Servant of the Siphen

Part 1

Caroline slept fitfully in Isamura's embrace much as she had the previous night. It seemed to her that Caroline was as embattled in dreams as she was in the waking world.

“Isamura?” said Caroline as she roused. She waved a hand at the bedside, and a soft glow illuminated the room.

“You were expecting someone else?”

“No. I mean yes. I-” Caroline started, then cut herself off with a resigned sigh. “I'm not going to get used to sharing my bed with you any time soon,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Well I could always go,” Isamura teased, her eyes lighting up mischievously.

“I don't want you to go,” Caroline replied, brushing her cheek affectionately. “But... I keep thinking about Wilma. I feel like I've made a horrible mistake, one I will never be able to fix.”

“No matter what mistakes you feel you have made, you are not a horrible person, Caroline,” Isamura reassured her. “I don't regret having been here to comfort you, to hold you, make love to you. Wilma is lucky to have taken a woman such as yourself to be hers. You will be hers again when you find a way home.”

“I hope so,” Caroline said, doubt clouding her eyes. “I hope there is a way home after all that we've endured.”

Isamura hugged her tightly and whispered reassurances in her ear. “Whatever we endure, I will always love you.”

Abruptly the lights in Caroline's quarters died. “Now what's gone wrong?” she muttered, blindly groping for the comm unit. Though she was sure she thumbed it on, there was nothing, not even an error beep about being unable to establish communications.

Even if she'd had tools and some light, she didn't think she could make the comm unit work anyway. The Orion's internal communications system relied on signal processors and repeaters designed to overcome interference from the artificial gravity grid, which ran under almost every deck. Without power, it was impossible to get a comm signal even to the next compartment.

“Great, just great,” she sighed, “I swear this ship hates me or something.”

Caroline slid out of bed and cautiously edged toward the dressing table, her toes rustling discarded clothing on the way. She found it when her knee thumped into a drawer handle, and cursed under her breath.

Opening the top drawer and raking inside, she pulled out an emergency light and clicked it on, blinking her eyes for a few moments as it cast an orange glow around the room.

Isamura smiled at her, eyes lit with amusement. “You look wonderful like that, Caroline.”

“Like... oh,” Caroline said, realising that the light was illuminating her naked form like a fiercely orange sunset. “Thanks, Isamura. I'm glad you approve," she said with a smirk and a hand on her hip.

She turned and walked over to the connecting door, checking the panel to see if they could leave. It was dead, and no amount of prodding would coax the door to open.

Caroline sighed and padded back, meeting Isamura's sympathetic gaze with a half-smile. She set the emergency light on the bedside and slipped back under the covers. “Looks like we're stuck here for a while,” she remarked, thinking at the moment that being stuck here was not so bad.

"I can think of worse places to be." Isamura smiled and tugged Caroline closer, kissing her lips.

Caroline reveled again in the sensation of those lips pressed to hers. She caressed Isamura's cheek and her fingertips were tickled by strands of hair falling onto Isamura's face.