PlanetFall by Cheri Lasota

Author:Cheri Lasota [Lasota, Cheri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ever-Sea Press
Published: 2018-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Weeks had passed since they’d been taken by the Thorndike military to the Isle of Ffynnons. While Evie had purposefully kept out of the various squabbles between Founders and Reachers, she did know the Thorndikes were one of the ten Founding Families who had journeyed ahead of the SS Challenge and taken control of the new planet, colonizing most of the continents and causing a great deal of strife for New Eden’s alien inhabitants. As far as she could gather, their Thorndike captors had been encamped in central Alba at an installation called Danarii Station. They had also commandeered an abandoned village on the nearby Isle of Ffynnons surrounding the strangest lake Evie had ever seen. A giant crater lay in the center, and waterfalls poured into the hole to some unknown destination beneath the lake.

Evie and Frankie had grown ever sicker, and now Reina suffered with the illness as well. The Thorndike medical team allowed only food and water and the most basic of treatment for the affected Reacher crew. Most just rode out the symptoms, though others, untreated, had died of the high fever since their internment. Evie worried about Frankie night and day, and she tried to care for Reina as best she could.

Maybe it was the fever they all shared. Maybe it was Stockholm syndrome. But Evie had begun to sense the dog’s moods‌—‌not through Frankie’s body language but through her mind. Like, one minute Evie was thinking of one thing and then she’d find herself looking at Frankie, almost like the dog had spoken to her. And the schnauzer would look back. It was like they’d become more aware of one another than ever before. More present together.

One day, as they lay on their pallets, one of the guards approached. Frankie’s growl alerted Evie, who’d been lost in a fever dream. She awoke to find the guard scooping up the dog’s leash.

“Let her go!” Evie shouted. Frankie barked at the man too, a seeming reflection of Evie’s own anger.

“Can’t you see my dog is sick?” Evie pled. “She needs rest.”

“Yeah, leave Frankie alone,” Reina called out from her pallet across the room. Whereas Evie had finally begun to recover, Reina was still wracked with a chronic fever.

The guard ignored them and carried Frankie across the makeshift hospital. The moon’s light shone off the dog’s coat as she struggled in his arms. “The commander says you can’t keep the dog anymore,” the man called over his shoulder. “By law, Earth animals are not allowed in the wild. He is taking her to our military camp for … testing.”

“Over my dead body!” Evie shouted, struggling to her feet.

“Stay back!” He stopped and fumbled for the stun gun in his holster as Frankie struggled.

“Watch out, Evie,” Reina said.

“Let her go, asshole,” Evie said evenly, advancing on him. “You’re not taking her anywhere.”

He managed to draw the stun gun as Frankie barked, echoing Reina’s warning, but Evie grabbed the weapon with both hands. The guard fell backward and out the door, and Frankie found her freedom as they hit the ground.

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