Page 65 of Star-Crossed Captive
She didn’t know how long she stood there, lost in her numbness, when a voice rang out behind her.
“I can’t take it anymore.”
Nia straightened away from the railing and turned to find Dee with her hands on her hips and a frown furrowing her brow. Her yellow and orange dress was extremely short in the front and incredibly long in the back, the whole thing only supported by one strap over her left shoulder. The fashion bruised Nia’s sensibilities in every way, but she couldn’t find it in her to dislike it.
After staring at each other a long minute, Nia returned her focus to the crowd below.
Dee moved closer, joining her at the railing. “Look, I know you hate me—”
“I don’t hate anyone.” She didn’t have the energy to hate anymore.
“And I’ve been trying to give you space,” Dee went on like she hadn’t spoken, “But I can’t stand by and watch you wither away.”
Why not?She didn’t voice the question. Didn’t care enough to do so.
“Has someone suggested you speak to the captive psychologist?”
I don’t need a psychologist, I need to go home.And she didn’t trust anyone here enough to spill her guts to them.“Did Mace ask you to come?” At least it would mean he thought of her once in a while, though she didn’t know how he couldn’t when she’d taken over his quarters.Where did he sleep?
There were indicators he visited while she was on her shifts: a different towel in the bathroom, things being move around in the refrigeration unit, but she hadn’t seen him in at least two weeks. Maybe longer? She wasn’t even sure how much time had passed since she’d been brought toOrion.
“No. He didn’t ask me to come.” She leaned an elbow against the railing. “I keep seeing you around, moping, on your days off, and I needed to do something before all the plants in the arboretum shriveled away by association.”
“I don’t mope,” she denied in a flat voice even though she knew it was the truth.
“If it’s any consolation, Mace seems to be moping about as much as you are.”
It should have elicited some reaction from her, but it didn’t.Maybe I should go back to his quarters and nap.The loathsome nature of the thought made it through her brain fog. She wouldn’t willfully confine herself.
“And if I didn’t know any better,” Dee went on, “I would have thought you two were going through a breakup or something similar.”
There was nothing about her current mood because of a “breakup,” whether they’d kissed or not, but Nia saw no point in voicing the opinion. Her brain was too sluggish to argue.
“But I do know better. It’s completely ridiculous, right?”
“Right,” she agreed, wanting Dee to stop talking and go away. Out of principle, she’d decided to stay here for her full six hours, people watching, then she’d return to his quarters.
“Anyway,” Dee said after exhaling a frustrated breath. “I’m stealing you away from your pity fest for the day.”
Nia didn’t even have the energy to protest against the way Dee grabbed her arm and pulled her along. But alarm swept through her numbness when Dee pulled her on the lift—without Elec. “Where are you taking me?”
“Somewhere new. You can’t see the rest of the station, so I’m going to show you neat stuff in this quad.”
The lift descended a clipped pace, then the door opened into a plain corridor devoid of people. Nia’s nervousness grew. Hand still holding her arm, Dee took her through a narrow corridor. It widened into a space vaster than the arboretum. Nia’s disinterest shed from her body like a uniform worn too long. When Dee dropped her arm, she kept walking forward until she gripped the railing tightly.
A helix of rotating metal filled her vision, a pinkish white energy twisting around it—a power source, but she’d never seen an engine core like it. Looking upward, the reactor chamber seemed to go on forever, looking down it was the same. She’d known the station was massive. This only confirmed it.
She leaned forward to see better, and Dee settled a hand on her arm. “Watch yourself. There’s no coming back from a fall like that.”
Truth. Nia couldn’t see the bottom from here.
“Is this the only one?” Nia had tried to obtain a schematic ofOrionon Mace’s terminal but had been unsuccessful because of her limited clearance.
“No. There are four of them, one for each section of the station.”
“What are they doing?” Nia asked, pointing to the four people in brown. One was hanging off the edge, inside the cylinder of the construction, making her stomach lurch.
Dee followed where she pointed. “Maintenance.”
