Page 257 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Arianna

I didn’t know if I would hear it if Da’vi called back and I was somewhere other than the bridge.

Fearing that I’d miss it if he called me, I had stayed huddled in that room all day long, and the food and water I’d tucked into my skirt pockets had run out by now.

My mouth was going dry, and a mild headache had formed, like pressure on the top of my skull.

When the call finally came, I struggled to answer it, almost floating over the top of the console as I tried to press the icon on the screen.

His gruff, growly voice was like heaven to my ears, filling me with relief.

He hadn’t abandoned me. I didn’t even care that he sounded like a bear with a sore tooth most of the time when he spoke.

He just said he’d come for me himself. I hadn’t thought his altruism would go that far.

The idea that I was in a part of space he called a “dead zone” made my skin prickle with fear.

Nothing around me that was worth calling for aid?

So deep in space, so far away from help that the gruff man on the other side of the line had decided to come himself?

No, I shouldn’t be focusing on the scary, negative part here.

I should focus on the fact that growly, grizzly Da’vi was coming to rescue me.

I wasn’t going to let it get to me that I was a total damsel in distress right now.

Then I groaned to myself, cursing my brain for not even thinking of the important questions.

How long until he got here? If I was in a dead zone, how long of a journey was it to rescue me?

What if it was more than a month? What if I didn’t have enough food to last that long?

I should have brought those questions up; I should have said something.

Instead, I’d just been so happy that he was coming…

it hadn’t even crossed my mind. Typical of me.

I could already hear my family berating me for how dumb that was.

At least with the call over and no promise of getting another one, I thought it was all right to leave the bridge.

I needed to find the weird alien bathroom with the suction toilet pretty badly, and then I needed to check my food.

The headache told me I had to take at least a bit of water now.

I was already on the verge of dehydration after waiting on the bridge for almost an entire day with little to drink.

I checked the analog watch strapped around my wrist, a gift from my late grandmother.

It read four A.M., Earth time. I had no clue what kind of day/night schedule Da’vi was adhering to, but I’d need to be back on the bridge around the same time tomorrow so I could try to call him. I needed to have my questions answered.

Floating across the bridge, I made my laborious way back down into the bowels of the ship where I’d woken up.

The crate with food and water was there, and so were other supplies.

Now that I knew some kind of rescue was coming, eventually.

I needed to get some rest, and I really wanted to find something to wear.

My cute maxi skirt and tunic top might have looked good, but they weren’t appropriate for these temperatures, nor for floating around in zero-g.

I thought it was some kind of cargo bay.

The place was big, with a high ceiling, and most of it was completely empty.

The strange metal coffin with a glass top that I’d woken up in stood to one side, next to several stacks of the same kind of coffin.

I had looked inside a few of them shortly after I’d woken up and had nearly given myself a heart attack when I spotted human faces.

The only conclusion I could draw was that those coffins were stasis pods of some kind.

I was pretty sure technology like that didn’t exist on Earth, but I’d watched enough science fiction to have a feeling as to what they could be.

The fact that I’d woken up in one was a big clue, too.

They still gave me the creeps, even though I knew the people in there weren’t dead.

There were about a dozen big metal boxes on the other side of the huge cargo bay.

Some had toppled over, and I’d looked in those and knew they were empty.

The only other one I’d managed to open had held the food and water I’d subsisted on so far.

I headed there slowly, as I pushed myself off the doorway.

Then I slipped through the small crack I’d created at the top of the crate, my eyes struggling to adjust to the much darker interior.

I fought with the thoughts creeping up on me, that there was something in there, that I wasn’t alone in this wreck.

I didn’t need stupid intrusive thoughts like that piling onto my predicament.

I needed to get my food inventoried, and then I needed to explore.

I couldn’t do that if I was afraid of my own shadow.

Once I was fed and had drunk my fill, I carefully counted all the food bars and packages of water, concluding that it would only just stretch enough to cover a month.

That sounded long, it would be a terrifyingly long time to spend alone on this ship, but it didn’t sound long enough, too.

What if it took Da’vi longer than that to get here?

Space was huge; it probably took forever to get anywhere.

Trying to open crates while there was no gravity was extremely difficult.

I’d only managed to open this one because it had already been partially cracked.

No matter how hard I tried to push or pull to open the lids of the other crates that were right side up, I couldn’t budge a single one. I’d need to figure out another way.

So, with my pockets filled with a day’s worth of supplies, I floated myself back out of the huge cargo bay so I could try to locate a safe place to sleep.

I had to settle for what was probably some kind of storage closet, the only door near the cargo bay that would open for me.

I stuck my floating body between some shelving, tucking a foot behind a bracket, and tried to nap.

What did Da’vi look like? I really wanted to believe that that deep voice matched a big, strong body. Something about his gruff tones was just so comforting. I wished I could hear him speak now; that would probably help me feel safe enough to sleep.

I woke up with flailing limbs, horribly disoriented for a moment.

I had never been weightless like this before, and sleeping while floating in the air wasn’t nice at all.

I felt cold, and with my skirt billowing around me, I felt sort of naked, too.

Not nearly rested enough to feel properly alert, I left the stupid storage closet to search the ship.

Disappointed when it just turned into more dead ends, closed bulkheads, and crumpled, broken corridors. One had an actual live wire lying across the dark space, hissing and sparking. No. No way. I was not going down that one, even if you told me piles of food were on the other side.

Even worse, one room I’d managed to open had held an actual skeleton of some kind.

When I found that one, I had screamed and tried to float away as fast as I could.

I hadn’t even looked long enough to be able to tell if it was human or something else.

One look at those black eye sockets, and I had bolted.

My skin crawled at the thought of being alone on a broken wreck with dead bodies for company.

Only twelve hours had passed since I’d last spoken with Da’vi, but I still found myself drifting back to the bridge.

At least I was no longer so horribly nauseated all the time, floating about the broken spaceship.

I hoped he’d call me again. Had enough time passed that he wouldn’t be upset if I tried to call him?

I needed to know just how long I had to hang on here.

I needed help to find a way to open more doors and locate more food.

Hooking my foot behind the brace at the bottom of the chair, I focused on the softly glowing screen through which I’d managed to contact the stranger.

I swallowed a few times, trying to still my nerves.

I didn’t want to piss off my only avenue of help.

What if he thought I was bothering him by calling again?

No, I had to believe that he’d understand my desire to know how long it would take. Surely, if I explained about the food situation… My hand hovered over the button for some time before I finally had the guts to press it. I held my breath the entire time it was “ringing,” which felt like forever.

“What is it?” Da’vi’s deep, subharmonic voice boomed over the crackling speakers in the console so suddenly that my foot slipped. I went headfirst, spinning over the top of the console with the screen, an embarrassing yelp squeaking from my throat.

“Oh, I... uh, it’s me, Arianna. I was wondering if you could tell me how long it would take for you to reach me?

That is, uh… if you are still willing to come.

I only have a limited amount of food.” I held my breath as the words left me, hoping that I hadn’t pushed him too much.

How much bark, and how much bite, was this particular guy?

I didn’t know yet. I had told him I had supplies, would he be upset to hear that it was only a little?

There was no answer for what seemed far too long, and then the awkward silence was suddenly pierced by an alarm blaring across the bridge.

I didn’t know what it meant, and I frantically tried to get myself back to the console with the call screen.

I could see lights flashing on the console with the guns. What was happening?