you know? Did you hear that boom? What was that?”
Passengers began to argue. Some woman sobbed loudly. Darla kept hold of her sister—who pressed against her side—and held on tighter to Gnaw’s leg. He didn’t try to soothe her fears. That began to scare her even more as the arguing in the cabin grew worse, people afraid and panicking.
“Goddamn it,” a man bellowed. “I’m ordering all of you to shut the hell up. I’m Adam Cook, first-shift pilot on Defcon Red. Is anyone of higher rank on this transport?”
Everyone grew quiet, except for the woman crying.
The man spoke again, still bellowing. “We’re all trained fleet members. Get yourselves together. And stop making that racket, woman!”
The sobbing woman muffled her cries until they ceased. The sudden silence on the shuttle had gooseflesh rising on Darla’s arms.
“I’m going to make my way to the pilots,” Adam Cook announced. “Remain strapped in and don’t panic. I’m sure it’s nothing. No gravity means we’ve reached orbit. There will be no burning-up-in-the-atmosphere bullshit.”
“What about life support? Power seems to be completely down.” That question came from a man.
“We’ll be fine,” Adam snapped. “Defcon Red will be tracking this transport since we’re heading their way and will send a rescue shuttle if the pilots can’t fix whatever went wrong.”
A tiny light came on, and Darla fixed on it as it floated toward the front of the shuttle. It had to be Adam Cook. He’d unbuckled and was maneuvering his body toward the cockpit. He stopped at the front, and then cursed.
“The doors aren’t opening,” he called out. “Communications seem to be down. There’s no power at all on this panel.” The light moved. “It must be a total power failure. Backups are down too. Just remain calm.”
“What’s the time limit on oxygen reserves if life support is down?” It was a male who called the question out. “Does anyone know?”
“Don’t cause more panic,” a woman ordered. “Defcon Red will reach us before then.”
A clank sounded from the front.
“Please, sir,” the same woman yelled. “Don’t try to open that panel!”
“Who’s talking?” That was Adam Cook. “State your rank, woman.”
“Bailey Edward, sir. I’m a supply shuttle pilot. Don’t attempt to break open the panel to override the controls for that door. With all power down, you have no idea what’s happening on the other side. Full-system failure tells me it might be catastrophic.”
“What do you mean?” Adam sounded more irritated than concerned.
“The backup systems are clearly out. That indicates there might be massive damage to the cockpit. Otherwise, the backups would have automatically kicked on. You open those doors and there’s no telling what will happen.”
“It’s just a power failure,” Adam Cook argued.
“Sir, no disrespect, but I disagree. We could have hit an asteroid chunk or space debris. Sensors aren’t reliable during transition. Even a tiny rock could have destroyed the cockpit window, taken out all systems, and killed the pilots from rapid air decompression. That section could now be exposed to space.”
“Fuck!” Adam Cook sounded pissed.
Darla’s fear doubled.
The big Veslor put his warm hand over hers, pinning it against his leg. “It will be fine, female. I have this handled.” He released her…then something on his wrist lit up. Darla saw blue wiggly lines on a tiny screen.
“What’s that?” She’d never seen anything like it.
“I’ve just alerted my grouping that I need help. They will come.”
“Do they have a shuttle?”
He snorted. “No, but they’ll get one. Veslors are loyal. Whatever it takes, they will come.”
Oddly, that comforted her.
Chapter Two
The humans had stopped their panicked bickering for the most part. Gnaw ignored them, instead focusing on soft, metallic scraping noises. It sounded like something was repeatedly rubbing against the back of the shuttle, just behind them. He couldn’t think of the cause, though.
He braced his feet wider on the floor, closed his eyes against the darkness, and concentrated.
They were moving. It was hard to detect but his senses were that good.
With one arm, he reached up, placing his palm on the wall behind his head, and stretched his fingers wide. It confirmed his conclusion. He could feel a slight vibration, metal scraping, and—
“Um, Gnaw?”
The low female voice on his side distracted him, and he reached down, finding the female’s hand still resting on his thigh. He gave her hand a gentle pat. “It will be fine.”
“It’s getting colder in here, isn’t it?”
He debated on lying but that wasn’t his way. “Yes. Life support is down.”
“Are we going to freeze to death before we run out of air?”
“No.” That