Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 108211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Please, Goddess! he sent. We’re in trouble—help us now! Help me get my charge to safety!
He heard no answer but the shields held—barely. They were barreling towards a vast green field. Cade yanked on the steering yoke, leveling the ship out through sheer strength. His muscles burned and trembled but he didn’t let go. It was going to be a rough landing but not a deadly one—he hoped.
The shuttle came down hard enough to make his teeth click together and plowed through the field, cutting a wide swath of destruction through the vegetation—whatever it was. At last it came to a stop with a sudden jerk that threw Cade against his harness.
“Gods!” he gasped as he fell back in the seat. His head was ringing and he felt fucking dizzy but his first priority, now that they had landed, was his charge.
He turned to look at Andrea and saw that she must have passed out. At least he hoped she was only passed out. He felt like passing out himself but he unbuckled his harness and reached over to shake her arm.
“Andrea? Are you well?” His voice came out in a rough croak.
Her head lolled on her neck and he saw a trickle of blood running down her cheek. He felt a flash of panic. Had she hit her head on something? Or had one of the meteorites come through the viewscreen and hit her?
“Andrea? Sweetheart?” He took her by the shoulders, though the world was spinning around him. There was a strange scent in the air, he thought—a smell like some fruit from Earth he’d had once or twice, but he couldn’t remember the name.
“Please—wake up!” he pleaded. But again, the words came out sounding wrong somehow. Everything was spinning now—Cade couldn’t keep his balance any longer.
He fell to his knees beside her seat, still trying to say her name. What was happening? The sweet smell was getting stronger—almost overpowering. It was getting so hard to think…too hard…all his thoughts felt muddled, as though someone had taken a big stick and stirred his brains.
Cade fell on his side, breathing weakly.
His last conscious thought was that he had failed in his duty to keep Andrea safe and he would never forgive himself.
5
ANDI
The smell of fresh strawberries woke Andi up. It reminded her of the time she’d gone strawberry picking as a girl with her parents. That was during the vacation they’d taken to Florida to see Disney World, she recalled drowsily. Mickey Mouse and the Magic Kingdom had been great but she’d enjoyed the strawberry picking even more. Only, why did the strawberries smell so strong?
Her eyes fluttered open and she groaned softly as she straightened up in her chair. She became aware that her head was pounding and stinging with pain at the same time.
With another groan, she put a hand to her temple where the stinging was and felt something warm and sticky. It took her eyes a moment to focus but when she was finally able to look at her fingers, she saw they were red with blood.
“What happened?” she muttered to herself. “Am I bleeding?”
Well, obviously. But what had wounded her?
Looking around, Andi saw a hole in her seat—just to one side of where her head rested. Her eyes widened as she realized she could look right through the seat and see the living area of the long-range shuttle behind it. Whatever had made that hole had been traveling at an incredible speed! It must have grazed her as it went past. And if her head had been just another inch to the left…
“I would have been toast,” Andi muttered to herself. She felt her head some more to be sure it was just a shallow wound. She needed to examine herself—or ask Cade to look at her.
Cade!
Her eyes opened wide as her head cleared and she remembered everything that had happened. Going on a new mission with her big Protector…folding space and coming out in the middle of a meteor storm…the desperate race to land the ship…and then she couldn’t remember anything else—she must have blacked out before they landed.
Because we’re not in space now, Andi thought. And where’s Cade?
He wasn’t in the pilot’s seat to her left. Andi fumbled with her harness—she was extremely thankful she’d been buckled in—and finally freed herself.
“Cade?” she called, but got no answer. Where could he be? Had he gone for help?
Looking out of the viewscreen she saw a tiny hole surrounded by a spider web of cracks in the right side. That must be where the rock or meteor or whatever it was had come though and grazed her head, she thought.
The viewscreen was otherwise unharmed and through it Andi saw a vast green field. On either side of the field were tall copses of leafy trees—only they had pale purple branches and dark purple leaves. Further off in the distance she thought she saw some buildings. Was that a town?