Page 66 of Song of the Abyss

“Right?”

Anya blinked, and Bitsy threw up a mess of words that must have been an entire one-sided conversation that she’d just missed because she was thinking about Daios. Thankfully, she had the age-old story she could fall back on.

“I’m sorry.” Anya tapped her ears. “I’m hard of hearing, so I missed what you said.”

Of course, Bitsy had not. She didn’t get to use that excuse if someone knew her. Daios would give her a look that said he was unimpressed before he just crossed his arms and waited for her to read what he’d said before. The man was one of few words, and he had no intention of repeating himself if he could help it.

Mira’s expression turned to surprise, her eyebrows raising high and revealing wrinkles on her forehead before she nodded. “Right, sorry. I forget. I was saying, this is the bathing room. I’ll leave some clothes out here for you to change into when you’re ready. I’m sure it was a harrowing experience for you.”

“It wasn’t so bad, really. Cold. The life support in the facility wasn’t able to run at full power because we didn’t want anyone to realize we were there.” Anya shrugged. “But the company wasn’t terrible, and I was able to work on my own plan for a while until it all blew up. I hope you have a better idea than I did.”

The redhead in front of her turned calculating. “Are you suggesting that you’ve been working against your father?”

“For years.”

“You and I are going to get along just fine.” Mira dumped an armful of clothing onto a bench outside the small curtain. “Take your time. I’m sure you want to wash the salt off. There’s a tube of gunk in there that looks terrible, but it does wonders for your hair.”

That was all she needed. Placing Bitsy on the floor, she patted her droid on the top of the head. “Go speak with Byte while I shower.”

Anya didn’t have any other words. Besides, everything was hard to hear in this dome. As she slipped into the room and closed herself away from sight, she sighed. There was the indistinct murmur of people, a sensation of sound that she couldn’t quite hear. Not to mention the shower itself. She remembered metal making a noise when she turned the knobs, but she couldn’t hear that at all.

Her time with Daios had given her a small reprieve from what her life was actually like. If she tilted her head back and let the water run over her face, she could almost assume it had all been a dream.

A really lovely, wonderful dream that she would hold close for the rest of her life. But a dream, nonetheless. Now she was here, and she felt like she owed them all something.

Sighing, she let her head fall forward against the small wall of the shower that was just a tiny room with a small shower curtain to prevent them from seeing her. Forehead against the cool metal, it almost felt like she was home.

But that didn’t make her feel better. In fact, it made her feel worse. She had hated being in Alpha, but now that she was free, she still felt like she was in shackles. These people had gotten her out of a terrible situation and that meant she had to repay them. Somehow. Which meant she was still beholden to someone and something and a larger picture when she just wanted to be herself for a little while.

She couldn’t stay in the shower forever, though, and she certainly couldn’t go back home. The only way forward was... well, forward. That meant she had to meet with these people.

Sighing, she turned the water off and grabbed the towel that hung just out of reach. At least her hair felt better using that strange “gunk” as Mira called it.

A part of her whispered that she should pretend Bitsy needed work and she couldn’t hear anything of what they were saying. Then she could have a few moments of rest.

But there was only the one dome that she’d seen. And considering Mira was already in this one, she assumed she’d be staying here with the other rather intimidating woman.

The clothes were nice. They fit her well enough. Just a plain white shirt and pants that had seen better days, but they were still vaguely denim in color. Stepping out of the shower, she headed toward the other two on the opposite side of the small pod.

Arges was still out of the water, although he was glistening like he’d just dunked his body back into the moon pool. He watched Mira’s movements with obvious interest, and perhaps a bit of rapt attention that suggested he just liked watching her. No matter what she did.

What was she doing? Mira seemed to mostly like working with metal, but her arm was lifting like she was chopping something and then…

“Oh!” Anya’s shocked gasp was maybe a little too loud, since the other two turned toward her.

Mira grinned. “I had a feeling you haven’t seen vegetables in a bit.”

Thankfully, Anya could read her lips well enough to know what she meant. Mira faced her directly, and that certainly made it easier.

Maybe her thoughts played across her face a little too loudly, because Mira’s grin spread a little wider. “I was an engineer in Beta.” She said each word slowly, giving Anya plenty of time to make out what each word was. “A lot of engineers had hearing damage. So I know it’s important that I face you when I talk to you.”

That made sense. Everything she’d heard of Beta was that it was a hard place to live. She knew that the people there had very little resources, in particular food and water. But they worked hard, and they fixed everything that Alpha needed fixed.

It took every ounce of her self control to walk calmly over to that table laden with green food. “I have heard that Beta just went through a rather difficult time.”

Bitsy’s sharp appendages climbed up her leg and all the way to her shoulder. With a dramatic flare, she dropped the lens over Anya’s eye and wrapped one of her spindly legs around her neck.

Good enough, she supposed. Anya took a seat and tried not to let her hands shake as she grabbed whatever she could. Lettuce. Sliced peppers to go on top. Tomatoes, riper than she had ever seen in Alpha. Brightly colored banana peppers and even what looked like strawberries. She didn’t know how that was possible, considering they were very much out of season right now.

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