Eternity Row Read Online Free PDF Page B

become lovers, but I secretly doubted there was any love on her side of the arrangement. Ilona Red Faun had been raised to do whatever it took to survive, and evidently she thought that required belonging to a man.
    Oh, knock it off, Cherijo , one of my inner voices chided. Like you and Reever are role models for normal relationships .
    “You’d better watch him-he’ll make you work overtime.”
    “I will remember that.” The graceful Indian girl rose to her feet. She’d traded her customary two-piece Navajo biil garments for a pilot’s flightsuit, and had looped her two long dark braids into a gleaming, woven crown. Dhreen’s promise-to-marry earring, according to Oenrallian custom, sparkled at the top of her right ear, where she’d pierced it through the auricle. “What brings you here?”
    “I need Dhreen for a minute, if you can spare him.”
    The Oenrallian was already crawling out from under the shuttle. Like Ilona, he also wore a flightsuit, but grime and some kind of blackish fluid spattered his. Short, pumpkin-colored hair stood on end around two short, red nubs that served as his ears. Sort of. He had pallid skin with the faint, yellowish tinge of good health, and big, innocent-looking amber eyes. A less-sparkly, male version of Ilona’s ear bauble encircled one of his almost-ears. For some reason, every time I saw it, I thought it should be looped through his nose.
    Dhreen grabbed a cloth as he got to his feet and wiped his hands, but his spoon-shaped fingers needed a thorough scrubbing. “Hey, Doc.” He flashed a grin. “What’s developing?”
    “I need to discuss the situation on Oenrall with you.”
    His grin faltered for a moment, then he scanned the area. There were a handful of other crew members working around us. “We should chat in my accommodations.”
    A need for privacy. Not promising. “All right, but if this is another song and dance, Dhreen, I’m going to strangle you.”
    “Give me another blip. I have to cap off this beam emitter. Ilona, go inside and shut down the power cells.” He crawled back under the hull. “Doc, would you hand me that hand welder?”
    I looked down at the pile of tools beside his footgear. “What’s a welder?”
    “It looks like one of your suture lasers.”
    I picked up a black-handled tool that vaguely resembled the medical instrument and bent to show it to him. “This thing?”
    “That’s it.” He reached out to take it, his spoon-shaped fingers closing around mine.
    Without warning, the ship destabilized, and the tilt threw me forward against the shuttle. Something blew, then a burst of light and heat swept up my arm as Dhreen shouted. Smoke poured out from under the shuttle, and Ilona staggered out just as the ship righted itself. I was flung backward onto the deck.
    “Healer, shut it off!” she shouted.
    The tool in my hand was busily burning a hole into the shuttle’s hull, but before I could react, the beam shut off by itself. I put it down, then saw a narrow stream of orange blood seeping from under the shuttle.
    “Dhreen!”
    Ilona crouched down beside me. “What have you done to him?”
    “Nothing. Something exploded.” I crawled under, coughing on the smoke. Dhreen wasn’t moving. “Come on, help me get him out!”
    Between us, we managed to drag him out onto the deck. The front of his tunic was smoldering, so I tore it open, and found a two-inch entry wound in his right lateral chest. Dark-orange arterial blood pumped out onto his abdomen and formed a spreading pool under his shoulders. “Signal Medical-hurry!”
    “You shot him!” She jumped on me instead, wrapping a strong arm around my neck and jerking my head back by the hair. “I’ll kill you!”
    Having my air cut off made protecting Dhreen’s body and breaking her hold a challenge. “It… was… an accident!” I dug my hands in, breaking the choke hold, then pushed hard with my legs. It threw us both backward, with me landing on top of her.
    I scrambled up,