Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 64359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
I find a door somewhat hidden in the walls in the lounge, between the bedroom and the bathroom. It doesn’t have a handle, but it does open with a light push. Like the other doors, it has two sides which slide apart and into the interior of the ship’s walls. Unlike the other doors, which lead to human-themed interiors, this one leads to a slick black interior. There are pipes on the exterior of the walls, also black and solid. This is where the real business happens. This is where Atlas becomes who he really is for himself.
I slip into the hall. I can hear my feet on the floor, making soft slap slap sounds. I am being very careful to stay as quiet as possible, but this part of the ship has a kind of cavernous ring to it. The human part was made to my scale. This isn’t. This is made to scythkin scale. The walls are taller, the roof is higher, and the echoing spaces are much more echoey.
It is lit with red diodes which blink in various patterns. They almost look like letters, but not in any standard galactic script that I can read. I am sure they mean something to someone though. I hope one of them means ESCAPE PODS.
There’s got to be one around here somewhere. There has to be a way out.
I keep my ear out for Atlas. I assume I’ll hear a massive, lumbering scythkin who is probably itching to get out of his human suit before he hears me. If he thinks I’m safely asleep I might potentially have hours to explore the ship.
Every corner brings fresh opportunity, and fresh disappointment, right up until I go through a little door which leads to a bay with a small ship in it.
“Jackpot!” I murmur the ancient incantation to myself. This is exactly what I need. All I have to do is get into that thing and I am the kind of free I’ve always dreamed of. I bet those scythkin ships can move faster than anything I planned on buying. Maybe they don’t have hyperspatial capabilities, but I know they’ll be fun.
“What do you think you are doing?”
The inquiry catches me off guard, making my heart sink and race at the same time. I turn around to face the scythkin, whose gruff tones indicate real displeasure. Of course, he caught up to me just at the very moment I seemed to find my way out of his trap. Of course. Why would anything go right for me when it could go horribly wrong instead?
I turn to see that Atlas is halfway in and halfway out of his human suit. The effect is… disconcerting. One half of his body is human sized and shaped. The other half is au naturel. My mind twists like I’m looking at a sentient möbius strip.
“Back to bed, young lady,” he says firmly. “It is very naughty for you to be out here. Was one caning not enough? Do you need another six?”
“I definitely do not need another six. I don’t think I could take another six.”
“Then you need to get back to bed this instant, and I do not want to see you out again before morning.”
Much deflated, but with the knowledge I’ll later need to make good my escape, I slink back to the mid-century nightmare that is Atlas’ idea of a proper environment for a human mate.
REEEeeeEEEeeeEEEeeeEEEeeeEEE!
I wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of a cosmic tin opener turning this practically impenetrable ship into an easy-open vessel. The wall of my room is bowing and vibrating like crazy, and the cacophony that is made as the side of the ship is wrenched open is incredible. It sounds like the end of everything.
I accept my fate immediately, because I have very little choice. I am going to be sucked into an endless void and there is going to be nothing I can do about it. Cosmic forces are at work, and though I can fight an endless stream of ultra-possessive aliens with weird kinks, I can’t fight the eternal vacuum of space.
I sit in my frilly nightgown with my knees drawn up to my chin and I wait for everything to end. Funny how much energy I spent fighting this outcome only for it to find me anyway. Some people would say that’s how fate works — it’s just this inexorable force that plays with us all as if we’re dolls. Some of us get crushed before we’ve even started to live. Others get to survive to adulthood only to realize that’s only delayed a terrible inevitable.
I see rotating teeth peeling through the inner skin of the wall. I hold my breath, knowing that the oxygen will be rushing out of the room now. In a second, it will be a big enough hole that I’ll be sucked toward it and probably end my life in a thin stream of human paste.