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Chapter Twenty

Aboard an alien ship.

V ic squeezed her eyes shut. With space laid before her like an endless graveyard, she couldn’t bear to look at it.

Nothing whizzed past, no matter how she squinted or glared until her eyes watered.

Her suit beeped the second warning. Across her visor flashed the quarter marker.

Twenty-five percent of the oxygen remained.

It took all her control and discipline to calm her breathing.

Every ten minutes, she tried calling out, hoping someone would pick up her frequency. Hell, she’d face down Carne if it meant she lived.

She wanted to snort at her stupidity. In the vastness of space, she was but an infinitesimal speck.

“Drafe,” she whispered, letting a tear slide free.

Sparkling like a diamond, it floated in front of her and collided with her hair, darkening the wayward strands.

Exhaustion bombarded her mind. She was so tired of staying calm, of surviving, of succeeding despite the odds.

If she drifted off to sleep, could she die without waking?

Not that death had scared her before, but she hadn’t been this alone.

Ande was on the outskirts, watching and waiting, ready to bolster her flagging spirits, to rush her to medical if needed.

Another tear slipped free.

She had wanted her freedom, but never like this and at this cost. Well, she was free now.

A hysterical bark of laughter escaped her, but she tamped it down, not willing to waste the oxygen.

If she survived this, by some incredible miracle, she would return to Mula Pesada and fargen kill everyone.

Well, maybe not Grunt, Dieter, and Tiny, but the rest of them would die a slow, torturous death.

Squeezing her eyes shut again, she tried to roll over.

Nope, she had nothing to push against. This was the view she would die with.

She breathed in and exhaled slowly. What she should have done was kick Pa off the farm and harvest sol.

Out on the ocean beds, she would have spotted visitors from miles away.

No, space had offered the freedom she had so desperately needed. Love might have blossomed with Drafe if she’d been afforded the chance to find out. Sorrow, as she well knew, was like a thick blanket: hot, wet, heavy, sucking on her heart, soul, and her ability to think.

Since the fifty percent oxygen beep, she’d studied her situation from all angles.

Without access to communication, she couldn’t call for help.

Nor could she slow her trajectory. The last time she had tried had spun her out of control, ‘landing’ her on her back.

Jupiter loomed to her right, so large it appeared close enough to touch. To her left was the Kuiper Belt.

Would her corpse be pulled into orbit around Jupiter, would she splat on a moon or an asteroid? Millions of years from now, an advanced species would run tests on her and assume humans had mechanical parts. They’d call her by the name imprinted on her titanium bones: Carne.

She splayed out her arms and legs, as if she floated on the surface of an ocean, swept away by the tidal currents.

She’d imagined so many times what that must have felt like.

Some training vids had touched on how-not-to-drown.

Living on a dried-out sea bed, the irony of it had tickled her sense of humor.

Just like that, she drifted to sleep, lulled by the beauty of uncharted galaxies and twinkling lights.

A beep jerked her awake.

Ten percent oxygen remained. The letters flashed red.

She closed her eyes again, unable to deactivate the irritating message.

“I know. Stupid suit,” she muttered. “Farg off.”

Another beep intruded on her snooze. Five percent oxygen remained.

Replace canister now. “Sure. Let me take the spare one out of my pocket. Oh, wait, it’s in my other pants.

” Drawing in a calming breath, she tried one more time.

“Mayday, mayday, woman adrift, taking the scenic route around…fargen space.”

Right, sure, that worked. Look, a ship. Oh, wait, no, more stars. She giggled then pinched her lips. Laughter bubbled in her chest as the tears rolled free.

“Ande, I wish I told you. You’re the family I always wanted.”

She cried, drenching her visor and saving her from the darkness smothering her.

“Drafe, you had such promise. I miss you, like a piece of my soul had crossed this endless void to you.” Her chest swelled with emotion, and something rippled along her skin.

Visions of worlds and people she didn’t know flitted across her mind.

They told stories she’d never have the time to sift through.

A shadow traveled from the bottom of the visor to the top, engulfing her in black.

Death wasn’t what she’d expected. Most spoke of a white tunnel calling her to pure love and light.

Perhaps this was hell, a place reserved for killers, haters, and those who defrauded on their taxes.

Exhaling, she arched, offering herself to the shadow and the gentle nudge, as her life left her body.

She hit something hard, shooting a bolt of agony from the back of her head to her fingertips.

