A mostly decayed body lay curled up beside a small cylindrical storage tank in the middle of the floor. The body itself wasn’t much different from any of the others, but the tank was something else entirely. It was built like a coffin, with the upward-facing part made almost entirely of glass. And inside of that glass was the perfectly preserved body of a beautiful young woman.
Chills ran down the back of Isaac’s neck as he stared at her. In this mausoleum, she stood out like a brilliant young star in the midst of a dense, obscuring cloud of gas and dust. She was a little shorter than Aaron and probably not much older, with long black hair and dark olive skin. Her face was round, with dark eyebrows, a flat nose, and full lips. As with anyone under cryo, she was naked, though she had a full-body henna tattoo that almost made her look otherwise. It ran from her wrists and arms across her chest and down past her navel, which was obviously the center of the design. The dark brown ink seemed to form a set of intricate parallel fractals, reflected across an axis that ran down the center of her body. The fine attention to detail was almost religious in its precision.
“She’s gorgeous,” said Aaron. “Have you ever seen anything like her?”
“No,” Isaac admitted. He ran his gloved fingers over the glass as if to reach out to her. The henna designs accentuated the natural curves of her body, emphasizing every feature while imbuing her with a sense of poise and dignity. Instead of feeling like a voyeur for staring at her, Isaac felt as if he stood before a shrine.
Brothers in Exile (Sons of the Starfarers: Book I) is available until Sunday as a $.99 ebook. Check out the links in the sidebar to pick up a copy! After Sunday, the price will go up to $2.99. Thanks for reading!
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