May I go with you?

After recovering from the immediate shock, I ask, "So...why...why exactly are we in here, Nym?"
Nym looks at me full of disbelief and asks, "...has the time in that colony made you stupid or something? We've got a freshly roasted carcass out there, how long do you think it'll take predators to pick up the smell? And personally, I don't want to be out there when they do...especially if we're all like this."
Nym points at the burn wound at her leg, then at the sobbing pile of Eva and finally at me, unarmed, unarmored and shaking like a leaf.

I wave off and reply, "Okay...okay, I...get it...but...man, I never thought..."
Nym gets up from her kneeing position, goes over to a small cabinet, fetches a small container or something and tosses it over to Eva, saying, "In there please."
Eva grabs the container and empties her stomach into it. The noise and smell permeating the interior of the ship made me reconsider my breakfast choice as well, but I manage to gulp it down.
Nym seems to notice as she says, "Good...we only have one of these aboard. And it's a mess to clean up."
"Why...why is such a thing even on board?", I stutter, trying to get my mind of the horrifying pictures, the smell and the sounds.
Nym smiles mildly at me as she explains, "Oh, well, you know...when nature calls and there's no landing option nearby, a container like that is a real lifesaver."
"...it's a potty?", I ask, almost laughing out loud at Eva's disgusted face.
"It's a general purpose container, but most of the time it was used as 'potty', yes."

I take a seat, trying to get the carousel of thoughts in my head to stop spinning, when I remember something and ask, "Okay Nym...how did he find us? He said something about a signal..."
Nym thankfully picks up the cue and says, "The ship is capable of tracing the whereabouts of every single Asmodean in a 20 kilometer radius...that's the effective range of the implant to ship communication in a terrestrial atmosphere, however..."
I raise my hand to object and say, "Nym, as fascinating as this sounds, I'm not a tech person. Would you mind repeating that in normal person speak?"
Nym blinks a few times and then says, "The implant in my head...and also the one in your head...the send signals. The ship can receive this signals and determine someone's position from the signal direction and strength, even if the signal is too weak to actually communicate. It's a safety feature if someone gets lost."
I grumble, "Yeah, great 'safety' it brought."
"The antenna was in another part of the ship though...that reduces the effective range of the colony to about 50 meters around the colony."
"...okay, so that means...?", I ask, while Eva slowly seems to recover.
"That means he must have used the scan equipment aboard this ship...and for this to work, he must have known the approximate direction we were in."

I look over at Eva, who has pulled herself up on a chair herself by now and ask, "Eva, how did Robert find us? And how did he even know about Nym?"
Eva shakes her head and replies, "I...I don't know. I was super-discrete. There were like...three people who knew and I'm sure that they didn't blab."
"...okay, so if you didn't tell him, then how..."
All of a sudden, Nym gets up, walks over to Eva and asks, "Eva, where did you get this hairpin?"
"Eh? Erm...wait, let me think...I got it a few weeks ago. It was a present from..."
Eva grows pale as she slowly begins to realize something, but I don't get it.
I ask, "Nym, what are you thinking?"
"...Sirus, this pin is a listening and tracking device. It was developed by my people a few years ago and was meant to be given to particular women...to spy on them."
"Why would you spy on your own people?", I ask, a little surprised.
Nym replies, a little bitter, "There were...problems among my people, just like there are problems among your people now. Some thought that we were treating the v...humans wrong and wanted to change that...the revolution was made possible by one of those activists."
"So...you spied on your own people? But, isn't there surveillance all over the ship?", Eva asked, a little surprised as well.

Nym shakes her head and says, "No, not everywhere. Only the corridors and working areas were under constant surveillance. The cells and living quarters were not."
"...okay, the living quarters I get, but why not the cells?"
Nym looks at Eva sceptically and replies, "While I'd like to say that it was because we respected your privacy, I think it was really because we couldn't care less what you're doing on your downtime. Beat each other to death? A few mouths less to feed."
"But...weren't you scared that we could plot something like...I don't know, a revolution?", Eva keeps drilling.

"While that had been a concern in the past, my people had full faith into the locking mechanisms. You had no weapons or tools in there you could use to escape or hurt one of us and even if you did, there was still the...", Nym stops mid-sentence.
"...the what?", Eva asks carefully.

Nym shakes her head vigorously and says, "I'd rather not say. You...you must hate me more than enough as it is. I..."
I step in and say, "That's nonsense. You can't blame anyone for something they didn't do. Now Nym, what hidden ace did your people have?"
"...the kill-switch."
"...that doesn't sound good...what does it do?", Eva asks.
"It locks the block in question hermetically and airtight...and then removes the air from the inside. It's a last resort mechanism, meant to be used only in the most dire of situations..."
"...just out of idle curiosity...", I start while looking Nym straight in the eye, "If you had a trump card like that, why didn't you use it? Why did your people let us win?"
"I...I don't know. It all just happened so fast and I..."
I shake my head, get up and hug Nym tightly, saying quietly, "It's okay...now, how about you bring this vessel back to the colony so we can drop off Eva and then go home?"

