A shadow fell over the table and a massive, clawed hand dropped a tablet between the plates, in front of her companions. Keeping her head down, she tried to look at the tablet. There were pictures, but squinting was doing nothing for her. Mar and Tor stared at the tablet, confused. Mar began to speak to the stranger, but not in any of the languages Cora recognized. Judging by his expression, Tor didn't know it either.
As slowly as she could manage, Cora peeked around the hood of her cloak.
Her inner four-year old shrieked with glee. The newcomer looked like a dragon, wrapped in a garment made out of the same fabric as her cloak. They stood upright, with dull, earthy green scales and neon yellow eyes. When they spoke, it was with a crunchy-sounding growl. Shimmying forward in her seat, Cora tried to get a better look at the tablet. It was two photos, one of Mar and one of Tor. They reminded her of driver's license or passport photos. There was bold, unfamiliar text around the photos.
If I didn't know any better, I'd think that looks like a BOLO. Or a wanted poster.
It made sense. Cora wondered if there was a picture of her. Like he'd read her mind, Tor swiped at the tablet, scrolling down. There were no other pictures. He tilted his head, eyes darting over to her for a split second.
Oh no. Tor, that was a bad idea.
She felt the dragon's attention shift.
I'm not brave enough for this.
Shrinking down in her seat, Cora considered making a break for it.
The stranger spoke again, what was definitely a question. Mar began to bristle, but Tor swatted at him, muttering something in Roshak before pointing at the tablet.
She hazarded another peek up at the stranger, letting out a horrified
squeak
when she realized that they were looking directly at her.
Fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck-
The stranger coughed, then spoke in a suddenly clear voice. "A human?"
Tor and Mar responded in bewildered unison. "What?"
Cora, ever the survivalist, squeaked out a panicked reply. "Sorry- uh- what's a human?"
Staring at her intensely, the stranger straightened up. Mar began reaching for his belt, but there was no need. The stranger turned and left without a word, taking their tablet with them.
Tor slowly got out of his seat. "We're going back to the ship. That was bad."
Mar stood, eyeing the food on the table. "Yeah. But I'm taking this with us." He retrieved a collapsed box from the counter, folded it together, and scooped the contents in. Cora took the box and walked between them. She wished someone would tell her what was happening.
Back on the ship, Cora switched out the battery packs from the egg crate, plugging the old ones in to charge. Usually, Tor did this, but he and Mar had been in some kind of meeting with Amola for a while now. She didn't want to risk the eggs getting cold. Pushing her hand gently into the crate, Cora made sure that they were still evenly warm. Then, carefully, she turned each one to check it.
She'd tried not to think too much about what having these eggs meant for her. Space was massive, confusing, and unfamiliar. And Cora wasn't even in her mid-twenties yet. She had no idea when they'd hatch, even
if
they'd hatch. Mar seemed a bit uncomfortable with the topic, but Tor would always just shrug when she'd ask.
I never should have taught him that.
Leaning against the box, Cora rested her chin on her crossed arms. They all looked the same as the day they'd come out of her, still dark and iridescent. She sat there for a while, watching them. The warmth radiating from the box made her drowsy, and she found herself dozing off.
"Cora." Tor was shaking her awake.
Her arms were completely numb. "Ouch. What's up?" She tried to stand, but settled for just turning around when her stiff legs refused to cooperate. He sat down with her. "We're going to be gone for a while."
"We?"
"Mar and I. Amola asked us to retrieve some things for her." He paused, thinking. "We'll be back before she's ready to leave." It was hard for Cora to conceptualize time off Earth, so she resigned herself to waiting and worrying.
"Will it be dangerous?"
Tor laughed, surprising her. "No, no." He thought for a second. "Don't worry. You'd be coming, too, if there were room."
She knew that Tor was awful at feigning nonchalance, so Cora decided to trust him on this.
"Okay." She pushed herself up, going to the door. "I won't worry, but I'm still going to go tell Mar to be careful."
He followed. "If I told him that, he'd go pick a fight just to spite me. But I'm sure he'll listen to you."
Cora sat in the main area, sorting out a pile of tiny parts into boxes. It had taken her a while to figure out why each piece went in a certain box, but she'd become good enough to do it unsupervised. She was proud of herself for this, since Amola never left her companions unsupervised at the same task. Enough time had passed for the lights to go out, so she'd been working by lamplight for at least a few hours. Now, she was hungry.
The food was stored in a smaller adjoining room, most of it shelf-stable. She wasn't sure what Amola ate, and didn't really want to know.
There wasn't much of her Earth food left, only a few cans of vegetables and some ingredients. There was a single can of chicken soup.
Oh, yeah. That's a meal right there.
Amola took the neatness of her ship very seriously, so once Cora finished eating, she cleaned the spoon and put it back with their supplies.
As she was heading towards the door, Mitri skittered past the doorway at a speed Cora had never seen from her. Concerned, she peeked out of the doorway, only to get yanked out of it by a clearly nervous Mitri. "Please, go. Go." She pushed Cora toward the ladder that led to her quarters.
Becoming uneasy, she climbed the ladder. "Mitri, what's wrong?"
Mitri followed her into her quarters, pulling the door shut behind them. She held a tablet on which she frantically began to type. She passed the tablet to Cora.
<Mom is in a bad mood. I think she might be like I was. Please stay away from her.>
Cora chewed at her lip, clearing the screen and typing a message before returning the tablet.
<Where is she right now?>
<Her room. You can still use the maintenance tunnels. She doesn't go there.>
Once Cora read that last message, Mitri took the tablet and left, immediately heading for the tunnels. While she was normally pretty twitchy, Cora had never seen her this nervous.
I've also never heard her call Amola 'mom'.
Her unease continued, so she decided to lock the door to her quarters.
What a bad time for Mar and Tor to leave.
The latch was a heavy strip of metal, maybe a half-inch thick. She slid it from an opening above the door, through several heavy brackets on the door, then clicked it into a hole in the floor. The door didn't budge an inch when Cora tugged at the handle.
She flopped back onto the bedding.
I'm a bit nervous, sure, but I don't think I'm that scared. I'll be okay.
The lights dimmed once more, and Cora quickly realized that between the long day of sorting and the chicken soup, she'd become sleepy. It was cold without her companions, so she hunted for a bit of fabric that would serve as a blanket and nestled herself against the egg crate.
When Cora woke up, she was sweaty and uncomfortable. She checked the eggs, making sure nothing had changed while she was asleep. There was a heavy tapping coming from the main area.
I've never seen Amola in a bad mood.
She didn't want to know what that meant.
I'm definitely not opening the door.
The gap under the door wasn't enough to see anything, so Cora quickly put her cloak on and took a running jump. Their room had a small access panel in the far corner of the room, with only a ledge halfway up to get to it. This ship was definitely not made with smaller creatures in mind.
I never thought I was small until I had to start doing parkour to use the bathroom.
