Jaron had made lunch and was waiting for me. We all sat and shared the things we’d done this morning. Tatiana had been left in the house, hence the high energy, but Jaron had gone with Thyra and she’d put him to work running calculations.
“I’m surprised they let you see any of their documents.” Tatiana said.
Jaron shrugged, “I have no idea what it all means anyway, they’re just quantities and weights and prices, plus there are so many currency conversions it’s impossible to keep track.”
“So theyaredoing business with other species.” Otherwise the currency conversions wouldn’t be necessary.
He shrugged. “I’m not tempting fate by asking questions. I’m just glad we get a house of our own and we can get out and work our brains a little without being whipped and having our blood sucked.”
I nearly rolled my eyes. “I don’t know why you have that stuck in your mind. They may look like old Earth depictions of devils, but they don’t ingest blood.” At least, not that I’d seen.
“Why is it that they so closely resemble the descriptions of evil creatures, I wonder?” Tatiana said.
“I think that a long time ago a vorpyr found a way to travel into space and ended up on Earth causing havoc.” I shuddered. “I can only imagine what happened to him if he was stuck on Earth with all those superstitious people.”
"Mmm," Jaron hummed his agreement while Tatiana shook her head sadly.
“Does anyone have plans for later?” Tatiana changed the subject. It was such a normal thing to ask that I almost laughed.
“Let’s remember that we’re captives. We should think about getting out of here.” Now that I wasn’t so exhausted I could consider our situation better. And as compelling as I found the Vorazyr, I wasn’t foolish enough to think he wouldn’t kill me in an instant.
“I’d like to agree, but where would we go? We’re surrounded by jungle, on aplanetthat we know nothing about, with nowhere we can blend in.” Jaron said.
I rubbed my face. I didn’t know what to do about that. At home I’d known special ops guys who had been tough as nails. Now I wished desperately that I’d asked them about their SEREtraining. Survival, evasion, resistance, escape. I wondered if they’d be successful with that training among a different species.
“Do we have any idea where they would keep spaceships?” The planetside jumper they’d brought us here in would never make it in space.
“I’m not sure they even have one here since they keep to themselves so much. But then again, our movements are restricted, so we haven’t seen everything.” Tatiana responded.
“Even if they did, and if we somehow managed to get out of hereandsneak past everyone to get there, we still wouldn’t be able to get into it or fly it…or figure out how to get home even if we made it into space.” Jaron said.
“Spaceship pilots go through five years of bootcamp level training.” Tatiana said somberly, lips tilted down as the reality of our situation reared its ugly head.
“The Consortium royally screwed us.” I couldn’t help the bitterness that leaked into my voice.
“There has to be a solution. Nothing’s impossible.” Jaron set his mug down with a hard thud.
“We learn how to survive like Tarzan in the jungle and make a break for it?” I gave him a half smile.
“If we have to. It’s better than being dead.”
I nodded once. Anyone could agree with that.
“You forget that they’re treating us really well.” Tatiana said, voice tinged with worry and maybe a little desperation, and I felt renewed guilt that someone who had just been starting her life was here with us, in a volatile situation with very little hope of getting out.
“I’m just afraid they’ll stop once they see there’s no use for us.” I said softly.
“But Jaron has been helping Thyra, and Kyvar has had me help him the past few days. We’re not completely useless.”
Jaron and I exchanged glances. Neither of us were optimistic that would last.
Light brightened Jaron’s eyes, and he leaned forward, “let’s try to get tech. Any tech we can get our hands on and smuggle into here. We might be able to create a signal that could reach any ships nearby.”
“That’s a good idea.” As long as they weren’t vorpyr ships we were fine.
Tatiana worried her bottom lip, “what if we’re caught?”
“We can’t be. If there’s a chance you’ll be seen getting the tech, or you’ll be searched, don’t do it.” I said vehemently. I wouldn’t risk her life like that.
