“I wish I believed that,” I mutter as I reach for my mug.
“Believe what you like.” Her eyes drop back to her food. “I’ve known Rovos a long time. You’ve got him tied in so many knots, he doesn’t know which one to untie first.”
Silence stretches between us as we both eat. When Igid finishes, she gets up without a word, except to lightly pat the top of my head as she passes me on her way to the Replicator, leaving me to finish my breakfast alone.
* * *
It’s strange to have nothing to do. I worked twelve-hour shifts at the hospital and often came in for sick calls. On my days off, there were always plans to do something, somewhere, with someone. Finding myself with nothing else to do, besides alternating between wandering the ship and napping, and with no one to talk to except Igid, it’s all too easy to slip back into a depressed state.
Since there are no sunsets or sunrises in space, my circadian clock still struggles with the concept of night and day. At least I can turn the lights out in Rovos’ room so I can sleep.
It’s during one of my sleeps, or maybe it’s a nap, that Igid seeks me out.
“Get up, lazybones!” she says, yanking the blankets off me.
“Wha—?” Smacking my lips together, I push myself up onto my elbows.How long have I been sleeping?“What time is it?”
“Time for you to get up,” Igid tells me, grabbing hold of my arm and pulling me out of bed. “Come. I need your help.”
That perks me up, and I let her lead me down a hall to a smaller version of Rovos’ room, only with a narrow single bed and no en suite cleanser. Lying across the narrow bed is a dark-colored jumpsuit.
“Put this on,” she orders, thrusting the jumpsuit into my hands.
For a moment I stand there, waiting for her to turn her back or leave the room, or something. Instead, she folds her arms across her chest and waits for me to comply.
Blowing out a breath, I shrug and push my pants down my legs before kicking them off. I step into the jumpsuit, pulling it up to my waist before losing the tank and shrugging my arms into the sleeves. I button it up to my neck and then hold my arms out.
It’s too big, which I knew it would be. The arms fall past my fingertips, and the legs pool around my ankles.
Igid appears at my side, her mouth filled with pins, and she starts lifting, tucking, and pinning the jumpsuit into something that is a much closer fit. When she finishes, she steps back and nods at her handiwork.
“That’ll do. You can get dressed again.”
This time, Igid gives me her back as she digs through a storage container tucked into the corner of the room. After I’ve dressed, I sit on the edge of her bed with the jumpsuit in my lap.
Igid crosses her legs and plops down in the center of her room with a sewing kit. I hand her the jumpsuit when she beckons to me, and I watch, fascinated, as she begins to alter the garment.
“Rovos has been trying to find the coordinates to your planet,” she says without taking her eyes from her work. “Sone and Treto even tried getting the Xar’ad to reveal the location before offloading them. But they refused to talk, and they could find nothing in the databases.” She looks up at me then with a softened expression. “I’m sorry.”
The news hits me harder than I expect. I knew finding Earth was going to be a long shot, so I’ve been preparing myself for this news. Even still, I can’t help the sudden welling of tears.
“It’s okay,” I sniff, wiping at my eyes before the tears can fall. “I mean, you tried, and I appreciate that.” I take a few moments to get myself back under control. “So, what do we do now?”
Dropping her eyes back to the jumpsuit, Igid presses her lips together before releasing a long sigh. “We’re going to a station to meet an old friend of mine. From there, he will take you to a planet calledPamia. It’s well known for accepting refugees. They’ll give you asylum.” She looks up at me again. “You’ll be safe there.”
I’m thankful that I’m sitting down, because I’m pretty sure if I were standing, my legs would have buckled under me, becausewow.I must have read Rovos’ cues all wrong. The night we shared, I thought there was a connection between us. But instead, I somehow turned him off so hard that, not only can he not stand to look at me, but he wants to offload me at the nearest space station. My throat tightens, and no matter how much I swallow, I can’t seem to get the knot to go down.
I guess that puts the way he’s been acting around me into perspective too. Despite the fact that my world is spinning wildly out of control, I force my head to nod.
“We will escort you through the station,” Igid says while she works a needle and thread through the jumpsuit. “And you’ll be in disguise, just in case anyone might recognize you as human. We’ll take you to meet Volethos, and he’ll take you to Pamia.”
“How long have you known Volethos?” I ask, squeezing the question through my tight throat.
Igid shrugs. “Volethos introduced me to bounty hunting. We’ve kept in touch through the revs.”
My head nods automatically, but my guts are churning. Something doesn’t feel… right. But I can’t say what it is, or why.
Igid stays quiet as she sews, which adds to my unease. Drawing a deep, trembling breath into my lungs, I hold it for as long as I can before letting it out slowly.
