She called out after him, “What about the reports?”
He closed his eyes only to open them slowly. The EPED didn’t know about his hobbies and he would like to keep it that way. But he wouldn’t ask her to lie for him on his behalf. “It’s your choice.”
A soft sighed, “okay,” was his only answer.
Dommik turned back toward Kat, her body and her eyes far away again. “It’s not uncommon, you know, to accidently bring back things to Earth. Or to any other planet.” He wasn’t sure why he needed to say it but he felt the odd need to console her. “It can’t be helped. Mistakes happen.”
“I know,” she murmured, glancing his way.
“That’s where I come in, Katalina, I help prevent these mistakes, mitigate them, contain them. It’s why the Earthian Planetary Exploration Division exists. I might only be the one that captures thesnakebut those in the background use that snake to create the anti-venom.”
He left her at that.
Chapter Seven:
---
Days passed in a quiet, vacuous haze. Kat had no sense of time anymore. Only the ushering of Bin-Three to take her back to her quarters at the end of her shift and the android waking her up each morning with a bland protein bar.
What she did have to tell time was reports, wrappers in her waste receptacle, and the lengthening of her nails. She could have looked at the date on the network but time seemed meaningless when stuck in a small space with no eyes on the skies. No eyes on space.
She had not seen Dommik in days, not even in passing, and her need for human contact was beginning to grow strong. She could deal with no contact with the outside world as long as the loneliness was interjected with other people. It was almost comforting to recreate a fantasy of her childhood. But this fantasy came with androids and monsters rather than doctors and nurses.
Kat curled into a fetal position on her cot, tugging the cloth blanket up to her mouth. Today was a rest day and although she had nothing better to do than study diagnostics on the screens and the creatures onboard, this morning she was going to take it slow. She sighed into the covers.
Twice now, new species had appeared in the menagerie, and she knew it was all happening late at night while she was asleep. Dommik was avoiding her and doing his hunts at night. It perturbed her that she had slept through two landings, missed two worlds, and with no knowledge of it.
So now she tried to keep herself up at night. Only to perceive nothing, not even the heavy footsteps of the Cyborg lurking in the passageway.
She was determined to be awake the next time the ship landed.
Except I need sleep too.
A ping sounded at the door. Kat shifted her head to look at it and willed the android to go away. Her eyes narrowed and began to close when a knock accompanied the ping. Whoever was outside her room was adamant about making themselves obnoxious.
The sound followed her as she jumped out of bed and peeled the curls stuck to her cheek away from her face. “I’m coming,” she groaned.
The door opened to one of the Bins carrying her morning nutrition. “Good morning, Katalina, I have brought your breakfast.”
She took it and waited for the robot to leave. It didn’t.
“Call me Kat… Please. It’s the rest cycle,” Kat reminded it.
A light flashed across its non-face. “Yes. We have expected a routine from you and when you did not follow it, the other Bin’s and I decided to follow up.”
Kat opened the bar and bit into it.Peanut butter.Ugh. “I’m fine.” The android turned to leave. “Bin, wait! Do you have a kitchen on this ship?”
It stopped and flashed. “We have a molecular replicator.”
“Can you take me to it?”
“No. It is in a restricted area.”
Kat looked at the uneaten bar. “I’m very hungry.”
“I will provide you another bar.” It turned to leave again.
She followed it, leaving her room barefoot and in an oversized shirt. “I need real food, Bin, please. It can’t be restricted enough to stop you from taking care of me.”
