SUNBEAM ☼ CAROL DANVERS

VI.

MUCH AS SHE would like to get off this horrid property right away, she is required to stay one more night on base.

"Security measures," Fury calls it. "Just to make sure you're not laying low until we let our guard down." He's been snide with her the whole day, clearly unhappy with Carol's bargain.

"Alright," Katha agrees. "As long as you keep your word." Her retort makes his already stern expression sour.

Carol leaves base early in the day, apparently off on personal business. Katha doesn't see her off, so she's unaware of her absence until the evening, when she receives a sharp knock on the door. Inviting them in, she is surprised to see a short female agent in the doorway instead of her usual blonde visitor.

"I thought you might be hungry," the agent says sheepishly. "You can join us in the mess hall."

"I don't eat," Katha says flatly, and shuts the door.

She's embarrassed by her own rudeness, but this planet's attitude toward meal-sharing is growing annoying, even stressful. She sits at the desk with a huff. They'd been decent enough to provide writing materials after she'd requested them, though she's quite sure that they'll go through anything she decides to record when she's not in the room.

Katha writes only the vaguest of observations, then grows bored and fills the margins with mindless scribbles. She wants to write a proper analysis of everything she's seen, but they have her record log where she usually transcribes her experiences in their little evidence hoard. She's a scientist by nature, and being forced to keep all her thoughts in her head is going to give her a migraine.

She gives up after three pages of doodles and worthless notes. She takes another shower, because it is hydrating and one of the few pleasantries she has access to. She fights with her hair again (she loses) and eventually decides that it will regrettably have to be cut. Only a few inches to get rid of the worst of the splitting, and then she might be able to figure out how to defeat these knots once and for all.

When night falls, she tosses and turns in her bed. Her ears tune into every bump and murmur of agents passing by her room. Terran hearing must be much worse than hers, because there's no other reason for them to be so loud at this hour. Furthermore, the absence of the outside world's noise unnerves her. On Dakkam, where the hum of transport was near-silent and the lush flora covered much of the planet, she could fall asleep to the gentle croons of nature. Here, the cold metal makes no sound.

She finds herself missing Carol. Just her presence is reassuring, her steady and powerful aura a natural comfort.

Oh, really now. She doesn't need to be getting attached to a Terran, of all the people in the galaxy. Katha curses her weakness for beautiful women.

To distract herself from those traitorous thoughts, she lies on her back and thinks of home. She thinks of her many hikes up Father Mountain, her brother leading her and Lanakk up the twisting curves of His surface until they reached the ritual sites, where they made offerings and sang praise.

Father Mountain. Katha feels the tears welling up again, and this time she is not ashamed to let them fall. If she sheds tears, it's right that they should be for their most sacred land.

Curling up on her side, arms coming to hug her knees, Katha sobs quietly. She cries until she falls asleep, her dreams haunted by Dakkam.