Page 24 of Alien Burn

The bed had a pale coverlet and more pillows than she needed. A stack of clothes rested at its foot. They were plain and new, with small size labels fastened to the seams. Beside them stood a pair of soft shoes.

She sat down to remove the shoes she had arrived in.

The first came off easily. The second heel was split, and a strip of the lining had caught against her stocking. She worked at it with her uninjured hand. Pulled too hard. Swore under her breath.

That nearly made her laugh.

She had survived two explosions and a collapsing ramp, and now a shoe had defeated her.

It came free on the next attempt. She dropped it beside the other and sat looking at her bare feet.

Graecey had been wearing sensible shoes.

Sereya bent forward, elbows on her knees.

She had seen Graecey's hand reaching. Seen the male go after her. Fiviel. She had learned his name during the long preparations for this arrival, when the Gol-Vetts had been faces on a screen and everyone had argued about which one they preferred.

He had gone over the edge trying to keep Graecey from falling.

Sereya pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes, caught the injured one, and flinched.

There should have been something she could do with that. Something better than sit in a clean room while someone else folded blankets and found her shoes.

She went to the service panel.

It offered food, clothing, medical care, and information for the Galactic Alliance survivors. She selected the last option. A notice appeared explaining where verified updates would be posted.

No new names.

She checked again, though the first notice had scarcely disappeared.

Still none.

The water ran gray around her feet.

She had kept her bandaged hand clear of it, as the medic had instructed. With the other she scrubbed her face and neck, then stood beneath the warm spray until she realized she was waiting for someone to tell her she had used enough.

No one came.

She stayed a little longer.

Afterward, she put on the borrowed sleeping clothes and rubbed a towel through her hair. Without the soot, she looked younger. Exhausted. There was a pale mark along her jaw where a flying piece of something had grazed her.

Her mother would have tilted her face toward the light to examine it.

The thought came so suddenly that Sereya reached for the edge of the basin.

She could remember her mother's thumb beneath her chin. The cool touch of a ring. Could almost hear the question that would follow, whether she had been climbing somewhere she had been expressly told not to climb.

She had always said no.

Her mother had never believed her.

Sereya laid the towel down. The room was very quiet, and she hated how much she wanted to hear that question again.

There had been a roof at home, reached by a service stair. She and her brothers were forbidden to use it. Naturally, that had made it the best place in the house. No visitors there. No one telling them where to stand or how long to smile. Once, she had taken a bottle of sweetwine up to watch a meteor shower and discovered that the sky was far more interesting than the wine.

That was the part she wanted to remember tonight.