Chapter 6 #3
“God, a 1965 Shelby Cobra.” Also in pristine condition, as though the apocalypse had never happened. “The glass covering outside seems to have preserved everything in here.”
“I like this one.” It had a sportier look to it. It was a royal blue, with two white stripes down the center.
There were three cars in total. A 1966 Dodge Charger rounded out the small collection. Avril was going to go into convulsions.
“Look at this.” Nera called out.
He moved to join her, and saw she was looking through what had been an office. There was a late-model Terran comp on the table.
“This must have been some sort of car showroom,” he mused.
“Collect what you can. I’ll contact Avril.
She’ll need to organize a team to retrieve these.
” He tried the comm, but all he got was static.
“We’ll need to go topside.” He checked his Sync, his pulse jumping.
“We have seven minutes to get back to the ship before the radiation starts to affect us.”
Nera carefully placed the comp in a net bag she’d opened. “Roger that. Let’s go.”
As they headed back past the cars, Nik was already planning. “Avril said the Drake is equipped with a cargo lift. We’ll need to widen the opening, and then bring it down and use an exosuit to get the cars onto the lift.”
He looked up at the place where they’d climbed in. “What the hell?”
The opening was closed. Covered over by rocks.
Nera pulled out her laser pistol. “Stand back.”
She shot at the opening and rocks rained down. She’d opened a small hole, but it wasn’t big enough for them to fit through.
“Lift me up,” she said.
He gripped her waist and hefted her up. In a lithe move, she leaped up and settled on his shoulders.
As she pulled rocks out of the opening, Nik clamped his hands on her slim, muscular thighs to steady her. He tried to stay focused on getting out alive, and not the fact that Nera’s legs were wrapped around his head.
“There.” She threw a large rock down. “That’s enough.” She gripped the edge of the hole and pulled herself out. She looked back down. “Come on.”
He backed up a little, then ran and jumped. He grabbed the edge and with a grunt, pulled himself out.
An alarm on his Sync chimed. A warning flashed on the screen and a modulated computer voice said, “You have reached maximum radiation exposure limit.” He looked up and met nebula-colored eyes.
“Run.”
They took off, arms pumping. They sprinted past the buildings, scrambled up the dune. As they crested the mountain of black sand, Nik felt his chest tightening, his breathing becoming labored. He glanced back behind them.
Everything was still, but now he got the feeling that someone was watching them.
“Faster, Phoenix,” Nera yelled.
He focused back on running. Nausea hit him and he gritted his teeth.
The ship loomed ahead.
He heard a tinny, frantic sound. A voice in his ear. “Dr. Phoenix! Darc! Please respond.”
Nik touched his nano-earpiece. “We’re coming.”
An expulsion of breath. “You’re over the exposure limit. Hurry.”
The ship got closer, but he was starting to feel dizzy and his head was pounding. He stumbled.
“Keep going.” Nera gripped his arm. “We’re almost there.”
“If…I fall, you keep going,” he said between gritted teeth.
She raised a brow at him. The rest of the galaxy would translate that to “you bet your ass I’m leaving you and saving myself” but he knew it wasn’t true. If he fell, she wouldn’t leave him.
He pushed harder.
Finally, they reached the ship, its shadow covering them as it hovered above.
Nera clipped a line onto his belt and pressed the retraction device. He whizzed up, his vision blurring.
Hands were grasping at his body armor as people pulled him onto the ship. He lay sprawled on the floor, dizzy and confused. Lights shined in his eyes, and someone was tugging at his trousers. He felt a pressure injector pushed against his butt cheek.
“Nera?” He couldn’t see her. “Where is she?”
“Here.” She shouldered past a med tech and pressed a hand to his shoulder. A second med tech hovered beside her, holding a pressure injector. He looked too afraid to inject her. Finally, she snatched the device from him, shoved her trousers down over one hip and injected herself.
“You’re both very lucky. Ms. Darc was showing fewer signs of radiation poisoning, but you, Dr. Phoenix…
a few minutes more out there, and you would have been confined to the medbay for the next few days.
” The tech fumbled around in his med kit.
“You’ll feel a little groggy for a bit, but you’ll be fine. ”
“What happened?” Avril pushed forward, looking extremely pissed off. “I was trying to contact you.”
Nik smiled at Nera. “We found something.”
Avril went still. “What?”
“Three classic cars. In pristine condition.”
Avril gasped and yanked out her Sync. “Give me the coordinates. We need to bring them aboard.”
As Avril started chattering at crew members and planning their retrieval strategy, Nik just smiled at Nera. “We’re not a bad team.”
Her lips lifted at the corners. He let his heavy eyelids close. Smile number two. It appeared he was on a roll.