Page 111 of Colossal

A few times, the edges of sleep blurred enough for her to feel a hand brush across her cheek or touch her own. Her fingers curled around that warmth.

When she woke, she kept her eyes closed. There was something warm molded to her limbs, but when she gave her foot an experimental shift, there wasn’t much resistance. It felt as though she were submerged up to her temples in the stuff, the edges of it clinging to the delicate skin there. Kaia took a beat before trying the thing she was most afraid of—a tentative twitch of her right index finger. Unsure if it worked in the thick substance around her, she braced herself and flexed her hand, scrunching the material between her fingers like some sort of goo.

Kaia exhaled, relieved that her arm seemed to be functioning. With that was settled, she took stock of the rest of her body. Contracting and relaxing her muscles one by one, experimenting with drawing air deep in her chest to get a sense of the stab wound between her ribs or the bruising in her shoulder blades from when Orion had…

She didn’t want to think about specifics.

There was no pain that Kaia could discern. Unsure if she was just still numb from sleep, Kaia didn’t get too comfortable yet. Not until she opened her eyes in the darkness and sat up in a tub of viscous goo. It was cold out there, and part of her wanted to dip back under. But before she could, she noticed jagged outlines of shapes around her.

Was she still dreaming? She scanned the space, watching the faint orange edges of the walls and door hover in her vision. This was followed by more details, like the shape of a cart with a series of roughly outlined tools on top.

Kaia realized it was her new Neurosync kicking into gear, aiding her night vision. The effect faded as the bath-like chamber she was sitting in began to emanate a warm orange glow, illuminating the room.

Kaia looked down at herself. The blue substance of the regeneration chamber—she’d already deduced that’s what it was—clung to her nude body, leaving a slick sheen and a few sticky pieces as it slid back into the larger mass of the pool. She twisted to look for the wound on her right side, running her palm over her ribs. There was nothing there. She flexed the wrist of her right hand, then the arm that she couldn’t feel nor move when she first woke up in the medbay.

Good as new.

She would at least be in decent shape to work down in the bowels ofColossal. She was pretty sure now that Orion wouldn’t want to space her. After all, he’d instructed the medical staff to Upload her if she died. But now that they’d jumped, she was also stranded here for the duration of the expedition, so he couldn’t just send her off the ship either.

She could still stay out of his way though. Orion rarely went down to the CRD. She could disappear there. With time, maybe people would even forget who she was supposed to be. It was fortunate that Orion deemed it worthwhile to regenerate her. She could find a job and make her way down there until they were back in habitable space with more options. If they ever made it back.

She could do this. One step at a time. The dreadful pressure in her chest was becoming difficult to ignore as her plans solidified. She was losing the closest thing to love she'd felt since blowing up her family, and it was all her own damn fault.

Get your shit together.

All Kaia had to do now was get out of Orion’s hair and let him focus on his job. She’d figure out the rest later.

With the semblance of a plan, she stood and stepped out of the regen bath, goosebumps tingling as her bare feet hit the tiled floor. She flapped her arms a few times, throwing some of the remaining globs of goo off her limbs as best she could.

Maybe she would find a set of clothes and just leave quietly. She was scanning her surroundings for options when the door hissed open behind her. Kaia didn’t need to turn around to know who it was, because something in her brain recognized Orion’s presence immediately.

It took her a long time to turn around without falling on her ass with the slick blue goo she’d spread along the floor in her shuffling, but she was finally facing him.

He looked like shit.

That was her first impression, anyway. She didn’t get a chance to figure out what she should say to him because he was already closing the distance between them and pulling her into a bone-crushing embrace.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he said into her neck.

“What?”

“I heard you.” His arms tightened, and Kaia had to force herself to focus on what he just said instead of the hard warmth of his body pressed against the full length of her.

“You heard methinking?” She frowned, trying to pull away, but he jerked her back in place against his chest.

“You’re not used to the NS yet. Newbies are prone to accidental broadcasting,” he explained.

Shit. He heard all that?

“Pretty much.”

“Get out of my head.” This time, he did let her step back. How much had he gotten from what were meant to be internal thoughts?

“I love you too, Kaia,” he said. “I want you to stay.”

“Orion, I just schemed to use you for—”

“The whole time you were under, I was so fucking scared you wouldn’t make it. That you’d hate me when you died.”

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