Page 33 of Touch the Stars
She turned to face him again.“Thank you.”
Some unnamed emotion flashed in his eyes, then was gone.
“It was my honor.”He reached behind his head and pulled his hood up.“If you are ready, it is time to determine your sister’s location.”
“Let’s do this.”She slipped her hood over her head and allowed him to adjust the respirator over her mouth and nose.Then she followed him through the wavering wall into a docking tube…and floated upward.
“Eep!”Zero gravity?Cool.
Giddiness filled her at the sensation of weightlessness, and a laugh escaped her.This must be what astronauts felt like.
“Carefully, Kaitlyn.”Baatar’s voice sounded tinny through his respirator.
“I’m trying, but this is fuckingawesome.”If there were more room in the tube, she’d try somersaulting her way to the freighter.
“Cruiser, override and open the freighter exterior docking door.”
Several loud clanks came from the other ship’s hull, then part of it slid open like a big rectangle of blackness.
“Now that’s how anormaldoor works.”An icy coldness prickled over her skin, then warmer air filled the inside of her environmental suit.“So, no lights in there, I’m guessing?”
“Only the lights from our suit helmets.”Baatar reached back, grabbed her hand, then towed her through the opening and into the pirate’s ship.
Some weight returned, pulling her body downward until her feet touched the floor.Fun time was over.Softsnickssounded, and beams of lights from their suit helmets cut through the inkiness.
“Gravity is weak, so you will bounce as you walk,” Baatar said.“Use the handgrips so your head does not hit the overhead.”
“Gotcha.”A faint, sickly-sweet odor filtered through her respirator.“Ew.What’s that smell?”
“Death.”
The claw of fear twisted in her gut and she widened her eyes.“Kris?”
“Since the atmospheric controls are still working here, they should also be working in the live-cargo cells.”Baatar shifted, guiding her toward a wall-mounted handgrip.“Follow me closely to the command center.”
“Shouldn’t we go to the live-cargo cells, first?”Where Krishadto be, because if she wasn’t…
“It will be faster to get to them if we know their location.”
In other words, why waste time searching the ship when they could ask for directions?Well, duh.Pretty impressive that theguyhere thought of that before she did.
Five minutes later, she stood at Baatar’s shoulder as he plugged a handheld device into the ship’s command console.The stool under him creaked as he moved, but he didn’t seem bothered by it any more than he was by the decaying humanoid he’d removed from the stool, who now hovered like a ghost over the floor behind them.Or the five others strapped in their seats at the other consoles.
So fucking creepy.
A shiver raced down her spine.What the hell had happened to them?
The small view screen on the console’s surface flickered to life, lighting up with dancing static lines.Baatar pushed a few buttons, and an image appeared.
She leaned over his shoulder for a closer look.“Is that a blueprint of this ship?”
“If a ‘blueprint’ is a detailed map of a ship, then yes, it is.”He pointed to a section near the back center of the image.“These letters say this is where the live-cargo is kept.”
The letters looked like scribbles to her.“If you say so.Let’s go.”
“One moment.”He pushed another button.A hiss filled the air, and a spray of sparks erupted from the console.He yanked the handheld out of the port and stood.“This ship is unstable.”
“Ya think?”
