AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You weren’t born onColossal?”
When Per Halen smiled, it reached his eyes. “You’re observant.”
“Have to be where I’m from.”
“I was born on a small station in the Lantern Galaxy. But I’ve been here since I was twelve. Almost two centuries.”
Kaia nodded. She wondered how he ended up here and what hardships he may have endured before. But after all that time as the most powerful man on a colony ship, she doubted he could relate to much of her situation anyway.
“Got some good anti-aging tech on this ship then, huh?” The man didn’t look a year past fifty.
“We are quite advanced. I’ll leave you to settle in. I’m sure Orion will come check on you later.”
I hope not.
How much time did Kaia have until that happened? She'd already been stuck in the needlefin with him for nearly twenty-four Old Earth hours. Kaia was used to a much more solitary existence on Riker 109, spending hours inAhton’s Takeor her cabin. By the time Per Halen turned to leave, Kaia’s nerves were shot. So when she was finally alone, the heavy silence let Kaia take her first full, easy breath.
She was exhausted. She’d been too hyped up to relax on the needlefin. Now that debt slumped her shoulders and fell heavy on her lids. She couldn’t wait to crawl into the bed waiting for her—a real bed, with taut fabric covering a firm mattress and a smooth blanket spread neatly atop it.
Kaia set her helmet aside and pressed her nose to the unblemished white fabric of the bedding. There was a synthetic, almost medicinal scent about it she’d never experienced before. Bedding on Riker 109 always smelled like people. Either her own skin and sweat or someone else’s. But this, it didn’t smell like it had been touched by any human hands at all, though surely someone must have come in to arrange it. Her skin tingled at the thought of lying in it, feeling that clean softness against every inch of her.
But first… Kaia walked over to the hydra station. Her mouth was already watering as she observed the various buttons on the device. That wasn’t good. She’d gotten used to not drinking liquids her whole life, yet all it took was a couple of days of water consumption to make her notice the chapped, tight feeling in her mouth when she didn’t have it.
Kaia flipped a glass under the dispenser and pressed the H2O button. Moments later, clear liquid began pouring into the glass in a generous stream. When the glass was full to the 25mL marker on the side, the stream ceased. She brought it to her nose with a trembling hand.
It smelled like nothing. Delicious, pure nothing. The first small sip on her tongue made a quiet sound catch in her throat. There was nothing in that taste except the faintest undercurrent of something stony and a little salty—likely trace minerals from whatever planet the water was siphoned. Kaia swallowed, this time not bothering to suppress a small moan. It was perfect.
She clutched the glass to her chest and approached the open bathroom door a few steps away. Square tiles lined the walls, ceiling, and floor of the pristine space. The cabin didn’t just have a private toilet basin embedded into the floor, but its own dedicated shower stall separated from the rest of the space with a transparent partition.
She took another slow sip as she traced the silver knobs beneath the showerhead: one red, the other blue. Kaia had never seen a modern washing cubicle in person, but she’d seen enough of them in digital books and pictures to know they didn’t look like this. This was a simulation, recreated in the design of Old Earth.
And she had two liters to bathe with…
Finishing her water, Kaia set the glass on the synthstone sink—which also featured similar red and blue knobs—and removed her flight suit. She’d been in that thing since the last morning on Riker 109. Now the sweaty bits were beginning to chafe. She stripped the undersuit padding piece by piece, then the base layer, piling them on the floor. Finally, she turned to the thing she’d been avoiding since she entered the bathroom. The expansive mirror above the sink.
Riker 109 didn’t have mirrors. The closest it had were polished sheets of metal, scraped and dented over the years, creating caricatures of whoever looked inside. Kaia had never had to face her own real reflection—the kind that offered no chance to hide behind a warped distortion.
Now she looked.
The green eyes staring back at her were exhausted. Sunken undereyes crinkled with dehydration lines that she’d never seen quite so clearly before. A bold spattering of freckles dotted the plane of her nose and her sharp, gaunt cheeks. Her lips didn’t look too bad, having just been moistened by the H2O, but still the corners of her mouth had little white scabs. The reflection of her tongue darted out to poke those flakes at each side.
Her observation moved lower, straying from her pointed chin to the thin neck and jutting collarbones. Sharp shoulders slumped in the mirror. Kaia forced them back. They obeyed after a few protesting creaks. The movement drew her eye to her small chest. Light nipples had grown hard and obscene to her eye; the bathroom wasn’t cold, but the temperature change still felt drastic after being stuffed into the suit for so long. Lower, Kaia counted the ribs. They dipped into a narrow waist and a concave stomach. Her abs ran down in two vertical lines on either side—no muscle to really stand out, but no fat to hide them either.
Kaia looked just like anyone on Riker 109, so she’d never been self-conscious about her scrawniness. But if the transport toColossalwas anything to judge by, here they had solid food and water to wash it down with, and ate three meals a day. Was everyone on the colony going to be fat and fleshy? Would she look like a walking skeleton next to them all?
Who cares? It isn’t like I’m staying.
* * *
It took Kaia a long time to figure out just the right balance of red and blue knobs to turn before she got the proper temperature of tolerably scalding water in the shower. She stayed under the stream for three glorious minutes, holding her face up to the wet needles raining down. Toward the end, she stuck her tongue out in a tentative test. She was meant to have half a liter of drinking water each day. Would anyone know if she cheated and drank some of the bathing ration?
Look at that. Just got here and already getting greedy.
Kaia didn’t feel bad about it. Where she came from, being able to squeeze the most out of what you'd been given was a virtue. She allowed herself a few long gulps before deciding not to push her luck too much. Maybe they monitored what went down the drain for reuse.
She dried herself with a fluffy microfiber towel she’d found hanging on the side of the shower partition. This was followed by her customary joint massage, though the warm water had already made her wrists and ankles feel better than they had in years.
By the time it was all done, Kaia was ready to collapse in that bed. How long would she have to sleep before Orion came to fetch her? With any luck, he’d have a busy day with his mother. Or maybe he’d be too tired and go off to sleep in his own cabins. Kaia wondered if he’d still have that bitter coffee smell to him now that he was here, or if he’d opt for some new fancy colony cologne.
