Even in an underground shelter. It felt like a buried building. Maybe it was, she didn't know. Quiet. She didn't see any signs that anyone had been at this location for quite a while.
Still, it was clean. Silvery and clean, a little dark, but clean. When she looked closer, she could see remnants of the sand and rock. A sheen of color against the silver and gray of the structures.
Then there was the bed. It was huge. Built for much more giant humanoids, evidently. It felt like she was lying down on a zero-g bed. But not. Like it made a mold of her, and when she moved, the mold adjusted with her movements.
Pretty comfortable.
She needed the sleep. She rolled from her side to her back. Not that the bed didn't do everything possible to make her comfortable, but she couldn't get her mind to calm down and allow herself to sleep.
For one, she was utterly shocked over her day. This morning, she was on transport, coming to negotiate a peace treaty and end the war. Now? She was on a bed, hiding with her Rhimodian protector.
Just in case they were discovered by the ship full of Charro and Terran soldiers--though she only speculated that much, they could have been slaves or something.
Not actual Terran Military.
She shook her head. "It's so funny how you lie to yourself, Eleanor," she whispered. Because she knew what she'd seen. What she saw before, and what she saw now. The Terran military was attacking their own people.
And most likely, her father was involved. If not, the one giving the orders.
She shouldn't be surprised by this.
Really.
The sisters were doing this because they'd witnessed their entire lives what war did to the Terran Empire. How much it could tear them apart. Surely her father wanted to bring peace and prosperity back to their people. She didn't know why this one little war with the Rhimodians took so much from the Terran Empire.
But it was taxing their people.
Ending the war would help a great many in the Terran Empire as well as the Rhimodians. It could create a new kind of export. The Terrans and the Rhimodians working together instead of against one another? They could do amazing things. Eleanor had seen up close what the Rhimodian tech could do. Materializing weapons out of thin air? What else could they do with that tech?
A great deal, she thought. If they could come to peace with the cyborgs. But that was why they were here. To make that peace.
A lot of good that mission is when she's stuck underground on a desert planet. Moon. It was a moon. Still, it was a desert. And she was hiding because there were mercs up there, looking for her.
Caoimhe. They were looking for her sister.
Hopefully, they believed she was her sister.
"At least I can protect my sister that way. Someone has to." She shifted on the bed again. Maybe she needed a blanket to get comfortable with.
She climbed off the bed and started looking through the different cabinets for some kind of blanket or sheet. She wasn't sure if it would actually help, but it was worth a shot.
Something to make her stop thinking because right now, her mind was running so fast, she could barely keep up with herself.
Like how could she fight the Terran Military? She wasn't a strategic planner or anything. She didn't know how to fight off military movements. Especially when they were shooting at her.
"Ugh, why are there no blankets?" She tried to jerk a jammed drawer open. Probably filled with medical supplies, she guessed. While it might be rather fun to see what all the Rhimodian drugs and other repair meds they used, really, all she needed was a blanket of some sort. Or a few sheets. Anything to cover her legs with.
One of the drawers she pulled on was being stubborn and wouldn't come out. It felt like the metal was grinding against metal.
"Come on." She yanked really hard.
The drawer came open. Sort of.
Not enough to get much out of, but enough to see that it did not have what she needed.
And now it was off its track because the drawer hung and a weird bent angle in its spot.
"So you're breaking things?" Jedriek asked from the doorway.
