What It Means To Be A Captain [II]

From across the hall, behind Elena's door, came a different sound.

It was sharp and breathy, choked with misery. 

Elena wasn't weeping loudly... She was trying to swallow her own breath making small sharp whimpers escape past her teeth like someone trying to breathe through cracked ribs.

A faucet clicked on behind the door, followed by the soft clatter of a glass falling into a sink, and then the quiet helpless weeping of a girl who had just realized that her family's billions, their private security fleets and their high-orbit towers had all turned to dust while she sat on an iron bunk in a flight suit covered in worm grease…

Further down, from Camila's room, the tears came with whispered fragments of Spanish.

Broken prayers… Names of sisters… Names of parents… All of it muttered in a desperate pleading rhythm between ragged breaths that hitched every few seconds.