46
46Karena’s brain registered she was falling. Yet she refused to believe she was going to die. Instead, the realization unleashed hyper-self-preservation reflexes. Just as gravity attempted to snatch her, Karena’s palm brushed something and she instinctively clutched at it, and her fall was arrested.
She dangled in space.
She pivoted painfully on a threadbare handhold on the strut. Her body was twisting, twisting… she grimaced as her wrist rotated, threatening to pry her fingers open.
“Unghhhh.”
She flailed desperately with her free hand… and clasped the strut, preventing disaster. With a better hold, she gritted her teeth and started to hoist herself. The strut trembled; the whole machine was trembling. The warped rotor would not last long. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed
