Adrift (2 page)

Kivi didn’t know how long it was when she woke up. Before, she always knew what time it was because of the intercom announcing meals or school time. If it wasn’t one of those, there would be people on their way to the rec room or to take care of the hydroponic garden. There was always someone doing something at a particular time, and they were happy to tell her that she was supposed to be one of them. But no one was walking by when she opened her eyes again. The lights were still out, and she was still by the stairway. Everything else was terribly different. It was like she’d wandered into a copy of the world. It all looked like what she knew, but without the people it was an alien place.

She groaned as she pulled herself up into a sitting position and pressed her back against the wall. It took her a moment to recognize where she was. There were two sets of stairs in the ship. One was near the cockpit, the other closer to the engine room. She’d picked the latter, not just because she was close to it but also because it was the quickest way to her family’s room. The stern stairs were different than the helm, though. They went below the habitation deck, all the way down to storage. In her fall, she’d rolled past her destination and was now in the very bowels of the ship.

Kivi didn’t know it was possible to hurt so much. Her head was throbbing so badly she could hardly see around the pain, and her right ankle was hot and tender. Her left elbow was bloody, though she couldn’t feel anything there at all. She was sure there were other injuries waiting for her to find them, but she decided that she didn’t need to catalogue them now. The ones she had discovered already made it clear that the only way she was going to get back up the stairs was if she crawled. Just the thought of moving filled her with dread.

Kivi hated crying. It accomplished nothing but to waste time, and inevitably led to people pestering her about the whys or trying to make her feel better. She couldn’t help the burning tear that slid out,
though. This time there was no one to worry over her, and she desperately wished there were.

A clang startled her out of her
misery. She quickly rubbed the tears away from her face with both hands, straining her eyes to make sense of the shifting blue shadows.

“Hello?”
One of the shadows took on a human shape. Kivi didn’t know if it was one of the strangers, but there was no hiding now. So it didn’t really matter. Either way, they’d found her. “Who’s there?”

The shadow took a step closer, and it became a person. The second she saw who it was, she
almost started crying again. The strangers would be better than the boy who loomed over her now; Tron was the last person in the universe she wanted to be alone with. The captain ordered him locked up almost two years ago. He got a private room, which Kivi had always been a little jealous of, but he only got to come out when two of the crew escorted him. That part she didn’t want. He wasn’t supposed to talk to anyone, but he always did. He always fought. He was the worst.

He was holding a bar of some kind, wielding it like he meant to
bash her head in. Right then, Kivi didn’t care if he did. She was done. She’d broken everything, and she deserved to be one of those bodies floating through the black.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Crying,” Kivi answered softly.

“Well I can see that,” the boy growled. “I mean what are
you
doing
here
?”

“I’m crying,” she repeated. She didn’t understand what he wanted from her. She wished he’d just hit her or leave her alone. “
I’m here because I fell.”

“Freaking wonderful. I’m stuck with the village idiot.” He sighed and let the bar drop down
by his hip. He wasn’t going to hit her after all. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. I broke the engine.”

“What?” He was shouting. Kivi shrank back further against the wall. He scowled and bent his knees until he was level with her. “What the hell do you mean you broke the engine?”

“I just opened the panel,” she
muttered. “I wasn’t going to touch it. I didn’t mean to break it. But then the alarm went off and there were strangers. I’m sorry.”

Tron grimaced. “I saw them too. The strangers. Two of them came into my room and poked around. They didn’t notice me and left after a minute. I didn’t get a clear look. Did you?”

Kivi shook her head. “Why didn’t they see you?”

“Because I’m magic,” he snapped. “
Don’t worry about it. Where is everyone else? Why didn’t Hector fix the engine?”

She pursed her lips, refusing to answer. If she didn’t say, it wasn’t real.

“Fantastic. Stupid and useless,” Tron grumbled. He leaned closer and eyed her with an intensity that made her uncomfortable. “Are you hurt?”

“I fell.”

“Can you walk?”

“
No.”

He sighed and dropped the bar. It clattered on the floor, the sound filling her head with pain. Without a word of warning, he scooped her up and draped her over his shoulder like a sack. Then he stood and hiked up the stairs.
Hanging upside down had her head spinning and it almost made her sick, but she forced herself to stay awake. It was harder not to puke all down his back, but she managed that too. Kivi tried to tell him to stop when they reached the habitat deck, but he ignored her and kept hiking.

When they reached the top, he set her down. When she tried to put weight on her ankle, Kivi squeaked with pain and almost toppled again. Tron caught her and, with another sigh, scooped her up again. This time he carried her like a baby. Kivi hated it. She was fifteen and he was only
three years older than her, and she hated that she was so tiny he could carry her like that. But it was better than hanging over his shoulder and didn’t hurt as much trying to stand, so she didn’t complain.

“I’ll take you to Med. Then we’ll turn on the lights and find out what the hell is going on.”

“There are no lights.” Kivi said softly. “The engine is stopped.”

He squinted down at her, and Kivi couldn’t read his expression at all. She wondered if he was afraid. It didn’t seem right. Tron was a bully. He was the one who made everyone else afraid. If he was, he didn’t say anything. He just started walking.

She realized, when he got to the still cracked door that he meant to go through the mess to get to the med bay. “No.”

He glanced down at her. “What the hell is your problem?”

“Don’t go in there. Go the other way.”

“Don’t be stupid,” he barked. He reached out to the door. She knew he’d be able to get it open more than a crack. He wasn’t like her, he was strong.

“No!” She fought against his hold, trying to get free. “No! Don’t go in! Don’t go in!”

Tron’s grip tightened for a second, but when she kept fighting, he set her down with a curse and a disgusted glare. Kivi kept screaming at him to stop, but nothing she said made any difference to him. He pushed open the door and stepped in.

She held her breath the moment he crossed the threshold. She didn’t want him to see. It could be too dark. Her momma always said Kivi had good eyesight. Maybe Tron didn’t. Maybe the glow wouldn’t be enough for him, and he would come back out and just be mad at her. Then he could start telling her what they were doing again. She didn’t mind it so much.

His cry of anguish tore through the corridor. Kivi started crying again.