His confidence almost made Miran laugh. “Thank you, my friend. But I doubt that’ll be necessary.”
“I’ll buy the tickets,” Nerin said, obviously eager to get them all focused on the next step instead of infighting. “At least we have all day and night to search multiple places if necessary. The port schedules indicate that nothing will be ready to take off until tomorrow.”
“We won’t need to,” Miran assured him, looking out the open doors and the desert beyond. “I know where she is and how she’s hiding.”
***
Nova
Nova didn’t like waking up in pain. It wasn’t bad, but her ankle was swollen again, and her body was bruised and sore from traveling on the roller. When she stood up, her ankle was too tender to walk on.
Going down on hands and knees, she crawled over to the med box and rifled through it. She was relieved to find not one, but two more medicated wraps and some pain medication. She downed the meds, then wrapped her ankle. By the time the wrap was applied and was doing its job, the meds were taking effect. She felt much better.
Feeling a little hungry, she pulled out the leftovers from the meal Miran had ordered. Along with taking all the food they hadn’t eaten, she’d emptied the vending machines in the room of everything human-safe to consume.
The leftovers would only last another day, then she’d have to switch to tasteless nutri-packs. At least they didn’t require any kind of cooking or rehydrating.
She wouldn’t starve, but mealtime wouldn’t be fun.
After a light meal, she looked around the little temporary home. She really should’ve invested in a cheap data pad. Normally, Fielden who Live the Path would spend their day hunting sand spiders, building a sand bath, and using a digging stick to find sand tubers.
Honestly, she was so scared of sand spiders that she wasn’t planning on leaving her shelter at night, when they liked to hunt. Digging for tubers was a good way to accidentally find a sand spider nest. She’d specifically picked a section of sand with no indication of spider activity. No breathing proboscis poking out of a dune or strange pattern in the sand from a spider reinforcing its hidden den with a combination of silk and spit.
But no precaution was perfect, and they could still be out there, hiding and waiting.
If she wasn’t going to hunt or gather, that left meditation. But she wasn’t interested in that either, so it didn’t leave her much to do.
She’d need to find some way to pass the time. She could do her strength training and stretching exercises, but those wouldn’t fill her days. Surrounded by the strange silence of the desert, she realized her sanity wouldn’t last long out here without something more.
She was debating how long she could go without asking the nearby circle for a data pad when she heard voices.
Familiar voices.
She might be more familiar with Miran’s voice, but she recognized his teammates easily. Even if she couldn’t remember what they sounded like, the fact that the voices were speaking Hissa was a dead giveaway that they’d figured out her ruse.
Damn it! She should’ve bought a fifth ticket to another small town.
At least they hadn't found her yet. There was a lot of desert to search, even if they stayed within sight of the circle. There was a good chance they wouldn’t notice her hiding spot. Most of the dome was covered in sand, so unless they got really close, all they’d see was another sand dune among many.
All she could do was stay quiet and hope they walked right by her.
More talking. More faint footfalls. She remained frozen in place, as if even the slightest movement would draw their attention. By the loudness of their voices, she guessed they were walking far apart to give them a better chance of finding her. One of them sounded irritated. That voice didn’t belong to Miran.
She made a mental note to avoid whoever that voice belonged to if they discovered her. She was confident Miran wouldn’t punish her for the escape, but she couldn’t be so sure of the other two. Especially the annoyed one.
She let out a long breath when they moved past her, further into the desert. She wasn’t out of danger yet, but she was clear of them for now.
A cry of surprise and then a scream of pain made her jump. She heard weapons fire that made her slap a hand over her mouth to keep from making any noise.
The worst she’d ever seen was a few mild fights break out among guests on the Delight. Any arguments among the crew or performers were always settled with words or a third-party arbiter.
She’d never heard real weapon’s fire before, only the fake ones the stunt show did. Actual pulse weapons were quieter than she expected. For some reason that made them even more terrifying. Shouldn’t something that could burn a hole right through you be louder?
The weapons went quiet, and she heard rapid, panicked talking. Moving quietly, she twisted the hatch open, grabbed the edge, and lifted herself up so only the top of her head and eyes were peeking out.
The unpleasant smell of something smoldering hit her nose as she scanned the desert. Further into the vast sandy plains were the three men. Two of them were pulling a third out of the sand. Near them was a dead sand spider with little wafts of smoke curling up from where the men had hit it with their weapons.
She gasped at the size of it. The thing was almost as big as she was!
