It took Carlin an hour to explain it all to Kaegan, and then another ten minutes to answer her questions or, more often than not, make excuses for how much he didn't know despite all the things he just inexplicably knew. The storm of thunder and earthquakes continued, at a toned-down volume, the entire time he talked, like background interference. Thera had sat down in one of the pilots' seats and Jonah was perusing their supplies, taking stock of what they had. At the pile of Jaffa he'd pulled out two staffs and thereafter kept them close at hand. Thera had an impression of them as weapons, powerful ones, and at the moment it was the only defense they had against whatever was ripping their planet apart.
Kaegan was taking it pretty well, considering she was trapped with two people she disliked and one she thought was night sick while her world was hammered.
"So this god is up there right now destroying everything?" Kaegan asked in the end.
Carlin shrugged. "I think so. We should be safe here, at least from the cave-ins... this ship is stronger than the stone, it would have to be or it would have crumpled on impact all those centuries ago."
Jonah, brandishing both staffs like walking sticks, said finally, "I'd say we have enough to survive six days."
"How did you manage to get so much food and water?" Thera asked in amazement. Rations were watched closely at all times.
Carlin ducked his head. "Some of it I honestly filched from the kitchen, some I took from the bottoms of other workers' bowls before the dishes were washed, the rest of it is mine."
Thera's eyes widened. "You must have gone without eating or drinking sufficient amounts for weeks to accumulate this much."
Carlin shrugged. "Like I said, I thought it was necessary."
"I can't believe you, Carlin." Kaegan seethed. "I never thought you would steal from your own people."
Carlin opened his mouth to say something in reply, stopped, then settled on a strange frown.
Thera listened to the thundering beyond the ship and Jonah asked, almost to himself, "How long do you think they'll keep this up?"
"Until there's nothing left alive," Carlin answered somberly.
Into the night the bombardment continued and the four workers hiding out in the tel'tac began to settle into a tense silence. Kaegan lay down and succumbed to exhaustion first, as she had been awake a day longer than the other three. Carlin was sitting at the pilot's seat, studying the commands and controls but he had dared not touch anything for fear of setting off another alarm. With the enemy so close it would be pinpointed immediately. He was distracting himself with work so he wouldn't have to interact with Jonah or Thera.
Thera was getting drowsy but despite how tired she was she couldn't imagine sleeping. She was terrified to think of what she might wake up to find. She paced the small confines and massaged her belly. It seemed even the baby was agitated.
"You should sleep," Jonah's voice intoned lowly and Thera sighed at it. She knew Jonah's vocal subtleties well enough to hear concern, affection, and demand in his tone. Why, at times, he was able to order her around and she thought nothing of blindly obeying was beyond her.
She turned to look at Jonah and he took it as acquiescence. He took off his jacket and laid it on the floor. Then he retrieved a handful of blankets Carlin had taken and began to arrange them. Thera had to credit him effort, he was trying to make someplace comfortable for her to rest.
"Here." Carlin was suddenly at Jonah's side, sans jacket, offering the orange coat in meager appeasement to Jonah. The jackets were by far better as insulation and padding than the pathetic blankets they were provided.
Jonah looked up at Carlin, met his gaze, then with a silent nod took the jacket and laid it down. Then he turned and held out his hand for Thera.
Thera thought better than to make an issue of her restless mind (and the defeatist effect it would have on her ability to actually get any sleep) and went to Jonah and let him help her on to the ground atop the piles of coats and blankets. It was softer than she'd expected but that wasn't saying a great deal. She'd expected just shy of rock-hard.
"Comfy?" Jonah asked, the barest humor in his voice, and it made Thera feel a little better. She wouldn't burst his bubble. She reached out for his hand and said softly, "Stay with me."
Jonah didn't have to be asked twice. She wondered if he could have been pried from her side. He settled down next her, spooned up to her back the way they laid back in their little corner of the south passage. It was probably buried by now. His arm slid over her waist and came to rest on her abdomen. When the baby kicked he rubbed her stomach and seemed to unknowingly hush a baby that could not possibly hear him. Even still, it calmed Thera a little more so she wouldn't mention its futility to settle the baby.
