Insects laying eggs under her skin. Worms in her intestines. Bacterial infections spreading through her bloodstream. Diseases with names she didn't even know, couldn't even pronounce.
No.
*No.*
She needed to find a way back to her own world.
---
## The Plan (Such As It Was)
As for the charges pressed against her back home? The court-martial? The accusations?
Well... she'd figure something out. Make up some story. Claim amnesia, trauma, kidnapping—whatever worked. She'd deal with it when she got there.
The important thing was *getting* there.
Getting back to a world with hospitals and antibiotics and running water and *toilets*. Getting back to a world where you didn't have to wonder if the person sleeping next to you was carrying some unknown plague.
Kaya opened her eyes and stared at the dark ceiling of the cave.
Somewhere out there, someone wanted her. Dead or alive, for reasons she didn't understand, connected to mysteries she didn't care about.
