Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
At last Fierce stirred beside her.
“All right, sweetheart,” he rumbled. “Time to get your harness back on—we’re about to start our descent.”
Celia straightened up and Hold helped her with the harness.
“All right, my lady?” he murmured in her ear.
“Yes, thank you.” Celia swiped at her eyes and looked up at him gratefully. She was surprised at how happy she was to hear him use his sweet nickname for her again. She only wished that the grumpy Dark Twin would call her “lelka” as well. Or did she?
She cast a sidelong glance at Fierce. Was she still mad at him? She honestly couldn’t tell. He could be so infuriating. And yet, the way he had held her and comforted her without saying a word had been sweet beyond words—especially when he hadn’t wanted to give her up to Hold until the last minute.
She decided to reserve judgment about Fierce for later. In the meantime, she just hoped he could land the crippled ship safely without any more life-threatening incidents.
It seemed she wasn’t destined to go home just yet.
27
CELIA
The landing was surprisingly smooth, but halfway through it a strange voice came through the ship’s short range communications array.
“Unidentified ship, you are entering JoCosta Twelve territory,” it informed them and added, “Long live the Goddess—she of the Shining Heart who shall be venerated forever!”
“Uh, yes—we’re aware. Our ship has been badly damaged by a destabilized wormhole—our life support is compromised,” Hold answered, since Fierce was busy flying the ship. “Please grant us permission to land and seek repairs.”
“Very well. You may land but I cannot promise our repair facility will deal with you. That will depend on your affiliations and if your hearts shine with the light of the Goddess,” the strange voice told them.
It had an odd accent—it almost sounded Russian or maybe German to Celia. She was glad that Kat had gotten her a shot of Translation Bacteria before she had left the Mother Ship—otherwise she wouldn’t understand it at all.
“What the fuck does that mean—‘if our hearts shine with the light of the Goddess?’” Fierce muttered as he guided the ship in towards the small brown planet below them.
Hold shrugged.
“I don’t know, Brother. It sounds like we’re going to have to play along with whatever they’ve got going on if we want them to do the repairs.” He raised his voice and spoke to the ship. “Analysis of JoCosta Twelve—specifically inhabitants and customs,” he said.
There was a moment of silence and then the ship said,
“JoCosta Twelve is completely owned and exclusively inhabited by the religious order The Sisterhood of Peace. They worship the Goddess of the Shining Heart. No other information available.”
“Well, great—guess we’re going in blind,” Fierce muttered. “Just our luck.”
“Our luck has been exceptionally bad lately—or good, if you consider that we’re all still alive despite the dangerous situations we’ve been through recently,” Hold remarked. “The fact that this brotherhood worships a goddess, like we do, seems like a good sign to me.”
“I just hope they’ll do the fucking repairs,” was Fierce’s reply. “Hang on—we’re about to touch down and I don’t know how functional the landing equipment is.”
They landed with a muted crunch that sounded ominous to Celia, but at least they were on the ground, all in one piece.
“Before we go out there, we ought to have a plan,” Hold remarked. “We should—”
“Warning—only one minute of oxygen remaining,” the ship’s voice informed them.
“Sorry, Brother—looks like we’ll have to make it up as we go along.” Fierce was up and out of his seat in a flash, heading for the hatch at the side of the ship. He threw it open and a sweet, fresh breeze blew in, ruffling all of their hair and making Celia inhale deeply with delight.
“Oh—it smells amazing!” she exclaimed as she unfastened her harness.
Hold had his head lifted, sniffing the air.
“It’s very fresh—no pollutants at all,” he remarked. “The natives must take care of their environment.”
“You two—come see,” they heard Fierce call to them.
Hold stood back courteously so Celia could go first and they filed out to stand by the hatch where Fierce was.
The Dark Twin was surveying the landscape which appeared to be rolling hills covered in tall purple grass, dotted with pink and white wildflowers. In the distance was a forest of tall purple and white trees and rising above it all was a single mountain—or maybe just a really big hill, Celia thought. It seemed to have some kind of plateau at the top, though it was difficult to be sure at this distance. The sky was a clear, pale pink filled with enormous, puffy white clouds.
“It’s beautiful but I don’t see any sign of habitation,” Hold said, frowning.
“I do—look.” Fierce pointed.
Coming up to them from the far side of the ship were three of the strangest looking people Celia had ever seen in her life. Two of them were carrying the third on their shoulders and they were headed right for the open hatch.