What Happens in Orbit

Cora stared intensely at the cards laid out in front of her. "Your move, Bee."

It had been forty-two solar cycles since she checked in, making one full

rotation

. When Cora asked Meli what had rotated, she just gave her a funny look. Bee, Tor's youngest brother, came to work with his mother, and was overjoyed to find someone that had never played

any

of his favorite games.

Today, he was teaching her to play Solor, a competitive hybrid of solitaire and sudoku. Cora wasn't sure how it was even possible to lose at this game, but she sure was.

Roshak days felt so much longer than Earth days.

Do I even remember how long 24 hours felt? How long am I asleep for?

"Aw, hm. Cora, do you have any red suns?" She flipped through the stack of cards in her hand. They were thin yet heavy, made of a light gray metal. "I do!" Cora pulled two cards from her deck, each with a red star painted on them.

Cora wasn't sure how long it had been. Her arm and legs were healed, Meli's brutal physical therapy working magic on her shattered bones. Her lower back and hips, however remained sore.

Probably had something to do with the tail her body decided to grow.

It was still rather short, easily concealed, but Cora was not a fan. The new, sharp teeth replacing the ones she'd knocked out were nice, as was the change in her hair texture, but the tail was difficult to deal with. Yesterday, she somehow managed to shut it in a drawer.

Agony.

That was the day Bee learned some swears in English.

"Your turn, Cora!"

She looked at the cards laid out in front of them. They made a grid pattern, one that was slowly starting to make sense to her.

Tai would like this game.

Meli returned from her rounds, her granddaughter clinging to her back. Mel had grown considerably in the past rotation. In the last week, she skipped learning to walk and instead chose to run, constantly colliding with the walls and furniture. According to Meli, this was common. Cora snickered at the thought of baby Tor charging at the walls.

"Oh, Cora."

She looked up. "Yes?"

Meli was standing over the egg crate, gently turning over the eggs. "I need to talk to you. It won't be a pleasant talk, but it's important."

Alarmed, Cora sat on the edge of the bed. "What is it?"

"We'll have two more mouths to feed soon. I have no idea when we'll get in contact with your colony. This place is free for you to stay at, but when you check out, you'll have lift with both arms."

Cora had already assumed as much, sans the Roshak idiom. Her mom had never raised her to be a freeloader. "Right, of course. That means, like a job?"

Visibly embarrassed, Meli rubbed at her head. "I wish I had the means to take care of you, but it's just Bee and I now, and..." She trailed off.

Waving a hand, Cora tried to reassure her. "I never expected you to, that's so much to ask of you. I'm not sure what I can do, but I'll do whatever you need me to."

At this, she relaxed. "That's good to hear. Actually, that's what I came to tell you. There's a couple positions here at the clinic that need temporary help. Everyone here already knows your situation."

Cora nodded enthusiastically.

Everyone

consisted of five nurses, one janitor, and two administration staff, all of whom she knew well.

"I know," Meli continued, "you'll eventually be reuniting with your colony. This is just a temporary thing."

During this conversation, Bee had left the bedside table, settling next to the egg crate. "Mom."

She waved a hand at him. "Not now, B-"

"Mom, one of the eggs is moving."

She blanched. "Already?"

Cora jumped up, joining them. Mel was to Cora's left, tiny fingers grasping the edge of the crate. Bee eyed her nervously, shooing her grabby toddler hands back from the eggs.

Surely enough, one of the eggs was rocking back and forth, tiny squeaks emanating from it.

"I'm only gonna say this once.

Don't

touch me." Mar fought to keep his voice calm, but it still came out as a snarl. The Sheevae servant stepped back, unwinding her arms from around him. "Sorry!"

He sighed. Things were

not

going well.

Tai poked his head into the common room. "You good?"

He held his arms out, giving Tai a long, dry look. "Do I look- Agh, shit. I'm sorry."

"You're not the only one suffering." Gingerly, Tai stepped out of the room and shut the door behind him. "Tor has been staring at the same light fixture for an hour now." He kept his voice low, casting a glance in the direction of their shared quarters. "I tried to get him to go eat and got this in return."

Mar looked up as Tai gestured to his nose. It was horribly swollen and bruised, with two black eyes to match.

"Shit."

It had been several days since Tor even left his quarters. Sighing, Mar stood. "I'll go talk to him."

