Rebel Alliances (Targon Tales Book 3) by Chris Reher

Author:Chris Reher [Reher, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: galactic empire, aliens, military sci-fi, science fiction, space marine, adventure
Published: 2013-03-24T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Nova jolted out of some endless, tedious, unpleasant dream that seemed to have little purpose but to make her glad that she was no longer asleep. She stared up at the metal ceiling, aware of a dull headache and a gnawing emptiness in her stomach. There had been little water and even less food allocated to the captives and the only reason they were not also freezing was that the cargo ship had now been cast adrift and everyone, rebel and hostage alike, were crammed aboard the Shri-Lan’s battle cruiser.

She turned to look over at Jovan lying on the other bunk. He seemed to be still deep in whatever khamal allowed him to escape the pain in his head and the horror of their situation. He was too young, she thought, too sheltered by his well-padded life among the Shantirs of Delphi, to be dealing with any of this. At least they had been given this tiny cabin apart from the others, where they were allowed to rest between their attempts to penetrate the keyhole and find a way back to Trans-Targon.

She sat up and leaned over to him to touch his forehead. His skin was cool and he breathed evenly. “Are you awake?”

“Don’t want to be.”

“How’s the head?”

“Attached.”

She scrubbed her face with both hands and sat in silence for a while. Tychon would come, she knew. He would mobilize the entire Air Command fleet and every Level Three spanner. By now he’d have half the Vanguard fleet on its way to that keyhole outside Dannakor. They would be found.

Jovan sat up. The pale blue of his eyes meant that he was either ill or still terribly exhausted. Mechanically, slowly, he untied his braid and then retied it neatly, perhaps not even aware of the fussiness of his task. “I’ve never done that before,” he said after a while.

“Done what?”

“Touched someone like that. The way Shan Tychon touched you.”

She smiled. “You got some of that, did you?”

He nodded. “I’ve joined with many people before. My people, anyway. But not like that. It was so... I mean, I should not have been...”

“Yeah, I love it when he does that.”

“You don’t understand. This is Shan Tychon! To feel him touch you like that was like... like...” He looked at his hands. “I should not have been part of that.”

“Was nice though, wasn’t it?” she teased.

“Captain!”

“He knew you were there! If it didn’t matter to him, why should it matter to you?”

He rose from his bunk and went to the door. “If I were the gossiping sort it would be quite the tale for my fellow novices.” He knocked loudly on the door to the corridor. “Is there any food on this ship?” he shouted. “How are we supposed to concentrate if I am lacking the basic sugars required by my undeniably superior brain, you Centauri degenerates.”

“Easy!” Nova said. “Are you all right?”

“No, I’m not. I have never been locked up in my life. This is intolerable. My head pain is intolerable.”

She reached across the small space and took his hand.

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.