Page 70 of Seven Oars
The prospect of venturing out alone made the soles of Rosamma’s cold feet break into a sweat.But she looked at Eze’s battered face, suffered for nothing more than being available when a pirate needed to blow off steam. If something like that happened to Gro, she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself.
“Eze needs you now,” she said.“I’ll find Daphne and be right back.”
Gro looked torn, but Rosamma didn’t give her a chance to argue.
She slipped out of the Cargo Hold and tiptoed along the passageway. Her heart was beating way too fast. She had to slow down and put a hand on the wall, waiting for the vertigo to pass.
Then she crept forward more slowly.
If she were Daphne, where would she hide?
The passageway seemed dimmer than usual, but it could’ve been her imagination. There was smoke clinging to the mesh floor, its tendrils weaving low, hugging the walls.
It was a different kind of smoke, not Thilza’s pipe.It was odorless. Menacing.
Rosamma kept going.
Her biggest fear was that Daphne had made it to the Crew Quarters and tucked herself into some pirate’s sleeping node, Goldilocks-style. She might now be sleeping peacefully in a warm bed, waiting for the three bears to discover her.
If that were the case, she’d be safer in the forest with real bears. Here on Sever Oars, the ending to the fairy tale would be stomach-turning.
Saying a silent prayer to keep the girl from harm and cursing her weakness in the next breath, frightened to the point her legs shook and refused to obey, Rosamma reached the Crew Quarters.
It was a larger area with its own small passageway and an outer room. She saw a table with stools—a dining nook—and racks of exercise equipment. On one wall, there was another kind of rack, with weapons clipped in place by fancy bio-sensitive locks.
All was still. Not a body in sight. Theoarin this module was quieter, but no less powerful. She picked up its rhythmic vibrations through the floor.
Edging closer, she eased the flap to the first node aside just a hair to peek inside. She didn’t know what she’d do if she found a pirate occupying it. Her sole focus was Daphne.
The node was empty.
She checked all the sleeping nodes. Every single one.She was very lucky that the pirates weren’t here.
But neither was Daphne.
Back in the passageway, Rosamma leaned against a wall, thinking. The girl wouldn’t have gone far; she wasn’t known to run off or explore.
Slowly, Rosamma retraced her steps. Adrenaline subsiding, she started to feel uneasy, as if she were being watched. Music blared from the Habitat as she scurried silently by, and Tutti was speaking in its movie-star saccharine tones.
Only two areas, the Cargo Hold and the Crew Quarters… but wait, there was also the Bridge.
She walked there briskly and studied the airlocks.
The smoke was denser here. The lights flickered.
The tightly fused aperture of the trash chute was wide enough for a body to fit through.A horrifying thought.
But Daphne wouldn’t be able to activate the chute on her own.
To her right, the chrome lever of the Meat Locker gleamed through the veil of smoke.
Rosamma swallowed and took a step forward.
The smoke swirled, and she was no longer alone.
A large figure stood where the Bridge flowed into the passageway. The haze and poor lighting concealed his identity.
Large. Male. Alien.
