Collision Course (Class 5, #6)

Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

Rose didn’t know what she was doing.

She had found the transmission station in the front room, and had played with the little circles of light, singing as she did it in case she was managing to transmit anything.

There would be no mistaking that it was her if any of the Grih, or if Sazo, heard it.

She couldn’t keep it up indefinitely, though. She was getting hungrier and hungrier. She’d been putting off eating because of the risk of eating something dangerous, but she was starting to feel lightheaded, and so she forced herself into the kitchen and began to look around.

She eventually lined up some fresh stuff from a cooler unit, some dried food in wrappers, like energy bars, and some squishy, jelly-like food also wrapped up but in clear packaging.

Fresh first, she decided. She cut a small piece of what could be fruit from a dark green, carrot-shaped item, and nibbled it cautiously.

It was more or less tasteless, so she cut a bigger piece and crunched down on it as she opened one of the bars. It smelled so vile, she threw it straight in the bin, and then opened one of the squishy packages.

It smelled all right, so she cut a thin sliver off one side and after swallowing the piece of green carrot, she cautiously bit down on it.

It was sweet. Maybe more sweet than she was used to since living with the Grih, who’s food tended toward the bitter and sour, but it was not bad.

She couldn’t compare the flavor to anything she knew, it was a strange mix of berry and maybe molasses? She rolled it on her tongue and gave up.

She sipped water from a cup while she ate, careful to wait a little between nibbles, in case the food suddenly affected her, but by the time the cup was empty she was feeling better. Stronger.

She moved back to the med bay and listened at the door, and when she heard no sound, she decided it was probably safe to have a quick shower.

She moved fast, enjoying the hot water, rinsing out her clothes and hanging them to dry over a rail while she finger-combed her hair. They were made of special, quick-drying fabric, and she put them back on while slightly damp, not wanting to leave herself any more vulnerable than she needed to.

When she was done, she moved back through the building, pressed the buttons on the transmitter and sang a few lines one last time, then took a bag she found in one of the bedrooms and packed the two weapons she’d taken off her surprise hosts, the tool she’d used as a screwdriver, all the green carrots and squishy packages she could fit in, along with a couple of containers of water.

She also put on a jacket that she found in a closet. It had a hood, and it looked waterproof as well as warm.

Her welcome was surely worn out by now and the rain had stopped.

The two in the med bay would most likely be on their feet soon, and she would like to be far away when that happened.

On the way out, she pressed the buttons on the transmission panel one last time, sang a little Daydream Believer, checked the screens to make sure there was no one out there she needed to avoid, and then headed out the door.

She was approaching a lake when a crackle in her ear almost made her trip.

“Sazo?” she asked.

There was silence.

Still, it got her hopes up. He would be sweeping, hunting. He would circle back. Get closer.

The lake was big, sitting in a bowl beneath sharp, pointy mountains, and she hoped, if she had to lurk out here for a bit, that the water was safe to drink.

She moved carefully as the ground got more treacherous, unstable and slick underfoot with the smaller, loose rocks. She was not going to injure herself after managing, against the odds, to get free.

It was at least two hours since she’d left the hidden station. She’d been thinking about what it could be, and why the guards were stationed here, and had come up with a theory that the moon could be some kind of outpost.

It made sense they wouldn’t have brought her to their planet. They knew ships that looked like Sazo were dangerous, and why would they lead the convoy straight to their safe place?

The moon—Dimal—was certainly deserted enough that it could be an outpost. There were no dwellings, no signs of life that she could see on the plain in front of her.

A few skittering sounds made her aware there were either small animals or large insects scuttling about, but she didn’t see any of them, and she didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing.

Darkness was falling, and she was grateful for the jacket she’d taken, because it looked like she was going to have to spend the night in the open.

The star that lit this place was not the warm yellow of Earth’s sun, it was a cooler beast, or much further away, and it dropped behind the mountains faster than she was expecting.

She started hunting for a cozy spot to curl up in for the night, and it was while she was clambering carefully up a large rock to check out what looked like a shallow cave that she noticed lights in the distance.

She rose to her feet and studied them.

They were moving, like trucks or cars, but not in one direction. They were going back and forth.

She was curious, but there was no way she was going anywhere near them. Avoiding them meant she’d have to change her trajectory to reach the lake, and she studied them for a little longer, trying to work out the best way to do that.

Eventually she decided it would be better to get past them in the morning anyway, and she turned to study the shallow curve in the rock that she had seen from below.

It wasn’t bad, she decided, moving toward it. It didn’t have a very wide shelf, but she wouldn’t fall off it, and one corner of it was deep enough to give shelter if it rained again.

She used her foot to flick loose stones and debris off and then squeezed herself into the tight back corner.

The rock was cold, and her jacket was only thigh length, so she bent her legs. Her bump was too big to allow her to put her cheek on her knees, so she put the pack to her side and leaned against it like a pillow.

She closed her eyes.

She hadn’t felt able to relax since she’d been taken this morning, but this was safe enough.

No one could get up here without her knowing it, and in the darkness she would be impossible to see. Well, if they had human eyes, she suddenly thought. Which they clearly didn’t. Maybe they could see her just fine.

She forced herself to shrug and let it go. Nothing she could do about it, and she had to rest and sleep.

It had only been this morning that she’d been taken, but it felt like days ago.

She had a feeling for Dav and Sazo, it would feel even longer.