Page 16 of Devin
"Jane," he said with a nod. Val assumed this was Zenik, Jane's husband. He didn't look nearly as grumpy as Devin, but he did look concerned. He stared at Val as if she were a half drowned puppy that he'd just rescued, but didn't want to be responsible for.
Great. She'd already been relegated to shelter pet. Still better than inmate, though.
"The woman needs a shower. I love you, now get lost," Jane repeated.
Zenik left without saying anything else.
"I don't want to cause trouble," Val began.
"No, don't worry about it. The Mahdfel can be a bit stuffy, and they have some pretty backward rules about things. Most of them are ridiculous and you just have to ignore them."
Jane waved her into the shower. It was glorious. Water streamed down her curves and the act of washing and scrubbing her hair free of vomit and prison stank was liberating.
Val refused to let any other thoughts run through her brain. She was safe and she was clean and there was nothing anyone on Earth could do to smash her face in right now.
Out of the shower and wrapped in a fluffy towel, Val realized that her underwear had disappeared. She stepped out of the bathroom and could also see that the number of women present had multiplied. Jane was gone and another woman was sitting in the chair next to her. She was shorter and plumper and equally as pregnant. Were all the women around here sporting baby bumps? The woman put on a big smile welcomingly.
"Yup. I think you're right," the woman said to Jane.
Jane stood up and pointed to the stack of clothes on the corner of the bed.
"We put them in the sonic cleaner," she told Val.
"No use wasting good water on clothes," the other woman added. "I'm Meadow, by the way. Jane thinks you're closest in size to Gweneth, but she lives in the other camp, so we'll probably just replicate you some things for now based on her measurements and we’ll get yours later."
After prison, getting dressed in front of two strangers seemed less odd. She slid on her underwear and put her bra on. The tank top Jane had found was a little short in front, but the shorts were stretchy and came down to just above her knees.
Meadow handed her a brush and Val went to work getting her mane back in control. She slicked it back into a pony tail and used her hair tie to attach it in a big bun. That way, the bulk of it was off her neck in the heat of the jungle. Inside seemed to be perfectly climate controlled. One wouldn't know they were in the jungle until Jane pushed a button and the front wall retracted leaving nothing but the view.
"They're screens," Meadow supplied when she saw Val's face. "Keep everything in, even the sound. And no one can see in. It's an interesting feature."
"By interesting, she means that you can totally bonk your husband in full view and no one can see or hear anything," Jane added.
"I usually take the new girls on a tour of the camp, but well, there's not much to this one. You can pretty much see everything from here. And besides, wandering around in that heat hurts my ankles." Meadow pushed a button on the side of the chair and it popped out a footrest. She elevated her feet and smiled. "I think this calls for some frozen daiquiris. Virgin, of course."
"And you want me to get them," Jane stated flatly.
"It is your house and you are standing up." Jane rolled her eyes and went over to the replicator in the wall. She pushed a few buttons and three pink drinks slowly built themselves up from the bottom.
"Now these are not the best we have to offer. But I'd have to get Goru to make them from scratch and that takes time, and frankly, I'm too lazy for that," Meadow said, holding out her arm for her drink. Jane handed one to Val and Meadow and kept one for herself.
Val tasted hers. Honestly, she couldn't tell the difference between these and the ones at the last bar she waitressed at. Frankly, it said more about the quality of the bar than her ability to tell the real thing from replicated. The bastard that owned the place had probably been printing drinks from a black market replicator and charging real prices.
Val's head was spinning and the reality of her situation was starting to push into this nice dream.
"So where's the nearest home base?"
"You mean Terran?" Meadow asked. "That's what the Mahdfel call Earth. Terra. We're Terran in space, not Earthlings, because you've got to admit, that sounds a little funny. Makes us sound like kids in space. Although most of the Mahdfel think ofus as kids. Our tech is so far behind their own. But we get along. I guess the closest would be Shackleton."
"That's on the moon," Val said.
"Yeah. The moon is the closest base I think. Clover said it's about a month on a fast ship to get to Earth. I hope you don't plan to go back. It's a long haul and it's really out of the way to get there."
"No. There's nothing left for me on Earth."
"No family?"
"None."
