Page 14 of Alien Burn

Sound hit her chest before she understood what it was. The ramp jumped under her feet. She caught the rail, missed, caught it again as someone slammed into her shoulder.

The bay lights went out.

For an instant she was in another place, another dark passage, with smoke coming up the stairs.

Then the emergency lighting flashed on. A woman was on her knees beside Sereya, trying to stand while people stumbled around her.

Sereya grabbed her sleeve.

“Hold on here.” She pushed the woman's hand against the rail. “Don't stand yet.”

Outside, the platform tilted.

She saw the Kantenans sliding. Saw Janae go down, so far from Khalzin that there could be no reaching her. The male with the mechanical leg caught her near the edge. Something hooked into the decking beneath him. Khalzin scrambled toward them.

A loud crack split the platform.

The ship moved.

Sereya felt it through the rail, a deep shudder followed by a grinding that went on and on. The woman beside her began to cry. Sereya put an arm across her shoulders and held her against the side.

“Stay here,” she said. “Just stay here.”

She had no idea whether here was safe.

A Kantenan clung to a railing below, robes caught around one leg. The tall, narrow horns. Dhomhes. He hauled himself upright, shouting something she couldn't hear.

Then the engines beneath the platform roared.

Slowly, painfully, the ramp began to level.

Sereya could breathe again. She helped the woman to her feet. There was blood on the woman's wrist, and Sereya realized it was her own, running from a torn knuckle.

“Inside,” a crew member shouted. “Move inside.”

Women were coming back up from the platform now. Sereya flattened herself against the rail to let them pass. Beyond them she glimpsed Adryel, down near the hull, with a Kantenan bending toward her.

And Graecey farther out, waving two women toward the ramp.

“Come on,” Sereya whispered. “All of you. Come on.”

A hovercart rose beside the platform. Guards ran down the terrace approach carrying medical cases. Voices called for space, for help, for people Sereya couldn't see.

The worst of the movement had stopped. Someone behind her said the backups were holding.

Then a strip of damaged decking near Graecey's feet bent downward.

Graecey reached for a woman beside her and pushed her toward solid ground. The male with the mechanical leg caught Graecey's other arm.

He was going to get her back. Sereya could see it. He had braced himself, pulled her weight toward him. One more step.

The decking tore loose.

For a moment Graecey was still there, her free hand reaching up, and Sereya had taken a step down the ramp without deciding to move.

Then both figures dropped below the edge.

Sereya reached the bend in the rail and stopped.