Page 147 of Seven Oars
“Oh, she has a smoke allowance now,” Gro grumbled, picking up trash after Fawn. Arguing with her over tidiness was futile.
Fawn sang as she washed, loud and off-key.
Rosamma sat on her pad and contemplated her existence. Her head had started to ring in that hollow way again that told her she needed energy. She felt weaker and more lethargic.
Ren, she called to him silently, bitterly.Are you alive, brother? I love you. What am I supposed to do?
“Now I feel truly lost,” she confided in Gro and Eze.“Up until today, despite everything, I hoped we’d find a way out.”
Gro sat next to her and put her arm around Rosamma’s shoulders.“You’re maudlin now, after Massar.”
Rosamma chuckled.“I wish I were more traumatized by what happened, but the truth is, I’m barely traumatized at all. And I hate it.”
“You’ve gotten tough, Rosamma. You’ve survived. I’m proud of you.” Gro tucked a strand of Rosamma’s loose hair behind her ear.
“I don’t like the person I’ve become. Too unfeeling.”
Gro smiled.“It’s not a bad thing in a place like this.”
Fawn stopped singing and poked her head out of the stall.“Yo! The water’s all gone.”
“Did you check the filter levels before you went in?” Eze didn’t sound sympathetic.
“No, I thought you were in charge of this washing station.”
“What am I, a water treatment plant operator?”
Fawn’s head disappeared, and she cursed, and the metal stall walls amplified each word. When she came out, she paraded around semi-naked, rustling in what was left of Alyesha’s cosmetics and peering into Alyesha’s little mirror.
“I look horrid.”She touched the bag under her eye.
Eze rolled her eyes at Fawn.“It’s from the drugs, Fawn. They also make you dumb.”
“I need vitamin D.”
“Fawn, don’t you want to go home?” Rosamma asked her.
“Yeah, sure. I mean, not home home. To Priss, the asteroid.” Her tone projected zero enthusiasm.
“Okay, well, we have to find a way. Will you help us? You used to want to.”
“Of course.” Fawn set aside the mirror.“What do you want me to do?”
“Do you know if the pirates are running low on food? Where do they store it?”
“They keep their food in their sleeping nodes. Everyone has their own stash. I don’t know how much’s left. Ask Phex, he’s one of them.”
Fawn finally pulled a shirt over her breasts.
It bothered Rosamma to hear Phex being lumped in with the pirates.
“Is he in the Habitat now?” she asked.
She hadn’t seen Phex in days. He’d stopped coming to the Cargo Hold, and she had stopped seeking him out.
Fawn yawned.“Nope. He’s taken a shift.”
The three of them gawked at Fawn.“What shift?”
