Page 210 of Red Scale Daddy
Pally drops the last few feet, landing hard but steady. He spins, grabbing the hatch and hauling it open.
Dim light spills in.
“Clear—” he starts.
Something slams into the other side of the shaft above us.
The metal buckles inward, denting violently.
“Move!” I shout.
Pally dives through the hatch.
I drop the last stretch, landing beside him, turning immediately to cover the opening.
Dux hits the ground a second later, and together we slam the hatch shut, throwing the manual lock into place just as something heavy crashes against the other side.
The impact reverberates through the metal, the lock straining but holding.
For now.
We stand there for a second, breathing hard, the thin air burning in my lungs.
Pally lets out a shaky laugh. “Okay. Okay, that was?—”
The ship shakes again, harder than before.
Somewhere distant, something explodes.
I push away from the hatch, forcing my focus forward again. “We’re not done.”
Dux looks at me, searching my face, like he’s checking that I meant what I said before.
No one gets left.
I hold his gaze for a fraction longer than necessary, then nod once.
“We finish this together,” I say.
Then I turn and lead the way into the failing corridor, the path ahead uncertain, dangerous?—
—but for the first time, not calculated to end with my disappearance.
CHAPTER 32
DUX
The lower corridor looks like the ship swallowed a war and couldn’t keep it down.
Everything is wrong down here. The lights sputter in sickly red pulses. The deck pitches just enough to make my knees hate me. Somewhere behind the bulkheads, something keeps scraping, long and patient, like claws dragging across the inside of my skull.
Roma moves ahead of us with that lethal grace of hers, one hand braced against the wall, the other keeping her weapon angled low. Even half-lit by emergency strips and sparks, she looks like she was carved for disasters. Calm jaw. Sharp eyes. Shoulders squared like she can argue physics into behaving.
Which would be real damn impressive if she wasn’t also the most stubborn woman in the known universe.
Pally stumbles out of the shaft behind me, coughing. “Okay. Great. Fantastic. We’re alive. Love that. Now can we please stop doing whatever the hell this heroic hallway nonsense is and leave?”
Roma doesn’t look back. “That is the objective.”
