Lucinda

 

Lucie could only describe the situation as tense. Asche made it clear that her remaining in the City in the Caldera wasn’t tied to sex. The valos didn’t expect sex as payment for food and shelter, so there was that.

But Sarsen kissed her, and she liked it. She really, really liked it.

Hell, getting down and dirty with the valos didn’t seem that strange. Sure, they were alien. Sure, they had flaming swords and threw fireballs. She was just as alien and strange from their point of view. Plus, she liked them. She really did. Ertale was sweet, Asche found marvels in the world to share, and Sarsen made her feel more alive than she had in years. When she’d arrived on the Concord, she’d shut down. Focused on survival and buying her brother’s non-murder with her compliance in the lab, she didn’t really live.

But there were survivors out there and they would want to be rescued. It’d been a week since the crash. They would need food, shelter, and medical care. The valos could offer the survivors that, if she asked. Lucie brushed her finger over her lips and tried not to think too much about what the price would be.

Why would she even ask? The survivors probably hated her, especially if Lydia or Amber were in the group. If they didn’t spit in her face, they’d murder her in her sleep. No joke. She might technically be a murderer but she never killed anyone in cold blood. She wasn’t being honest about the situation if she pretended that it would be all rainbows and sunshine if the survivors come to the City in the Caldera. They were bad people who did very bad things.

Right now she was safe and comfortable with her guys, who she genuinely liked. Why risk all that? But her mind kept circling back to the idea of finding the survivors and she finally recognized the feeling churning in her gut: guilt.

She wanted to find them and save them not for any altruistic reasons. She wasn’t that good a person, but she did want to be a better person and that was the truth.

Find them.

Help them.

Be a better person than she was on Earth. 

They’d still spit in her face and murder her in her sleep, though.

The battered radio from the ship was well and truly dead. Between the clubbing, the short circuit, and her tantrum the previous day, the radio suffered irreparable damage. Even if she found a magic alien toolkit, she couldn’t fix the radio, not without replacement parts.

Amber might, though, if she survived. On the Concord, Amber had been a prisoner, but Lucie had seen her often enough repairing consoles and other equipment. The Concord staff wasn't about to let free labor go unused.

Lucie acquainted herself with the equipment in the room. It was a communication center, as far as she could tell. The control board came alive with a touch, but she was unable to determine any commands.

“Computer, wake up,” she said. “Computer, are you on?” No answer. Not voice activated.

Lucie spent the following day playing with the equipment. She accessed a menu. Unable to read anything on the screen, the menu could have been commands or communication channels or cookie recipes. She had no way of knowing.

With a sigh, Lucie slouched in the too-tall chair. Why was she trying so hard to go home? She was a criminal. She’d only go back to jail. Maybe, if she was very lucky—and frankly, she wasn’t—she might be able to scratch one or two more names off her list. It’d be satisfying, yes, but was that enough?

Enough to risk her brother being hurt as a punishment for her? That had been the deal, after all. Be a good prisoner, do as you’re told and Antony got to live a long, healthy life. Fight back, cause trouble... Well, she never had the nerve to risk it. Did she have the nerve now? Years of torture on the Concord blurred the line between acceptable risk and crazy talk.

A creature howled in the distance. Lucie flinched. The City in the Caldera was silent and dead, outside of the occasional lava monster attack. The city was both luxurious and dangerous. She couldn’t stay here, not when Sarsen hated her.

But she couldn’t figure out how to operate the device to contact Earth. She was a biochemist, after all. For crying out loud, she did pharmacological research. Fiddling with computers and interfaces was so far beyond her. Amber, though—

If Amber had survived, she might be able to figure out how to use the communication array.

The idea didn’t suck. Lucie pictured the faces of the bodies pulled from the wreckage. Even soot covered, none of them had Amber’s short blonde hair. 

Footsteps on the stairs. Lucie rushed to the stairwell. Sarsen climbed up, a hard look on his face. She figured he must have been in the mood for another argument or a kiss. It was so difficult to read him.

“I want to look for survivors,” she said, calling down to him.

“We did that. There were none.” He frowned.

“That was the wreckage. I mean the group that left the crash site. They went into the forest.” Halliday had said some survivors had ventured out before she woke. “They’re starving, and cold, and need medical care.”

“You do not know that.”

“Everything on this planet thinks humans are good for snacking. Believe me, I know it.”

He paused, one hand on the railing. His eyes flashed a sultry red in the half light of the stairwell. “And what do you suggest?”

“We bring them food and supplies. Invite them back here. We have the space.” That was a terrible idea but it sounded good. The survivors were prisoners, guilty of horrendous crimes—no matter how they claimed innocence— and most thought Lucie was a traitor. They’d be as likely to stab her in the back as accept any offer of rescue. Still, it sounded like something a kind person would say and hopefully it would persuade Sarsen. She’d never find Amber without his help and he would never help her if he knew the reason why she needed Amber.

Lucie held her breath while he considered. “And if we cannot spare food and water?”

She turned back to the packs resting on the console. “I have a backpack full of medicine. We can leave it with them. Please.”

Sarsen finished the climb up the stairs and inspected the pack. Inside he’d find pill bottles and all the items she’d stolen from the supply closet. “You carried this the entire time? When you knew your people were injured and needed it?”

She blushed, momentarily embarrassed. “I needed it to barter. Seemed smart to have something to trade.”

“Your people would not help if you did not have trade?” He brought the pack to her. Heat rolled off his body but he moved no closer to her.

“Not all. Some. Maybe. Look, humans aren’t perfect, and I was trying to be smart in a crisis situation.” She grabbed the bag from him. He crossed his arms over his chest, listening. It was better he thought her selfish than deceptive, but she didn’t like the look of disappointment in his eyes and she didn’t really know why. “I want to bring them here, okay, for nothing. Out of the kindness of my heart. And if these meds—” She rattled the bag. “—make it easier to convince them that a city inside a volcano is safer than roughing it in the woods, then so be it. I’m not too proud to offer a bribe.”

Sarsen’s face was a blank. She shifted nervously from foot to foot. That wasn’t right. Sarsen frowned or scowled or yelled. He was never just… passive. It was weird and wrong.

Then he did the most unexpected thing: he nodded. “Agreed. Let us find your missing humans.”

“Seriously?” She stood still, afraid to move, lest he change his fickle mind.

“We leave at first light.”