Horizon

Chapter 9: Sun

Sun didn't know what to do, what to feel. Ever since the captain's sons rescued her, she felt adrift, emotionless. The earlier sobbing gave way to a vast emptiness within her. She kept seeing her mother's vacant eyes staring and staring as she was dragged away by the creature.

One thing was certain. Lily saved her daughter's life by giving up her own.

Sun shuddered away from the thought. She had no idea if her mother was actually dead. She could have been unconscious. Drugged, even. But Sun knew deep down what that glazed, empty look meant.

"Can you take care of her?" The tall, handsome spacer spoke to her. Sun looked up, trying to focus while her mother's vacant face swam in her vision.

"What?"

He drew a deep breath then smiled at her, a lovely smile, warm and understanding. He had the most beautiful eyes, so blue.

"I'm Archer," he said in that velvety voice of his. "And this is Sammel." He motioned to the boy next to him. "You're Sun, right?"

Yes, that was right. How did he know? "My name?" She whispered.

"It's kind of my job," he told her. "Sun, I need you to stay with us, can you do that?" She blinked a few times. She wasn't going anywhere.

"Yes," she said.

"Sammel and I have to find out what's going on," Archer said. "Find the captain or anyone else who is still on board."

She nodded. Yes. Of course. Made sense.

"Good," he smiled at her again. "Now, you're parents are doctors, aren't they?"

Her mother's eyes bored a hole through her. Sun swallowed bile rising in her throat and just kept nodding.

"I need you to take her to the infirmary." He moved aside so Sun could see the girl from the spaceport, the one who was so rude to her. She lay on her side, crumpled like a damaged doll in very little clothing, one foot bare, the other stuffed into an impossibly high heel, unconscious. "I need you to make sure she's okay. Can you do that, Sun?"

She spent her entire life around medicine. Her parents wanted her to follow their path and exposed her to even the most gruesome of cases from a very early age. The life-long training snapped her out of her daze. She went immediately to her patient and looked the girl over.

"How long has she been out?" She caught Archer's eye and the surprise there. "I don't know," he said. "When I... she was like this when I found her."

"Where's the infirmary?" Archer pointed to a map panel on the wall, lit by the pulsing red light.

"Two corridors down, two right, end of the last hall." He climbed to his feet and helped her to hers. "Can you get her there yourself?"

Sun hesitated. The ship shuddered, a vast groaning sound echoing through the hull, the vibration traveling up her legs to her pounding heart.

"Yes," she said.

Archer squeezed her arm, gratitude on his face, and left her there. "Sammel!" He shouted over his shoulder. "Engine room!"

Sun almost stopped the boy, her doctoring instincts awake at last. He looked so fragile standing there, damaged somehow. But at his brother's command, he spun and ran the other way.

Sun looked down at her comatose charge and let out a deep, shuddering sigh. Then, she slid her hands under the girl's arms and pulled her down the hall.

Luckily, the thin carpeting on the deck was slippery. And the short skirt the girl wore was of some synthetic fabric making it even easier. But despite these bonuses, Sun was still forced to take several breaks to catch her breath and was soaked in sweat and panting by the time she found the right door.

At least Archer's directions were accurate. She would have hated to have to go any further than she did.

Sun gave herself a few minutes rest before wrestling the girl onto one of the tables. As she pushed, lifted and shoved the girl to her feet, Sun groaned. The surface was a hover bed. She could have just lowered the thing to the floor and rolled the girl in. Sun found herself laughing at the absurdity of it before crying hopelessly as the tension caught up with her.

Sun performed a quick examination through bouts of uncontrollable tears, realizing only as she bent over the girl there was a strong odor about her. Sun leaned back, her grief and fear turning to fury, stopping her weeping in its tracks. She was drunk! And from the redness of her nasal passages, stoned as well. Sun felt anger surge through her, more than she'd ever allowed herself to feel in her life. She didn't even finish her exam. Instead, she found an ampoule of restorative and injected enough in the girl's arm to wake the dead.

The girl jerked awake, almost rolling from the bed. Only Sun's inbred kindness allowed her to prevent the fall even while she cursed herself for doing so.

"Wha...? What happened?" The girl tried to sit up. Sun pushed her back down. She had never been so aggressive before and was shocked at herself.

"The ship was attacked," Sun snapped at her, "while you were enjoying yourself."

The girl blinked at her a few times. "Attacked? Where's my father?" She was still under the influence, her words slurring together, looking about as if her precious daddy stood there waiting for her.

"I don't know," Sun said, wiping her drying tears away with the corner of her sleeve. "I don't know much of anything." Except that my mother is most likely dead and you survived, she thought.

The girl struggled to a sitting position, an ungainly and unladylike affair Sun did nothing to prevent. And to think this girl thought she was better than everyone else.

"I'm done wasting my time here," Sun said. "We thought you were injured. Now I know the truth, you're on your own."

She turned to leave the girl, just wanting to get away from her and the stench of her debauchery. Sun made it out into the corridor before she felt a hand grip her arm and refuse to let go.

"Don't leave me," the girl blubbered, clutching at Sun. "Please, don't leave me alone!"

The shred of humanity showing through the arrogant girl's first impression reached Sun. Her heart softened. Unaccustomed as she was to this new experience of anger and aggression, she gave in to the girl's need and returned to her familiar role.

"What's your name?" She did the first thing her parents taught her and tried to make a connection.

"Bronwyn," the girl snuffled back some tears and mucus, staring eyes glazing.

"I'm Sun," she said, using the soothing tone her mother insisted she practice, her doctor's bedside voice. "We need to find the bridge." Sun drew the girl closer and supported her.

Sun wasn't sure if the girl understood, but in the end it didn't matter. As she finished speaking, the ship shook with great violence, sending them both to the deck, Bronwyn falling on top of Sun so hard she lost her breath.

When the latest tremor stopped, it took Sun a good minute to calm Bronwyn's sobbing enough to get her to her feet. Sun half-led, half-carried the other girl with her to the map on the wall. They were decks and distance from the bridge, but Sun could only think they had to get to safety and, to her, safety meant Archer O'Malley. The memory of the gaping hole in the ship made her shudder and wonder how long they could last with such an injury to the hull of the Day Wanderer.

Not knowing what else to do and with determination but little hope, Sun set out to find her hero.

***