Gravity Lost by L. M. Sagas

Author:L. M. Sagas [Sagas, L. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

JAL

It was too goddamn quiet—the kind of quiet that stopped feeling like quiet. That turned every little rustle of fabric into a whisper behind his back, and every groan of old metal into a murmur. It was a bated quiet, like maybe the Pathfinder really was sleeping, but it slept with one eye open.

“Kid, slow up a little,” Saint called from a few steps behind him. His red-hued headlamp cast Jal’s shadow out ahead of him, painting shapes into the dust motes floating in the air. Skin sprinkles. Jal’d never been more grateful for a rebreather than he was right then. Give him acid rain. Give him sulfur skies. The dust hung so thick on that ship, it felt like walking through a shroud, and Jal didn’t care for a lungful of it. “Eoan said it gets tricky between here and the mess.”

“Old as this ship is, it’s probably breaking apart under the weight of its own gravity,” Drestyn said. He had the right voice for that kind of quiet. Didn’t break it or pierce it, just nudged it out of the way for a while. “I’d watch your step. And your heads.”

Jal was more concerned about watching the hall ahead of them. Eoan said they didn’t have any other life-forms aboard, and he trusted them. It just … something had the hair on the back of his neck standing up, and it wasn’t just the silence and the dust. It felt like they had eyes on them. Like if he turned around, there’d be a stranger standing right behind them.

“We’re sure there’s nobody here, Cap?” he asked.

“The only life-forms I’m sensing aboard are you three,” they replied. “And I’m not detecting any ships in the area.”

“Any chance the debris field’s mucking things up?” Saint asked.

“Only on the long-range sensors. Everything within boarding range still reads clear, and there’s nothing out here but us and three ill-fated satellites.”

Saint nodded—though, with Saint bringing up the rear, all Jal really saw was the bob of his headlamp light—and said, “There, kid. Satisfied?”

“Not really.” But then, he probably wouldn’t be satisfied until he had Regan back on the Ambit, and they’d booked it back to the center spiral. Just nerves, he thought. It’s just nerves. He didn’t used to get so much in his head, but lately it was like he had this static running behind his thoughts. A feeling like every step would drop him over an invisible ledge, and he’d never been afraid of falling before, but damned if he hadn’t picked up the habit. “How long ’til we get to the mess?”

“At your current pace? Nine minutes, forty-three seconds,” Eoan said. “You should reach the rendezvous point a few minutes ahead of schedule.”

“What about Gethin?” Drestyn asked. “If he’s not aboard, and he’s not in boarding range, where is he?”

“Knowing him?” Jal ducked a bit of low-hanging wire where the ceiling had fallen in. Breaking apart under the weight of its own gravity, Drestyn’d said, and Jal could believe it.

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.