Over the Moon (Star-Crossed Book 1) by K. McLaughlin Read Free Book Online Page A

killed in a hurry if you’re not careful.”
    She slid out of the bottom half of the suit. “Dad’s samples,” she said, remembering. Maybe Patrick could help her out? He’d been pretty sharp in a crisis just now.
    “Huh?”
    “Dad’s virus samples are losing refrigeration. I don’t know how much time is left, but…”
    He was already moving, leaving her behind in the airlock. “I need an electrician in the hall for the new dome, stat. No, I don’t care what else you’re up to right now, Fred.”
    Carmen shoved the bottom half of her suit back into the suit locker and chased after him. He was headed down the ship’s corridor fast – making tracks for the main cargo bay.
    “Just like that?” she asked.
    “Just like what?” he replied. “Right now, your father’s work is the most important thing going on up here. Nothing takes priority over that. Come on.”
    The cargo area was mostly emptied out already. They’d unloaded pretty quickly – there had been a lot of big cargo containers in this space! Patrick swept past all the work still going on and headed for the big airlock doors, which were sitting open. Carmen almost stopped in her tracks when she saw them, but managed to keep going. She felt a stabbing pang of guilt whenever she thought about the man she’d trapped. The man Patrick executed without looking like he even cared. Seeing the scene of the incident brought back bad memories.
    He wasn’t waiting for her, though, and she wasn’t about to miss whatever was happening next. She’d see this through.
    The airlock was connected to the domes by a long tube made of stretchy material. When the ship wasn’t here, it was tucked back in against the dome. That first dome was all storage area, anyway, so it made for a quick unloading site. When the ship docked, they ran the tube out to the cargo doors, connected it, and opened the side of the ship up to facilitate unloading. It was an awesome setup. But the ship landed a good ways from the dome for safety – five hundred feet or so. To get back and forth quickly, they used machines like forklifts for the heavy lifting, and Segway devices for people who needed to get back and forth fast.
    There was only one Segway sitting on this end of the tube. Patrick hopped on, and looked back at Carmen.
    “Get on,” he said.
    She gingerly stepped up behind him. This was just like stepping on his feet and hanging on while he flew through the air, right? She put her hands on his hips, and he started the Segway down the passage – fast! She quickly realized her grip wasn’t tight enough, and slid her hands forward around his waist to hang on tighter. That forced her to press her entire body up tight against his.
    Totally like the space suit trip. Except that this time there were no suits between his back and her front. Or her hands and his abs. She could smell him through the ship-suit he wore, the faint scent of sweat after being stuck in the space suit a while. She wondered what she smelled like and wrinkled her nose at the thought. She was already starting to daydream about showers. You couldn’t shower in zero gravity, of course. But water was rationed out here on Luna, so no showers here even through the gravity would have made it possible. There was water though. And soap. She’d be able to get clean maybe, once all this was over.
    They were almost through the passage by the time she’d gotten done daydreaming about being clean again. He slowed down as they reached the dome and went inside. This first dome was packed with stuff just shipped up from Earth. She guessed a lot of it was probably food. They’d sent a lot more people along than usual. The lunar base was generally a tight knit team of a dozen or so men and women. Her dad had over a dozen people just on his research team, and that meant they’d sent along tons of support staff too. The population of Luna had quadrupled overnight. It was a lot of extra people to feed and house.
    “You can relax