No reason to stalk her or hurt her.
“That’s fine. I don’t have shelter yet anyway and it’ll probably be a little while before I can get a hab. And I really should have that done before I get pregnant anyway.”
“That would certainly be wise,” the woman responded a little sourly--but plastered a fake smile on her lips to ‘soften’ the insulting nature of the comment.
“So you want to be put down for six months?”
“Yes.”
Nodding, the women checked the digital appointment book and put her down. “Hold on,” she said when she’d finished. Getting up, she disappeared into a back room for a handful of minutes and then reappeared carrying something wrapped up in a clear package. Tearing it open, she placed it on Belle’s wrist, activated it and then studied the screen briefly. “All set. It’ll send the data directly to the medical center’s computer.”
Nodding, Belle turned and left … feeling downright faint from the step she’d just taken.
Not that it was anything she couldn’t back out of.
It just unnerved her to take such a drastic step when she still hadn’t made up her mind … completely.
But then she always wanted retreat options left open.
When she’d left the med center, she headed over to the colony office to see if there was anyone there that could help her arrange quarters.
She was pleasantly surprised to discover therewassomeone there. It was almost like … fate!
“Yes!” she said when the woman asked if she could help her. “I’ve set up my appointment to get a donor and I wanted to go ahead and pick a plot and arrange for a single parent-one child hab as soon as they become available.”
She was actually a little dismayed to discover a good portion of the spots had already been taken by first arrivals on the planet, but she found a spot she liked that was on the outer edge of a section--a corner lot that was divided from neighbors on two sides by an access strip--which meant she would only have a neighbor behind her and to one side. Close neighbors.
She felt curiously depressed when she left the office.
She was just let down, she decided, because she was going to have to wait nearly a solid year to get into her hab. That was depressing enough for anybody.
Six months even to get the implant, but knowing the grapevine she thought very likely the news would be out before long at all and then the crazy bitch, Marcy, would back off and stop threatening her.
Well all of them that had been having a cow about Connor.
She didn’t need that kind of shit!
Dismissing that, when she left the office, she lifted the map she’d gotten, studied it and then oriented it to where she was standing and headed in the direction where her lot lay. When she was certain she’d found it, she walked the lines off and then settled on the ground roughly dead center and studied the mostly wide open space where the colony was going to be.
There was a whole lot of digging going on--the infrastructure--critical utilities like water and sewage and underground powersupply for the services that would be heavy users--like the protein supply plant where their meat protein would be grown. The habs would have solar power--be built out of materials that collected power and sunlight all day while storing enough to provide minimum requirements at night.
One of their two shuttles powered up while she was watching, creating a minor dust storm before it took off and rapidly disappeared into the sky.
She stared at it until it disappeared and finally dragged her gaze back to her surroundings.
That was when she discovered Ryne and Torr were headed her way.
“Uh oh,” she muttered, struggling with the urge to shoot to her feet and take off.
She didn’t, mostly because the surge of adrenaline that went through her abandoned her before her legs could get the memo.
They stopped when they reached her. “What do here?” Ryne asked. “Yellow hair say we hab big out cook.”
Belle blinked at him, trying to translate that. “Oh! Cook out?”
He frowned, apparently turning it over. “Yes,” he responded finally.
She frowned, thinking. “Who’s yellow hair?”
