then?”

Rush raised an eyebrow. “I suspect we jump back into FTL.”

After a few more civilian scientists were called into the gate room, the debate began.

“Palmer is a geologist - obviously she should go.” Everyone nodded when Rush said this. “Franklin and Brody are the best of the rest of what we have.”

The nods turned to scowls.

“Thanks for the ringing endorsement,” said Franklin.

“He didn't even mention me!” whined Volker.

“Franklin goes,” commanded Young. “The others stay. We're still going to need good people working on the problem from this end.”

Rush nodded.

Hari stepped forward. “I'd like to go.”

Now everyone was frowning at her instead of Rush.

“Really?” Even Young looked surprised.

“If I can help, then–”

Rush interrupted her, because of course he did. “Colonel Young, please.”

“What?” Hari was scowling at Rush.

“You’ve never been on an offworld mission.”

“No time like the present,” said Hari.

Colonel Young eyed her and sighed. “You have made a habit out of pulling our asses out of the fire.” He paused. “Hari, if you want to go, you’re going.”

Hari grinned.

Young turned to Rush. “The only one I'm questioning right now is you, Dr. Rush.”

Rush looked blindsighted. “Well, besides Palmer, I'm the only one who knows what we're looking for. We have twelve hours to find what we need and then get back on the ship.”

“You're sure you can't stop it?”

Rush shook his head. “No. We're just along for the ride for now.”

“You’re our expert on ancient technology. It’s a big risk, for the entire mission.”

Rush looked slightly mollified by that. “A risk we need to take.”

Young sighed and turned to the group. “I want everyone clear that Scott is in charge of this mission. Let's gear up, let's find whatever supplies we have, and move out.”

Scott stayed back with the Colonel while everyone else left the room.

“Sir, about Hari.”

“She volunteered.”

She's not trained for this.”

Young raised an eyebrow. “Just like a lot of people we've got on this ship. I'm gonna need to know what they're made of.”

“She'll slow us down.”

“Well, if she does, you send her back to the gate. Listen, if we're going to make it - and I'm not just talking about the next few hours - we'll need everyone on board to step up.”

Scott nodded and left.

“Lieutenant.”

Scott paused and looked back.

“Keep an eye on Rush.”

Scott nodded again and left.

_______________________________________

They’d given Hari a uniform of desert camouflage. Not her finest styling moment, but it would do.

She gave one last wave at Colonel Young and walked through the wormhole, mouth stretched into a wide grin.

_______________________________________

Holy Merlin, The desert was hot. The desert was really hot. The desert was so hot that it felt like the air she breathed was baking her lungs from the inside out.

People live in deserts. People choose to live in deserts? Ugh.

Hari discreetly cast a cooling charm. It helped a tiny bit.

Palmer and Rush were kneeling on the sand. Palmer put sand and water into a beaker, heated it with a torch, added a few drops of a red chemical, and swirled.

“What’s supposed to happen?” asked Hari.

“If there’s enough calcite, the solution will absorb the acid,” said Palmer.

Hari looked at Rush blankly.

“The liquid will turn clear,” he said.

Hari nodded her thanks to Rush. He really was nicer than people thought. Maybe not much nicer…

“How many testing sets do we have?” asked Hari.

“Two.”

“So should we split into two groups?”

“Yes,” said Rush. “Franklin, you should come with me.”

“No,” Scott said. “Rush, you’re with me and Greer. Hari, Franklin, Palmer, and Curtis, head that way.”

“We’ll test every twenty minutes or so,” said Palmer.

Hari walked to Rush and squeezed him in a hug. He went rigid for a second and then patted her back.

“Stay safe,” she murmured.

Packs were shuffled, water was sipped, and off they went.

Twenty minutes later, Palmer stopped to test the sand.

“So, uh…” Franklin muttered in Hari’s direction without looking at her.

“Hi?”

“You like Rush?” Franklin blurted, looking like he regretted the words.

“Errr. Well, Yeah. He’s a decent friend so far. A bit of a git, but not bad all around.” Hari shrugged.

Franklin looked queasy. “Right. Yeah.”

_______________________________________

A few hours and a bucket of sweat later, Parker stopped for another check of the sand.

“Well, let’s keep going,” sighed Hari.

“Uh, yeah.” Franklin shifted his weight from foot to foot like a nervous student standing in front of a principal. “That's not what's going down.”

“It's not?” Hari had a bad feeling about this.

“No.” Franklin gestured with the gate dialing device. “There are four other viable addresses in this thing. I think I found an override that'll allow us to dial from here.”