"O-kay. You have fun with that. I'm going to get out of range." Tai turned, heading for the kitchen. It had been just under one rotation since Ray sent a message to the Sheevae queen. She'd been a little

too

happy to help them, promising find whoever had taken Cora. But they'd already spent hours interrogating port authorities and the furnace-keeper, Arch. Nobody knew anything.

It was as if Cora had just vanished.

Tor growled as Mar slid the door open. Della was curled up in a far corner, fidgeting with spare parts. He didn't look up.

Fuck, things are bad.

"Tor."

The engineer turned to face Mar, slowly. His teeth were already bared.

"You look like shit. And you smell like it, too." Mar ducked as Tor lunged at him, ducking again as he swung at him. "Is this helping? Is living like a cave worm helping you feel better?"

"My fucking daughter-"

Mar cut him off. "Is out there, while her dad is-" he gestured, unsure. "Doing this."

"What else should I do? We have to

sit here

and wait. And wait. And

wait

!"

"And you're the only one who's worried about them?"

Tor paused, looking back at Della.

"No, I'm not."

Della's languid gaze stayed on the rifle he was disassembling and reassembling. "You two are wasting your time and energy. We're leaving for a mission in fifteen marks. And you're fighting. I'm sure she would be

so

proud."

They looked up at the ship's clock. Tor gritted his teeth. "Fine."

He shoved his way past Mar, casting one last bitter glance at him.

There's no way this is gonna go well.

It did not.

The mission was simple, or it was supposed to be. Tor, Tai, Mar, and Della would hijack a Roshak mining ship. What they weren't expecting was more of those

things

. Instead of being manned by a usual crew, they dropped feet-first into a room full of metal-and-flesh creatures. There was no cargo, no equipment.

It was a trap.

Della was the first to go. Mar watched, helpless as they dragged his limp body away from them.

"Tor!"

His voice crackled over the radio. "What?"

"We have to get out of here!"

Tai, bleeding heavily from a gash in his head, lunged for the robot pinning Mar to the wall. These ones were bigger.

Much

bigger. He barely managed to disrupt its balance, freeing Mar. "Come on!"

"We can't leave Della!" Mar dropped into a crouch, narrowly dodging the clawed arm aimed at his head.

"Not without help! We can't even down one of these things!" Tai charged down a hall, Mar on his heels.

An alarm sounded over their radios. Tor's voice crackled through. "Shit!"

"What?"

The entire ship shook. Tai swore. "Someone else is here! Damn it, Tor!"

Tor cut in again. "I fucking- The radar didn't pick it up. Get back here, now!"

Stopping on a dime, Tai launched himself upwards. He crashed through the ceiling grate, scrambling his way into the maintenance tunnel. Mar followed.

The clamor of the robots faded into the distance as Mar and Tai dove through a hole in the ship's wall. Tor met them on the other side, frantically dragging them through the airlock and back into their own ship.

"Fuck, fuck,

fuck

!" Visibly panicked, he disengaged the airlock and slammed the levers up. "It's a fucking Foshar imperial ship and we are

right fucking under it.

"

Mar joined him, pushing his shaking hands away from the steering control. "I've got this, watch the radar. Tai, cut the lights and auxiliaries- except the radar, yeah."

With a heavy

clank

, their much smaller ship detached from the mining rig and began to drift away.

"They're not activating any of their weapons," whispered Tor.

Mar shook his head, voice cracking. "They're probably interrogating Della. Knowing him, he'll buy us time to get out of here unnoticed."

"Fuck." Tai buried his face in his hands. "Let's just get out of here."

As they drifted further out, Mar realized why Tor was shaking so badly. The radar, programmed to disregard a certain size of object in favor of smaller things like asteroids and missiles, had missed the imperial ship entirely. What looked like open space devoid of stars was just the underside of it.

Massive

couldn't even begin to describe it.

"Cut the radar."

Tor frowned. "Why?"

"We need to conserve power. As long as we're moving this slowly, their radar will disregard us as debris. When I give the signal, we're going to turn everything back on and get the fuck out of here."

While they waited, Tai bandaged his head, cleaning up the blood that ran down his face. "Do we have enough air supply to wait that long?"

"We better," he replied.

They watched as the massive ship came into view. "Shit," Tor whispered. "They spent all that fuel and manpower just to..." He trailed off, thinking.

"That's probably where they keep those things we fought," Tai suggested. "The way they were packed on to the miner was unsustainable."

