Page 34 of Touch the Stars
His sharp gaze met hers.“I do.Come.”
Finally.Please be there, Kris.Alive.
She jog-bounced behind Baatar.What a maze.Every hallway looked the same.Same walls, same handgrips, same pipes, same panels of unlit buttons.But Baatar would’ve told her by now if they were going in circles.
Clunk!
She floated upward, even as her last step had propelled her forward.Gravity must have given out.
“Whoa!”
Baatar latched onto one of the evenly spaced handgrips.“Anchor yourself.”
To what, exactly?She’d already passed the closest handle.
Baatar extended his arm as she sailed toward him, then she was up against his side.
A giggle bubbled out of her.“Sorry, but it’s still pretty fun.”
His grin was visible around his respirator, then he nodded toward a side hallway across from them.“That is the live-cargo corridor.”
She moved her light to shine through the opening and squinted her eyes.“What the hell is that dark shape floating down there?A body?”
He grunted.“A Bajiki body.”
Not Kris, then, thank God.“And the other stuff?”
“Entrails.”
Oh, sure.Great.
“Brush them aside and focus on your mission, warrior.”His words held the edge of a command, which snapped her back from a rabbit hole of grossness.“Cruiser, open the live-cargo holds, and keep them open.”
More clunks echoed, then shadowed openings appeared along each side of the short hallway.
“Eight cells,” Baatar murmured.“I will go first, but I need your eyes to recheck the cells for anything I might miss.”
How diplomatic of him.A small smirk twitched at one corner of her lips.He was right, though.If there was something big, mean, and hungry in one of the cells, it would probably eat her before he could help.
A long groan of stressed metal filled the space.
Baatar’s mouth became a grim slash that even the respirator couldn’t hide.“The more we do, the faster the freighter’s condition deteriorates.”
“I’m not leaving yet.”They were too close.
He withdrew a long, baton-like stick from the belt around his waist.“Neither am I.”
“What’s that?”Another version of a blanker?
“A disrupter, in case we encounter any opposition.”He pressed one finger against her cheek.“Quietly, follow me.”
That wasn’t the first time he’d done the cheek touching thing.It must be the Undetan equivalent to putting a finger to the lips to say “shh.”
He kicked off from the wall using his feet and made a perfect entry through the opening and into the live-cargo corridor.Dammit, how did he make moving in zero-G look so graceful and easy?
Just copy his actions exactly, and everything’ll be fine.
Feet to the wall, bend knees, and push— Her left foot slipped sideways.
