Page 27 of Taken to Kor
Though elegant when walking over dead bodies, here in this wide empty hallway, she stumbles over nothing at all. “I…”
I catch her with two hands and with a third, attempt to take her gun away from her. She holds onto it like a fist with rigor mortis. “Your leg?” I ask her again.
“You asked to carry me,” she says, still refusing to meet my gaze.
“What about your leg? I offered to carry you because yourhick cupmakes you look like you’re going to shoot off of your feet and hurtle into the ceiling. I’m offering to ground you rather than have to catch you later.” I frown down at her, confused with what she’s blabbering about. Perhaps Ishouldcarry her. It’s likely she’s never fought in a battle before. Maybe she’s too exhausted to walk.
The thought doesn’t feel right.
Even if she had never waged war, she did so successfully. To carry her simply because she’s tired now would be an insult to any Niahhorru and I don’t dare shame her in front of my crew. It would shame me, too. Plus, they already idolize her.
Her lips part as she stares up at me, utterly mute. Like what I’ve said makes as little sense to her as what she said does to me. Her face scrunches all of a sudden and she shakes her head again, then inhales deeply, squares her shoulders and picks up her pace to match mine more evenly.
I smile. I was right not to think she was too exhausted to walk.
“You asked me before if I wanted to shoot you. Centare. I don’t want to shoot you. But I’m not giving you back your blaster thing. It was a gift!” She raises her voice in a warbly shout and yanks on my hand.
Laughter rumbles through and out of me. She shivers again at the sound, like she’s cold, but I don’t have any cure for her now. On the mothership, I will make sure she has everything she needs. Just as I will for the rest of her life or mine. Whichever ends first.
“Ontte, it was a gift.”
She glares up at me and I smile.
“You don’t believe me?”
Another shiver. She blinks quickly and tears her gaze from mine. “Ontte. Centare. I don’t know. You’re too slippery to catch.”
“I’m nothing if not honest.”
“You’ve lied to me before.”
“This is true. But I will never lie to you again.”
“Yeah right.”
I will have to do something to convince her, then. On the other hands, she might be right. Perhaps, I will lie to her again. How can I predict the future? So I just nod and smile and say, “Interesting.”
She shivers again, this time even more violently, and when she looks up at me, her adrenaline must be crashing fully now because she looks utterly dazed and fully spent. “You…you don’t…”
“Rhorkanterannu!” My name reverberates through my token loud enough to steal my attention from Deena.
“What?” I snarl.
Deena jumps and opens her mouth, but I use one hand to point to the token in my ear and a small understanding seems to dawn on her.
“We found more of the tanks in the right unit. Gravity seems to be working a little better here, thanks to the fact that we’re rotating, but unfortunately, we also ran into more of the creatures.” I freeze at Herannathon’s words.
“How many tanks?”
“About fifty of them, but they’re empty. Give you one guess what happened to them?”
I snarl, “Kill any creatures you find and keep up the search.”
“Search is over. We’re heading back to you now.”
“Meet us at the core. Gerannu will send you a map now.” With the silent commands issued, I check in with Tevbarannos leading the command into the left rotating unit. Again, he confirms the gravity is stronger, but for whatever reason, oxygen levels are even lower there and he and the pirates searching haven’t come across humans — of the tank or carpet variety — at all.
“Gerannu, how far are we?” I ask out loud as my token goes silent.
