Gravity (Dark Anomaly #1) - Marina Simcoe Page 0,28

The more she knew, the more careful she would be, he hoped.

“Here are the documentaries on yourlu, ognats, errocks, and a few others. The largest groups we have here.”

He glanced at the red shelves by the entrance.

Crux had taken a tablet frame and was now selecting slates to watch by ordering the other two errocks to pull them off the shelves for him, in no apparent order.

Vrateus made a mental note to reorganize that section after them when he had a minute to spare later. Errocks didn’t know the themul alphabet to do it themselves. He doubted some of them knew any alphabet at all.

“Would you be interested in watching or reading about the mating habits of the various species?” he asked Svetlana, not entirely sure why.

Maybe, it would be good for her to know he hadn’t been exaggerating when he told her about the various ways the species here had sex.

Or maybe, he hoped she’d watch the video of the themul couple, too.

Maybe, he would have loved to know her reaction to it.

“Mating habits?” She followed his gaze to the red shelf. The errocks were leaning over the tablet in Crux’s hands. All three were snickering and elbowing each other. “No, thank you,” she blurted, a lovely shade of blush coloring her cheeks. “I think I’ve got enough here.” She tipped her chin at the stack of slates in his arms. “Enough to tide me over until the next visit. We’ll come here again, won’t we?” She lifted her questioning gaze to his, undisguised hope in her eyes.

There was no reason for another visit to the library. The purpose of today’s trip was to help her familiarize herself with the surroundings. Now, she knew the location of the library. He could exchange the slates for her, she didn’t need to leave her room for that.

Yet he found himself unable to extinguish the hopeful expression in her eyes.

“Yes. We’ll come here again if you want.”

Besides, he couldn’t deny himself the pleasure of having her here.

It was enjoyable to share this with someone like her, who appreciated the work he had done on the entire spectrum of the library, not just its red section.

Chapter 10

FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS after my visit to the library, I read and watched the info inserts.

Most of the species currently found on the Dark Anomaly came from the sections of the Galaxy farthest from Earth. They had travelled these parts during the early trading days of the Federation, and even before the Federation had been formed.

I found some clues on how they could have ended up here. After analyzing the data found on several ships of different species, I was beginning to believe that the gravity of the Anomaly lashed out, similar to a star’s flares, randomly grabbing whatever spaceships might be passing by.

This discovery was eerie and disturbing, but it made sense. That would explain how I ended up sucked in here, too.

The Dark Anomaly spun through space like a giant squid hiding in the depths of the ocean. It shot out its tentacles of gravity to drag ships and their crew to their deaths.

Except that not all were dying on impact with the edge of its disk. I’d survived, as had many others. What killed some of them here was the hopelessness afterwards. Those who survived gave up on civilization, plunging the community into a dark savage state.

While examining the charts and diagrams of the structural improvements done on the body of the Anomaly, I realized that all of it had been done in the past seven years, the same amount of time as Vrateus had been these people’s captain.

During this time, he had expanded the oxygen generating facility and improved the efficiency of the air filtration system, which allowed a much bigger portion of the Anomaly’s disk to be populated.

Under his leadership, the wrecks of the ships, haphazardly squished together after the many crashes, had been stabilized and secured to create this segment of the Anomaly—rugged and dented, but safe.

A while back, a cargo ship had crashed here with a load of live vasai, hideous giant centipedes. Their meat was rich in protein and other nutrients. Vasai had escaped the cargo hold after the crash and spread through the numerous tunnels within the Anomaly, hunting and being hunted by others.

By now, most of them had been captured and farmed, their meat and eggs being the principal source of protein for the crew. That allowed Vrateus to outlaw cannibalism, which apparently had been