Galaxy of Exiles book 1 - The Empyrean

Chapter Two

Palia woke to a cold, hard surface pressed against her cheek. The cold extended to her left arm and leg, and she realised she must be lying on the floor. An unpleasant feeling danced within her, as if her atoms fizzed with pent-up energy. It made her dizzy and slowed her thoughts.

She curled the fingers of one hand. A voice pushed through the haze.

It took several alarming seconds for the world to come into focus when she opened her eyes. She tried to get up, but a hand on her shoulder kept her down.

'Take it easy.'

She blinked. The voice came from a man who knelt on the floor beside her. At first, she thought it was Fabien, but then her brain kicked into gear and she noticed the face was more drawn, the blond hair longer and tied behind the neck. Disappointment clutched at her heart – she would have welcomed a familiar face.

'Who...? How...?' She squeezed her eyes tight until the tension burrowed into her skull. Then, given she was still alive, she settled on a more appropriate, 'Thank you.'

'No thanks needed. I'm Bek. Well, Saralbek, but call me Bek,' the blond man said. His clothes rustled. 'This is—'

'Ferrash,' said another, further away.

'Yeah, that's us,' Bek said. 'We found your shuttle drifting and brought you on board.'

Palia pulled herself up onto one elbow. A sudden wave of light-headedness stopped her rising any further. While she took her bearings, she noticed the other man, Ferrash, stood nearby. His dark clothes had made him hard to pick out at first, but she could see him now. His face was impassive, withdrawn.

She shivered and turned back to Bek. 'How did you get here so fast?'

'We were in the area when... well, you probably have a better idea what happened than we do.'

'Funny place to visit. I was the only—' Her remaining words froze as a hard lump in her throat and she drew them back in with a choked gasp.

'You okay?'

No, she wasn't. Screwing her eyes tight, she tried to banish the memory of flames tugging the image of her son into oblivion. She was alive. She was free. She was safe. But guilt had speared her chest and bolted her to the floor. She nodded anyway, and rose the rest of the way to a sitting position. A black mesh wrapped her leg from calf to heel. She remembered landing on her ankle with a sickening crack during her escape, so gave it only a cautious twist. Aside from a deep ache, it was fine. Palia used Bek's shoulder as leverage to stand upright, to some half-hearted protests, then glanced between the two men. So many questions. So many whys, hows, whos. It was difficult to tell which she should be worried about first. She couldn't stop fixating on the fact that she was here, and there was an empty space in her life, cut whole and sudden away from her. So hard to think. She wanted to dive into questions to take her mind off it, but the thought of dodging the sadness only made her gut twist more.

She squeezed the bridge of her nose as if doing so would bring things into focus. 'Was there anything...? I mean, can you see...? Is there somewhere I can take a look?'

Bek hesitated and looked to Ferrash for an answer. When the reply came back as a curt nod, he walked towards an open doorway and gestured for Palia to follow him. 'We've got an observation dome, if you're sure...?'

'I'm sure.'

They passed through the archway, leaving Ferrash silent behind them. Palia gave him a quick glance as she walked past, wondering at the traceries of scars on the left side of his face. Had something gone wrong installing his implants as a child? They stood out sore against his skin, no matter how much he had tried to hide them with a straggle of long, dark hair. Scars like that should have been easy to fix. He frowned down at the floor as she passed him, but his footsteps sounded behind her soon after.