Page 88 of Cozy Prisons
Utharium sounded a questioning rumble. “Are you talking about when that one ship was running late?”
“No, that was only a very minor inconvenience. I’m talking about when we kept using up the supplies faster than I expected. Food was consumed at a much higher rate, more blankets and bedding were needed, and there were never enough datacrystals or information squares. The food wasn’t a surprise, but everything else was troublesome. At one point, I thought someone was hoarding things.”
Utharium sounded another questioning rumble. “We were all living so close together at the beginning that hiding many things would’ve been impossible.”
“That’s why I dismissed the idea of hoarding,” Palathum said. “I finally decided I was underestimating what a new colony needed because I was basing my estimates on a new station.”
“It was Nataly, wasn’t it?” Utharium asked, sounding a rumble of amusement. “She was tucking bags and bags of items away in the forest and messing up your supply estimates.”
“Exactly,” Palathum said. “Looking back, I’m glad I simply ordered more instead of doing a more thorough investigation. If I'd figured out what was happening and confiscated all Nataly’s hidden hoard, we would’ve been in much worse shape.”
Utharium sounded a soothing rumble. “We would’ve survived.”
“But we would've been weak from hunger and maybe even sick from exposure. We might’ve lasted these six rotations, but it would’ve been difficult.”
“Six rotations? Do you mean a ship is coming today?”
“Yes, I got a simple code-index message late last night that identified the ship and time of arrival," she said. “It’s the supply ship. They’re fifteen rotations early, probably because they had another stop cancel an order. When I first contracted with them, they warned that it might happen.”
“That’s excellent news. Why aren’t you waking everyone up so they can start packing?” When Palathum didn’t answer right away, Utharium pressed her. “What’s wrong?”
She let out a worried rumble. “I didn’t want to tell anyone until I spoke to Nataly.”
Utharium remained silent, as if judging his words. She continued before he could decide what to say.
“After this, I’ll stop dragging Nataly into everything, I promise!” A rumble of amusement escaped her. “And I’m going to buy her all the data crystals she could ever want.”
“She’ll like that. I’ve never seen an entire bag full of data crystals until I saw the pile she left with Hale. They made sure to tell me the crystals and bags belonged to Nataly.”
“Most of them she brought with her,” Palathum said. “I don’t know how she managed to keep them from being stolen on Dandilow II.”
“What was stolen?”
The soft human voice made Palathum pull away from Utharium to see that both Nataly and Daxus had emerged.
“Should you be standing?” Palathum asked. Because they only had the most rudimentary tools for Falkilm, Nataly’s feet were taking a long time to heal. She wasn’t happy about it, but Daxus insisted on carrying her everywhere. This was the first time in six rotations that Palathum saw her standing.
Nataly made a dismissive gesture with her hand. “My feet are only a little sore. I’m fine to walk for a little while. What was stolen?”
“I was only saying that it was amazing that you kept the data crystals from being stolen on Dandilow II,” Palathum answered.
She seemed to relax a little. “Oh, that. It wasn’t hard because we didn’t need to access them all the time, so I dug a deep hole and buried them.”
Daxus sounded an amused rumble. “You like to hang things from trees or bury them in the ground. You’re like a numli from the Ossiso homeworld.”
“That’s more fitting than you think,” Utharium said. “The Ossiso believe numli represent good fortune. Nataly has—”
“Stop!” Nataly ordered. “I don’t want to hear another word about how I’m some kind of magical presence!”
Palathum was alarmed by the tone of Nataly’s voice. She was normally so calm and even-tempered, but now she was becoming upset during a teasing conversation. It occurred to Palathum that she wasn’t the only one constantly seeking Nataly out for reassurance.
Daxus wrapped his arms around her from behind, rumbling out a soothing sound. “As soon as we leave here, they won’t need you as much.”
She leaned her head back against his chest. “I hope you’re right because I’m tired.”
“Speaking of leaving Arise,” Palathum said. “I walked over here to inform you that a ship should be arriving later today to pick us up.”
She watched Nataly’s face closely while talking. The human’s expression showed only intense relief, nothing else.
