Adira's Mate Read Online Free PDF Page B

in, as
the crawler’s artificial gravity may not always keep up with what’s needed.”
    “ Do you want a cold pack for it?
And I’m fine with the grav shutting off. It’s not the
first time I’ve been banged around my craft. Give me two minutes and I can bring
back a cold pack for your knee. That should help a bit with the pain, Fintan .” His name flowed like honey off of her tongue; she
liked the way that his name sounded as she said it, liked the way that it felt
to say it. Odd. Very odd, indeed.
    “ Be quick about it. There are
satellites around here that I really don’t want spotting us sitting on the edge
of this field.” He was making some other adjustments on the panel and buckling
himself into the seat.
    Once she got his acceptance she
moved quickly, grabbing a cold pack and an additional one to put in the console
cold keeper for later. She passed him one and explained to him that the second
one was for later. Once she was buckled in, she looked over to him. “Are you
sure that you’re going to be okay with the flight through this field? Is there
another way?”
    He set the one pack aside and
looked to her. “Do up your safety harness,” he said, not a request that time
around. “I’ve trained in this asteroid field numerous times. Usually not in
something as slow and clunky as a crawler, but at least at the speeds we’ll be
going the chances of crashing are greatly diminished. Hold on, and try not to
throw up all over the controls if the need arises.” Reaching out, he hit a few
buttons, then shoved the speed controls into the fully
open position. She was pressed back into her seat as the artificial gravity
lost out for a moment.
    Adira let out a yelp. She couldn’t
help it. Her hands clenched the arms of her seat and she watched the view panel
closely, until the first near miss. She closed her eyes. Oddly enough she was trusting this man to keep them safe, another clue for
her already overtaxed mind, something she was missing.
    An odd sound had her peeking over
his way. He was laughing, actually laughing as he manned the controls to dip,
swerve, and roll through the field. It sounded rough to be sure, like he hadn’t
laughed in a long time, but the joy on his face was nearly as big a shocker as
the laughter had been. He was enjoying himself. She took in the intense gleam
in his eyes, the excitement, the sheer joy in his
laughter. He was in his element .“ I can’t believe that you are enjoying this,” she blurted. She paused and cocked
her head to the side. “Wait, you said you trained in this field before. I can’t
believe your people were this close to our borders.”
    “ It’s been a long time since I was
here personally, but we all train in this field. Because the asteroids move and
shift around it’s the best place to learn to anticipate the absolute worst
possible thing in battle. We’ve been using this field as far back in our
history as I could find for training. It’s been moving steadily closer to the Imarian border, though, so soon enough we’ll lose it until
it comes back around. According to records, it’s on an eighty year loop. It spends
about fifty years in our system, and thirty to thirty-five in yours. No one has
any idea why, or how it’s been pulled along, or what causes it to turn on its
path, but it does. Unfortunately we’ll lose it for a time, so our newest pilots
won’t gain the very up close and personal experience of this.” He sent them
into a roll that dipped under a big asteroid before he sent them up between two
that were coming together much too fast for her liking.
    She frowned thoughtfully. “So
there are times when our worlds are closer together than they are currently,
right?” When he sent them spiraling, she let out a cry of shock and put her
hand on the console before her. “Mercy.” She was
shaking slightly. “Please tell me that we are almost out of the belt, Fin?” She
shortened his name without even consciously thinking of it.
    “