Star Bound: A feelgood space adventure (Odyssey Earth Series Book 3) by Rex Burke

Author:Rex Burke [Burke, Rex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781916694026
Published: 2023-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

16

Eyes

At some point in the middle of the night Karlan woke up, and lay there on his back beside the extended lander ramp, looking up at the stars.

The rest of the group were sleeping in various places inside and out – some in the hammocks in the cabin, others in the cargo hold or on the ramp itself. Departure was scheduled for early morning but this was nowhere near time, Karlan knew, and he closed his eyes again.

Nope. Not going to work. There was something on his mind and after a minute or two he realised what it was.

He picked himself up quietly and stepped over a couple of sleeping bodies. He stopped by the spent campfire, yawned and stretched, and looked down the slope towards the old encampment. And then jumped about a foot in the air when a hand touched his shoulder.

“K?”

He turned to hiss at whoever it was. “I nearly had a heart attack, you idiot, don’t do – ”

“Sorry, Karl,” said Bel, softly. “Couldn’t sleep, too?”

“Yes, right. I mean no. Well, I mean, yes, no, I couldn’t sleep.” He trailed off, thinking, Karl, stop talking. Or at least stop talking like a moron. He never seemed to be able to get a sensible sentence out whenever she turned up.

He yawned and stretched again, as if to suggest that if only it wasn’t the middle of the night, and he wasn’t half asleep, by now Bel would be being subjected to the rapier-like repartee that was his usual mode of speech. Karl shot a quick glance at her to check if it was working, but she had already moved a step away and was looking up into the sky.

“Incredible, isn’t it?” she whispered, looking back at him.

“Oh, the stars? I suppose so.”

The fact is, Karlan was used to the blanket of light – he’d been born among the stars. What was more incredible to Karlan was the appearance of a girl his age that he wasn’t tangentially related to, whose close proximity caused half his synapses to collapse.

“There’s something I’m going to do,” he said. “Before we leave. It’s been on my mind.”

Patting himself on the back. Nice one, Karl. No random contradictions. Almost full sentences.

He started down the slope. “You can come if you want.”

“Like on a date, you mean?” Bel smiled at him in the starlight.

And there it was again. A few more synapses burst into flames and Karlan blinked rapidly. How did she do that? She was, hands down, the most confusing human being that Karlan had ever met.

“Just teasing,” said Bel. “Come on then, show me.”

They walked down the hill and past the camp, mostly in silence, and then Karlan led them on towards the river. Under a glistening night sky they headed upstream a little way to an area where river stones and boulders lay scattered across the ground.

Sam’s Place.

Karlan had realised that he couldn’t just leave it looking like that, whatever Dana had said. It didn’t seem right.

They had built a

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