#teasertuesday Haven

Cloth covered Kolya’s eyes. Wet cloth. Not a blindfold. He lay in–in a hard bed or maybe a couch. Someone was singing.

“In a canyon, in a cavern, excavating for a mine,”

He didn’t know the voice. Even when he realized it should be Jadzia, not Emmie, he didn’t recognize the woman’s voice. But it was pretty. He lay still and wondered if he’d come at last to his new master.

“…lived a miner, forty niner and his daughter Clementine.”

If he had…then so far so good? He was comfortable and cared for. Only he was starving, and the last time he ate–

Kolya remembered the shuttle and his face grew hot. He wondered if Keen and Jadzia had set him up and thought probably they had, but it was his own fault for eating like that. Gevinni always warned him, and Kolya never listened, so he got exactly what he should eat and nothing more, because he’d be as big as a house otherwise and then how would he work?

“Oh my darlin’, oh my darlin’ oh my–there’s a girl!” A hand brushed his cheek. “Ooh, your face is warm. Are you sick, honey?”

“…who are you?”

“Poor thing, of course you’re confused! I’m Mari. Jadzia didn’t want to leave you, but she’s working her passage and had to go on duty.” The cloth lifted. Kolya lay in a narrow bed with another bed above him and someone was laying in it, he could see the shape pressed through the thin mattress. A round, comfortable, brown woman with straight hair and a big smile sat beside him, offering a container with a straw. The room was dim, but Kolya thought he saw more beds, and he didn’t see any windows. He sat up a little bit and Mari held the drink for him and smiled and nodded as he sipped. Something sweet. And she kept smiling, and patting his hand. Kolya dared another question.

“…passage to where?”

“BFR, of course. She’s got to get home and see those boys haven’t wrecked the place.”

BFR. Be`effar? He’d never heard of it. Hans said the frontier colonies bought kids to work in mines and other dark and dangerous places the grown-ups couldn’t fit or didn’t want to. Kolya reminded himself he was beautiful, and so worth far more than most, and no one would go to another planet to steal one kid to work in mines anyways.

“Now you’ve gone all pale.” Mari clucked just like Emmie would. “You are sick, aren’t you, my girl? You should have told Jadzia. Not that she could have waited for you to feel better…” She shook her head. “Well. You’ll be all right. Just drink the rest of that, there’s a girl. The warning will come soon, so it’s drink it or dump it.”

Kolya sipped a bit more, reminding himself he wouldn’t be beautiful long if he kept on with the sweets. He could still land in the mines and he’d never grow too big for the work. “I…don’t want any more, thank you.”

“So?” Mari took the container and moved away, came back empty-handed as a voice warned the crew to prepare for vectors. She sat beside Kolya again. “You’ve never been off-planet before, Kolya?”

“No, m–ma’am.”

“Such lovely manners.” She took his hand. “That chime means we’ll shift to hyperspace soon.”

Hyperspace! Kolya bit his lip on another whine. Mari shook her head.

“Oh, you poor girl. What’s Jadzia think she’s doing, I’d like to know, stealing you away and then leaving you with a stranger?” She squeezed his hand. “Here now. You’re a tiny little thing. Move over.”

Kolya blinked, but he obeyed. In a moment Mari lay beside him, and in another she’d wrapped her arms around him. “There you go. You just cuddle up to Mari and don’t fret. I’ll look after you, young one.” She did something and netting shot over the bed, restraining them both. Mari patted his shoulder. “It’s to keep us from getting hurt,” she told him. “Take deep breaths now. Relax. When the shift comes it’s like the whole world goes inside out, but you keep breathing and you’ll be okay in a minute. I’ll get you another drink soon as it’s done.”

She started to sing again, the lullaby from the shuttle, and finally Kolya realized she’d been the one to start the singing then. He didn’t know her and he didn’t know anything else either, but she was gentle and comfortable and she sang sweetly and he laid his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes and breathed and somehow he slept through his first hyperspace conversion.