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Back Stringers Save as PDF
Chapters (64)
  1. FRONT COVER
  2. TITLE PAGE
  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. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  53. CHAPTER FIFTY
  54. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  55. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  56. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
  62. CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
  63. CHAPTER SIXTY
  64. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

“What is it?” asked Naecia.

“Patton, you’re a genius.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

As the famous philosopher Céline Dion once said, it’s all coming back to me.

“The radiation shields!”

“What are you screaming about?” asked Naecia.

“Everyone get to a radiation shield,” I said. “If I recall right, there are seventeen in the Blue Quadrant. I’m flagging them on our maps now. Find the closest one and go.”

“Who would even think to hide something there?” asked Aptat. “Are they even accessible?”

“Each one has two columns usually built into an adjoining structure that lead up into separate compartments within the shields. There should be a lift or a ladder for us to access the shields themselves. Check both compartments.” I was already breathing heavily as I trotted to the nearest transway. “I assembled some of these inside the dredge.”

I leapt into a transport for the short jaunt to the nearest shield, where a building had been constructed around one of the huge columns. It made so much sense. The shields weren’t livable space, but they were the tallest structures on Aszerat. My nectar-less brain had gone back to thinking inside the box again. Thankfully, Patton’s brain could never be hemmed in by walls.

I sprinted out from the transway and took the elevator to the top floors, then used my hotel card to get through a maintenance corridor that led to an access portal for the column. There was a plain door in the wall. Keycard. The area behind the door was closet-like, small, with a ladder built into the far wall. I took hold and gazed upward. The top of the column was far enough away to be obscured by darkness. I stuffed the keycard into a cargo pocket in my hideous light-blue pants and began upward – and outward – from Aszerat.

I knew the blueprint cold. There would be another door high above, with access into the actual body of the shield. My palms sweated as I climbed, making each handhold more precarious. The environmental systems weren’t cycling the air with as many exchanges as down in the common areas. I wondered when the last time was that anyone had come through. A few hundred feet up, I arrived at a smaller door, hatchlike, just over my head. Holding onto the ladder with one hand, I retrieved the hotel card and waved it over the panel. The latch clicked and the door popped open by half an inch. I pressed it up and inward with the top of my helmet until it fell back against a bulkhead.

It was dark. I turned on the helmet lights and shot them through the hollow body of the shield.