Page 19 of Relyn
“You think I’m gonna change my mind?”
“You might, and you might even meet some new people.”
Wendy gave her the skeptical teenager stare.
“You mean I might meet a human guy and fall in love and start farting out babies.”
“I mean that you will have more choices back on Earth. Whether or not to have children, to get married, to get a degree and work. You’ve got a lot of money now to do whatever you want. And if you decide to come back, it’s only a short teleport back. Hell, I know a lot of people who are dying to be in your shoes.” Nora definitely wouldn’t mind having a few million dollars laying around. She could start her own school with that kind of cash, or at least some scholarships to pull her students out of poverty.
“The moment I step back on Earth, my greedy ass brothers are going to start looking for handouts.” Nora bit her lip to keep from laughing.
“Who said you had to tell them you were back? Earth is a big place. What universities were you thinking?”
“Montreal or Toronto,” Wendy said. Both of those were close to home.
“I hear Vancouver is nice. But so is Paris, London.” Nora had dreamed of going to London for school.
“Exeter has a great xenobiology program,” Wendy said with a slight upturn of a smile.
“See? You think your brothers can find you on a different continent?”
“Well, Jaques isn’t so bad, but I don’t think he could keep it to himself,” Wendy shrugged.
“That’s where the continental divide is helpful. Really hard to show up unannounced without getting a visa and transport ticket,” Nora said.
“I guess that’s true.”
Wendy ended the conversation when Bright came in and gave the two of them a hard silent stare. Wendy stood and put her little plants back in the incubator she’d set up.
“Space can be a dangerous place,” Bright said rather out of the blue. “We are traveling rather slowly without escort, and we should be prepared for any occasion.”
“Pirates,” Wendy said.
“Argh!” Nora couldn’t resist adding. Yes, her idea of pirates was firmly embedded in the eighteenth century with Captain Jack Sparrow and other fictional characters. Bright obviously had no idea why she’d just shouted like a pirate. “Never mind me. Pirates, you say?”
“They are not a laughing matter. When we encounter them-”
“When?” Wendy asked.
“Yes. When we encounter them-”
“You mean if,” Nora corrected, straightening up. “If we encounter them.”
Bright stared at the two of them for a long moment. “As you like. When we encounter them you will do exactly what I say. You will not deviate or question. I have experience in thesematters. That is all I have to say.” She smiled and abruptly left the room.
“Uh, that wasn’t ominous at all,” Wendy said.
Nora agreed with her. Pirates had not been listed on the things that they had discussed before she stepped on board. Of course, she probably would have signed up anyway. Space was a big place. It was space, after all. Meeting pirates probably wasn’t a high probability, like being chosen for the lottery.
“Probably just a translation glitch?” Nora said.
Wendy didn’t reply, she just shook her head.
A timer went off. Nora dismissed it. She’d put herself on a twenty four hour schedule, trying to keep in step with Earth. It was time for her night time routine now. She headed back to her bunk. The first thing she did was feed Data, and then she got into her pajamas, though it was a loose word for what she had received when she asked the replicator for a pair. No, this was a white, nearly see through silken negligee that barely covered her ass. Apparently the girls around here did most of the sleeping naked. The robe that she’d ordered was made of similar stuff, but it at least had full coverage. She wasn’t going to sleep in a robe, and besides, there were no males on board so she could sleep bare ass naked and no one would care.
“No males except you,” Nora said to Data, who sat waiting by the bedside. He was obviously waiting for her to settle in bed so he could settle too, right on top of her. She climbed into bed with her tablet and smoothed the blankets over her. Data assumed his position and wiggled his way to comfort.
“All right, are we good now?” He looked up at her like she’d asked a stupid question.
