What Happens in Orbit Pt. 07

Cora sat in a chair in the main room, trying to act casual as the airlock opened. Tor entered first, followed by Mar.

Amola rushed out, taking the crates and bags they were carrying. Mar took a deep breath and raked his hands over his hair. "That was fun."

"Really?" Cora hoped they were in a good mood.

"No. It was a disaster."

Tor snickered. "He fell in a hole."

"Are... are you okay?" She moved to get up but thought better of it.

"Yeah." Finally empty-handed, Mar dusted himself off. "So, what did you do?"

Cora scrunched herself down into her chair. Be brave, be brave, be brave. "Not mu- Ah, well, you know, an orgy." I might as well be honest.

"I'm sorry, what?"

Amola quickly whispered something to them in Roshak.

"We were gone for," Mar looked over at Tor. "For how long?" Tor shrugged.

He turned back to her. "I don't know, but not long enough for you to end up in a Sheevae orgy!"

Cora cleared her throat. "With the queen."

"Oh, yeah, of course, with the queen." Mar froze, processing this. "Wait. With- with who?"

Tor picked up a crate, heading to the storage room. "She said with the queen."

Mar's eyes went out of focus. "Are you sure? Because that's the one person who was not supposed to find out about Cora."

He flopped into a chair, staring at the ceiling. After a long, harsh sigh, he looked over at her. "Was it fun?"

She thought for a second before nodding. "I- Well, she invited me to and I didn't want to be rude."

"That was... Okay, that was actually really smart. She hates being told no. But that means we need to get out of here, soon."

"A-SAP," Tor added.

Cora nodded at him, as Amola spoke up again.

"You need to leave now, anyway."

They turned to her. Cora was the first to speak. "Why?"

She gave Cora a pointed look. "There will be too many mouths to feed."

Mar was confused. "I thought you said Mitri's spawn wouldn't be an issue for a while."

Amola typed something into her tablet, reading it before erasing it and typing something else. "There was a... change in numbers."

Tor squinted at Cora, tilting his head. "Was there?"

"Oh, no!" Cora stood, briskly walking to the ladder. "We better start packing up."

Mar looked at her, then Tor. They both turned back to her. Amola had snuck out of the room at some point.

"Cora."

She paused, halfway up the ladder. "Yes?"

"What did you-"

"Nothing!" Throwing herself through the door, she immediately went to the crate that held her belongings. When they entered the room, she was halfway inside the crate, looking for something she knew wasn't there.

"Cora." Mar spoke again.

"Hm?" She hoped it would hide the cracks in her voice.

"Come out of the crate."

She didn't. "No. Are you- are you angry at me?"

Someone lifted her out of the crate, and she found herself looking at Tor. Mar was holding her.

"Were we angry last time?"

Cora fought the urge to tear up. "Yeah."

Tor shook his head. "No. More... worried?" He thought for a second, then nodded. "Yeah, worried."

Mar released his grip on her, taking a step back. He wouldn't look at her.

"I'll be honest, Cora. With how often you end up in situations, I worry that the medicine is still affecting you."

She looked down at her hands. "Really?" Why are they changing the subject? She hesitated, wanting to point out how distracted Mar seemed. But she didn't.

"What's going on?"

Tor turned to Mar, giving him a meaningful glance.

He huffed a sigh in response. "I've been talking to Amola for a while about our next move. I already knew we couldn't stay here before you two... uh, yeah. Anyway." He rubbed at his head, clearly uncomfortable. "I've made plans."

Cora scrutinized his expression. He was trying to smile, but all that came through was a bitter grimace.

"And your plans are?" She glanced over at Tor, who crossed his arms.

"We get to meet his old friends."

Oh, boy. "Mar?"

He put his hands over his face, swiping them down with a groan. "I'm sure it's fine. I just- we're going to be staying with eight others, like us. I don't know if you'll be safe."

He's not telling the whole truth. Cora waved her hand at him. "Nah. I'll be fine. What's the alternative?"

Tor shuddered. "Baby food."

Mar nodded, a little too enthusiastically for the unhappy look in his eyes. "We're leaving at the start of the night cycle. Make sure you have everything."

Cora didn't have much to begin with, so packing was easy. Now, all she could do was wait in the main room, practically drowning in the awkwardness between Amola and her crewmates. She watched as every time Mar or Tor entered the room, Amola would leave. They'd leave and she'd return. It was almost funny. Almost.

