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

the Cordice simulation. And Barrett was about to hand Jenna over to the Primary Executive.

She sat forward with her elbows on her knees and hung her head.

Not going to cry…

She took a deep breath before considering her guards. “I need to talk to you.”

They ignored her.

“Will one of you come over here?”

Four Arms clicked when Green Eye headed her direction. There was an exchange she couldn’t follow, and it was fast. She had seen several Melded and none of them appeared to belong to the same species. They also weren’t taking the time to write out pictographs like Green Eye had done for her. Green Eye crouched before her.

The “Do you want water?” slideshow began again.

“No, I’m not hungry or thirsty. I just want to know how I can talk to you without She Who Waits.” She pointed to his wrist device. “How can I get one of those?”

Green Eye responded with a bewildering stream of images and symbols. It was overwhelming and the flashing forced her to close her eyes.

“Stop, wait. Let’s start with letting me try to say something…anything. Can you understand me? Yes or no?”

He made a few starts of a new set of symbols but wiped them. Took a moment to tug at his chin hairs. Then an image of him as a rough drawing appeared and he croaked a two-syllable sound.

“O-vo.”

He repeated the noise a few times and then wiped the picture, replacing it with the stick figure. He thrust his chin at her.

“Is that supposed to be me?”

He waited.

She put a hand to her chest. Her heart was going like a jackrabbit. “I’m Carmen. Car-men. Human. From Earth.”

When it didn’t look like he followed, she made a circle in the air followed by a few imaginary dots. “Sun, planet, planet, Earth.” She pointed emphatically at the third dot. “That’s my home. I’m human. My name is Carmen.”

His mouth was hanging slightly open. Had she lucked out and gotten the one slow alien of the bunch? But she knew this process could take hours, weeks, or a lifetime. The thought that so many of them even used sound instead of psychic waves or smell or who knows what to communicate was amazing. But what sounds were the right ones?

She Who Waits was the key to this.

But Carmen was amazed when Green Eye’s bright eye twinkled. His wrist device played her voice.

“I’m Carmen Car-men human from Earth sun planet planet Earth that’s my home I’m human my name is Carmen.”

She let out a sigh. He had played back everything she had said and turned it into a blur of words. She touched herself. “Carmen.” She then placed a tentative hand on his chest and waited. He flinched. She felt him tremble. Was he as scared as she? Carmen doubted it. After all, he was the one carrying a gun.

“O-vo. O-vo. Ovo.”

“Ovo.” She touched her chest. “Carmen.”

Now that introductions were out of the way, she wanted to ask, “How about letting me go and helping me rescue my mom?”

 But she didn’t want to put too much stock in Ovo’s politeness. He was one of the Melded. They were about to screw the Cordice and everyone else who belonged to the Framework by taking the harvester away. It was the key to fighting the enemy. She didn’t know enough to understand what losing it might mean for Jenna and her family back home.

A new pictograph appeared with a rough mock-up of his face, hers, and then a multi-armed slug or worm along with a four-armed humanoid and a few of the other soldiers she had seen. He made noises for each that she couldn’t replicate, but she got the point. They were all individuals with names even if she couldn’t pronounce them.

She pointed at the worm, then at Ovo’s nose and the dried blood. “Your boss. Asshole.” She then touched his arm device plugged into the carbon-black surface of his artificial limb.

“So how do I get one of those so we can talk better?”

He again jutted his chin and made more sounds. Four Arms called.

“Diplomacy session over?” she asked.

He took her hand and brought her to the door. Four Arms led the way into the hall. The worm was coming with She Who Waits following behind. Barrett and Metal Voice weren’t with them and the floating cylinder with her mother was no longer in the hallway.

She Who Waits had a fresh spiderweb of cracks on her clear shell along with a tiny hockey puck glued to her suit’s surface with a blue light in it. “Designate Primary Executive has directed me to instruct you to follow. We are going to the medical bay. Once there, I am commanded to relate that your sister will relinquish the ship into his care or you will suffer the consequences.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Carmen kept trying to look at She Who Waits as they headed towards the medical bay. Whatever abuse she had suffered seemed superficial, but what would happen if her suit was destroyed? And what was the blinking puck attached to her?

She felt a chill at the thought of what it might be.

The Primary Executive wanted the harvester bad enough that it was willing to hurt others, be they neutral or allies or a being like She Who Waits, who was by all indications sworn to provide service to all who requested it.

Green Eye led her along as she struggled to keep up. Apparently they weren’t going fast enough. The Primary Executive grunted and Four Arms took over, hauling her by the arm and not caring that her legs weren’t keeping up as she tripped over her feet. Whatever poison was in her system wasn’t totally gone.

“What did they do to you?” Carmen asked She Who Waits.

She Who Waits’ tone remained as calm