When the Dust Fell by Marshall Ross

Author:Marshall Ross [Ross, Marshall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781637583180
Publisher: Permuted
Published: 2022-05-12T11:55:27+00:00

23

Sarah was awoken by a thin blade of sunlight slicing its way through the tiny porthole. She blinked from the brightness and turned her face toward the shadows. Gabi was still, her face at peaceful rest and her breathing as heavy as it was the last night, rousing in Sarah another wave of sleep envy. She dressed quietly, rinsed her mouth in the miniature sink, grabbed her pack, and slipped out the stateroom door without Gabi stirring.

She needed the deck. She needed the space and the air and the water to think. Although the Empire had a small elevator, she took the stairs instead, the faster way out. Once outside she began to feel better. On the Kalelah, there’d been sim skies, a lake and parks, and manufactured sunlight to distract Sarah from the true degree of her confinement. After again feeling breezes not generated from machines and tasting rain that fell not from misting tanks and tubes but from actual clouds, she found herself physically aching for the outdoors. She ran to the stern of the ship where she could stand at the railing and watch the frothy white of the churn from the ship’s props and the long line of wake that eventually faded to nothing.

It was cool and she could see her breath in the morning air, but she wasn’t cold. The sun was warm on her face. It was open waters now. It had been three days since she could see any hint of the European continent. She tried to picture Trin, what he might be doing at this moment, what he might be thinking about her. For all he knew, she had run. Which, of course, she had. This was different than her other runs; the other times she’d turned her back on her life she wasn’t leaving someone behind. Not someone like Trin anyway. Someone who made her feel wanted, loved. And she wasn’t carrying with her another life. A life only partly hers. The gall of it, the wrong of it, washed over her. Yet it wasn’t more wrong now than it was on the ship when she could have made a different decision. It was the same thing over and over with her. Knowing better didn’t manage to stop her. Somehow, she always wound up lost at sea.

“Don’t jump.”

Sarah turned to see the Aussie approaching, all in black like a cowboy Johnny Cash in a Paul Revere hat. For the violence his image carried, he didn’t frighten her. She was happy to see him.

“I won’t jump in after ya,” he said in a voice like gravel under heavy boots. He had a cup of what smelled like hot coffee and tequila.

“So this shit bucket does have coffee,” she said.

“In name only.” He took a sip, gave her a grandfatherly wink, and turned to face the water. They stood in silence for a minute as the sun rose higher and the air warmed.

“I saw your roommate this morning. She was sprawled out on my deck crying like a baby.

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