Bright Star Read Online Free Page B

elevator exhales a dusty puff from the slot between the two sliding doors, unlocks with a groan, and begins to climb. The alien has called it from the level above us.
    “No, can’t be….”
    I wait as the sound of the rising elevator disappears in Ship’s depths.
    Nothing happens.
    Silence.
    Silence again.
    Then, slowly, the elevator begins to fall.
    “No!”
    “Total awakening completed.”
    With a puff of steam, the sarcophagus lid unlocks behind my back. My eyes are glued to the elevator. The alien is coming down. The keypad beside the door goes crazy, showing strange green symbols changing wildly.
    At my back, the sarcophagus cover rises with a squeaky sound. The cold gas flowing from the open coffin rolls around me in spirals, caressing my neck with chilling fingers. Prince coughs again, but I can’t turn around. I can’t look away from the elevator that slowly slips to our level and stops with a thud and a massive dusty whiffle.
    My body acts on its own.
    I turn, I bend under the sarcophagus lid, and grab Prince in my arms. He’s extraordinarily light and cold. I spring toward the service elevator. I put Prince in the narrow tube in a vertical position then crush myself against him.
    The main elevator door opens rustily.
    A glimpse of a tangle of white alien limbs reveals itself to me. I start the service elevator, shooting us down.

Chapter 3
     
    P RINCE IS wet, cold. His eyes are open, but his gaze holds something glassy and he doesn’t seem conscious. As the pipe of the service elevator dumps us in the anteroom before the servants’ cubicles and then retreats, his legs fail and his head drops back.
    I grab him under his armpit. He’s light, delicate. Too much, and my stomach knots. Is he okay? Did everything work properly? He’s not too scrawny? Weak? Shit, his skin is deadly cold. Did I take him out of the sarcophagus too soon? But the alien was coming—what the hell was I supposed to do?
    I take Prince in my arms and listen, still. I’m two or three levels under the sarcophagus cocoon, but I can hear the alien anyway. Ship’s as silent as a tomb, and I sense the vibrations of footsteps as the alien moves inside the empty cocoon. Did it see us sneak out in the service elevator?
    Silence, then more steps and bumps. I think the alien is way too big to squeeze itself into the service elevator, but I’m not totally sure, and a veil of sweat forms on my face. I have to take Prince away from here. Far away, where their instruments can’t perceive us.
    I exit into the dark corridor and start to run.
    Prince’s so thin I can carry him without effort. He’s even small. In the brief moment when he stood inside the service elevator his head barely reached my shoulder. Now his cold cheek rests on my collarbone, and a lot of wet hair covers his face. He’s no longer still, because he’s started to tremble convulsively. This scares me.
    I reach the intersection with the main gallery on this level, and I stop, panting. I don’t know how many aliens are on board. I saw three dots on the map, but there may be more by now. Yes, they walk loudly on those spider legs, but the risk of finding one of them in front of me is too big, while the aliens probably have sophisticated instruments to run scans of Ship to sense us.
    I have to go as far as possible, hoping to escape the reach of their instruments.
    I crawl in another service elevator, and I stand Prince in front of me. His head dangles and his legs fail, all that wet hair stuck to his face. He remains upright only because we are squeezed into the tiny tube with no space to fall.
    Where am I going? Lower levels or higher levels?
    I consider for a moment hiding in the storerooms. But there are goods, and if the aliens are seeking goods, that’s where they’ll find them. And it seems like a bad idea to stress Prince with heavy gravity.
    Okay. I shoot both of us to the higher levels. The farthest is level one, the one Blasius called Main Bridge.
    Even though we