Chapter 9

The women’s bunks. Hearing them called that established expectations. Expectations that it would be a frilly, comfortable suite fit for an empress.

Relda groaned and let her body fall against the doorframe. She glared at the boxes set into the wall. Sage green coverings draped the bunks and a few white cushions were squished at the top. Along the wall, a red glow indicated a bioscan with an accompanying digi-screen.

“Well,” she admitted. “Better than nothing.”

She shed her cloak and abandoned it to the bottom bunk. She examined the bioscan, and measured her hand against the indentation. She spread her fingers apart, and put them together. After a few more seconds of hand gymnastics, she shoved her hand into the scanner.

A red ray ascended her hand and descended, and then it flashed green. She caught her breath. Markings appeared on the digi-screen, and a tinny voice spoke from the bioscan.

“Life-form detected,” it said. “Access granted.”

A space expanded in the wall, groaning as it opened. An energy ray held two pant suits in place. Relda chuckled under her breath.

“Now, why do you need a bioscan?” She wondered aloud. “For a closet?”

She stroked one and smiled at how it felt on her fingers. Her smile evaporated when she jumped at another groaning sound. This ship seemed to be full of them. Another space opened up, and more rays held pant suits in place. These were only the size of Relda’s forearm.

Relda put her foot inside the closet, and checked the door to the bunk. After a moment of silence from the hallway outside, she ducked under the pant suits and gathered the tiny garments in her hands. She counted the garments suspended from the ceiling 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. They stopped at 5.

“Explains the bioscan,” she retorted.

Her mind overflowed with questions, but she yawned them away. For a few seconds anyway. She powered down the bioscan and trudged to the bunk where she’d left her cloak. She tried to clear her mind.

“It’s none of your business,” she whispered.

She settled in, listening to the conversation happening outside her room.