Page 36 of Meteor Storm

I had to fight the urge to slip it on right there in the yard. With the guards watching, it would create a mess I wasn't prepared to deal with. But it hardly mattered.

My touch had awakened it.

That meant any Monrian ships in the vicinity would be able to track its signal. The sudden reappearance of what had almost certainly been declared a lost signature was bound to attract attention.

Everything was about to change.

“How much time?” Sunhai said, dropping her heavy weights.

She pulled me from my thoughts with the question.

“How much time?” she repeated. “Until the next game? I mean, what do you think?”

I tongued the back of my teeth, squeezing my eager khof kaar in my fist. “Knowing what I know,” I said. “One rotation. Maybe two.”

Her lips turned up in that proud smile again and she nodded with suppressed excitement.

“It wasn’t hard, you know,” she boasted. “Our overlord wanted to know how things went. I told him. Then I asked for an extra meal and he offered one. Not the one I had in mind,” she shrugged, “But any male with a mouth on his dick is blind. You should have told me he still had that thing. I would have stolen it ages ago.” Sighing, she turned and started to walk away. “I hope it’s a bloodbath,” she muttered. “The next game, I mean.”

I did as well. Monrians were taught not to be vengeful, but the desire to see that place burn was far too strong to ignore. Perhaps that desire made me weak. Perhaps I’d been stripped of my teachings in that damn arena. Without my crew. My ship. A mission. I was a fraction of what I was before I was collared and caged. I yearned to put on my armor, dawn my weapons, and slice through that place. I longed to rend it and let that darkened rock drift into space, empty and silent, a mere echo of its wrongdoings in a void that didn’t care to listen.

And I longed to take Penny out of that place with me.

Once more, my eyes drifted her way to see her staring into nothingness. She looked emotionless. Numb. Fatigued. The shadows under her eyes said she hadn’t gotten any good rest since her stay in my cell and I wanted to know why. Was her biome all wrong? Was it stress?

When we were all lined up to go back to our cells, I casually maneuvered myself behind her. She noticed, but she said nothing. I walked two paces behind, listening to her heartbeat. It was strong, thank the gods, but something was wrong. Perhaps reality was setting in again for her after two rotations of being left to her thoughts in her own cell. Perhaps she’d been thinking of the moment when Pek-Tol would call her for a “private audience.”

It didn’t matter, though. Pek-Tol would not get a chance and Penny would not have to know what any of it entailed. As far as I was concerned, we had both run in our last game.

“You should eat well tonight,” I said softly.

She almost looked back at me. “Can’t,” she said. “The food is upsetting my stomach. Tastes synthetic. It’s not agreeing with me.”

“They try to match our individual diets, but yes. It’s all synthetic.”

That’s when I noticed she hadn’t been crossing her arms over her chest. More over her belly as if she was unwell.

“You are not feeling well.”

She shook her head. “But if I say something, I have a hunch I won’t like what they’ll do. There’s no way I’m letting any alien fingers poke and prod at me in some medical examination. I’ll puke my guts out and die before I let that happen.”

I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Drink your fill tonight, then. And rest well. As well as you can.”

“Thinking there’s another game coming already?”

“We must always be prepared. But whatever happens, I will do my best to protect you.”

“Why?” Penny whispered, almost bitterly. “Why do I matter? You still can’t tell me that.”

“Because, Pek-Tol—”

“Yeah,” she cut me off. “Right.”

We reached the corridor lined with our individual cells and before we were shoved into our separate rooms, I repeated, “Stay hydrated and rest, Pennelope.”

Once in her cell, she spun to look at me through the glass of her wall, lips parted with surprise. I hadn’t meant to use her full name, but I had seen it when I was sifting through her wrist cuff. I was curious if I’d said it right, but judging by her expression, I had. It was a beautiful name and one she looked surprised to hear.

I was tucked into my cell, barely in her line of sight. I was ready to plan our escape when two of the guards diverted toward me.