She paid particular attention to Mar. Every time he passed by, his eyes were out of focus. He looks sad.

That wouldn't do. Cora waited until he passed by again, and reached for his hand.

"Mar?"

He turned to her, his expression brightening. "Yes?"

"I know you're busy. Please come talk to me for a second." She pulled him toward the storage room, out of earshot of everyone else. He followed, uncertain.

Shutting the door behind them, she faced him.

"What are you really worried about?"

Shaking his head, he looked at the wall. "I told you. Keeping you safe."

"No. There's something else."

"Mm-mm. No."

She put her hands on her hips, mildly amused by his stubbornness. "I already know for a fact that something is wrong. You can tell me or I'll find out on my own."

Mar's gaze snapped over to meet hers. "No- I- Damn it."

She waited.

"Look, do you know what Tor means by my 'old job'?"

"Mercenary work?"

"Yes, but do you know what that means?"

"Like... bounty hunters. Murder, all that jazz?"

He gave her a sour look. "Cora. I'm being serious. None of that jazz. I did, and still have to do, terrible things. And you might see."

Oh. "Are you worried that I'll think less of you?" When he didn't respond, she tried to rephrase her question. "Or- do you think I'll be afraid? Or not want to be around you?"

Placing a hand on his forehead, he sighed. "Yes."

"You shouldn't be worried about that." She watched him carefully. "What's worrying me is, how do you know they won't turn us in?"

Surprising her, he let out a harsh laugh. "There's no value in it. My skills are worth more than the bounty they put on my head."

That didn't sound right to Cora. Of course, she wasn't exactly an expert on all this extrajudicial nonsense.

"And Tor?"

He shook his head. "That ship has needed an engineer for as long as I can remember. They were begging me to bring him."

And me?

She reached up to hold his face. "You don't have anything to worry about. Okay?"

Mar offered her a weak smile. "We'll see."

They were down to three bags and a single crate. Cora's bag was smaller, but easily held her few possessions.

"Where's Amola?"

Mar shook his head. "I think she's busy. We have to go."

Cora didn't like not saying goodbye. It felt rude. She stayed behind as Mar and Tor left, looking towards Amola's room.

"Come on, Cora."

Darn.

"Okay, I'm coming."

The darkness outside the airlock was suffocating, and Cora fought back panic until her eyes adjusted. "Damn, it's dark."

Her surroundings slowly came into view as Tor pulled her along. She could make out the ground, the edges of objects, and some of the ships, all in tones of gray.

"We had to wait until dark, or we'd run into your new friends."

Mar took a sharp left into an alley. Voices echoed toward them, followed by a metallic clang.

"Cora, please stay close."

She scoffed, quietly.

[There they are!]

A new, deeper voice called out. Mar shook his head before responding.

[Louder, please. I want the entire spaceport to know we're here.]

Cora listened, picking out familiar notes. It was getting easier to piece together what they were saying.

As they approached the end of the alley, color bled back into her vision as they came into the light. She peeked around Tor, surprised to find a ship nearly identical to their old one. It was larger, but not by much.

Cora stepped between the two of them, resisting the urge to hide.

There were three Roshak in front of them. No, four.

One crouched atop the airlock entrance, holding some kind of weapon. It reminded Cora of a shotgun. He surveyed her with apprehension, balking when they made eye contact. She tilted her head before returning her gaze to the three in front of them. One was shorter and stockier than the other two, and seized Mar in a hug. Cora winced as she heard a crack.

Ouch.

Mar visibly relaxed, chatting with the one that hugged him. He turned back to Tor, gesturing. From what she could pick out, they were doing introductions. At least he's not stressed anymore.

As they walked into the ship, Cora fought back a cough.

Tor looked down at her, frowning. "You've been doing that a lot."

"Yeah," she spluttered. "I'm okay, though." She hadn't had any kind of allergies since she left Earth, so this was weird. Probably another bullshit side effect.

Someone said the word human, and Cora perked up, listening. The one behind her was speaking to Mar, pointing at her. When she turned to him, he took a step back, reaching for his gun.

She shook her head, turning back around. Something in her told her not to worry.

They should be afraid.

That caught her off-guard. What was that? She shook her head again, willing her brain to stop whatever it had started.

