I told Ruby three more stories before my brain quit on me.

The last one, about the time I’d tried to be a moody artist and grown a beard for two weeks before realizing my beard came in patchy and that made me look like a haunted scarecrow, got an actual real laugh out of her. Small, quick, immediately swallowed back behind the blanket, but it had been a laugh. I filed it as the second day-win.

Zero gave me a small nod from her chair which I read as good. Stop pushing your luck and let her rest, and I read it correctly, because by the time I leaned back against the wall my eyelids were doing a slow shutter that I could not seem to override.

Her soft voice whispered to me, "Sleep, sugar boy."

"...Just for a bit."

"Mm. I’ll be here."

I closed my eyes for what felt like maybe ten seconds.

...

When I opened them again, the watery sun had shifted in the window, different angle with sharper light. My back hurt from sleeping against the wall, which was quite a stupid thing to do.

The blanket on the cot had been moved at some point, I could see the corner of it sticking out, like someone had pulled it off and tucked it around me, and then gone back to the cot.

Zero was sitting cross-legged on the floor across from me, cleaning a small pile of objects on a cloth.

I blinked at them, foggy. "...Are those Core Stones?"

She hummed in response.

"How many?"

"Six full. Eleven fragments. Three pieces I’m not sure about yet, they might be partials or they might be junk. I’ll sort them properly later."

I sat up properly. My back complained the whole way. "Zero, did you go hunting while I slept?"

She smiled at me. "No, sweetheart. The hunting came to us."

I stared at her.

"A wave," she explained. "Maybe forty of them hit the southern wall about two hours ago. I picked them off from the roof. Nothing above D-rank, so it was quick work. Ruby slept through it."

"You handled forty zombies in two hours and have six full stones?"

"Mm. I was efficient."

"Zero. Damnation."

"It’s what I do, sugar boy."

I stretched, felt my spine pop in three places, and went over to look at the haul. Six full stones in graded sizes, eleven smaller fragments.

’Filing this for the novel. Forty zombies turned into a small fortune while the protagonist napped. Excellent material.’

"How much?"

"Roughly fourteen, fifteen thousand credits if I sold them in Halfmark. We’re not selling them, though. You’re using one to push to D-rank. Sooner is better. The rest go in the long-term pile."

I held one of the medium stones in my palm. It was warmer than I remembered the last one being.

"Later, though. Not on an empty stomach and a half-nap. After we plan the next move."

"Speaking of." Zero tipped her head toward the back room. "Ruby’s awake. And she has an idea."

...

Ruby was sitting up on the cot. Cross-legged this time, blanket bundled in her lap, hair down and a little messy from sleep. Her face was still thin and shadowed but she was upright, which I noted as the day’s third win.

She heard me come in and gave a tiny nod. Not quite a hello, but movement, which from her was equivalent to a small parade.

As usual, I gave her my warm smile. "Hey, Ruby. Zero says you have an idea."

"...Yes." Her voice was a little stronger than it had been in the morning. The three plates and a proper sleep had done something. "About the computer."

"Tell me."

"You were going to find me a laptop or a console...to do the hacking work."

"Right. We were going to scavenge in Halfmark for one."

"...You don’t need to."

I sat down on the floor in front of the cot. "I’m listening."

She took a breath, looked at her hands, then back up at me. The eyes that had been flat yesterday had a small flicker in them now, interest, which felt closer to the real Ruby than anything I’d seen yet.

"I can build my own, from parts. It would be...it would be better than a pre-built one, actually. The pre-Fall systems still floating around are mostly compromised at the firmware level, even when they boot. The gangs use them anyway because nobody knows enough to do it properly. If I build mine from clean components, I can put my own architecture in. It would be mine. No backdoors. No tracking. And I could optimize it for what we need."

I leaned forward on my elbows. "What do you need?"

"Salvage. Specifically, three things. Processor cores from any post-2020 device. Even broken ones, the silicon survives. A power regulator, anything industrial-grade, the kind they used to put on solar arrays. And a display, doesn’t have to be fancy, just functional. The rest I can make from common parts. Wire, casing, a keyboard if we find one, but I can also build a flat keypad from scrap if not."

She paused.

"...I haven’t done it for years. But I used to do it before. I think I can still do it."

’She did this before. Of course she did. Lab-settlement kid, ahead of her class in digital. They didn’t kidnap her for fun, they kidnapped her because she had her hands on the actual machines once. This is muscle memory.’

"Ruby."

"Yes."

"Build it. We’ll go scavenge."

She nodded once. The blanket clutched a little tighter in her lap, but she nodded.

I stood up.

Zero was leaning in the doorway, arms folded, watching. The look she gave me was the I am proud of you and I am also proud of her and this is a good day look, all without saying any of it.

"When?" Ruby asked behind me.

"Next visit. I have to handle some things on the Earth side first. But when I come back, we go on a proper hunt. We’ll bring back enough parts for you to pick from. Yes?"

"...Yes." A pause. "...Thank you."

"You’re welcome. Eat something while I’m gone. Don’t apologize for eating."

She almost-smiled. The corner of her mouth turned up about half a millimeter. Same one as before, no progress on the muscle, but no regression either.

’Half a millimeter still. Holding. Filing as today’s next win.’

I walked Zero to the courtyard. She caught my arm before I made the jump.

"Sugar boy."

"Mm."

"Be safe over there. With your other women." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"I will."

She kissed me, quick and warm, no teeth this time. "Bring me coffee when you come back. The dark roast. Last bag is gone."

"Done."

"Mm. Go."

I went.