Chapter 2 #3
She had to get that pipe fixed. And she had to fix it before it became obvious that there was a broken pipe somewhere draining their misting fluid.
The ship’s AI was smart – and alive. He wouldn’t just keep track of how much fluid they had.
He would be able to see that they were suddenly losing too much of it and then alert the Big Guy.
That would set him off in a search to find which pipe was busted.
And he might not find her hiding spot immediately, but he’d still eventually figure out which pipe was broken and track it to her in-between room.
Then, she’d be screwed. She’d lose her new home, she might be discovered, and her sweet life would come to an end.
Haven was in trouble. She had to fix that pipe.
Which, really, wasn’t a problem. Fixing the ship was her whole hobby and goal anyway. That’s how she learned and how she passed her time. But the things she fixed were usually things like the wiring or the tech or something her tools would fix.
She had to replace the pipe. She couldn’t just glue it back together. Which meant she needed a pipe. Which meant she had to leave her hidey hole and go to the most dangerous place on the ship.
The Big Guy’s work room.
He was the mechanic on the ship. That’s how he knew she was there, messing with his stuff. He kept really good track of everything. But he also hoarded all the tools and replacement parts. His workroom was like a goldmine for her, but it was also the place she’d most likely be caught.
That made it a challenge. And a temptation.
And she really needed to replace that pipe or she wasn’t going to be getting any more sleep.
She did her best to set herself up for success though. She first went to one of the panels with crazy wiring and organized them. Making sure to leave some obvious tracks that she had been there. She worked until she invariably drew the Big Guy to her location.
Then, when he was doing his thing hunting her, she raced through the walls to get to his workroom, grinning like a fiend the whole way.
The Big Guy’s workroom was really easy to get into.
She just had to sneak past the superheated engine – which, while not comfortable, was at least fast. She was sweating already, however, when she stepped over the shield line and was struck by drastically cooler air.
She wouldn’t call the workroom cool, but at least it wasn’t an active oven like the engine room.
The replacement pipe she needed was easy to find in his pile of scrap. But even as she was picking it out of the pile, her eyes were roaming over everything. Practically salivating at the playground sitting before her.
The bench was filled with tools. The scrap was a huge pile of potential.
There was even a forge! Of all the things she’d played with and learned thus far, a forge wasn’t among them.
She knew she shouldn’t linger. She got what she needed and should move on, but this kind of place was exactly the kind she felt most comfortable in.
Then, her eyes were drawn to the far end of the room. She couldn’t say that she hadn’t really noticed the huge thing taking up the entire wall. It was impossible to miss. But it was the first time she let herself actually look at it.
At first glance, the thing was just that.
A thing. A big blob of what appeared to be half melted scrap and discarded metal all twisted and pressed together into a vaguely round shaped object that was as tall as the ceiling and wide as the wall.
It wasn’t perfectly circular. Instead, there was a dip in the middle with a hole leading to a bright area that sparkled – like the hole in a donut with sparkly sprinkles inside it.
Haven’s head tilted as she looked into that hole. Curious about what was sparkling. Curious about the giant thing. Really wanting to know.
It couldn’t hurt just to take a quick peek, right? She might not get this chance again.
Even as she was telling herself that, she was already walking forward. Curiosity and that pretty, almost hypnotizing sparkle, drawing her in.
Her heart thudded, like she was anticipating something great.
It was similar to the usual spark of curiosity that drove her to do things most people would consider insane.
It was what kept her going even when she found herself in increasingly strange and potentially dangerous situations.
She just had to know. She had to satisfy that urge.
And here it was again, pulling her forward. Singing to her like a siren…
The hole in the thing was deeper than it appeared at first glance.
She only realized that as the shadow of it fell over her head as she walked into its embrace.
The way the various pieces of metal junk had been laid and melted were creating an optical illusion, hiding the depth.
And also concealing that the hole was smaller than she thought.
So cool. Was that intentional? Why would someone do that?
What was sparkling?
Her heart was racing now, practically in her throat, as she closed the distance. The hole was up higher than she could easily see through. As she got closer, she lost track of the shiny object.
But, oh!
There were steps!
From further back, she hadn’t seen them.
They had blended into the rest of the big, metal thing from afar.
But as she got closer, the optical illusion resolved and she could see that the various metal bits at the bottom had actually been arranged in a stepwise fashion.
They weren’t flat like stairs, more like individual places to place her feet – like in a climbing wall.
Grinning at the victory of her find, she reached up and put her hands on the edge of the hole as she stepped foot on the bottommost ledge. She pulled herself up, easily finding each new step as she crept up and up.
Her head poked over the side of the hole as she looked into the secret space.
It was… not what she expected.
Was this the Big Guy’s bedroom?
The inside of the metal thing was the complete opposite of the outside.
Where the outside was all melted and twisted metal, the inside was a soft and fluffy nest. Big enough for two or three Big Guys to fit comfortably, the floor – which was high off of what should be the ground – was a large, ovular bed lined with soft furs and thick pillows.
The walls were draped in soft, gauzy fabric, completely concealing what should be the harsh metal interior walls of the giant ball.
The colors were all soft and dreamy, with just a hint of shimmer in the hanging cloth.
More drapes were hung across the ceiling in arches, making it seem similar to the inside of a tent.
Or a bower. It even smelled slightly floral and spicy and exotic, like the fantasy of a dream.
It was cozy and beautiful and completely unexpected. It was a place she’d expect someone soft and delicate to rest, not the Big Guy with eyes like fire.
