Quarantined Planet by John Allen Pace Read Free Book Online Page B

engine, which runs lengthwise across its center. Hand-held lights have been strategically placed all around.
    Nix is trying to help, but mostly he’s frustrated. “Hey, I don’t know anything about this. I’m only here to lift the heavy stuff.”
    Gordon grabs the young man by both shoulders. “Then look, Nix, I need you to go outside, see if you can find wherever it is that signal’s comin’ from. We should be right on top of it.”
    Chloe quickly inserts herself between the two men. “What? No, Nix, don’t.”
    “Nix, you with me?” Gordon continues.
    “Yeah,” Nix replies.
    “Take a weapon. But you see slates or Earl’s crew, you leg it back here.”
    “Okay.”
    “Don’t engage ‘em.”
    “Right, okay.”
    “That’s crazy, Gordon,” the young woman protests. “Don’t do it, Nix—it’s crazy.” Nix wraps Chloe up in his arms and kisses her. Gordon, about to say more, decides instead to give the two a moment alone and disappears into Sephora ’s midsection.
    “Don’t do it,” she says between long lip-locks. “Don’t go.”
    “I love you. You know that.”
    “Nix, I…”
    “You love him, I know.”
    She sighs. “Nix, it’s just that…”
    “Doubt this atmosphere’s breathable, so don’t try,” Gordon says, having returned quickly with a helmet and a gun.
    “No, I won’t.” Nix nods, clinging to Chloe tightly.
    “Be sure the first hatch is sealed before opening two.”
    “I know. I know that.”
    Nix takes hold of the helmet to put it on, but Chloe stops him. “It’s just a word I don’t throw around, you know. When I say it, I’ll mean it.” She initiates a kiss this time. “Okay?”
    “Yeah.”
    Gordon is somewhat amused as the two enjoy another long, much more passionate smooch.
    “Be very careful,” Chloe tells him before another kiss.
    “Oh, come on.” Gordon breaks them up.
    “Shouldn’t we just get the ship running and get out of here?”
    “There’s no turning back now, love. Look, Nix, watch every step, yeah?”
    “I will.” Nix makes a few final adjustments to his suit before taking a long last look at Chloe. “I mean it,” he says to her before he fastens his helmet and saunters out.

Chapter Nineteen
    Several meters from the alien bunker, Lilith rests with her engines off.
    Deep inside the alien-engineered hillside, Earl is alone in a smooth-surfaced, massive room with workstations at its center and a balcony of additional stations one level above. Several flat-screen monitors, suspended from the ceiling, are displaying alien worlds and star fields. One screen cycles through grim images of Earth—emaciated people, familiar cities in ruin, men with guns, and still more men with guns. It has Earl’s full attention. He was wrong about the Greys, so very wrong. They weren’t the enemy, after all. How many hours had he watched of humanity’s inhumanity? He’d lost track, but it was enough.
    “What is all this?” Frey asks, suddenly behind Earl. “Do you have access?”
    Earl turns the monitors off. “No. It was nothing.”
    “It looked like Earth.”
    “Just cycles.”
    “Cycles?”
    Not even Earl is sure what he meant by that. His head is spinning. He decides to go with it anyway. “Life is all about cycles. Winter turns to spring, then it’s summer. But winter always comes back. The darkness always returns.”
    Frey chuckles. “Not on Gaea. Just one long, endless summer. I used to like summer.”
    “Sure,” Earl says, walking away.
    “Was that Earth, though?”
    Earl leaves Frey staring blankly at the empty screens.

Chapter Twenty
    Sephora ’s emergency batteries are almost out of juice. With only the hand-held flashlights, Gordon, Chloe, Jane, and the translator work to get her engines spinning again.
    “Tell me about Amon Earl?” Michael asks from the darkness.
    “Earl of the flies,” Gordon answers from across the room. “Jane?”
    “I’d rather not.”
    “Bloody Back-to-Earthers, yeah?” Gordon says, earning him a