Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode One: Not a Good Day to Die #16

They took Ray to a healer's station on Sixteen above, one just across from the hotel were Sophia had stayed the night. Dhanvin shook his hand, gave Sophia an affectionate pat on the shoulder and left for his room.

Sophia looked around the mall. She thought about going in search of Animika but Sophia wasn't sure if she was invited to stay again, or if she wanted to. After the emotions of the day maybe some time alone was better.

Feeling more confident with her job and money situation, she blew almost everything she'd made in the last two days. She checked back into the same hotel, greeting Zeera warmly. She took all her clothes to the laundry and then asked Zeera about the spa she'd mentioned the day before.

Sophia had never been to a spa before and had no clue what to expect. She asked for a tour first. She was more than a little put off by the cavalier attitudes that the Consortium citizens seemed to have about modesty, most of the spa's customers choose to one of the big public bathes, men and women soaking in mud bathes or hot tubs together with no regard for each other's nudity. Sophia instead paid for a private bath.

"Ritzy," the counter girl said as she rang up the transaction.

The private bath was as big as Sophia's hotel room and then some. It was tiled, warm and steamy. Towards the front of the room were shelves for her clothes. There was a vanity for doing her hair and shaving when she was done. To her left was a low bench for lounging. To her right a sunken mud bath. At the back was a large pool with a tantalizing waterfall shower at the back. Plants grew from a ledge where the water flowed down.

After her bath, a nice meal and a walk along the mall, she felt much better. She picked up her now laundered clothes and headed back to her hotel.

Her phone started buzzing as she made her way down the hall. She hurried into her room, threw the clothes on the bed and then went to answer. She froze. It was Carl.

"Hey," she said slowly.

"Hey," he replied.

There was an awkward pause.

"Where are you?" he asked after some time.

"You kicked me out," she said.

"Aw, come on," he whined. "I was just upset is all. I love you, you know."

Did he? More likely his new flame had left him and he was lonely.

"You coming home?" he asked when she didn't respond.

She looked around the room. She thought of his place. It was a shabby apartment just off downtown, in a poor neighborhood. But it had been home for nearly three months, a place she had felt safe for the first time since leaving her childhood home.

"Carl," she said and froze again. Could she go home?

"Sophia, Honey, I don't care about your situation. We'll be safe from now on, you know. Whatever you want."

Her situation? "You mean being positive," she said.

"Yeah, that. I, I forgive you, Honey. Just come home. Like old times."

"You forgive me?" Did he really just say that? "You forgive me?"

"Yeah. Don't worry. I'm gonna be there for you, too. Take you to the clinic regular like and everything. We'll get through this."

"And you? Are you going to get treatment?"

"I don't got it," he snapped.

"Carl, I didn't cheat on you. I swear. If I got it, it's cuz..."