Lioness--Cygnus 5 by Alex R Oliver

Author:Alex R Oliver
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: space opera, space opera female protagonist, science fiction, military science fiction, alien contact, alien archaeology, military sci-fi female protagonist, sci-fi space opera
Publisher: Beecroft Books
Published: 2017-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Jailbreak

AURORA HAD FAMILIARIZED herself with the layout of the colony on the trip, though in truth there had not been much to learn. Prison/starter colonies were standardized and this one had not differed greatly from the museum at the heart of Novocasa, where she had walked with her parents many times.

She staggered into the corner of the chapel like a drunkard who can't decide whether he needs physical or spiritual support. The chapel's outer wall was built into the thick, defensive wall of the citadel and the shade there was so heavy that when she eyed her deformed left hand she could barely see it. But she could feel the opening in the palm just like a mouth. When she thought at it, told it to open, it did so, and a thick fluid oozed out. Shuddering internally at the sight, she wiped it down the wall, swaying back in disbelief when the bricks immediately began to smoke and melt.

This part of the citadel faced only the prison block and the trees of the orchard behind it. A hole in the wall large enough to crawl through might go unnoticed in the dark, and by morning it shouldn't matter, because they would be out of here. So she leaned her weight on her hand and pressed, slowly, silently burrowing through.

On the other side, she stood for a moment and brushed the scorch marks from her clothes. One of the guards who patrolled the prison block was visible to her left, his back to her as he rounded the far corner of the prison block, the light on his rifle picking out only what was ahead of him, blinding him to what else was moving in the dark.

She had two minutes before the second guard came around the near corner and saw her, but she wasn't going to be here for that. Just as the first guard turned left to patrol the far end wall, she slipped between the school and the prison and around the back, where only fruit trees watched her and whispered to themselves.

As she pressed her shoulder-blades into the bricks, she was reminded again of how grossly misshapen she felt. It nagged at her - the fact that these were not her shoulders, though they were, that every part of her spine that touched the wall was wrong. Even her breathing, scarcely audible even to her, was hollower and lower and not her own.

If she let herself, she would be ashamed. Was this what they felt then? Those men and women who were born in the wrong bodies? Did they spend their lives suffering like this? And had she thought to condemn them for trying to fix it? Bryant's anger seemed more justified to her now that she could barely stand to be in her own skin, now that every instinct she had clamored at her that she was, in this state, an intolerable mistake.

She was going to be very, very thankful when Bryant reset this, and she was going to think better of his medical ethics in future.

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