What Happens in Orbit

There was a muffled

clang

from the top of the ship. "Took you guys long enough," Cora muttered. Mar rose from the couch, sprinting back to the engine bay before audibly, dramatically collapsing to the ground. She followed him from a distance, failing to fight back a laugh.

"Cora?" She looked up. Tai was peering nervously from the ceiling.

"There you are. Did you find his medicine?"

Tai drew back from the opening, whispering to someone else. The back end of a rifle appeared, loaded with a bright orange canister. "We got it," Della said, loud enough to make Tai jump and swear at him.

There's your cue, Mar.

As Tai swore at Della, a deep growl echoed down the hall. She shivered.

Shit, he really knows how to be scary.

Tai jumped down, motioning to Della, who followed him. However, instead of landing on his feet, Tai caught him, helping him stand. There was still a brace on his leg.

"What were you thinking?" Though he was facing forward, Cora knew he was talking to her.

She scoffed. "None of you considered that he had the executive override codes. I kept him on the ship."

"And how'd you do that?" Della turned his head to the side, eyeing her.

"I can fit in the electrical access panels. He can't. It was easy to avoid him."

They both made a sound that clearly said,

I don't believe you.

"What? Shit, here he comes." She took several steps back. His eyes glinted in the dim light.

Della's rifle made a distinct

clack-clack

as he primed it. Like they'd done this a million times, he stood behind Tai, their backwards steps syncing as he took aim.

Mar came out of the shadows, back on fours, his teeth bared.

He's still pretending, right?

"Remember," Tai murmured, his voice incredibly calm. "Mid-thigh. He won't go down immediately."

Della scoffed, then fired. There was a loud, harsh hiss, loud enough to make Cora's ears ring. Wincing, Cora watched as Mar rose from the ground again. He lunged.

Unfazed by this, Della smacked his rifle open, reloading it with a neon yellow cartridge. With a flick of his wrist, he swung it shut and took aim again.

Cora clapped her hands to her ears as a neon yellow dart sprouted from Mar's other leg. He tried to dodge, several seconds too late.

Tai charged forward, slamming his entire body weight into the enraged Roshak. Della stumbled backwards, wincing.

Shit. He can't run.

Her fears were misplaced, however. Tai had wrestled Mar to the ground, a knee in his back and an arm around his neck. Mar snarled, thrashing in his grasp.

"You're making this more difficult," Tai grunted, heaving Mar upwards and tightening his grip. Mar responded by rearing his head back, slamming it into Tai's face. "Fuck- Really, Mar?"

Nervously, Della called out to him. "Was it not enough?"

"No, we did the dose by his weight. It just-" Mar thrashed again, knocking him back and breaking free. Tai was quickly on his feet again, circling him. "It takes a while to work."

Cora stepped in front of Della, on the side of his bad leg. He leaned on her, putting his rifle strap over his shoulder.

As Mar tried to lunge for Tai again, he stumbled, falling to the ground. His movements were sluggish and uneven, and as he stood, he fell once more.

Still, Tai kept his distance. "See? It just takes a while."

He made a few more weak attempts, eventually crumpling to the floor.

"Okay." Tai stood, rolling his shoulder and wincing. "Shit."

Cora didn't like his sudden change in tone. "What?"

"The plan was to take him back to the clinic, but we didn't bring Tor along and now... I can't carry him all the way back.

She deadpanned, then groaned, rolling her eyes. "Did you two rush everything once you realized I was here?"

While Della was nodding and offering an earnest

of course,

Tai was shaking his head and saying

of course not.

They stopped, giving each other a sour look.

Cora sighed. "I should have known."

"Cora, he could have killed you."

It took everything in her not to roll her eyes again. It wasn't their fault that she'd just had the roughest all-nighter of her entire life. "No, the Noxis I ran into on my way here could have killed me. But I got him first. Kind of. Or the big scaly thing that busted into the engine bay."

"Noxis?"

"Big scaly thing?"

"Let's get Mar off the floor, then I'll show you."

She worked with Tai to move him to the couch, trying to hide how much she was struggling. Mar was

heavy

.

"Follow me."

"Oh." Tai stopped in the doorway, eyes wide.

Della ran into him, unable to stop in time. "What? What is it?"

"You didn't do that," his tone wavered between question and statement.

Cora shook her head. "No. That was all Mar. I hid," she paused and pointed up to the exhaust piping. "Up there."

Della circled the corpse, visibly nauseous. "Even for Mar, that's impressive."

