Maestra Rising by Pauline Baird Jones

Author:Pauline Baird Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781942583684
Publisher: Pauline Baird Jones

The Urclock was the width of Nivi’s arm span and surprisingly light, considering it was made of stone. It was awkward to carry, since it lacked a handgrip. If she could go back and do this again, she would definitely add handles. And lose many, if not all of the seven references.

The sounds outside increased.

“Go,” she said to Moose. “I can bring the Urclock.”

With a terse nod, and a pause for Rocky to shift to Nivi’s shoulder, Moose ran to assist the others, both weapons appearing in his hands. His headlamp went dark. She felt panic until she realized he’d done this so as not to be an easy target. Nivi switched hers off as well. The weapons fire visible through the gap provided sufficient light.

“Is this what the corporal calls a Charlie Foxtrot?” Rocky asked, conversationally.

“It could be,” Nivi said.

Nivi managed to shift the Urclock to one side, tucking it awkwardly under her arm. Rocky curled around her shoulder, his small paws digging into her body armor. She found a small rim to hold on, so she could remove one of her hand weapons. The anaid was not as much use to her, with her body so out of balance, but she tried to summon it as she half walked, half ran toward her companions. She needed the focus to do this. And she hoped that Ale had a plan to get them out of the crevasse while under attack. Her mind, instead of considering options, kept replaying Moose tumbling down the waterfall. How were they to ascend when his propulsion pack had failed?

We don’t leave our people behind.

We will all return or no one will return.

She had reached the door to the forest. Easing up so she could see through the gap, she saw the lights from energy fire tracing in straight lines into the forest, and lines of energy fire coming from the forest, but she could not see the enemy, either with her suit’s sensors or her eyes. This forest would be an ideal place to hide…

A chill ran down her back.

Her headsup display detected movement.

Behind her.

She turned, still clumsy and off-balance. Rocky sat up on her shoulder.

Against the darker tunnel of the curved antechamber, there loomed a larger, darker shadow.

It grew taller—no, it raised up on hind legs and growled. Light from outside glinted on two rows of long curved teeth.

The hair on the back of her neck rose and adrenalin began a fast bleed into her system. She lifted her hand weapon, though she suspected the stun setting would not be effective on something so big. She needed her long gun but could not reach for it with the Urclock in one hand and Rocky on her shoulder—

Rocky chittered for several seconds.

Her translation program struggled to parse the sounds. The creature roared again.

Rocky chittered again. Were they talking?

Her translation program finally spit out, “…dirty…the…fane…”

The fane? She hesitated, her finger still on the trigger.

“Tell him who you are,” Rocky said. “He thinks you messed with his temple.

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.