Priestess of the Eggstone by Jaleta Clegg Read Free Book Online Page B

control panel glowed solid yellow and red lights. I slammed my hands over the switches, working to shut down anything not essential to keeping us alive.
    “I think we lost more than rear stabilizers.” Jerimon slid into the copilot’s seat, his hands moving calmly over the controls. “We have to drop out of hyperspace. The sublight engines are still functional. Hyperdrive stasis field is losing integrity.”
    The ship shuddered heavily.
    “We’ll be stranded. Unless you have some navigational skills up your sleeve.” I powered down the lights. Red emergency lights cast a weird glow over the cockpit.
    “Are we going to die?” Leon hopped to the cockpit, the webbing still tangled around his legs.
    Jerimon ignored him. “What else can we do? We drop into normal space and turn on the emergency beacon.”
    “Can you guarantee who will pick it up first? Or have you forgotten the Sessimoniss who are looking for us?” I pulled out the headsets, handing one to him. “I’m going back to look at the engines.”
    “What good is that going to do? You don’t know how to fix them. We’re both pilots.” He reached for the emergency abort.
    I grabbed his hand. “I’ve got an assistant engineer rating. You touch that button and I will shoot you with Leon’s gun over and over.”
    “And do what? Give me a nasty headache?” He moved his hand away from the button.
    I let go and pulled on the headset. “If I wanted to do that, I’d hit you over the head with it.” I ducked out of the cockpit. The engine whine carried even through the two closed doors. I shoved Leon onto the bunk as I ran for the engine access behind the cargo bay.
    The cargo bay door had shut automatically. I opened it and swore at what I saw inside. The cartons I’d unwebbed had fallen across the floor. Two of them were split open, spilling their contents. I slammed the button to shut the door.
    “What?” Jerimon’s voice came over the headset.
    “The cartons are open,” I answered as I picked my way through the mess to the engine room door. “Any way you can keep Leon occupied?”
    “Is that his name? I’m already rather busy if you haven’t forgotten.”
    The ship lurched. I slammed into the wall.
    “How could I forget? Take a minute to tie him up at least.”
    “What’s back there?”
    “Guns. Blasters. Pretty nasty looking ones, too.”
    Jerimon said the same bad words I’d said just a minute before.
    “I’ll tie him up, there isn’t much I can do here right now anyway. Pressure’s dropping fast on the main line.”
    I kicked the cartons out of my way, ignoring the weapons. If we lost pressure completely the engine would freeze; we’d be dumped into normal space with a very hot core. I’d done that once before and didn’t want to do it again, especially considering this ship didn’t have escape pods like my last one.
    I crawled through the narrow hatch to the engine. It looked normal, except for the faint blue haze of smoke that hung in the air. A high whining vibrated through the ship. I inched my way around the engine. The ship was designed to be as small as possible. Access to the engine was restricted to a very narrow walkway down the left side. It wasn’t designed to have someone trying to repair it while it was running.
    I made my way gingerly along the wall, examining the engine for damage. I heard Jerimon scaring Leon into behaving over the headset and had to grin. Jerimon wasn’t really that bad, except for his penchant for wanting to trust the Patrol. And the mess he’d gotten me into with the Sessimoniss, of course, but how much of that was really his fault? How was he to know that a rock was so important? Still, he shouldn’t have sold it. He should have given it back. He should have told me about it before I hired him. The scars on my shoulder itched. I decided I would continue to be mad at him after we got the engines running again.
    I edged around the rear of the engine and found steaming fluids pulsing onto