"Yeah. Look at what it did to the door." They both turned to look, Della biting back a gasp. "Shit."

Tai whipped back to her. "Wait, Noxis?"

She shuddered. "Yeah. I had one follow me here. I took his head off, and he kept following me."

"You took his head off," Della whispered reverently.

"Oh, right. They've got a secondary brain in their abdomen. That's the one that processes the basic functions. Speech, emotion, and whatnot are done in the one up here." He tapped his forehead.

"Good to know." Cora could have done with that information

much

earlier. "Want me to head back to Meli's and get Tor?"

Tai shook his head, giving her a pointed look. "We don't travel alone in the forest."

Della straightened up, testing his bad leg. "I can go, I just can't fight."

"Della. That's the only requirement from the forest. You have to be able to fight."

This was getting them nowhere.

Cora interrupted them. "When should Mar wake up?"

Tai squinted back towards the common area. "It should take half a day. He went down hard."

Della was still in bad shape, but Tai wasn't much better. His scrap with Mar had him cradling two of his arms against his chest. When he realized Cora had noticed this, he attempted to drop the arms to his sides.

This did not go well.

Speaking over his loud hiss of pain, Cora put her hands on her hips. "Now, see? Ugh. What did you tell Tor before you left? Is it possible that he'll show up anyway?"

Della snickered, shaking his head. "I don't- No. It's not."

Tai frowned. "That's not helpful, Della. We... didn't really tell him anything."

Closing her eyes, Cora tried to temper her frustration. "You didn't have time to go back and tell him through all your panicking. Let's look at our situation." She turned, walking back into the hallway. "I'm the only one who's not injured. I'm tired, but that's all. Della, you can't run, and Tai, you can't climb. Maybe all you need is some rest. Maybe not." Sitting perched on the couch arm, Cora cast a glance over at Mar. He was snoring.

"It's only been a short time that he's been off his medication, right?"

Tai nodded, gesturing at Della to sit down. Della shook his head, then looked over at Cora.

She gave him a withering glare.

He sat.

"He's got some severe bruising where we hit him." Tai was inspecting Mar's legs, carefully parting the torn, bloodstained fabric. "But..." He continued going over Mar. "His temperature and blood pressure are down."

"What does that mean?"

"He shouldn't really need to go to the clinic. It would be best practice, but it's not necessary."

"Mmm." Cora pursed her lips. "Tor needs to come back and repair the ship anyway, sooner than later." Mar stirred, making them all stiffen in response.

He sighed, rolling over.

"I can climb just fine, this arm doesn't have anything more than bruising. There's just one issue." Tai looked up at the ceiling, taking a breath. "I don't want to leave Della alone with Mar."

Della limped across the room, disappearing through a doorway. He came back, carrying a different rifle. "I'm fine. It'll be fine." He didn't sound very sure.

Cora closed her eyes, sighing deeply.

What a shit situation.

"But, Cora?" Tai leaned over, waiting for her to open her eyes.

"Yeah?"

"This is just a suggestion.

Maybe

, from now on, can we

please

communicate with each other? Every time you've gone somewhere without telling anyone, you almost die. You're very small, and we all worry so much about you."

Della nodded somberly. "It's our fault you're here. Well,

his

, actually, but he's not awake to take the blame." He shot a glare at Mar, but all he got in response was a snore.

They half-heartedly argued for long enough that Cora dozed off. She wasn't sure when, but she'd fallen asleep between Tor and Della.

One of them shot up from the other couch they'd settled on, nearly knocking her to the floor.

"Something's here."

Della was now behind the couch, a rifle pointed towards the darkened hallway.

Mar rolled off the couch, slurring his way into a standing position, fists aloft. "I got it."

Tai hadn't left the couch. "It's just Tor."

"Just? What's that supposed to mean?" Tor appeared out of the shadows, visibly angry. "The ship is a mess. You realize this isn't ours? We can't go anywhere until I fix it! Electrical is fucked, our seals are fucked, we're not going to be spaceworthy for an entire fucking

rotation

! And you're just

sitting there

!"

"I'm standing." Mar spoke confidently, his eyes still closed.

"Shut up." Tor stalked past him, single-handedly shoving him back down to the couch. He kneeled in front of Cora, cradling her face in his hands. "You're hurt." He firmly held her, his hands shaking slightly. "Stop running off, please," he whispered. "I can't lose you."

