Page 53 of Stealing the Star Stone
“And the air’s breathable?Water drinkable?”Nova hurried to ask.
“Affirmative,” the computer droned.
“Let’s not delay then.”She jumped up, tugging the coat off the back of the chair and pulling it on.“What else do we need?”
“So, we’re not hiding this thing, right?”He eyed the trees visible in the forescreens.Chopping them with a machete would take days.
“We don’t have to.Pirates attacked us, not Orien.There’s no reason why he’d find us.”She opened the weapons locker, slipped a laser rifle over a shoulder, and hefted a machete.
He took a machete but left the rifle, not sure he could carry thatandthe bag.With the blaster and dagger, he was more than armed.
“Ready?”she asked, then punched the red button beside the door.
It swished open, flooding the compartment with fresh air, the likes he hadn’t enjoyed since Tarnis and filmingYeehaw in Zero G.
She jumped out onto the pale-gray rock of the riverbank.When she veered around the tail-end, he followed.The tinkle of cooling metal reached him and that same stench from earlier.He came to a standstill beside her, gaping at the wreckage.Grooved into the right engine was a deep gash, exposing layers of metal and mechanical parts.
“We were lucky,” she said, stating the obvious.“Could’ve blown at any second.”
Lucky?He scoffed.They’d been close to getting splattered.He wasn’t sure if that was an improvement to torture.
Spinning on the spot, she scanned the area.“Any idea where east is?”
He hitched a thumb past the ass-end of the shuttle.“That way.You didn’t swivel, heading in a straight line from the cave’s location, so yeah…”
“Good enough for me, Thorne.”
He stared after her, her long legs carrying her along the bank with such speed.Sure, he’d spent a lifetime adjusting his stride to align with the shorter people around him, but it sucked being on the receiving end.
She stopped when she skirted the treeline.“Want me to carry that?”She gestured to the knapsack.
“No, I can do it.”
She frowned.“We need to make good time.IfOrien’s on our six, I want to be as far from here as possible.”
“He’ll know where we’re going.”
“True, but he can’t land near to the cave or us.”She grinned.“We took the last parking spot.”
He handed over the bag.“This doesn’t look inaccessible.”Hiking two kilometers through these tall trees seemed doable.
“There has to be something we don’t know,” she said, palming the machete.“Come.Stay close.”
“Then slow down,” he snapped, sounding more like Nova when he’d first met her.
She glanced at his legs then nodded.“Sorry.”
As they marched through the trees, the weak sunlight obliterated by the thick canopy, a green glow came to life on the bark, north-facing.It gleamed as if wet, and where it dripped, it hissed.
“Don’t touch anything,” he whispered.
“And watch where you step.”She sprinted ahead, smoke rising from her bootheels.
Yelping, he did the same, leaping onto the same boulder she balanced on.“Acid?”
“Could be that same green goo.”She eyed the path they needed to take.“We’re going to have to make a run for it.Think you can?”
He frowned.“No other choice.I’m not standing here like a sitting duck waiting to be captured again or worse.”
