Elixr_The Lost Starship Two by Joshua James

Author:Joshua James [James, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

Eli stuffed down rising alarm and marched Jood through the spotless halls of Brimstone Station. The medical people followed two steps behind him and Yasha and Jood, but he had to hold himself steady when the armed guards came forward to surround their group.

They wound through countless featureless corridors, rode a lift to somewhere, and entered another corridor with no visible end. Eli hoped to high heaven that Waylon and River were making some progress on breaking the Parker-Nolan Grenade out of its impenetrable vault, because he really didn’t like the way this trip was turning out.

His heart nearly stopped when the guards halted outside a steel door. One of the medical people tapped something into the code panel. The door popped, and a blank white cell yawned open.

She rotated to face Eli. “You can put the Xynnar in here. He’ll be contained until the transport comes to retrieve him.”

Eli froze. “You want to store him in here?”

“It’s the only containment unit strong enough to hold him,” she replied. “We can’t have him breaking out. He could destroy the whole station.”

Eli stared into that cell. He couldn’t put Jood in there, not after he’d given his friend his solemn word that they wouldn’t leave him on the station. If he put Jood in there, they would never get him out.

Jood must have sensed his reluctance. He took a step forward, and his arm tugged at Eli’s fingers. Eli understood the message loud and clear. If he didn’t put Jood in there right now, the jig was up. The guards and medical people would know he and his crew were intruders. They would all wind up in cells exactly like this…or worse.

Instinct made Eli grasp at Jood’s sleeve to pull him back. His heart and soul screamed against letting Jood go in there, but at that moment, one of the guards elbowed between them. He gave Jood a stout smack on the back and propelled him into the cell. He swung his burly arm and slammed the door.

A deafening clang echoed down the corridor. It crashed into Eli’s heart with soul-crushing finality. He stared at Jood’s orange-brown face through the plate-glass window.

The lock pad peeped, and an indicator light changed from green to red. The door was locked and Eli couldn’t imagine how he’d get it open. Jood was a prisoner.

Jood gazed back at him with clear, expressionless eyes. His features registered nothing—nothing at all. Was he scared? Was he amused? Did he trust Eli to get him out of here, or did he suffer under the inevitable certainty that Eli was absolutely helpless to free him?

That was the worst part—the sinking suspicion that Jood knew all along that, once he got on the station, he wouldn’t be leaving it anytime soon. He knew that and he’d put on the shackles anyway. He’d done it for Eli.

Knowing Xynnar didn’t experience emotions the way humans did gave Eli no comfort. He’d spent nearly every waking moment of the last twenty-five years with Jood.

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