The main area of the ship was much different than their old ship. This one had mismatched furniture and showed clear signs of being home to several. Cora looked around, counting all the Roshak she didn't recognize. Eight, and they're all male? The one that had greeted them at first had tusks, like the bioarchaeologist, but didn't have any of the other traits.

Every time she made eye contact with one of them, they quickly looked away. Hm.

Something in her mind was nagging at her, an odd feeling. It had been there for a while, but at some point it had gotten a bit louder. A small portion of her brain cells had begun singing in chorus, but she couldn't make out the words. She listened, trying to pin it down.

"Cora?"

The feeling disappeared. Damn it. "Huh?"

Mar was staring at her. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yes? Why wouldn't I be?"

He stared at her for a few more seconds. "Just checking. You had a weird expression."

"I'm just a little tired, that's all." Cora was tired, but more than anything, she wanted to get away from all the eyes on her. They all seemed to know something about her that she didn't. And that something scared them.

Oh, Cora, you dumbass. They've probably seen the footage from the failed missions.

This didn't slow her racing pulse, but she felt calmer.

"Do you want to go lay down?" He was still watching her.

"Please."

Mar led her to an empty room with a bed. "This is ours," he said, setting the egg crate by the bed.

She flopped down, reaching to check the eggs. Nothing had changed.

When she looked up, Mar was already gone. This is fine. Cora took a deep breath, stretching out. The bed was just like her old one, unreasonably large and round.

Already, her eyelids were heavy.

I guess I am pretty tired.

Cora was in a maintenance tunnel. It was pitch black, but the scents made her surroundings clear. She inhaled deeply, catching something new.

Someone else was in here.

To her right, a screw clattered to the ground. She tilted her head, focusing on the dim light, and recognized the outline of one of her new crewmates. Somehow, he hadn't noticed her, even as she crept close enough to feel his heartbeat. He pulled a panel from the wall, tossing it aside.

The feeling was there again. Cora didn't know when it returned, but she welcomed it all the same. Every cell in her body was singing. She exhaled, grinning as his heart began racing. He'd realized that someone was behind him.

Painfully slow, he turned to face her. [Wha-] Terror radiated off him.

Her hand was around his throat now, pinning him down.

[Pathetic.]

She squeezed, watching him struggle beneath her. Something went crunch under her hand. Then, she was falling.

"Shit!" Cora hit the floor, hard. Her lungs burned, and she fought to regain her breath without choking too loudly.

She was in her room.

"What the fuck?" She whispered, looking around for her tablet. "What the fuck was that?"

Her reflection was not what she was expecting, somehow. Something was off. Okay, my teeth are normal. My eyes are- weird. The ring around her irises, normally a thin, dark line, had thickened. Hasn't it been like that for a while? Cora cleared her throat. Somehow, in her dream, she'd created the exact three-layer tone needed to say [pathetic].

After a deep breath, she retraced her dream, attempting to say it again. For a split second, her voice reverberated more intensely than it ever had, as if she had several sets of vocal cords. Then, it gave out. Painfully. Cora fought back against the retching cough that was trying to tear its way out of her throat. She lost, falling to the bed. It felt like she'd been screaming for hours. After a particularly nasty-sounding wheeze, the main room went quiet. Shit. Cora went limp as the door opened.

"Cora?"

She squinted against the light spilling into the room. Tor stepped in, shutting the door behind him. "Still coughing?"

She nodded, praying her voice would come out normally.

"Allergies," came the crackly whisper. Motherfucker.

"Ray would know what to do." Tor sighed, a bitter edge to his voice.

Cora's heart dropped. Oh, God. Fucking oops. "Ah, Tor, he's not dead." She'd completely forgotten to tell them. "The, uh, queen showed me footage while I was there. Someone came to get him. A Foshar ship, she said." Her throat began to burn again.

Tor was at the door, opening it a crack. "Mar. Come here."

He appeared in the doorway. "Yeah?"

"Ray's not dead. His fiancee saved him. Cora said the queen showed her."

[Great. I can kill him myself.] Mar began to turn away, but stopped. [Wait- is Cora okay?]

[No. Something is wrong with her and she's lying about it.]

[You, go be social.] He pulled Tor out of the room, shoving him back into the main area before closing the door. Sitting by her, Mar stroked her hair.

"What's wrong?"

Cora had managed to get the wheezing under control, but now she was scared to do anything other than whisper. "I already told Tor, it's just allergies. Humans have them a lot, especially going into new... environments." I need to make this sound scientific. "Our respiratory systems don't handle airborne particles very well."

