Starbleached Read Online Free PDF Page A

brother, right?”
    “You were circling like roosters when I got here. How could
I miss it?”
    “My brother was…close to my stepfather, let’s say. I made
Dad leave when I was fourteen by shooting him in the thigh. I got away with it
because…well, we don’t need to get into that. But both Mich and I believe it’s
just a matter of time before I hurt someone else. There’s a knife in me, and
it’s going to destroy everyone I love unless I keep you at arm’s length.”
    “Love?” She whispered.
    The rush of heat in his cheeks betrayed him. So did the
bashful look in his eyes. “That would be all you hear. I broke my brother and
my stepfather. I don’t want to break you, too.”
    “It’s my choice if I want to risk it.” She began writing on
the back of his hand, loopy, meaningless circles that wound up to his wrist.
“And how do you know it’s a knife? You’re trying to protect all of us. If there
is a blade in you, it’s a scalpel, not a sword.” She kissed his knuckles. “Dr.
Landry.”
    He smiled and pulled her down into the grass.
     
    *****
     
    Now:
    Waking after a stun wasn’t like being asleep. It was like
coming alive after dying. Alien hands on her ankles severed the bonds on her
feet. A double-thumbed hand dragged her upright, supported her until her knees
could hold her weight.
    She focused on her surroundings. The back of an Overseer
fighter. Cold, dark, dank, humid. Inhaling was like breathing through a sponge.
The Overseer crossed the deck and hit the yellow lights on some shipboard
organelle. A door rolled open, liquid dripping from its sides. A wall of steam
rolled in behind it.
    Swamp, gray with twilight, waited beyond. Not an
improvement.
    Bad, bad, bad luck. We don’t have missions to swamp
zones, we don’t have outposts near enough a swamp to make a difference to me.
Overseer planets are cinders in the process of being reterraformed. This is an
independent planet with some kind of deal with the monsters. Which means rescue
might not come at all.
    The alien regarded her for a moment, as if measuring what
she could take. Then it pushed her out into the murk. Spongy black dirt
squished under her feet, and mud splashed up her torso when she fell to her
knees. The Overseer clomped down the gangway with a heavy box of Enzyme under
one arm. It pulled her upright without pausing and dragged her into the murky
trees.
    The ground gave way to water and the muck below it wrapped
around her ankles. Knobby tree roots jutted from the surface like an old man’s
elbows. Hidden branches tangled in her boots and dragged her face first into
the water, over and over again. Twice, the alien waited while she righted
herself, the second time coughing up murky water. The third time, it lifted her
to its shoulder and braced her there as if she were a sack of grain. Then it
went on, tracing a purposeful path though the drab green-gray around them.
    Swamp. What a perfect place for an Overseer to hide. Yellow
flowers curled around bugs like mouths. Vines wound into trees and choked them
to death. Small, froggy things blinked up at her with golden eyes. It was
almost a relief when the natural horror gave way to glossy Overseer tech. Black
carapace twisted around vine-choked trees, blinking yellow and blue lights
indicating some sort of filtration system. It brightened as the alien came
near, leading them both to the outpost. It was a mound of blackness teaming
with strange lights, some organic tech, some phosphorescent bugs. The lights
brightened, the outpost welcoming its master back home.
    Doors unfolded like pill-bug shells, fluids dripping from
well lubricated joints. She braced herself for some unholy alien stink. After
twenty paces or so, she had to admit it didn’t smell that bad. Wet, like
concrete on a rainy day. It was warm, and mist rose from the floor, cross lit
by the dim hallway lights. Barely enough light to see by. After a few days of
this, she might well go insane. Monitor screens blinked