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Like an idiot, I stand there staring at Jessica before examining examine my surroundings as if I were seeing them through her eyes. I’m positive she already deserves better. Four beds, low to the ground and covered with blankets that have seen better days. She’s in mine, since it’s closer to the door. I just dumped her in the first bed available and she’s been there ever since. A couple of boxes do double duty as small tables and our beds are merely rectangle boxes with mattresses on top. The rocky floor has a couple of rugs over it so we don’t have to walk barefooted on dirt quite so much.
Inadequacy fills me as I leave the room to let her sleep or brood, or whatever the pless she’s doing instead of taking care of herself. Vastly frustrating.
Still won’t eat? S’Tou sends me without looking up from his datapad.
I shake my head. No.
She will when she’s hungry enough, I promise.
I sit at the table, my elbows resting on the hard surface and bury my hands in my hair. S’Tou’s promised, so I know he’s optimistic. Thanks. I need your confidence.
You’re too close to the problem. Trust me. No one’s stomach can hold out when Nilt cooks and we can have him create everything for a while.
The man has a point. Nilt works the food replicator like a master. I don’t know how he does it. I programmed the plessing thing.
S’Tou chuckles, still staring at his datapad like there’s nothing else in the universe but his stupid game. It’s those rare Khscc spice simulations he’s added. Gives everything an extra flavor our tastebuds can’t resist.
I’m motionless, my eyes closed or I’d be staring at the table top. We can never let you, me, Nilt, or Quin add tikk in our menu again. We could have killed Jessica.
You don’t have to convince me. I heard her say yes and no in our language but they’re not enough to warn her about spicy foods.
I sigh and lean back, crossing my arms because he’s right. Jessica can’t understand us when we tell her something’s safe. If I had experienced the pain she seemed to, I wouldn’t believe us about anything edible, either. I hated forcing her to drink the pahl.
Don’t be. It was the only way to stop the effect.
I know. It felt wrong, though. I stare up at the domed rock ceiling above us. Felt like we were forcing something criminal upon her.
S’Tou snorts. I can understand how. Four of us. One of her and we held her down, but I couldn’t take hearing or seeing her suffer. The poor Earther was in agony. He taps the datapad, growling, “Pless.”
I shake my head, grinning at his frustration. He’s the only one addicted to the games. Quin would rather be out using his wings to glide over the land. Nilt prefers to hunt for unique rocks or create art out of sticks, stones, and our trash. And me? I keep busy reading the library I’d downloaded to my memory before the empire officially cut off my access. Nothing I have is recent anymore but most of the stories are new to me.
The metal chairs matching our dinner table makes me ache, so I go to a lounging bench I’d carved out of the rock wall. Old packing blankets soften the stone. I lie down, relaxing and diving into an old Gharian legend about the Originators and how they seeded all humanoid life in the galaxy.
I must have fallen asleep because when I open my eyes, our main living area’s lights are dimmed. I check and the sleeping room’s lights are out, too. They’d all been far too quiet, clearly. I get up to peek in on Jessica, hoping to touch her face while she sleeps. My bed is empty and she’s not in someone else’s bed. My cohorts rest in their usual places.
I go out to the living area, double checking the room before hurrying down the tunnel to the waste area. I don’t want to interrupt her toiletry, but need to know she’s safe. I force my adrenaline down to a calmer level as I exit the narrow passage. She’s nowhere in the large cavern.
Softly as if from a great distance, I hear a voice, echoing and metallic with Gharian vessel engines in the background. As the sound grows louder, I can better hear the broadcasted Earther instructions echoing off the rock walls. They must know Jessica is here. I can’t lose her to the authorities. Unable to breathe from dread, I run to the cave’s entrance.
Yes, I might have ignored my system’s matching requests earlier but I can’t be content without her. I hover at the opening to our hideout, lingering behind a boulder fallen millennia ago. The trees all sway as a ship from home hovers overhead. I send a message to my bionans, instructing them to chill my body to air temperature so I blend in to my surroundings.
Jessica won’t be hidden, though. Not with her Earther warmth. I switch to heat vision and search the forest surrounding our home. I see nothing until a slight bump in a tree has me look again. She’s pressed against the trunk, far cooler than I’ve ever known her to be. I shiver in empathy because the air is especially cold this evening.
I can’t go to her, yet I can’t leave her outside of our habitat, either. My people will find her and when they do, she’ll be gone forever. I can’t allow them to take her. “Jessica,” I call out to her. “Jessica.”
She looks at me, still clinging to the tree. “Cinq,” she begins and says more. My name is all I understand until she adds, “No,” in my language.
Creeping closer to her, I switch back to regular vision. Tears stream down her face and she slides along the trunk to the ground. “Jessica, come to me.” I reach out my hand because yes, she can’t understand anything I say but I must try. “Jessica, please.”
“No, Cinq,” she replies, shaking her head. “No.”
