Page 19 of Crush
“What? But we said this is the graveyard…” She gulped back the last word.
“Apparently someone isn’t playing by the rules.” He kept hold of her hand. “Come.”
“We have to find him!”
“I will.” He tugged her quickly through the hall. The gather-hall had many access points—as any place to gather should have—which meant Ollie could have slipped out anywhere. Since the heat trail of the hatchling’s little body had faded, Teq checked the datpad on his lower wrist. “He’s in one of the service corridors.” The corridors provided access to the ship’s systems and weren’t sized comfortably for orcs, but for a little Earther… “It is a good hiding place.”
“There will be no hiding from the long talk we are going to have about following the rules,” she growled.
“It’s a special adventure,” he reassured her.
“This is a working ship,” she countered. “I can’t even count the number of ways he could get hurt.”
Since that was true enough—and worse, the datpad signal showed Ollie moving toward the processing bays with, of course, all the heaviest equipment—Teq didn’t answer, just sped up. When Adeline started to fall behind his longer stride, he swept her up against his side, anchoring her there easily with two arms.
She made a little noise but didn’t object, and he was achingly aware of her softness, holding her so carefully.
How could she be so bold, venturing into the dangers of space, when she was so soft?
To distract himself from the sensation, he grumbled, “How does one little hatchling move so quickly?”
“Welcome to the mysteries of parenthood,” she muttered back. “Sometimes you wonder if they’retryingto find every danger.” Her arms were so short and supple compared to his, but when she tightened her grip around his neck, he thought she might choke him. “I wanted him to never worry, not be afraid like I was. But not like this.”
“He can’t get into the ore processing area,” Teq reassured her. “There’s a special code. So he’ll probably just be waiting outside the door.” As they raced around the corner, they saw the bay access gaping wide.
“There is another code to get through the inner door,” Teq added.
But the inner door was slid open too, with the darkness of the bay full of heavy equipment beyond. Adeline struggled against his hold, and reluctantly he put her down, careful to stay right on her heels as she bolted into the bay.
“Oliver!” Her cry echoed in the empty darkness.
Teq cursed under his breath. If the fortune had gone missing…
He did not want his earlier suspicions about the Earthers to be true.
Perhaps Oliver was not a hatchling. Maybe he was a very tiny saboteur, his partners in crime cleverly manipulating the orcs’ longing for wife-mates and family, for a chance at a better life, a shared life.
The fortune was right where he’d seen it last, dull under the lights. And though Oliver was standing right in front of it, his small, fragile shape silhouetted by the glow, Adeline never so much as glanced at the valuable rock as she swept him into her arms. “Oliver Sebastian Barlow. You are in big trouble, mister. You were supposed to stay in the gather-hall.”
He patted her cheek. “I’m sorry,” he said sweetly. “I heard someone else say they wanted to be the ghost to play with us. So I came here to find them.” He craned his neck to look over his shoulder. “I told you it’s not cold and dark and lonely anymore.”
Teq followed the hatchling’s gaze, but there was nothing in the empty bay. Nothing except the rock.
“Oliver,” Adeline said slowly, “who are you talking to?”
He waved one small hand. “My new friend. That rock.”
“Asteroid fragments don’t talk,” Teq said.
Oliver squinted at him. “Are you sure? Have you met them all?”
Adeline made a little noise in the back of her throat that didn’t quite sound like an Earther laugh. “Oliver, don’t be rude,” she said through that little quiver.
“He’s not being rude. The rock was talking. I heard it.” Kinsley appeared around the other side of the asteroid chunk.
Teq stiffened. “How did you get in here?” he demanded. And how had he missed her presence? He’d been too focused on Oliver. “Did you unseal the hatches?”
He knew his suspicions were right when Kinsley looked away from him, her jaw cranking to one side. “I heard something calling from in here.”
