Starfish

Ten

Wobbling but determined, Nina rose to her feet – slowly – and clung to the couch while her legs stabilized. She took a few cautious steps and when she didn't collapse in a boneless heap, she used the couch and table and other furniture to navigate to the kitchen. She knew she had bottled water somewhere low; she wasn't about to risk climbing in her current state. Fortunately as she took one step and then another, her bare feet secure on the smooth floor, her confidence in her legs grew. She managed after a few tries to pull open the refrigeration unit and found a bottle of sailorfruit juice. Even better. She sat on the floor and wrestled with the cap, eventually winning the fight. The juice slaked her thirst and she leaned back against the cool brushed steel. Looking up she saw her reflection in the glass front of the heating element. She recalled the night she'd returned from her review and shook her head, thinking about how she'd admired her own reflection and – she cringed – how she'd imagined flirting with the dark Dreen. "God, I'm a moron. Why did I do that? It's not like there's anything there..."

Wasn't there? The look he'd given her when he'd said those words, "I have her." His voice had been so soft, his eyes kind. His whole attitude had changed since she'd stopped him in the hall and asked him why he'd been so strange and cold to her. That's because he's not a shark or a whale, Nina. He's a person, he's self-aware, he can adjust his behavior if he has a reason to. Stop thinking about him like he's a sea monster. Nina laughed – really just a huff through her nose at her own silliness – and twisted the cap back onto the juice bottle. Isn't he, though? Maybe just a little bit? She rolled to her knees and used the tall counters to pull herself back up to her feet. As long as she had both feet and one hand on a solid surface – three points of contact – falling was less of a concern. Nina made her way down the hall, heading for the bathroom. I need a shower, change of clothes, something to eat.

Standing under the waterfall-style spout, Nina scrubbed the feeling of old sweat and sterile infirmary sheets from her skin. The smell of ginger and lokelani brought on a stab of homesickness, deepened by the realization that she was hundreds of millions of miles from the blue planet Dreenai reminded her so much of. Nina held the soap up to her nose, warm and nutty bottom notes of coconut and macadamia oil taking her back to when she was nineteen and reading the first Dreen-to-English translation of Doctor Ardus's paper on the ecology of Dreenai estuaries for her first university project. Even translated the passionately descriptive cataloging of plant and animal life on another world had swept her away, taking her from the familiar white beaches of Kaneohe Bay to new places with bizarre names she could just barely pronounce. Even then, Nina had known she wanted to explore this world and meet the weird and wonderful people and even stranger creatures. She sought out Doctor Ardus's papers for years after that like a junkie looking for a fix, learning formal and casual Dreen so she could read them as soon as they were available. That she would end up needing to be carried by the very Dreen who had ignited her passion for alien biology was a blast of icy water after a warm soak – shocking and disorienting and almost as embarrassing as catching herself daydreaming about the arms and body hidden beneath dark clothes she could only imagine.

Nina snapped back to the present, realizing with a start that she was squeezing her own arm with a soapy hand, trying to bring back the sensation of his warm fingers, the grip that was strong yet gentle. The hell? Nina shook herself and rinsed, turning up the heat until the shower steamed and she felt like she was drinking the humid air. She wrapped herself in a towel as big as a bed-sheet and combed her hair, weaving it into a braid so it wouldn't get into her face as she worked on the assignments he'd given her. I wonder if Dreen hair gets tangled. She'd seen him run his clawed fingers through the fleshy barbels as thick as her finger. How sharp were those claws? She looked at her arm where he'd held her, finding not so much as a scratch. Being such big people Nina expected more mishaps, accidental and probably even slight, but so far the worst that had happened was that knee in the side that made her lose her dinner. She winced, That was the second time I fell over in front of him. Why do I keep doing that? And why is he always there when it happens? The universe must be playing tricks on her, Maybe Aku and Omi had a twisted sense of humor.