Chapter Twenty
Ragnor’s village was beneath a mountain—carved out of an extensive, existing cavern system, very likely, by their ancestors. The current occupants had either ‘modernized’ for comfort, or the ancient ones had already been fairly advanced. Annika suspected the truth was somewhere between the two.
Like the village they’d occupied when she’d first crashed onDFY1360—or Qintara as the natives called it—it was built at a high altitude. Unlike that village, it wasn’t merely perched on the mountainside. This amazing large and complex village wasinsidethe mountain.
Naturally, she had no idea how many families actually occupied the ‘village’, but her rough guess was that there were at least ten thousand living in the complex—possibly more. By their world’s current standards, it seemed big enough in both size and population to rank as a city rather than a village.
At first glance the place was amazing. Wide corridors—wide enough in most places for three or four to walk abreast—had been formed that routed foot traffic through the multi-level maze of individual and family dwellings. There was a centralized market where food and other goods were traded, healers for the sick, entertainment for adults and children in wide gathering areas on each level that had been set aside for social interaction. There were areas where livestock was kept and small container gardens where they ambitiously grew at least some of their food.
Shafts funneled in air and light from every direction so that, although there were no ‘views’ as there would have been in a typical high rise apartment building, there was plenty of light to prevent the place from feeling like the cave it was.
There was some artificial light, as well, although Annika didn’t discover that until the cave village began to grow dark as the sun set. This was provided by a hodgepodge of sources—from the ancient oil lamps to natural phosphorescent lights to an assortment of more modern lights that must have been salvaged from the abandoned cities.
Annika wondered at the power source for these last. She finally decided they must have a power plant of some kind located somewhere in the complex.
They had running water, halleluiah! Somewhat modernized plumbing facilities throughout.
Annika discovered that when she and Zhor were finally shown to an empty apartment they could claim.
And it was empty—of everything except dust.
Annika was still grateful to have so much, though, after roughing it with Zhor for days and then camping with the zorphs.
Despite the fact that everyone they’d passed had stared at them as if they were part of a freak show and no one had seemed particularly welcoming, Annika hadn’t detected a lot of actual hostility, even toward Zhor.
She thought they could thank Ragnor for that. He seemed to be held in high regard and respect by everyone they met and he had introduced them as ‘guests’—which she took to be a silent warning to everyone that they were under his protection.
Zhor seemed restless and uneasy as they paced the apartment after Ragnor had left them, examining what they had.
For her part, Annika was considering what they needed to make it comfortable.
She thought it was probably temporary shelter at best, but if she was going to stay a handful of nights she wanted to make the place as comfortable as possible.
Unfortunately, she had no idea what sort of financial system they had. They certainly wouldn’t take credits even if she had access to her savings. And she had nothing but the flight suit she’d been wearing since she crashed.
She didn’t know what she would do about her situation, what shecoulddo. She needed time to figure it all out and it seemed they’d been lucky enough to land in a safe place to give her whatever time she needed to sort it.
She suspected Ragnor had ulterior motives.
He probably thought she would be an asset in dealing with ‘her’ people.
But she didn’t want to think about a confrontation regarding her usefulness or lack of it, especially not when Ragnor seemed in no hurry to push that.
Zhor seemed to be in tacit agreement. He left her a little later to see what he could do about acquiring a bare minimum to cover their needs—food, a means of preparing it, a pallet to sleep on.
By the time he returned, ‘neighbors’ had brought enough welcome gifts to set them up quite nicely as a start up.
Annika had begun to feel downright domestic while she went about the task of cleaning and dusting and then organizing their windfall of gifts—which thankfully included a clever brazier for cooking and some food basics.
She was a little uneasy about Zhor’s reaction, but although he seemed uncomfortable with the gifts, he appeared to be very pleased with her efforts.
Setting his burdens down, he closed the distance between them and gathered her close for a kiss. She responded enthusiastically, regretful that they’d started without first fixing up the pallet!
To her surprise, he seemed more inclined to talk than make love. He broke the kiss when she was just starting to warm up and leaned away to look down at her.
“Stay wid me, Ah-na. I make safe. No safe go back dere. Your people ....” He seemed at a loss for words for a moment. “Dose people bad.”
That almost sounded like a proposal!
