Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 by Gillian Andrews Page B

suddenly seemed an awfully short-sighted mission. How would she get back to the surface again? This time there was no Six to help her out. Diva shivered. Was it her imagination, or was it darker and colder? She felt utterly alone in this huge mausoleum, and she found that she didn’t like the feeling one little bit. She had become used to having Six beside her, she realized, had forgotten what her life had been like when she had spent all that time alone in the orthogel bubble back on Valhai. Even then she had known that he was close by, that he was undergoing the same thing that she was.
    Six had been the one constant in her life. She thought about it. He had once told her that he would guard her against backswampers, and he had fulfilled that promise to the letter. Even though those mythical beings no longer existed on Kwaide, there had been plenty of danger. She thought back to the fighting for the independence of New Kwaide, and realized that Six had always been there, had never stopped watching over her. The danger may not have consisted in creatures that latched onto a person’s shoulders with their claws and hung on grimly until their quarry fell under their weight, but they had been life-threatening all the same. She had never told Six so, but she knew that she probably wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him. She remembered how he had ventured up into the icy mountains in the unsurvivable north to rescue her when her shuttle fell during battle. And how he had taken a knife which had been meant for her.
    She shivered again in the cold and empty chamber. Now there was nobody, and for the first time in her life she felt her strength dissipating, like a wave of heat running through this abominable ortholiquid.
    Diva heard her own heart beating like a drum in her ears and throat, and was furious with herself. This was not the way Coriolan Elders behaved at the least sign of danger! Whatever was the matter with her? The only time in her whole life that she had felt anything like this was when they had operated on her back on Valhai, when they had removed all her oocites and left her to die in her orthobubble. She shook her head to clear it. Where had that Kwaidian got to? She would have a few words to say to him when he got back!
    Allowing herself to feel cross helped her get her determination back. She would show him, wherever he was! He might think that she would give up, finding herself alone down here in the dark. But she would ignore the feeling of absolute panic that was creeping up her spine, and get the job done. That was what a Coriolan meritocrat would do. No question. One didn’t sit down and cry when things got tough. One pushed and fought and clawed one’s way through. All her genes told her how to act. The only thing she had to do was listen to them. She put the fiercest expression she could find on her face, and sat down, a small dark figure lost in an immense cavern of darkness.
    Some short time later she stiffened, and froze. Out of the corner of her eye she was aware of something moving slightly in her peripheral vision. She waited, like a cat, tensing her muscles and preparing herself; then she lashed out with one arm – a fluid movement that connected with some sort of solid material before the thing that she had touched suddenly disappeared, and reincorporated itself directly in front of her eyes.
    “Do you have to attack everything that comes into range?” it said reproachfully, changing its shape over and over again in irritated pulses.
    “Err … Visitor? Oh no, I see there are two of you now. You must be the Arcan trimorphs.”
    “Yes. We are the twins.” The little trimorph introduced itself, and its twin, who gave a flash of colour to greet Diva.
    “Have you seen Six?”
    The trimorphs explained what had happened to Six, and their fears about the visitor. Diva found her initial relief tempered by a new worry.
    “Then we have to get out. We need to get to Dessia, to help the