Mar nodded, pondering this. "How do you normally treat it?"

"Something called an antihistamine."

He frowned. "I'm not sure we have anything like that here."

She waved him away. "I don't need it. It'll pass." Please buy it, please buy it. Cora wasn't sure what she was worried about, but she didn't want to give them any more reason to stress over her.

Leaning down, he kissed her on the forehead. "If you're not healthy, I can't teach you to shoot."

Her eyes lit up. "Shoot?"

Mar nodded, fighting back a laugh. "You need to learn. So does Tor, but he insists that he doesn't."

Tor doesn't like weapons. Cora knew that already. She nodded.

He stood.

"Oh- Mar." She sat up, gesturing for him to come back. "Is there anything I need to know? Like rules, or- you know, things I shouldn't do here? Last time I was on a ship and didn't know anything, I got eggs laid in me."

Unsure, he looked towards the door. "I- I can't think of anything. Just try and stay close to one of us. We're leaving port soon, so I'm sure that won't be an issue. Do you want me to show you where everything is?"

"I'd like that."

After Mar showed her where the kitchen and bathroom were, he led her back to the main area. "Oh-" He stopped. "One more thing. Three of them speak English, even if they pretend they don't."

He pointed to two Roshak sitting together. One was tawny, with bright orange hair. "That's Erie, and Leo's behind him" Leo was a light brown-gray, but otherwise looked identical to Erie. Cora wondered if they were related.

"And, wherever he is, Tai."

"Who?" Cora jumped as someone spoke from behind her.

"You. I was telling Cora who speaks her language." Mar swatted at Tai, narrowly missing. He was as tall as Mar, but was a soft gray color, with pink eyes.

"He hasn't tried to teach you our language yet?"

Cora started to speak, but Mar answered first. "Humans can't. You know that." She made a doubtful face, quickly deadpanning when she realized that Tai was looking right at her.

"Okay, sure." He gave her a pointed look before sauntering off. .

"Asshole," Mar mumbled.

Later, Cora was in the kitchen getting some water. At some point, someone had filled small bottles for her and put them next to the larger bottles for everyone else.

"Cora?"

She nearly dropped the bottle she was holding. "Yes?"

It was Tai, holding a book.

"That sore throat is annoying, isn't it?"

"Sore... throat?" Her voice only had a slight rasp to it. "Yeah, it is- wait. How did you know?" She'd been holding back coughs all day. The crew already was unsure about her. She didn't want them thinking she was some kind of plague vector, too.

"Lucky guess."

"Uh-huh. You look like you want to tell me something."

He shifted, tapping his foot against the ground. "I want to talk to you, somewhere private."

Cora chewed on her lip. Boy, that sure sounds like something Mar would not want me to do. "About what?"

Tai held up the book in his hand. "This."

Upon further inspecting, the book was a hand-bound collection of pages, written by hand. It looked like a language book. "Is this about earlier? Mar already said I can't."

He turned, gesturing with a scoff. "Bullshit. Follow me."

Cora found herself moderately annoyed. Is English offered as an elective in Roshak high school? Why is half of outer space natively fluent? "Sure. Okay."

She followed him into a storage room, trying not to look guilty. I'm not doing anything wrong.

The room contained several crates, but a sheet of canvas hung above them. Judging by the blanket tossed over it, it was someone's sleeping arrangement. Tai sat on a crate, patting the one next to him. Cora struggled, slipping on the fabric covering it. "I've got it- oh, no I don't-." As she flailed, Tai caught her hand, pulling her up. "Oh- thank you."

He opened the book, flipping through it.

She regarded him quietly, noting how similar he was to Tor. He had long ears, and the ridges on his neck were dark and jagged.

He's from a colony, I think.

While most of him was gray, his ears and hands were mottled black.

Not looking up from his book, Tai spoke. "It's a shame that the experiment didn't work."

"What exp- you mean what they did to me?"

He nodded. "It would have been interesting."

Cora had a nagging suspicion that Mar lied again. "Huh. What all did Mar tell you about?"

Tai dog-eared a page before flipping around some more. "We saw the footage from the other missions, and we cleaned up Mission 7. All he told me was that their mission failed, but he couldn't kill you."

Yikes. "Like, couldn't as in 'unable to'? Or didn't want to?"

"Both, I think? He's a terrible liar." At this, he turned his gaze on her.