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They rounded another shed and popped out into a clearing--an expanse of flat steel The area bustled with fur-clad people carrying things, coiling lines, soolden embers In the center of the square, a cluster ofEveryone looked exclusively hu

Cole looked down at his getup of flightsuit and ju up in all that fur He was cold, but not freezing His trio of escorts, Joshua, Kelly, and whoever had joined theh the square and toward the far side Getting away froave Cole his first vista of the overall area, allowing him to appreciate the size and scale of the massive ship The deck stretched out thirty or so meters to either side and probably a few hundred or s to his left, he could see a railing at the very edge and a white field of snow beyond Out there, the flakes continued toof flakes fell over the village It reminded Cole of the smaller craft he had been on He assu the heavy snow, and that the sounds and vibrations in the steelacross the snow-covered land on large runners

They were halfway across the square before Cole finally noticed the fleet overhead Ships, dozens of the beyond the veil of snow, fierce in the way only half-hidden things could be It was impossible to count theh to blot out the sky Anywhere he could see through the flurry, dark hulls loo an artificial cosmos to replace the harsh whiteness he’d seen from the Firehawk’s belly Across that black, the snowfall whizzed horizontal like speeding stars in soh hyperspace ht be like

Joshua spoke with the other two escorts as they dragged hi, but Cole couldn’t concentrate on what they were saying Besides the fleet, there was another distraction: a er version of the mast-like pole from the ss ahead Cole tried to follow it up to the top, but the spire rose further than he could see without arching his back His group seee object

Beyond the tower, he could just barely make out the tall walls of dull steel that seeh barrier, shaped like a "V,"snow to either side The sheets of steel had to be three stories high, at least Between the on which sat a few ships Cole could see their tails sticking up over the squat buildings, the light snoirling around thenized as a Firehawk, the rest were alien Not just indistinguishable: alien

"You sure about hirabbed Cole’s attention, and so of hih an alley on the far side of the clearing, exiting at the base of the tallsaid, but yet another curiosity caught his attention: another group ofooden sticks ahead of theit in slowslowly, all across the wide deck as far as he could see A figure descended fros A woman walked across the deck in half-speed She had fur up to her neck, black goggles over her eyes, and her long ponytail swayed side to side like a penduluh viscous water A man with a blowtorch cut away at one of the ships, but the shower of sparks flew up as slow as lazy bugs, arcing out forever and drifting down as if frightened of actually landing Cole looked at his own feet; they appeared to beat a normal speed

He started to ask Joshua about the effect, then saw they had ale tower About ten meters wide and perfectly round, it appeared to have a flat top--like a squat cylinder sitting on one end The tower rose up from the center of this platform: thin and wide like a blade, but with dozens of slits running its length

As his escorts led hiht he sensed it twist a little, the entire cylinder rotating slightly The people in the distance a on him?

One of his feet hit the back of his ankles, and he nearly tripped forward, but the arht hi with laughter

"Enough," he heard Joshua say

Cole tried to look over at Joshua, and then he noticed the world had returned to nor village To his side, the tower definitelyThey led him around the perimeter of the base to the forward side of it

Meet his ain Was he about to be strung up? Executed? Sis to put them back on? Hoas that even possible? And why put them back on if they were to be executed? What in hyperspace was going on?

Cole felt his pulse quicken as he ran through the questions and the likely answers He still felt shaken up froe voices in his head, fro on and none of itto so His entire environment felt out of focus as they pulled hiht of stairs there, cut into the flat cylinder and leading all the way up and aft toward the top of the platfor Cole up the stairs while soht back But as soon as he put his feet out to resist, they just lifted him up and carried him Now and then, the entire toould twitch to one side, and theCole roughly

Definitely an execution A flogging at the led, theswiftly and in the shape of fists

Suddenly, the world started flashing by around hipace, the snow a blur to either side, people whizzing across the deck below He squirmed and kicked and felt hi his ears

After the last step, they threw Cole down and wrenched his arms up; somebody forced his knees under him and he tried to kick out--he shook his shoulders back and forth When soony He thought of Molly--tried to focus on his love for her--pulling her face out of rabbed his head and forced his gaze up, while his ar the hardest ti what Molly looked like It heaped sadness on his despair He could feel tears welling up in his eyes, threatening to drown hiles

A face swa to conjur, but one fa

Cole couldn’t nized theto focus through his goggles, feeling like this was exactly how he’d seen hilass

Dakura

The man from Dakura as after Molly! Cole couldn’t remember his name, wasn’t sure if he ever knew it, but he knew that face--<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>