Chapter Twenty-Two

 

Corree re-entered the robot and commanded it into the ship, closing the hatch behind it. She made it sit down in the control chair. Meeka and Tanna buckled themselves in. Following what Jeron had taught her, Corree lifted off. As she had guessed, the course had already been programmed into the ship’s computer, so once they were out of Mendel’s orbit, the pod flew the most direct course to the space station. She slithered out of the robot. It was good to mutate back into her own form. While it wasn’t painful being a flower snake, it wasn’t comfortable either.

“Corree, what do we do when we get there?” Meeka asked. Her voice trembled, despite her bravado before take-off.

“Like I said, you and Tanna will be my prisoners,” she said with a yawn. She stretched on the spare couch, feeling muscles protest. The couch was not made for comfort. “We try to get a little sleep and then we’ll dig out the food.” Meeka was still watching her. Corree knew she expected more of an answer. “We have to play this one as it comes, Meeka. There are too many ‘ifs’ to be able to have a straight-forward plan.”

Meeka sighed and curled up on her couch.

Corree had trouble sleeping. She lay on her couch for a while, tossing and turning. Finally, she got up. Pacing the perimeter of the control room helped ease some of her anxiety.

Tanna watched her from the couch where he had been trying to sleep. “Calm down. You’ll be worn out before we get there.”

“You haven’t been to the science station before.”

“Yes, I have. Just like the rest of us,” he said with a mischievous grin.

“All right, but you haven’t been there recently.”

“I know we can do this.”

“But what happens if they refuse to leave after they are warned?” she queried. “What if….?”

“As you said, we could ‘what if’ ourselves to death if we continue to fill our minds with questions and doubts.”

Corree glared at him. Meeka chuckled, her previous confidence restored—at least a little bit.

“I’m sorry I’ve kept you up, but I guess I’m not sure what I’m going to do when we get there,” Corree admitted.

Tanna shrugged. “But you have a goal and an idea and the skill to fool them.”

Corree hoped what she had seen in the dream was correct. She wished it had been more complete. “Thanks. And it’s we, not me. We’re going to do this together.”

The rest of the trip to the science station was oppressively boring for all of them. Meeka and Tanna practiced mutations, helped by the blue crystals. Where had those stones come from? Why was something that was found on Alogol so much like the Mendel sun, she wondered. Corree practiced manipulating the robot.

During a lag in conversation and while Tanna was asleep, Meeka surprised her with a question. “Have you thought about a life-mate?”

Corree was startled. Yes, she had thought about a life-mate; especially after meeting Riss. “Yeah, when I feel lonely or when the storms come through. It’s a little scary being alone in your nest when a spring boomer is overhead and you feel like your tree is going to split from the lightning.”

“What will you do when you’re older?”

Corree knew what Meeka’s concerns were now that Riss was dead. “And want to have children?”

“Children? I meant when you have feelings inside you can’t ignore. When you want someone beside you—”

“I know.”

Meeka gave her a sharp look.

“I am not going to pretend I didn’t…like Riss. Before I met him I knew I was lonely. But I didn’t know what I was lonely for.”

“Did Riss…?”

“A little.” Corree waffled between telling Meeka, whom she had come to respect and like, and holding back. She took a deep breath. “He liked to play with my ears.” She felt her cheeks grow warm.

Meeka turned a choked sob into a drawn out sigh. “He did that to me, too. He liked to chase me up and down the steep slopes.” She stopped talking.

“I stopped wondering if I would have another lifemate,” Corree admitted. “I just figured there wouldn’t be one.”

“What’s it like to be alone?”

“Lonely.” Corree didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Thankfully, Meeka didn’t pursue the question. The drone of the ship’s engines filled the silence.

Corree mutated into the flower snake and practiced with the robot again, but her heart wasn’t in it. She could already do as much with it as was possible. Meeka closed her eyes, and Corree soon heard the soft deep breathing of sleep. Slithering out of the machine, Corree had every intention of following the other girl’s example.

“For right now we have each other, but there will be someone for you later,” Tanna whispered.

Corree started, and then felt her cheeks grow warm again. “Let’s just get this over with first,” she whispered back.

He grunted and rolled over on his couch.

Corree couldn’t help but appreciate Tanna’s concern. She moved around on her couch until she was more comfortable. Despite her worry, she fell asleep quickly.