Legacy Code
stationaries.”
    “Fine,” Mali said. “Just get it working.”
    Era tried to concentrate on the task before her and not the nervous tension emanating from Zephyr as they approached the archivist station.
    “I was pulling up records, and the holo blanked. I need to grab this cube order,” Mali said, frustration and something else edging her voice. She hurried toward the archives.
    Era’s throat tightened. What kind of records pull was this? And why the urgency?
    Zephyr cleared her throat. Tadeo shifted his stance and focused on the far wall behind Era. Awkward. He acted like they were invading his personal space whenever he came in here. Definitely something off about him.
    Era turned on her eyepiece. The holo had frozen, and a fuzzy white square appeared where the interface should be. A display module issue. The stationary had more power than the handhelds, but they both ran on the same kind of framework. Should be easy to debug.
    Era pressed two fingers together to access the stationary’s display module.
    She made a series of gestures, and the blank holo flickered, but nothing changed. The underlying program was still running, then. Why wouldn’t the software connect with the display?
    Era pulled a handheld diagnostic from under the station and hooked it to the stationary. The bridge interface appeared and displayed the intermediate code.
    The program was running an infinite loop.
    Era smirked and looked over at Zephyr, but she was busy sneaking glances at Tadeo.
    The glitch must have been introduced the last time they updated the system. Era peered at it. There . A truncated decimal. How was it that the techs on the  Paragon always made such simple mistakes?
    Either way, it was an easy fix—just a one-line rewrite. She swiped the line of code away, deleting it, and opened the command cloud. She dragged the new commands into the program.
    Zephyr cleared her throat. “So, Tadeo. Heard you had some excitement up on level six?”
    He nodded but didn’t look at her.
    Zephyr leaned on the station and narrowed her eyes. “You think the Paragon Guard’s competent enough to figure out what really happened? ‘Cause I know for sure it had nothing to do with the panels from my father’s ship.”
    Era cringed. Tadeo’s face darkened, and he looked at Zephyr. Maybe that was her intention. Sometimes her social filter was as dysfunctional as this tech.
    “That’s not something I can talk about,” Tadeo said, clipping each word short. “Can I get my shift card back now?”
    “Yeah,” Era said, searching for the card. Mali must have forgotten to return it.
    Zephyr got to it first. “They upped your clearance level, huh?” She handed the card to Tadeo and held on to it just a second too long, forcing his hand to brush her own. Tadeo met Zephyr’s gaze and held it. His hard expression softened for just a moment, replaced by…something else. Something vulnerable. A  longing .
    Era focused on the stationary and rebooted her eyepiece. Had he looked at her like that before? No. No way she could’ve missed that.
    “I guess they did,” Tadeo said, his voice husky.
    Zephyr lifted her chin and rubbed her arm. “They’re supposed to open up helio sector tomorrow during midbreak. You going?”
    What? Zephyr hated the super helio. She said it made her look like Soren incarnated.
    Tadeo blinked and hesitated for one long, awkward moment. “Probably.”
    Oh, no.
    “Me, too,” Zephyr said. “Maybe we could meet up.”
    Tadeo glanced toward the glass barrier, his jaw working.
    He was going to turn her down. But it’d be for the best. She’d have to move on then, wouldn’t she?
    Tadeo gave Zephyr a small smile, and a dimple appeared on one cheek. “Yeah. Sure. Let’s meet up.”
    Zephyr’s mouth dropped into a little ‘o’ of surprise, and she darted a look at Era.
    Era slammed her mouth shut. Well, I got that wrong.
    “Great.” Zephyr recovered, and she smiled, her face lighting up like a fully charged helio.
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