“TELL ME THOSE ARE BAZILLION-YEAR-OLD tracks.” Javier breaks the silence first, and though I can’t take my eyes from the smudges on the floor in front of us, I can hear the metallic click and squeak of a strap that tells me he’s tightening his grip on his stolen rifle.
“I…” Jules is looking at the tracks, which aren’t exactly clear, so it’s impossible to make out what shape of foot made them or even if it was a foot at all. But then, our tracks behind us aren’t exactly clear either. What we do know about the smears in the hallway ahead—what matters about them—is that they’re in a corridor that had no tracks leading to it. Which begs the question: how did whoever or whatever made them get here?
Jules swallows hard and tries again. “I’d have to do a study on the weather patterns, on—on how much snow makes it inside the ship on a weekly, monthly, yearly basis…” His voice is betraying him. And though it’s been only days—god, can that really be true?—it still feels like I’ve known him my whole life. He’s freaking out, and I don’t blame him. Either something else, yet another intelligent species, followed the same trail we did and found this ship, or…
“Never mind.” I keep my voice firm, commanding. At least there’s one thing I can take away from Liz’s reign over her thugs—I’m channeling her voice now as I speak. “It doesn’t matter. This clearly isn’t what we’re looking for, and we can worry about what all this means when we’re not wanted fugitives lost in an ancient alien spaceship that might explode as soon as someone flips a switch.”
“Right.” Jules swallows hard, and I can almost see him forcing away the thousand questions he has. It’s just another piece of one huge, confusing puzzle—one that began with the Undying broadcast, continued in the temple, and hit a whole new level when we found all the languages of Earth surrounding the portal. “We’ve got to get out of here first. Figure out what all of it means later.”
But then, as if on cue, a shudder runs through the stone beneath our feet. It’s small, barely enough to make the soles of my feet tingle inside my boots, but then it comes again. Unmistakable. Vibrations.
Jules’s head snaps up, looking first at Javier, then at me. For a moment all three of us are still, waiting for the vibrations to die out—waiting to realize they were from the excavations outside, or some part of the ship collapsing, or anything other than what we know it is: the ship powering up. The switch being flipped. The eons-old power source beneath our feet coming to life.
A row of lights, spaced evenly and built into the rounded edges of the corridor ceiling, flicker on. I flinch away, half expecting them to burst like lightbulbs in a power surge, but they just glow a calm blue, illuminating the corridor and us.
“Okay,” I manage, my feet still tingling—but now with the urge to run. “I vote we get the hell out of here.”
We’re sprinting back, following our own tracks the way we came to renew our search for a way off the ship.
I’m about to round a corner when a hand grabs the back of my collar and yanks me backward—the fabric cuts off my air, turning my shriek of surprise into a quiet gurgle. I stumble back to find Javier holding Jules back as well, and once I meet his eyes he lets go of my shirt in order to press a finger to his lips.
It’s then that I hear what he heard: booted feet, marching—no, running—toward the intersection we were about to cross. One of them has a comms channel open, and I hear Mink’s voice snapping orders. “All personnel to evacuate immediately—repeat, immediate evacuation for all…”
And then they’re gone, the radio-distorted sound of Mink’s orders vanishing with them.
I glance first at Javier, then Jules. We’ve been trying to find a different exit from the airlock we first unlocked on Mink’s orders—but I’ve never seen a group of guys in full black-ops body armor running so fast.
“That can’t be good.” Javier shifts his grip on his gun. “Addison, why’re they all bolting?”
Jules shakes his head. “I don’t know. Maybe Charlotte’s taken my warnings that it’s dangerous to heart. Getting her men out, testing the ship remotely somehow.”
“I’d rather not be a lab rat, if it’s all the same to you two.” My voice is taut and sharp with fear. “I’d rather join the rats fleeing the ship, thank you very much.”
Jules is nodding before I’m done speaking. “I can’t argue with that sentiment.”
“We know where the main airlock is. It’ll be a lot faster than searching for somewhere with fewer guards—it’ll be crawling with IA, but if we can make it there without being seen, maybe we can get lost in the crowd.”
“We can worry about stealth after we’re not sitting on top of a ticking time bomb.” Javier ducks his head out into the hallway to make sure there’s no sign of the retreating IA squad. “Let’s go.”