The Black Planet Read Online Free

stopped.  It was full of beautiful crystals. 
    ‘OK be careful,’ she warned.  The team for the bridge began to pull the crystals and put them into individual containers that Ico had manufactured.  She led the second team to the heart of the ship.  There she opened a door and strode into a circular room.  Placing her hand against a panel, the wall began to slowly dematerialise.  There were hundreds of small beautifully coloured vials.  Komoru lowered herself to her knees and with her hands clasped in front of her said a short prayer in her native language.  When she was finished she simply nodded and the team began to place the vials into racks.  As each rack was filled they began to shimmer and the rack became a solid container. 
    Komoru had time to do a little searching and was directed to the captain’s quarters.  She was in for a shock when they opened before her.  Steven and her own quarters were quite austere while these were opulent by comparison.  Strange multi coloured drapes covered the walls and a huge bed.  She couldn’t help but touch one.  It felt even finer than silk.  She wished she could take some but felt it would be disrespectful.  It was an Aladdin’s cave of wonder.
    Lewis lowered himself onto the bed, ‘dis is real comfy, and big.’  The look on his face said it all.  Komoru couldn’t help but smile.  He stood up and went over to a unit and opened a drawer.  ‘Dis ain't just a ship miss Komoru, dis is a home.’  He closed the drawer slowly.
    ‘You are right Lewis and we are trespassing, let’s go get the others.’
    Once everyone was off Lewis and Komoru returned to the bridge.  Lewis watched as she sat on the chair for the last time.  The normally shy and reserved woman was sitting with her hand hovering above the panel.  It was as though she was stuck in time.  Her face filled with emotion as the indecision hit her.  Lewis felt his heart swell.  He loved this woman more than life itself.  It wasn’t a sexual thing; never had been.  He regarded her as a rare flower, a person of great beauty inside and out, it seemed to radiate out of her when she was happy.  Lewis loved to see her happy and bathe in those beautiful rays.
    Lewis’s life had been full of hardship; brought up on streets full of gangsters, hate and violence.  He had pulled himself out of the gutter by his own intelligence.  When a local gangster tried to recruit him as an enforcer Lewis ran off and joined the army to escape the endless cycle of violence.  Ridiculed at first for his massive size the army soon realised the value of the man.  Promotion came fast and then he was offered a transfer to the Special Forces.  He excelled, but after being badly wounded in a fire fight Lewis was transferred to the heavy weapons department.  It was here he really came into his own.  For years he worked as a specialist, it was then he met his Sharron. 
    She was a big girl and had been ridiculed all her life as he had because of it.  He had been on leave and travelling home.  He had decided to break his journey at a small city.  He had walked into a local bar and within a few minutes had felt a presence behind him.  He had snapped round and there she was, sanding with her mouth open in wonder. 
    She looked him up and down, ‘soldier boy my grandma always told me there was a man out there just specially for me.  I always doubted her until now, but if you ain't him then I don’t know who is.  You had better ask me for my number now before I lose my courage and run.’
    It had taken him a few minutes to get over the shock.  Lewis never did get home that leave, or the next, or the one after.  When he finally returned home it was with Sharon by his side.  Sharon had discovered everything good in Lewis and had nurtured it.  After a year they had got married and Lewis decided to leave the life of destruction behind him.  They returned to her hometown and settled down.  They had been happy, so