Page 84 of Evan and the Alpha

It’s hopeless.

I doze for a while, I guess, because the lights have dimmed to simulate nighttime when I next open my eyes. I stare into the void of space for a bit, wondering if the stars have shifted or if I’ve just imagined it.

I’m just about to drift off when I catch soft voices from the hall. “Are you sure?”

That sounds … almost like Dad.

“Can’t find him anywhere,” says a voice that’s suspiciously like Mom’s.

I frown. Has Ge-Ro escaped?

“And you’ve looked everywhere?”

“I had them conduct a bio scan of the entire ship. Unless he’s found a way to hide from that …”

“Goddammit,” Dad snaps. He sighs. The voices grow fainter, so soft I can’t make them out.

I drift off again. The next thing I know, there’s a loud bang, followed by the alarms turning on, sirens screaming and red lights flashing. I sit up as quick as I can, heart leaping into my throat. What the actual fuck? Are we under attack?

“What the hell was that?!” Dad’s voice again.

“An explosion?” Scott’s voice is sludgy with sleep.

“An explosion in an uninhabited part of space?!” Dad roars back.

“It might be one of the—oh, shit,” Scott spits. I hear footsteps go thundering by my door.

The world is quiet for a little bit, so I get up and creep to the door. They’ve locked it from the outside, so I have to jimmy it open—not an easy task, since my room’s lacking a crowbar or anything similar. I wish I was stronger. Or a better spy. Or something.

At any rate, I find an old, metal key and I manage to slide that between the doors, which is just enough to give me leverage to haul on the one side. It’s not really enough, but I keep yanking on it and yanking on it, and just when I think I’ve got it—

The doors fly open and a pair of claws come straight for my goddamn head. I scream, and thirty seconds later, Ge-Ro sticks his snout between the doors, opens his jaws wide, and manages to slide them back enough that he can wedge himself in between them. From there, it’s short work to break the doors entirely, and the kroakka is left standing in an open portal with …

“Min?”

“Come on,” she says, holding a hand out to me. “We busted one of the thrusters. They can’t break orbit now.”

“Uh,” I say as she wraps her hand around my wrist and starts tugging, “was that really a good idea? Or necessary?”

“Very necessary,” Ge-Ro concludes as Min drags me out of the bedroom, down the hall. I think she’s forgotten, for the moment, that I’m pregnant. I stumble along behind her.

“But seriously—the ship is damaged now, and they’re kind of … stuck?” Plus I think we were looking for someone. Someone not on board. It can’t be Ge-Ro, because he’s right here with me. I frown.

“We’re going to get on one of the escape pods,” Min tells me.

“Okay.” I can’t say much more; I’m out of breath.

Min gives me a look, then seems to remember that I’m maybe not as athletic as she thinks I should be.

I mean, like not that I ever was athletic, but being pregnant hasn’t exactly helped me any. She slows to a walk. “Uh.”

I pull my hand out of the death-grip she’s had on my wrist. “Well, no use in standing around here, right? Like, we should get out of here.”

“Right,” Min says with a nod, like she hadn’t already thought of that.

We continue through the hallways at a more leisurely pace, even though there are alarms blaring and the blinking red lights cast everything in an eerie glow.

After what seems like forever, we arrive in the launch bay, the cavernous room opening up to us like the Grand Canyon. I’m suddenly reminded of how very small we are.