The Great Escape Chapter 16, Part 2 of 12

The Great Escape
Chapter 16, Part 2 of 12

"And they have gorgeous hair."

"I know. For a while, I worried that I was becoming a hair fetishist, but then I realized that their hair was amazing. Do you know why?"

"No."

"I think it's because there's no soap on Samothea, so they only rinse their hair and never remove its natural oils. That's my theory."

"It's a good theory," Yumi agreed, though it made her think she hadn't washed her hair in a year. Maybe she should find out from Dagma how the women of Samothea made their hair shine so healthily.

Yumi realized why Ezra was talking about shampoo but not asking what everyone wanted to know, which were questions he had a right to ask.

"Ezra, you want me to explain why I stowed away on your ship. I'll tell you, I promise, but not in front of everyone. I'm too ashamed. I don't want them to know."

"Believe me, Yumi, you won't keep any secrets here for long. If the salvage party doesn't make you tell them, then Solange, the chief of the Herder Tribe, will. She can read minds. And Angela, one of the Woodlanders, is a witch. She'll sit by you patiently, waiting for you to speak, and you'll tell her everything to fill the silence."

"I don't want them to judge me."

"They don't believe in that non-judging crap. It's human to judge. But I promise you, whatever you tell them, they'll understand. We're on Samothea now—none of what went before matters.

It's a new world and a new life."

Yumi sat silent for a few minutes, thinking, and then she decided. She nodded to Ezra, who waited for a lull in the general conversation.

"Ladies ..." he said.

Those preparing to speak swallowed back their voices, and there was silence.

"Ladies, Yumi has something to say."

Yumi began. Her high-pitched voice was gentle but precise, and everyone was immediately attentive.

"I know you want to hear how I came to be in Ezra's spaceship. It's a long story and a shameful one."

"Don't tell us if you'd rather not," Dagma said, an offer that the women did not universally applaud.

"I will tell you, now I've encouraged myself."

"One moment," Kalyndra said. The swimmers were sitting naked under their blankets. She fetched an extra blanket for Yumi and gave Dagma her own, then she snuggled with Devon, and they were all set for the evening.

"I loved a boy on Earth," Yumi said. "His name was Michio. He's the son of the chairman of the company I worked for. We were students together; then we worked together. We had plans."

She trailed off, but she recovered her power and narrative order. As dusk settled and a cold wind from the sea began to blow across the dunes, Yumi told the story of her love affair with Michio, the problem of keeping it a secret from his father, the decision to elope to an outworld settlement, and her pregnancy.

"I never told Michio I was pregnant. I didn't want to hold it over him as blackmail. We planned to meet in a bar on Capella Spaceport; then we'd go far away. We'd make our fortunes on another planet, and I would send for my family. It was a beautiful dream, and I spent all my money on a ticket to Capella."

"I waited every evening in the bar, sending Michio messages via my brother, Itsuki, but I never received a reply from him. While I was on Capella, I learned that Michio was engaged. It was a business deal arranged by his father, not a real marriage, but it made me think that Michio encouraged me to go to Capella to get rid of me."

"I cried all night in my hotel room. I couldn't go back to my parents now that I was pregnant, even if I had the money for a ticket to Earth. I stopped messaging Itsuki. I didn't care what happened to me. I just wanted to go even further away."

"I made a plan. I would wait at the bar for Michio until my money ran out, then I would seduce one of the prospectors or a crewmember of a freighter and stow away on his spaceship."

"My money barely lasted a week. When I was down to my last few pounds, I put on my sexiest clothes and tried to find a lonely man to take me away with him."

"Of course, I was useless at seducing men and had some unpleasant moments, but nothing too serious until I met Ezra. He turned out to be a perfect gentleman. He took me on a space station tour and gave me an excellent dinner."

"I had to insist that he show me his ship, and I seduced him there. That evening, I gave up on Michio completely. He was married and nothing to me anymore. I looked forward to a new life on another planet because I was now running toward something, not away from something.  

I also liked Ezra. He was sweet."

"Oh, God! Don't call me 'sweet,'" Ezra protested, laughing.

"But you were. Sleeping with you was part of the plan, but I also enjoyed it. It was genuine, and I'm sorry I tricked you."

"I'm not. I wasn't difficult to seduce, and you were a delightful companion. There's nothing to regret."

"There is something to apologize for, Ezra. I hacked your shipboard computer."

"You did, how?"

"I wrote a virus into the message I posted you."

"I wondered why you didn't just write me an ordinary note."

"I needed to send you an electronic message so the virus would reconfigure the life-support system to hide my presence when you opened it."

"Very cleverly done, Yumi."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It got you here, which was good for everyone, including you."

Yumi bowed her head. She wanted to feel ashamed and stupid, but neither Ezra nor the women of Samothea would let her.

"You all know the rest of my story. As soon as the sirens went off, I jumped into the escape pod and got trapped inside. I don't remember exactly when the pod put me to sleep. I only remember being revived and finding myself a year later in the strangest place I've ever been."

Of course, there were many questions, and Yumi felt that she'd told her story three times before the night rain started, so she was allowed to go to bed. Again, she slept with Ezra and Dagma.

They held her warmly, snuggled safely between them, and there was no repeat of yesterday's nightmare. All three slept soundly until morning.

As everyone got up for breakfast and their daily chores, Wildchild noticed something glinting among the cooking stones. She lifted a stone and saw that some of the sand underneath had crystallized into glass. The glass adhered to the rock as shiny, multi-colored pyramids.

