Page 47 of Bela's Bounty
“It’s telling someone they can shove their opinion up their ass,” I explain with a chuckle.
The hearty bark of laughter that comes out of her startles me, but I can’t help grinning along with her. Seeing her like this… I want to make her laugh and smile like this all the time.
“Our children—erm, young—have a game they play in school where they hide their faces in their arms with their thumbs up on their desks,” she explains, then laughs even harder at the expression I must make.
“Treto! Are you almost ready?” Sone yelps over the comm.
Pulling my attention from Bela, I look down at where the third bar is blinking and let my hand hover close to the unlit button.
“Almost,” I tell Sone. Then to Bella, “Be ready.”
Sone grumbles something I don’t catch under his breath, and I chuckle. I’ve missed the easy banter we have. Suddenly I wonder why I felt like I needed to do this on my own. We’re a team. We’ve always been a team. Better together than apart.
My mouth opens to tell him it’s usuallyhimshuffling his feet when I watch a stray laser streak across the midnight backdrop. My eyes track it, and suddenly my gut goes cold.
“Sone! Watch out—”
Before I can even finish, I watch as it hits his shuttle. It’s a lucky shot, that much I’m sure of because no one could ever make that kind of shot on purpose. The beam disappears into the underbelly of the shuttle, through a spot no bigger than the size of my hand. It’s a known weakness most ships have, but that is so small it’s almost impossible to hit purposely. Except for this time. It was almost like the beam was guided by a divine hand.
My mouth goes dry, and I swear my heart pauses between beats as I watch and wait…
My heart thuds once in my chest, and then twice. When nothing happens, I let myself sag into my seat. “Kurva, Sone. I thought—”
The explosion takes up my entire field of vision as the blast engulfs the shuttle, and flames, sparks, and shrapnel are flung in all directions.
No.
When the initial blast dies away, I can only watch in horror as the shuttle lists to the side, the cabin nothing but a gaping hole.
NO!
I’m frozen, unable to look away as the shuttle falls into one of the station ships, causing another explosion.
I can hear shouting. It’s all around me, coming from all sides, but I can’t make out the words or the meaning. Everything has switched to slow motion as Bela slips half of her harness off and reaches across me to the lit-up button. Her palm slams down onto it, and I vaguely think she shouldn’t do that. Jumps can be dangerous if you’re not strapped in, but it’s too late. I’m pressed into my seat, and my vision flickers to black.
I don’t even try to fight it. I just let it take me.
* * *
Bela
What just happened?
I mean, I can’t have just watched what I did.
I’m pinned to my seat as stars streak past the view screen just like in the movies. It takes me a couple tries before I can get my head to turn far enough to the side so I can see Treto.
He’s slouched, pinned into his seat at an angle that looks uncomfortable.
God, the look on his face just before I hit the button, the button the voice over the comm was shouting for me to push. “Now, or you’re all gonna die!” I’ve never seen that kind of agony so perfectly depicted in an expression.
But I’ve felt it.Which is why I’m able to recognize it for what it is.
I swallow past the lump that forms in my throat, knowing Treto watched his friend,his brother,die in that explosion. That there was nothing we could have done to prevent it doesn’t ease any of the hurt I’m feeling.
The lights overhead flicker again, and the engines sputter just before we drop out of light speed. Treto warned me that jumping was bad, butfallingis far worse!
Behind me I hear Skylar moan and then retch, followed by the splash of vomit hitting the ground.
