Bringing Stella Home Read Online Free PDF Page B

me.”
    She nodded, frightened but
comprehending.
    The ship lurched, throwing them both
against the door. Ben staggered and leaned against the wall for
support. It felt as if somebody had tilted the room, and everything
was falling towards the side. Most of the boxes were secure, but
those that weren’t slid across the room, smashing into the
passengers who were struggling to stay on their feet.
    An engine burn, thought Ben. A pretty
heavy one, too. But they hadn’t turned off
the artificial gravity for it—that was odd. Was it because of the
passengers they had in the hold, or because they were in a
hurry?
    As if in answer, a loud clanging noise
sounded on the level above, followed by a rush off footsteps, a
muffled explosion, and the sound of gunfire. The engines shut off,
and the floor stopped tilting.
    “ Oh my God,” said Stella.
The passengers had heard it too, and started screaming.
    Boarders.
    The gunfire grew louder. Ben stared at
the ceiling in mortified silence, listening to the battle through
the cold metal walls. His legs weakened, and he clenched his teeth
in fear and frustration. In the main hold, the other passengers had
begun to panic; he put out his arm to protect Stella from the worst
of it.
    “ What’s going on?” she
asked. “Why—”
    A strange, greenish gas poured out of
the ventilation shafts, filling the room. Everyone tried to run out
of the room at once. Stella grabbed onto him and held on tight. He
covered his mouth with his shirt and motioned for her to do the
same.
    All noise faded as the green mist
filled the cargo hold. It smelled sickly sweet, like synthetic
petroleum. Around them, the world started to spin—slowly at first,
but growing steadily faster. In a few moments, everything but his
sister was little more than a blur. He held onto her, afraid that
she would fall into the void if he let go.
    This is not the
end, he told himself.
    The last of his strength ebbed, and
the world turned black. All of his fears faded except for one—that
whatever was to come, he wouldn’t be able to protect his sister
from it.

Chapter 3
     
    When Stella woke up, she was stiff,
sore, and completely naked.
    Her eyes flew open and she immediately
wrapped her arms around her body, curling up on the cold steel
floor. Though she felt the cold air stirring against her bare skin,
the room was silent—stuffy, but silent. Moving slowly, she eased
herself up to a sitting position and pulled her knees up to her
chest, covering herself as best as she could.
    The room was dark, the only
illumination coming from a caged bulb in the center of the ceiling.
As her eyes adjusted to the dim greenish-yellow light, she started
to make out her surroundings. The room looked vaguely like a cargo
hold—smooth metal walls and floors, berths for crates and
containers, long scrape marks that could only have been made by
heavy machinery. At least that explained why the room was so cold.
She hugged her knees a little tighter and shivered. A faint buzzing
sounded in her ear, but she wasn’t sure whether it came from
somewhere in the room or just from the dizziness in her head. She
made out a number of strange shapes scattered across the floor.
They were too lumpy to be crates, but—
    One of them moved. She realized at
once that they were people, unconscious and as naked as she
was.
    She yelped in surprise and scooted
away. As she did, her hand struck something soft and fleshy. She
turned and caught sight of a fat, hairy man, completely
unconscious, lying on his back. The sight made her cheeks burn with
embarrassment, and she scrambled quickly away from him, only to
bump into a younger man—definitely a man. He groaned and rolled
over as she carefully edged away.
    She shuddered and closed
her eyes. I hope Ben doesn’t see me like
this. The thought no sooner entered her
mind than her eyes flew open again.
    Ben! Where is
he?
    “ Ben?” she whispered. In
the silence, her voice sounded as loud as the roar of an engine. To
her