“Where shall I begin?”
The woman pointed to a stack of boxes. “The address is on the top,” she said, nodding toward them. “Ask directions on the way. It’s not far.”
“Thank you,” he replied. “I am Bodok, by the way. This is Maureen. What do we call you?”
“Ahzma,” she replied. “But for now you can call me boss.”
Her words were one thing, but the tone was far more friendly than when they had arrived.
“Okay,boss,” he said with a warm smile. “I will get right on that.”
Ahzma turned to the human, sizing her up with a curious look. “All right, then. Follow me. There are some cleaning supplies already there.”
“Thank you,” Maureen said, her eyes locking with Bodok’s a moment before he headed to work.
Ahzma chuckled. “Don’t thank me yet, girl. I wasn’t joking when I said it needed a good cleaning. But it’s a roof over your heads, and that seems to be what you need at the moment.”
With that she headed down the adjacent hallway, her human visitor close behind. Maureen was finally being shown some hospitality, albeit somewhat gruff, and she actually felt something in her gut she hadn’t felt in too long.
Hope.
CHAPTERELEVEN
The hallway leading to the vacant living space was more of what Maureen had expected from the smell when they entered the building. While the front room was maintained and presentable, more or less, once out of public view the structure was clearly in need of some serious deep cleaning.
As for repairs, Maureen was quite certain it could use some of those as well, but though she had dated a contractor years ago and had a decent understanding of basic construction techniques, this was unlike anything she had ever seen before.
Of course, it was built by an alien race on another planet, so that was the sort of thing one would expect.
The hard flooring was streaked with dark smears worked into whatever the material was. It would take more than a little elbow grease to get that out. And the marks on the walls were nearly as bad. Maureen just hoped the unit Bodok had secured for them wasn’tthisdilapidated.
“This is it,” Ahzma said, opening a banged-up door.
The door creaked as it slid open, tucking into the wall like she had seen inStar Trek, only without the cool whooshing sound, and looking as though it might tumble off its track at any moment.
She looked around as the lights came on. Unlike the Raxxian ship, these were not built into the walls. The source of illumination came from fixtures, though what cast the light wasn’t a bulb. At least it was a somewhat recognizable configuration.
There was a main room that served as a combination living, dining, and cooking area, then another adjoining space. That one contained a lone chair and what she gathered was a bathing area, given the fine-holed grate on a portion of the floor.
She didn’t want to make it obvious she was not from around these parts, so she didn’t ask how the water worked. But one thing they would need was a bed. After sleeping rough on the ground, they could both use a proper night’s sleep on a real mattress.
“Excuse me, Ahzma. Where’s the bed?”
“Pshh. As if you don’t know,” the woman snarked. “It’s in good shape, you can take my word on it.”
Maureen didn’t quite know what to say, so she held her tongue. The old woman hesitated at her silence, then walked to the wall and pressed a flush-mounted button.
“Fine,” she said as a smallish but serviceable bed slid out of the wall. “See? It’s all in proper order.”
Maureen glanced at the bed, nodding. It was clean enough and certainly better than rocks, twigs, and dirt, in any case.
“That’s fine. Thank you, Ahzma. You’re a wonderful host.”
The woman gave her an odd look.
Tone it down, Maureen. Don’t be an idiot,she chided herself.
“Cleaning stuff is over here,” Ahzma said, leading her to a small storage compartment. “Place needs some work, sure, but a strong girl like you should have it in order in no time.”
