Free Return to Dark Earth by Anna Hackett Page B

Avril was going to go
into convulsions.
    “Look at this.” Nera called out.
    He moved to join her. Saw she was looking
through what had been an office. There was a late-model Terran comp
on the table.
    “This must have been some sort of car
showroom,” he mused. “Collect what you can. I’ll contact Avril.
She’ll need to organize a team to retrieve these.” He tried the
comm, but all he got was static. “We’ll need to go topside.” He
checked his Sync, his pulse jumping. “We have seven minutes to get
back to the ship before the radiation starts to affect us.”
    Nera carefully placed the comp in a net bag
she’d opened. “Roger that. Let’s go.”
    As they headed back past the cars, Nik was
already planning. “Avril said the Drake is equipped with a
cargo lift. We’ll need to widen the opening, and then bring it down
and use an exosuit to get the cars onto the lift.”
    He looked up at the place where they’d
climbed in. “What the hell?”
    The opening was closed. Covered over by
rocks.
    Nera pulled out her laser pistol. “Stand
back.”
    She shot at the opening and rocks rained
down. She’d opened a small hole, but it wasn’t big enough for them
to fit through.
    “Lift me up,” she said.
    Nik gripped her waist and hefted her up. In
a lithe move, she leapt up and settled on his shoulders.
    As she pulled rocks out of the opening, Nik
clamped his hands on her slim, muscular thighs to steady her. He
tried to stay focused on getting out alive, and not the fact that
Nera’s legs were wrapped around his head.
    “There.” She threw a large rock down.
“That’s enough.” She gripped the edge of the hole and pulled
herself out. She looked back down. “Come on.”
    Nik backed up a little, then ran and jumped.
He grabbed the edge and with a grunt, pulled himself out.
    An alarm on his Sync chimed. A warning
flashed on the screen and a modulated computer voice said, “You
have reached maximum radiation exposure limit.” He looked up and
met nebula-colored eyes. “Run.”
    They took off, arms pumping. They sprinted
past the buildings, scrambled up the dune. As they crested the
mountain of black sand, Nik felt his chest tightening, his
breathing becoming labored. He glanced back behind them.
    Everything was still, but now he got the
feeling that someone was watching them.
    “Faster, Phoenix,” Nera yelled.
    He focused back on running. Nausea hit him
and he gritted his teeth.
    The ship loomed ahead.
    He heard a tinny, frantic sound. A voice in
his ear. “Dr. Phoenix! Darc! Please respond.”
    Nik touched his nano-earpiece. “We’re
coming.”
    An expulsion of breath. “You’re over the
exposure limit. Hurry.”
    The ship got closer, but Nik was starting to
feel dizzy, and his head was pounding. He stumbled.
    “Keep going.” Nera gripped his arm. “We’re
almost there.”
    “If…I fall, you keep going,” he said between
gritted teeth.
    She raised a brow at him. The rest of the
galaxy would translate that to be “you bet your ass I’m leaving you
and saving myself” but he knew it wasn’t true. If he fell, she
wouldn’t leave him.
    He pushed harder.
    Finally, they reached the ship, its shadow
covering them as it hovered above.
    Nera clipped a line onto his belt and
pressed the retraction device. He whizzed up, his vision becoming
blurry.
    Hands were grasping at his body armor as
people pulled him onto the ship. He lay sprawled on the floor,
dizzy and confused. Lights were shone in his eyes, and someone was
tugging at his trousers. He felt a pressure injector pushed against
his butt cheek. “Nera?” He couldn’t see her. “Where is she?”
    “Here.” She shouldered past a med tech and
pressed a hand to his shoulder. A second med tech hovered beside
her, holding a pressure injector. He looked too afraid to inject
her. Finally, she snatched the device from him, shoved her trousers
down over one hip and injected herself.
    “You’re both very lucky. Ms. Darc was
showing fewer signs of