Read Asimov's SF, October-November 2011 for Free Online

of all of her dreams, threatened to crash her to the floor quicker than a gravity change.
    "So you're running away,” Turtle said. Her tone was businesslike, not curious. She wasn't asking a question, just stating a fact.
    "No,” Rosealma said. “You have to care to run away."
    Turtle studied her for a moment, the smile gone. Then she nodded once. “Well, then, I need to run away from this bar.” She extended her hand. “You want to come along?"
    Rosealma looked at Turtle's hand, with its long fingers and visibly chewed cuticles. Rosealma took it almost before she realized she had made a decision.
    "Let's go,” she said, “and never look back."
    Turtle raised their joined hands. “Deal,” she said.
    * * * *
    Now
    The station blew.
    It started in the middle. A glow built, then expanded. The center disappeared in the light, and that's when Squishy realized it was imploding.
    She slammed her palm on the control panel, her fingers grasping for the FTL command. It took four movements to launch FTL, and her shaking hand made all four hard. It felt like the movements took forever, even though it probably only took a few seconds. Still, she had to get out of here.
    Silently she cursed herself for wanting to see it go.
    The Dane winked out, the images vanishing from the screen, and as they did, she collapsed in the command chair, hands to her face. Her heart was pounding and she was feeling just a little queasy.
    She had pulled it off, and no one died.
    "You want to explain to me what the fuck just happened?"
    The male voice made her jump. She had thought she was alone. She had assumed she was alone. She hadn't even checked to see if anyone had gotten into The Dane. The Dane would have masked a heat signature from the station's control board. She would have had to ask The Dane as she got into the airlock, and she had been in such a hurry, she hadn't thought of it.
    She was such an idiot.
    She dropped her hands slowly, making herself breathe as she did so. She wanted to seem calmer than she was, even though he had seen her jump.
    She recognized the voice—how could she not? She had lived with it for years, and when she heard it again, even after the loss of decades, it was as if she had never been away from him.
    Quint.
    She turned her chair toward him.
    He leaned against the entrance, arms crossed. There was only one other room in this cruiser, and he had probably been waiting in it. She hadn't bothered to check. Her mistake.
    The blood had dried on his face, black and crusty, outlining the wrinkles he had allowed to appear on his skin over the decades. The ripped shirt was gone, though, replaced by his uniform's brown jacket. He probably hadn't looked at his reflection. He probably didn't realize the blood was still on his face, if he had even known it was there in the first place.
    The fact that he was on her ship surprised her. Not because he figured out it was hers, but because it took some stones to avoid the evac ships and wait for her, stones she hadn't realized he had.
    She hadn't answered his question. He raised his eyebrows, silently asking it again.
    "The station blew up,” she said. “Or it was blowing up, just like we knew it would. I just hit the FTL. The last thing we want is to be near that part of space. There's a good chance that explosion could open an interdimensional rift."
    He frowned. “A what?"
    She almost smiled, but she didn't. She had distracted him. He hadn't really been asking about the station before.
    "An interdimensional rift.” She swallowed. “The stealth tech was unstable."
    "It's always been unstable,” he snapped. “You know that better than most."
    She nodded. She did know it better than most. That was why she was here. But she wasn't going to tell him that. At least, not yet.
    "Yes,” she said. “But this time, the entire research station paid the price instead of a few volunteers."
    "A few . . .” He shook his head. She could almost read his mind. They both knew that it