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“Because where are you going to go? We’re inspace,”Danielle answers helpfully.
“I could steal a ship,” I counter.
She snorts, “That you have no idea how to fly.”
I can drive a car, a manual transmission even. How hard could a spaceship be?
“I think next time I’ll try going the other way,” I say to myself out loud. “Except for how the guards are protecting the way I keep going makes me think that is likely the way out of here. Maybe I can find a long way around.”
Danielle takes a deep breath and then relaxes, unfolding her legs and leaning back against the wall behind her. “And what would you do if youdidfind a way off this… place? We’re inspace, Shae.”
“There has to be a way. Maybe I can—”
“They probably have our every move on camara.” Danielle’s dark eyes scan the room. “They’re probably watching us right now. Listening to our every word and laughing at us. The reason they just keep bringing you back is because there isno escape!”
I let her words sink in. “You’re starting to sound like me now.”
Danielle’s lips twitch. “Oh no.”
She starts to giggle. and it’s infectious. Soon I’m giggling along with her.
She’s not wrong. I know I’m being unreasonable. It’s just—
“I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
“I know,” Danielle says, giving me a soft look. “That’s a key element of your—”
“No!” I hold my hands up, covering my ears. “No more zodiac shit.”
If Danielle is bothered, she doesn’t show it. She just smiles at me and lets it drop. Just like she accepts everything we’ve been through.
Silence engulfs us, stretching until my ears are ringing from it and my thoughts are pounding in my head. Until…
“I wonder what happened to the others?” Danielle asks. Her words hang in the air between us, breaking the pressing silence.
I wonder about the others a lot too.
“I wonder what happened to the one with the fucked-up translator. And the kid.” She draws her knees up, wrapping her arms around them and holding them to her chest. “I hope they’ve ended up where they were meant to be.”
I know she means it to be a soothing thought. That we’re all meant to be somewhere good. But I know that’s just not always the case. What if where they were meant to be was… well, here, for instance. Or even somewhere worse.
Biting my lips, I keep my mouth closed and my thoughts to myself. Just because I don’t buy into all the fate stuff doesn’t mean I have the right to shit on Danielle’s hopes and dreams.
After a while, food is delivered. It comes through a narrow slot that opens at the bottom of the door, just wide enough to shove the covered tray through. When we finish eating, I push the tray back against the slot where, eventually, someone will be by to take it.
We’re quiet as we share the strange alien food that is always some kind of protein, a grain, some sort of veg and two pouches of water.
When the lights snap off sometime later, I feel my way over to the narrow cot where Danielle is already curled up on her side. Her eyes are closed, but I doubt she’s asleep already. So, I lie on my side facing away from her. As always, sleep is a long time coming for me. So I think about what my next move will be when I escape again.
CHAPTERTWO
Volethos
* * *
The drone of voices leeches into the poorly sealed doors of the comm-box. The longer I watch the swirling icon, waiting for the connection to go through, the more the voices grate on my nerves.
The station I’ve stopped at is good-sized and just off a major freight junction. It allows me to blend in while accessing some credits so I can refuel and purchase some necessities, such as clothes and food.
