Queen of the Savages - Complete by Lisa Lace Read Free Book Online Page B

Tev.
    After Rev zipped his suit shut and put on a helmet, he looked through the lockers to see if there were any ropes.
    "Here we go!" he said, tossing some line to Tev. They worked together to secure everyone, but it was a race against time as the doors to space were slowly opening and the atmosphere around them was being sucked out. As they attached tethers to each other, everything in the room that was not secured began to fly around them. Crates, tools, and garbage filled the air as the bay doors opened to the blackness of space.
    Both brothers moved together, trying to get closer to the bulkhead at the left of the doors. Tracy followed them at a maddeningly slow pace until she felt her feet lift off the ground from under her.
    "Rev!" she yelled. There was no answer. He couldn't hear her.
    She was floating in the air. The only thing that prevented her from floating out into space was a thin line attaching her to Rev.
    The brothers were at the bulkhead now, gripping tightly onto handholds with one arm while they tried to clip the other end of the line to a loop protruding from the metal wall. They fought against the tug of Tracy, who had nothing to hold onto and was pulling them away from the wall. Finally, Rev gave a final pull with all his strength and was able to clip in the tether to the wall. Exhausted, they let go of the wall and tumbled into space, the line attaching them to each other and to the ship floating behind them.
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    Unlike Tracy's first time in a space suit, after the initial rush out of the spacecraft everything seemed to move very slowly. Crates and debris from the hold floated by them at a serene pace.
    It would all be quite relaxing except the only thing preventing her from floating into space for the rest of her life was a thin rope attached to an alien.
    Rev drew on the tether to bring Tracy closer to him. He tapped his helmet, and he motioned for her to do the same. When she hit the helmet with her hand, an illuminated display appeared in front of her eyes, and a speaker near her ear squawked to life, enabling communications between the three.
    Rev spoke first. "How are you doing?" he said.
    "I'm still alive!" she said, with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.
    "Follow Tev. We are going to go to Zywth's ship and try to enter it from the outside."
    "We can do that?"
    "We're going to have to. Unfortunately, we don't have many options. Ready? Let's go."
    Tracy had no choice but to move with the brothers. She was tethered between them. The metal hull of the ship stretched as far as her eyes could see - how far would they have to go before they reached the other ship?
    Rev pulled up on the tether and moved past her and Tev. Putting his feet forward, his gravity boots made contact with the ship's hull, and he became anchored again.
    Up close against the ship's surface, Tracy saw that the hull was dotted with handholds. Rev clipped the end of his tether to a handhold on the ship's body. Tracy realized that this was how people would have to secure themselves when they were working on the outside hull of the ship. Rev had told her earlier micrometeorites were a big danger in space travel, ripping their way through a ship's exterior. Tracy imagined it would be necessary to do repairs on the hull often.
    She hoped they wouldn't pass through a meteorite storm while they were trapped outside the ship.
    After Rev confirmed that his attachment was secure, he motioned to Tev, who released the link of the tether snaking through the landing bay doors. Now they floated free again as Rev tugged them in his direction. Tev sailed over Rev's head, and holding his feet out, he connected with the hull of the ship. He then connected his tether to another handhold.
    Leapfrog, Tracy thought. We're playing a very slow game of leapfrog.
    The journey was long. As she was pulled along by the brother's back and forth, Tracy view alternated between the broad hull of the ship and the black of space.
    Looking at the stars from