Page 66 of Condemned

Which was how she ended up showing her previous enemies how to stay alive. Not that traitorous really, she decided. After all she’d already shared body fluids with them, had a few dozen orgasms with them. This was... minor.

After carving a way up the new route, their florses broke through a bank of snow and climbed up onto the plateau and ravine area where the satellite had slid to a halt. Pieces of metal projected from the snow upslope and ahead, where the craft had rolled and slid along the ravine before coming to a rest. The visible hull curved toward the sky and farther back were fins and struts, spewed loops of metal cable, and the blue-black barrels she’d assumed were weapons. The upper parts of the ship were coated in snow. Stalactites hung where water had, almost, cascaded to the ground.

A pond skinned thickly with floating ice lay beside the wreckage. It was perhaps a little smaller than the last time she’d seen it.

The wind had picked up and was flinging snow about. She had to shout.

“The core is deep within the hull! We don’t need to cozy right up to it to be warm enough.”

“Good!” Zo flicked the reins and the florse plowed and half-hopped through the deepening snow. Its mini-wings were kept folded flat to its hide. “This way?”

He pointed to a dark hole in the hull.

“Yes. There is a ship’s corridor mostly intact. Further in, a fracture in the walls leads to what must be the engines. They’re dead but some power core still lives, hums.”

“I don’t quite see how that can be, or know if it’s truly safe, but you’re still with us! That must be a sign.” He touched the zendokai tattoo on his temple and muttered some rote phrase.

Even she wasn’t sure how valid were the radiation readings. On the way here, with the mission in mind, they’d been foolhardy, perhaps. Excited as well as scared.

The florses fitted through the hole in the hull if their riders ducked, and she and Zo stayed in the lead. After dismounting when the ceiling dropped lower, Zo led their mount by the reins. Darkness seemed to gather in the hollows and crevices, on the walls of this dead craft. Peeled-away hull let in flurries of snow and some light as well as brutal washes of cold. Not enough light for her though. She hugged herself.

When they moved away from the hull tears where the outside showed, the wrecked satellite swallowed her and Zo in gloom again.

She hung onto his coat at first, then realized how weak that might appear and let go.

“Keep hold of me.” He squeezed her gloved hand back into place. “I need the reassurance.”

That made her grin.

“Dig a light from my bags, Ava. That one.”

She dug, found it, switched it on, all the while wondering at this nickname he’d called her. Nicknames were so very personal.

The hull had muffled the wind noises. They threaded their way deeper, left the other three mauleons at a fork in case she’d gone the wrong way. Finally she judged they’d reached where she’d camped before.

A few empty cans, a shred of paper, and a glinting golden bullet dropped onto the snow-decorated decking said her team had rested here. Once upon a time, she’d thought them her friends.

She grimaced then stared at Zo as he tramped back to this room’s opening and beckoned to the others. Friends were generally fleeting things.