Two Moons of Sera (10 page)

Before I could speak, Sal ducked his head into the doorway
behind me. His dark hair was longer than most of the men here, but not as long
as mine. “Elle, you wanna go for a walk?”

“Sure.” She grinned at her Match, and I could see the
connection they shared by the light in her eyes. It was something like the “love”
thing I’d read about in books. Books never mentioned Matching, though.

“I’ll get your sweater.”

I watched him until he disappeared behind the curtain.

“He’s the best,” Elle offered.

When Sal returned, we had already finished our meal. Elle
had even shown me where to put our trash for disposal and where to place our
dishes for cleaning. Everything was automated. Here, no one had to scrub dishes
at the water’s edge or haul trash deep into the woods and bury it so animals
wouldn’t come scavenging. This life was easy. Too easy, perhaps.

I wasn’t sure I liked that.

Elle took Sal’s hand and walked back into the main room,
with me trailing behind.

“Sera, do you want to go with us?” Elle offered.

“No, I’m still pretty tired.”

Sal and Elle walked to the platform. He pressed the wall
panel, but before the walls of the chamber came down, he lowered his face and
pressed his lips to hers.

The rest of the room ignored their moment of intimacy.
Everyone else was engrossed in conversations, board games, and books. I was
mesmerized. I’d never seen anything so beautiful.

Sal’s hand rested on Elle’s hip as she wrapped one arm
around his neck, pulling him closer. Their bodies curved together, deepening
the contact. My breathing sped up, and my skin prickled, like a thousand suns
had been ignited within the room. Their touch was so easy, their love so clear.
I had dreamed of a prince who would save me from my life of monotony and offer
me something more. Watching Elle open her mouth and reach out to Sal showed me
what that “something more” was.

Too soon, the chamber walls descended, and I was alone in a
room full of strangers. The tingling of my skin remained.

As I turned, I saw Tor standing on the other side of the
room, next to a chattering Lock. His eyes full of hunger.

Evening fell, and the light of the moon filtered through the
frosted windows of our new home. Everyone was nice enough—other than Lace. She
stayed in her room, and I can’t say I wasn’t glad. Over the next few hours, I
came to know a few more of the people I would be living and working with. It
was hard to relax around them, knowing at any moment I might say or do
something to put Tor and myself at risk.

Tor had ventured into the group for a while, staying with
Lock or observing everyone from the far wall. He didn’t speak to me or look at
me again for the rest of the night, and I found myself nervous at the idea of
being alone with him later. At one point, he and Lock excused themselves to
take Elgon outside. Lock made the announcement to the group, and I was not
invited.

I tried to get to know everyone a little. There must have
been a dozen people there. The sheer number of people around us threw my mind
into turmoil, but I was determined to survive here. No matter what it took, I
would be one of them, and I would be what they wanted me to be, so they never
had reason to question what I really was.

Of those I hadn’t already met, Kal made the biggest
impression on me. He was short but attractive, with deep, green eyes and dark
skin. He was the darkest Erdlander I’d met so far, and his skin shone like the
sea at night. I wanted to touch it, to see what my almost-transparent flesh
would look like against such deep color. His wrist was broken, thanks to an
accident at his job in the training center. He and Tor spoke for a while, comparing
scars and bruises with a strange sort of pride.

Soon my mind swam with the effort to keep my story straight
and remain friendly. I sat with a woman named Jai and melted into the pale
couch beneath me, allowing it to conceal me from their questions. On my other
side, engrossed in a book, was Traz. When he looked up, his expression
mesmerized me. Eyes so pale they shimmered struck me silent, and he spoke with
a soft, even voice.

Ash sat down across from the couch I was nestled in. “Lock
says you were in Linguistics before you went off the reservation,” he said,
pulling Jai, Nalla, and Traz’s attention back to me.

“Um, yeah.”

“You mean you speak Fish?” Nalla joked, earning a laugh from
the rest of the group.

I smiled, trying not to let the insult offend me.

“Yeah, does that mean you can squeak like a dolphin?” Jai
chimed in.

“It’s just another language,” Traz said, setting his book
down on his lap. “Do you guys have to be so childish?” His pale eyes focused on
the girls at the other end of the couch.

“Will you ever learn how to take a joke?” Jai retorted,
rolling her eyes.

“Just because they’re different doesn’t mean they’re a joke.”

“Traz is our resident Sualwetarian,” Ash said with a smirk. “He
seems to have missed the memo that we’re at
war
.”