When Tor gave him a funny look, he continued. "They're alive. They were breathing, they had some kind of blood flowing through veins." He shuddered. "I don't think they were born that way, either."

The imperial ship was a long diamond, the landing gear flaring out to the sides and back like oars on a boat. The entire ship was trimmed in reflective silver solar panels. Turrets were mounted on the underside, inactive at that moment. Mar felt uneasy. He didn't trust the quiet.

"Alright, let's do this. Tai, when I signal, turn the main power back on. Tor, when you hear it hit the lines, start the engine. Tell me when the engine is primed and I'll throw it into gear."

Somehow, nothing went wrong, except for Mar being thrown from his seat as the ship lurched forward. Any other time, Tor would have mocked him.

Not today.

Bitterly, they all watched as the mining rig and imperial ship shrank from view.

As their airlock hissed open onto the queen's ship, the three of them froze. Someone was screaming.

Tai held his hands up. "Is anyone else just...

done

? I don't want to know who's screaming. I want to sleep."

"Not yet." Mar growled. "I need to know why we just walked into a trap."

The closer they got to the queen's hall, the louder the screams got. When they opened the door, Tor swore and took off.

The queen stood over one of her own, a cruelly curved knife in her hand. Her eyes were wide and dark, her needle-sharp teeth bared. It was easy to see why Tor ran. At her feet, a Sheevae crew member wheezed. Flesh had been peeled back from muscle and bone in several places.

Neither Mar nor Tai reacted.

The queen's eyes darted up to them.

"Pests and parasites. Can you two believe that there are

worms

in my court?"

Mar kept his tone level. "Would these be the same worms that led us right into a trap?"

She regarded the traitor with disgust. "Well? Answer him!"

Silence.

The queen knelt, prodding the crew member with her knife. She scoffed. "Dead. How pathetic. Well, that's no problem. She already gave me the names of

all

her friends."

Mar tried to swallow, but his mouth was too dry.

Never mind. I'm so grateful that Cora isn't here.

Erie and Leo met them in the hallway. "We found Della. He's alive and they're transferring him back home."

Mar sighed. "That's great. Is it possible to intercept them?"

Leo shook his head. "Not likely. But we do know what prison they're taking him to."

He looked over at Tai. "We need to go ask the queen, we can't just leave. Not right now."

"No need!" The queen replied brightly from behind them, making Tai jump. "Go ahead. I need to speak with Cora, so bring her back, too, will you?"

Mar froze. "Bring her back?"

The queen leaned over, looking pointedly at Leo and Erie. "You... didn't tell them?"

Erie huffed. "We were getting to that. We found some encrypted messages from the port, intended for royal authorities. For some reason, they were never sent. My theory is that something happened to the ones transporting her. But we're certain she's somewhere on Roshak."

Uneasy, Mar turned back to the queen. "May I ask

why

you want to speak with her?"

The queen waved a hand at them, laughing. "Please, don't worry. I'd never hurt a human. She might be able to answer a few questions I have. Now, go! Roshak is a rather large planet, and you don't have much time."

Cora cringed, looking up from the book she was reading. "Why does Roshak have to have so many giant bugs?"

Bee gave her an odd look. "What do you mean, giant?"

"Well, back on Earth, they'd maybe be about this big." She held her hands barely an inch apart.

"You mean you don't have to worry about getting eaten?"

She laughed. "Well, they'd have to try really hard. But no. Not really." Cora returned to her book, a kid's novel Bee loaned her. The main character was facing off against what sounded like a giant caterpillar with tusks.

"Cora." Meli's authoritative voice cut through the silence. "Come here."

Yes ma'am.

Quickly, Cora joined Meli in the living room.

"Isn't this one of yours?"

Confused, Cora looked at the display. Her breath caught in her throat. It was a news feed of Della being dragged off a Roshak ship. He was heavily bruised, with dried purple blood around his mouth and nose. There was a narrator, but his voice faded as Cora focused on the video. The word TRAITOR sat at the bottom of the screen, like an accusation.

Shit.

The feed cut to a building, with two armed guards at the door. The camera feed panned slowly back to Della, and Cora noted the lack of a fence, or a tower. It was the prison, up in the trees like everything else on the city, with two bridges spanning the gap. With a jolt, Cora recognized several buildings in the background, including the hospital she'd recovered at.

Shit!

Cora looked at Meli. She was already looking at Cora. Expectantly, too. "Well?"

