Shadows of Mars (Broken Stars Book 1) I.O. Adler (read people like a book TXT) 📖

sphere, now just one room among a hundred, most of which were now connected and had reshaped themselves into a ring. The few trailing spheres including one which she “saw” held a reactor propelled them along on their current course.

She found the bot Jenna had used. Touched it. Instantly her point of view was from within the bot. She once again had hands and feet, and could see and hear.

She Who Waits remained where she had been standing, while Jenna had reclined on her couch. Seeing her own body lying there made her feel disoriented. Barrett remained at her side.

She made a throat-clearing sound. “Agent Barrett, you’d better get yourself settled in.”

Bringing up his couch was as easy as Carmen wanting it to happen.

He approached the bot. “You’re in. Good. Now try to find out what’s involved in removing this encryption.”

She directed her attention to the virtual controls. Became distracted.

A myriad of choices blossomed before her. The ship could be morphed into a variety of configurations, and each component sphere could be disconnected and sent away, as long as it remained in range of the electromagnetic tether linking each section. There was also a power source. She determined the vessel had enough juice to reach their current destination. Even as she pondered the nature of the fuel, she dipped down into another level of data on the reactor and its operation.

Jenna was calling her name. “Where are you?”

“I’m here. I’m trying to understand all this.”

“You can’t. It’s too much. You’ve been gone for what felt like an hour.”

An hour? Carmen thought she had only been browsing the controls for a moment.

“Agent Barrett has been asking for you to let him take over. I think he’s right.”

Again, the request. The thought of handing over the ship to Barrett was comforting. Let someone else take charge. She wasn’t an astronaut. But then again neither was he. And their mom had sent the ship to them for help after her own people had abandoned her.

“She Who Waits, how long will it take to get to the Cordice home ship?”

A new light appeared within Carmen’s new field of vision. “Ten hours. Faster, if no bioforms were on board to protect from further acceleration and deceleration.”

“And how long have we been in flight?”

“Twenty-one hours and seventeen minutes.”

She was taken aback by how long it had been. Could only wonder at how worried her nephews would be, or what trouble her father might have gotten himself into. But she guessed the trip back might take even longer. She examined the ship controls that would allow her to set a new course but resisted the temptation to try to understand it in case it would cause her to once again lose track of time. To go faster or to suddenly decelerate in order to change course would mean further discomfort for Jenna, Barrett, and herself, even if she wasn’t inside her body.

“She Who Waits, it looks like we’re already heading in the right direction. Tell me what else I need to do.”

“Continue on the current course,” She Who Waits said. “You all should recline and allow the ship to make the passage easier on your bodies. When we make the rendezvous, we will dock with the home ship and contact the Cordice caretaker.”

Barrett finally settled into his couch. He was scowling. And Jenna wore creases on her face. But there was little to do but endure the ride.

They’d need to eat.

Time to search the ship and see what it could do for them. She imagined food, an apple, a bag of groceries, bread, roasted veggies, anything but cooked meat in case the thought might offend the Cordice, who could be watching. She also didn’t want to give them any ideas. But her mental tour of vegetarian offerings yielded no results from the ship.

“What about food?” she asked.

She Who Waits displayed her yellow colors for the briefest moment. “The Cordice ship isn’t equipped in its current loadout to provide physical sustenance. This would require additional resources not available in its stores. But my shuttle can print acceptable foodstuffs. I will have it delivered here.”

“Do you need to know anything about us?”

“I know everything.”

Carmen didn’t want to challenge the assertion and found herself curious at what might show up. While her hunger pangs had vanished with her logging into the ship, she understood getting sick from not eating would be counterproductive.

A small blimp-shaped drone with a shoebox-sized container arrived in minutes. It hovered at ankle level and set its offering down near the flowing sink. Barrett stood up off his couch. The box opened when touched. Inside were three stacks of what might be bars of brown soap.

She Who Waits bobbed closer. “You can be sustained by those. I can outline their contents and nutritional value if requested.”

Barrett picked one up and sniffed. “Smells like salty oatmeal.”

Carmen watched as he nibbled on one.

He appeared to have trouble swallowing and got a drink of water. “Pasty, like peanut butter. It tastes like dry cereal without any sugar. Edible.”

Carmen used her bot to fetch a food bar for Jenna. Jenna took a bite and made a face but managed to get some of it down. When Carmen offered her more, her sister shook her head.

“We’re going to make it back,” Carmen said. “I promise. You’ll be with Zach and Landon again.”

Jenna nodded before settling on the couch and closing her eyes.

Carmen considered her oath and repeated it silently. Faced She Who Waits. “Thank you for this.”

Barrett finished his bar. “You’ll need to eat too, Carmen.”

“Later. There’s so many questions, things we’ll need to know before facing the Cordice. I’d like to see where we’re going and learn more.”

“I agree. Where exactly is this Cordice home ship?”

As Carmen considered the question,