Shadow Exposed by Amber Forbes

Author:Amber Forbes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: space opera female lead, Military space opera, Cybernetics, Genetic Engineering, Science fiction royalty, hunted by enemies, secret powers, mental health rep fiction, Science fiction
Publisher: Amber Forbes
Published: 2023-04-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

THE INACTION ATE at Kara, yet she knew she had to remain calm. She paced the length of the rec room, agitated that the Dark Raiders had control over the freighter. She worried about the environmental systems, not for herself—as she’d have time to get everything back up and running by the time she needed to breathe again—but it would be too late for the others. Being helpless and at the mercy of strangers, especially Dark Raiders, ate at her. It was too reminiscent of her time in captivity when they had experimented on her. She went to wipe her face, but jerked her hand away at the last second and glared at the grease on the back of her hand. She wanted a shower, and she wanted out of here, but neither was going to happen anytime soon.

Isra sat at the table, reading her flexi as if nothing was out of the ordinary. The intermittent drumming of her fingers belied her outward calm though, and she too picked at the grungy coveralls.

After putting them on, Kara and Isra had crawled around in the engine room enough to make the stains look authentic. She’d had to smear the dark oil through her hair to cover the violet tint, and now it looked like a greasy black mess sticking up in spikes.

Arlen had once worn his hair in crazier spikes than hers right now, and their mother had rolled her eyes and laughed as she’d thought it looked like he’d been electrocuted. Kara abruptly stopped pacing and rubbed at her chest. Thoughts of her family kept popping up now, catching her unawares so often.

Isra paused, dropping her flexi onto the table. “What is it, Kara?” she asked softly.

Kara stared sightlessly at the bulkhead. “I had a sudden memory of my family; my brother and mother. They keep happening,” she whispered.

“Your mind is healing and opening itself up again.” Isra rose and came over, laying her hand on Kara’s shoulder.

The freighter shuddered and the faint vibration from the engines cut off. Kara leapt forward, dashing out of the rec room with Isra close on her heels. Tarsk and Daku clattered down the stairs, joining them in front of the hatch.

“What’s out there?” Kara asked, fidgeting and eyes flashing.

“It’s a mothership. They took us into a large hangar.” Daku reached out and took hold of Kara. “It’ll be okay,” he murmured into her hair. He jerked back, scrunching his nose up and swiped his sleeve across his grease-smudged face.

Tarsk laughed. “Bad idea. Nice hair though, Kara.”

The amusement faded away as the hatchway lock clunked and then rapidly clicked as it opened. The hatch popped out and slowly slid to the side as the ramp extended. Everyone tensed, watching as the inside of the hangar bay was slowly revealed. Kara kept to the side of the door, knowing she couldn’t take point here. She had to remain unobtrusive. Hopefully, they’d not be here long, because she really didn’t want to be smearing grease through her hair every day, just to keep up the charade.

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.