Starbleached by Chelsea Gaither Page B

day,” she said, tracing circles on his shirt front.
“I’m going to take you home. To New York. We’ll visit the space needles, I’ll
take you to Central Park.”
    “Don’t you have to pay to get in there?” He asked, tracing
circles on her neckline. He really did have this thing for writing on her. Like
he was marking territory or something.
    “I’ve got the admission fee. Just think. Real grass. Real
sunshine. Ants!” She laughed.
    “Birds. Bird shit. Vagrants. Unpredictability.” He set the
pen down and kissed her, longer and longer, his tongue exploring her distant
galaxies. She reciprocated, invading his sacred territories. Fingers found
nebulas and star clusters and sweat ran down her skin. He pushed back from her,
brushing her hair out of her eyes.
    “What?”
     “Screw my brother. Screw Holton. Screw this goddamned war.
I want to spend every day of the rest of my life with you.”
    “I had you at hello?”
    “Much sooner.” Then he laughed, bending gently over her. His
hair tickled her body. “God.” He pushed it back out of his eyes. “We’re so
cheesy, aren’t we?”
    “I like cheese.” She smiled wickedly and licked his
shoulder. “Cheddar.” Kissed him, long and sweet on the mouth. “Brie.”
    Things only got better from there.
     
    *****
     
    Now:
    When Adry raised her head, she was alone. An Overseer
version of an IV was hooked into her arm, pillow tucked under her head and the
shawl gently laid over her shoulders. Galina and Bryan were gone.
    Panic, sheer and stark. Standing, her head spinning, she
looked for some sign, some clue to where the others had gone. Galina shouldn’t
be moving at all, and Bryan…oh, God. Her knees buckled as memory hit like a
meteor.
    The memories are there. They just can’t access them. Paige’s
words an eternity ago. He knew who she was. He knew who he was. But he
didn’t know the details. That he had resources, friends, a place to go…it must
be hell inside his head. And if she were in his shoes, she’d be running as fast
as a starship could take her.  She braced herself on the central console. He’d 
been sitting here for all this time, her hating him with every fiber of her
being… and he could read her mind. Oh, Jesus. Oh dear God in heaven, what
he must think!
    “No, no, no. Back on bed, back on bed.” Galina appeared in
the doorway, as if she’d just come from the lavatory. “He told me you are not
to stand.”
    “I’m fine.” She put a hand to her chest and felt violated
skin burn. She expected some horror of raw meat where he’d fed. Instead there
was a deep rash, tiny punctures where her life had been…removed…she turned
hastily and vomited into the nearest container. There wasn’t much to bring up.
Galina held her head until the retching was done. “I guess you’re used to
seeing this,” she said weakly.
    “Stubborn.” The old woman was angry. “Stubborn men, stubborn
women. He is most stubborn of all. All things need to live. I understand this,
so I agree to trade. Water and bandages and life for us, life for him as well.
But—fool!--he has not taken what he has traded for in weeks.” Sharp blue eyes
turned sly. “You know him. When you saw him without his mask, you put your life
up for his taking, same as we put ours.”
    Adry didn’t answer. “Why do your people do it? It can’t just
be for antibiotics and a water purification system.”
    Galina sat, her arm in a sling. “Russia claimed four planets
for theirs, but did not have people willing to go. You are American. Young
country. Is not heavy for you to leave. But my mother’s grandmother was born in
Orenburg, was baptized in church where six generations of family were buried.
We are told to go, we go. But Russia is in our blood, still.
    “Those that stay think nothing of those that leave. They
tell us go, and they do not give us clean water. They do not give us medicine.
We have food and drink and vodka, but no wealth. The Overseers come, they