Muses of Terra (Codex Antonius Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

again.”
    “I’m back in, too,” Varo said. “But check the view behind us.”
    Ocella glanced at the rear feeds. A net of blue veins quickly formed behind them, like a closing iris. Or a prison door.  
    Ocella removed her pulse pistol from the compartment in her delta couch and checked the pellet load. Lucia did the same.  
    Varo frowned at both of them. “I still think they just want to talk.”
    Lucia scowled, but Ocella said, “That may be true, but it doesn’t hurt to show that we can defend ourselves if they don’t want to ‘just talk.’ Arm yourself, Varo.”
    Varo sighed, then reached for the pistol in his delta couch.  
    Ocella led them down the command deck ladder to the shuttle’s bottom level. The shuttle was smaller than Vacuna , with only a two compartment bottom level—an engine room in the rear and a storage bay that doubled as crew quarters in the front. The connector hatch indicator at the front of the storage bay glowed green.
    Ocella approached the hatch. It made a loud hiss and Ocella jumped. Lucia drew her pistol and aimed at the hatch. Ocella pushed Lucia’s pistol down and shook her head once. Lucia glared at Ocella but kept the pistol at her side.
    The hatch hissed again. The locks clicked and the hatch swung inward. The connector tube beyond was empty, but its black surface was alit with the blue glowing veins. Ocella eye-tapped her helmet’s scanners. The atmosphere beyond was Terran standard, but with slightly higher oxygen. The scans said they’d have no trouble breathing if they removed their helmets, but Ocella wasn’t that trusting yet.
    “You two stay here,” she said. “I’ll go first. Once I know it’s…appropriate for you, I will signal.”
    “Centuriae—” Lucia began.  
    “This is my responsibility. I’ll stay in constant com. It’ll appear less threatening if one of us goes in first. ”
    Lucia barked a mirthless laugh. “‘Less threatening?’ Have you seen their ship? They don’t have anything to fear from us .”
    “Just do it, Lucia.”
    Ocella stepped forward to the edge of the hatch and studied the alien connector tube. It seemed made of the same chitinous material as the rest of the object, with bright blue capillaries just below its semi-transparent surface. She stepped onto the tube, and the surface gave slightly beneath her weight. As far as she could tell, the tube generated a 1.0 T gravity field. She was thankful for the gravity, for she did not see any handholds on the smooth walls with which to pull herself along.  
    Her helmet still indicated breathable atmosphere, and the air temperature was well above freezing. It detected no elements in the air that would cause her harm. She still chose to keep her helmet on.
    She stepped along the tube, which curved to the right and then ended at a dark entrance. She was about to eye-tap her external helmet lights when the entrance lit up with the same blue light as the connector. The corridor beyond ran perpendicular to the connector tube. The blue vein lights to the right glowed brighter and began to pulsate. The lights on the left, however, were dimmer and did not pulsate.
    “I’ve reached the end of the connector,” Ocella reported back to Lucia and Varo. She told them about the pulsating blue lights in the corridor. “They seem to want me to go right, so right it is.”
    “Hope it’s not a warning to stay away from the right,” Lucia commented dryly.
    Ocella ignored her.
    The corridor twisted and turned, went up and down. It was more like a tube, with a curved floor made of the same material as the walls and ceiling. Ocella wondered if this tunnel usually coursed with the object’s “blood.” Openings branched off, but the main path was brighter and pulsated, so she stayed with it. The material on which she walked still had a slight give beneath her feet. She couldn’t shake the feeling she was walking on the object’s “skin.”  
    She described all this to Lucia and Varo over