Dark Space by Stephen A. Fender

Author:Stephen A. Fender
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Jolly Rogers Productions
Published: 2014-10-31T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty minutes later, the sleek transport was secured on the shelf-like landing pad projecting from the side of the towering administrative building—one of the only structures in the city that appeared to be routinely maintained. As Shawn exited the ship behind Melissa, he caught sight of the raging sandstorm far off to the west.

“That doesn’t look very inviting,” he said.

“The SS team is equipped to handle these kinds of contingencies,” Melissa replied, suddenly feeling a cool draft, and wrapping her arms around herself tightly.

Seeing her discomfort, Shawn removed his well-worn flight jacket and draped it over her shoulders. Her appreciative glance instantly warmed any lingering chill he might have felt. Looking back to the west, he saw that the twin suns were beginning to rapidly descend, and their glow from behind the sandstorm was decisively stunning. A line from a poem Shawn had once read popped into his mind, but before he could quote it, a panel in the side of the administrative building opened.

At first, Shawn thought it was their escape from the cold, but soon noticed a flotilla of maintenance droids exit the bay. They immediately went to work, hooking up heavy power and other such umbilical lines to the ship. A multi-jointed robot—looking eerily like a three-foot long metallic spider—attached thick metal chains to the transport’s five landing pads.

“Seems that we’ll be staying put for a while,” Melissa said, resigned.

“This isn’t all that uncommon. It just shows that the power to the landing platforms isn’t as dependable as we’d like. Because the ship’s magnetic landing system is now dependent on that power, those chains will help keep the ship down in high winds.”

Another burst of cool air, twice as pronounced as the last, whipped Melissa’s auburn hair into her face. “Let’s get inside. It’s getting too uncomfortable out here.”

Placing her arm inside his, Shawn walked her to a nearby control panel. Opening the adjacent door, the two strode quickly inside.

After checking in with the dock master, Shawn and Melissa quickly made their way down to the city streets below. Exiting the building, they were nearly run down by a taxi that fortunately swerved at the last moment, honked its horn several times in succession, and then sped down a distant dark thoroughfare.

“Friendly place,” Shawn muttered to himself.

“So it would seem.”

“Well,” he sighed, “with the mining station currently out of reach, where do we go from here?”

Melissa smiled, and mirroring his earlier gesture, put her arm around his. “The only other place where we can get any valuable information, my dear commander.”

“And that would be where?” he asked, looking at their surroundings suspiciously, then finally back to her.

“Come on. I’ll lead the way.”

Unconvinced, Shawn reluctantly acquiesced, but not before checking the charge on his pistol.

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.