Adrift by Lyn Lowe Read Free Book Online Page A

was not the consoles or the grate, though. It was the massive window out to the black.
    Tron had never seen space before. They lived closer to it than most, having nothing but the walls of their ship separating them from the black. He’d seen plenty of pictures of it during his studies. But windows were structural weaknesses, and no ship had many. Lucy wasn’t a well-funded project, like some of the others he’d read about. She only had the one. He always thought, when he finally saw what it was everyone was always talking about, he’d feel something wonderful. He didn’t feel anything at all. It was just more nothing.
    He scanned the room again, looking for some sign of life to cling to. If there was anything that indicated the captain or crew w ere still on the ship somewhere, then Tron would have somewhere to go next. It wouldn’t be just him and Kivi, and he wouldn’t be the one who had to figure out how to fix things. What he found was not what he needed.
    There were no bodies here. At first he thought that was a good sign. Nav was never empty, not like the engine room. If there wasn’t anyone dead inside, surely that meant that they’d escaped just like him and Kivi, and they opened the door to get back inside the ship proper after the danger was past. Then he saw the bloody handprint on one of the consoles. It smeared all the way down. Like someone had been ripped out of their seat and pulled away.
    He dropped down in the space between the consoles, the tears he’d tried to leave in the mess spilling down his cheeks. He buried his face in his hands and let out another sob that cracked in his aching throat and came out sounding broken.
    A small hand dropped on his shoulder. Tron jumped at the touch, then looked up, shame heating his face. He was furious at Kivi for interrupting his grief, at her finding him during his weakness, but that drained away the instant he saw her face.
    Even in the blue glow, she was obviously pale. And her eyes weren’t on him. They were above and behind him, to the vastness outside the window. He quickly wiped away his tears and climbed back to his feet clumsily, staring back at the black and trying to figure what it was that had her attention.
    “What the hell are you staring at?” he asked harshly. Enough of the anger was still in his voice that he expected her to flinch, the way she had when he snapped at her down in his storage. But she didn’t even seem to notice.
    “We’re moving.”
    Tron shrugged. “So?”
    “The engine is dead. We shouldn’t me moving.”
    “Makes sense to me. Isn’t there that rule about objects in motion staying in motion?”
    “ Unless acted upon by an external force,” she agreed readily. “Newton’s first law. But the engine slowed down before it stopped. We’re moving too fast.”
    He didn’t know how she could tell. Sure, the pinpricks of light scattered across the blackness outside were moving past them in streaks. Or they were moving past. Regardless, he didn’t see how she could have any idea what speed they were going. Heck, they could just be spinning in circles. It’s not like they’d have any idea aboard Lucy. “I’m sticking with my original question. So what?”
    She pushed past him and plastered herself against the window. Tron gaped at her, wondering if she’d lost her mind. He wouldn’t blame her. Well, yeah, he would. Because then he’d be all by himself. But he could understand it. He felt like he was walking the razor edge of sanity himself.
    “No. No, no no.”
    It was the same horrible sound she’d made when he was getting ready to enter the mess. If he’d listened, maybe he wouldn’t see his mother’s lifeless face every time he blinked. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. He followed her over to the window.
    It didn’t take long to figure out what Kivi was seeing. There was no missing the great, hulking ship off their portside.

Connected
     
    Kivi felt something awful bubbling up inside