23
Drake felt himself being dragged toward the portal but there was nothing he could do. He was out of the shuttle and there was nothing to grip onto. Yet the desperate situation felt more and more distant. His awareness was fading as the last of the oxygen escaped his suit. He knew he should be terrified of what was about to happen, but he felt nothing.
Without warning something struck him hard in the leg, piercing his armour and driving deep. Waves of agony jolted him back to the moment. He tried to let out a scream of pain but there wasn’t any air left in his lungs.
He stared at his leg, trying to make sense of what he saw. A long shard of metal was stuck clean through his calf, but he couldn’t work out why.
Then he noticed the thin cable attached to the metal, and a shuttle
