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If she was trying to soften him up by showing him she was already growing familiar with colony greeting customs, it was working. And if she was trying it with her show of deference in calling him Mr. Halen, she was a manipulative little fox.
“Alina’s going to give you a tour of the place,” Orion was saying, his arm slung round Kaia’s shoulders as he led her down the hallway back towards her temporary cabin. “I’ve got meetings with Mother and the lead crew all day. Won’t see you much. Tomorrow we’ll go through your diet and fitness regimen.”
“Okay… what about medical?”
Orion squeezed her bony shoulder. “If you follow your workout plan, you won’t need medical.”
“No, but… You know, if I get sick again.”
“You won’t. Your stomach just wasn’t used to the solids. You seem fine after that monster breakfast you just had.”
She hummed noncommittally as they turned the corner. Alina was already there, pacing in front of the cabin door. When she spotted them, she looked equally relieved and terrified.
“Oh, thank God,” she squeaked. “Mr. Halen, once again I am so sorry—”
“Save it. I gotta go.” He turned Kaia toward him, waiting for her to look up at him with those giant owl eyes that threatened to swallow him whole. “Be good. No more running off. Got it?”
Her throat shifted as she swallowed. “Okay. And… I won’t see you until tomorrow?”
Orion smirked. “Afraid so. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?”
She blinked up at him blankly. She had a lot to learn. He had a lot to teach her.
Maybe he’d try to see her that night after he got away from his slave driver of a mother.
* * *
Any hope of seeing Kaia after his duties that evening was long dashed by the time Orion finally stood beneath the shower in his cabins.
They used to have showers in the gym—a hundred milliliters per session. But apparently shipments from the icebreakers had grown less reliable, andColossalhad to prioritize its gray water stockpile in preparation for the next expedition.
So cabin shower it was. He watched the cool water run pink down his bloody knuckles.
Orion had spent the day listening to Mother’s advisors drone on and on about the recent history of the ship. They’d explained the two expeditionsColossalundertook under Mare Halena’s command, one resulting in the discovery of a new ice planet.
It had been a bittersweet moment for Mother. Leaving behind an icebreaker to ensure yet another coveted supply of water for the colony was, by all regards, a huge win. But once again, failing to find their Goldilocks was a punch to the gut—and Mother was running out of time.
She wanted another expedition before she died, though Orion saw the skepticism in her advisors’ eyes. They’d exchanged dubious glances at the oval table on which maps of the potential targets were projected.
Orion never doubted the existence of a New Earth. Hell, there had to be more than one. But it had been thousands of years since the colonies began leading humanity's search for such a planet… If they were ever going to find it, wouldn’t it have happened already?
Orion scrubbed the towel into his face, trying to scrape the exhaustion from his lids, temples, cheeks. It was no use. He hadn’t had to absorb so much information in years. If he were on Mars, he’d be out partying with Boris right now.
Boris. That fucker.
It was 0200, and most people would be asleep. Kaia would be for sure, unless she drank coffee again. Orion coughed a wry laugh, shaking his head as he shoved his hand through his hair, clenching for a satisfying pull at the roots. Between his mother, his training, and that little scavenger, Orion had his hands full. When he was finally free, well past midnight, Orion’s last nerve had been ground to dust.
Spending hours soaking at Crimson Spa was a faraway memory. When would he get to do that again? To just relax, with no one waiting or breathing over his fucking shoulder. The only place for that now was the gym—the opposite of relaxation, but nonetheless the perfect way to work off his desire to wring someone’s neck.
It had been empty when he came in, and he spent a good forty minutes beating up a well-worn punching bag until the metal on his tongue sent him to that place where he could just stop thinking. He saw nothing but the thing hanging in front of him—wrinkled synthleather that may as well have been flesh cracking and denting beneath his fists. The rest of the world was an unimportant blur in his peripheral vision. He needed to see nothing, hear nothing, perceive nothing but his target. It was a kind of singular focus, something automatic taking the yoke of his skeleton to deliver each punch of his knuckles against the bag. Again and again, until the skin rubbed and split, raw—crimson iron on his knuckles, silver on his tongue.
It faded, deflating until his exhausted mind was back in the pilot’s seat. Then all he could taste in his mouth was dry sand. His fists looked bad, but the bag looked worse. Chunks of white foam cascaded through cracked lining in contorted chunks. Orion raked the back of his arm across his lip, rubbing away sweat and spit. He downed a disposable cup of H2O from the mini-dispenser in the corner, crushing it before tossing the thing into the waste chute. It moistened the desert of his tongue as he swirled it from one cheek to the other.
He’d needed that. When he walked back to his suite, the tightness fraying under his ribs had dulled. Mother would approve, even if she’d have suggested going down to the brig and finding something fleshier to take his frustration out on. Orion wasn’t in the mood to deal with living things after a full day of doing just that.
He didn’t even consider checking in on Kaia after that. After his shower he slumped straight into bed, exhausted bones and joints still feeling foreign now that he was back in the pilot’s seat of his body. The uhyre part of him didn’t care for the mundane: the sleeping or the living. It only cared to come out for the fun parts: the fighting and fucking. Orion’s life had been spent learning to keep it in check, but any uhyre knew that sometimes giving up control and letting the alien out was just what was needed.
CHAPTER22
