Achingly lonely and stranded a thousand miles from home, college freshman Gianna Nero nearly takes her own life by stepping in front of an oncoming bus. A stranger saves her from that grisly fate, in the form message sent by a soggy-mouthed alien, s...
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Mark Johansson led the way into a dark corridor of the sSuryn mothership, pointing his flashlight at the walls that had fractured under the forced coupling with their cruiser. Cracks as thick as Gianna's arm ran across the algae-slickened bulkheads. She pressed her hand against one of the deep fissures, feeling a pang of inadequacy. It was her interpretations of the sSuryn schematics that the engineers had built the ship from. She felt some relief that algae coated the inner surface of the crack as well.
"They have artificial gravity," Mark said, simultaneously annoyed and intrigued. He'd always suspected that the sSuryn had been holding back. His official capacity on this mission was to aid the stranded sSuryn with any engineering needs, but it was an unspoken truth that his primary objective was to gather information on their technology.
Dr. Reynard scanned Mark, tapping at the medical console embedded into the sleeve of her pressure suit. A holo-projection of a cross-section of spongy bone appeared. "Bone density should hold up for a few hours at least. If you start to feel achy, rest for a while."
Mark brushed her off. "Worry about her." He nodded in Gianna's direction. "She blows an aneurysm and we're screwed." Mark spoke like a man who'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed by about a billion miles.
"Her heartbeat's irregular," Dr. Reynard said as she scanned Gianna. "Blood pressure is through the roof."
"Damn it," Mark grunted.
"I'm fine," Gianna said, though her insides felt like a freezer burnt mess after six years in a cryo-chamber. "It's just nerves. We're making first contact with an alien race. Can't I be a little excited?"
"Don't get your hopes up, Dr. Nero." His voice crackled over the speaker in her helmet. "This very well may be a salvage mission. Minimal air, subfreezing temps. Doesn't look good."
"Maybe this section was abandoned," Gianna said, hanging on to hope. "Some of these fissures look like they've been here for a while." She removed her hand from the cracked bulkhead and a phosphorescent print remained. It pulsed, once, twice, then faded back into blackness.
Mark grunted then aimed his light deeper into the corridor. Another airlock stood at the end. As they neared, Gianna thought she heard knocking. It took all three of them to pry open the door. The hiss of venting atmosphere greeted them along with gray-green light, and small hands that pulled them quickly through the opening. It all happened so fast. The weak tug of gravity was just enough for her to fall slowly to the ground. sSuryn hands packed black sludge against the opening in the airlock.
Though the force was slight, a fourth of a gee at most, it made her bones ache, or what was left of them. Two sets of sSuryn hands helped her up to her feet.
"Awatle gwo icham so salle sutch em ichtle," said one of them, his puckered hand pressed against her chest. "Aknew ack." He blinked his globular eyes, much larger and yellower than Breva's. His build was slight, and even though he only came up to Gianna's shoulders, Gianna got the feeling that this was not a sSuryn to cross. She pressed the button for her external speaker.
