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

Correction: the bot would fly off. The thought barely comforted her; the immersion was too perfect. But the ship brain that had provided the calculation wasn’t showing her how to destroy part of itself. The jump, according to the heads-up display, was as certain of a waypoint destination as a map app telling her to drive a block, make two right turns, and park at her destination.

She jumped.

Clack-clack-clack-clack.

A perfect four-point landing.

The surface felt slick and her hands barely clung to it even with the magnetic assist. Snatching at a brace, she found a fingerhold, pulled herself in, and leaped from spar to rung to array, using the ship’s cluttered exterior like a jungle gym.

The exterior hatch wouldn’t open.

She tapped the panel, pushed at what appeared to be a touchpad, and considered several recessed knobs and flush handles, wondering which would open the airlock.

Apparently the harvester system didn’t have a translation unit for Melded ship architecture. The spindlebot might be strong enough to tear the hatch open, but then what?

This was supposed to be a rescue mission. And how many more Melded might be on board? While the Primary Executive hadn’t hesitated to shoot Jenna, an escalation like killing the crew of an entire ship by exposing them to the vacuum of space would have repercussions. She decided to navigate to the membrane connecting the two vessels so she could enter via the main airlock. It would take time, and perhaps this one wouldn’t allow her access either, but it was the best alternative.

Before she could move, the hatch popped open, venting a burst of gas before slowly yawning wide before her. She paused to peer inside. She hadn’t done anything to cause it to open. But if this was some automatic function on the Melded ship granting her access, she didn’t want to squander the opportunity. The auxiliary airlock wasn’t large and she’d need to scrunch down to get the spindlebot in. She didn’t hesitate. Once she was through the hatch the door closed again.

Several screens blinked graphs and lights as air swirled around her.

The interior door opened. A rounded hallway lay beyond lit by amber overhead lights, spacious compared to the Cordice home ship. Mismatched panels covered the walls and floor. Her feet found purchase on the gratings. She had one direction she could go. Someone had let her in and she needed to find out who and why. If they wanted to capture the spindlebot then she was going to go down fighting.

The Melded ship had pressure and atmosphere. Was it compatible? Her display didn’t show and there wasn’t time to find out. Get Mom and then go for Jenna and her own body inside the medical bay. Hope that the spindlebot might stand up to the Melded weapons.

She still had no idea what to do if she ran into Agent Barrett.

A hatch at the end of the corridor opened as she approached, revealing a wide room laid out with a dozen flight couches not unlike the ones on board She Who Waits’ shuttle. A pair of larger ones were of sufficient size to accommodate a fat worm.

All the portals exiting the space were closed save one, which opened into another room.

Her mother stood inside. She looked up at her.

“Hello, Carmen, you brave girl. You came for me.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Sylvia Vincent stepped into the doorway. She wore a gauze-thin, sheetlike gown that appeared to be made of the spider silk the cockroaches had used on Jenna’s leg.

Carmen took a moment to search her sensors to confirm there was air inside the Melded vessel. Stifled a curse as new screens kept popping up into her field of vision. She dismissed them.

“Mom, can you breathe?”

“Of course.”

Her mom tried to reach out to her but she was tethered to something restricting her movement. Lines like electric cords ran to her back, arms, and legs as if she were a marionette at the end of her strings.

“I’d hug you,” Sylvia said, “but it appears we’re both not quite ourselves.”

She retreated into her room, the filaments and tubes connected to her going slack and trailing on the floor.

Carmen hurried to the doorway in case it might close and locked her hand inside the portal. Her mom went to a low bench and sat. Her empty cylinder stood nearby along with a pair of machines where the cords were attached. One of the machines hummed while the second hissed and pumped dark fluid towards her through a translucent tube.

A brilliant violet light radiated down from the ceiling. It deepened the shadows on her mom’s face and reflected on a patch of metal fixed to the back of her skull where the hair had been shaven off.

A bloated bug the size of a house cat sat on top of a console and was operating a virtual display. It stared at Carmen with one of its eyestalks as its many small arms continued to tap at the phantom keys.

“What is it doing to you?”

Her mom gave her a tranquil smile. “It’s okay, honey. I’m okay. The Melded doctor is helping me.”

“Helping you—wait, what? I’m here to get you out of here. What doctor?”

“Why, this little fellow. We only have the rough Melded translator computer going, so I don’t have a name from him yet. I’m not sure he has one. So ‘Doctor’ will have to do.”

“I’m taking you out of here.”

Sylvia took up one of the slack cords onto her lap as if tidying up. “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

Carmen could reach the bug in an instant, crush it, tear the cords from the machine. But what were they doing to her?

She tried to summon the loudest voice she could. “Hey, Doctor! Let her go or I tear your ship apart!”

The bug kept