Read Space Hostages Online

Authors: Sophia McDougall

Space Hostages

BOOK: Space Hostages
11.91Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

DEDICATION

For Gemma

PROLOGUE

Y
ou can't cry in space.

You can give it a good try, though.

Tears won't
fall
, without gravity
.
They collect on the surface of your eyes and you can't wipe them away, so on top of being thrown out of a spaceship, you can't see.

I mean, I hope this doesn't happen to people generally, but it was happening to me.

I kept struggling. It was stupid, because there was nothing to fight, nothing to grab hold of.
Nothing.
Nothing so huge and total I was going to drown in it. But I still kicked and flailed. All that did was spin me over in helpless cartwheels. I saw the planet swing around as I tumbled, a blur of
green and gold through my tears.

I tried to stop moving, to stop breathing so hard. Need to save oxygen, I thought.

But save it for
what
?

I screwed my eyes shut and tried to shake the tears free. It didn't really work, but when I opened them, I could make out a frantic scribble of movement against the dark sky. One other human out here with me, no more than the length of a room away, but unreachable; we could flail all we wanted, but we'd never be able to touch.

And then I somersaulted over again, and there was too much water in my eyes; I couldn't see him anymore.

The planet rolled past again, slower this time, a bright disc of light carving through the black. I saw the dim outlines of continents. I wondered if they had names. I wondered if anyone down there would ever know I was there, drifting past above their heads, forever.

We weren't supposed to be here.

No one was supposed to be here.

BOOK: Space Hostages
11.91Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Immortal Warrior by Lisa Hendrix
The Raven Mocker by Aiden James
Broken Desires by Azure Boone
At The Stroke Of Midnight by Bethany Sefchick
AfterLife by Cloward, S. P.
Seven Wonders Journals by Peter Lerangis