sun ever reaches the waste field. But we can turn on the lights, yes we can, dearie.”
“Turn them on! Turn them on!” shouted the second head.
“Hush, you!” Granny Two-two said, frowning. Then she reached over and pressed a button under the black monitor.
Immediately, the scene on the monitor was illuminated and Penny realized it was because a light located somewhere on the outside of the station had been turned on.
At first, all she could see was what looked like a big blob of brown and black things floating in a cloud of yellow liquid. Then, after a moment, she was able to make out a white shape in the middle of it all.
“There—that’s him.” Granny Two-two said, pointing at the white shape. “Magnify!” she shouted at the monitor and at once the view zoomed in.
Penny was able to see more easily now what was going on. The white object floating in the field of black and brown things and the yellow liquid cloud was actually the Glorious Leader. He still had the Eye of Ten’gu around his neck and his lips were wide open in a scream—which had allowed one of the brown lumps in the cloud to float into his open mouth.
“What’s he eating?” Drace asked, frowning. “I mean, what in the Seven Hells…”
“Look, boy!” Granny Two-two sounded impatient. She pointed at the lettering above the monitor which said, Waste Field. “That’s where all the business of the whole station goes,” she explained. “All the turds, see?”
“All the turds! All the turds!” screeched her second head gleefully.
“And now that bad man is floating in the middle of it.” Granny Two-two had a triumphant sparkle in her faded eyes. “Which is just right, seeing as he’s the biggest turd of all!”
“Oh my!” Penny stared in a disgusted kind of fascination at the brown object that was halfway inside the Glorious Leader’s mouth. Now that she knew what it was, she wasn’t sure if she ought to laugh or be sick!
“Well,” Drace said at last, shaking his head. “Guess he got what he deserved.”
“Yes,” Penny said. “But what about the Eye of Ten’gu?”
It was still just floating there, the chain around the GL’s neck, but the pendant was flying free and the gold and lapis eye was clearly visible on the zoomed-up image. Somehow, none of the excrement in the cloud around it had touched it—it was as though it had some kind of force field keeping it free of contamination, Penny thought.
“The what now, dearie?” Granny Two-two asked.
“That pendant he has around his neck.” Penny pointed to the monitor. “I need it back—he stole it and it’s very important I get it back.”
“Oh dear…” Granny Two-two shook her head sorrowfully. “I’m afraid you ‘ent gonna get it, dearie. Nothing can get into the waste field and get out again alive. See, it’s a super slow time-suck. Even my little quick-loris, as fast as he is, would be stuck like a fly in glue if I tried to send him out. Not that I would.”
She patted one of her many pockets and the little creature popped his head out and chattered for a moment before disappearing back down into the comfort of the worn fabric.
“Then I don’t know what to do…” Penny shook her head. “If only I could call my husband…”
Just then, the metal button she’d been working on getting off her temple finally popped free.
“V’rex?” she sent and was glad to hear her mate come back to her at once.
“Sweetheart! Where are you? I’m fucking worried to death! Did someone hurt you?”
“They tried but I’m okay,” Penny sent back quickly. “But I think we might have a problem. You and Commander Sylvan need to go down the service tunnels and meet me in the Surveillance Room. You need to see this.”
Chapter 117
“Well, I guess there’s not much we can do…” Commander Sylvan frowned at the picture on the monitor. He looked down at Granny Two-two. “You say that sunlight never reaches this spot?”
“Nope, never,” she said stoutly. “For the waste field is in the shadow of the station and nary a ray ever reaches there.”
“Nary a ray! Nary a ray!” shouted her second head.
“Yes, well…” Sylvan looked nonplussed by the second head’s interjection.
“Maybe it’s the Goddess’s will,” Penny offered and blushed when everyone looked at her. “I mean she…she talked to me. I heard her voice,” she said, feeling defensive. “When the Glorious Leader was dragging me along the service corridors and telling me he was going to use