TimeSplash Read Free

pulled in as more people came crowding in to see what was going on. The quietness at the centre of the group gave him a bad feeling and, reluctantly, he let himself be pressed forward toward whatever it was. Soon he could hear shouting from the centre, people crying, calling for help. If this was an accident, everyone was so stoned they were unlikely to be of much use to the victim. He pushed forward roughly, hoping it wasn’t anything gruesome.
     
    When he finally broke through the crowd, he found himself in a small clearing. In front of him, Spock lay on his back on the ground, twitching violently. People were fussing around him, shouting for doctors and help. Some of them were just shouting. Froth was coming out from between Spock’s clenched jaws. His eyes were wide open, staring up at the sky and at all the faces staring down at him.
     
     
     

Chapter 2: The Lob
     
    Lobspace was dark and cold, so dark that Patty could see nothing at all, so cold that the unsealed gap between her helmet and her jumpgear stung like a band of fire. All she could hear was her own rapid breathing and the steady hiss of air escaping from her helmet. Frantically, with clumsy, gloved fingers, she scrabbled at the seal until she had it closed right around her neck. Only then did she really begin to take in her situation. She was weightless, but seemed to be moving forward. Or falling forward. Her heart leapt into her throat at the possibility, and she had to force herself to dismiss the idea. The black airless void around her gave her no sense of direction or speed. Her sense of movement, she realised, was due to a steady, even pull from her harness, as though someone was dragging her along by the tether. She felt for the thick cord that bound her to Sniper and found it pulled taut, disappearing into the blackness. At first she thought Sniper must somehow be reeling her in, but that didn’t make any sense. She called out to him but there was no reply. Was she alone? If she was, who was pulling her along?
     
    Minutes, they had said. It would take a couple of minutes of “flight” before the lob was over, and they landed. Some kind of free fall, she remembered them saying. No gravity. No stars. Like being in space, only worse. And then she realised why the tether was pulling her. She and Sniper must be rotating, orbiting one another about their common centre of gravity, held together by the tether. That’s what the tether was for, of course, to stop them being separated during the lob. But the idea that she was spinning in empty space didn’t help calm her at all. Instead it filled her with the dread that the tether might break, sending her hurtling off into the void, away from the others, helpless and alone.
     
    They’d gone on at her about it, what to do, how to survive, but she could hardly remember a thing. At the time, she’d just let it wash over her, thinking, I’ll be all right as long as Sniper’s with me. But Sniper had been such a bastard in the cage. He could see how scared she was and he’d just ignored her. He’d wanted his stupid splash to go on, no matter what. She had seen it in his eyes. He thought she was a stupid, whining child and he was damned if he was going to let her spoil his fun. It made her angry to think about how much she had trusted him, and how much he had let her down. More than that, it humiliated her when she thought of how she had adored him, and of all the things she had done for him.
     
    And where did it leave her. She had been Sniper’s bitch. God! She’d been proud to be called that! But without that, what was she? What was there for her now? It was almost a full year since she’d run away from that shitty care centre in Bristol and, by sheer luck, fallen in with a bunch of bricks. She’d found the head guy and become his bitch. When her group met Sniper’s, she traded up. She’d thought she was doing well for herself.
     
    The light, when it came, blasted away her thoughts. Light