Looking back at the display, Cora took a deep breath. "Can you watch the kids? I need to go do something."

Meli laughed. "Bee! Come here. Lead Cora to where she needs to go."

He popped his head in the room, visibly concerned. "Why?" He ducked, narrowly missing a swat.

"Because I asked you to! Now, go!"

Bee ran out the door, Cora on his heels. "Where are you going?"

She gritted her teeth. "The prison."

To her surprise, Bee didn't stop, or even hesitate. "Okay. You wanna get in there?"

When Cora didn't answer, he shot a glance at her. "What? I had to get one of my friends out of there one time. It's

so

easy. Well, it was when I did it. You just get in the vents. There's only like, five cells."

Cora stopped at the bridge leading to the prison. Bee had turned back already, leaving her to her task. She looked down. Spanning the gap below the bridge were massive cables. The prison was held up on pillars, the ground obscured by the weblike structure created by the support cables. Without giving it much thought, Cora sidestepped the bridge and began running. The cables didn't move as her feet made contact. Not wanting to push her luck, she kept moving. Momentum carried her forward, her feet touching the cables just enough to guide her to the pillar closest to her. The ground was several miles down, by her judgment.

Fuck.

Cora didn't stop to catch her breath when she hit the pillar. She couldn't. She flew up the side of the pillar, using the cables anchored there like rungs on a ladder.

The underside of the prison came into view, several dark holes with fan blades spinning languidly.

That's fine.

Trusting her timing, Cora threw herself past the blades.

Now, for the hard part.

She paused, letting her eyes adjust to the pitch-black interior. Stale air rushed past her, back the way she came.

Della was here. Taking a deep breath, she moved as quickly as she dared. If she could smell them, they could smell her. There was a grate in front of her. She peered through it.

Below, there was a single guard, standing directly beneath the grate. Sudden, unexpected rage coursed through her. Tearing the grate from the ceiling, Cora dropped on to the guard, knocking him to the ground. With a

thud,

his head hit the ground.

Whoops.

He went limp under her.

The hall was now empty, save for the occupant of the cell to her left. It was Della, his face considerably swollen and purple. He was slouched over. Cora shuddered, bracing herself for the worst.

"Della?"

He stirred.

Oh, thank-

A door slammed open, and shouts rang out. Cora snarled in frustration, kicking hard at the hinges on his cell. The metal buckled under her foot, tearing apart with a shriek.

At this moment, two thoughts came to her.

They've got guns.

I'll kill them all.

"Della. We're leaving."

With a grunt, he stood.

Six men rounded the corner. Cora was waiting for them.

Weird.

They moved in slow-motion, like they were running through water. She could feel Della behind her, his heart beating slowly.

Hm.

A finger brushed against a trigger.

When Cora took her next breath, the air was full of blood. An arm belonging to one of the guards flew behind her, still grasping its weapon. The owner stood before her, his eyes widening.

Della took a step, grimacing. Cora heard his teeth grinding against each other.

I have to get him out of here.

The guard to her left was reaching to wipe the blood from his eyes. Before he could, Cora struck him in his chest, his sternum crackling under her fist.

They're so fragile.

A thought piped up in her mind, meekly.

Don't they have families?

Cora's eyes darkened.

They should have thought about that before fucking with mine.

Three. Four.

She snatched the gun from another guard's hand, striking him across the head. Before he hit the ground, she spun to face one behind her and threw it, hard.

It hit his face with a sickening

crunch.

Della was moving slowly. They had broken one of his legs. Cora could hear the bone creaking, and it made her

livid.

She lunged at the fifth, her teeth tearing into his throat. It was disgusting and bitter, her mouth filling with blood. She reared back, taking a little too much satisfaction in the sound of flesh tearing.

She faced the sixth. He'd collapsed on the ground, shivering. Cora stomped on the gun in front of him, shattering it underfoot. Only the battery remained intact.

Della limped forward, picking up the gun Cora had thrown. His fingers brushed against it, squeaking faintly through the blood smeared along the barrel.

There were more ahead, but Cora didn't run. She walked a few paces ahead of Della, bristling. The gun in his hands hummed to life, the battery slotting back into place.

His pulse thudded inside Cora's head, the sound of his heart straining further worrying her.

He's in so much pain right now.

She opened the door the other guards had entered through, immediately sinking into a crouch. There was a commotion in front of her, with five more guards entangled in a fight.