Doctor Who_ Beyond the Sun - Matthew Jones [112]
Nikolas and she had argued long and hard with the Sunless to bring a team of intergalactic experts to the planet to conduct a proper investigation of the Blooms. However, the Sunless treated the Blooms almost reverently and had quietly forbidden it. Bringing Kitzinger and the young man from Ursu had been an uncomfortable compromise.
This Sunless youth might be more open, might well prove a useful source of information and insight into her taciturn allies.
***
They hid in the hold. Which wasn’t ideal considering what had happened to them last time. But Bernice hadn’t been able to find anywhere else on the ship which offered a place where they could all stow away together. And she didn’t want to risk moving among the Sunless any more than was absolutely necessary.
They tucked themselves behind machinery and crates of equipment. Bernice pulled a heavy machine cover, like a greasy tarpaulin, down over Michael and Scott. She wanted to check on Tameka and Emile before she took up her position with Jason for the journey.
Emile was tucked away under a series of thick black pipes which ran about a metre above the deck for the whole length of the hold. He looked shaken, really upset. The inside of his mouth was black as if it were rotten. Bernice was a little relieved when she realized it was only the eyeliner.
Tameka was sitting slumped beside him cradling her head in her hands, looking pissed off.
That was all she needed on top of Jason and everything – the two of them squabbling over something ridiculous.
‘Tameka, what’s been going on? What’s the matter with Emile?’
Tameka must have heard the accusation in her voice, because she looked up defiantly. ‘I . . .
did . . . not . . . do . . . shit . . . to . . . him . . .’ she answered, the words broken, as if making them into a sentence hurt her somehow.
Bernice suddenly felt that she had misjudged the situation entirely. She wanted to apologize –
find out what was really going on. However, at that moment she felt the craft lift away from the surface, and, remembering how turbulent the last journey had been, knew she needed to get back to her own hiding place. Feeling pensive, she smiled apologetically, before slipping away.
They sat in the darkness, waiting. Tameka could only just make out the outline of Emile’s smooth, round head opposite her. The fuel feed above them rumbled loudly, reverberating with the noise of the engines. The Sunless’s ships were fairly standard scout ships, but they hadn’t bothered to fit some of the ordinary features usually installed in a passenger ship, like gravity buffers or interior sound insulation. They probably thought getting thrown around and having your ears blasted was good for the soul. No, they probably didn’t have souls.
They must have stolen the design for the ships or copied them using an original as a blueprint, because there was no way that this shit heap was a licensed construction. Tameka had heard that, away from the commercial lanes, this sort of replication happened a lot. And you didn’t get much further out of the way than this.
The vibration of the ship rose up through her, setting her teeth on edge and aggravating her bruised jaw. She was just managing to drift off when Emile began to speak.
‘Thank you for what you did. For saving me,’ he whispered.
‘You’re lucky, boyee. I almost didn’t bother.’
‘Huh?’
‘After what you did, you little scumbag.’
‘What’d I do?’ He sounded anxious, as if she might have a thousand things to choose from. She was suddenly very aware of the number of years between them.
‘It doesn’t really matter now, ’Meel. But I would have kind’ve preferred it if you hadn’t said what you did to Scott.’
‘What’d I say? I didn’t say anything!’
She sighed. ‘You told Scott that I was in love with him.’
‘Oh.’ The word was half a whisper, half a sigh. ‘I’m sorry. It just sort of came out. I didn’t mean to.’‘’S OK.