Discretion (Scattered Stars: Evasion Book 2) by Glynn Stewart

Author:Glynn Stewart [Stewart, Glynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Faolan's Pen Publishing
Published: 2022-07-25T16:00:00+00:00

26

Trace was barely a teenager, with all of the energy of that age, but she’d also spent most of the previous year living on stations and spaceships—and a good chunk of that under extremely constrained conditions as a prisoner.

She didn’t have the endurance or the practice at long hikes she’d acquired growing up in a terraformed nature reserve anymore. By the time they reached the park Lan said was their contact point, she was feeling the drain of the hike out of Llandudno’s downtown core.

Reaching a park bench, she collapsed into it and took several long deep breaths before looking around. The park was full of Estutmost’s native plant life—both as a preserve and to limit the resources applied in terraforming.

The multi-trunked trees with their webs of vine-like leaf-branches looked strange to her eyes, and not just because she’d grown used to spaceships. Denton, the Icem System’s inner world and her home planet, had native life that much resembled Terran-standard plants.

Estutmost did not. Even the bushes and ground cover more resembled spiderwebs of tiny vines than leaves or grass. It was strange to her eyes but also surprisingly pretty.

It was also, as she understood it, completely inedible to humans. Eating Estumost plant life would provide slightly less nourishment than eating plastic.

“Wasn’t there supposed to be someone here?” Vexer asked, collapsing onto the bench next to Trace. “There’s a few folks around, more than I expected in truth, but…”

“We were supposed to meet someone here,” Lan corrected. They had a hand on the back of the bench Trace and Vexer were on, leaning on it for their own support. “I wasn’t expecting them to be here when we arrived.”

“Took us long enough to get here.”

Trace managed not to snort at her dad’s whiny tone. Vexer, it seemed, hadn’t enjoyed the walk any more than she had.

“So, we wait?” she asked.

“We wait,” Lan confirmed. “For a bit. Not forever. Still could be a trap, after all.”

Trace grimaced and nodded, leaning forward to check that she could still reach the stunner holstered at her back. The two adults had their blasters as well, but she was grimly certain that if they ended up needing any of the weapons, they were in real trouble.

Her stomach rumbled as she looked around. Hopefully, they wouldn’t have to wait too long—or if they did, that there was at least one open vendor in the park!

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