chapter 40
BETTER SUITED
Pavel’s ship screamed to a halt beside the bobbing escape pod. Passing the ship’s helm to Wallace, Pavel extended the stairs
leading out the back hatch, his heart pounding with cold fear. As they’d fled the wreckage, Pavel had realized that if Ethan could
track Marsian ships, so could his aunt. She’d made it to the Galleon ahead of them.
It all came down to these next moments. Would the pod be empty? And if it was empty, would there be any sign to show whether the
emergency craft had been Jessamyn’s means of surviving?
Testing the single safety rope that secured him to his vessel, Pavel reached one foot across the gap between the bottom stair and
the roof of the pod.
“You mind holding it still?” he hollered to Wallace, now at the helm.
Wallace did not respond.
“He is attempting to hold a steady position,” called Ethan, “But the surge of the waves makes this very difficult.”
Pavel nodded. Ethan hovered his chair toward the aft exit, eyeing Pavel’s tenuous grip upon both stair and pod roof. And then it
happened—a mighty swell spread the gap wider than Pavel’s legs could stretch. The would-be rescuer was plunged under the
waves. He came up coughing and choking a moment later.
“Haul me up?” shouted Pavel.
Ethan pulled the drenched Terran back inside the ship.
“Okay,” said Pavel, shivering with cold, “That didn’t go as well as I would have liked.”
“Were you able to establish visual contact inside the pod?” asked Ethan.
Pavel shook his head, scattering salty drops. “Not possible. Window on wrong side. Give me a minute. I’ll try again.”
Ethan reached for the blanket Elsa normally used for bedding. “Take this.”
Pavel nodded thanks, shivering convulsively. “Unbelievably … cold,” he said.
“I believe I might be better suited to undertake this rescue,” said Ethan. “Using my hoverchair, I can get much closer to the roof-seal
than can our ship. Also, I am familiar with the procedure of disengaging the seal and you are not.”
Pavel frowned. He would learn the truth more quickly if Ethan went instead of him.
“Go,” Pavel said to Ethan.
~ ~ ~
When Jessamyn heard the low thrumming of a craft outside, some instinctual desire to survive kicked in, sending her grief scurrying
for cover. She looked out the porthole and saw the craft hovering beside her. She had no idea if she was looking at friend or foe.
“Weapons,” she muttered aloud, adding to the list of things escape pods Really Ought to Have Inside.
She heard something upon the roof. Someone was definitely removing the outer hatch. Awash in adrenaline, Jess looked about the
craft for anything she might use to defend herself. She had a suit and a helmet. And a seat harness. She kicked at the suit, toppling
herself in the process. She landed hard on the canister that had provided oxygen to her suit. It was made of metal, which she
supposed might be used as a sort of weapon.
“The most pathetic weapon in the entire history of combat,” she muttered, digging frantically to remove the metal cylinder from the
suit.
Gazing fiercely at the hatch, she gripped the canister and assumed a loose, ready stance.
The outer hatch seal was definitely open now. Was it friend or foe? Jessamyn felt her heart skipping beats, careening wildly to a
rhythm born of fear and hope that collided like smashed atoms. She watched as the inner hull-seal shifted off center and rose. A
man she’d never seen before gazed inside, his eyes locking upon hers.
“Jessamyn,” he said.
Nothing more.
Just, “Jessamyn.”
And she knew. Even before he reached a hand down to take hers. Even before she saw the stumps where his body had once had
legs. She knew it was Ethan.
“Eth—” Her voice betrayed her, catching on his name. And she just smiled, shaking her head in joy and disbelief. When at last she
could speak again, she said simply, “You found me.”