Stowaway

Aniello didn't speak on the way back to the ship at all. The most his mind was able to process was the feeling of hope. Hope that the girl he helped was able to get away and live on. Even in the monster of a planet he had created.

Achille at one point even contemplated comforting Aniello. Her hand even started to move on it's own but she grabbed it with her other hand and held it tight. 'Comfort someone!? What am I, a mother? I am one of the five strongest people in this army! I shouldn't have to even think about caring for others!' Achille spent the rest of the journey convincing herself this way meaning both of they spent the journey in silence.

When the ship finally landed in the landing bay Aniello stayed where he was as Achille took it as an opportunity to get away. Nobody spent much time in the landing bay. Any broken or damaged ships were just scrapped instantly so their was no need for mechanics and the cleaners were so quick and quiet that they basically weren't there most of the day. Aniello took this loneliness and silence to finally release his tears. He was ashamed of what he had caused.

Suddenly, the was a thud in the storage compartment behind him. It was mostly used carrying equipment on scientific observations or supplies on long term surveillance missions. Aniello wiped most of his tears away, sorted out his uniform and went to investigate. He went around to the back of the ship and opened the storage compartment. Out rolled the girl from before. She and Aniello looked at each other in shock before the girl tried to run away.

The environment was alien to her so it wasn't long before she accidentally looped around and ran into Aniello. He wrapped his arms around her and tried to calm her down.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. You're fine." Aniello said many things to calm her down and it eventually worked. He slowly released her and she quickly stepped away. Something in her eye let Aniello know she had just recognised him.

"You threw rock at soldier! You save my life!" she said. From the way she spoke it was clear to Aniello she hadn't had a school experience and her understanding of language was limited.

The next thing to do was to decide what to do with the girl. Sending her back to that war was out of the question. She stuck out too much in her rags so he couldn't easily take her to another location on the ship. If anyone found her it was likely that both of them would be executed. The easiest solution was to let her stay in one of the less used ships so she could survive off of supplied inside the storage compartment. Then Aniello spied something in the corner of the landing bay.

Aniello led her to a door and opened it. It was a quiet spacious supply closet full of cleaning equipment. It was filled it such a way that you could hide in the corner in a little den of all the equipment and no one who came in would see you. Unless they decided to organise the room but it was clear that it never happened. Aniello told the girl to stay here while he went and took a small amount of supplies out of each ship. It was a small enough amount to not be noticed but enough to last the girl about a year or more if she was careful.

"I'll visit you as much as possible. Just make sure no one sees you other than me OK?" asked Aniello. The girl nodded with a smile and hugged Aniello.

"Thank you." she said. Aniello left her with the supplies in her hidden den and went to make a plan.

He would find her a new home and go with her. Anywhere was better than a planet at war. And Aniello didn't want to be a part of this army any more.