FALAHA'S JOURNEY: A Spacegirl's Account in Three Movements

Episode #8

I thought carefully as I watched Eyuran treat Uncle Orewen's wounds. There is no one in their right mind who would assault a Danna, simply because the enemy of an individual becomes the enemy of the whole kennar. Kennar are usually related to each other, which would probably make the unlucky person the enemy of the entire Tue Dannan.

And Danna settle things the old way.

I wasn't convinced that the people who had assaulted Orewen were actually trying to make themselves our enemy. But in any case, Quennah most likely would have changed course by now.

With my feelings of guilt about Eyuran and his father growing deeper, I switched my Node off, leaving a 'dummy' in the network, and pulled out without him noticing.

"Things will either go right or they will go wrong; just trust your blood." That's what my grandfather used to say. Honorable Ancestor, please, give me strength and let my judgment be clear.

I'm sorry, Eyu, I'll be going ahead first.

Quickly and quietly I passed the store room, then the place where Uncle Orewen was attacked and aimed straight for the infirmary. I wasn't surprised to find the door locked. But I was stunned to discover something else. Through the window, I saw Medans in biotanks and lying in beds, exactly as we had left them to recover. Exactly, that is, except for the fact that all of them were dead and apparently their assorted traumas were not the cause of death. I stared at the blinking warnings on their monitors, slowly realizing there was no sign of our own people. Slowly, and feeling weak in the knees, I took a few steps back, trying to focus on my purpose here.

Breathe. Just breathe.

I walked to the elevator at the other end of the hallway. As I suspected, this whole section had been isolated and the sections ahead definitely were, too.

It was at this moment that something started bothering me; something that seemed important.

Ship-builders usually follow only general guidelines, so almost every vessel in every class is unique, unless made from the same blueprint. And as they all are made to last, it is not necessary to assemble more ships than required since degraded parts can be replaced. Naturally, some parts, programming code and overall mechanical interfaces have strict standards to allow for cross-building and enhanced compatibility.

When you spend your whole life with a ship, you become used to every bump, every spot and every turn, and you can find your way around with your eyes closed. I'm still not that good with Quennah after more than four weeks aboard. Eyuran is better than me. During the last six years he has been a regular visitor here, as Aunt Rifa is the Procurement, Cargo and Resource Supervisor. Once you leave the passenger quarters, Quennah is a complex maze. Even with a detailed spacecraft plan, it is impossible to move around freely, especially if you have only been here for a few hours. But someone seemed to know their way around our ship.

Exactly who we are dealing with?