[SFAP] Chapter 10:4

This is the fourth section of the tenth chapter of Sonnets from a Proton. The novel starts here.
The next section is here.


Iz had grown hoarse from shouting and so had given up. She’d been sitting here for an unknown number of hours. Could it have been days she wondered? No way to tell. Eventually the hood would be pulled off, her body would have recovered from the earlier exertions and so the shield could do its business and she’d be out of here again. Then she’d run no matter the pain and she’d be free.
“Not likely” came the memory “Your body hasn’t recovered. To recover it needs food and water. Food you can do without for a good amount of time, but there were never much reserves on your body and I’ve used almost all of those up trying to build you up and now there’s a lack of water. If you don’t get something soon there’s nothing I can do.”
“Well call for a drone then, get me out of here”
“No good, while the Habitat is well aware of our situation, the entangled link is holding up fine; wherever we are is well shielded against EM so I can’t tell the Habitat where we are, the tracking systems don't work. That leaves us with a few hundred places you could be though, some of them quite large.”
“Well the Habitat must have some idea, what about our last known position, that must narrow it down.”
“That’s why I said there were hundreds of options not millions”
“Come on it can’t be that bad.”
“In the grand scheme of things no, the Habitat isn’t that big, at least not the habitable bit, but it’s still over half a billion square kilometres of living space to keep an eye on and that allows for quite a few shadows.”
“So no help coming”
“Not until we know where to send it”
“No shield”
“Only a few minutes worth, not enough until there is a way out of here”
“No last minute heroics by my over stimulated body?”
“A definite possibility, but again we need to wait until there is some way to use it”
“Why the hell didn’t you do something earlier with the guards”
“You weren’t fully recovered it wasn’t anticipated that this imprisonment would happen. Your body was so badly hurt from before it needed time. Time that we’ve now had, but that will start to run out again if we don’t get you some water.”
“So now what?”
“We wait. the guess they are probably making is you were a fearsome force before physically so they’re trying to weaken you.”
“Strapped down like this I’m not much harm.”
“Indeed, so why are we waiting?”
“Anything else you want to volunteer about this situation?”
“Not that will help you for the moment.”
Iz went back to thoughtful contemplation this time not addressed at the shield.