*
My eyes open and I’ve got that weird floaty feeling, like my thoughts are trying to find somewhere to land. Then my brain starts making sense of things. Everything’s white and snowy, slowly coming into focus. Am I in heaven? Not exactly. It’s not hell either, but I am in a place of pain. My jaw feels like it’s been removed and replaced with someone else’s. My teeth don’t fit together properly. Everything’s out of line and swollen.
I’m in my bunk. I sit up slowly, checking for any further signs of damage. Thankfully there aren’t any. It seems like my jaw has taken the brunt of it.
I hear feet climbing the ladder to my bunk. The worried face of Ash appears.
“Wren, are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I say through misshapen jaws. “What happened?”
“You went for Sagan and he knocked you out cold.”
“Oh,” I say, rubbing my jaw. “How long have I been out for?”
“Well, it’s rec time now, so most of the day and part of the evening.”
Why am I such a wuss? This is ridiculous, how can anyone be such a lightweight? I feel like trading my body in for a new one. Maybe I could get an upgrade.
“How did your fights go?”
“We did well,” he says. Even though I’m just coming to, I can tell he’s sparing my feelings.
“What about Beta Pod?”
“Er, they won all theirs.”
I activate my com chip and the screen appears in front of me. I toggle through some options and pull up the scoreboard. We’re no longer number one. We’re not even number two. We’ve slipped to three and Beta is in the lead.
“Why’ve we dropped so much?” I ask.
“Don’t know,” Ash says. But we both know why.
“Come on, Ash. It was because of me wasn’t it?”
“Okay, well it was because of a TKO.”
“What’s a TKO?”
“Total knock out. You get a lot more points for one of them.”
I lie back in my bunk. My little bit of bravado has cost my pod big time. Getting my ass kicked in there was always inevitable, but at least I could have avoided a total knock out.
“Hey, don’t worry about it, we’ve got loads of time to make it up.”
“I’m so stupid. I need to get my act together, fast.”
“Wren, you’ve never done this before, how could you know?”
“I’m a liability to this pod. I know I am.” It’s hurting to talk, but I do it anyway. “They must all hate me.”
“Don’t be crazy, course they don’t. Wren, what you did was the bravest thing I think I’ve ever seen.”
“Dumb, more like.”
“You’re certainly not dumb. You went after a guy twice your size – that shows courage and tenacity. You’re stronger than you think.”
I smile, then regret it as it makes my face ache even more. Sitting back up, I look at Ash. Our pod is strangely quiet.
“Where’s Tuss and the rest of them?”
“Everyone’s in the rec room playing pool. Tuss is in the gym working out. I think she feels guilty for some reason.”
“That’s crazy. How can she feel guilty?”
“I know; that’s what I told her. She said it was her fault that you went for Sagan.”
“What? That was nothing to do with her. I’m going to see her and set her straight.” Ash climbs down out of my way as I slide out of my bunk and clamber down the ladder.
“I’ll come with you,” he says.
“No, it’s okay. It’s better if I talk to her alone.”
I’m still in my combats so all I have to do is get my boots on, then I’m out of the door and heading to the deck below where the gym’s located.
Like everything on this ship it’s ridiculously huge. I can’t stop myself from gasping as I walk in. It’s a vast hangar with rows and rows of complex exercise equipment arranged in regimented lines as far as the eye can see. One wall of the gym has been converted into a towering climbing wall, and there are several fighting cages at the back, although, I guess they’re redundant now, after what Sergeant Grace told us. Along the right-hand wall, hang about thirty heavy punch bags, one of which Tuss is trying to destroy. She’s pounding it with such speed and ferocity it makes my eyes water.
“Tuss?” I say.
She ignores me and hits the bag even harder. The poor object bends into an ‘L’ shape every time her fists connect. She’s not wearing any gloves and her knuckles are bleeding.
“Tuss, you’re bleeding,” I say.
“So what.”
Well, at least she’s speaking to me.
“What’s the matter, are you angry at me?”
She stops and starts laughing. “Me, angry at you? I’m angry at myself.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s my fault you got hurt and we dropped all those points. I’m stupid.”
“Tuss, that was not your fault. I asked your advice and it was my decision to go up against Sagan. Not yours. I’m the stupid one. I was I to think I could beat him. I should have chosen someone my own size, hell, even my own gender would’ve been better, but I didn’t. I was too hung up with proving a point.”
Tuss sucks the blood from her knuckles and starts hitting the bag again. The booming sound echoes around the empty gym.
“Tuss, don’t blame yourself for this, please. Come back to the pod, let’s grab a shake or something.”
“No. I’m sorry for what happened. But I just need to be on my own.”
I know what that feels like so I decide not to push it. Giving her some space seems like the sensible thing to do, so I leave her to her work out.
I don’t feel like going back to section one. I have this feeling the rest of my pod is going to be acting a little weird after what’s happened. I think we all need a little space, so I take myself off up the endless staircase, which leads to the observatory on the top deck. Just like last night I push open the door and take the same seat. A few seconds later the screen grudgingly slides back. The universe flows past the massive window and, though my jaw still aches, my mind finally relaxes. I close my eyes and go into a sort of waking doze, feeling safe here in my secret place.
Chapter 9