Ashes of the Waterfall: A Space Opera by D.W. Stein

Author:D.W. Stein [Stein, D.W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

2.8

I found the lad in my office last night. He bowed and left without apology.

Security didn’t see him.

What should I do about this?

The lights of Llynfall glowed against the night sky. Aimee shifted on the cold metal bench, her wrists aching from the cuffs. The metal dug into her skin every time she moved. Without the evacuation sirens, the odd transport tearing into the sky, or the knowledge of Lord Eric’s fleet bearing down on them, it could have been any peaceful night in the settlement. Just another evening of water thundering down the falls, mist rising up through the terraces.

Rain began to fall, light drops at first. Aimee tilted her head back, letting the water hit her face. She tried to move her hands to wipe the water from her eyes, but the cuffs caught again.

“Maybe I should have kept quiet about the beacon,” she muttered, more to herself than to Mrs. Douglas and Skye, who sat faithfully beside her. The rain picked up, drumming against the metal walkways and cascading down the settlement’s terraced levels. Cold seeped through her clothes. Her teeth started to chatter.

Aimee pushed herself up from the bench, legs stiff from sitting. Skye’s long arms caught her before she could stumble. Trust Skye to be there, even now. The rain plastered Skye’s dark hair to her forehead.

“Right,” Skye announced to the two guards hovering nearby. She had to raise her voice over the intensifying rain. “We’re moving somewhere dry. Unless you want to explain to Administrator Shara why you let his best engineer catch pneumonia?”

The guards exchanged uncertain glances. One of them—Davies, Aimee thought his name was—shifted from foot to foot. She saw their confusion—their training hadn’t covered what to do with a handcuffed engineer who might have doomed the settlement while waiting for military transport during an evacuation.

“Stop right there.” A sharp voice cut through the rain.

Heavy boots clanked on the metal walkway. A military officer strode toward them, his uniform marking him as ADF. Water beaded on his insignia. Behind him, a guard dragged Fraser, whose face bore the unmistakable evidence of a beating—one eye swollen shut, lip split and bleeding. Fraser’s usual coveralls were torn at the shoulder.

The guard shoved Fraser forward. He stumbled, catching himself on his knees near Aimee’s feet. A small groan escaped him as he hit the metal grating.

“Leave us,” the officer said gruffly to the two guards who’d accompanied him, leaving just Davies and the older one.

“What the hell did you do to him?” Aimee yelled. Her hands strained against the cuffs, wanting to help him up.

“Yeah, what gives you the right?” Skye stepped forward, all two meters of her bristling with anger. Mrs. Douglas grabbed her daughter’s sleeve, but Skye shook her off.

“I’m Major Evans.” The officer’s voice carried the kind of authority that usually made Aimee want to check her work twice. Rain dripped from his cap. “Explain. You two. Now.”

Aimee’s stomach churned. Fraser knelt there, water dripping from his bruised face, because of her. Because she’d broken into his scrapyard, stolen the data pad, activated that beacon.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.