Page 26 of Cozy Prisons
Getting to have good tea each day was a simple bliss she would never take for granted.
The door chimed. Her first instinct was to down the rest of the tea, but then she realized it couldn't be Daxus.
She commanded the door open and the day got much more interesting.
“I don’t know you,” she told the human standing in her doorway. “That means you’re Hale. I’m Nataly. It’s nice to meet you.”
Hale had the unnaturally pale look that happened when you spent too many years on a poorly outfitted space station. Their dark brown hair only made them seem even paler. They were tall, probably around six feet, and painfully thin. Other than that, there were no obvious maladies.
Their dark blue eyes caught her attention. She’d only ever seen a blue-eyed human once before, but those eyes had been bright. Hale’s eyes almost looked like they were a midnight blue. She didn’t think that color was possible.
Their expression was closed off. Their eyes were hard and their mouth was a harsh, thin slash. This was a person who’d suffered a lot in their life. Her heart went out to them.
They pointed to their chest. “Hale,” they confirmed. Then they held out a data crystal with a crack going down the center. “Can you fix this?”
She blinked, unprepared for their taciturn attitude. They didn’t even say hi.
“I’m not sure, it depends on what’s wrong. I can try, though.”
Hale nodded. “Yes, try. It’s important.”
Trying hard not to judge, she took the data crystal and led them inside. Daxus had done a thorough job of cleaning up the mess and piling the bits of broken ceiling in the refuse pile. Her place didn’t look any more disastrous than usual, but Hale didn’t say a word.
“If the crack follows a data matrix line, I can create a patch. That will let me pull everything off of it,” she said, sitting at herworkstation. There was no other chair, so Hale stood behind her, watching. “If it crosses the data matrix lines, then I’ll only be able to recover a portion.”
“They looked at it on the ship and said they couldn't do anything,” Hale said. “No matter what, I want the crystal back. You can’t keep it, even if it’s completely broken.”
She set her tea down and looked up at them. “I wouldn’t keep it. No one here would ever steal from you.”
Their expression flashed from stoic to enraged. “They already have.”
She knew they were talking about more than possessions. Her guess was that Hale must’ve had to leave someone or something behind when the Talins purchased them. She desperately wanted to ask more, but kept all her questions to herself. Hale seemed on edge and she didn’t want to be the one who pushed them into a mood where they did something irreparable.
“Right, well, I’m not sure how long this will take,” she said, setting the crystal on an energy pad. “I guess you can sit on the bed or pull up a bit of floor. Sorry, I don’t have a spare chair.”
Hale started pacing behind her. That got on her nerves fast. After carefully dripping some bonding gel on the crystal, she twisted in her chair.
“Sit or leave,” she ordered.
Hale froze and glared at her. “I’m not leaving.”
She pointed to a spot next to a wall. “Then sit down.”
They stomped over to the spot she pointed at and leaned against the wall. Crossing their arms they stared at her with a stony expression. At least now she could ignore them.
She checked the crystal. The gel had set with the help of the energy pad. She picked it up and popped it into a reader. Nothing happened.
Not surprising—this level of damage never made data retrieval easy—but she had more tricks to try.
As usual, when she worked, the world around her faded. She worked slow and steady, concentrating on not doing any further damage. When the inbuilt display started listing data files, she let out a little happy crow.
“Ha, I’m good!”
“What?” Hale asked, suddenly pressing at her side. She’d forgotten they were there and startled badly.
“Ah!” she screeched, falling backward off her chair. It was easy to do when there wasn’t a back to catch her. She tried to grab the armrests but only ended up toppling the chair so it landed on her. Stupid Talin style furniture!
Hale’s eyes went wide. “Shit, I’m sorry!”