Nym looks up at me with teary eyes and asks, "Are...are you sure?"
I look back in the general direction of Robert's corpse and reply, "Nothing's keeping me here for sure..."
Nym nods and assumes the controls, when all of a sudden Eva speaks up, "I'm sorry, but...but can I go with you instead?"
The motor dies instantaneously and Nym looks at Eva completely baffled.

I go over to Eva and say, "You know, this isn't a picnic out here...you could die at any moment. In the colony you'll at the very least be safe..."
"No...no, I...I can't go back there. Not after what happened with Robert. Please...I...I don't have anywhere else to go..."
I object, "But...but they need you in the colony now. More than ever before. I mean, the leader of the council is dead, the second in command is gone...the colony will go to..."
"The colony can go screw itself!", Eva yells me straight into the face and I'm taken aback by her sudden outburst.

"Okay...is there anything else you haven't told us, Eva?", I ask carefully.
"Oh yeah, there is. Sure, we live in nice quarters with so much space to occupy now, we don't have to worry about food, but the next civil war is just around the corner, the peaceguard is putting down riots left and right while I keep telling people that everything is alright and...and...and I'm just so sick of it all! Just for once in my life, I want to be free, Sirus! Free like you and Nym! I beg you...please let me come with you..."

I throw a questioning look over to Nym, who simply shrugs.
I let out a deep sigh and reply, "Okay Eva...on one condition. As I told you, this is a dangerous world and we know a thing or two about it...and we learned almost all of it the hard way. So when either Nym or me tell you something you don't ask 'Why', you do it. Otherwise it's the next ride to the colony for you...if there's anything left of you to send to the colony that is. Am I understood?"
Eva looks at me thankfully and replies, "Yes Sirus. I won't disappoint you."
"Good...we still need to go to the colony though."
"What?! Why?!", Eva exclaims and I also get some skeptical looks from Nym, but I quickly explain, "Eva, you can't live out here like this. You need armor and weapons. And don't even dare to bring a stun gun. Also, you need to tell people that you'll be gone, so they won't worry about you. What's more...I want my armor back."
"...okay, I understand but...why the armor?"
"It's...something personal.", I reply, thinking back to Zero who died to defeat the creature I made the armor from and the promise I made to him.

Eva agrees to my conditions and Nym pilots the vessel over to the colony.
After landing, I say, "We'll wait here. And we're also out of here at the first sign of trouble, so if someone else but you approaches this thing here, we're out. Okay?"
Eva nods, but also says, "It'll take a little while until I'm done here...please wait." After promising her that we'd wait, she hurries down the hatch before Nym closes it again.

After Eva is out of sight, Nym takes another look at the hairpin she had taken from Eva and asks, "Do you really think this is a good idea?"
"...it's a terrible idea and I'm really hoping that she won't come back.", I admit.
"Then why didn't you just tell her off?", Nym asks, a hint of jealousy in her voice.
"Why didn't you?", I counter, but then sigh and say, "The thing is, I can relate. I was in this colony for only a few weeks and she's been running things here for more than a year...she had to put up with this whole shit for more than a year and just wants to be free...like we are. And who would I be to deny her that?"
"...you are aware that she'll most likely die before the third dawn, yeah?", Nym asks.
"I...want to believe that she's tougher than that. I mean, just look at us. When we crashed to the planet, we had far less. No weapons to speak of, no armor and, most importantly, nobody to tell us what the hell we were supposed to do. But we still pulled through by working together."

Nym sighs loudly and says, "It's damn hard to argue against that..."
I sigh while leaning back into my seat, "...yeah, I know..."

We pass a few hours pass with idle chitchat about what happened while we were separated, but nothing happens outside the vessel. Nobody approaches, nobody tries anything. We stand completely abandoned.

Eventually however something outside the ship moves and Eva approaches the ship with swift steps, carrying two large bags, a body armor and a large gun on her back.
Nym sees her coming and laments, "I guess she came back..."
I try to comfort her, "The first time hunting and she'll beg us to bring her back to the colony, you'll see."

Nym makes a disgruntled face while opening the hatch and allowing Eva back on board.
She gasps, "Oh thank goodness, you waited..."
"We said we'd wait, so we waited.", I reply, while my mind keeps spinning on all the things that could go horribly wrong with this.

But I promised her and I don't break my promises easily.