Cora was still blinking sleep out of her eyes. This was made more difficult by the appearance of tears. "I know. I'm sorry. I didn't want to lose anyone else, either." Her chest tightened as she recalled her conversation with Meli.

Tor sighed. "You're okay."

Tai was standing over Mar, eyeing him nervously. He appeared to be sleeping soundly.

"Alright," Cora stood, stretching. "Let's try this again. What's our plan?"

Della spoke up immediately. "We should go get the kids named. We might not get a chance like this again."

"That's not, uh, are we really worried about that right now?" Tai frowned, looking over at Cora. "We have to get the ship fixed, we really need all hands on deck for this."

Tor scoffed. "Hey Tai, what kind of outlet does a data cable plug into?"

Tai responded with a blank stare. "The square one," Mar muttered, making them all jump.

Fidgeting with a loose piece of sheet metal, Tor sighed. "Neither of you can help fix this ship. I only need Mar."

Della looked slightly offended.

"But," Cora spoke up. "Isn't Mar kind of- kind of out of commission right now?"

Tor knelt in front of her, putting a pair of hands on her shoulders. "Cora, everything is too much right now. I want to fix the ship. I don't want to think about or do anything else. Okay?" He

did

look stressed.

"Okay." Cora nodded, letting him hold her face in his hands.

"Just come back, okay?" He whispered.

She nodded again, looking around. "So, we should go to Meli's, get the two littles, and..."

"It'll just have to be to see Della's family. I don't know where my mother is," Tai sighed.

Della gave him a funny look. "What? You were

just

talking about how your colony is still just below my family's mountains. And you called your mother the last time we were on Koramin's ship."

"Ah. Yeah. Forgot." Tai's gray skin turned a funny off-white color. "We should get ready, then."

With a heavy rifle and bag slung across her back, Cora led Tai and Della back out into the woods. This time, they were only stopping by Meli's home to pick up the kids. It was early morning, still a few marks before sunrise.

Della and Tai waited just inside.

Cora tread gently. Bee would be asleep, Meli just about to leave for work if she hadn't already.

She hadn't.

As Cora carefully extracted her sleeping children from Bee's side, she heard Meli stop in the doorway. The others were still out in the living room. The hall was dark. She nestled Mel into the crook of her arm, unwilling to wake her.

"Cora." She stepped out, allowing Meli to shut the door behind her. "Walk with me." Obeying, Cora followed her to the kitchen. Tai and Della looked questioningly at her in the dim light as she passed. She shrugged.

"What happened?" Meli whispered, audibly exhausted.

"I was able to keep him on the ship."

The tension was palpable. "It's written all over your face. What did I tell you?"

"To not do... What I did. But it's not likely that I'll carry again. He wasn't off his medication very long."

"And? What will you do if you're wrong? They want to take you back to that insane queen Koramin, knowing full well what she's like."

Cora paused. "What she's like?"

"You don't know." Meli was unnerved, her eyes darting to the large display in the living room. "Cora, let me- oh," She groaned, burying her face in her hands. "Okay. Let me start fresh." Taking a steadying breath, she held her hands out, palms facing down. "Our planet, our government, is currently at war with the Sheevae. It's actually the Foshar they want, but we got dragged into it because they have nothing better to do than ruin our lives."

Cora grimaced. "I think I knew about that."

I hope she never finds out that I started it.

"Okay, now. Understand this. She oversees torture personally. And broadcasts it

live

."

"Ah." Cora swallowed hard, her throat suddenly dry.

"You understand now? The things that awful creature does to those that don't comply, and

my son is working with her!

"

Oh, that's what this is about.

"She- I think Mar, Tai, and Della have experience working with her. Tor wouldn't really be directly involved."

"Oh?" Cora hadn't seen this side of Meli before.

She's just worried about her son.

"And why would they have done that?"

"They-" She paused, realizing that she'd said too much. "Uh," Cora hated lying, but it couldn't be helped. "They used to work in sourcing hard-to-find parts, usually from Noxis. In the past, they had to work with her, too. She's got this weird obsession with humans, so she was really our only option when they put out the alert about us."

It wasn't entirely a lie. Meli visibly relaxed. "That's a relief. For a moment, I was scared that my son was traveling with bounty hunters."

Cora took a deep, even breath. "No, I don't think he could handle that. I couldn't, either."

Then again, she'd had no choice.

Have I ever?

"I suppose you're leaving now, to go back to her."

Cora was relieved to be able to shake her head. "Not yet. We're going to get names for these two, first."

