Liberty

by Annie Laurie Cechini

  “Take what supplies you need and get in an escape pod with CiCi, Hobs. Now.”

  Hobs’s big, bespectacled eyes scrutinized my face. “How will you find us?”

  “I dunno, but I will.” I reached for the intercom. “Rivera, you and Porch take the other dual rider after you make sure Bell gets in the last one.”

  “What?” cried Bell. “Captain, I—”

  “That’s an order,” I barked. “CiCi, put those parts down and run. Bell, come with me.”

  Another round of shots peppered the Misfit as we ran full speed to the emergency deck.

  “What’s your game plan, Captain?” asked Bell.

  “As each pod jettisons, we release cargo. Hopefully that rotten slag won’t know what’s worth shooting and what isn’t. It’s the crew’s best chance.”

  “You mean only chance,” said Bell. “What will you do?”

  “Aim for the emergency gate, head for Earth, and with any luck, survive.”

  “That’s always a good thing.”

  I extended my fist to Bell. She pushed hers into mine.

  “Live free or die, Captain.”

  I nodded. “Let’s do this.”

  INFERNAL BOY 4

  “ISO DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!” I SCREAMED AT THE BROKEN yoke stick in my hands. I started rifling through the cockpit, searching for anything that would substitute for a sailboard. “Come on, baby, I don’t wanna lose you!”

  A small explosion rattled my ears.

  “Ahhh, flark!” I yelled.

  At least, I think I did. The explosion deafened my ears, leaving me and the Misfit irreparably damaged. After shooting the last of my crew mates into space, I had woven my way through the asteroid belt and into the emergency jump gate, which put me within an easy flying distance of Earth’s orbit—and almost made me throw up again. Being sucked through the space portals always resulted in a nauseating stomach drop. Inexplicably, the SUN hadn’t held me at the gate, but Eira had managed to stick right with me all the way here, blasting asteroids out of her path and doing some major damage to my baby along the way. I don’t know how she found out, but somehow Eira had stumbled upon the truth of my identity and what I had dangling around my neck.

  Which, unfortunately, left me with only one option.

  Well, half an option, anyway.

  “I’m so sorry, baby!”

  As my ship skidded into the atmosphere, I grabbed my keys from my pocket, unlocked the plastic shield, and slammed my hand down on the Big Red Button.

  Yes, that Big Red Button.

  I figured Eira would have killed me already if that’s what she really wanted—her ship had more than enough firepower to take me out. I, however, wasn’t about to sit around waiting for her to board and torture me to death to get what she wanted. I had used every last second of the power in the generator to run circles around the behemoth star ship, drawing her down into the atmosphere of Earth. I thought I might like to die on the planet where I had been born. I had given my crew the chance they needed to escape and, as far as I could tell, they had all made it out safely.

  It was the only happy thought I had left.

  I felt the whirring of the Misfit’s engine die under my hands. I couldn’t hear the torrent of swear words that left my lips in the succeeding seconds. I looked through my singed bangs at the smoking gauges, knowing I had zero time left to get off my ship.

  Assuming I wanted to live.

  I used one of my remaining seconds to debate the point, and then leapt headlong from the cockpit and into the terrible silence of Earth’s blue sky.

  “Well, now what, you moron!” I screamed at myself. Not that I could hear it. Not that it mattered. I would be dead momentarily. I felt rather than heard my ship explode over my head. I flapped my arms. I tried to fall flat, to somehow delay my imminent death.

  I probably should have written a will.

  In the midst of contemplating my demise, I suddenly felt my body being jerked up rather than dragged down.

  “What the—”

  Two strong arms had me around the waist. We swerved and narrowly avoided a falling hunk of ship.

  I looked around and saw a helm et and m y own reflection staring back.

  “Oh, great, and a bloody nose? Because that is exactly what I need right now. Fantastic!”

  I assumed my rescuer was responding, but I couldn’t hear for beans. I doubt that I could have heard him anyway over his rocket pack.

  I rolled my eyes and pointed to my ears. “I got nothing! Ex-plo-sion,” I screamed. At least ... it felt like I screamed.

  Conversation, I decided, was useless. I needed to get on terra firma, and fast. I pointed down.

  The skuddy little worm dropped me.

  I shook my head and sighed. I knew I was toast from the second that horrible demon ship laid her eyes on my baby.

  My ship ... my beautiful, piece-of-skud ship was falling to the earth around me, and soon it would all be—

  “Aaaaaaaaaugh!”

  I was once again jerked up by the waist.

  “You’re sick, you know that?” I yelled. I watched as the larger flaming bits of my ship fell where I had just been falling.

  I raised my eyebrows.

  “Guess it could be worse. Now, why don’t you put me on solid ground?” I yelled.

  The helmet nodded.

  Oddly, as we whipped through the air trying desperately to avoid falling debris and a premature life exit, all I could think of was grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.

  We zoomed past the largest, fieriest piece of debris and rolled to a halt in a field of tall grass, the majority of which was being torched away by the melting remains of my ship.

  I stood up, dusted myself off, and ran to my baby, surveying the rather epic damage her crash had caused.

  “Flark! Flarking ... aw, flark,” I moaned. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

  I sank to my knees and pressed my lips together. All that I had left in the world was burning around me.

  It didn’t smell real great.

  Also, amazingly, I was alive. I realized if I wanted to stay that way, it was time to go dark. I turned off my Cuff, took it off my wrist, and stuffed it into my pocket.

