Page 10 of Taken to Kor
“Interesting…” I hate it when he does that. It’s like he’s figuring something out. “You mentioned asteroids. I know that you aren’t going to your human colony. The nearest asteroid field is too far for you to be on course here. And, given the amount of fuel in your pod, there are only three available routes for you to take. I’ve moved transporters into all three locations, but imagine my surprise when all three turned up empty-handed. So where did you go? Hm?
“I’m beginning to think, little Deena, that Svera gave you something very precious before she and her mate took off.”
He’s speaking, but I can’t hear him. All I can do is blink. And then a few breaths later, blink again. My jaw opens and my tongue flails uselessly inside my mouth. I grip the arms of my chair and try to push myself up only for the seatbelt to yank me back.
“Gugg,” I yowl.
“Deena, tell me,” he says, but I just shake my head because my little escape pod has just rounded the curved edge of one moon-sized asteroid and sitting directly in front of me is a satellite.
Thesatellite.
Shadowed by the asteroids behind it, it’s illuminated only by very distant starlight — and the light of my bright little pod. The asteroids seem to be locked in its orbit and rotate around it very slowly. I start to follow the path they take in my little bright beacon and draw nearer and nearer as it comes closer and closer…
“Deena. Did Svera give you the coordinates?”
“What coordinates?” I mumble, unstrapping myself from my seat and rising with complete and total awe. I approach the view pane and press both palms against it. Unlike the glass case mylovinggrammakept me in, against the view pane, my breath does not fog.
Balesilha.
That’s the word printed in huge block letters across the satellite’s rounded surface. A magnificent thing, the satellite is structured in three components — two huge sections on either end that look like slowly rotating wheels and, between them, one huge sphere linked to them by enormous tube-like bridges. The wheels are both silver and gleaming, shining like they were just built yesterday. The ball however, is inert and patchy, covered in black and a sort of rust color that looks eerily like dried blood.
Some bits of it, I see as I draw closer, appear mossy green.Like vegetables after they’ve been left out too long.I remember because one of my many protests was to deny all the food Mathilda gave me. I let the food spoil and, eventually, the meat and the vegetables grew these funny, fuzzy white and green spots. They also smelled so bad, I threw up. Looking at the sphere now and its coloring makes me remember that food and get all queasy.Rot. The word comes to me.The color of rot.And that’s where my escape pod is headed.
“Deena, come back to me,” his hard voice snaps and I jerk to attention, preparing for my little pod to dock. Preparing to meet the new humans! Oh my gosh, what will they be like? What will they think of me? I glance down at my clothes, my bare feet, the stains and smudges on my tee shirt. I sniff my armpits and make a face. Well, I guess my stank can’t be helped at this point.
I tighten a few of my locs with my fingers as I jump eagerly from foot-to-foot. I refuse to answer Rhork as he speaks, whispering more orders to somebody. I’m getting close…super close! The giant sphere looks positively jumbo sized now as I approach it and we lock onto a port with a hiss.
“Deena!” Rhork curses. He almost never does. “Deena, you can’t do this. This is my escape pod. You aremine.” I don’t know how he figures that, but it sounds pretty stupid from where I’m standing staring up at the ceiling, watching the black matter that makes up some of the ship part to reveal a rot-colored portal that’s sealed shut.
The black matter slides down all syrupy and slow to form a single post with hand and foot rungs sticking out of either side of it. Cool. A ladder. I grab on and start climbing up. “‘Preciate your company these past solars, Rhork, but I’m off now. Don’t expect to hear from me anytime soon. Or ever.”
I should throw the little token in my pocket out and leave it behind in the escape pod so he can’t find me…
I should do this.
“Deena,” he says and Ihatethe way he says my name only because I hate him and I actually like the way he says my name, and I shouldn’t, don’t, wish I didn’t. “I’ll take you to the ocean.” The velvet chords act like oil on the rungs. I slip and trip and fall back onto the floor below. I curse and massage my butt.
Rhork curses and says, “I will take you to the ocean, Deena. I have a place. One for you and only you. Where I’ve never taken anyone.”
“Liar.”
“I’m not…”
“Don’t!” I rise with a huff and grab hold of the ladder again.
“Deena.”
“I saiddon’t.”
My foot slips from the rung it’s on and my arms shake with the effort it takes to hold up the rest of my body.Crap. I’m real out of shape…I wonder if that’s what Rhork meant when he called me defective, not my leg. I glance down at my jeans-covered right leg and frown. It’s kind of hard to walk up the ladder with my foot bent out like this, but it doesn’t stop me. It hurts sometimes, yeah, but it hardly ever slows me down.
“I will take you to this place, Deena. It’s yours already…”
“Nah,” I say even though my heart does this annoying funny thing. It clenches. The ocean.How many times has his melodic voice described it to me? How many times?“I’d rather take my chances with the humans than trust you again.”
“Deena, you don’t even know if you can breathe the air on this satellite.”
That stalls me with my hand on the top rung. I hesitate.
