SUNBEAM ☼ CAROL DANVERS

IV.

IT IS WITH great reluctance that Katha allows herself to be locked back up in the gray walls of the base. Her small taste of freedom had been enjoyable, and Carol is a great conversationalist, at least for a Terran.

This time they move her to a larger room, and Katha wrinkles her nose as she peers inside. A small bed with tightly tucked sheets, a tiny desk, and a separate door that most likely leads to a washroom. A prison cell, then. She'd been expecting this, but isn't the least bit happy about it.

Carol disappears, most likely to go inform Fury about everything she's heard. Katha knows it won't give them any more leads. She'd been careful to only give her captor the brush-over of Dakkamite biology and culture.

Carol Danvers is kind, but she's untrustworthy as the rest of them.

The agent accompanying her is a lithe and quiet thing, a girl who looks even younger than Katha. She could overpower this mousy agent easily, but then she'd be faced with guards and whatever the Captain has in her arsenal, and Katha figures it's just not worth the risk.

"These are your quarters," the agent says. "You'll be staying here until SHIELD decides on the next course of action."

SHIELD. Of course Katha landed on a planet with a department specifically designed to anticipate otherworldly arrivals.

"Better than a death sentence, I suppose," Katha says lightly. The agent doesn't seem to think it's so funny.

"We'll see," she replies tersely.

Another threat. She's getting rather sick of those.

Now that they're in the room, the agent seems to lose the confident swagger she'd had in the long halls. She's scanning Katha up and down, glaringly unsubtle.

Katha knows she's looking for something that would give away her non-native origins. She won't find it. Outwardly, Terrans and Dakkamites seem to be identical.

She can't speak for the insides. At least, not yet.

"Is there anything else you need?" The agent's clipped tone implies that she really doesn't care, and is hoping Katha won't say yes.

"I think," Katha says after some thought, "I think I would like to bathe. Show me how to do so."

The agent goes bright red. "I, uh, that's not exactly—"

Oh. Katha wrinkles her nose. "I wasn't propositioning you, Terran. I meant I need you to show me how to use the controls. I'm sure they'll be different from Dakkam's."

"Right, of course." The agent clears her throat, eyes fixed firmly on the ground. "Follow me."

☼

THE FIRST RIVULETS of water against her skin are pure bliss. Katha tilts her face up into the gentle spray and smiles softly.

She does not have the cleansing oil of home, but they've provided her with some sort of Terran cloth and several bottles of whatever they use to bathe themselves. The agent had tried to explain it to her, with limited success.

Katha peers at the bottles and attempts to recall what she's been told. Soap for the body, shampoo and conditioner for the hair. Eventually she grows frustrated and ends up mixing them all together.

Once she steps out, she wraps herself in the thick white towel that's been offered and stares at her old clothing. She doesn't relish the idea of getting back into those gritty clothes now that she's all clean.