Star Side

Chapter 75

Turns out, what Gilrack had called a 'bruise' on Rikek was a few broken ribs.

I hadn't believed. I thought I sure as hell would have felt or heard something if I had managed to kick in a guys ribs. And it wasn't like Gilrack could dig out the messed up body and point to one of the myriad of mashed up somethings and say, 'you did that' as proof.

However, Urish came to me during my first foray into the world outside my nest and babies and whispered about the broken ribs to me with nothing short of aw, asking if he could test out the strength of my legs sometime against targets and whatnot. I shrugged and said sure, even though I was pretty certain hysterical strength had something to do with it. I definitely had the 'hysterical' going on when I had a Rikek above me trying to do the nameless and my babies shrieking bloody murder.

Gilrack seemed pleased with my decision to continue my muscle training, if for nothing else than to get me out of the nest. Something about my health, though he said he'd be happier if he could get me out of the caverns and into some sunshine. Thus, every other day, he coaxed me out for a flight into the outside world, where'd he find a perch for me somewhere on the mountain above the haze of argon and hand me snacks as though he were trying to fatten me up in the process. Probably was. A skinny female was seen as underfed or sickly. A well fleshed out female was seen as healthy and well cared for. A completely obese female, though, was seen pretty much the same as humans were: a lazy glutton. But having only seen one of those so far, I wasn't too worried about becoming one of those, seeing as I wasn't lazy or a glutton and the food they had on Vetas didn't have the 'supersize me' qualities that Earth food could have.

On one of these forays, I managed to convince, well...convince wasn't quite the right word. More like I just ignored Gilrack fretting and just walked into the haze of argon for an experiment. I was feeling daring and, should my hypothesis be wrong, all Gilrack had to do was hang me upside down for a bit until I'd breathed out all the argon.

But, sure enough, I was a few meters in to the denseness of the forest without so much as a light head. I could breathe just fine, even better in a way than half-way up the mountain where the air was thin and cold.

Gilrack wasn't nearly as excited as me. Not until I proved to him by pushing him into the dirt and having my way with him out in the open that I truly had gained the ability to breathe argon.

I included this in my report when I managed to make it to the life pod on one of my 'mental health' excursions away from the nest. It had been four weeks since the hatching of the babies and I was overdue giving Levi and Naomi the announcement.

An unknown male voice picked up my call.

"What is your name and identification number?" buzzed the speaker.

I blanked for several seconds, both because it had been awhile since someone had spoken my language so clearly and also because I had to scramble through my memory for my identification number.

"Uh...Jolene McKanan, and I'm the only human on Vetas so my number is pointless?"

"Identification number?"

"Ugh, something 3567, I didn't call for you anyway. Where's Levi or Naomi?"

"I'm sorry, I have to follow procedure. It could be—hey--!!"

A brief tussel of what sounded like sleeves and shouts, and then Levi's voice filled the speaker.

"Jo?"

"Levi!" I chirped with all the happiness I could convey. "I've missed the crap out of you!"

"Speak for yourself, what took you so long? If it weren't for your tracker—"