“I got the memo. I just wonder if anyone has ever tried
talking
to one of them instead of cutting them up into chum!”

“Fish food for the Fish,” Nalla said, as Jai laughed along
with her.

My nerves pulled taut, reminding me just how much danger I
faced. Across the room, Tor examined the books stacked on shelves. His finger
traced the name of a large one, bound in leather. Finally, he chose one and
nodded to Lock before returning to our room. He never even glanced in my
direction. The nervous tingling from earlier returned, and the noise in my mind
drowned out the conversation around me.

Traz sighed, pulling me back to the present with his soft,
smooth voice, “I’m embarrassed for them, you know? They’ve never even
tried
to understand more than what they’re told. You do linguistics, Sera. You
understand, right? I mean, Sualwet is an oddly beautiful language.”

“It’s prettier underwater,” I added without thinking,
earning me a look of shock from Traz.

“You’ve heard it spoken underwater?”

“Oh, no, I mean, just... you know, recordings.” I tripped on
my words as I tried to extricate myself from the minefield I’d stumbled into.

“Right. That must be the kind of thing you listen to in
Linguistics, huh? Decoding recorded messages?”

“Yes. Exactly.”

“I’d love to hear it spoken in real life,” Traz mused,
earning a round of eye-rolling from the others.

Ash leaned toward me and gestured toward Traz. “This is what
happens when you spend too much time in your department.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s in the Cultural History Building, studying the past
wars and such. Supposedly it’s to help us keep from repeating our mistakes.”

“Yeah, and he’s become a complete Fish-phile since he began
his new secret project,” Nalla added.

“Secret, huh?” I turned to Traz and wondered what kinds of
secrets the Erdlanders would keep from each other.

“I’ll make you a deal. You tell me what secret messages you
uncover in Linguistics, and I’ll tell you about my new project.” Traz quirked
his eyebrow.

“You know she can’t do that, Traz. Stop trying to get more
intel on the Fish,” teased Nalla.

“You’d think he was a spy.” Jai threw the small pillow
behind her back across the couch at Traz.

“I wonder if he has fins,” Ash teased.

I curled my toes inside my slippers.

“I’m so glad we work in the infirmary.” Nalla nodded toward
Jai.

“It’s not glamorous, but at least there are no war games!”
Jai added.

“Linguistics is actually pretty glamorous,” I joked,
desperate to fit in.

“I’m sure. I hear those headphones do amazing things for the
hair.” Jai tossed her brown hair over her shoulder and posed for the group,
making us all laugh.

“Where do you work, Ash?” I asked.

His focus still trained on my face, despite the group
dynamic. “I’m in Science, at the lab,” he said.

“Oh, what do you do?”

“Nothing interesting, really. I run the blood work on the
recruits, looking for medical Matches and approving natural Matches. It’s
really just processing the data. The techs and doctors get to do all the
interesting stuff.”

“Yeah, I heard they had a real Sualwet in the Science lab
and that they were doing experiments on it,” Jai whispered.

My stomach cramped down in a painful knot. A Sualwet? Here?

Nalla gasped. “No way.”

“It’s true. They’re testing to see if they have a weakness.
You know, like what would happen if they were in salt water versus fresh water
and trying to find out how to take them all out at once without killing
everything else in the water.”

I held my breath to keep the tears from rising. Was it
possible they were still performing experiments like they had on my mother?
Were others suffering here the way she had? The friendliness of the young
Erdlanders took on a menacing tone, and I longed for the water.

It couldn’t be possible, could it? Everyone here seemed
friendly. I was comfortable, like I fit in. They couldn’t be doing those kinds
of things to my people. But the Sualwet weren’t my people. I’d been more
accepted here than by the Sualwet. Why did I feel the need to defend them, to
save whomever was trapped in there, experimented on like a lab rat? The idea
sent sour bile into my throat; my nausea must have shown on my face.

“We don’t do that kind of thing,” Ash reassured, placing his
hand on my knee.

“Oh.” I moved my leg, his fingers trailing along my skirt as
they fell away.

Ash leaned back in his chair, his eyes no longer on me but
on the ceiling.

“At least, not anymore,” Traz added before turning back to
his book.

I shivered, aware that I was alone with the enemies I’d been
taught to fear.

When the conversation drifted back to safer territory, I
excused myself. In the kitchen, I attempted to remember how to open the
compartments.

A familiar voice came from the doorway. “What are you
looking for?”

“Just a drink.”

