Free A Stellar Affair by Laurel Richards

arms. Right now, part of her—some stoic, logical fiber—was processing all of this, but the rest of her rejected the truth.
    He decided this was a good point to stop for the day. “All right, Ardra. I know it’s hard, but consider it, okay?”
    She didn’t answer.
    He moved to the door and called for the guard to come get her. Her gaze never left his as she was led out of his house, and he hoped she would think things over once she got back to her holding cell.
    Long after Ardra had returned to her room, she was still fuming. It was bad enough she felt some weird connection to Jack. Now she was letting him get under her skin.
    She would know if she was a carrier, wouldn’t she? Just because she couldn’t come up with the name of a childhood friend or classmate didn’t mean anything. She hadn’t remembered that student tech’s name—Melissa or Meissa or whatever—either. Ardra wasn’t good with names. And even if some of her memories were a little vague, they were still real to her. There was no way she could be confused about her whole life.
    She cursed her doubts as she went back to work. Whatever Roimirans had built this holding cell had done a shoddy job at construction. Yes, the walls were thick and the window had thin wire filaments running through the glass, but they hadn’t exactly escape-proofed the screws. Since the day she had arrived, she had been checking the room from floor to ceiling. She had discovered that the screws fastening the window frame to the wall were visible beneath a thin coat of builder’s mud and gray paint. All she needed was a tool to attack these vulnerable spots. Then she might be able to pull the whole window out.
    The chair in the corner gave her just such a tool. One of the little metal feet worked as a makeshift pick, and the rest of the chair provided a step stool to reach the window. It was a little wobbly because of the shortened leg, but she had good balance. Every evening when the guards left her alone and every day she wasn’t with Jack, Ardra kept scratching at those screws.
    She had been smart enough to start on the bottom ones, which weren’t visible to anyone standing at ground level. So far, she had already uncovered and removed two of them. It looked like there were three pairs on the bottom and three on the top, and there was no sign of any on the sides. She continued working, only pausing occasionally to think about the freedom that waited for her on the other side of the glass.
    When the time came to break out of this room, she had to know where she was going. From what she could see, there was a clear area that ran off from the main path bisecting the compound. She knew from experience that there were six buildings up the road to the south, and then there were some plant crops, a few residential homes and finally Jack’s house. That certainly wasn’t the direction she wanted to go.
    All right, Mr. Deimos , she thought. What’s up the other way?
    She didn’t expect anything to come of the question, but an image of a long one-story building suddenly flashed inside her mind. There were two doors, both of which were closed, but she had a clear image of what was inside. She saw a young man sitting in front of a bunch of equipment. He had earphones on his head, but he had them half off as he talked to another woman who was frowning at him. The building’s purpose became clear to her in an instant—communications. Maybe she could use that. She kept working and tried to form a plan.
    The next day, Jack finished another session with Tarrin Thales and stepped over to the communications building. The noonday sun shone brightly behind him as he entered, but he closed the door against the heat.
    “Hey, Nash,” he said when he spotted his friend. “How are you?”
    This time, the young man wasn’t tethered to earphones but was gabbing excitedly with Norma. His lips were shaped in a big grin, and there was a lot of energy in the room.
    “What’s happening?”