Red Company: Discovery by B. V. Larson

Author:B. V. Larson [Larson, B. V.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Iron Tower Press
Published: 2023-05-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17: The Mysterious Ruins

When I woke up, there were several surprises in store. For one thing, sunlight was streaming into the temple from a sharp angle. The light was lavender, and the air was cool. It had to be my first alien dawn.

The lovely light wasn’t what woke me up, however—that came from a swift kick in the shins.

“Get up, lovebirds!” Sergeant Cox said, grinning down at Ana and me.

A weight shifted off my chest, and I realized Ana must have crawled close and slept kind of… wrapped around me. Was that for warmth? I doubted it. The jungle had plenty of steamy heat to keep a person warm at night.

Ana reacted faster than I did—which was saying something. In one snarling second, she was awake and sitting up beside me. She had that damned overly-sharpened, thin blade in her hand again. How had she gotten it out of my belt? She was a pickpocket, I guess.

At least she wasn’t aiming the knife at my face this time. She was threatening the grinning ring of men that surrounded us instead. They must have noticed we were sleeping in a clinch and thought it would be funny to wake us up this way.

“Whoa!” Sergeant Cox laughed. “You’d better collar that dog, Starn. She’s a wild one!”

They all melted away, laughing and jeering at us.

Ana scowled and cursed their mothers as they retreated. She looked at me in disgust when we were alone again.

“I am cursed,” she said.

“Uh… how’s that?”

“I’ve been given to the lowest of the low. A man others dare to laugh at. I’m filled with disappointment and self-loathing.”

I sighed. I didn’t think she was going to adjust well to life with normal people.

Shortly after that concern, however, I had a new thought— a bad one.

For all her foul behavior, I’d grown to kind of like Ana. She was a person to me now, not just one more enemy who was trying to kill me or steal from me.

“Look,” I said, “if we do survive and return to Borag, you’re going to have to clean up your act.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “What are you saying?”

“You can’t go around hissing like an alley cat and threatening to kill everyone you meet. Captain Hansen is a fair woman, and she might not turn you over to the authorities on Mars—should we ever find our way back there. Maybe she’ll even let you sign a contract to join her crew—but you’ve got to behave yourself.”

Ana cocked her head at me. I could tell she was struggling to decipher my words.

“Ah,” she said at last. “Your captain is a woman?”

“Yes,” I said. “And I’m her personal bodyguard.”

Why had I said that? I guess I’d wanted to brag a little after her insults.

Ana’s eyes flew wide. “Your status can’t be so low, then. This is indeed good news for me.”

I rolled my eyes at her. She was still trying to fit our social structure into hers. I guess that was only natural.

“But are you getting what I’m saying?” I asked.

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