Page 21 of Shattered Silence

I’m inside their ship!

The walls closed in on her, and Layla struggled to see in the darkness, which was softened only by the soft glow of an occasional blue indicator light.

The entire place gave off a distinctly subterranean vibe.

How utterly claustrophobic.

It seemed these Kordolians could see perfectly well in the dim light, but it took all of Layla’s concentration to avoid bumping into her silent guards. They moved in formation around her; the Sergeant in front, two either side, and one behind. Layla ignored the pain in her chest and ankle as she walked on, breathing heavily. These Kordolians walked fast, and only the threat of crippling pain from that cruel device around her neck kept Layla from slowing down.

None of them spoke. Now and then, they would pass other soldiers, all dressed in the same dark uniform. Curt salutes were exchanged, and at times the Sergeant would act deferent. That told Layla he wasn’t the biggest shark in this pond. She got the sense he was actually pretty low down in the hierarchy.

Eventually, they turned a corner, moving through a wide door that magically parted before them, its countless tiny, writhing fibers unravelling to reveal a cavernous room.

The light was a little brighter in here, thanks to a series of large tubelike structures that nestled against a curved section of the wall. They emitted a faint blue light, bathing the room in an eerie glow.

There was something inside the tubes…

Something familiar.

A gasp of horror escaped Layla’s lips before she could stifle it.

The Sergeant chuckled softly.

Bastard. He thinks this is funny?

Layla didn’t think it was funny at all that the dead bodies of two of her fellow passengers were floating inside those tall glass cocoons. They had been stripped and suspended in some sort of preservation fluid, their lifeless limbs and long hair swaying gently.

Oh my god.

Two passengers. The only other women who’d been on the doomed Malachi. It was said that exposure to the cold vacuum of space did strange things to the human body, but for some reason, these women looked perfectly preserved, as if they were just sleeping.

Layla knew better.

Nausea rose in the back of her throat. She’d spoken to both of them just before departure.

Layla hadn’t caught their names, because everyone traveling to Miridian-7 was seeking privacy, and not asking questions was the polite thing to do, but they’d chatted about Earth and the weather and how irritating it was to be followed by those unregistered surveillance drones.

And of course, they’d both recognized Layla, but they’d been polite enough not to mention anything about her other life, or the scandal that had engulfed her—the scandal almost every citizen in the Federation knew about.

How refreshing that had been.

How normal it had felt.

They’d been nice to her.

But now they were dead, suspended in those awful giant alien fish tanks like specimens in a museum… or a lab.

Was that going to be her fate, too? Layla started to tremble, and it wasn’t just because she was horrified. Her feet were still bare, and the black floor was cold. Really, the entire damn ship was fucking freezing, as if Kordolians preferred to exist in sub-zero temperatures.

Just when Layla thought things couldn’t get any worse, a monster emerged from the shadows.

“Ah. It’s about time, Captain Pradon. Thank you for not killing my specimen this time.” The one who spoke was half Kordolian, half… other, and for some reason, he spoke in Universal, not Kordolian.

As he stepped into the glow of the tanks, Layla froze.

Holy crap. This guy was tall and slender and possessed the deadest yellow eyes she’d ever seen. Sharp, narrow features presided over a thin slash of a mouth, and the slight curve to his lips—a pale imitation of a smile—made her skin crawl.

But what made him look so damn terrifying was the black metal that covered the right side of his face. It meshed seamlessly with his silver skin, reminding her of the ship’s strange unravelling fibre doors. The metal continued down his neck, disappearing beneath his pristine white robes.

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