Week 7 - 5/18/09 - UDC 4

31. No Turning Back

She'd been here all of an hour and hated it already. These people were so... unorthodox was the best word that came to mind as she followed the frieghter pilot to the cafeteria. Roganda wanted to leave as soon as possible and get back to civilization... until she bumped into someone who was walking out the door as she was going in. "Sorry."

The response was a chuckle. "Don't be. Doors here aren't that big."

She raised her eyes to look at him and blinked at the kindness reflected back at her. "Um... be that as it may, it was still rude to not get out of the way."

32. No Backing Down

He found her tinkering with a landing strut while sitting in the ice that made up the floor of the maintenance bay. "Roganda?"

"It's cracked," she said without looking up. "Have to find a sealant or something to fix it. Must be the cold."

He sat down beside her, frowning. He'd not ever seen her that focused on anything in the whole four or so months she'd been here. "Is it the landing strut, or something else?"

"Not now, Janson." He took the tool she'd been working with away. "Hey!"

"Yes, now," he told her firmly.

33. Nowhere to Run

She sighed and glanced defeatedly toward the closed shield doors. "Don't want to talk about it."

Wes touched her arm carefully and she looked at him. "Not asking you to. But you can't keep it inside, either."

"I'm worried," she confided after a long moment of silence.

He nodded. "Only natural... I'm worried, too."

Roganda wanted to get up and leave him sitting there, but the hand on her arm held her where she sat on the cold ground. "Janson?"

"What?"

"You cold?"

He laughed softly. "It's always cold here."

"That's not what I meant!"

"Well, what did you mean?"

34. No One to Trust

His question brought her up short, a reminder that in this place, among these people who had found a cause and formed a sort of family of outcasts, she still didn't trust anyone. Not even this pilot sitting in the snow and the ice with her. The only person she marginally trusted was out there somewhere in a blizzard looking for the kid. Glancing over, she found the Wookiee watching them, and shook her head to quell his curiosity. "I meant... I don't know."

"Come on," Wes told her with an offered hand. "Let's get you something to eat."

35. No Place to Hide

"Food? I'm not hungry."

"Pretend you are. It has to be better than trying to fix the landing strut when it's not really broken."

Roganda looked at the barely visible crack again and had to agree with him. "It's the principal of the thing. And it was nice to find something that wasn't a wiring problem."

"You're stalling."

The tone of his voice made her want to laugh as she fingered the crack. It wasn't structural, as far as she could tell... "So? Not hungry."

"And you can't hide in here forever, either."

"Not hiding. Waiting."

"All night?"

"If need be."