9
Scout tipped her head back to look up, hoping for a glimpse of whatever they were rising up into, but the lights above them were blindingly bright. The only detail she could see was the square of metal walls around them.
A hull, she realized. They kept rising and rising, but the metal before them wasn’t made of separate sections welded together. It was solid, the space they were in neatly carved out of it. Whatever had carved it out had left patterns on the metal like overlapping fans. They were shaped like a fan you’d hold in your hand to keep the heat off on a sweltering day, but they were immense, wider than Scout could spread her arms.
“Stars,” Geeta said, her voice barely more than an awed whisper. “The hull is so thick. What was this ship built for?”
“How is it staying aloft?”