She broke off some of the glass with the heel of her knife and sat down to examine it.

Yumi noticed Ezra watching Wildchild, deep in thought.

"Aren't you going to tell her about glass?" she asked.

"No. I'm interested to see her work it out for herself."

Wildchild let Megan and Tamar take Carlin riding that morning. She had other endeavors. She took one of the buckets to the sea and went diving for another stone. She found what she wanted in a large granite rock with a shallow bowl-shaped indentation. Wildchild brought her finds back to the camp with a bucket full of clean yellow sand.

Meanwhile, Ezra had done his chores and had a task for Yumi. She was pleased to be able to help and followed him to the escape pods wedged into the dunes between the camp and the beach.

"Can you program the pods to transmit distress signals?" he asked.

Yumi looked at the control panels.

"I should think so."

She started to press buttons.

"Why do you want me to?" she asked.

"It's doubtful we'll ever be rescued, but I'd like to give our rescuers every possible help. It symbolizes hope for me, so we're doing something and not passively waiting. Can you keep the beacon flashing as well?"

"I'll try."

"I'm not going to mention the distress signal to anyone, but I'll leave the processed food and a spare tent by the pods. They may be useful in an emergency. I'll say the beacon is to guide people to the emergency rations. ... I'm sorry to include you in my subterfuge, but there is someone who would disapprove if she knew that the escape pod was signaling our whereabouts."

"Whom?"

"Chief Mirselene of the Woodlander tribe, Dagma's mother. I'm not sure of her reasons."

"I understand. It's done."

"That's quick. I'm impressed!"

"I can add a message to the signal if you want. Now, it's sending the serial number of your ship and its current location. It also usually sends the vital signs of the occupant. Instead, I can say we're alive, and Samothea is inhabited."

"Thanks. Can you add that we need full quarantine and that there are no infections on Samothea? Also, you might like to add a warning about the black hole where Sothis was, though anyone near enough to receive the signal will already know about the black hole."

Yumi programmed both pods and then had a recollection.

"My purse! Ezra, did you see my purse on your ship?"

"Sorry, no. If it were in the hold, it could be in a pile of jumbled and broken stuff."

"How about in the pod?"

"Let's take a look."

He pressed the button to open the lid, which slid back with a hiss. He moved the chair to allow

Yumi will crawl sideways and look at the back of the pod.

"It's here!" she exclaimed happily. "Here it is!"

She stretched out her arm to retrieve the shiny pink leather clutch bag. Yumi seemed much happier than retrieving such a trivial item, but Ezra understood.

"What's in it?" he wondered, sharing her pleasure at finding something from home.

Yumi tipped the contents onto the seat.

There was a lip gloss, a face powder compact, other make-up paraphernalia, a comb, her communicator, a data cube, her credit stick from Capella, some hairpins, a pack of tissues, and a coat button. Yumi sorted her treasure for a minute, then tried the communicator, thinking it might still work as a computer even if she couldn't use it to talk to anyone. It didn't. She tried charging it in the sun, but that was also bootless.

"Never mind," Ezra commiserated. "It was doubtful to work."

"I know, but it's a shame. At least I have my lip-gloss."

"Indeed. I've lasted over a year on Samothea without a computer or lip-gloss."

She laughed.

"It does seem insignificant. But, like your signal, it's a reminder of Earth."

"Which you were escaping from..."

"All right. It's not fair to use logic on me. ..."

Then she asked something that was on her mind.

"Ezra, do you mind sleeping with me?"

"Not at all."

"Because you could sleep with your bedmates if you wanted. I... I don't need you. I mean, I've only known you for a few days. You've known them for a year. I've no claim on you."

It was true that they barely knew each other—just one day on Capella and two days on Samothea—yet the day on Capella had been intense and ended in the peak of intimacy. He thought it gave them a claim on each other.

"Yumi, I want to keep you near me until I'm sure you're fine. I know it's patronizing, but I care about you."

"Thank you," she said, her eyes modestly down. "I'd like to be your bedmate. It was great sex, but I'm not sure I'm ready yet. Do you mind?"

He chuckled at her sincerity and concern. He remembered with what regret Annela had explained to him, just a month after giving birth to Freya, that she wasn't yet ready for sex, though he hadn't asked her. The memory made him smile.

"Yumi, you need to meet Angela. She was my first bedmate here, and she believes no woman is allowed to refuse sex to her man. She's also shocked that any Earthwoman would ever want to refuse sex."

"Really?"

"I've tried telling her the truth, and you can also try. But please don't worry about sex. Your recovery is our first aim. Helping you adjust to life here is our second. Sex isn't even third."

Yumi was reassured and kissed him on the cheek to thank him.

They returned to the camp, where Wildchild's experiment was progressing nicely. She poured a small pile of sand onto the rock and used her penknife to melt it, watching it transform into a red plastic mound and then a yellow liquid.

She prodded the liquid with the tip of her knife and made shapes. Then she held the knife up.

Teardrops of molten glass hung from the tip with a treacle-like viscosity.

The salvage party took a keen interest in Wildchild's work over lunch. She didn't mind having an audience. She was pleased Ezra was there because, when her penknife ran out of power, she left it recharging in the sun and borrowed his so she could carry on experimenting.

Yumi was charmed by Ezra's affection for the girl.

"She's very bright," Yumi observed in a whisper.

"They all are," he whispered back. "All the women of Samothea are descendants' of scientists and engineers."

Wildchild was playing with globules of molten glass, forming them into interesting shapes.



To be continued