Page 22 of Fighting Gravity
I grabbed her arm tight and dragged her with me through the oddly shaped hall that was turned on its side. She stumbled along at my pace, trying to keep up.
“I don’t know what hitchhiking is but don’t expect them to do you any favors. The Mikoro specializes in two trades. Tech and lives.”
“I thought they were chelkir.”
“Chelkir are a race. The Mikoro is their gang. Humans have never been seen this far out. You’d be a great addition to someone’s zoo.”
“Zoo? Ok, so asking for a lift is out of the question.”
Another jolt sent us both slamming into the wall. Above, a panel of the ship shook loose and descended on both of us. I wrapped Quinn in my arms and rolled out of its path, heaving her to her feet.
What the drek am I doing dragging her with me?
“Keep saving me and I’ll think you like me,” she said with a snarky tone.
I tightened my grip on her until I felt her tense from the pain. “I still need you,” I hissed.
“Right. For all that information I don’t have. Look, you took my Buddy. Whatever is in there is as much as I know.”
“You mentioned that.”
“I feel like I need to repeat myself to you. A lot.”
“Crex,” I said into the coms.
“Systems are failing, urok. You know I will fight until—”
“Get to the pods,” I bellowed, fury making me squeeze Quinn even tighter. My claws came out and began to press into her skin, likely wounding her, but I didn’t care. “Sound the order.”
“Fuck!” she barked, yanking her arm free. “I can move on my own. You’re hurting me!”
“Move faster!”
“Why! I’m not an idiot. If I don’t have the information you want, then the only reason you’re keeping me around is to study me as a human. What are you gonna do? Dissect me? Do creepy experiments? No! I’m not even an organ donor for Christ’s sake! No one is poking around this body. Especially not you!”
The whole ship echoed my order to get to the escape shuttles. From us, they were one level down. Careless of Quinn’s protests, I gripped her arm again and pulled her with me.
We sprinted through the ship, finding our path obscured by debris and odd turns that I wasn’t used to treading. When I found a shaft for the lifts, I ushered Quinn down the tunnel to the lower level. She was surprisingly agile and moved fast, carrying her own weight with more ease than I expected.
Sections of the ship were already being closed off as more and more of the Argos was damaged. We came to a large space where escape shuttles were once behind doors easily accessed from the hall, but with the ship’s gravity off-tilt, the hatches were straight down on the floor. Crew members were diving into the available shuttles all around. I saw Kaar, Crex, and Veron at the end of the passage shoving more crew into the hatches. I threw Quinn down into the first empty pod and then stood, watching and waiting for the rest of my people to find an escape.
Umos appeared just as I was about to lock myself in and at his side was Utrek, one of my biologists. He was a runt and he’d clearly gotten snagged by something. He was limping, blood running down his left thigh. I quickly sprinted toward them.
“Research deck was destroyed,” Utrek strained.
“The whole ship’s about to be destroyed,” I said, noticing a silver box filled with research data under his arm. I scoffed and quickly escorted the two to one of the few pods that still had space. Umos and I lowered Utrek in first before Umos slid in after him.
“No more lifeforms on the ship!” Kaar shouted from two shuttles down.
“Crex!” I barked. His head popped up and he hurried to my side. With Utrek out of commission and Umos not being the best pilot, I needed him to get them out alive. Crex understood immediately and dropped into place. “Go!”
I sealed the shuttle door and ran to Kaar and the others, sliding down into the pilot seat of our own shuttle. Quinn had strapped herself in and was trying desperately to read and understand the control panel over Veron and Kaar’s shoulders.
I slapped a hand over the launch controls and started the shuttle’s engines, biting my teeth.
“Scum,” I snarled.
“Scum,” Veron repeated. “But scum that have taken your ship. The Argos is theirs. We have to go.”