“But – “

“Look around! This planet is a dead zone!” Curtis kicked the sand.

“We should have been trying to dial these other planets from the start.” said Franklin.

“But Rush said – “

“We don't care what Rush said,” growled Curtis.

Franklin was scowling. “We don't trust him.”

“Rush doesn't want us all to die! And I agree with him.” Hari pointed to Curtis. “And you’re military. Are you going to disobey your orders?”

“Look,” said Franklin, raking a hand through his hair. “You were the one who said Rush had confirmation bias at the Icarus base.”

“Yeah, but – “

“Rush is set on fixing the ship. He's deaf to any other logic. We need to find a planet we can survive on.”

“Then go back to Destiny and use its sensors and information to see if one of the planets is viable. Don’t go to one of the planets blindly.”

“We won’t be blind,” said Parker. “We have the kino.”

Hari looked away. These people were so scared they were running straight to a likely death. She could stop them. She could follow them back to the gate and use magic to hogtie them. She could knock them out. She could…

An image of the graveyard flashed in Hari’s mind. The feel of the ropes digging into her skin. The smell of the potion and Wormtail’s sweat. Her blood dripping from her arm.

No.

She wouldn’t restrain these three idiots. They were adult humans. They weren’t threatening to hurt her. She wouldn’t take away their choices.

Hari’s shoulders slumped. “Give me the testing kit.”

Palmer hesitated, but handed over the bag. “You can come with us.” She sounded so nice and welcoming.

Hari smiled and shook her head. “No. I have a job to do. Just…be careful?”

Palmer nodded, gave a half smile, and walked away.

Hari pressed the button on her radio. “Scott, this is Hari.”

“This is Scott. What's up?”

“We have a problem. Franklin, Curtis and Palmer have given up and are headed back to the Gate to try dialing the other addresses on the remote. They also have the Kino. They don't think we'll find the lime calcite stuff here. They want to look for another planet that will support life.”

The silence over the radio stretched.

Hari activated her radio again. “I’m going to continue looking for lime.”

“Alright. Stay safe and keep an eye on the time.”

“Say hi to Rush and Greer for me, will you?”

“Roger.”

And just like that, Hari was by herself in an alien desert halfway across the universe.

Time to stretch her wings, so to speak.

_______________________________________

Hari cast a hominem revelio charm. No one was nearby. She cast an invisibility charm and took a breath. Ok, Hari, not every bit of magic Voldemort did was evil. It’s ok. With that pep talk, she started to fly. She would never tell anyone, but Voldemort’s method of flying was even better than a broomstick. She flew fast and far, looking for a change in the scenery.

Hari laughed. She’d been so scared of using her magic. It was a release to use it, like stretching after being cooped up in a small area for too long.

After half an hour, the sand looked darker. Hari landed on the ground and tested the sand. The solution turned clear. She found lime! The air scrubbers on Destiny could be fixed. Everyone would survive. She just needed to get back to the gate.

It was a lot more taxing to fly with a bulky bag, even after using a featherweight charm. When she neared the gate, she stopped flying and trudged through the sand.

_______________________________________

A female soldier was waiting near the gate. Hari looked closer and saw the name ‘James’ on her uniform. Hari winced. Unexpected reminders of her parents hurt.

James ran up to Hari, grabbed one of the bag’s straps, and helped Hari lug it to the gate.

“You found it!” yelled James. Her smile was wide and thrilled.

“Did you see Franklin, Parker, and Curtis?” Hari asked, breathlessly.

James’ smile dimmed. “Franklin is on Destiny with a bullet wound.”

“What!?”

“Greer shot him.”

“What? Why?!”

James shrugged. “Greer and Rush got to the gate just after the others. Parker and Curtis went through to another planet. Rush said they were saving Franklin’s life.”

“By shooting him?”

James winced.

Hari took a deep breath. “So Greer and Rush are back on Destiny. What about Scott?”

James looked ready to cry. She shook her head. “Scott is still looking for lime. Greer doubled back to help.”

Hari’s mouth dropped open. She blinked a few times. “Fine. Get this lime back to Destiny. I’m going to help Greer and Scott if I can.”

“What? No. You have to come back with me.”

“I’ll get back before the time is up. Just…get that air scrubber working. We can’t let everyone onboard die.”

James looked torn, but Hari turned and jogged away from the gate.

Once she was out of sight of the gate, Hari refilled her water bottle with a charm and took a deep drink. Thank Merlin for magic.

Hari recast her invisibility and flying spells and took off. She flew slowly, circling, making sure to not miss anything. Finally, she saw them. From a distance, they looked like a strange seagull, but she realized it was two men carrying a bag between them.

