Approaching Oblivion (Jezebel's Ladder Book 4) Read Free

current
resident of the stasis chamber, Toby, had masterminded the ‘accident’ by
switching the ship’s exit point too close to a sun and preventing him from
leaving the alien interface. Oddly enough, the horrible experience had improved
Lou’s personality, making him more sympathetic and less superficial. Red tried
to sound chipper as she said, “Looking sharp, Lou ! You’re up early.”
    He whispered, “Can you do me a
favor?”
    His suave British accent made her
want to say ‘yes.’ Instead Red rolled her eyes. “No, I am not changing the
ship’s name from Sanctuary to Pellucidar .” Mercy was reading
aloud the pulp novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was about Tarzan in a savage
world inside the hollow interior of the Earth. Lou had pointed out repeatedly
that the name fit the alien-built spaceship perfectly. The aliens had crafted a
two-kilometer diameter pocket under the fabric of normal space and filled it
with dirt, water, and every type of plant the seventeen human astronauts would
need to support themselves. They could see the vast, green interior from the
control room’s ‘overhead’ windows.
    “I’m over that,” Lou explained. “This
is serious. Mercy plans out every minute and lays my clothes out for me like
I’m three.”
    Red smiled at the anal-retentive
display of affection. “Her mother did that for her father. He was blue-green
color blind and didn’t like wearing a watch.”
    Interrupting his next complaint, Mercy
bounced out of the room behind him, wearing a large T-shirt like a muumuu. She
looked like she’d come straight off her private beach in Brazil, complete with her bikini bottoms and tan. Lou’s
attention had made her blossom. Mercy seemed more comfortable in her own skin
and with the mess that went along with life. Recently some of the men asked if
she had started wearing makeup or if she’d always been that pretty. The
newlywed launched herself like an acrobat toward the dining commons on
the far side. “I’ll make you some eggs.”
    Feeling the breeze and hearing the
thump on the far side of the chamber, Lou shouted, “Slow down. You’re carrying
a baby.”
    Crouching on the wall, Mercy put
her injured hand on her hip while hanging from a strap with her left. “You
didn’t ask me to slow down last night. I believe you argued vigorous exercise would be healthy for both of us.” When Lou had no comeback, she
wiggled saucily into the dining room and sealed the door behind her.
    Red chuckled. “You can’t have it
both ways, Lou. I warned you about those Smith women—stubborn as they are
fertile.”
    “Help me,” he pleaded.
    “Z told me to never interfere in an
argument between a man and a woman—both would beat me up. Besides, you have no
room to complain. No one else in command center has someone poaching eggs
inside a cute little hole in the toast.”
    “Hey, Toad in the Hole is great.
Grandma always made that for me.” Lou lowered his voice. “I worry about her. She runs down those steps to get to the chickens.” The stairs were a few
thousand antigravity dominoes that could be programmed into almost any configuration,
like remote-control Legos. Currently, they formed a spiral staircase that
descended from the control saucer to the interior of the hollow, spherical ship.
“She’s a bloody rocket scientist. Does she have to pull poultry patrol every
morning?”
    “When we’re not on duty, we all do
chores. She loves those birds, and I swear they come to greet her.”
    “Yeah, they also poop and scratch
like crazy. Her hand could get infected. Worse, the drop is 120 meters. I’m
afraid she’s going to trip, and . . .”
    The appeal echoed her own
sentiments for Zeiss, and Red considered. “Are you scheduled for next shift?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I’m over my interface hours, but Z
wants us to start a minimum-fuel course for the jump point. We’re orbiting above
the nexus already, so we just need to circle around to approach it from the proper
angle