Page 147 of Homebound
“You have to let your eyes go all unfocused. Notice how there’s nothing where the shape is. It blocks the stars.”
Simon was quiet next to her, presumably focusing and unfocusing his eyes. Suddenly he made a strangled sound, almost a moan, and gripped her arm so hard it hurt. Releasing her as abruptly as he’d grabbed her, he turned and pushed himself back to the controls in the same forceful and haphazard way, so unlike his usual smooth and precise maneuvering.
Gemma watched, astonished, as he powered on their comm transmitter and readied it to broadcast. Working frantically, he mashed the pulse button in. The ribbon-thin display above the windshield came to life with hieroglyphic signs that ran like captions, an inscription of the distress signal that was shooting outward, to space, aimed at the… asteroid.
“Simon?” she asked, unsure of what was going on.
He was turning the ship to face the asteroid full-on. The turtle disappeared from the back window to gradually arise in front of them, huge and light-swallowing. A monster.
“Simon, we’re going to collide!”
“Impossible. They’re moving with us.”
“They?”
He turned to her then. “It isn’t an asteroid. It’s a Rix space station.”
The thin air was making Gemma lightheaded and slow on the uptake.
“A Rix space station?” she repeated dumbly, floating to the front and peering out of the windshield. “All I can see is a black shadow.”
“It’s camouflaged.”
“It isn’t on our radar, either.”
“It’s undetectable unless they want to be seen,” he explained.
Gemma happened to glance at the control panel screen.
“Simon, watch out!”
While Simon was distracted, the pirate cruiser moved into a position that was the closest yet to Butan.
The collision alarm went off, deafening and distracting.
“We’re getting shot at!” Gemma yelled as another pencil-shaped heat source branched off from the pirate cruiser and started gliding toward the center of the screen.
“I see it.”
Simon pulled the levers to once more change the trajectory of their crazy flight. They waited to see the result in silence disrupted only by their shallow fast breathing.
“Do you think the Rix ship heard our signal?”
“They did.”
“Why aren’t they responding? Maybe our receiver’s faulty and we can’t read them?”
“They may never respond. Rix rarely interfere.”
“We are being attacked in front of their eyes!”
“It won’t matter.”
“But you are one of them!”
“That’s our only hope.”
All they could do was wait. Filling lungs with air became a difficult task. Gemma was getting progressively colder and more tired. Her stomach felt funny like it detached itself from its normal place and rose to levitate inside her chest cavity next to her heart. The feeling messed with her head, addling her brain.
