He was more relaxed by the time he had traveled from the service hatch to the main redoubt door. There were no signs of life and no signs that the redoubt had been occupied since predark times. He keyed in the sec code to open the door and greeted the companions with a rare smile.
“All ours.”
RYAN OPTED to wait a few days before they made a mat-trans jump. Rather than keep traveling across open country for who knew how long, he figured that they could take their chances with the random setting of the mat-trans, and find out where it took them. But first he wanted them to rest. As the redoubt was still well stocked and in good working order, it would be an opportunity to rest and recuperate before taking their chances with fate once more. Showering, changing and finding the dorms in good order, they rested, leaving everything to the morrow.
And there was something left that had to be tackled soon. Sharona had been distancing herself from the rest of the companions while they traveled with the Pilatans, only really associating with Dean. If she was going to travel with them, then it was important that this rift be healed. And if not…
But there would be time to deal with that the following day, the one-eyed man thought as he lay awake, trying to figure out what the shocking return of Dean’s mother meant.
The next day brought no solutions. Ryan awakened to find the others had already risen. After showering, he walked to the kitchen where he found Mildred, Krysty, Doc and Jak.
“Where are the others?” he asked as he prepared his breakfast from an array of self-heats.
“John’s gone to check out the armory,” Mildred said with an indulgent expression crossing her face. “You know what he’s like.”
Ryan returned the expression. “Yeah, he must’ve been worn out last night, because he didn’t go straight to it.” Then, after a pause, he added, “What about Dean and Sharona?”
Krysty grimaced. “I don’t know—anyone else?” she queried, but was met with blank looks from Mildred, Jak and Doc. “They were up before either of us, but where they are…”
Ryan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I suppose she can’t be doing any harm.”
Doc was bemused. “My dear boy, why would the woman want to do harm? She thought she would perish and sent her son away. Then, when she recovered, he was gone from her. Is it not natural that she should want to spend time with the boy? And, vice versa, as it were? That is, that he should wish to spend time with her,” he added by way of explanation when he saw that the old Latin term meant nothing to Krysty, Jak or Ryan.
“That’s a fair enough point, but it’s not so much the time…” Ryan began, petering out with a shrug as he found he couldn’t exactly explain what he meant.
Krysty finished for him, “It’s more a matter of her attitude about things.”
Mildred looked at Krysty closely. “You sure it’s her that’s the problem? I mean, are you certain that you don’t just feel a little put out because she’s suddenly appeared?”
Krysty frowned and looked at Mildred. The question could almost be insulting, if not for the depth of expression in the black woman’s brown eyes, eyes that showed her understanding.
“Yeah, mebbe a little,” Krysty admitted. “But I’ve thought about that, and there’s more.”
“Get bad feeling,” Jak chipped in, breaking his silence. “Pulling Dean away from us. His choice, but not good when we fight or stand together.”
“Exactly,” Ryan agreed. “Before we leave here, we have to sort out what’s going on between us all. We have to pull in the same direction or else—”
“Or else all strength is dissipated,” Doc said sadly.
Oblivious to all this, Dean and Sharona were on a lower level of the redoubt. The woman had awakened her son early and, after making him breakfast—a rare treat for Dean, who had to fend for himself along with the other companions—had asked him to show her around the redoubt and had listened carefully while he told her all he knew about them.