The Girl Who Fell From The Sky - Rebecca Royce Page 0,1
my special health accommodations, she must really be distracted.
“What happened? My brother’s call got cut off.”
“We were pulled out of hyperspace,” the captain said. “And had to put shields up. Now really, the impact web.”
On the bridge, two people were arguing. I could hear their shouting match clearly, though I had no idea what they were talking about. What was the Everlock, why couldn’t it exist, and why the heck was it obstructing our route to Jooron Five? This was a known spacelane. From the sound of the crew, though, they were as confused and horrified as I was.
Plus, the captain was no longer paying me the least bit of attention, though she’d left a channel open. I heard her screaming, “No, Lieutenant Godfrey, to port! You expose our flank, and those plasma cannons are going to light us up. Talley, don’t flood the bridge! The plasma. No, just do it! All ancient and holy ones…”
Emergency lighting glowed blue on the floor panels, and I chased them at a run, which felt like a vise squeezing my chest. I couldn’t stop. The lights led me to a pressurized containment chamber that doubled as a shower area for people using the track. If we lost gravity, for whatever reason, this chamber could be pressurized and filled with fluid, just like the bridge, to keep a fragile human body safe from violent impact. It also contained impact webbing rolled up in easy-access cabinets. I released one web, fitted it around my body, and secured the clasps, all with trembling hands.
Just in time, too, because right then, the deck lurched. If I hadn’t been hooked into the web I would have slammed into a wall, or worse. The room went sideways; I could feel the oblique angle in my guts, even though the protective web kept me from crashing into anything.
The channel on my holowatch wasn’t transmitting voices anymore, just alarms and the whooshing of protective liquid as it filled the bridge and presumably all the cabins where the other passengers were strapped in.
Or at least, that was what I assumed the sound was. Except down the corridor, still lit in emergency blue, that didn’t look like a fluid surge. It looked like fire, and then the chamber locked. And the lights went out.
Without warning, the entire ship jolted onto its side. I cried out.
I wasn’t sure what happened after that. I had a sense of falling, of floating. Darkness. Pain. Pressure. Then nothing. The sweet relief of oblivion.
I woke up flat on my stomach. And on fire. Without thought or reason, I rolled, slapping at my clothes, smothering the flames, but realizing too late I’d traded burning pants for burned hands.
Tears flooded down my face, and I screamed at the top of my lungs. Where was I? And oh holies, my fingers. Had I burned them off? What was…
I had died. That had to be it. I’d died, and I’d refused to say the prayer with Brent. The Holy Ones had sent me to the underworld to roast in flames for all time. Movement caught my eye, and a second later, I stared up at a man.
At least I thought it was a man. He wore a covering on his face, blocking me from seeing anything but his brown eyes as he stared down at me. His hair was dirty blond and hung slightly over his eyes. I didn’t recognize his uniform as any from the empire, but I didn’t know all of them.
Not sure what to do, I lifted my hands so he could see they were burned. “Help.”
He bent down toward me, lifting me from where I lay on the ground. Carnage was all around me. Debris from…well, it had to be our spaceship. It was everywhere. My lips trembled.
He stepped over metal pieces, carrying me away from it. Where were the others? I couldn’t possibly be alone. My earlier idea of the underworld fled. I didn’t think the Holy Ones would bring the broken remains of our transport with us there. This had to be… Well, I had no idea.
My hands throbbed with pain like I’d never felt before—and believe me, I’d endured pain. This was different. Worse. I didn’t want to look at them, but then I did. Red, raw, bubbling. Oh no, this was bad. Was I going to lose the use of my hands?
The man set me down on the ground as a gust of wind brought sand flying into my face. I choked on it.