Jack Jetstark's Intergalactic Freakshow by Jennifer Lee Rossman

Author:Jennifer Lee Rossman [Rossman, Jennifer Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: space opera, space travel, space circus, science fiction circus, science fiction carnival, floating city, cyborg, genetic engineering
Publisher: World Weaver Press
Published: 2018-12-04T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

It all happened so fast.

A ring of flames sprang up from the floor, surrounding us and the soldiers. One of them transformed into a snarling wolf, tearing open the seams of his uniform as he lunged for Merulo. Theon pushed me to the ground as a knife flew past my head, and a dozen more soldiers appeared above me.

I scrambled to my feet and punched one in the face, only to have him dissipate at my touch and throw me and my inertia into the path of another hurtling blade.

Ripped right through my forearm with a rage that burned through my body, the heat and pressure growing until I could contain it no longer.

Fire rushed from my lungs in a roaring tongue of orange and yellow that burned through more illusionary soldiers. Someone caught fire. Couldn’t tell who through all the smoke and chaos, but it made me sick. These weren’t faceless ships; they were people.

For a moment, the floor felt unstable beneath my feet. A hand grabbed my wrist as the wolf and Merulo flung each other to the ground; Parthen emerged from behind the tank that had been shielding her and came to stand in the center of the fray.

She knelt, putting her palms to the white tiles. The floor rippled, more of a liquid than a solid, and gave way. Didn’t break, didn’t collapse, just stopped being under us.

We plummeted into another lab, and with the floor fast approaching, I braced for a hard landing. But we didn’t hit.

Lab after dark lab passed by in a blur lit only by the soft glow of tanks. How many people were they torturing in this place?

We finally came to a stop, and a far gentler one than I’d expected, given the rate of our fall, when Theon picked up Parthen and held her in his arms, breaking her contact with the floor.

Only then, looking at the hole above and the pool of water at our feet, did I realize Parthen must have transformed the floors to let us pass. Probably made the air into something thicker to soften the fall, too.

Parthen wriggled free from Theon’s grasp, breathing hard and fast. “We have to keep going. They’re coming. They’ll catch us.”

He grabbed her by the wrists. “We’re on the first level! You let us through this floor and we fall eight miles to the planet’s surface.”

I wiped the blood from my arm, wincing at the wide gash. “How do you know? I couldn’t count that fast.”

He shrugged, putting an arm around a shaking Parthen and kissing the top of her head. “I stopped hearing soldiers’ thoughts under us. Figured we were at the bottom.”

Merulo groaned, hauling himself to his feet. Hairs singed, paws bloody, but otherwise apparently unharmed. Probably wasn’t his blood anyway.

“Not Lily’s,” he assured me, following my gaze. “Never Lily’s.”

A cooling relief washed through my boiling veins, and I had to smile despite our situation.

I looked up, expecting to see the soldiers rappelling through the gaping holes of exposed beams and broken tile.

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