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

Episode #71

Things not to mention in my Commander's profile: I fell asleep on the battlefield. And during an emergency to that.

I climbed out of Bradoh the last, my lips still holding the taste of a kiss. It told me so many things: the passion, the longing, the fear, the insecurity, the guilt, the promise.

Eyuran went to check on his mom and others, assisted by Baro and Tagai. The Baal turned out to be a gentle person, being handy with people needing help. That's why the little Maok acquiesced to being touched by him. Wen cowered in the corner, overwhelmed by the large male presence, but I noticed tiny connections with the damaged soma of our people. He was looking into this.

Grandfather was dressing into a pressure suit, and Father tended to Aunt, who was resting with some others.

I frequently checked the incoming data from the plant for other survivors, but there was nothing. And nothing came up on Anika's location yet. What was taking too long? Copy-me was still alive in the plant, yet it became quiet, subtly feeding on the resources, hopefully tricking the Baali into believing it was now dead.

The Medans had it the hardest. These people were left in the plant as food for the newly hatched Hunters in a feeding pit they couldn't get out of. Stripped of their suits and clothes like those in cocoons to leave them zero chance, in total darkness they were using every last bit of strength in them trying to stack the corpses and body parts of their own people they found in the pit to get out. Three kids and five adults were all that survived when Rifa with other cocoon escapees found them.

Exhausted and dehydrated, settled along the wall of the Control Center, their group was on IV nutrient fluids, brought from Tjrnenagh's infirmary. Their physical state stabilized, yet psychologically most were still confused and dazed from their traumatic experience.

All three kids and two of the adults were from Baro's kennar: Tarrenat and his spouse, their twin sons, and Baro's niece. I could easily tell that the girl, delicate and thin, was definitely her—she resembled her uncle a lot, especially her soulful eyes, though dark like my father's. The other three Medans, all male, weren't from his region and were total strangers to his family. The whiteness of Baro and his relatives was striking, even compared to other Medans.

Baro was really smaller than Father. Why did I think at first he was as powerful as Orewen? I was sure scared. Well, he was broad-shouldered and tall, even among his own people. Yet gravity on Medas was lower than on Dannan and their body frames were lighter compared to us, and we were still taller than anyone in the Commonwealth.

Baro's niece, Leru—I was thicker than her in muscle and bone, though she was already rounder in places and certainly older than me, almost twice my age, in fact. I was even bigger and more massive than the male twins, who were the same age as the girl. And Eyuran, also aged ten, appeared as an older adolescent to them. Yet these people had survived several days in a feeding pit, so they weren't as weak as they looked.

Leru and Tarrenat had coped with the shock and horror better than the rest of their group. With a blanket over her shoulders, the girl quietly sipped her drink and studied everyone with curiosity, with Tagai being the center of her attention. Our eyes met for a second and I smiled at her. She nodded politely and smiled in reply. Such was our brief first meeting. Tarrenat, the sturdiest of all Medans and not needing extensive medical care, was eagerly following Baro around everywhere with such adoration that he'd already managed to stir mild annoyance in the latter. Both were preparing pressure suits for everyone and helping people to get dressed.

"What's with the ugly plowed hair?" I heard a male voice behind me. My eyebrow twitched.

Korredhann.