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Back Off Planet Save as PDF
Chapters (54)
  1. Title Page
  2. Also by Aileen Erin
  3. Dedication
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Chapter Three
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Chapter Nine
  13. Chapter Ten
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Chapter Fourteen
  18. Chapter Fifteen
  19. Chapter Sixteen
  20. Chapter Seventeen
  21. Chapter Eighteen
  22. Chapter Nineteen
  23. Chapter Twenty
  24. Chapter Twenty-One
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-One
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  43. Chapter Forty
  44. Chapter Forty-One
  45. Chapter Forty-Two
  46. Chapter Forty-Three
  47. Chapter Forty-Four
  48. Chapter Forty-Five
  49. Chapter Forty-Six
  50. Chapter Forty-Seven
  51. Off Balance
  52. To My Readers
  53. Acknowledgments
  54. About the Author

I felt his hand brush against my face, and he started to sing. It was the same song he’d sung to me in the warehouse the night my skin wouldn’t stop glowing. This time it sounded sadder. Slower. More aching.

I wished I knew what he was saying.

I tried to stay awake. I wanted to talk to Lorne. To ask him why he was sad. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t fight sleep for one second longer.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

I woke to the distant sound of people arguing. The blue tinted lights were dim but gave a calming cast to the room. I sat up, and the world swam. I was better—I didn’t feel drunk anymore—but the room seemed to sway every time I turned my head, which told me I wasn’t fully healed. I must not have been asleep for long.

I almost sighed at having to get out from under the softest blanket I’d ever felt, but the voices rose again. Whatever they were arguing about, I hoped it didn’t have anything to do with me, but then I heard my name—both of my names—and I quickly gave up that hope.

I didn’t want to deal with whatever drama was happening now. I was still weak—physically and emotionally—but I couldn’t ignore whatever was going on when it was about me.

I slipped out of the small bed and took measure of how I felt. I was exhausted but pain free. That was an improvement. Maybe some food and water would get me back to normal.

Glancing back at the bed, I noticed a readout glowed along the side of it. This had to be the healing pod Lorne promised me. I ran my fingertips across it, and the display changed, but I couldn’t read the swirling letters.

The pod itself wasn’t made of plastic or metal, but some sort of beige stone that had been polished until it was as smooth and soft as the blanket inside. There weren’t any wires or tubes or needles in sight. I wasn’t sure how it’d helped me heal, but I couldn’t deny that I was feeling better. I did. Still, I’d never seen stone inside a spacecraft before or in anything SpaceTech built. It wasn’t just the material that made it odd or the fact that it was comfortable or had readouts that I couldn’t read. It was the whole room and the feeling of calm that I felt while in it.

We were on the run from SpaceTech. I should be anything but calm, but for the first time in my life, it was as if I could breathe. But why?