“How are—”
He interrupted her, again accurately figuring out what she was going to ask. “All the children are doing well and progressing at the correct rate.”
“Stop that,” she scowled at him. “Let me ask the question before you answer it.”
He looked embarrassed. “Sorry, it’s a bad habit. It annoys everyone.”
She felt bad for snapping at him. “No, it’s fine.” She nudged him with her shoulder. “What will I ask next?”
He perked up, excited to have permission. “You want to know if you can visit the children after eating.”
He was right. “So what’s the answer?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I’ll have to ask Section Commander Belor and then get permission from the menders. I don’t know how long that will take.”
She nodded, resigned to probably not being able to see the kids again. It was fine. It wasn’t like she was their mom or auntor anything. The Hissa would take better care of them than she could anyway.
Except would the Hissa caregivers know which kids needed more encouragement or who was shy? Should she fight to see them again? Or maybe she should simply sneak over there. It couldn’t be that hard!
Those thoughts bounced around her head while Saris kept talking as they walked. He told her everything he knew about the current situation, including naming every mender, med tech, and warrior on the Assist. She couldn’t keep them all straight but was impressed by this male’s encyclopedic memory.
He was winding down by the time they got to the galley. There were a few men there, but all Nova saw was Nisha eating at a far table and looking like she was having a muted conversation with herself.
Saris chuckled. “It’s good that Nisha’s awake too. Both of you slept so long that both Warik and Miran contacted the menders at different times to see if they should be worried. Mender Jinup said it was normal and not to worry yet.”
She was only half listening to him as she hurried across the room to plop down across from Nisha. The other woman gave her a giant smile and pushed a full bowl of food across the table.
“I got too much, help me finish!”
Nova accepted the bowl and ate ravenously. Saris set down a few more bowls full of food, then moved away to sit by himself and work on a data pad. It made sense that he’d known she wanted alone time with Nisha considering he’d successfully answered all her questions before she asked him.
After they’d both eaten their fill, Nova got to the important topic she couldn’t afford for Saris to overhear.
“Do you have credits or access to any credits?” she asked Nisha. “I can get us out of here. I’m not sure how yet, butI’ll figure something out. The problem is that I used up all my credits back on Fielden.”
“Uh, thanks?” Nisha said, looking confused. “I’ve got plenty of credits, but we don’t have to worry about escaping. If you want to leave, you can leave.”
Nova scoffed. “Not according to Miran and the other guys.”
“That might’ve been true in the past, but not anymore,” Nisha said, waving a hand to indicate something that Nova couldn’t figure out. “Not now that they have me to help them with the Decanting tech.”
Nova couldn't keep the scorn out of her voice. “So they can grow their own slaves now?”
Nisha jerked back as if Nova had hit her. “No, so they can re-grow their civilization. They don’t want slaves, they want their species to survive.”
It was clear she’d missed something. “Wait, what?”
Nisha’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Did no one tell you about the Great Death?”
“Great Death?”
It was Nisha's turn to look upset. “Did no one tell you what happened?”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “Miran, Lazil, and Nerin showed up and bought me. Then things got a little hectic because I escaped, but Miran caught me. Then we ended up on Fielden, and I escaped again. They found me but only because Nerin got hurt.”
“Then you had to come help us,” Nisha said with a nod. “So they didn’t get a chance to explain everything to you.”
“Miran said something about the freedom to pick a warrior as a mate, but I was sure it couldn't be true.”
