“Shat!” her sister hissed.
“Stop cursing,” Darla ordered, fighting her own panic. It wasn’t at all pleasant to lose gravity. Her body felt so odd, as if it wasn’t really a part of her anymore. Her hair began to float, and for one, she was glad she and her sister both kept their long hair in single braids down their backs.
“Shat is a curse word?”
Darla turned toward Gnaw, grateful for the distraction. “Yes. It’s a cleaner version of,” she lowered her voice, “shit. We’re not allowed to say that on Radison.”
“It’s a stupid law by the original founders that’s been kept in place,” her sister added. “Frack instead of the other F word. We get fined if caught saying the real words.”
“Why?” Gnaw looked confused.
“The original founders were highly religious. Bad words weren’t allowed.” Darla’s temper sparked. “They kept the law in place for women, but not the men. They don’t consider us morally superior. It’s a sham. They do a lot of bad things to women.”
“Darla!” Her sister sounded horrified.
She shrugged. “No one can arrest me anymore for telling the truth. Women aren’t seen as equals on Radison. Men can curse. Women can’t. We also have to abide certain dress codes that the men don’t, or we get punished.”
Gnaw stared at her in surprise. “Like what?”
“Our long hair, as an example. Short hair isn’t permitted on a woman. Unless there was an accident, like it caught fire. Even then, an official will inspect us for burn marks. We can trim it when it gets long enough to sit on, but that’s about it. Having hair less than waist-length as an adult will get a woman in trouble. We’re also allowed to wear pants at work or while traveling, but otherwise, we must be in a dress. All of our clothing has to be a certain length and cover most of our skin.”
“Why?” Now he looked confused.
“To remind us of who is in charge,” Darla admitted. “Of course, they deny that. They say it’s to help tell the difference between men and women from afar, which is ludicrous. Women who show too much skin are immediately arrested. It’s utter shat. If seeing a knee or elbow makes men attack us, they should be the ones in trouble with our law keepers.”
“That’s confusing.” He shook his head.
“The founders and first wave of colonists were from the same church. Really, they were a cult.” At his questioning expression, she explained, “That means they made up their own religion. Not that they’d admit that, either. It’s why they’d left Earth a long time ago. They lived by their own strict beliefs until making a profit got in the way.”
He opened his mouth, probably to ask another question. That didn’t happen.
Instead, there was a sudden boom in the shuttle and the lights went out.
The engines died.
Gnaw hadn’t warned anything like that could happen! Terrified, Darla blindly reached out and clutched at the big alien male yet again. She was pretty sure her fingers were on his thigh once more, but he didn’t jerk away. Thank god. Touching his huge, sturdy body made her feel safe.
“What the fuck?” a man hissed.
A woman yelled, “What is going on?”
“Someone tell me we’re in orbit and we aren’t about to burn up if we start to fall back toward the planet’s gravity?”
A couple of screams sounded. A few men cursed loudly.
“Remain calm,” a man shouted. “The pilots will have everything under control soon.”
“How do you know? Did you hear that boom? What was that?”
Passengers began to argue. Some woman sobbed loudly. Darla kept hold of her sister—who pressed against her side—and held on tighter to Gnaw’s leg. He didn’t try to soothe her fears. That began to scare her even more as the arguing in the cabin grew worse, people afraid and panicking.
“Goddamn it,” a man bellowed. “I’m ordering all of you to shut the hell up. I’m Adam Cook, first-shift pilot on Defcon Red. Is anyone of higher rank on this transport?”
Everyone grew quiet, except for the woman crying.
The man spoke again, still bellowing. “We’re all trained fleet members. Get yourselves together. And stop making that racket, woman!”
The sobbing woman muffled her cries until they ceased. The sudden silence on the shuttle had gooseflesh rising on Darla’s arms.
“I’m going to make my way to the pilots,” Adam Cook announced. “Remain strapped in and don’t panic. I’m sure it’s nothing. No gravity means we’ve reached orbit. There will be no burning-up-in-the-atmosphere bullshit.”
“What about life support? Power seems to be completely down.” That question came from a man.
“We’ll be fine,” Adam snapped. “Defcon Red will be tracking this transport since we’re heading their way and will send a rescue shuttle if the pilots can’t fix whatever went wrong.”
A tiny light came on, and Darla fixed on it as it floated toward the front of the shuttle. It had to be Adam Cook. He’d unbuckled and was maneuvering his body toward the cockpit. He stopped at the front, and then cursed.
“The doors aren’t opening,” he called out. “Communications seem to be down. There’s no power at all on this panel.” The light moved. “It must be a total power failure. Backups are down too. Just remain calm.”
“What’s the time limit on oxygen reserves if life support is down?” It was a male who called the question out. “Does anyone know?”
“Don’t cause more panic,” a woman ordered. “Defcon Red will reach us before then.”
A clank sounded from the front.
“Please, sir,” the same woman yelled. “Don’t try to open that panel!”
“Who’s talking?” That was Adam Cook. “State your rank, woman.”
“Bailey Edward, sir. I’m a supply shuttle pilot. Don’t attempt to break open the panel to override the controls for that door. With all power down, you have no idea what’s happening on the other side. Full-system failure tells me it might be catastrophic.”
“What do you mean?” Adam sounded more irritated than concerned.
“The backup systems are clearly out. That indicates there might be massive damage to the cockpit. Otherwise, the backups would have automatically kicked on. You open those doors and there’s no telling what will happen.”
“It’s just a power failure,” Adam Cook argued.
“Sir, no disrespect, but I disagree. We could have hit an asteroid chunk or space debris. Sensors aren’t reliable during transition. Even a tiny rock could have destroyed the cockpit window, taken out all systems, and killed the pilots from rapid air decompression. That section could now be exposed to space.”
“Fuck!” Adam Cook sounded pissed.
Darla’s fear doubled.
The big Veslor put his warm hand over hers, pinning it against his leg. “It will be fine, female. I have this handled.” He released her…then something on his wrist lit up. Darla saw blue wiggly lines on a tiny screen.
“What’s that?” She’d never seen anything like it.