Illiya - Taylor Neeran Chronicles #1

Chapter 5 - Escape

Cargo bay

Taylor lingered in the kitchen long after her mother returned to the bridge. Her anger slowly dissipated and she became restless. Not wanting to return to the bridge and face Carla just yet, she headed down the long central passage towards the cargo bay, followed closely by Squilm.

Although it was routinely sterilised, the cargo bay had a lingering scent of oil and dirt. After a minute or two of casual exploration she found what she was looking for.

Leigh was tinkering in a small recess along the edge of the cargo bay. Dozens of small parts and wires lay strewn across the workbench. He was looking through a large magnifying glass as he fused two fine wires together. "You make more noise than an elephant," he remarked, not looking up from his work. "Your cat is a lot quieter."

Taylor grinned. "And how would you know how noisy they are? Have you ever seen an elephant?"

Leigh put down the fusing tool and looked up. "Of course not, they're extinct, eh? But I've seen vids."

Taylor shook her head as Squilm hopped up onto a crate and began to clean herself. "There are elephants on Proxima Centauri B. I rode one of them on holiday when I was seven, visiting my Aunt Charlotte on Mum's side."

Leigh frowned. "Them's bottle elephants. Test tubes, DNA, take a bit o' juice to any planet you want, mix it up and you can have a zoo full of long-lost creatures, any sort you like, even some dinosaurs they say. I'm talking about real elephants, wild and free, made the old fashioned way - on earth. They've been gone for centuries."

"An elephant is an elephant, no matter where they came from."

Leigh winked. "And a person's a person, no matter how small - Dr. Seuss, if I recall. Horton was a smart elephant."

Taylor smiled. "I guess so," then an image of their petite xenobiologist flashed through her mind and her expression darkened.

"Trouble in paradise?" Leigh asked with a gentle smile.

Taylor closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "Um, it's fine. No problem."

Leigh swivelled on the stool to look at her straight on. "Something's bugging you. C'mon, you can talk to old Leigh. Better let it out than bottle it all up and fester."

Taylor sighed. "I was just with Carla. She was testing me at the science station. It was worse than being in an exam."

"Now, now, I'm sure you did fine, bright young girl like you."

"That's the trouble. I thought I was doing OK, and she had some tough questions. But no matter what I said, she shot me down. I couldn't say anything right," she took a ragged breath and sat down on the edge of a canvas-covered crate.

"Ah," said Leigh, the stool creaking as he leaned forward. "How many questions did she ask you?"

Taylor's forehead creased in thought. "It wasn't exactly like a numbered test. But maybe - a dozen? It went on for twenty minutes or so, but it felt much longer than that."

Leigh whistled. "She must hate you."

Taylor leaned forward on the crate, eyes wide. "Why do you say that?"

He tapped the side of his nose. "She's competitive, and smart, real smart. She's had a go at each of us, questioning us I mean, trying to show how smart she is. Usually it only takes a few minutes before she finds something to stump us, and she can have her victory. I had my turn when I joined. Got farther than most, I suppose, but it doesn't matter, at least not to me."