Escape Velocity

Chapter Twenty-four

"What's happening?" Larry asked. "What's her condition? Can we find out if she can walk out on her own? Fix this now."

Allen patted me on the back. "Take a deep breath. You've got this."

I stared at my screen, trying to will it back into working order despite the zero chance of telepathic success. "Can I borrow the phone?" Larry handed me the chunky, brick-sized phone attached to a cable that led back to the cave entrance and safety and Melisse. I pressed the button, and when a man answered, I said, "Please let me speak with Melisse."

While I waited, I rolled my eyes up, blinking to hold off the tears. When Melisse answered, I said, "It's not working; the signal isn't going through. What do I do?"

"I don't know. Try rebooting." Melisse sounded as scared as me.

The fifteen seconds seemed to be fifteen minutes to me. When it finished, I clicked on the bot driver interface. Nothing but blackness.

"The transmission is dead. There's no signal." We were close. We couldn't fail now. Not now. I tapped the icon again. Still nothing. "Melisse, what's wrong? What else can we try?"

"I don't know. I must be missing something, but I don't know what it is."

Larry and Allen were leaning together, whispering. Allen shifted toward me and said, "We all hoped this would work, but it was a long shot. It's time for Plan B. Let's go out and fill the team in on the situation."

"There is no Plan B, is there? You can't save her, can you?"

Allen put his arm around me, and I pushed against him. I wasn't about to give up yet. I broke away from him and tried to squeeze through the narrow space to follow my bot. The rocks scraped my back and began to tear my clothing. Allen grabbed my arm and placed one hand on my shoulder, pulling me back into a full body hug. "No, we can't let you go in there. Even if you could wedge through, we wouldn't let you. We can't afford to lose two people tonight."

Larry said, "At least we know Kate isn't far away. You accomplished that. A smaller-framed rescuer could reach her. They'll find someone."

"No, they won't. Kate's tiny. She's so thin. It would have to be a child. Stop lying to me. What if she panics and starts wandering?" I struggled to free myself from Allen's grasp. "I need some air."

Allen pressed down on my shoulders, forcing me to sit on a low boulder. "We'll bring her back. She's already shown common sense by avoiding the water and curling up to stay warm while she waits. She stopped instead of wandering further. That indicates she's not prone to panic. The worst is over."

"You don't know any of that. Common sense? After she wandered off on her own? She could be hurt." As much as I believed Kate had poisoned my friendship with Lucy, she was a person. Somebody I knew. The reality of it hit hard. I started to cry big ugly tears.

Static came from the phone. An image of Kate appeared. She registered confusion and then excitement as she shouted, "Savanna! FetchBot! Can you hear me?" She swiveled around. "Where are you? Can you see me? Is Ben okay?"

"We're here. Not far away. We can see you on the phone, but we can't reach you."

"But FetchBot did! I heard FetchBot when it jerked and stopped moving. It was still for a bit but then it turned around and rolled back to the edge of the water. I walked up next to it and saw a connection to the driver was loose. I fixed it. That's when I finally heard you."

"That's impossible," I said. "Not with a broken driver connection."

"What if we worry about the how of it some other time and you all get me out of here?"