Trial Run!
Karolina sat on the edge of her new bed and gripped her knees 'til her knuckles went white. This was not her familiar room back at the Hostel; the air here was processed and metallic rather than muggy and sulfuric. The furniture had a stark, utilitarian feel to it, the ergonomics totally alien. She wondered if she'd be able to sleep at all, then remembered that she and her friends had bunked down in some pretty inhospitable places in their time.
The thought of Nico, Gert, Chase and Victor finding their rooms equally uncomfortable made her smile. Karolina would never be able to thank them enough for coming with her. For all her brave talk of righting her parents' wrongs, she knew she never would've found the courage without them. Alone, they were just a bunch of bratty teenagers, but together they were indestructable and that made her feel as strong and she sometimes pretended to be.
But there was one thing they couldn't help her tackle, and her (his? Did shapeshifting aliens have the same concept of gender? Did one or the other raise the babies? Was there equal pay for equal work? What about birth control? Or did any of the things that had fed her activist anger back in the day even apply!?) name was Xavin. Karolina took a deep breath, clapped her hands to her cheeks and got up off the bed. She wanted to talk to Xavin now, without an audience, to figure out where they stood. She had to make it very clear that coming to Majesdane was not the same as agreeing to get married. That wasn't even legal (or was it, where Xavin was from?!), and she didn't see how marrying some traitor's daughter off to the enemy prince was going to get the Majesdanians to drop their weapons.
That was another thing. What did she know about interstellar politics? She'd only ever cared about animal rights! Karolina almost gave in and sat back down, but knew she'd never get up again if she did. So, with another deep breath and a determined face, she pressed her hand to the door's lock and stepped out into the shuttle. It was a small craft (really, she was surprised there was room for all of them, and it was a tight fit for Gert and Chase to share their room with Old Lace), and the bridge wasn't far away. She figured she'd find Xavin setting their course to...Majesdane. Not-home.
The thought of Nico, Gert, Chase and Victor finding their rooms equally uncomfortable made her smile. Karolina would never be able to thank them enough for coming with her. For all her brave talk of righting her parents' wrongs, she knew she never would've found the courage without them. Alone, they were just a bunch of bratty teenagers, but together they were indestructable and that made her feel as strong and she sometimes pretended to be.
But there was one thing they couldn't help her tackle, and her (his? Did shapeshifting aliens have the same concept of gender? Did one or the other raise the babies? Was there equal pay for equal work? What about birth control? Or did any of the things that had fed her activist anger back in the day even apply!?) name was Xavin. Karolina took a deep breath, clapped her hands to her cheeks and got up off the bed. She wanted to talk to Xavin now, without an audience, to figure out where they stood. She had to make it very clear that coming to Majesdane was not the same as agreeing to get married. That wasn't even legal (or was it, where Xavin was from?!), and she didn't see how marrying some traitor's daughter off to the enemy prince was going to get the Majesdanians to drop their weapons.
That was another thing. What did she know about interstellar politics? She'd only ever cared about animal rights! Karolina almost gave in and sat back down, but knew she'd never get up again if she did. So, with another deep breath and a determined face, she pressed her hand to the door's lock and stepped out into the shuttle. It was a small craft (really, she was surprised there was room for all of them, and it was a tight fit for Gert and Chase to share their room with Old Lace), and the bridge wasn't far away. She figured she'd find Xavin setting their course to...Majesdane. Not-home.