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Chapter 12: Journey

It had come; the day of the journey.

This is it, Gina thought to herself, shoving the last of her dresses into her worn-out travel bag. It bulged out from all the new clothes and things she had added to her wardrobe. She mused about how she was going to close it.

There was a loud bang on the door to her cabin that she supposed was supposed to be a knock, and then Ro burst in like a whirlwind. The door swung wide on its hinges, letting in a breath of cold air.

Gina stood up, knocking some of her things onto the floor.

"Ro! I'm still packing in here! What if I had an undergarment out and one of the men had been outside the door? I would never be able to live with the shame!"

"I knocked didn't I?" Ro muttered grumpily.

Gina simply sighed and went back to trying to close her bag. The silly thing simply wouldn't shut. They had to leave to track down the Lia'unnian creature in less than an hour and she was afraid she would never get the bag closed.

Over the last two or three weeks that we had left of training Gina had finally mastered control over the nanogenes. She had practiced for hours just exercising her abilities over and over again until she could send bursts at will, and keep her emotions under control separately from keeping the nanogenes under control. She had started training with the other teammates again, and she had been excited to be paired with Quill during her third sparring session, but he had been surprisingly distant. Had he lost his interest in her? She was surprised by how hurt she had felt afterward. It wasn't as if he was anything special, right? Nothing more than a teammate.

Who am I kidding? I can't even convince myself.

"Let me help you with that," Ro eyed the bag in question and leaned over towards it. "I'll hop on it to close it up and then you tie it."

Ro jumped up lithely and then crashed down on the bag with a big whoof, as Gina watched in horror, sure that the seams would rip.

The bag groaned but held. Gina's eyes widened and she let out a whoosh of air she didn't realize she had been holding. Relief washed through her. That could have gone poorly.

She tied the bag and Ro climbed off, smiling. "There you are. Nothing to it, Gina girl."

Gina stifled the urge to roll her eyes. That was Ro for you.

She pulled the huge bag onto her shoulder and headed for the door, wrapping her shawl around her shoulders. It was wintertime outside, with chilly winds whipping through the bare trees. She shivered. November had never been her favorite month.

"How long do we have estimated until the creature emerges again, Ro?" Vienn had told them the other night, but she had been too preoccupied with her thoughts about Quill's recent distance to pay attention.

"The first week of December sometime. They can't know for sure. That's why we're leaving so early for the site, remember? We have to beat the creature to the area it's going to come up so that we can kill it before it starts trying to eat everything here. Weren't you paying attention to the briefing, Gina?" A sarcastic note entered her voice. "You know it was kind of important, right?"

"Mmm-hmm," Gina told her, unwilling to talk about it.

Just until December, that's only three weeks away. We're as ready as we had time for, but what if it isn't enough? What happens to everyone else here who doesn't have a clue what's coming?

Ro shook her, bringing her out of her thoughts. "I know that face," Ro said. "It's your 'I'm overcomplicating the problem by psychoanalyzing its face. No more! Look at the world around you: look at all of the snow and the ice crystals. Focus on something else and stop worrying so much."