Colonization by Aubrie Dionne

Author:Aubrie Dionne [Dionne, Aubrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Inkspell Publishing

Chapter Fourteen

Answers

When I woke the next morning I buzzed Mom with my locator. Don’t feel well. Taking the day off.

She’d be frustrated at the timing of it, with the microbe samples dangling right before her eyes and no assistant to jot down the readings, but I had to alert someone of our findings and it had to be a person I could trust, someone who wouldn’t get Corvus and me in deeper trouble.

I buzzed my grandpapa on the intercom, but he didn’t answer. Making sure Dad had already gone to work, I snuck out of our family unit and took the elevator to the main control deck. I hadn’t heard from my grandpapa in a long time.

Was he still alive?

I reminded myself if the New Dawn still ran, then he was up there somewhere, watching over us, keeping us safe. When I closed my eyes, he surrounded me in a guiding force through the buzzing hum of the lights and the smooth lift of the platform below my feet. I hadn’t seen him since our last argument about my lifemate, and I was ready to tell him I was sorry.

The portal dematerialized and I stepped into the corridor, smoothing out my uniform to look presentable. If anyone would believe me, my grandpapa would. He wouldn’t report Corvus for taking me to the dig site. I had to tell him the aliens matched the bones in the excavation. The upper command needed to know the strange winged beings were still out there, still alive, spying on our colonization attempts.

The guards stood in my way like pieces lined up on a chess board. Usually they recognized me and parted as I walked toward them. Today they stared over me as if I were invisible.

“It’s Andromeda Barliss.” I emphasized my last name. “I’m here to see my grandpapa.”

“Sorry, kid.” A man in his early forties, the same age as my dad, spoke up. “He’s not taking visitors.”

“Not even from his own great-granddaughter?”

The man shook his head. “Nope. He’s preparing the ship for evacuation.”

I tried to keep my voice steady, but it rose to almost a shriek in my throat. “Already? We’re not scheduled to leave the ship until the housing modules are assembled.”

The man’s eyes looked kind, but his compassion did nothing to appease me. “It’s a long process, disconnecting all the systems, transferring the data to computers on the colony site.”

I peered over his shoulder at the chrome portal, imaging my grandpapa in his control chair, just a mere few feet away. “You have to let me through. I have findings to report.”

“Take your findings to Lieutenant Crophaven. Commander Barliss has appointed him as the new leader in charge of colonization.” The man gripped his laser across his chest and resumed his stance, as if to say our conversation had ended. I stood there like a dumb desert cow from Sahara 354, staring off into space. Or I guess it wasn’t space anymore, but Paradise 21 beyond the sight panels.

Lieutenant Crophaven wouldn’t listen to me any more than he’d listened to Mom that day in the emergency room.

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.