Free Shattered Destiny: A Galactic Adventure, Episode One by Odette C. Bell Page B

the shocking incident on the bridge
differently.
    The first rule of survival was to attend to
your environment.
    Watch.
    Never let a detail go.
    So I watched silently as I applied wound
mesh and skin glue to my arm. I didn’t bother to give myself pain
killers – they dulled the mind.
    Some of the techs – the full
Arterians – looked horrified at what had
happened. Sure, I wasn’t familiar with their race, but some facial
expressions are universal.
    Some of the other techs and soldiers – the
ones who looked as if they were mixed race – barely registered
it.
    Others… looked pleased. Maybe I
was making that up – an independent observer
wouldn’t be able to pick up the same emotions I was – but I just
knew they didn’t care that Xarin had almost been killed.
    I found my eyes narrowing to a point.
    So I wasn’t the only person who hated Xarin,
then.
    As soon as I thought that, pain stabbed
through my head. I flicked my neck to the side, brought a hand up,
and locked it on my brow.
    Just as I did, the doors opened.
    … I knew who it was, even
before they strode into the room.
    Xarin, finally in full armor. Though his
helmet was off, a slim, almost translucent force field remained
over his face.
    Mark was by his side.
    Xarin strode in with purpose.
    Towards me.
    Just before my heart could explode in my
chest, he strode right past to the primary armory cupboard on the
far wall.
    … He didn’t even glance my
way.
    I’d just saved his life, and he didn’t even
deign to register my presence.
    He spoke to Mark in hushed tones.
    As soon as he reached the back wall, a light
appeared over the top of the cupboard.
    The cupboard was made out of a specialized
kind of metal mesh that crackled with a constant charge of
electricity.
    It was designed to keep people
out. With the right code, a man in armor would be able to walk
through. Without the right code, he’d be fried to a pile of ash .
    I doubted there was anything on
this ship the prince couldn’t access. And as he strode towards the
metal cupboard, a door opened for him .
    Instantly the array of weapons lined up on
the wall changed. The wall disappeared into a recess in the floor,
revealing another wall behind.
    … And it was crammed full
of weapons.
    Weapons that had the strangest effect on
me.
    My body seized. It was as if that ghostly
hand was back, this time clutching around my throat with all the
force of a noose.
    I even brought a suddenly sweaty hand up and
clutched it against my neck.
    I couldn’t see properly, and I pushed to my
feet, slowly, body as rigid as rock.
    The prince and Mark did not spend long in
the weapons cupboard. The prince selected something off the wall,
locked it against his back, and walked out.
    Immediately the wall disappeared, revealing
the ordinary array of weapons once more.
    O nce Mark and the prince were out of the
cupboard, it locked again.
    Sit back down, I begged
myself. Sit
back down, you idiot.
    No matter how hard I berated myself, my body
wouldn’t comply.
    As Mark and the prince drew closer, I
picked up their conversation.
    “Quick. It has to be quick. No
mistakes this time,” the prince growled, voice dropping several
registers on the phrase this time.
    I caught myself staring into his eyes once
more.
    Mesmerizing didn’t do them
justice….
    They reached me.
    The prince stopped. For the first time he
appeared to acknowledge my presence. His gaze flicked from my
blood-covered boots, across to my arm, then finally to my
face.
    He didn’t say anything.
    It took Mark clearing his throat to break
the uncomfortable silence.
    The prince straightened. There was
something so penetrating about his gaze. It reminded me on every
level that he wasn’t human. More than that, though, it reminded me
that he thought he was a god.
    I wanted my jaw to harden, but it resisted
my move.
    Mark cleared his throat once more. “Your
highness, this is the woman from—”
    “The worker from the refinery,” Xarin
interrupted.
    The