In the distance, she heard excited voices and returned to the main corridor. Jen stood near the sanitation suite door, counting people off. She looked at Ky. “Admiral. It’s too bad we didn’t find this place right away.”
“Agreed,” Ky said. “Would have saved us those miserable days down on the beach.” She didn’t mention Jen’s opposition to her exploration. “Still a lot of questions to answer about this place.”
“Just a moment,” Jen said to Droshinski and Hazarika as they started to enter. “Let the admiral go first.”
“No,” Ky said. “I’ll wait. And I can show you where you’ll be quartered, Commander.”
“But I need to—”
“I don’t think anyone’s going to skimp on their shower,” Ky said, grinning. “Come on—you’ll have a real bed and some privacy.”
Jen sighed but followed as Ky led the way down the passage. “You can have your pick of these two rooms,” Ky said, gesturing to the doors. “I’ve claimed the one on the end. It’s got a little office in front where I can do paperwork and we can talk in private. I haven’t seen the others yet; they may be the same.”
Jen opened the door to the right. She also had two rooms, both smaller than Ky’s. “Very nice,” she said. “Who’s got the one on the other side?”
“Nobody,” Ky said. “Marek refused it; he wants to be up the passage nearer the watch office.”
“You offered him an officer suite?” Jen’s brows were up.
Ky wondered what Cascadian rule she’d broken this time. “He’s the senior NCO, two grades higher than any other.”
“But it put him back here with us—with two women. It would have been… unseemly.”
“It’s—” Ky stopped. She had been saying It’s different here. This is Slotter Key, not Cascadia too much. Yet it was true: in Spaceforce, men and women bunked in the same passage, even in the same bay.
“It is not appropriate,” Jen said with emphasis. “I know this is an emergency situation and I said nothing in the life rafts. But now that there’s room, it matters. The very fact we’re so isolated and few in number…”
Ky managed not to say, You remind me of Aunt Grace at her worst. “Well, he refused,” she said instead, “so it’s not an issue.”
“He refused very properly,” Jen said. “He knows what is appropriate; you are lucky he is with us.”
“If you’re satisfied with your quarters, let’s go get some clothes and start moving in,” Ky said, hoping to cut off that topic. She turned to leave.
“I don’t suppose there will be any proper insignia,” Jen said. “It’s important to maintain appropriate appearance—”
If she heard appropriate many more times today, Ky thought, she would say something inappropriate. On purpose. She held her tongue all the way down into the clothing stores.
There she gathered enough almost-fitting clothes to last several days and tried on several pairs of indoor soft-soled shoes until she found one that—with two pairs of socks—fit well enough to walk in without tripping. When Jen had an armload of her own, they returned to their quarters. All the others were either in the showers or already out. Ky dumped all but a utility uniform, underwear, and socks on her bed and headed for a shower.
Hot water and soft soap were sheer bliss. She felt both grime and muscle knots melting away. Now she could really see how thin she’d become in only a few tendays, ribs and hip bones prominent. Well, food and exercise would fix that. Maybe there was a gym in this place, too. And a clinic. One cut looked puffy and red. Others, too, would have unhealed injuries. And they needed a laundry: one or two ’freshers would not be enough for everyone.
Once in clean new clothes, she padded sock-footed out to the main room, ran her hands through her clean hair, and braided it snugly to the back of her head. She heard another shower running. Jen, most likely. She picked up her dirty clothes from the floor, wrinkling her nose at the smell. It was worth trying what the ’fresher could do with them, but she suspected her uniform would never be the same.
By the time she had put her survival suit and uniform into the ’fresher and set it on long cycle, she could smell something cooking. She fished in the desk drawer for a fresh cord and tied off her braid. She heard Jen next door, opening and shutting her inner door, and met Jen in the passage.
“Good to be clean again, isn’t it?” Ky asked.
“Necessary,” Jen said. She looked Ky up and down. “We need to find a way to put your insignia on these things.” She had her own pinned to her shoulders.
“I don’t think anyone’s going to mistake me for anyone else,” Ky said.
“That’s not the point,” Jen said. “If you—” She clamped her mouth tight, gave a little shake of her head, and followed Ky down the passage.
“I wanted mine to go through the ’fresher,” Ky said. “They’ll be shinier when it’s done, probably.”
“Oh. Well, then. At least you’re thinking about it.”
Ky could think of no answer to that. “Let’s see what Gurton and Kamat have found for supper,” she said. The closer they got to the mess hall, the better the smell. When they came in, Marek signaled the others; everyone stood. A separate table had been set for her and Jen. As soon as they sat down, the cooks brought in the food.
“It’s just a simple stew,” Gurton said. “Not too rich, as you suggested.”
“It’s not basic gruel or fish,” Ky said. “So it’s perfect.”
“We did put some oat flour in it.”
“Fine.”
Halfway through the bowl of stew, she felt much better. She slowed down, aware she’d been gulping it in, in spite of having advised others to eat slowly. “Talented cooks,” she said to Jen.
“It’s excellent,” Jen said. “What about an inventory of the supplies?”
“Tomorrow,” Ky said. “Unless the cooks want to stay up and do it tonight. But I imagine they’ll be tired enough when they’ve cleaned up the kitchen. Tonight I’ll talk to Marek about a work roster.”
“Not much to do down here,” Jen said. “It’s all automatic.”
“As far as we know,” Ky said. “We still don’t know what the power source is, how much fuel there is, what the water source is, and how to monitor the environmental conditions. We need to check every door, every room. How much more is there to this facility? I’d expect some kind of medical area, perhaps even a full clinic, and a gym that could be used in bad weather. A library? A communications center? Perhaps a local weather station giving a readout of conditions on the surface.”
“Isn’t this enough? Water, food, sleeping area, clothing?”
“It’s great, Jen, but why is it here? There’s not supposed to be anything on the whole continent. Yet here we are, with supplies for at least a hundred.” She took another bite and swallowed it. “We need to know what it is, how it got here, and why it’s not known.”
“Secret military bases aren’t unknown.”
“True, but they’re usually known to the military. Marek said he didn’t know about this one. None of the others seemed to know it was here, though I’m going to ask every one of them, now that we’re in a safer place.”
“But it’s a Slotter Key base, so it’s not a problem, is it? If they come here seasonally, they’ll find us and take us away, won’t they?”
Jen, Ky reflected, must have led a very sheltered life. Of course, that’s what Cascadian culture and law were for, to shelter Cascadians from unpleasantness. “Not necessarily,” she said. “Secrecy suggests that our presence could be embarrassing or dangerous for someone. In which case—” Ky ran a finger across her throat, then took another spoonful of the stew.