I turned to find Ada. She had changed from when I’d first
encountered her on the landing strip and was now in a long, brown skirt and
green cotton shirt.

“Every pod keeps things in different places. You’ll find
stuff soon enough.”

Ada walked past me and opened a high compartment, pulling
out a bottle like the one Elle and I had shared earlier. Her short black hair
swung across her brow with each step.

“Can I have one for Tor, too?” I asked as she handed it to
me.

She nodded in response before reaching back up and
retrieving another bottle.

“Thank you. Do you live here, too?”

“No. I live over in Life Services. I just stopped by to see
how you were settling in.” She slipped her hands into the pockets of her skirt
and leaned against the wall.

“I’m doing all right. Everyone has been very nice.”

“Really?”

“Well, no, not everyone.” I rolled my eyes and shrugged, not
wanting to seem unsettled by my new home.

“Lace has a way about her, I know, but you’ll get used to
it. She really is very smart.”

I bobbed my head in response and opened my bottle after
placing Tor’s in the large pocket on the side of my skirt.

“And Tor?” Ada’s voice was soft as she tilted her head.

“He’s okay. Having Elgon with him has been good.”

“I’m sure. The reassurance of someone who loves you can go a
long way.”

I lowered my head, feeling sadder than I expected. The only
person who had loved me, even in her strange and distant way, was gone.

Ada studied me for a moment longer before pushing herself
off the wall. “Tomorrow, if you’re up for it, you’ll go to Linguistics with
Lock. He’ll help you get acquainted with anything that’s changed since you were
last at a camp, but I think you’ll find it’s pretty much the same. Oh, and I
brought you some clothes.”

She walked past me into the main room. Most everyone had
left, I assumed to go to their own rooms to get ready for the night. Jai headed
toward the pod bathroom, and Traz was still sitting where I left him, reading
his book.

Next to the blue door, which separated what little space was
mine from the commons, sat two duffel bags.

“This one is for you.” Ada knelt down and unzipped the long
blue bag to reveal piles of clothing in monotone colors and two pairs of shoes.
“We can get you anything else you need, but I thought you’d at least want this
to start with. There’s a pair of boots for if it rains, and I threw a skirt in,
too. I didn’t know what you liked to wear. I got you everything in my size. You’re
a little taller than me, but I think it should fit.”

“Thank you,” I mumbled, awkward in the face of her
thoughtfulness. It hadn’t even occurred to me that I had nothing to wear other
than what was on my back. The dress I’d worn when Lock and Lace found us was
long gone, too dirty to salvage. I’d lost so much. Everything other than what I’d
stuffed into my small bag was destroyed or washed into the sea. Even if
anything had survived, I could never go back to retrieve it.

After unzipping the second bag, Ada revealed stacks of long
pants and cotton shirts.

“Tor will be working in Agro, so he doesn’t need special
clothes. Just boots and whatever he’s comfortable in. I placed him there so he
could take Elgon along, instead of leaving it here.”

“
Him
,” I corrected. “Elgon’s a he.”

“Oh, right. I had a dog as a kid. It’s just the idea of a
mountain hound loose in the pod without one of you here....”

“It’s okay. They’ll be happier together.”

She zipped up the bags and stood.

“This is really nice of you,” I said.

“Don’t worry. I know it’s been a long time since you were
someplace you didn’t have to do everything for yourself. I’m happy to help with
whatever you need.”

“Thank you.” My raw emotions urged the tears behind my eyes
to jump.

The people here were so relatable, so much like me but so
dangerous. I thought back to the story of the Sualwet in the Science lab, held
for experiments. Only the hair on my head kept me from lying on an examination
table next to it. No matter how kind Ada might be, the Erdlanders were still
the enemy.

“I’ll come back in the morning and make sure you’re all set
for work.” Ada nodded and turned away.

“Ada?” I called after her.

“What is it, Sera?”

“My mother, she died. I’m all alone, except for Tor.” The
words tumbled out, needing to be said aloud. Ada was kind, and while not much
older than me, she made me feel safe and cared for.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Her smile twitched, becoming sad
and full of empathy.

“I just... I just wanted you to know how much all this means
to me.”

“We’re family here. You aren’t alone anymore. You’re home.”

The words intended to soothe me broke the barrier, allowing
my sorrow to show.

“I’m s-sorry,” I sputtered, expecting another unwelcome
touch.

Instead, Ada stayed where she was with a small smile. “It’s
fine. I’ll see you in the morning.”

With a silent nod, I turned from her and opened the blue
door behind me.