Chapter 44

Chapter Forty-Four

While Connor usually enjoyed speed during operations, the shuttle’s approach to the hangar bay seemed suicidally fast. Martienne was frozen in her seat, staring straight ahead.

He turned to Drew for guidance, but the engineer was just as transfixed as the pilot, as silent as everything else in the ship.

Someone had to ask the question, so Connor did. “Aren’t we going a little fast?”

Lights came on in the hangar bay, revealing details that could only be made out up close: the actuator arms on the open doors; the repaired hatch separating the hangar bay from the cargo bay; the tools secured to the bulkheads.

Dozens of meters out, that’s all they were, and they were moving too fast.

Then the pilot went through one of her switch-flipping and button-pushing routines. The freezing air and noxious fumes hadn’t gotten to her.

A shrill hissing sound pierced the air.

Martienne ducked over her harness. “Brace!”