Expendable - James Alan Gardner [108]
“Both of them?” I asked. “Oar tells the story differently now.”
“She would,” Ullis replied, “considering how Jelca walked out on them. When we were ready to head south, I was willing to take Eel and Oar with us—not that I thought it was healthy for them to stay with him, but if they wanted to come, I wouldn’t leave them behind. Jelca wanted to disappear without a word…selfish bastard. So I grabbed Eel, told her what was happening, and left her alone with Jelca so the two of them could work it out. I would have done the same with Oar, but I couldn’t find her; she was probably out clearing fields to impress him.” Ullis shook her head morosely.
“What happened between Eel and Jelca?” I asked.
“I don’t know—I stayed down on the beach while they talked up on the bluffs. Eventually, Jelca came down alone and announced neither Eel nor Oar were coming with us. They preferred to stay in their home village. There had to be more to it, of course; he’d probably screamed at Eel until she let him go. But I decided the women were better off without him, and maybe it was best to leave before they changed their minds.”
“So Eel didn’t go with you?”
“No.” Ullis looked at me, puzzled. “Why would you think that?”
“Oar said you took her. Oar believed the three of you went away together.”
I pictured Eel and Jelca alone on the bluffs that day three years ago. Jelca spurning her. Eel no more than a broken hearted little girl…and never seen again.
Oh Shit.
Part XVI
Mania
My Attempts to Help (Part 1)
The next day, I tried to help with the spaceship. There was little for me to do; the ship was almost finished, and the few tasks outstanding were one-person jobs that required “technical sophistication”…which is to say, someone who knew what she was doing.
No matter where I went in search of something to do, people ribbed me for being a zoology specialist. Everyone brought it up. After a while, it took an effort to smile at the jibes. I told myself I was just new—oldtimers often tease new arrivals as a gruff form of welcome. It didn’t help that I’d shown up after the hard work was done. “Oho, here’s the animal lover, just in time to play inspector.” They said it jokingly; I tried to hear it that way too.
I told myself there was no genuine resentment under the laughter: resentment for a woman who didn’t look like an Explorer.
At meals, I felt people staring.
Three times Ullis told me, “You look really good, Festina.”
The one time I saw Jelca during the day, he said nothing at all.
Stop imagining things, I told myself. They don’t care what I look like…and even if they do, it’s their problem, not mine.
Sure.
To pass the time, I outfitted another cabin inside the whale: carrying in a cot, bolting it to the floor, stashing unneeded equipment from my backpack into a locker. It was all for appearance’s sake—I couldn’t escape with the others. If I caught a ride in the ship, the League would stop my heart in flight, the same way they terminated any non-sentient creature trying to escape into space. They might even take retribution on the other Explorers for helping me. On the other hand, I had to go through the motions, or someone might start asking questions.
Anyway, another furnished cabin wouldn’t hurt anything; the whale had plenty of space. Ullis said the life support systems could handle two hundred people indefinitely, and the food synthesizers had even more capacity. No one knew why the early generations of Melaquin had bothered making a ship so huge. Had they wanted to leave the planet enmasse…maybe even return to Earth? Or had they simply fancied a jaunt into space: a sightseeing tour around the moon and back?
The other Explorers had no interest in speculation. Even Ullis excused herself after breakfast, saying she had programming to do—simulation tests and so on. No, she didn’t need help…it would take too long to get me up to speed on what she was doing.
By midafternoon, I felt glumly