Free Lost Planet 01 - The Lost Planet by Rachel Searles Page A

still alive?”
    â€œProbably not after this,” said Chase. He left Mina in the corner and went back down to the cargo hold, where the man in the space suit still lay flat on his back. He was breathing, but his skin was deathly pale and he didn’t stir when Chase prodded his neck. Looking at his face, Chase realized that the man was much younger than he’d first thought—underneath a layer of scruffy facial hair, he looked about nineteen years old, maybe twenty at most.
    Chase returned to the piloting cabin. “He’s not waking up. What should we do with him?”
    â€œI don’t know,” said Parker. “Let’s worry about ourselves first.”
    Chase sat quietly beside him. The scene above Trucon replayed in his mind—the frantic flood of spaceships, the doomed planet in flames. “What happened back there?”
    â€œI told you, the breakaway. How hard did you hit your head?”
    â€œNo, before that.”
    Parker was quiet for a minute. “Something pretty awful.”
    â€œDo you think it was an attack?”
    Parker shrugged and shook his head.
    â€œWhat about your home? What about Dr. Silvestri?”
    â€œStop.” Parker’s face was pale and glazed with sweat. “I don’t want to talk about it. We need to focus on the immediate problem.”
    Looking at the complex piloting console, Chase knew he wouldn’t be able to help Parker with the cruiser. Piloting was definitely not in his semantic memory. “So how do we do this?”
    â€œI’ve just got to find our coordinates, and map a route to, uh…” Parker trailed off, and the cabin fell silent.
    There was nothing to see out the front window except never-ending, star-speckled space. Chase closed his eyes and tried to absorb everything that had happened in the course of only a few hours. He’d just been getting used to the idea of being on Trucon, and now the entire planet was gone, along with Parker’s home, and probably Dr. Silvestri as well. Mina was basically useless, and Chase was pretty sure she wouldn’t have had time to contact Asa before everything happened. Not that Asa could find them now anyway.
    Panic rose up in his throat. If they couldn’t reach Asa, he wouldn’t be able to ask questions about his microchip. He’d never be able to find his identity. Feeling his panic edge toward hysteria, he stopped himself. First things first . Before they could do anything, they had to find their way to another planet. Then get Mina fixed. And then he could get back to work figuring out his identity.
    â€œAre you sleeping?” Chase’s eyes snapped open to see Parker glaring at him. “So you’re not going to help? I have to figure out how to get us out of this mess by myself, is that right?”
    â€œWhat am I supposed to do?” said Chase. “Can’t you just punch in the CFC destination or whatever?”
    Parker hunched over the screens and shook his head. “Out here in deep space everything works differently. Different communication system, different piloting system. And I can’t figure out these stupid mapping programs—do I calculate in the rate that the universe is moving when I plot a route, or is that already figured into the equation?” He banged his fist against the console in frustration.
    Chase didn’t have the slightest clue how to answer these questions, but he racked his brain for an idea. “Um … maybe if we wait for the guy down there to wake up? He must be able to pilot.”
    â€œAnd what if he’s in a coma and isn’t going to wake up?” countered Parker. “He might have suffered too much exposure by the time we found him. And even if he’s fine, we can’t trust him. He’s not a Fleet soldier. I bet he stole that Khatra.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œLike I was telling you before, he’s a Lyolian. A Khatra’s a Fleet