She throws her hands onto it, pounding and screaming curses at me, but then falls still once again.
"Get in your chamber, human," the slime orders me. "You're too valuable to be lost."
Then he exits from the hatch, closing it behind him.
8
Ree
I'm still standing in shock as the door closes behind him and the first shuddering explosion rocks through the ship.
It knocks me into my cryobed, then I bounce back off and fall heavily onto the slick floor. Pain shoots up my left knee from the impact, then my body is flung down the passage where the rest of the harem is stored. I crash into the cryocoffin at the end, immediately feeling the telltale ache of cracked ribs.
The spike of pain that follows my next breath confirms it.
"The hell! We're in space," I complain, not understanding what could cause these shifts if the ship itself supplies artificial gravity.
But physics was never a strength of mine.
Right now I feel pinned to the floor. Is the ship malfunctioning? From the sounds I assume it's being attacked, even thoughI don't really have any obvious reference points based on experience. The blaring alarm seems to confirm it.
As much as I don't enjoy following the slime's orders, it seems like the best course of action is to get back to my cryocoffin-cum-bed and close the protective glass.
Or whatever it's made of, since glass would have cracked under the force of me hitting it, but the chamber I collided with shows no sign of damage. I'm glad, since I would have then had to figure out how to move Silver out of her damaged chamber and into my own.
And then, judging by the shuddering explosions I feel, the rest of this ship would truly be my coffin.
The heavy weight pinning me to the floor suddenly eases.
I crawl down the passage toward the relative safety of my chamber as fast as I can, trying to ignore the pain radiating from my ribs and knee. The ship continues to shudder, then I'm abruptly lifted off the ground, weightless. This improves my pain levels, but leaves me spinning in the air wildly until I can get a hand solidly around one of the chamber handles.
It's Azure's chamber that I grab and it doesn't seem possible that someone could be so still and unconcerned with such pandemonium all around them.
I take a moment to get my bearings and for the dizziness to pass and I realize I need to reverse directions and get my feet spun around toward the floor. The process of turning myself is excruciating and my ribs are on fire, but I do it anyway.
I move myself through the air by pushing myself from one chamber handle to the next, not realizing until I push off from the last one that I'm moving too fast out of their hallway and into my small cell.
I brace my arms in front of me, which helps absorb some of the impact as I collide with the wall that holds the camera. My right arm braces more effectively than my left because I'm at a bit of an angle, which starts me on a spin toward the left of the cell.
I ping-pong off the wall after hitting it with my back, my foot catches on the bed and I spin again, with my feet moving toward the ceiling. I grind my teeth against the pain and shoot out my arms, successfully snagging the edge of my cryocoffin.
The hated camera catches my eye.
"I hope you enjoyed the show, assholes," I yell at it.
I take a few moments to get myself properly oriented, then I use the internal handles of the chamber to pull myself into a lying position.
For the first time since waking up in this cell, I appreciate one of my harem's upgrades, since it allows me to read the text on the touch screen.
I stab a finger at the 'close' option, relieved when the cover extends and snicks closed.
I feel a sudden pressure on my back as I'm pulled tight against the soft lining of the chamber. The intense feeling ofclaustrophobia I get is improved slightly when I realize I can still move my arms.
After witnessing Silver's terror and paralysis, I haven't been able to get anything but fitful rest when using this thing as a bed.
Nightmares of waking up and not being able to move have plagued me ever since.
There are no straps and I have no idea how the chamber is managing it, but I'm being held in place so I don't ricochet around.
