Chapter 12 #3
Adryel raised her eyebrow. “Your funeral, then.” She was getting out of here as soon as she could. Regardless if the Kantenans were supposedly going to protect them.
“Maybe you just need to meet some Kantenans. See that they're not all bad.”
She shifted in her chair, tucking a leg beneath her. “This from the female who thought she had no chance at meeting anyone, so she ignored all the lessons?”
“Yet here I am. I don't know how it happened, but it was different. There was this energy between us. I can't explain it beyond that. It doesn't make sense.”
“And here you are.” Adryel shook her head. “Under the circumstances, you shouldn't have to honor anything made in duress.”
“But I wasn't. Not at first.”
“You almost rolled off the platform, I saw it!” And she did. Terrifying to say the least.
In between that and the panic that had ensued around her, it was a chaos that she didn't want to ever be in again.
“That was after. This is now, and I won't go back on my promise.”
“Evidently not. You're already dressed like them.” Adryel said, her opinion plain in her tone.
“If I had my own things, it might be different. Instead, I had to wear what was available.” Janae looked down at her dress. “It's a Kantenan style. It has armor in it. Here, hit me.” She gestured to her side.
“I'm not going to hit you.”
“There's armor in it.”
“Janae.”
“Try it! It's really strong.”
“You are way too excited about this.”
“Do you know how many fights I was in, and what some armor like this, sewn into my clothes, would have done for me? It would have been world-changing.”
The words hit her hard. They both had it in common that they had been street vagrants before joining the program. But what had Janae gone through before she came that she would be this excited about body armor?
“Were you in that many fights?”
“I lived on the lower streets of Trinity Alpha Prime.”
Adryel flinched. The reputation of Trinity Alpha Prime's lower levels was well known as a rough area. The deeper one went, the more dangerous the environment became. If that’s where Janae had been staying, then Adryel doubted she had many peaceful days.
“Now ask me how many I won.”
“Do I want to know?”
“Very little. I wasn't strong. And I couldn't defend myself well.” She ran her hands over the dress and grinned. “This makes me feel strong.”
“Well, then I'm very happy for you.” She sighed and looked at Janae. Really looked at her. There was a shine there that wasn’t before.
Something different about the sparkle in her eye—a shine she’d never seen before in her.
“I just want you to be happy. If this Kantenan makes you happy, then I'm all for it.
But if he doesn't, you know that I'll let him have it.”
Janae laughed. “I'll warn him. Though I think it will be okay. He has been quite respectful so far. It's been a bizarre journey.” She waved her hand. “How is it going for you? Is there someone running this now? Like who's in charge?”
“No one I know. It didn't register how isolated we were from the rest of the ship and the crew until now. Faces I don't recognize are working with the Kantenans to organize everything since Graecey is gone.”
Janae sipped on the tea she was drinking. “What are you doing to make sure you're protected?”
“We have to check in daily. We're supposed to stay in our facilities in the areas that are secured only. No exploring or anything without permission or escorts.”
“Well, that sounds boring.”
“Were you escorted down here?”
“Yes, I was, actually. Khalzin is a prince of some sort.
Like there's these family houses, and he's one of the sons of the leaders, so they treat him like royalty.
But not in a good way. There's always guards around watching, and we're never really alone.
At least now they're outside his apartment.”
“Ugh. That sounds awful. I think I'd rather be quarantined. At least I don't have strangers around.”
“I am not used to it yet, but I guess I will get accustomed to it eventually.”
“You'll find your groove, I imagine,” Adryel said.
“I hope so.” Outside, the smoke was billowing into the air in puffs. “Look at all that smoke,” she said.
“I know. It keeps burning. It's like they can't seem to put out the fire. Or they do, and another one starts.” Adryel crossed her arms. “I don't envy them trying to figure this out.”
“I feel so bad. One of Khalzin's best friends went down with the passengers over the edge. He caught me before, when the platform started to tilt.”
“I remember seeing that. He fell off? That's terrible. Will they go down and recover everyone?”
“I assume so, but I’m not sure.” Janae looked at her friend. “I'm so glad you weren't on that platform when it tilted.”
“I'm sorry that you were,” Adryel said. “I'm glad you weren't hurt worse.”
“Just sore, but nothing that I couldn't deal with.”
Adryel broke the silence. “So, tell me something, has Khalzin told you anything about his friend?”
“Which one?”
“The one that was with him when you found me.”
Janae shook her head. “I don't remember who it was.”
“Huh,” she said. She wondered how many friends that Khalzin had, if Janae didn’t know who she meant. Was she going to tell her?
Nope.
“Look out the window again, at the smoke.”
The smoke came up in bursts and waves. It would break up and then be solid and break again.
“What is making it do that?”
“Wind maybe?” Adryel said. “That's the best I can figure. We're high up. There could be one of those drones down there working, too.”
Janae nodded. “If it was important someone would have noticed it.”
“Probably.”