Embarkment 2577 (10 page)

Did he feel related to them? Had I
accidentally insulted him? No, that was absurd. Adam was as connected to these
machines as he was to a goldfish.

He didn’t spend any more time on the
matter either; he opened a hatch close to the ceiling. “You’ll have to lose the
suit, sweetheart. You’ll never get through to engineering like that.”

I looked away from the blue robot, after
patting it on the head, but didn’t move to undress. Adam lifted an eyebrow. “What?
I thought you’d be dying to get out of it.”

I was. I pulled the voice-altering patch
off and gave it a new place on the back of my hand. I didn’t want to use it
again if I didn’t have to, ever, but no harm in saving it. “Well, yeah I am,
but it’s in the middle of the night, you know.”

He gave me a completely blank look.

“So, I was in bed when all this
happened, and I didn’t have time to get dressed.”

Climbing around the insides of a
starship dressed in panties and nothing more wasn’t appealing. Not even during
these circumstances, and especially not together with him.

“I see.”

He took his shirt off, and it was very
difficult not to ogle. We were in a serious situation, far from safe, and I
should have other things on my mind than a man’s muscles. I still wanted to
tell him I needed the tank top too, just to get to see a bit more. My hormones
must be completely out of whack. This certainly wasn’t the time or the place,
and he wasn’t even human. I still wanted him badly. Adam’s neutral facial
expression never changed, but I could swear he laughed inside when he handed me
the shirt and turned around.

“Here you go. Pretend it’s a dress. I
promise not to look.”

My gorilla suit was soon hidden in the
service corridor, and Adam hoisted me up with a firm grip around my waist.

We crawled on hands and knees on a rough
grating deck, and I wished for a pair of jeans. I liked wearing his shirt.
Imagine how safe and well prepared I would have felt with sturdy blue jeans and
a pair of good boots. As it was, the rough metal hurt my hands, knees, and
feet. Maybe someone would find traces of me stuck to the flooring years from
now. Maybe there’d be enough DNA left behind to create a new me if I didn’t
make it through this.

My daydreams of clothes shattered when
Adam stopped ahead of me. He sat down and turned enough to be able to see me. “We’re
going to have to do some climbing, but only a few decks. Don’t worry, I won’t
let you fall.”

Climbing was not part of my plan. I
should have realized engineering was on deck twenty-five, which clearly wasn’t
the same thing as thirty-three, but I didn’t think that far.

Adam climbed out first and stood on the
ladder to the side of the tunnel, a few rungs down, ready to catch me if need
be. I sat on my hands and knees and peeked out. The shaft was narrow but long,
and when I looked up, I couldn’t see the end of it. I
could
see the
bottom, far below us, and it was much too easy to imagine falling down to a
certain death. Each floor here was huge; below us were docking bays where entire
ships would fit. How much time would I have to think and worry before I hit the
bottom?

“I could carry you, but I assume you’d
rather go on your own.”

“I’m going, I’m going.” The ladder was
far to the side. I leaned out of the tunnel and was able to reach it with my
fingertips, but couldn’t get a good grip. I leaned further, trying to hold on
to the tunnel with one hand and one foot while getting something besides empty
air under the other. I was too short, too sore, and too tired. I toppled over
and fumbled with empty air.

There wasn’t anything for my grasping
hands to hold on to. It’s amazing how much you can think during a split second.
Would people miss me? Would I have time to feel pain when hitting the floor far
below? Then, Adam held me with an iron grip around my waist. I clung to him,
and he whispered, “I told you I wouldn’t let you fall. That doesn’t mean you
have to try me.”

He kissed the side of my head. “Hold on
to the ladder this time. You have to go first, but I promise I won’t look up
under your shirt.”

I understood. Deck twenty-five awaited
eight floors above us. I would fall again, and he needed to stay below me to be
able to catch me. “You know I’m keeping the shirt, right? I think I look good
in black.”

“Adorable. If I wasn’t perched on a
ladder I would absolutely try to seduce you.”

The unexpected comment made me laugh and
shook the worst anxiety away. My legs were still shaky, the ladder seemed
slippery, and the rungs hurt my naked feet, but I was ready to try.

My climb was slow and arduous. Imagine a
monkey with vertigo trying to reach the highest branch in the forest. Adam let
me fight with it for a while, but I soon heard his voice drift up from the
darkness underneath me. “Sweetheart, stop there for a moment.”

I wasn’t used to endearments from him,
but I liked it, and I obeyed. I wrapped my arms around one of the rungs,
worried I would fall the second I stopped concentrating. He came up behind me
and wrapped an arm around my waist to keep me steady. “Turn around and hold on
to me.”

My faith in him was strong enough to
allow me to move. For a breathless moment his arm was the only thing holding
me. Then, I got my arms wrapped around his neck.

“Legs too. I need you to hold tight and
close your eyes.”

I didn’t understand how this was supposed
to work, but I soon clung to him with my arms around his shoulders and my legs
around his waist. It was embarrassing, but much better than having to climb
myself. Adam virtually flew up the ladder and teased me all the way, keeping my
mind away from the abyss beneath us.

Eventually, I felt us move sideways and
heard Adam leave the shaft and enter the corridor. Opening one eye, I saw the
roof of the tunnel above me.

“I think you can go on your own from
here.”

“No.” It was childish, but I didn’t
think I’d be able to let go even if I wanted to.

“I’ll carry you all you want once this
is over, but for now, I can protect you better if I have my hands free. Okay?”

“Okay.”

He held an arm around me and lowered me
down on the floor. For a moment our faces were very close, almost touching. I
hoped he would kiss me, the very thought cheered me up.

“We’re almost there. I’ll go first.”

