Welcome to stories from Among the Stars. You're listening to The Last Watch by J.S. Dewas.

Chapter 24 To Cavalon's surprise, instead of slipping into another vent system, Rakes simply strode into the hallway.

They've been so stealthy up to this point, it felt odd to just waltz out into the open, but he tentatively

followed.

He didn't have to worry for long when a couple of meters down, Rake stopped at another vent,

similar in size and structure to the first.

She pulled off the grate and climbed through, and Kavalon trailed after.

A minute later, they came to a dead end capped by another great, hard light streaming in from the other side.

Rake paused, holding a finger to her lips, as if she had to remind him to be quiet just

in case he'd forgotten he was in mortal danger.

She pointed to the great and scooted to one side.

He shimmied his way next to her, peering through the narrow slats into the cockpit. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to the relative brightness of the room beyond.

A single drudger stood between the pilot and co-pilots chairs watching a video message play. The

larger-ger stood between the pilot and co-pillets chairs, play back over the ship's main console.

The holographic screen cast a blue glint against its steel-gray skin.

It was older than most of the others Ray could

kill, that they'd killed. Unlike the others had, it wore a relatively clean

viter-issued uniform with badges of rank pinned carelessly to the shoulders.

Though Drudgers didn't bother much with rank distinctions, he assumed this one must be the ship's

captain. The Drudger and the recording gargled something

Cavalon couldn't understand and the message ended. The captain dismissed the video interface

and stepped aside, revealing a display of brilliantly bright, crisp white

...