11. Non-Contact #3
Charlie was still sitting in the chair beside Reyna's desk.
Her mind told her to get up but her body wasn't ready yet.
She looked down at her hands. The batter had dried completely now, cracking along her knuckles and in the creases of her palms. She looked like she'd been dipped in concrete.
Which wasn't far off from how she felt too.
Six months.
Katie was in Helen's house right now, in Shelbyville, alone.
And Charlie knew her sister. Katie had been on the other end of that answering machine, if not right away then shortly after.
She would have heard the sound that rattled Charlie's bones, maybe even the silence that followed.
And Charlie's sister, who had spent her entire life paying attention to Charlie with a discerning ability, who had never once missed a signal from any beat of Charlie's life, would know.
She would know something was wrong, and there was absolutely nothing Charlie could do about it.
Charlie's breathing hitched. She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes and held them there.
Reyna didn't speak, but Charlie could feel she was close enough to still feel her presence without needing to look up at her. The quiet wasn't empty.
We've got you.
After a long moment, Charlie lowered her hands. Her eyes were red but dry.
"My sister is tough," Charlie said, her voice strained. "Katie. She's the toughest person I know." She closed her eyes and sighed deeply. "I think she'll be okay for six months."
She wasn't sure if she was speaking to herself or Reyna. Maybe both?
"She sounds like someone I'd very much like to meet," Reyna said. Her voice was quiet. Just a person, sitting with someone who was hurting.
Charlie almost smiled. "She'd like you. She likes people who take on authoritative figures."
Reyna's mouth twitched. "I don't make a habit of it."
"Could've fooled me."
The quiet settled again. Charlie could hear her own breathing, steadier now. She looked at the dark wall display where Vondra's chamber had been and thought about the distance between this ship and a hallway in Indiana.
"She would love this," Charlie continued.
"Katie?" Reyna asked. Charlie nodded.
"She and my Dad. They were always the ones to tell me that I would reach the stars." Charlie laughed but it caught in her throat. "She always wanted me to take her with me if I ever did." Charlie went quiet again, her eyes falling back to her hands in her lap.
"I know what it's like," Reyna said. It was said simply, no elaboration, no drama. "Not being able to reach someone."
Charlie looked at her. Reyna's eyes were on the dark display, not on Charlie. Her expression was composed, but there was something underneath it. Something old and heavy that Charlie recognized as something that could feel like the weight of the world.
Charlie didn't push. Whatever Reyna was carrying, she knew what it was like to have people push you to open a door you weren't ready to walk through. She wouldn't do that here.
"Thank you, by the way," Charlie said, allowing space for Reyna's comment to float away. "For that. For what you did with Vondra. For Katie."
Reyna turned to look at her. "I meant what I said. I will personally make sure we study every possibility to find a way for you to contact her."
"I believe you," Charlie said. And she did.
Reyna held her gaze, then nodded once and stood.
"Come on," she said, and her voice slid back into the captain, but still gently, the way she'd been gentle with Charlie from the beginning. Good God, had that really only been an hour ago? "Let's get you cleaned up, hmm?"
Charlie stood. Her legs were stiff and her whole body ached. But she was standing.
"One thing at a time," Reyna said. "That's all we can do, right?"
Charlie smiled softly. "Yeah, I guess it is." Reyna returned the smile.
"Don't worry. We've got you."
For the second time, Charlie felt that, even though she wasn't sure of anything right now, she was sure that she was with the best group of aliens to help her get home. Led by the captain who sat with her on the floor.
"We can get you set up in some quarters for the time being until we hear back from the Coalition."
Charlie followed Reyna out of her office and into the corridor. The ship hummed around them, that deep, steady frequency she'd felt in the floor when she first woke up. She was exhausted and six months from home and her sister didn't know she was alive.
Reyna walked beside her, and they chatted quietly as Reyna led Charlie to what would be her quarters.
As they conversed and Reyna led her toward areas of the ship she'd never seen, on a vessel she'd never imagined, among people she'd known for less than an hour, Charlie realized that somehow, impossibly, and despite everything, from the batter to the terror to the six months to Katie and the distance that stretched between her and every person she'd ever loved, she didn't feel alone.
She wasn't sure what that meant for her yet.
But, for now, it was enough.