Part 3 (1/2)
”I don't see the point, Commander. Steve said he wasn't going to kill us outright, but we can be sure that whatever he has planned, we won't survive long.”
”Where there isss life, there isss hope. A belief of humansss, I think.”
”Yes, it's one of our sayings. You can count on a human to have a saying for every occasion. Sometimes they contradict one another. For instance, 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder.' Yet, we have, 'Out of sight, out of mind'.” She rested her arm across her eyes. ”Sayings are just clever words strung together. They have no meaning.”
”'Out of sssight, out of mind',” he repeated thoughtfully. ”It doesss not mention the heart. Sssomeone can be out of the mind for a time, but never out of the heart. Sssss, the two do not contradict at all.”
She couldn't find fault in his reasoning.
”If you do not eat, sa'aloh, they may not give you any more food. Now you are not hungry, but if many daysss pa.s.ss, you will wisssh you had the food.”
Steve might find it amusing to toy with them by withholding food. She set the lights on three and retrieved the packs. She punched in the code for boiling water then tore off the wrapper.
”It's better if you pour hot water over it and let it set a few minutes.”
”Isss it? Our foodpacksss are meant to be eaten dry.” She heard him punch in the code. ”In a warsss.h.i.+p, sss.p.a.ce isss at a premium; in a war, time isss at a premium.”
She poured the boiling water over the piles of freeze-dried crumbs in the plastic tray, turning them into a mush-like consistency. Each section had its own flavor, and although the granules didn't resemble what they represented, they satisfied the palate and provided essential protein, vitamins, and minerals a body needed to survive. A human body.
”These are made for human consumption. Can you survive eating nothing but this?”
”Yesss. My needsss are not much different than yoursss.”
She smiled at the double entendre. She had to remember his English left something to be desired, so he had no idea what he said or how many ways it could be taken. Nevertheless, the statement brought images to her mind that were best forgotten.
She ate and tossed the empty tray in the waste chute. She heard his waste receptacle flush.
It was time to sleep, time to empty her mind of everything and find refuge in a dreamless void. She crept onto the bunk and put out the lights.
This time she woke with the Commander calling to her.
”Are you awake, sa'aloh?”
”I am now,” she mumbled, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She glanced at her watch. Another four hours had pa.s.sed. Not long enough. She rolled over and closed her eyes again.
”Wake up, sa'aloh. Too much sssleep isss a.s.ss detrimental a.s.ss not enough.”
”What does it matter?” she muttered.
”You are compensssating for lack of physssical ssstimuli.” There was a pause. ”Sss't!”
Her eyes sprang open. She desperately tried to free her mind of what his ”physssical ssstimuli” suggested.
”Boredom,” she said through a yawn.
”What, sa'aloh?”
”You mean that I'm bored.”
”Yes, sa'aloh. You need to keep your sssensesss sssharpened, to be prepared for what isss to come.”
She sat up on the side of the bunk. She loved the sound of the word he called her, sa'aloh, but she was afraid to ask what it meant. It might mean ”b.i.t.c.h” or some other disparaging term. If so, she didn't want to know. She preferred to think it meant ”dear” or ”darling”, something mildly affectionate.
”How do you propose I do that, Commander?”
”Talk to me. Pace your cell for the exercissse. Look at sssomething you have never ssseen before.”
I want to look at you, she thought. I want to rest my eyes on another living being. His disembodied voice, especially now that it resounded with disapproval, had begun to get on her nerves.
She stood, pain gripping her abdomen. A full bladder screamed for relief. She had to do it, as embarra.s.sing as it was. She dropped her pants and prayed that Steve or one of the others didn't pick this moment to run a bed check. There was no way to escape. If they managed to break free of the cells, there was nowhere to go. The s.h.i.+p scanner would locate them in a heartbeat-by the sound of their heartbeats.
The waste receptacle automatically flushed when she stood. She closed her eyes for those few seconds, then buckled her belt.
J'Qhir waited a few minutes.
”I am going to try again, sa'aloh,” he called to her.
”Try what?”
”What I tried before.”
”Which is?”
”The imposssible.”
”Oh. Is it more possible now?”
”Marginally. The burnsss on my handsss have healed.”
”Already?”
”Yesss. Zi ssskin regeneratesss quickly. My ssshoulder doesss not throb now.”
”What, exactly, were you trying to do?”
”I attempted to pull one of the bunksss apart. The metal frame-”
”To use as a weapon?”
”No. I will try to ssshort out the forcefield.”
”It won't work.”
”Perhapsss not. But at lea.s.sst I am doing sssomething.”
”A waste of energy.”