Thera closed her eyes and listened to the roars beyond the ship. She'd never get any sleep attending to that. She shifted her attention and instead listened to the sound of Jonah breathing, let it pace her with the steady beat of inhale and exhale, and it finally lulled her into sleep.
Some time later, no one knew exactly how many hours, three of the ship's occupants were awake. Carlin, the last to go down while the others were asleep, was still sleeping. He was curled up on the floor near the control console, notably apart from either Kaegan to one side or Jonah and Thera on the other. He was lying atop a pathetically thin blanket, arms crossed over his chest to ward off the chill air, with his jacket draped over him. Jonah had done that. When Thera was sitting up and the full 'bed' no longer needed Jonah had picked up Carlin's jacket and laid it over the sleeping younger man. No one said anything about it, and Jonah didn't look like he wanted anyone to say anything, either.
Kaegan had awakened up first, a little before Jonah, and that fact had sent a racing thread of disquiet through Jonah. She'd been awake and unsupervised while they all had their guard down, but the woman seemed to have done nothing to compromise them. Even the food stores looked untouched. Appetite, no doubt, would be a while in coming given the circumstances. Still, Jonah was prone to be suspicious and Kaegan was his most proximal suspect for 'enemy', unproven as her loyalty was as it pertained to the group, the trio that had always been Jonah, Thera, and Carlin.
Thera had been the first to necessitate a 'bathroom' and the solution had been less than elegant. Carlin, among his store of stolen goods, had recovered a large pot with a chunk missing from the top. Obviously it had been discarded and it became their toilet, set near the back corner for lack of a better place. It wasn't pretty, and six days would make it escalate rapidly to unpleasant, but it was inescapably necessary.
Jonah was sitting on the floor, back propped against the wall, with Thera (sitting atop his jacket) between his legs. His hands were in her coat, rubbing and kneading her lower back in an attempt to ease the ever-increasing backaches Thera experienced. Little seemed to make them go away but Thera told him his ministrations helped and Jonah had little reason to doubt her. He was just glad there was something he could do.
Kaegan was still and quiet at the other side of the room and her taciturn presence troubled Jonah. She was an unknown, a wild card, and he didn't like it. Even with the blunder Carlin had made Jonah knew he could trust the younger man to work for the good of the group. He knew Carlin's intentions were good, if not their outcomes. Kaegan, however, was another story. She was an enigma and he was on edge for it. He couldn't fathom why Carlin had grabbed her and taken her with them.
Thera gave a sigh, tight and pained, and Jonah's hands stilled and he whispered, "You okay?"
Thera gave a grunt and Jonah cant his head in silent question. Thera couldn't see him behind her but seemed to sense the query all the same. "It's nothing." Which was Thera-code for 'it hurts but there's nothing you can do so you don't need to be bothered by that now'. Jonah frowned. It seemed the closer Thera got to giving birth the less he was able to do to help her with the multitude of discomforts that accompanied pregnancy. He couldn't help but feel a little guilty for what she had to endure.
Carlin, until then an unmoving figure, suddenly began to fidget in his sleep. He grumbled under his breath, "No... fight it..."
Thera and Jonah looked toward their friend just as Carlin jolted and cried, "Sha're!"
Thera blinked in shock and Jonah's hands left their station under her shirt to grab one of the staffs he'd laid nearby. What foe he thought he might confront, when the demon had been in Carlin's dreams, Thera did not know but she didn't begrudge him taking up a weapon.
Carlin opened his eyes and looked around. Recognition came back to him and one hand reached out to pat on the empty floor. After a second he frowned then sat up and squinted at his companions. His jacket fell down to his legs and Carlin looked down at it and then up at Jonah.
"You all right?" Jonah asked neutrally.
Carlin nodded and rubbed at his neck. "Yeah, fine... what time is it?" then he seemed to realize how stupid a question that was and gave a dismissive wave.
Silence fell again.
