Gravity (Dark Anomaly #1) - Marina Simcoe Page 0,26

do you stay physically active?”

He sat down on the floor next to me, and I admired the thick muscles of his thighs, bulging against the dark-brown material of his pants.

“Physical labor.” He blinked, following my gaze. “There is always a lot to be done around here.”

I finished my stew in record time, drank the bitter, black tea just as fast, and got up.

“I’m ready.”

The relaxed expression he had on his face while watching me eat disappeared at my words. Focus sharpened his features as he walked me to the door and placed his hand on the control panel.

The three members of his personal guard stood just outside the door. Wyck had the end of Lesh’s chain wrapped around his wrist. The bizarre creature lowered all three of its heads, hissing at the doors as they slid open.

Neither of the errocks offered me a greeting, and I kept quiet, too, deciding it was best not to attract any extra attention.

Wrapping his hand around my upper arm, Vrateus gestured for Crux to lead. Wyck and Nocc flanked us, each about a step behind Vrateus and me.

I couldn’t shake off the feeling of unease while walking down the corridors. This was not a relaxing stroll. The sensation of the errocks ogling me prickled my skin. The moist breathing of Wyck’s pet heated my ankles.

I focused on where we were going, taking in the dented metal of the ceiling and the bent panels of the wall. Now and then, I spotted a thick round line of melted metal, crudely welded. It circled the corridor—floor, walls, and ceiling. Those must be the places where newly crashed ships were integrated into the Dark Anomaly, adding to the usable space of the metal disk.

I wondered what they’d use my spaceship for. Maybe a storage room, one among many.

“Have you stripped my ship?” I asked Vrateus.

“Yes. Everything we could use has now been taken off and put into storage,” he replied, not taking his eyes off Crux’s back in front of us.

“How about the spacesuit? And the spare fuel cells I had?”

“All in storage. Along with the other suits we have.”

“You have more?”

I doubted any of the ones they had would rival the quality and power of mine. Considering the slower time on the Anomaly, everything Vrateus’s people had at their disposal was severely outdated.

“We have several more. We wear them to go outside, to do any necessary repairs on the surface.”

They did get out. There must be an airlock, then.

“What do you need to repair out there?” I asked.

Vrateus flicked his gaze to mine before returning it to the errock in front of us.

“Power generating panels. They convert the light of the Anomaly into useful energy.”

“How about any antennae? Have you tried to send or receive communication signals from the surface?”

“No antennae. All signals get lost here.”

“Yes. In here. But have you tried to send one from out there?” I insisted.

“Yes.”

His brief answers weren’t nearly enough. I wished to see some detailed data. Better yet, I wanted a chance to conduct some experiments myself. The mystery of the Anomaly was what drew me to sign up for the research mission in the first place. I was now inside it and still had so few answers.

Ironically, my main goal right now was to escape this place, not to study it.

“How often do you have to do the repairs?” I asked.

“As often as needed. With each new arrival, things often get banged up on the surface.”

Arrival.

He’d made it sound as if they were scheduled—normal things to happen, not the catastrophic events they really were.

I wondered about the number and locations of the exits to the surface. Logic told me that at least one of them should be somewhere close to the storage room with the spacesuits, but I decided against asking him outright, at that moment. I didn’t want to give him any more clues about my plans. The look he had given me was already suspicious.

At that moment, Vrateus stopped at the white single door on our left.

VRATEUS

He tapped the code into the door panel. Unlike the lock on his and Svetlana’s rooms that had been programed to open only with his palm print, the one at the library simply required a numeric code to enter. The number was not a secret. Anyone could access this place, though few of his crew ever bothered.

Unlike them, Vrateus had spent many hours here. However, this was the first time he had ever brought anyone along.

“Wow.” Svetlana’s eyes grew wider as