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My eyes flick from her face back to the falseabout that They never tried it, though, because it was so iht? If that’s what’s up there, why now? Why this planet?"
She shakes her head, looking over at me She has no answers, and neither do I I turn my back on the moon as it sinks toward the plains, and head for the ship
It turns out the part of the hull that hasn’t been torn open is sealed off almost completely by h atuess--maybe whatever’s inside will be intact--but that only matters if we can find a way to access it
I keep the Gleidel in e of the broken hull, two ants trooping along the base of a huge metal wall that rises to the sky above us We don’t see any sign of other survivors Can we really be the only ones? Surrounded by the utter silence of the wreck, I realize all over again that Lilac’s actions are the reason we’re alive I may have saved her life when it caotten her this far, but neither of us would be here if she hadn’t found a way to wrench us away from the Icarus I can’t help but watch her as alk, irl ather in all her finery on board the ship, could I have ever iined her like this? Wrapped up in the dirt-stained mechanic’s suit, ruined dress stuffed in underneath and hair tied back with a dingy piece of string?
It’s Lilac who finds the fault line that lets us in A sheet of metal has buckled away fro, only darkness within We don’t speak as we get to work, lining up side by side to take hold of it and lean back, er I feel like telling her to take a rest, but when I glance down at her, her jaw’s squared and her frown is deterht--andor as heavy as I e landed
An instant after I finish that thought, red-hot pain cuts acrossback fros back into place and Lilac nearly gets her own fingers trapped I should have been concentrating, heeding ry red line across , then flowing freely
"Tarver, are you--oh" She curses ad the pack offout our pathetic first-aid kit All I can do is lifthand aboveto limit the blood flow, but it’s deep I can tell already
"Where did you learn to say that, Miss LaRoux?" I try, keepingthat same question, Major" She pulls out the little kit and starts to unpack it "Then you’ll knohat real trouble is Co far away by the time the subject arises" I carefully sink to ht the rebels, in punishhter"
"You keep your eyes to yourself" The wound’s bleeding properly now, and she wads up one of our bandages with our only gauze pad to press it against e I wince as the pain begins to register properly, burning its way up e around h, the blood starts showing through the bandages while she’s still packing away the nearly empty first-aid kit
It turns out we’ve bent the le in, and I wait anxiously as she turns herself sideways and squir herself inch by inch into the darkness "Keep checking you can et a better look at her progress "You don’t want to get stuck And check with your fingertips before you grab anything"
Her legs disappear, and I holdMy heart ha, and the ain It bends ap is wide enough, I stoop to crawl in after her
The air inside the ship is cold and still, but it smells okay It’s not as dark as I’d feared--sh it won’t be ainstwill slow
"We should be in a storage area" Her voice startles e maybe Some services as well"
"There were a lot of troops on board I’d love to find some rations They taste like cardboard, but they’re nutritionally coue as soon as I’ hard not towe’ll be stuck here
"There’s a proper hallway up ahead" She disappears froht as she clie It’s tilted at a forty-five-degree angle, but we can keep our footing if we’re careful I hold open the pack so she can fish out the flashlight, and suddenly we can see