Synnr's Hope - Kate Rudolph Page 0,27

at 10:00, so she was ready at 9:30. Her body was still adjusting to the twenty-two hour long Zulir days. The constant sunlight didn’t help, nor did thirty-four years of dealing with a twenty-four hour schedule.

But Lena had decided to embrace her new world as much as she could. There was no going back to Earth, not ever. And if she sometimes had to wipe away tears wondering what had happened to her family, she’d do it where no one could see. Let the Zulir throw anything they wanted at her. She could take it.

After she warmed up her muscles.

She found a small workout room and thought it was unoccupied until she heard a female grunt and looked over to see a blonde head bobbing in and out of view near what looked sort of like a squat rack. Lena recognized that blonde head and she would have turned right back around if Grace hadn’t caught her gaze in the mirror and lifted an eyebrow in challenge.

Great, now if she walked away she’d lose something. She wasn’t sure exactly what, but she would lose and Grace would win and she didn’t want that. Grace was fully human, but she’d been raised on Aorsa by a human mother and her Zulir step-father. At some point she’d joined the military and had been sent down to Kilrym to infiltrate the same facility where Lena and her friends had been held. Grace had been the model prisoner, currying favor with their guards and alienating all of the other humans. She’d also been instrumental in eventually freeing the humans. Lena’s feelings about the young woman were... complicated. And she wasn’t in the mood to talk.

So she didn’t, instead waiting to see what Grace would say. Grace remained silent.

It went on for another minute before Lena gave up. She headed to one of the workout stations, ignoring Grace, and powered up the treadmill-like device. It wasn’t identical. It was built into the ground and operated by waving her hand over a sensor, but Lena quickly got the hang of it. She started slow but quickly picked up the pace. The machine adjusted to her stride. She didn’t know exactly how fast she was running, but it felt good. And by the time she was warmed up enough to begin stretching, Grace was gone.

Good.

Lena wanted to hit herself. She shouldn’t be feeling good about avoiding interaction with Grace. Grace had done nothing but her job. She was a decent person who’d done a duty. They didn’t need to be best friends, but that didn’t mean Lena should treat her like crap.

That was another resolution for the list. Be nicer to Grace. Fine. But she wasn’t going to chase her down to do it.

Awareness pricked at the back of her neck a second before she heard the door open. Lena stood up from her stretch and turned to see Solan watching her. Had he been looking at her butt?

Not the time.

“You’re early,” he said.

“Early is on time.” It had been drilled into her in the military and she wasn’t going to forget it now.

“I have a training station set up. Ready?” He nodded back towards the hallway.

She followed him out. “Thanks for that tip about the translator.”

“What?” The halls were a maze around them and Lena hoped she didn’t have to find her way out alone.

“I did a bit of research after we... talked. And I successfully read a paragraph from that book. And now I know more about fertilizer maintenance than I ever wanted.” She hadn’t been able to sleep, so studying had seemed like a great idea. She needed more practice, but she was sure it would all come together soon enough.

“That’s great.” He grinned at her and Lena’s stomach flipped. Stupid stomach. Stupid grinning man. She wasn’t going to put up with that.

The training room looked a little like a shooting range, but not a shooting range that Lena had ever seen. There were targets set up at intervals, some made of paper, some freestanding, and paint on the floor marked the distance.

She could barely hold in her excitement. This was really happening. She had a purpose again. She wouldn’t need to rely on Crowze’s kindness or anything else for long. She could stand on her own.

Well. Mostly. There was still Solan right there beside her.

“Where are the guns?” she asked. She’d briefly carried a Zulir blaster when they went to liberate her fellow prisoners, but other than that she’d been unarmed for months.