Dominion Read Free Page B

opened and closed repeatedly, and then the shaking spread to her entire body.
    â€œWhat the hell?” said Rizzo.
    It was Paul who acted first, yanking the connector from Meia’s arm and breaking the link with the ship. Meia flopped in her seat. A trickle of white fluid mixed with red leaked from her mouth where she had bitten deep into her artificial flesh. Alis moved from the copilot’s seat to examine her.
    â€œMeia?”
    Meia’s lips moved. She reached up with her left hand to wipe the mixture of ProGen blood and Mech plasma from her mouth. She looked embarrassed at the sight of it.
    â€œI’m okay,” she said.
    â€œWhat happened?” asked Paul.
    â€œThey didn’t like me looking over their shoulder while they went about their business,” said Meia.
    â€œDid you pick up any hint of who or what they are?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThey are many,” said Syl.
    They all looked to her. She was fiddling absently with the scruffy brown locket she wore around her neck on a strip of leather.
    â€œThat’s all I know,” said Syl, pulling the amulet backward and forward on its string. “I’ve heard them. There are billions on that ship.”
    â€œHow is that possible?” asked Rizzo. “It’s big, but it’s not that big.”
    â€œI don’t know,” said Syl. “But it’s the truth.”
    Nobody argued with her. Already they knew better than to do that.
    Around them, the Nomad began to hum as its engines powered up again. Seconds later, they felt it begin to move. Paul turned to his brother questioningly.
    â€œIt’s not us,” said Steven. “I didn’t touch anything.”
    â€œWe’re not in control,” said Meia. “They’re bringing us in.”
    â€œWhat about the Corps ship?”
    Steven examined the screens.
    â€œNo sign of movement there. It looks like it’s staying where it is, for now.”
    Paul walked to one of starboard windows. He could see the other vessel as a shard of silver hanging in space. And then, as he stared at it, a mesh began to appear, so fine that, for a moment, he thought that it was an imperfection on the glass. It slowly extended until it surrounded their pursuers in a honeycombed oval.
    Thula joined him at the window.
    â€œIt doesn’t look like we have the same thing around us,” he said. “No, it doesn’t.”
    â€œDo you think that’s good or bad news?”
    â€œRelatively speaking,” said Paul, “it’s probably good. In reality, though, this is all bad news.”
    â€œWhen do you think we might start getting some good news?” asked Thula.
    â€œNot anytime soon.”
    Thula considered this.
    â€œI hate space,” he said at last. “And I reckon space hates me right back.”

CHAPTER 4
    I t would not be true to say that Paul was feeling optimistic, exactly, but a situation that had seemed desperate only minutes earlier was now starting to feel just slightly less terminal. Admittedly, they were being dragged toward a massive alien ship that had taken control of their little craft, but the recent alternative outcomes had included being destroyed by their unknown captors or being blown to pieces by the pursuing Corps vessel. The fact that they were still alive was something.
    He watched the Corps ship growing smaller and smaller behind them. He realized that he had never seen the faces of those who had followed them into the Derith wormhole, intent upon the Nomad ’s annihilation until they all found themselves at the mercy of a greater power. So far his crew had destroyed four of their pursuers’ vessels, including the massive cruiser that had followed them to the Archaeon system, but the only direct contact with their enemies had occurred right at the start, in orbit around the planet Torma. There he and the others had engaged in bloody combat with Illyri who had been stripped of all