But what had been shining? The fabric on the walls might shimmer a bit, but it was nowhere near to the same sparkle she had seen from outside. So where…?
Oh! There it was!
Hanging from the roof, at the center of the arching drapes, was a big, shiny, crystal flower. Glowing like a chandelier, sparkling like crystal, it was similar to a large lotus hanging upside down, casting the room in a pleasant, dim light.
It was beautiful. Delicate. Almost sensual. It was drawing her in, the glittering facets hypnotizing her like the swaying of a pocket watch in a master hypnotist’s hand.
Haven didn’t even realize she was leaning in further until she heard something click.
She immediately froze.
But it was too late.
Something dropped under her hands making her entire body pitch forward. She caught herself, her thighs clenching, keeping herself from falling.
The step she was on suddenly jerked, pushing her forward, upsetting her balance. Practically dumping her into the hole. Whatever dropped under her hands gave way completely and she tumbled forward with a cry of surprise.
Head over feet, she tumbled down a slope she hadn’t seen beneath the hole.
It was padded, just as soft as the nest she suddenly found herself splayed out in.
Though she was surprised by the quick drop and sudden stop, she wasn’t hurt.
Not a single elbow or knee had struck something hard.
She was just tossed in a circle and suddenly found herself looking up at the hole over her head.
It wasn’t a neat, circular hole anymore. Panels she hadn’t seen, hidden inside, had pinched together, closing the hole into an octagonal shape that was too small for her body to fit through. As she watched, she heard something clang and saw something moving outside.
Flipping over, she came up on her knees and tried to run back up the ramp.
Though it was soft and padded, it was clearly intended to be a one way trip.
As she tried to clamber back up, the entire thing shifted and slid down.
The padded part rolled up into a soft cushion, leaving only a steep, metal surface far too smooth for her to try to climb.
Haven fell right back into the nest. But not before she caught a glimpse outside the hole.
Spikes had come out from somewhere, partially blocking it. None of them were pointed in. They were all pointed out. Nothing here was intended to hurt her. Soft, carefully designed, perfectly crafted to capture but not harm.
It was a trap she released as she hit her back in the center of the nest again. A meticulously designed trap meant to capture the curious and unwary.
Haven blew out a long breath, her arms flopping out to her sides.
“Crud,” she mumbled to herself.
Now what?
The ball was solid metal. There was no escape to any side. The only entrance or exit was the hole that was now too small to fit through and too high to reach.
She supposed now was the point that she should tear up the inside, trying to get out. Hoping against logic that there was some secret exit.
But a trap this neatly constructed, this precisely planned, wasn’t going to have something as easily utilized as a secret back route.
He didn’t make this for her, did he?
She knew she had been driving him crazy for a few weeks now, but surely he wouldn’t put this much effort into trapping her?
Or maybe he had. In which case, she was oddly flattered.
He’d really gone to all this trouble just to get her? She didn’t realize she’d been such a monumental distraction to him. No one was ever this determined to get her. She knew it shouldn’t be something that made her thrilled, but it kind of did.
But that still left the question of what now?
Throw a fit? Act crazy? Rage against the trap?
After thinking it over for a few minutes, she rolled over and pulled one of the pillows under her head. It was soft like silk and really comfy under her head.
Haven always tried to hide. She’d made it something of a game. One that was entirely too easy for her to win lately. If this was her first defeat in years, she could accept it with grace.
Haven Clarkson had gotten herself in trouble again.
And she was going to meet it head on. Whenever the Big Guy came back, she imagined he’d have something to say to her.
These weren’t good guys. She knew that. She’d overheard enough to put together the fact that they were objectively bad people.
But she also wasn’t afraid of them. They had morals. And maybe those morals weren’t lined up with what everyone else considered right, but they still had them.
Haven had that same issue, really. No one understood her or the fact that she’d walked right over lines of social acceptability in pursuit of her curiosity. They were similar in that regard. The Big Guy was someone dangerous, but he wouldn’t hurt her.
As confident as she was about that, she wasn’t at all afraid.
Actually, she was pretty comfortable. This nest was soft and cradled her body like it had been designed for it.
It supported her in all the right areas but gave in all the others.
The scent was delicate, not overpowering, and eased any nerves that might arise and lulled her into a gentle doze.
A doze that quickly turned into an outright nap. After being woken in the middle of the night by water rushing over her and being unable to go back to sleep, she was extremely tired.
The comfy bower, that hypnotizing scent, the exhaustion of the night and day all combined to send her off into pleasant dreams wherein she was building a starship from scratch with infinite time and parts and labor to make anything she wanted.
She wanted a holodeck like in the TV shows and a bedroom that could turn off gravity at will so she could float around.
Oh, definitely a jacuzzi for maximum relaxation.
And a workroom! She’d have the best workroom capable of making anything and fixing everything and it would have all the best equipment and all the space she could ever want.
And the Big Guy was there too. Working around her.
Helping her with his brute strength to move and hold heavy things.
Or pick her up as she needed to get her into better positions or to help her plan her next project.
She didn’t expect him there, but he was.
Making a place for himself in her space, making really soft beds for her to lay in as she pleased, staring at her with those deep, glowing eyes that shined red and orange and yellow like the embers of a dying fire.
Yeah. Looking at her just like that. Staring down at her. Widening the hole in the trap. His expression one of confused horror.
Haven, still gripped by the lingering vestiges of her dream, gave him a little smile. Unreasonably happy to see the Big Guy.
Until he started cursing in his harsh, rough native tongue loud enough to jerk her fully awake.