A Farther Orbit (The Adventures of Gregory Samson: Space Explorer Book 2) by UNKNOWN

Author:UNKNOWN
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MumfordZisk Publishing
Published: 2016-12-01T07:00:00+00:00

18

“Are we ok?” I gasped. I looked over my shoulder, but the Krr and the wreckage of the Cabernician ship and the overall scene of the crime were already long gone, light years behind us. “Cab? Are you ok?”

--Me?

--Yeah, I’m fine--

“What about the seed?”

--The seed punctured the hull and reacted to the presence of biological material according to its programming--

--Meaning it’s doing its best to bring itself online and take over the ship--

“Are you gonna be ok?” I asked. Whether things were ok was very important to me at that moment. My shoulder hurt where the Krr had shot me, and I felt a little overcooked from all the heat and explosions. My fingers worked, but I couldn’t move my arm.

--I’ll be all right--

--He’s a pushy guy, but he’s not that bright--

--Yet--

--No sweat--

“I got shot,” I said. It was weird, saying it aloud.

--You got shot a bunch of times--

--But the one you caught without the shield is pretty rough.

I smelled like burnt pork. I hadn’t eaten in a while. Why wasn’t I more hungry?

“Am I gonna be ok?” I felt like I was going into shock. I sat back inside my skull for a moment and stretched my feet, looked around the place, and then back out my eyes.

The pain dulled suddenly, right as I felt Cab begin to pay more attention to me.

--I can block some of your nervous response--

--You’ll be fine in an hour--

--Get some sleep--

“I smell like barbecue,” I said.

--That’s gross--

I didn’t think I would sleep. But as the stars moved across my vision and the adrenaline rush of facing the Krr began to fade, the precipice approached. After a moment, I fell off.

I woke up two hours later and stared at the stars for five minutes before I knew I was conscious. My shoulder didn’t hurt, and I had a full range of motion again.

“Wow,” I said. “So much for the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.”

--What the hell are you talking about?--

“It’s Shakespeare, you plebian.” I sighed. “It doesn’t matter if I get hurt anymore. I’ll just heal. There’s things that won’t carry as much weight, now.”

--There’s a fundamental difference immortality and indestructibility--

“But pain won’t be as bad, now that I know it won’t kill me,” I said.

--Sure, keep telling yourself that--

--Long as you duck when it’s time to duck--

I rolled my shoulder. I felt fine, but I still remembered what the burnt piece had felt like, the deep cylinder of half-ash meat dug down to my bone.

--Don’t need to tell you twice--

--Damn, your memory makes your brain do some weird shit--

The stars moved. Warp wasn’t quite boring, but in the midst of my fascinated stellar reverie I was aware that I had been spending an awful lot of time lately alone in my head. It was just me and Cab, in there, and he was usually busy. I’m not sure how much of himself he understood, that early in his life, but he spent a lot of time exploring the bowels of the ship. And anyway, he had the second seed to deal with.

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