rearranged it. Then moved it all around again.
Nope. No matter what I did, it didn’t look like enough.
Glancing up, I watched Hakon take the upholstery and the fabric to his trench.
He’d explained his plan to me, but it seemed too far out to be possible.
Except, apparently, he was doing it anyway.
“Dinner’s ready!” I called out. Maybe there was a way to give him more of my packet. I’d seen how much he ate… when was that?
Just hours ago, it seemed, back in the hub. While back on Station 112, artificial lights gave us the luxury of determining whatever schedule we wanted. On an actual orbiting body, we were tied to the real cycles of day and night.
It was like when I was a kid, the times we’d been able to get planet-side and go camping as a family.
Staring up into the darkening sky, Tocarth 5 looked bigger than ever, the swirling pastels filling my vision.
Dad would have loved it here.
“Hey,” Hakon said quietly. “What’s wrong?”
Sitting back up quickly, I dashed the tears from my eyes. “I must be more tired than I realized,” I said brightly.
He frowned, but didn’t press.
Another point to him, and we weren’t even in a life-threatening situation.
At the moment.
The rations almost counted, though. “They really want to make sure you only eat these in a true emergency, I guess.”
“I don’t think anyone is going to opt for this over a replicator,” he agreed. We quickly finished and washed the terrible taste with sips of the water.
“Tomorrow, we’ll have to look for water, too,” he said.
“Actually, I have an idea of where to start.” I pointed to the desert. “Too dark now, but some of those little shrubby things were taller than others. And the bigger ones looked almost like they were growing in lines.”
He frowned. “As if someone had planted them there?”
“No,” I shook my head. It seemed so clear, but somehow, I was having trouble getting the words out. “They’re spaced too irregularly for a farm, I’d think. But it might be that the bigger ones are getting water from an underground source.”
Hakon nodded, thinking. “Worth investigating, for certain. The list for tomorrow keeps getting longer.”
I stood up, stretching. “Neither of us got much sleep last night. And not for anything fun, either.”
My cheeks burned. How had that slipped out?
Hakon snorted. “I don’t know. If I ever need to break out of a space station again, I think I’ve found my partner. We showed a certain elegance, I thought.”
“You’re crazy,” I laughed, grateful that he’d let my words slide.
He carefully packed away our trash. “Never know when something might come in handy.” Standing, he headed into the desert. “I’ll meet you back at the ship in five minutes. Make sure you’re ready to be in for the night, okay?”
Right.
In less than five minutes, I joined him at the ship, staring into the trench. “This is…what, exactly?”
The trench was maybe a little over a yard deep, three yards long, and one and a half yards wide. It would have looked pretty much like my capsule back on Station 112, except that here, perched precariously on the far side, was the wreckage of the stripped-down ship, but turned onto its side for some reason.
“Our burrow.” He pointed to one end. “All of our supplies are there. I don’t know what roams around in the dark here, and we can’t afford to lose anything.”
He’d padded and covered the rest of it the best he could with the materials from the seats and the scraps of his jacket.
“It’s still going to be a bit lumpy, I’m afraid.”
I patted his arm. “It’s great. Next time we crash, I’ll make sure to have pillows packed.” I shivered, pulling my coveralls top back over my torso. “It got cold fast,” I muttered.
“And it’ll get colder,” he said, frowning. “Let’s get in and get covered up.”
He handed me in, then jumped down beside me. “You might want to go ahead and lie down.” He pointed to a spot. “Over there should be safe.”
“Should be?” I asked, but hurried to the place he’d indicated.
Standing in the center, he jumped up, grabbed the upper lip of the ship, and pulled it down on top of the trench.
I curled into a tight ball, arms clasped over my head, but other than a few loose pebbles clattering down, nothing fell into the trench.
Our burrow.
Now cut off from the cold night air by my upside-down ship.
“How are we going to get out in the morning?” I wondered, startled