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soon
be filled with bodies ready to take their stations. And the console
she was crouched behind, considering its location in the room, must
belong to the captain!
    In a panic, she searched for another
escape. There were no other doors. There was nothing else to hide
behind, in, or under. The station she crouched behind was only a
few feet from the back wall. She studied the wall for a moment,
feeling that something was there. Something she was not
seeing.
    Then she caught it from the corner of
her eye—a small latch near the floor, not too far out of
reach.
    The male entered the room. “Did you
hear me?” he said to the other man. “Call the crew back to their
stations. We'll be departing as soon as the captain
returns.”
    “Yeah, I heard you.”
    Analia scooted out of view as the male
advanced into the room to attend an unoccupied console next to his
colleague, leaving his back to her.
    She reached out and gently lifted the
latch. There was a soft click. Her breath caught at the sound.
Glancing at both men, she was relieved they didn't seem to have
noticed the noise.
    She pulled gently, half expecting the
tiny door to squeak from lack of use, but it silently revealed a
small opening just big enough for her to fit through. Shuffling
through the space, she pulled the door closed behind
her.
    Click .
    She almost growled at the sound, which
seemed louder this time.
    After a moment of bloodcurdling
stillness, she released the breath she hadn't realized she'd been
holding and surveyed her surroundings. It was a small, cramped
space, seemingly for maintenance purposes. Tubes of varying
thickness ran along one wall, lit by a dim line of lights. The room
was barely large enough for her to lie down with her knees bent,
which, at the moment, seemed like a really great idea. Every muscle
in her body was pulled taut. Her heart still pounded with
adrenaline.
    Making herself as comfortable as
possible, she fought against an exhaustion that threatened to drag
her into oblivion. Passing out right now would not be good. Once
she felt safe, she'd relent, but not yet. The ships had yet to
detach and everything could still go wrong. She tried to listen to
what was happening outside her tiny enclosure. Nothing, it seemed.
She pictured the two men clicking away at their
computers.
    Light and dark spots began to star her
vision, indicating that she was losing her battle against the
overwhelming fatigue pressing down on her. She had succumbed to
exhaustion enough times to know that she was lost. Still, she
strained to stay awake, rubbing her eyes to reinvigorate them in a
near useless attempt to keep them from closing again. Her brain
pounded with the need to shut down. Only now did her heart begin to
slow. Breathing was becoming easier. Body relaxing, her head
lulled.
    Stay
awake .
    Vision blurred.
    The last thing she heard was the voice
of a man, someone who had just entered the control room. She was
unable to make out what was said, but the deep masculine timbre
seemed to ease her in some way. She allowed it to roll over her, a
vibrating energy that wrapped her in a cloak of security. Or was
that just exhaustion making her delusional? Still, she couldn't
deny the energy she felt from him, even from within her enclosure.
His rumbling voice boomed again. There was no making sense of his
words in her tired mind.
    She closed her eyes as she felt her
body fall into blackness.
     

Chapter 2
     
     
     
    Sebastian Uthair sat in the all too
familiar spot, across from Darius in a chair similar to his, but
slightly lower to the ground. Darius sat behind the large wooden
desk, as usual. Wood was difficult to acquire in space, vastly
expensive in its raw form. Fully crafted, it sold for astronomical
prices, and was acquired as a means to display status or
wealth.
    Wealth Darius had, which was made
obvious by the overabundance of wood furnishings and expensive
tapestries decorating his office. But status in space was
meaningless. Space was a hostile