"We should eat," Jonah decreed as he laid the staff down on the floor again, and with a meaningful look at Carlin the younger man set about divvying up portions for everyone. The four bowls passed out were barely a quarter full but the food would have to last them as long as possible so no one complained. Thera, still braced between Jonah's legs, leaned back to shamelessly use him as a support (he was much more comfortable than the unforgiving wall) as she ate her small meal. Jonah, the entire time, merely perched his chin on her shoulder and stroked her belly. When Thera was done she put her bowl aside... only to find Jonah's appear before her. He had not eaten a bite.
"Jonah..." she began to argue.
"Take it, we're not doing anything but cooling our heels in here so I can stand to miss a few; you have to look after our baby."
Thera wanted to refuse but her remaining hunger and the thought of the baby's well-being (and the heart-wrenching way Jonah had said 'our baby') won over and she reluctantly took his food and ate that, too. Even with his portion she was far from sated but she knew she would have to get used to it... they might have a long wait in store for them.
Another day of tense silence stretched and the whole time the explosions outside continued. It did not let up. A few sounded close but their alien sanctuary held.
It was Kaegan, oddly enough, who first broached the question on all their minds. "Assuming we survive this, what was the plan after they left?"
Three consternated expressions were her immediate answer.
"We'll have to try digging our way out," Carlin stated the obvious.
Kaegan glowered at him. "To what? From the sounds there'll be nothing left."
"Would you rather die of thirst and starvation in here?" Jonah retorted and Kaegan, seething but chastised, had no answer.
Thera shook her head. "We have to get to the surface."
"We'll die out there even faster!" Kaegan shot back and pinned Thera with a loathing glare.
"No, I... I don't think so." At the looks she received Thera said, "Look, we can't stay in here and making our way to the surface is our only hope of finding a way off this... out of here, maybe to safety."
"What do you expect to find up there that could help us? There's nothing but ice and snow. We'd trade freezing to death for starving to death." Kaegan clipped sharply.
Thera frowned. "There has to be something up there."
"And we'll find it," Jonah said forcefully as he gently touched Thera's shoulder from where she stood a pace in front of him. She'd stood (with Jonah's help) ten minutes ago to relieve the ache in her hips from sitting on the floor so long and Jonah was on his feet as well, leaning against the wall with hands behind his back before he reached out to her. Thera turned to look at him for his unwavering support of her and Jonah managed a lop-sided smirk of a smile.
Kaegan gave a disgusted scoff and mumbled something about 'would have been a quick death, at least', but no one was paying attention.
"Until then we just wait," Jonah finished and the oppressive silence, punctuated by distant thunderclaps of destruction, started to slide into place again. Jonah quipped, "Anyone up for a game of 'I Spy'?"
Kaegan frowned as if Jonah might be night sick as well but Carlin and Thera smirked faintly in reply.
Thera made her way closer to Jonah's side and his hand, like a magnetic attraction, went to her stomach. Thera suspected Jonah would be a little bereft once the baby was born and he couldn't do that anymore.
Kaegan slid down against the opposite wall and crossed her arms petulantly, apparently finished talking to any of them for the foreseeable near future.
Carlin sat perched atop the center auxiliary control console like an unshaven forest sprite out for mischief, his chin in his hand and one leg folded nearly to his chest.
Jonah dropped his face toward Thera and said softly, "You know what occurred to me?"
"What?"
"We haven't come up with any names for the baby. It's probably getting about the time we should have one ready."
Thera repressed a fearful swallow at the thought and nodded. "You're right, we should start thinking about it... any ideas?"
Jonah was pensive all of two seconds. "I got nothing. You?"
Thera thought a moment then said, "I like 'Daniel' for a boy."
Carlin snorted. "That's a crap name."
"And I suppose you have a suggestion?" Jonah asked, his tone just biting enough to show that Jonah was not over being mad at Carlin.
Carlin went quiet then shook his head. "No, you're right, it's up to you and Thera. Sorry."
"It's all right, Carlin," Thera assured and to reinforce her point she shot a pointed look at Jonah. 'Play nice' had never had a more befitting expression as its champion.
Jonah rolled his eyes but he didn't pull away from Thera and she knew, with Jonah, that was significant.
