Jupiter Winds by C. J. Darlington

Author:C. J. Darlington
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9780989162135
Publisher: Mountainview Books
Published: 2014-05-11T05:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 23

After Tevah stabilized into a steady flight pattern, Dana helped Rin to the lavatory where she tried to clean her flight suit and get rid of the awful taste in her mouth with a few gulps of water.

“Easy.” Dana waved the tap off.

Rin steadied herself against the sink. “Doesn’t it bother you at all?”

Crossing her arms, Dana just smiled. “Welcome to space travel.”

“Right. I forgot. You probably learned to walk in one of these.”

She reached around Dana to wipe her hands on the towel attached to the wall. Everything was smaller and more cramped on the cosmoship.

Luckily, the lavatory had airtight seals to keep sewage where it belonged when pilots took their passengers on stomach-roiling rides into the heavens.

“We’ll be there before you know it,” Dana said. “You might want to rest up.”

She shook her head. How could she have been living with a cosmoship in her home for this long and not realize it could fly her to another planet?

Dana didn’t seem bothered by the motion of the floor as the ship flew at speeds Rin couldn’t even fathom. In a way, Dana reminded Rin of Grey. They both had the determination and confidence Rin wished she had, but something in Dana’s eyes betrayed an inner turmoil Rin had never seen in her sister. She could only imagine what it must feel like for Dana to know her own mother wanted her dead.

“Do we have any idea where Grey is on Jupiter?”

“Orion settlement lies in the very center of the Eye, but until we get under the cloud cover we won’t be able to get any visuals.”

“Are there really Mazdaar settlements?”

“You sure don’t know much, do you?”

Rin swallowed hard. Her stomach was settling, but her emotions were not. Grey was out there on that foreign planet, and she had to find a way to help her when they got there. Mazdaar could be torturing her again at this very moment.

“They started bringing the convicts first,” Dana went on, and Rin focused on her. “It was a way to test the Jupiter environment. Not much was known about it forty years ago, and the Mazdaar army wasn’t going to volunteer their troops for a death mission on a planet they weren’t sure was habitable.”

It sounded like a logical Mazdaar plan.

“They were the test subjects,” Dana continued. “Since they were all connected, it was easy enough for Mazdaar to track them from orbit and observe whether they survived and how they did it.”

“How many lived?”

“More than you’d think.” Dana fingered her braid. “But they banded together and declared themselves sovereign. They figured out they were being tracked and cut out their chips. Mazdaar doesn’t know exactly where they are on Jupiter anymore. It’s a huge planet, and there are lots of places to hide. They don’t know where your father is either, and that’s why they need Grey.”

Rin walked back to the bridge, leaning on the walls as she went. She returned to her seat to find that Mrs.

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