Traveling by foot wasn't exactly pleasant. Della was learning to walk with a cane, and Tai was especially on edge. Cora couldn't put her finger on what was wrong, but she could see the tension in his gait.

That looks painful.

"Tai, are you feeling okay?"

He jumped, shaking his head. "No! I'm doing excellent."

"Uh... huh." Cora tried not to roll her eyes. "You realize you said 'no,' right?"

"Did I?"

It would have to wait. They were approaching the train depot. Freight trains here were different, traveling midair between structures that reminded Cora of telephone lines. Trees were cleared from the ground here, the trains' path stretching into the distance.

It reminded her of home. She could see tall grass swaying gently down below, treelines on either side. In the neighborhood she grew up in, the towering high-voltage power lines ran past her house, creating a seemingly unending lane of grass just like this.

"Cora! You okay?" Della tapped her leg with his cane. "You look really sad."

Aw, jeez.

Cora swiped at her eyes. "I'm fine, this place just reminded me of something we have back on Earth."

Tai's tone and expression were unreadable. "Would you ever want to go back?"

They crouched behind an empty car, eyeing the west-bound train as it came to a stop. Cora dropped her voice to a whisper. "Probably not. There's nothing there for me. But it's home. I miss it sometimes." She squinted at one of the workers, dressed in a neon green jumpsuit. "Hey, wait. She looks familiar."

It was Ora, the one who'd helped her make it safely to the hospital. Her brothers were behind her, loading boxes into the cars. She still walked with a slight stiffness, but she looked much better than she had.

Cora leaned back, looking to the other sections. It was far away enough that the other workers wouldn't notice her.

"Wait here. I'll go talk to her. Even if it doesn't work out, I'll distract her and you two can get on. Take the kids."

Tai didn't argue. He took them, patting them gently to keep them quiet.

Cora darted out, ducking behind a crate. She peered around it. Ora sat in the doorway of a car, taking a drink and kicking her feet absentmindedly. Cautiously, Cora snuck up to the crate nearest to her. "Psst."

Ora jumped, nearly spilling her drink.

Cora peeked over the crate. "Sorry! It's just me."

After a second of squinting, Ora beamed. "Cora! You're alive. After I saw the news about the prison break, I was really worried. They said they caught and put 'the perpetrator' to death."

"Not even close." Cora shook her head. "I don't get why they lie so much when they know someone will eventually find out the truth. Oh, but Ora. I came here to ask for your help."

She nodded, looking around. "Of course, what is it?" mel

"I've got two of my mates here with me. We have to get to the western mountains." Cora gestured back to where Della and Tai were hidden. "We've got little ones that need names."

Ora bounced up and down, her eyes darting around. "Oh, that's exciting! I'd love to help. We depart in about ten marks, so if you want to grab your mates and have them join us on this car, oh, I'd love that."

"Are you not worried about anyone seeing?" Cora whispered, eyeing what she thought was the eastern train.

"Not at all." Ora waved a hand at her. "I could set the car on fire, have a concert, and probably even set off a bomb over here, all at once and those guys wouldn't notice a thing."

Cora laughed. "I believe you." Della and Tai were easing their way around the empty car, sneaking towards her. She waved at them, smiling. "It's fine, come on."

The front car was small but spacious. Tai patted at a crate, assessing it for a moment before stacking another on top of it and pushing it closer to the wall. He motioned to Della and helped him sit.

"Thanks." Della leaned against the wall, grimacing.

Tai hovered over him a moment longer. Opening one eye, Della questioningly held up a hand. "What?"

"Nothing." Tai sat.

Cora watched this exchange. Something was off with Tai.

Maybe it's about his family.

They were headed to Della's home first, then northeast to Tai's.

That would explain the tension.

He'd been like this before, when he was afraid of Mar.

Weird.

Ora sat at the control panel, speaking into a headset. Her brothers, still nameless in Cora's mind, sat near her, quietly playing some kind of dice game.

It couldn't hurt to take a nap.

Cora settled on the floor next to Tai, leaning against him. For a moment, he flinched, then relaxed. Cora sighed, deciding to confront him about it after they met Della's mom.

Cora found herself rolling across the floor.

"Sorry! I'm still learning how to stop smoothly." Ora was white-knuckling a lever, mumbling to herself. "I wouldn't be if they hadn't changed the system. Used to be

good

at this."

Cora pushed herself to her feet, dusting herself off.