ONE MORE DAY
[violently refrains from doing a Les Mis filk]
The masters showed her a map - a better one than they had for running her through ore processing - and clipped a cable-holding thing into her harness. Sahra almost jumped into the tunnels, going as fast as she could until she got to a crossway and then, very quickly, bundling up some loops to hold in her less-useful hand. They wouldn’t yank her backwards so easy, this way.
She held tight with her less-able hand and leaned on everything with her knuckles, there. It didn’t slow her down one bit. The bit that did slow her down was the straight-up climb that looked like three, maybe as many as five whole levels.
There was no way she could do that quick. Down was easier than up, but the masters wanted her to go up, so up she would have to go.
Sahra used her elbows, back and feet to make it up. Sometimes, there were cubby-holes. Sometimes, there were vents. Most of the times, there were other branches.
And no matter how tight she held her loops, they fell away to nothing before she was halfway there. Now she had to stop and pull for enough slack to get another wriggle up-ways. The Vasht on the other end of Sahra’s cable did not like that, if the strength of her return tugs was any kind of sign.
Sahra just made it to the top, both arms stretched out into the tunnel she was supposed to take, when a very strong tug pulled her right off her perch and made her fall down.
Instinct made her stretch out for any hold she could grab. It also made her scream. It was a short fall in terms of time. Not even a lungful of scream in it, but it felt like almost a short, painful trip to heaven. Sahra got her breath back and swallowed her heart down. And blinked thirty times in the dim light because right there in front of her nose was a whole cell recharger.
October 29. TOMORROW.
(Please share the news with everyone you know)
