Read Borderlands: The Fallen for Free Online

running through the transparent passage, arms pumping up and down, passing a hastening group of passengers. There was no one else in the umbilicus … which was now detaching from the
Homeworld Bound
, as if the station were recoiling from the starship. Marla realized with a thrill of horror that they were simply too late.
    “Mom—they left us!” Cal yelled. “
Now
what do we do?”
    Behind them came the angry whir of the drones—and the
crump
of a distant explosion.
    The ship shuddered from an internal shock wave. Marla and Cal staggered to keep their feet as the deck rollicked under them. “Mom!”
    “Stay calm! There are lifeboats on the lower deck. Come on!”
    Another thump, jarring through the starship, made them stagger as they hurried through the corridor. The way looked strangely foggy—smoke was thickening around them.
    “There, Mom!” Cal shouted. He grabbed her hand, led her down a plasteel ramp, then down another, switching back in the other direction, till they emerged in the Emergency Hangar. Down the center of the deck was a row of shiny metal capsules, each big enough for one person—not much larger than coffins.
    “Mom? They’re one-person lifeboats!”
    “Never mind, we’ll go separately, it’ll send us to the same place …” She hit the emergency release on the nearest capsule, and its hatch hissed open. She helped her son climb into it—the deck again rocking under their feet.
    “Mom, wait!”
    “I’ll find you, Cal! I’ll find you and we’ll find Dad! I love you!”
    Coughing in thickening smoke, she pushed him down into the recliner. Its cushioning arms automatically enfolded him, holding him in place. He looked frightened—though she could see he was trying to seem brave.
    Marla made herself close the see-through hatch over him—just as another explosion shook the
Homeworld Bound
and she heard a high-pitched metallic squealing sound. Wind rushed past her, making her hair swish and slap around her head, suction roaring in her ears.
    A hull breach, somewhere.
Air was rushing out of the ship.
    Marla forced herself to turn away from Cal, staggered on the shivering, pitching deck toward the next lifeboat. She slapped at the emergency latch, and it popped open—just as she felt herself tugged backward, away from the capsule, the increasing vacuum trying to drag her toward the breach in the hull. She grabbed at the rim of the lifeboat passenger hutch, held on to it, used all her strength to try to pull herself into its compartment, fighting agonizingly against the decompression. The breath was ripped from her lungs, and she felt that her trembling arms might be pulled from their sockets—then she grabbed a passenger strap, pulled herself down out of the stream of suction, managed to twist about onto her back, and hit the close button. The hatch hissed shut; the cushions enfolded her. She was surprised when she realized she still had her shoulder bag.
    The Emergency Hangar seemed to tear apart around the lifeboat, debris flashed by the transparent hatch like trash in a tornado, and smoke darkened her view.
    This is it,
she thought.
I was too late. I’m going to die. And so is Cal.
    Then the hangar vanished entirely. There was a sickening feeling of plunging into nothingness …
    Stars—
blocked out when the planet rolled enormously into view. The sullen globe of Pandora rushed toward her.
    Pulsers hummed to life on the underside of the lifeboat. An energy parachute bloomed around the little vessel …
    Then the lifeboat began to spin, faster and faster …
    Centrifugal force built up, pressing her deep into the cushions. She could barely draw a breath. Pressure threatened to crush her flat …
    Marla screamed—and lost consciousness.

Z ac sat on the rim of the small impact crater in the late afternoon sunlight and watched the DropCraft burning. It was about ten meters from him, downslope, the fire crackling and spewing black smoke.
    He ached. He’d been thumped around in the