The light at the end of the tunnel took
on a brand new expression as I crawled behind Adam. If this was a service
tunnel, were people really supposed to crawl around in there on hands and
knees, carrying tools and performing repairs?

He finally stopped and peeked out
through a hatch separating us from the room below. “Looks clear. I’ll go check
it out. Stay here.”

“Okay. Be careful.” Unless there were
zombies sneaking around in the tunnels, I had no intention of jumping down
without his approval.

He stuck his fingers through the grating
and pushed it loose. It looked easy, but I would probably have needed a
crowbar.

As soon as he jumped down, I scuttled
forward enough to keep him in sight. The room was deserted, and he returned in
less than a minute to lift me down.

“You doing okay?”

I nodded. It wasn’t true, but I didn’t
want
him
to know just how scared I was.

“I’m proud of you Alex.”

His words made me beam. I hadn’t done
much, he carried me most of the way, but hearing the words still made me warm
inside.

Adam crossed the room and keyed in a
code on a panel. A portion of the wall slid to the side, revealing quite a
weapon’s storage. He rummaged around in there, and smiled when he pulled out a
uniform and tossed me a pair of black pants. “Jia’Lyn is always prepared. She’s
a little taller than you, but maybe you can roll them up or something.”

Her boots also fit pretty well. Being
dressed made everything feel better.

“Do you think they discovered everyone
escaped?”

“Probably, but it’s a big ship.”

He glanced around. “C’mon. Go sit over
there for a bit. I’ll go get the computer online.”

This didn’t sound appealing at all. I
didn’t want to be left alone. Wouldn’t the mainframe be guarded? He winked and
disappeared out of the door, and I moseyed over to the corner least visible
from the door. Maybe I could sit down on the floor, just for a little while.

I was a real asset in a stressful
situation: I slept through the computer coming back online. I woke from Adam
stroking my hair and saying my name. It felt good. “Mmm, hi.”

“It’s a shame to wake you, but we need
to go.”

“This is a very comfortable floor. You
go save the day, and come back to get me when you’re done.”

He laughed softly. “I’ll find you a
chair on the bridge that’s even more comfortable.”

“You’re not getting me coffee?”

“I wish I could. Here, put this on.”

He held out a peculiar visor to me. It
resembled some futuristic scuba gear. “What? We’re going swimming?”

The man was the epitome of patience.
When I didn’t take the visor, he put it on me. “We need to go to the bridge
now, and you will need air on the way there.”

Wearing the breathing device was
awkward, and the air had a peculiar taste. I could breathe though, so I didn’t
complain.

He paused just inside the door to the
corridor. “Stay right behind me, just in case. Are you ready?”

As ready as I’d ever be.

I squeezed my eyes shut when he opened
the door to the corridor. No harm in delaying whatever horrors might await for
a second or two, right? When I opened them again, Adam crouched next to three
motionless bodies. “Are they… Are they dead?”

“They’ll be fine, but they’ll have
wonderful headaches when they wake up. Come on.”

My plan didn’t seem all that great
anymore. What about people who might be sick, or pregnant, or something. Would
they die?

“Alex, I pumped in a mix of sevoflurane
and nitrous oxide. They’ll be out for a while, but they’ll be fine.” His words
woke me from my paralysis.

Strewn with bodies, the beautiful
corridors turned into a nightmare. I kept trying to peek over my shoulder to
see if a monster might be sneaking up on us, but the visor wouldn’t turn that
far.

There was an unconscious Logg in the
lift. I shifted my weight from foot to foot, unwilling to go in, and Adam
pulled the furry body out.

“Do you think the others made it to the
bridge before…?” My mental image of everyone falling to their deaths, put to
sleep during the long climb was too horrendous.

He took my hand and led me into the
elevator. “I think they picked up masks just like yours, and I think they’re
waiting for us.”

Waiting? How could they be? We only had
to climb eight floors, and they needed to go thirty-three. Oh no… “You didn’t
let me sleep, did you?”

“Just for a little while.”

Great. The entire rescue operation
stalled because I needed a nap.

Adam squeezed my fingers. “No matter
what happens, it’ll be a long day.”

The top floor was almost empty. It would
make sense to empty the ship from there down, and only a few stocky, furry
bodies hindered our way. I stepped over one, hoping it wouldn’t wake up to grab
my ankles.

There was a pile of maybe twenty
intruders outside the door to the bridge. Adam ignored them, but paused to put
up four small magnetic devices. He pressed the side of one of them and a force
field enclosed the door. If Blake and his crew had time to recycle the air,
we’d be able to get in without contaminating it.

I expected him to open the door, but he
paused to look at me, looking like he wanted to say something. He didn’t, he
never did, and we entered the bridge.

Taking the visor off was a relief, not
to mention seeing our friends in control.

Jia’Lyn said, “Good to see you.” Further
in the room, a young woman exclaimed, “What did they do? These controls are all
messed up.”

The bridge was intimidating. A large oval
room filled with consoles and indecipherable holograms. Adam nudged me towards
a row of chairs and went to work. Even from where I sat, I could see his
fingers fly over the controls so quickly they blurred. The young woman smiled.
“Thank you, Commander. That’s much better.”

Everyone was so busy, and I couldn’t
help. Even the simplest of tasks in this room were far above my level of
competence.

Jia’Lyn’s snakes yawned, but she seemed
alert and ready, even in her robe. I felt a sting of bad conscience for wearing
most of her uniform. Oh well, she didn’t seem to mind.

She pulled up an image on one of the
screens and waved to me. “Alex, I need you to help me with something. Keep an
eye on these meters for me. If they go outside the green area, call for me.”

Seemed easy enough. Maybe she fabricated
a task just to keep me busy, but having something to do made me feel better.