Frost Station Alpha 1-6: The Complete Series Read Online Free PDF Page B

working. I had my music on. I didn’t hear anything.”
    Tamryn doubted that any music would block out the sound of that wailing, but she didn’t doubt that Porter hadn’t heard the alarm. Tamryn had walked up on her in her lab before, saying her name numerous times, and finally touching her before the woman knew she was there. To say she became absorbed in her research was an understatement.
    “Are you in your lab now?” Tamryn asked.
    “Yes. With the door locked.”
    A door that could easily be blown open by an assault rifle. Tamryn did not say this, since Porter was her superior officer, even if she seemed more civilian than soldier most of the time. “I’ll come get you. Stay there. There are pirates all over the station, and... Porter, they took out Ram’s whole platoon, I think. I saw at least fifteen dead in engineering. It was a bloodbath. I’ve never seen anything like it.” She almost snorted at herself. Of course she hadn’t. She was barely out of the academy. “I don’t think our people took down any of them. It’s crazy. They move like cyborgs or something.” Realizing she was speaking rapidly, Tamryn forced herself to take a breath and wait for an answer. Even though Porter was a linguist and a historian, she might know something about these people. She was older and more experienced.
    “You say these were pirates?” Porter asked slowly.
    “That’s what Wu thought, and they do look scruffy. Fit but scruffy.” Tamryn thought of the one with the dragon tattoo, the only one she’d gotten a good look at so far. “Very fit. Oh, and all the ones I’ve seen have big tattoos on their faces.”
    “Tattoos? Interesting.”
    “It’s not interesting; it’s deadly. They’re deadly. I tried to send the footage to Fleet before getting driven out of Comm and Control, but the solar storm was wreaking havoc with the computers. I don’t know if it’s gone out. We’ve got to get to Aux-Comm, make sure the message is sent. And then make sure the scientists are safe.”
    “It sounds like our best bet is to hide until Fleet arrives,” Porter said. “Especially if...”
    Tamryn paused, clinging to the rungs of the ladder in the darkness. “Especially if what?” she demanded when Porter did not continue. “Porter?”
    “Ssh.”
    Tamryn almost barked for Porter to talk, but there had been a note of fear, almost panic in that ssh . She lowered her voice to the barest whisper. “What is it?”
    “Someone just banged at the door. I have to go.”
    “Wait!”
    A blast sounded, but was cut off in the middle.
    “Captain?” Tamryn asked, dread curdling in her stomach.
    The comm cut out. She tried pinging Porter back, but there was no answer.
    Alone in the dark ladder well, Tamryn stared at her tablet, hoping the captain would comm her back. She had been in Porter’s lab; she knew there wasn’t a back door. She also didn’t think there were any access panels to maintenance shafts.
    “Damn,” she whispered and thumped her forehead against the rungs.
    A distant squeal drifted through the serpentine maintenance passages. Tamryn lifted her head, even more dread assaulting her stomach. She recognized that squeal. The hatch she’d used to gain access to these passages had made that horrendous noise. She remembered cursing vividly, knowing the squeal would be heard. Had she known the old hinges hadn’t been oiled in years—or decades—she never would have opened the hatch. But she’d thought she had made her way in and closed it before anyone could have located the source of the noise.
    “Yeah, you thought wrong,” she breathed and continued down the ladder.
    Quiet terror filled her at the realization that she wasn’t alone in these tunnels anymore, but she kept going. She checked her map to keep herself from thinking about how she could be shot in here and that it might be years before someone found her body. The glow of her tablet seemed like it must be a beacon, shining for meters in every