Page 2 of The Highseer's Mate

“What is going on? Why did we wake up?” Ryan asks again.

I shake my head. “I think autopilot is trying to avoid something. A meteor shower maybe?”

“A fucking meteor shower?” Ryan lays back down in her pod. “Wake me up when we’re really there.”

She slams the glass cover on her pod closed just as Melina joins my side.

“W-what should we do?” Melina’s big green eyes meet mine and I wonder if she can see that I have no damn idea.

Autopilot is supposed to navigate us. Even if there was a manual option to the ship, not a single one of us aboard wouldhave a clue how to use it. Not to mention, I have no idea where we are.

The ship shakes again and this time Melina and I are thrown off our feet onto the metal grates below.

Everything is shaking as the ship seems to slam into something from the outside. I drag myself to my feet again and we awkwardly make our way to the command center, arms locked to help us stay upright.

Something flashes across the radar and my heart stalls.

“What is that?” Melina asks the question as if she read my mind, pointing a finger at the strange shape in front of us.

I shake my head, a lump forming in my throat.

On the left side of the map, a circle appears. It grows and then lengthens like a cornucopia, traveling at us faster and faster.

My eyes go wide as I process what I am looking at. My fingers grip the edge of the command board as a chill tears down my spine. Melina looks at me, her chin starting to quiver like she’s seconds from bursting into tears.

“It’s a…wormhole.”

I’m no expert, but I read enough about outer space travel to know that wormholes aren’t a good thing.

As soon as I say the word out loud, I spring into action. I grab Melina by her shoulders and push her down the corridor back to the passenger chamber.

“Get back in. Shut it tight and brace yourself.”

Melina shakes her head furiously as we get to her pod and I try help her in. She pushes me away and points to my pod. “You get in too.”

I have to check everyone else’s. If Ryan opened the latch on her pod, there’s a chance it was still partially open. Maybe someone else’s rattled free. I need to make sure everyone will be safe.

“Go!” I shout at Melina.

I look over each pod as quickly as I can and then run for my own. Melina is halfway inside hers when a shattering, screaming sound echoes through the ship. The walls shake as the floor tears from underneath my feet and a second later I’m airborne.

Melina screams as I slam into something hard. The air surges from my lungs as I try to hold onto something, anything. The ship is flying at a pace that feels like my organs are going to shoot out of my body.

We jolt again and I land on something softer. Melina screams underneath me and I realize it’s her.

“Oh God. Hold on to me!” I shout at her, but my voice is drowned out by the crashing and cracking. The metal around us sounds like it’s bending and morphing, seconds from being obliterated by the pressure.

I blink as a heavy weight pushes on us, harder and harder until I can’t move my muscles. Everything hurts.

Another massive jolt and I’m slammed into a wall, pain shooting up my cheek and flaring at my temple. I reach up and feel blood trickling down my face, my strength fading as I curl into a ball on the hard ground.

It’s too loud.

It’s too violent.

I can’t feel Melina anymore.

I can only pray that the pods will save the rest of them.

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