Jewel sent a purple flashing light toward Davenport. Panicked, she ducked.
"Never, ever do that again!" Jewel yelled. "You know the law!"
"What law?" Davenport said, getting to her feet.
"You know what law!" Jewel said.
And it was at that moment when Davenport knew- Jewel was afraid of her.
Jewel put her glowing hand up again.
Scared, Davenport ran toward the cavern opening. Why didn’t I do that in the first place? she wondered.
"Don’t!" Jewel cried.
Davenport ran out of cavern.
"Wait!" Jewel cried in a tone Davenport had never heard before. "Wait!"
Davenport ran, with Jewel’s words echoing in her mind. "Wait, wait!" She sounded sad, or embarrassed, or both.
Davenport then tripped over a rock. She grabbed her leg in pain.
My leg is broken! she thought to herself.
Jewel ran toward her, with the intention to help, but Davenport got up, trying to run away.
Finally Jewel gave up and headed toward her cavern.
Davenport ran to the Christa.
As soon as she realized Jewel wasn’t following her, Davenport slowed. She limped into the Christa. Without no one seeing her (which was difficult) she went to her bunkroom. She threw herself on the bunk, and grabbed her leg. Her pants had been torn at the knee, and she was covered with scrapes. She wondered if she should try to go to the med-lab or call for Rosie. She decided to go back to the command post.
As soon as she thought this, the entire crew opened her door.
"Are you all right?"
"What happened?"
"Did she try to hurt you?"
"I knew something like this would happen!"
"All right, all right!" Goddard said. "Let her do the talking." He looked at Davenport. "Well?"
"It’s a long story," Davenport said.
"Who was the girl?" Goddard asked.
"She didn’t want to tell me much," Davenport said. "Her name is Jewel Tamsin and she lives alone in that cavern."
Radu looked down at his feet.
"What happened to your leg?" Bova asked, and Radu grinned.
"I tripped trying to escape from her," Davenport answered honestly.
"Rosie, take her and go get her leg cleaned up, ok?" Goddard asked.
Rosie nodded. She and Radu took her to the med-lab.
"I think you sprained it," Rosie told her. "Good thing. You don’t really want a broken leg, do you?"
Radu snorted.
"No," Davenport said. "I guess not."
Rosie put Davenport’s leg into a bandage. The scars on her legs hurt more than the sprain did.
"Ow!" Davenport cried. Her leg was bleeding.
"Sorry!" Rosie said, but she knew it wasn’t her fault.
As Rosie put the bandages on Davenport, Radu continued talking.
"What did she tell you? Did she purposely try to hurt you? Are you all right? What does she have in her cavern?" Radu asked so many questions Davenport could not answer them all.
So she didn’t say anything. Radu gave her confused looks, but it didn’t help at all.
After Rosie had carefully bandaged her legs (with Davenport being a little hesitant because she hated the pain), Radu helped her back to the command post. When they got there, Davenport tripped again, and landed in Goddard’s arms. (Sigh!)
"Sorry," she said.
Goddard just gave her a lazy smile.
He’s so cute, Davenport said to herself, then blocked the thought.
For a moment no one said anything. Davenport actually found herself looking in Goddard’s direction more than once. She blushed each time.
After about ten minutes of dead silence, Davenport got up. Goddard gave her a look that said "Sit down; you’ll hurt your leg." But she didn’t care.
Crash!!!
"What the he…" Goddard started. A white figure appeared at the door.
"Who is that?" Rosie asked.
"Ma’am, you have been accused of lying to an authority figure, talking to an alien, and runaway. You are to come with me, for you will never again see the light of day."
