Page 59 of Star-Crossed Captive
Mace won’t hurt you.
The voice inside her might be correct, but it was buried deep beneath the memory of those tortured victims, barely loud enough to make an impression.
Her bonds beeped, signaling the end of her day off. She covered the light with her hand.
Regardless of what she thought, what shefelt, she needed to get free of this place.
No matter what it takes.
Chapter twenty-one
Niastaredattheoverhead beams, tapping her fingers to count the seconds. If she closed her eyes, then she saw the shriveled flesh, the empty eye sockets, of the three dead Tellusians hanging on the bulkhead.
Tap. Tap. Tap.She focused on her fingers.
All other attempts at distraction had failed. She’d tried to read inOrion’sLaw Library to learn about the old laws but hadn’t been successful. The legal jargon, the “refer to subsection 612,” the mind-numbing dryness of the text made it impossible to learn anything.
She’d turned to the History Library instead. That only lasted a handful of minutes before the Tellusian interpretation of events became muddled with the CORE facts she’d learned in school. She couldn’t separate truth from fiction.
The only thing she was able to concentrate on was an accounting of the origin of Tellusians. They took their name from Tellus, the Roman goddess of the Earth, and their affinity toward blue came from water and Earth’s oceans.
The discord between their peoples began when the majority of the system’s people still lived on Earth. But the planet was dying, couldn’t sustain their numbers. Two factions developed. One set of people wanted to move into space to allow Earth to heal, the other, Tellusians, wanted to remain, to give up all technology and industry and return to a hunter-gatherer society.
Having more power and influence, the CORE won the decades-long conflict, forcing everyone to evacuate except for pockets of conservationists. And Tellusians were herded to the outskirts of the system, claiming Saturn and beyond as their own, and didn’t believe the battle for their home planet was over.
Frustrated, she’d given up reading to stare at overhead beams.
Tap, tap, t—
Abruptly, the lights went out, submerging the room in pitch dark. Nia lurched upright to sit, seeing nothing in front of her but inky black. A moment later, the lights brightened to quarter luminosity. The doors to Mace’s quarters slid open.
Nia pressed a hand to her chest. No one entered, but the doors remained ajar. She stood, then glanced at her wrists. Her heart thudded hard. The light was off. No cred exchange or time of day. Nothing.No security features.
Nia crept toward the exit, then stuck her head out. Every door along the corridor was open, people coming out with frowns on their faces. A woman had a baby wrapped in a gray blanket on her shoulder and bounced the bundle to an inaudible rhythm.
“If I stop moving, she wakes up,” the woman said when she caught Nia staring.
Nia ducked back inside, out of sight.
A low-pitched tone permeated the air. “Attention. We are experiencing isolated power failures. Please remain in your quarters or duty stations. Thank you.”
Nia stared at her deactivated bonds. Had someone come for her? She pulled one bond downward, over the hump of her thumb joint. But no matter how hard she yanked, it wouldn’t come off.
She quit when her skin reddened from the strain, her bones aching. Tugging her sleeves until they covered her bonds, she stuck a toe over the threshold. Nothing happened. No shock, no pain.
She stepped fully into the corridor, tensing every muscle. Still nothing. Head bent, she strode toward the lift, gaze averted from catching anyone’s eye,
Two teenagers stood in front of it, trying to access the inert control panel.
“It’s totally dead. Can’t jack it,” said the one.
“Then let’s take the emerg hatch,” the other replied. “I don’t want to be stuck down here.”
Keeping a few steps behind, Nia matched their pace. Ahead, a group gathered around an access hatch. Nia stopped behind the boys, hands behind her back, and tried to act natural.
“You going up or what?” one of the teenagers asked the man at the front of the group.
“As soon as whoever’s coming down gets out of the way,” he replied, then cleared his throat as a bulky form exited the hatch. “Oh, sorry Commander. Didn’t mean any disrespect.”
