Kraken Orbital Read Free

up. My
back is making all sorts of protesting
scrapes and cracking noises but I can do it. I let out a sigh of
relief once my head is securely and firmly clasped in my hands. I
push the compress hard into my forehead and squeeze a little water
into my mouth as it dribbles down my battered and bruised face. I
suppose I better be polite to this guy. He did save my
life.
    I glance up
to start talking to him and catch a glimpse of his eyes again. I
can barely meet them. They are cold, red and bloodshot, and he
doesn’t seem to know how to stop staring. He has no emotion in
them. It’s like they’re frozen or
something. Locked in one moment. I turn away but push myself to
make the effort.
    ‘ Look…’ I
begi n. I’ve always been funny at
expressing any kind of emotion. Gratitude especially. Maybe I had
it beaten out of me years ago at work. ‘I never said thanks for…’
He didn’t let me finish.
    ‘There is no problem.’ I know what he means.
But I use his tenuous grasp of my language to start a
conversation.
    ‘I think we might have a few problems Kolt.’
I even manage a snigger. I thought, when I looked over to him once
more, that my jibe might have confused him. But he doesn’t, still,
manage any other facial expression than those frozen stiff
eyes.
    ‘That is not what I meant.’ He didn’t seem
amused at all.
    ‘It’s just a joke, relax.’ I urge him, trying
to put the fire out before it can extend into an argument. I
gesture forward with one hand, sort of like a submissive wave, and
he looks as though he accepts it. He backs off a touch.
    ‘Thanks.’ I say again, hoping that it might
be able to backtrack the conversation to a point where we were both
a little more comfortable. I wish I could see his face. I can’t
read him. I try again to engage him, ‘Where are you from Kolt.’ I’m
not talkative. Frankly I like my own company and I’m never too
interested in making new friends. They just cloud and clutter my
already unbearable life. But I’m beginning to sense that I’m going
to be the driver of the relationship between myself and this
guy.
    Maybe I’m judging that a little early. Maybe
I should just give him a chance.
    ‘Russia.’ He
replies, proudly, and with an elevated voice. I think he might be
smiling. But I wouldn’t put a year’s wage
of sweet nothing on it. I’m just glad he said something. This guy
has me on edge. I have to admit he is freaking me out. It’s his
eyes.
    ‘Which one?’ I ask him to confirm. I’m just
trying to hold down a decent conversation with him through my
throbbing head.
    ‘The first, and only.’ He replies even
prouder still.
    That means
he’s from Earth and not one of the colonies.
    The colonies
sprung up almost spasmodically after the invention of hyper drive
only about two hundred years ago. I
almost don’t want to say.
    ‘I’m not from
Earth.’ I tell him. For reasons that don’t matter for anything
anymore, the emergence of colonies, just like in the Imperial age
back on Earth, caused wars. Independence wars, power hungry wars
and wars over resources. Those times became known collectively as
the “Colony Wars”. Some of the silly prejudices those wars created
lingered on. A lot of Earth people still hate colonists.
    ‘ An enemy
yesterday becomes a friend today.’ Kolt answers. I wish he would
just stop staring at me. Those eyes of his. It feels like they’re
piercing right through my skull and spooning my thoughts out of my
brain before they even occur to me. I’m surprised by his answer
though. Usually I get spat at. But I guess, out here, we are both
alone. Forced together. I think we both know that we have more
chance of staying alive if we stay together. I sense Kolt doesn’t
want our different backgrounds to drive a stake between our
fledgling friendship. He turns back to whatever it was he was doing
before.
    ‘ How did you
end up here?’ I ask him. I, with a huge amount of effort, lift my
broken body up and onto my feet. My