Free Wrinkle in Time (9781458093967) by Kris Katzen Page A

in the meantime. And
the new Chief Engineer is quite the golden girl. You keep up with
the scuttlebutt, right?"
    He searched his memory a moment. "Ah, yes.
Alynda Burnette, right? The most recent whiz-kid from the
academy."
    "No, no. She's an ancient twenty-five years
old now. I think there's another child prodigy already. Some
physicist." She looked around when Parillo stopped but saw nothing
besides more woods and hills.
    "Right here," Parillo walked around an
oddly-shaped outcropping and moved aside some fallen branches to
reveal a metal hatch.
    A hatch bearing an EMF insignia that was
recognizable yet clearly different. The background coloring had
changed from a pure black to darkest navy, and the style of the
stars framing the Earth, and of the Earth itself, was more
ornate—an artistic representation instead of photographic.
    Dennis let out a low, long whistle. "Not what
you expected to find."
    With a grunt of agreement, Parillo handed
Dennis a flashlight then turned on his own. She followed her former
commander inside, the two beams of light playing down three steps
and illuminating a short passage that ran longwise between the two
parallel walls.
    They were inside the double hull of a ship.
The stairs stopped at another hatch. Parillo pried it open and
activated the hoverlamp which, spewing brightness that made both
people shield their eyes, floated lightly away and to the ceiling
at the center of the room beyond the interior hatch. Then he got
out of the way so she could see for herself.
    They stood on the bridge of a starship, one
that had the same layout she was accustomed to, only smaller and on
one single level. There were two stations fore, presumably con and
ops or the like, and two chairs in the center of the circular area.
Several more stations lined the aft wall. It would have looked like
a perfectly respectable and fully functional bridge if not for the
fine layer of dust...
    ...and the dead bodies all around.
    Nothing but skeletons remained, human
skeletons. Although the environment had been sealed, it had been
neither dry nor cold enough to preserve the flesh, which had
long-since vanished along with the clothing the ill-fated people
had worn.
    Both of the central seats were occupied, as
were the two forward stations. Three more sets of remains lay in
the back.
    "I think the fleet needs to work on
clearer communications," Dennis said sharply. "Because the message
I got was the equivalent of 'an archeologist found some ancient
bodies. Go check it out.' If they hadn't included your name, I
wouldn't have come at all." She touched her comlink. "Dennis
to Nyranik ."
    "Yes, Captain?"
    Parillo raised an eyebrow and shot Dennis a
look at the boyishness of the voice. She grinned back at him and
held up a finger.
    "Adams, what readings are you getting from my
location? Any lifesigns? Or energy spikes?"
    "No, Captain. Reading two humans and that's
all. Are you standing in a buried ship?"
    "That's right. Have Alynda and Jairgage beam
down to these coordinates with a full science team."
    "Aye, Captain. How about Saran, Sir? You know
he'll be asking."
    "That's fine. Dennis, out. Saran is chief of
security and he takes his job very seriously," Dennis explained,
then grinned and addressed Parillo's inquiring look from before.
"Adams's not as young as he sounds, Luke. Almost ten years out of
the Academy, in fact. So," she circled the bridge, careful not to
disturb anything, "I take it you haven't explored the ship yet?"
The only footprints in the dust were those she herself was
leaving.
    "No. I hated waiting, but I didn't want to
risk it without any backup."
    The shimmering and humming of the transporter
made them turn to face the dark blue screen. Two columns of
sparkling light in front of it coalesced into a study in
contrasts.
    A petite woman with engineering insignia on
her collar had chocolate-colored skin, wide-set, deep-brown eyes
and a halo of curly black hair that framed her delicate features
and just brushed her