“Void take the Collectors, then. How long can they keep this up?”
“Again, I can’t be sure, but probably forever?” Penny held up her free hand at my answering growl. “Hey, don’t shoot the messenger! But those gem-droids don’t need much power. More likely, their time limit is how long they can keep the other guests prisoner.”
That gave me a glimmer of hope. “Those VIPs aren’t the type to sit back indefinitely. So we wait for an escape attempt and take advantage of the distraction?”
“Unless something else comes up, yes.” Penny’s eyes sparkled and she downed the rest of her coff-ish.“Speaking of thingscoming up,any suggestions for something to do while we wait?”
I chuckled and pulled her to me, frustration forgotten.
Neither of ushaving a better idea, we stayed put in our shelter and waited for something to change. Fortunately, we had discovered an excellent way to pass the time, and our improvised bedroom saw a lot of use. It would have been smarter to conserve calories, but one glance from Penny’s sparkling eyes, one crooked little smile, and ‘smart’ gave way to need.
Three days later, the foodmaker finally gave an error message I couldn’t override.
“What the fuck is ‘vitamin heshk?’ Do we even need it?” I smacked the side of the offending machine and scowled at it.
The flashing red warning icon ignored my objection, and only Penny’s gentle touch on my wrist stopped me from hitting the machine harder.
“I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter,” she said in a low, careful voice. “Maybe not. But it was in all the food we’ve eaten, so we might. Our real question is: can we get some?”
I grumbled half-heartedly, more because I felt I should than any disagreement. Pushing that aside, I tried to distract us both.
“You canget somewhenever you like, Penny.” I turned to grin at her, letting my desire for her show and enjoying the flush that rose in her cheeks at my innuendo.
“True, you’re feeding me plenty ofvitamin D,”she said, smiling past her deepening blush. It took me a moment to get her joke—the play on words didn’t work in Galtrade, but her glance down made her meaning clear. “It doesn’t help us feed the foodmaker more heshk, though.”
I laughed, perhaps louder than her joke deserved. Certainly with more mirth than our situation deserved. “Fine. I shall find whatever this heshk is, andthenI will ‘give you some.’ It seems likely it’s in the local foodstuffs, so I’ll bring back anything I find.”
Penny’s face twisted like she’d tasted something unpleasant. “This planet’s dying. The odds you’ll find something to hunt aren’t good.”
“I have no other ideas. Besides, there were plenty of those predators. They have to live on something.” Of course, in hunting their prey, I riskedbecomingprey myself. I decided against pointing that out.
Penny gave a reluctant nod. If she noticed the flaw in my argument, she didn’t want to discuss it any more than I did.
“I guess you’d better get going then,” she said, frowning. “The longer we wait, the hungrier you’ll be.”
My turn to grimace. “Yes. Soonest started, soonest finished. I don’t like to leave you here alone, though. Perhaps you should come along?”
Of the options I could have proposed, that was apparently the funniest. Penny doubled over, gasping for breath. “Sure, take me out there where I’ll freeze, distract you, and blunder around frightening any prey you find. No thanks. We’re both safer if I stay right here.”
“You are so irritating when you’re right,” I said. “Fine. I’ll go alone.”
I meant every word, but that didn’t make it easy. Gathering what little equipment I’d scavenged—an improvised spear made from the metal support of a bed, the sharpest knife from the kitchen, and a bag to carry my prey back in. Reluctant to be parted, we kept running back to each other until I finally ascended the cold stairs and, with a final glance back, stepped out into the icy wasteland.
17
PENNY
Watching Varok climb the stairs to the vault door was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. He was leaving me alone, stranded and with no supplies. My subconscious didn’t care that he’d gone looking for more—I’d had too much experience of men abandoning me.
Being alone wasn’t all that worried me. Varok was going into danger, hunting unknown wildlife on a deadly planet while being hunted by a technologically superior foe. Despite the brave face he put on it, we both knew the risk he was taking. We might never meet again.
At least I get a good view,an irreverent part of me whispered in my mind, making me choke back a laugh. I watched his ass as he climbed the stairs, and it was as good a distraction as I could hope for.
Opening the door, he paused and looked back, giving me a grin that didn’t reach his eyes. Then he was gone, out into the cold, armed with a makeshift spear and his annoying, inexhaustible self-confidence.
I was alone. The only sound in the bunker was the grinding of the air supply mechanism, working overtime now to compensate for the influx of freezing air, the stench of burned plastic growingstronger by the minute. I wondered how long it would be before something important failed. The heating, lighting, or air cycling—if any of them broke, it’d leave the bunker uninhabitable.
“Don’t be morbid,” I told myself. Which worked, if only because I was more worried that I’d started speaking to myself.