What the farg? She opened her eyes and squinted at the distorted faces filling her vision along with the fargen message warning her that two percent of her oxygen remained.

The squiggly species were demons? She laughed.

No wonder they tormented humans, who were, as a whole, prettier.

Also, hell lacked fire and color in general.

Gray geometric shapes marked the ceiling high above. Lights flickered in blue.

“Is it human?” The words were in English.

She grinned. Good. Spending eternity trying to get a demon to understand her was her definition of hell.

“Yes. Open the visor.” Fingers covered her face and flipped the visor back.

Fresh air cooled the tears on her cheeks. She blinked at the faces, all with obsidian skin and brightly colored hair flowing down their backs. Brown, green, blue, and black matched their eyes, for the most part. Farg. Did her version of demons look like Drafe dipped in a kaleidoscope of hair dyes?

“A female.” A man with blue hair and eyes smiled at her. “Welcome to the Ivoyan ship, Aroagni.”

He held out his hand, but she stared at it. This was insane. She’d gone and lost her mind, something she hadn’t anticipated. Maybe she was re-inhaling carbon dioxide, triggering hallucinations. The man dropped his hand, a frown knitting his brow.

“Juunn, take care of our guest. I need to check on the shuttle.” The blue-man jogged through a door, disappearing.

Juunn, the green-haired man, crouched beside her, his eyes glowing like brilliant peridots. “You are safe. We mean you no harm.”

She chuckled. Now that was funny. They wouldn’t harm her.

She would make fargen sure of that. Scrambling to her feet had them stepping back.

She unclipped the helmet and tossed it aside, relishing the satisfying thunk as it landed on the metallic floor.

When she climbed out of her suit amid snaps and zips, it was under their vigilance.

“What does it matter if you harm me? I’m dead, after all.” Now that she was free to move, she tapped her chin while studying them. “Or will I bleed in hell?” She had moments ago been in pain, so bleeding was a possibility.

“She has lost her mind,” a black-haired man growled. He gripped his blaster. “I say we kill her. Whatever she has could be contagious.”

Kill her? When she was dead already? Maybe she had to fight her way to heaven?

She nodded. That would be the most probable.

“Try it, big boy.” She grinned, raising her fists in front of her as if she could dodge a blaster shot.

A tingle raced across her skin as it hardened then shimmered like armor.

Right, Drafe’s gift to her. She wiggled her nose, willing her silly tears to fade.

All her hope for a future with him was gone.

She’d wasted that opportunity for a position on the Mula Pesada. What a fool she’d been.

“This is nonsense, Ulvus. She is a guest.” Brown rested his hand on Ulvus’s shoulder.

“She could explode, Igar. What do we know.” Ulvus glared at her with yellow eyes so like Drafe’s.

The moment Ulvus reached for his blaster, she struck, taking him to the grated floor. Juunn and Igar jumped back, then lunged forward when Ulvus groaned.

She tutted. “Oh, no, you don’t. Come closer, and I will kill him.” She wiggled her foot pinned to his throat, barely able to resist his squirming attempts to rise.

Igar held up his hands. “We mean you no harm. Ulvus was jesting. He would never have killed you.”

Ulvus garbled words, but the fury in his pale-yellow eyes was incongruent with Igar’s soothing tone.

She sighed. “I have killed before. I had to, you see. Twice I wanted to, but every time was to survive.” She leaned an elbow on her knee and peered at Ulvus. “If I free you, will you promise not to attack me?”

He narrowed his eyes while trying to shove her off him. Had she not used her cybernetic leg to balance her, he could have. She was far lighter than him.

“Foqen agree, Ulvus, or die like this.” Juunn threw his hands in the air.

Lights flickered, and all raised their gazes to the ceiling.

“Aehort Uz’s intervention will bring dishonor on your tribe,” Igar growled at Ulvus.

With a roar, Ulvus punched her thigh, buckling her leg and bringing her knee down onto his chest. No pain radiated outward from his hit, as if a child had patted her.

He grunted and shoved her off him, then rolled away from her.

Juunn hoisted her up and shoved her behind him.

Thinking this situation resolved, especially when Igar and Juunn formed a muscled wall between her and Ulvus, she lowered her fists.

A fresh ripple of tingles preceded the fading of her armor, and she splayed her fingers to better admire the pearlescent light display across her skin.