"We're supposed to fight that thing?" Ro demanded.
Amryn smiled with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "Something that destroys worlds, huh? This will be more fun than the time I dropped the jam pastry on Jane Braghston."
Gina simply waited with Quill to see what Vienn would say.
"We understand that this is a difficult thing to ask of people so young in age. But from what we've seen from our observations of you as we searched the country for children, you seem the fittest to fulfill the program with the honor and discipline of true Lia'unn youth. You are the last hope for your world, the children we found most suitable. If you back out, that is your choice. But you must forever live with the doubts that I am sure will plague you throughout all of your days as you turn away from the innocents who need you. Not for the good of your life, but for the good of the earth."
"Mr. Vienn," Gina said uncertainly, "what exactly can your technology do for us?"
The other piped in.
"Why were we chosen?"
"How are we going to defeat this Fu'nas beast?"
Vienn held up his hands.
"All in good time," he assured. "For now, simply rest. Some of you have traveled long distances to be here for this, and now you must regain your strength for the time ahead of you. We have precisely two months from this date until the creature awakens from the force-induced coma. Perhaps less, as we have not factored in all of the strength of the creature's brain."
"Two months to get ready for a massive attack on the Earth," Quill whispered to himself, "Two months."
"Why would you wait until this soon to tell us this!" Ro burst in. "'Oh, we selected you to save the world...'," she mocked, waving her hands around, "Oh yeah, and we only have two months to do it." Apparently, the only tone that Ro was capable of using was decidedly grumpy and extremely loud. Did she understand the meaning of controlling your tongue? Evidently not.
"It has taken us this long to get the machinery working. We have tried to everything we could to have it work on us in the proper way, but it simply will not accept someone of our age. You have chosen to stay here and at least give the program a shot for us. Stay."
Ro rolled her eyes and tossed her long reddish-brown hair over her shoulder.
"Fine." She conceded with a silent grimace, deliberately looking strained at keeping what she wanted to say in.
"Good. Now, Zu'lio will show the girls to their chambers and the boys can follow me."
Gina zoned out after Zu'lio began to talk about the history of the building they were in, and how it had come to be that they had gotten ahold of it. The information was supposedly important, but she was so caught up in her inner world, that the outer one simply faded away.
So, two months, huh? That is a small chunk of time considering that we have to learn how to work technology from another world, learn about this monstrous demon creature that hunts entire worlds, and work together as a team. I take it back. It's not doable.
No matter what happens, Gina, you alone have control over your own actions. You must choose whether to work hard to save the earth. The others may not be as willing. But I have made my choice. If it falls to me, I will do what I must.
She tuned back in just in time to hear an extremely long-winded explanation of the structural composition of the typical mansion compared to the Woodside manor, and then, finally, they reached their destination and Zu'lio made the announcement that he would, 'Leave them to their sleeping quarters.'"
The smaller building had been painted a light shade of tinted rose, with large trellises of flowers hanging down around the outside of it in swooping mistletoe fashion. They were beautiful.
After the door had shut behind her, Gina finally relaxed and let out a breath. Zu'lio was a nice person, for an alien, but he didn't know when to stop. She wasn't known for her attention span.
Although, how was he to know that? It isn't as though he has an Earth background, or knows Earth customs. On Lia'unn perhaps all of the youth are attentive listeners, with the ability to concentrate for far longer periods than we are capable of.
The room before her was just as large and spacious as the other building and didn't disappoint on decorations either. It had brightly whitewashed walls, with little flowers on them. The design was typical of a young girl's bedroom, and another girl may have put up a fuss about it being too young looking, but it satisfied Gina so much that she could barely conceal a huge smile.
A whole room for you and one other person! She thought with tears brimming in her eyes. Her dream had made its way to reality. She was never going to have to share a room with eight horrid young boys, with nasty pranks and terrible smells. Although perhaps she had merely traded them out for a less obvious, but just as awful torture.
"Well, this has now ruined my day. What an awful room," Ro the grump said in her huffiest voice, her eye roll reflecting her indefinitely bad mood. She was more like a lamenting, groaning cat than a proper girl, Gina decided.
"I'll be moving the bed away from that window," Ro said. She sniffed with her nose tilted at an upwards angle. "I simply cannot stand sun hitting me in the eyes the instant I wake up. I will also have to do something about sharing... with.... with you." She made a pinched expression with her face at Gina, her nose scrunched up in dislike.
Gina marveled over her capacity to take things for granted that were given to her.
She tried to be gentle, and firm. Life always had its challenging people, and challenging people often said hurtful or provoking things. Gina couldn't control what they would say, but she could always be in control of how she responded.
"Why is sharing with me a bad thing?" Gina asked, trying not to let hurt leak into her voice, but some did anyway.
Ro looked away, pretending that Gina was invisible
"I've shared with far worse people," Gina muttered under her breath when RO ignored her attempt at friendship.
She had no right to be treating Gina like this when there were hundreds of people on the street with nothing at all of their own. They would beg for this space, share it with twenty people if necessary. This was a luxury and she was treating it like an insult.
"Sure," Ro the Grump finally managed to say sarcastically, in her customary angry tone. "Mrs. Hardship here knows all about what it's like to live without things."
Ro stood up, holding her hand to her head and swooning. "'Oh look at me, I'm Gina the orphan. Help me, I'm too weak and frail to help myself.' You don't know anything about me. .... so just leave it alone, and stop with the act. If you can manage to keep out of my business and my space and we'll be fine. Capiche?"
Gina controlled herself, and her tongue with effort, wanting to shout back at Ro in anger to match.
He clenched her teeth on the wild thing. "Yes, you have made yourself clear."
When Gina turned away she felt anger fade and doubts slowly creep in like molasses to replace it; slow and thickening the longer they sat.
How could anyone get along with someone like that? And why on earth would she have been chosen for saving everyone? She needed to be sent somewhere cold and hard and learn a good lesson about hardship. Not be told that she had what it took to save the earth out of every other girl nearby.
Gina's thoughts settled some as she stretched out along the length of the bed. It was so much nicer than anything she had ever slept on that she could hardly believe it was a bed. The things she had slept on were like rocks compared to it.
A thought struck her then and brightened her mood considerably.
This is my first real home.
The thought was a happy one, and a ray of sunshine into this now considerably darker room. After Ro had finished her speech on the shortcomings of the room, she had promptly covered the window in some cloth, spread out coverings over her new bed, and fallen asleep. Now the room was dark and far less cheery feeling than it had been before.
The thinking led to another hope still, a small hope.
This manor, these people, this bed, they are all apart of something larger. This is a safe place that I can come back to and stay at when I need to. The manor can become my true home now.
Gina could finally make a way for herself in the world, as she had always wanted to. And with that final thought, she fell into a deep sleep that encompassed her world.