Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 41151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 206(@200wpm)___ 165(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 206(@200wpm)___ 165(@250wpm)___ 137(@300wpm)
“Raise the shields or there won’t be a ship for them to board!”
I don’t know who she is. I don’t know who anyone is. I’m a stranger trapped in the crisis of strangers. I can hear the urgency in her tone. She’s begging Malik to save those aboard at the cost of the handful who are outside. But Shah and Zeki are among those outside, and Malik is clearly ready to die, and let us all die, to give them a chance to survive.
“MALIK!”
The woman steps forward and I get a good look at her. She’s tall, almost as tall as he is, and she’s broad. Amazonian. Her skin is beautifully dark and she bears… holy shit, is everybody on board this ship an Elite? The bloodlines of this place are incredible. For someone who has spent her entire life among the pale worker drones of the Colony, it is an awesome and terrifying sight to see these hallowed people.
“Don’t touch those controls, Asari,” Malik says. “Ten seconds. Ten seconds and they’ll be safe. We can stand that long.”
“And if our propulsion systems go offline?”
“They’re shielded. We’re fine. Seven seconds.”
It is the longest seven seconds of my life. Time slows to molasses and draws itself out in excruciating detail. I have time to take in everything, Malik’s expression, Asari’s frustration, and out on the dock, Shah’s grim determination written on his handsome features as he hauls a bleeding Zeki over the final stretch to safety.
He lunges for the ship and the camera loses him. Malik hits a button, and the firing that was making the whole ship feel like a rickety tin can being riddled with bullets is instantly muted by ninety-five percent at least. Now it sounds like soft rain on a spring afternoon, almost nice.
“Shields activated,” Malik says. “Retreat pattern alpha in effect.”
Asari looks at him furiously. “You had no right to risk us all for them. That’s not the protocol, Malik. Your responsibility was to the people on this vessel. Shah’s orders.”
Malik turns to look at her, his expression almost impossible to read. “My sister has been wounded,” he says. “Take the bridge, Asari.”
She takes the bridge. Malik gestures to me with a snapping motion to follow him. I do as I have silently been told and follow Malik down to the lobby of the ship. That’s probably not the technical term for it, but it is where Shah and the others are catching their breath. There’s a smell there, the scent of seared flesh, like a barbecue, except of people.
“Someone betrayed us,” Shah growls. “They were waiting for us. We walked in and they were already there. If it wasn’t for Zeki throwing a smoke grenade, we would have all been annihilated then and there.”
Zeki is being carried off on a stretcher now, and Malik is following her.
Shah glances at me, and nods slightly, as if happy I am intact. I wonder how close I was to not surviving. I wonder how far we all were from oblivion.
“With me, Dreamy.” He snaps the order and points at his feet, calling me like a dog. I obey because he does not look like he is in the mood to be disobeyed. There is a pall over the ship, an uncustomary seriousness and intensity that I feel in my gut. What just happened was not part of their usual experience, I suppose. Normally they are the ones doing the fighting, winning battles. I have no idea what went wrong on the space station, but it was obviously very, very bad.
“Don’t lag behind!” Shah snaps at me.
I follow after him, roving the ship as he takes stock of damage and injuries. We end up in the sick bay, where there are several of his people nursing various wounds. It is Zeki who is hurt worst. Malik is by her bedside looking as grim as can be. She’s lying very still with her eyes closed, completely pale. For a moment, I think she is dead. Then I notice her breathing, shallow, but present.
There is a medic with her, a man with blue hair and a tattoo covering half his face. Nobody introduces him. This isn’t a social occasion.
“Internal burn damage is very difficult to treat. There’s organ damage, and vascular cauterization…” I don’t understand much of what the doctor is saying, but I know bad news when I hear it. “We don’t have access to a full hospital, and without one, I don’t think she is going to last the night.”
I listen to the doctor giving Shah and Malik the bad news, and I find my eyes welling with tears. I don’t know why. I’ve never mourned anybody before, and I don’t know why I would start by mourning someone who absolutely hates me. Zeki was always so full of life, and yes, she tried to get me in trouble, but that doesn’t mean I wish death on her.