Page 57 of Collision!
The jolt was hard as the ship accelerated past the capacity of its compensating inertia dampeners.Since she and Suvan were already on the deck, they didn’t fall, but she felt the strain of the ship through the deck under her spread palms.
Suvan, crouched like a shield over her, was even more tensed.He angled one of his oversized wrist datpads in front of her.“There are several readings circled.What do they show?”
He couldn’t see it himself?Dread flooded her.
“All indicators are within the specs you set, including”—she swallowed hard as her universal translator caught up—“structural integrity, life support, and auxiliary power.”She rested her fingers on his inner wrist, where there were no quill-scales, to rotate the datpad slightly.“Helm is…exactly within your upper-end limit.”
“Good.”Satisfaction softened the edges of his gruff voice.The device pinged.“What’s that?”
“Delphine responded to the helm reading with…I think it’s a cartoon of a dancing larf.”
He grunted; amusement or disdain, she wasn’t sure.With one arm still wrapped around her, he lifted them easily to their feet, and he held her in place while she steadied herself.
Everyone else was also straightening, including the salon chorus on the monitor.Somebody in the salon cheered—maybe a little raggedly—and the engine team responded with equally shaken enthusiasm.
“Chief,” Mariah said softly, peering up at him.“Did that light damage your vision?”
“Since I increased the ambient lumes before you all arrived, I’m wearing fortified contacts.But the detonation was very bright.I’ll need therapeutic intervention.”He put one hand on her shoulder.“It would help if you’d clear this module so I can lower the lumes again.”
“Yes, of course.Come with me.”With her hand wrapped around his wrist datpad, she maneuvered him away from the group.“Here’s a stool.I’ll get everyone out.Just hold tight.”
After sending a message to Felicity, she found Anoushka and asked her to lead everyone back to the salon.The cruise director’s offer of an after-party appeared on all their devices a moment later.
Mariah helped shoo the chattering engine team out into the corridor, thanked Anoushka, and rushed back to find Suvan.
The lights were off, and by the faintest glow of her datpad, she returned to the stool where she’d left him.But he was gone.
A small bobble dipped and danced out of the shadows.
“Lub,” she said, taking a cautious step forward.“Will you take me to him?”
Extinguishing her device, she followed the lure into the darkness.
Chapter 16
Lying on his bed, eyes covered, Suvan heard her padding footsteps.He breathed the scent of her, sweet and wild.
Hefelther.
Her presence tingled along the primordial senses that had warned his ancestors of gathering glass storms and lurking predators.Those senses told him she was something more dangerous.
A threat to his solitude.A glimmering thread tossed to him when his peculiarities had left him separate and secluded for so long.
If he wanted to reach for that connection.
“Chief?”Her tentative voice was even softer than her steps.“What else can I do for you?”
“Nothing.I’ve had to use the ocular balm before, and it works quite well.”
“You’ve taken so much damage for this ship.”Her breath whispered out.“And for me.”
“I should have moved everyone farther from the capacitorus,” he said.“You were the only one that close, and if the containment had broken…”
He heard her breath catch again.“You weren’t shielding me from the light?If the honeycomb had shattered, you would’ve been shredded.”
“It didn’t,” he pointed out.“I wasn’t.”
“Just blinded.”Her voice cracked.
