Page 49 of Seven Oars
Everyone shuddered at the mention of it.
“I can’t be sure, but I think you can spacewalk from there, too. Maybe the defender knows. Phex?”
They turned to where he lay and… he wasn’t there.
Rosamma’s heart dropped to her feet.
“Oh, yeah, they came and dragged him away while you were scouting,” Fawn said to the room. “I thought you noticed.”
Rosamma mentally kicked herself for being so absent-minded. But the truth was, she had been overwhelmed, her thoughts in disarray. All she could think about was the Meat Locker and Striker Fincros’ black eyes of death.
She listened for that terrible noise of music again, and indistinct voices raised aggressively. She knew they came from the Habitat, where Phex was now the prime source of amusement.
“They’re going to kill him,” she whispered in desperation.
Anske waved her off. “His well-being is the least of our problems.”
“He’s our pilot.”
Phex was important to Rosamma in other ways, but she didn’t go there with the women. She could only twist and knead her braid in a vain attempt to ground herself.
“We aren’t flying anywhere, remember? We can’t detach our ship.”
“What if we find a way?”
Alyesha promptly clamped a lid on that discussion. “Phex himself said it was impossible, so don’t start again. We’ll focus on sending out a distress signal, and we’ll do it with or without Phex. Eyes on the prize, Rosamma.”
Alyesha proceeded to tell everyone about the discovery of the Meat Locker, sparing no detail about the gory contents they'd found within.
“Don’t go there,” she concluded.
“We won’t,” the rest of the group promised.
It was a nightmarish place.
And yet, Rosamma had a cold premonition that she’d see the inside of the Meat Locker again.
Chapter 8
Gro mobilized the able-bodied women to help her reinforce broken shelving with scraps of wire and rags lying around, and then meticulously stockpiled it with their food supplies.Each shelf contained approximately a month’s worth of food and water, and taking from another before the time came was declared a criminal offense.
There were five shelves in total.
“You’re so good at organizing,” Anske complimented Gro.
“That’s right. I’m also good at making sure it stays that way. Worked food service during one of my trips to the clink.”
“One of? How many did you do?” Sassa asked.
“Several. My sentences were never long.”
“What sent you to prison in the first place?” Alyesha wanted to know.
Gro wrinkled her nose.“Nothing too grand. Mostly dealing in stolen property and some small-scale fraud. Got tangled up with the wrong man when I was young and never quite righted my life after that. It’s tough, you know.” She drew a breath.“I had such high hopes for this space trip. Thought that was it, my last chance to start over.”
“Didn’t we all,” Alyesha murmured.
“We’ll figure it out somehow,” Gro insisted.“My son’s supposed to join me on Priss, but he still has a year in the slammer.”
