Gus squinted but couldn’t detect any sign of a lie.“He’s human.”
“Ah,” Caius said lightly.“How intriguing.”
Gus didn’t like his tone or the way he seemed to be insinuating something.
“Why?”Gus asked, knowing she was playing into his hands and not caring.
“I was simply curious if there were other wanderers on this station.”
The emphasis he put on wanderers made it clear he meant something else.
“Not all wanderers congregate into enclaves,” Gus said defensively.
More often, they were solo travelers.Occasionally, they formed small groups.Enclaves were rare.Mostly because some of the Houses took issue with them.Usually, the more minor Houses that existed on the outskirts of the Tuann empire.Those without a planet or Mea’Ave to call their own.
Wanderer enclaves posed the most threat to them.They were competition for resources and a potential danger if the enclave ever decided to attack.
As a result, the minor Houses often conducted raids when they found an enclave in the vicinity.
“Of course not.It was a fleeting curiosity.Nothing more,” Caius purred.
Gus frowned, getting the feeling that he was humoring her but unable to point to why.
Done with this uncomfortable exchange, Gus quickened her step to leave him behind.“Keep an eye on the boy.We still have a long way to go.”
She breathed a sigh of relief when Caius finally fell back to walk with Anandra, leaving her to merciful silence at long last.
She missed her plants.When they said “I’m thirsty” or “my roots need tending” that’s exactly what they meant.None of this verbal jousting where you said one thing but meant something entirely else.
Gus and the other two pressed further into the forgotten parts of the station.Their footsteps echoing off walls covered in a patina of age and rust.
“This place is old,” Caius observed, staring into what might have once been Titan’s original control room.Before the original architects started adding to it like mad scientists determined to see how they far they could push the boundaries of physics.
“Yes,” Gus said with a quick glance at the equipment in the room.
Most of it was several decades old.Considered out of date and defunct even by a human’s standards.To a Tuann, it must seem positively prehistoric.
“The way they built this place is very odd,” Caius said.
It was.There was no arguing that.
“What do you suppose their intentions were?”Caius asked.
“I don’t know.”
And even if she did, she wouldn’t tell him.Titan was like her and her siblings.Full of secrets and loath to part with any of them.
“Can you hold out a little longer?”Gus asked Anandra, ignoring Caius’s bemusement.“It’s not much further.”
She was worried about the boy.Their destination required a rather long ascent up a less than trustworthy ladder.With how light-headed Anandra looked, that might be a problem.
They could take their chances in the station.It would certainly be easier and faster.But that brought its own host of potential problems.Gus was sure their enemies had people monitoring the cameras.They’d be noticed if they popped back onto the radar so close to where they disappeared.
Better to wait and re-enter on one of the upper levels where it would be easier to blend in with the crowd.
Anandra glanced at Caius first, waiting until he received the okay before nodding.“I can do it.”
Caius shot Gus a smile.“You heard him.He’s fine.”
