Asimov's SF, April 2001 by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-07-10T15:50:31+00:00

He crawled slowly up out of the depths, a welcome lightness singing in his chest. He could breathe!

“Unh?” he croaked. He opened his eyes. Tried to focus. He was lying on the floor. Genni was sitting next to him. The station was quiet.

She looked at him anxiously. “Thank God you’re back. I was frantic. How do you feel?”

He felt bruised all over and dazed. “Unh…?

“You have to do better than that.”

“Wha…?” He felt himself drifting off.

“Come on, wake up. Talk to me, Rogers.” Her voice was strained.

Seymour opened his eyes and looked at her. She had a bruise on her cheek.

“You haven’t been out long, luckily. The !Dran were very fast. They tore through here like a horde of locusts, cleaned us out in record time. I got here as they were carrying out the last of the sacks. I guess I yelled at them and one of them bared his teeth at me! When I tried to get to you they just about ran me down. Casually brushed me out of the way. Imagine! What happened to those friendly creatures? Then they grabbed the crawlers and headed off. One of the elders had stowed you in this corner out of the way of the mob. That was the only thing that saved you from being completely trampled…”

He realized she was babbling, probably afraid. He was pretty shook up himself. “Unh.”

“Come on, luv, you can do better than that. Here, try this.”

She waved a cup of liquid under his nose. Warm, damp fumes tickled his nostrils…hot coffee! He reached for it with shaking hands, sipped. “Unh. Where’d you…get this?”

“They missed the kitchen, actually. Stupid station designers did us a favor, putting the storage room in a different wing from the cooking facilities. I never understood the logic before, but it sure worked this time. So we have a little food left.”

He slurped the hot liquid greedily. “This is…warm?”

“I used a can of Sterno.”

“Good girl.” He looked at her. Tense and shaken, she was still damned attractive. “Help me up and we’ll go exploring.”

“I’m starving.” She giggled raggedly. “Let’s eat what’s left before they come back.”

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