She landed out of their sight, took off her spells, and jogged toward them.

Greer raised his weapon when he saw her.

She waved her arms in the distance, yelling, “It’s me. Don’t shoot.”

“What are you doing here?” Greer asked, like he expected her to be a mirage.

“I found some lime. I gave it to James to take to Destiny. I came to find you.”

Scott didn’t look good. “Why?”

“I’m not leaving you behind to die!”

Hari gently pried Scott’s fingers from the bag, cast a very slight lightening charm, and said, “Let’s go!”

Without another word, they took off in a quick march toward the gate. It was awkward to carry the bag between Greer and her. He nodded at her.

Hari looked at her watch. It was going to be tight.

The slog was rough. One foot in front of the other. They weren’t quite jogging, but it was a fairly brutal pace after so long in the desert.

Hari looked at her watch again. Twenty minutes left.

“Pick up the pace, guys.”

Scott weaved, but they went faster.

Hari almost dropped the bag a few minutes later when her radio crackled.

“Young to Scott.”

Hari fumbled for the radio. “Errr. Hi, Colonel. We’re getting close. We have more lime. Scott might need medical attention.”

“Hurry, Hari. You have ten minutes.”

And they ran.

Hari fell back into what it was like at the Dursleys. Putting one foot in front of the other, weeding for hours at a time under the hot sun with no water. No thoughts. Just action.

And then the gate was in view.

Another soldier was waving them forward.

Hari didn’t slow down while running through the wormhole. Best take it at a bit of a run if you’re nervous, dearie. She snorted at the memory of Molly Weasley’s words. Hari really needed a nap.

She blinked and looked up at the gate room on Destiny.

Rush ran over to her and put a bottle to her lips.

“Drink.”

Hari sank against him, the back of her head against his neck. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

“Good to see you, Nick.” She rested her hand on top of his and stayed cuddled for a moment.

Rush didn’t pull away. “That was quite the risk you took.”

Hari shrugged. “I kept my eye on the time. And it was worth it. Wasn’t it?” She met his eyes, worried.

Rush smiled. “We’re almost ready to install the new air scrubber.” He squeezed her shoulder.

“Good.”

Scott was in rough shape, but Greer looked ok.

“You know, minus the time pressure and a few other things, that was a pretty fun day,” said Hari.

Rush scowled, but his lip twitch gave him away.

_______________________________________

“Colonel,” Greer pulled Young aside later.

“Sergeant, how are you?”

Greer shrugged. “The girl. Black. Hari.”

“Yes?”

Greer paused. “Most civilians don’t know how to push themselves that hard.”

“You’re suspicious?”

“No, sir,” Greer shook his head. “She risked her life to come for us. I don’t know if we would have made it in time without her.”

Young grabbed Greer’s shoulder. “I’m glad you made it.”

_______________________________________

Hari was resting on her bed. It may be ridiculously old, but it was the best bed she’d ever slept on. It was more comfortable than her Hogwarts dorm. Certainly more comfortable than her cupboard at the Dursley’s or cot while camping.

Someone knocked on her door.

“Come in.”

Colonel Young walked in. Hari sat up, but Young put up his hands.

“Don’t get up.”

Hari leaned back. “Hi.”

Young smiled. “Hi.”

“What can I do for you?”

Young shook his head. “I just wanted to check on you. And thank you.”

Hari waved him over to the bed. “You have good people, Colonel Young. Scott was in rough shape but kept going. And Greer…he gets the job done, doesn’t he? I bet he could make a drill sergeant cry.”

Young laughed and sat on the edge of the bed. “He’s a good man.”

Hari nodded. “Did…”

Young raised an eyebrow.

Hari cleared her throat. “Did Parker and Curtis make it back from the other planet?”

Young took a deep breath and shook his head.

Hari sat up. “I should have…I should have stopped them. I should have tied them up or knocked them out. I should have – “

“Hey,” Colonel Young put a hand on her shoulder.

“”I thought about it. But I didn’t want…I didn’t want to force them. They didn’t hurt anyone so I let them make their own decision. I should have – “

“Hey. You found the lime. You helped get Greer and Scott back with even more lime. You did good.”

“They’re dead because I didn’t stop them.”

“No. They’re responsible for their own actions. We might all be dead if you hadn’t done exactly what you did.”

He pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her. She pushed her forehead against his neck.

“I’m glad you’re alive,” Hari murmured.

“Me too.”

She huffed out a laugh.

Young held Hari and stroked her back.