Rath's Rebellion (The Janus Group Book 5)
Page 21
He pulled himself, hand over hand, toward the center line of the ship, ensuring each hand had a firm grip on the hull before he moved the next.
Lose your grip … and you die.
Once he reached the top of the hull, he faced forward, and knelt again, surveying the hull.
Come on. Where are you? I need a docking tube, or an exterior hatch … somewhere to take cover.
Less than fifty meters ahead, past a battery of large-bore cannons, he spotted a series of circular bumps on the hull, each several feet across.
Lifeboats! Or escape pods, or something. That’ll do.
Rath pulled himself forward again. He felt a subtle shift, and realized they were passing into the upper atmosphere – he could feel resistance pushing against him as he moved forward, and his suit started to warm. Then he was at the lifeboats.
Rath grabbed the rim of the nearest lifeboat, and studied it through his visor. He had hoped there would be a gap between the lifeboat and the ship’s hull that he could slip down inside, but it was nestled tightly in its compartment.
Maybe I can launch it from out here?
The hull was getting uncomfortably warm now. Rath traversed the protruding bump of the lifeboat, but the hull sported no controls or release levers that he could find.
Shit!
He was starting to sweat inside the suit from the heat, and he noticed his vison was darkening.
>>>Hypoxia; loss of consciousness imminent, his hemobots reported. Seek oxygen immediately.
Rath shook his head as if to clear it. Then he thought to examine the lifeboat itself. It had a large, convex porthole atop its outer edge, and Rath saw lettering around the edge of the porthole.
Emergency Access Window.
Rath found a release lever lying flush against the lifeboat’s hull. He scrabbled at it, the suit’s gloves preventing him from getting a solid grip on it. Then he had it, and he yanked upwards. The lifeboat’s window popped off, flipping away behind him. Rath saw that his gloves were starting to melt where they touched the hull – the heat was becoming unbearable. He pulled himself down and tumbled inside the lifeboat.
He landed, face first, on the floor of the lifeboat, and pushed himself onto his back, looking up at the window. Rath could feel the heat of their reentry coming in through the open window, but inside it was radically cooler than it had been a second ago out on the hull. As he watched, the window glowed red, then bright orange, then white-hot. Then, abruptly, it cleared, and he saw blue sky.
Rath gasped unconsciously, his body convulsing as it sought oxygen in his depleted suit. His vision dimmed, and then went dark.
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Rath’s short-lived rebellion has gone horribly wrong. The Senate lies shattered, devastated by a surprise attack. The Federacy sits at the mercy of General Yo-Tsai, a brutal dictator who now controls a super-weapon. Above the planet Tarkis, Rath drifts helplessly in orbit, watching as the Jokuan invasion fleet descends on his homeworld. His girlfriend has been captured, he’s running out of air, and he’s just a single man against an entire army. But he’s also the galaxy’s most dangerous assassin … and he’s very, very pissed.
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Text copyright 2016 by Piers Platt
All Rights Reserved
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