“Yeah. I know. Death. Sorry.”
He frowns at me, probably because my response wasn’t respectful enough, but to hell with respect right now. I am doing my fucking best. It’s hard to keep my mind on the present when the last week or so has been nothing but absolute chaos.
“What’s the deal with the holes?” I ask the question. “Have you seen them before?”
“I don’t know,” Drako says. “We just tried not to fall into them. Some are very deep and turn into tunnels, but it’s hard to go down them and come back. Mostly because you crush yourself into squishy powder at the bottom, I think.”
I can feel Thor glowering at me, mad that I didn’t take all due precaution to protect myself. I’m not allowed to let my thoughts wander for even a moment, on account of the ever-present threat of death. I get it. It’s just hard not to think about how fucked everything I ever loved and cared about is now.
Fortunately, I think of something to say to take the heat off me. That’s a talent they don’t teach in schools. Not directly, anyway.
“If we’re going somewhere safe to call our comrades, what will happen to you, Drako? Are your people going to come for you?”
“No,” Drako says.
Thor and I exchange looks.
“Why not?”
“Because this was a colonization mission,” Drako says. “We came with the resources needed to start a small civilization. They’ll check in on us in a few months. They might send a new landing crew in a few years, but my guess is they will assume the planet is too hostile.”
“You shot us down from the ground,” Thor says. “Why would settlers shoot a passing ship down? We weren’t even looking at you. We were headed to an entire other system. All we were doing close to orbit was using the planet’s gravitational field to slingshot us on.”
I can see he’s pissed, because he’s thinking that this didn’t have to happen. I wonder if he’s letting himself think about the fact Drako is definitely the one who gave the command to shoot us down. He killed everyone we were coming to know on the ship, and he almost killed us too.
“It’s also a strategic point,” Drako says. “Which is why you got sent on a death mission here too. I don’t think you were trying to perform a gravitational slingshot. You were too low for that.”
He pauses for a moment, as if he is thinking about whether he wants to say what he’s going to say next. I can see the point where he decides just to fucking say it.
“You might be surprised when your friends don’t come looking right away either. The three of us might be all we have for longer than any of us want to think.”
I process what he’s saying. I don’t like it. I know Thor hates it too, but I hate this even more.
“Are you saying there’s some chance I never get to go home?”
“There’s a massive chance you never go home, girl,” Drako says. “The way you wander about the place like it’s a walled garden, thinking that you’re immune to danger, you could die at any moment.”
“I did survive a plane crash that killed pretty much everyone,” I say. “So. You know. Maybe I am charmed.”
Drako looks over at Thor. “What about you, Golden Boy? Are you charmed?”
“I’m lucky,” Thor says.
I am trying not to blink back tears at the idea of never seeing my sisters again. I haven’t been taking this completely seriously. That’s my problem. I ran away on impulse and even when we crashed I figured it would all work out somehow. I am absolutely banking on someone coming to save us.
“Is he right? Are they not going to come for us?” I ask Thor the question as we start walking again.
“Of course they’re going to come for us. We’re from a civilized culture,” Thor says. “We don’t leave each other to die in the wilds of forgotten planets.”
Up ahead, Drako laughs in a cynical way.
“What?”
“Neither one of you have any idea of the barbarism your so-called civilized culture likes to partake in,” he says. “You’ve been brainwashed to think you’re the good guys. You have fancy big buildings, and shiny clothes, and you speak fancy to each other. But deep down? You’re Vikings. Just like us, and you do bad things, just like us.”
“Bad things like what?”
Drako gives me a faintly irritated look, then strides off ahead. I have to trot to catch up with him. “Like what?” I ask, practically nipping at his heels. “If you’re going to say we’re the bad guys, tell me something bad we did. I bet it wasn’t even that bad.”
