Spacer Clans Adventure 1: Naero's Run Read Online Free PDF Page B

duty shift onto someone else, given the circumstances. Something Naero had never done before.
    She never missed a duty shift.
    And she wouldn ’t now. Her crews needed her.
    “ Thanks, but I think I need to stay busy,” she said flatly.
    Aunt Sleak respected her decision.
    Few details reached them concerning the destruction of The Omaria’s expedition into the Unknown Sectors. No one seemed to know much more yet. Not the Spacers or the Corps.
    One phrase stuck in Naero ’s mind. All hands lost.
    All hands lost.
    All joy and gladness sucked out of her life as if into a swirling black hole of despair.
    Everything had changed forever. Everything already different and worse.
    She couldn ’t dwell on all of that.
    Time to sort it out later. For the present she had a mission, a n important duty shift to focus on and keep her busy.
    Naero sucked in a deep breath and shook herself at the stiff controls of her lumbering transport, checking her autovector on the orange glowing Joshua Tech flight console directly in front of her, angled slightly down on its gunmetal titanadium swing arms. Swaying slightly. One of the swivel locks still broken.
    Big surprise. The teks hadn’t gotten around to her work order yet. She’d have a word with Tyber.
    The tight protective orb of her transport ’s flight command pod enveloped her like a protective egg, designed specifically for that purpose. Barely enough room for a pilot, but this time, she welcomed being so closed up. The solitude, the quiet, her heart and mind racing, torn in several directions at once. She needed something to hold herself all in.
    So that she didn ’t explode, and crumble into little pieces.
    Being held in the arms of a ship was second nature to her. Flying a ship through space gave her solace, re-assurance.
    According to their readouts, her four-Spacer load team hung suspended at their stations in the cargo bay, charging their glifters in their docking stations. Some of them no doubt had locked up and were snoozing during the ride.
    Load ers worked hard. Shifts could be days long at times. Naero had been there right with them performing such duties in the past, before she earned her second of the three blue rank bands on her arms.
    S he could still recall the stress and satisfying fatigue of those long days. Smart loaders seized the luxury of sleep whenever it came their way
    She wasn ’t sure herself if she would be getting much sleep in the near future.
    Naero kept her clear flight helmet off, even during their approach. Against regs, but she preferred to look ahead and a ll around clearly, without the distortion of the helmet’s lensing effect at the edges of her sight, and sometimes above or below
    Her small, slender left hand, gloved in the same thin black Nytex of her flight togs, reached absently around her stained lix holder for another borbble of Jett. Her fave.
    She had broken it out of her stash and brought it with her for the trip in an attempt to console herself. But she had already nervously guzzled them all, inhaling the last delicious fruity drop of her hoarded lix fourpak half an hour ago, and had recycled the empty borbble with the other three.
    Naero shook her head. Thirst and hunger needed to wait. Not that she was very hungry, despite skipping two meals and throwing up. She had a couple of semi-tasty energy bars somewhere in her togs, but no desire to ferret them out and pick at them.
    Thirst remained another matter.
    She licked her lips; they felt dust covered. Damnation. Nothing more to drink. And the air still smelled sweet, tangy, and tantalizing with the succulent flavor of Jett. Even on her own breath.
    An involuntary shudder snaked through her lithe, athletic body, causing her to snap slightly in her form-fitting EV-suit.
    Naero sighed, struggling to relax and collect herself. Again. The entire trip telescoped out into a long tunnel of malaise and uneasiness, as if she couldn’t make up her mind how she felt about anything.
    The news