Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 108211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
“Strange? How? What do you mean?” The more hints he dropped, the more curious she got. Also, talking helped keep her mind off folding space, Andi thought.
“Well…” Cade ran a hand through his hair. “Awhile back, all the males on Zo’rath Three suddenly lost their minds.”
“They what?” Now Andi was really intrigued.
“What I said—they lost their conscious minds. Their sense of self, I guess you could call it.” He gestured with the hand that wasn’t on the steering yoke. “Now they’re no more than animals and that’s how the females treat them—like pets. I mean, not like they have a fucking choice but it’s still not a great situation.”
“Like animals?” Andi asked, shaking his head. “Do you mean they keep them in pens?”
He shook his head.
“Honestly, I’m not sure of the details—I just know that any male that breathes the air of Zo’rath Three loses his conscious mind.”
“Does it actually turn them into animals? I mean, do they grow hair and change like werewolves or something?” Andi asked.
“Werewolves?” He frowned. “No—nothing like that. They keep their humanoid forms—they just lose their sense of self. It’s like they’re operating on a strictly primal level at all times.”
“But…what’s in the air that does it? Is it some kind of a mind-altering compound that only affects people with a Y chromosome or something? And how did it get there? Was it released intentionally?” Andi was full of questions.
“To be honest, the Kindred haven’t studied it much,” Cade told her, shrugging his broad shoulders. “The Zo’rathians haven’t asked for help and they don’t have any interest in making a genetic trade with us or letting us call brides from their planet. So we’ve pretty much left them alone and we just avoid the damn planet. There’s a reason it’s nickname is ‘Oblivion,’” he added darkly.
“How fascinating,” Andi murmured—and she really meant it. In addition to Botany, she also loved learning about other cultures. It was yet another trait that made her a good fit to work at the Kindred Mother Ship.
She almost wished they could make a stop on Zo’rath Three—though of course that would be a bad idea. Cade was the only one who could fly the ship—if he suddenly lost his mind they would never get out of there.
“You ready to fold space now?” he asked and she realized the long-range shuttle was edging closer to the red gash in the blackness.
“Oh, yes. Yes, of course.”
Andi took a firm grip on the armrests of her chair. She always felt so strange when they went through the fold, though she knew a lot of people said it didn’t bother them in the least. It didn’t hurt or anything—it just felt like an endless moment in time and sometimes she was afraid it wouldn’t end—that she would be stuck in that in-between limbo forever. Which was foolish, she reminded herself. It was perfectly safe as long as you weren’t pregnant and there was no possibility of that. She hadn’t been with anyone since Herbert—because she didn’t want anyone but Cade.
“All right—here we go,” he rumbled and piloted the long-range shuttle into the red gash in space. There was a long, breathless moment when time itself seemed to stretch like taffy and then, finally they flew out the other side…
And directly into the middle of an meteor storm.
4
CADE
“What the fuck!” Cade growled as the viewscreen showed him what looked like many tiny but deadly chunks of rock hurtling towards them and the proximity alert sirens in the shuttle began to blare.
“Oh my God, what is it? What’s happening?” Andrea’s voice sounded panicky and Cade didn’t blame her—they were in bad fucking trouble.
“Don’t know,” he said tightly. “We’ve come out in the middle of a meteor storm—which isn’t on the fucking star charts. Something must have happened here—possibly an asteroid collided with one of the planet’s moons and threw up debris.”
He was already putting up the shuttle’s shields as he spoke, but it was too late.
“Hull breach,” a loud voice informed him. “Multiple impacts. Danger of imminent engine failure. Recommend immediate landing.”
“Ouch!” Andrea gasped and then she was ominously silent.
Not that Cade had much time to notice. He was too busy fighting with the steering yoke.
“We’re going to have to make an…emergency…landing,” he grunted, as the side of the planet loomed up in the viewscreen. Cade wasn’t sure if it was Zo’rath Two or Zo’rath Three but at this point it didn’t matter—the engines were failing and the hull was breached. They had to get someplace with a breathable atmosphere before all the oxygen was sucked out of the ship and they both died. Already he was feeling light-headed.
He struggled grimly to retain his consciousness.
Just have to get us landed, he told himself. Then you can pass out. Must protect Andrea!
The side of the planet got closer and closer and soon they were diving through the atmosphere, nose first. Cade prayed grimly that the shuttle’s heat shields would hold.