Alien by Alex White

Author:Alex White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc.

17

FLIGHT

Dorian isn’t looking the right way when it happens. One minute, he’s running through the central strut, a pack of snatchers lurking ahead of them, and the next he’s swept from his feet by a blast of wind like he’s never felt. It sends him stumbling forward, sprawling across the deck toward Anne. Then he realizes it’s not a burst, but a sustained, gale-force wind howling down the central strut toward the Athenian.

Fuck.

He looks as far as he can down the hall to find the station missing a chunk of hull where his ship should’ve been. Then he sees the Athenian through the viewport, watching as it bangs along the side of the station, knocking loose most of the escape pods.

And then his ship is gone. Did it take off, or was it destroyed? He couldn’t get a good look.

There’s a crowd of unfortunates hunkered down close to the breach, and Dorian thinks he can make out Daniel in the distance, hanging onto a deck plate.

Fury shakes his limbs. They had a plan. This should’ve worked. It always works out for him, and now his ship is missing. He imagines Ken, Susan, and Montrell taking off, writing him off in the Company logs as a loss, making a footnote out of him with their treachery. He imagines them arriving back on Earth.

“We tried everything we could,” they’ll say, “but Director Sudler was killed in the accident.” They’ll make him a goddamned line item.

“Dorian!” Anne calls. She’s made it to one side of the hallway, mooring herself with her muscular arms. “We have to help the others!” He’s far enough away from the breach that the suction isn’t so bad—worse than an Earth storm, better than a jet-engine intake. He can still find the means to clamber to his feet and rush over.

“Seal the bulkhead!” he shouts back over the din. “Don’t worry about the safety protocols, just seal it!”

“What?” It’s not the reaction he was expecting.

“They’re not going to make it! There are a dozen hungry aliens out there, and a shredding outer hull!”

“Fuck you!” Anne says it with such force that she spits in his face. She maneuvers across the hallway to a fire box, breaking it open. The shards of glass blow down the corridor toward the survivors, sharp pieces glinting as they swirl out of the breach. She pulls out the heavy hose nozzle and throws it into the wind, where it catches a gust. The line whips from the case at breakneck speed before snapping taut. The nozzle wriggles and twists halfway to the embattled crew, tantalizingly out of reach.

Undeterred, she begins rappelling down the line.

“Anne, don’t be stupid!” She’s just going to be a fish on a hook down there when the creatures spot her. He doesn’t see any of the malevolent shadows, but he knows they’re out there, ready to strike the second they receive an opportunity.

She doesn’t look back at him, focusing instead on getting to those stranded near the breach.

“Goddamn it, Anne!”

He could seal her out right now.

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