  I felt a hand on my shoulder and leapt to my feet as I whirled around. I had nearly forgotten about Helmet. Helmet was very tall. And ... built. And ... trying to tell me something, but I still couldn’t hear.

  I pointed to my ears and shrugged. He handed me a skinny, silver package and motioned for me to open it and ... eat? Yes, eat the contents.

  Sure, why not? What could happen? Death? I was already marked for that. I opened the package and found a small green strip of something. I stuck it in my mouth.

  Bottoms up.

  Suddenly, my ears were full of bubbling sounds and before I could say, “Zounds, a flarking miracle,” I could hear.

  “What the flark was that?” I asked.

  “Well you sure use ugly words for such a pretty girl. At least, I’m guessing there’s a pretty girl under all that mess,” said Helmet.

  “Excuse me? I am not a mess,” I said. I rose to my feet and pointed toward the smoldering embers. “That is a mess.”

  “Could have been worse.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “Could have been you in there.”

  “You didn’t answer my question. What did you give me?”

  “Nerve regeneration strip. Comes in handy when you blow your ears out.”

  Ew.

  “You got a name?” I asked.

  “Yup.”

  I eyed Helmet. “You know, I’ve been calling you ‘Helmet’ in my head this whole time, so unless you want me to start calling you that outside my head, I suggest you tell me who the flark you are.”

  He cocked his head. “You first.”

  I wasn’t sure I could trust him. Still, he had saved my life, and so far none of the bad guys had tried that tactic. Besides, I was tired of lying about my name, and my cover was blown an
yway. Call me naive, but ... did I mention he was tall?

  “Name’s Dixon, but I go by Dix. Your turn, flyboy, and do me a favor and take that helmet off so I can see who I’m talking to.”

  He took his helmet off and put it under the crook of his left arm. My gaze followed the motion of his arm up to his broad and muscular shoulders. His thick, dark curls fell around his face, and his sepia eyes twinkled mischievously, belying his serious expression.

  Yummy.

  “Berrett,” he said.

  “What?”

  “My name. It’s Berrett. And you’re welcome.”

  “For what? I mean, thanks, but really, I had things under control.”

  “Clearly. Falling to your death equals everything’s under control in your world?”

  “I would have figured a way out,” I snapped. I moved through the ruins of my ship with Berrett trailing behind. “Why are you still here? You’ve done your civic duty, now buzz off.”

  “Wow, you are kind of horrible, aren’t you?”

  I rolled my eyes and continued to pick my way through the rubble. I had to see if there was anything salvageable, and time was not on my side. The odds were terrible, but perhaps something useful had survived. I trotted to a promising heap of twisted metal, crawled under the pile, and pulled out a banged up metal storage case. “Eureka.”

  I pried open the case and found a survival pack. As I lifted the pack up, I thought about my now-charred knapsack. Won’t be needing it anymore, anyway. I looked up at Berrett. “Seriously, why are you still here?”

  “Because unlike you, I have a reasonable definition of what being in danger means.”

  I gave him my best scowl, and then looked down at the pack in my hands. “You want one?” I asked.

  “Nah, I’m good. Thanks, though. See, that’s what polite people say when someone does something nice for them. They say, ‘Why, Berrett, I didn’t know you cared. Thank you.’”

  “You’re welcome,” I said. “The looters can have the rest. I doubt there’s much else here that would be of—”

  I stopped short as I caught a glimpse of something sparkling in the fire’s glow. Burning ship doesn’t sparkle. A large diamond, on the other hand ....

  I ran to the glittering spot in the charred grass and dropped to my knees.

  “Can’t be ... no chance in ... flarking skud, I can’t believe it!” I cried.

  “Can’t believe what, you foul-mouthed little ingrate?” asked Berrett.

  “My mother’s ring.” I laughed.

  Perhaps there was a merciful force in the universe. I gingerly picked it out of the shards of the cleaning solution container. It was hot to the touch, but miraculously intact. I dropped it in one of my many pockets and instantly felt its heat through the fabric. I hoped it wouldn’t burn a hole through my pants. I could put it on the chain later when I was alone. One of my many rules of survival was never, ever, ever show anyone what’s on the end of the chain.

  Especially random, albeit really hot, strangers.

  “Your mom gave that to you?” he asked.

  No details.

  Embed grains of truth in lies.

  I shook my head. “I didn’t say it was my mom’s ring.”

  “You definitely said mother.”

  “Well I meant mother like ... Mother Superior.”

  “A nun gave you—”

  Flark. Should’ve stuck to no details.

  “Yes, okay? A nun. I always wear it, but just before the attack, I put it in my cabin. I thought ... anyway. No time. We gotta get outta here before someone notices the smoke.”

  “Too late,” said Berrett. He pointed up to what looked like a small black cloud moving quickly toward us. “Military carriers.”

  “Skud.”

  Berrett looked at me for a second, and then grabbed my hand. “Into the grass!” he said.

  “What?”

  “Crawl!”

  “They’ll be over us, they can see, idiot! What do you think you—”

  “Shut up and crawl! And turn off your Cuff while you’re at it.”

  “I already did. How stupid do you think I am?” I hissed.

  “You really want an answer to that right now?”

  I rolled my eyes and sighed as I army-crawled behind Berrett.

  We crawled through the grass as the sound of the carriers drew nearer. I admit I had to repress the urge to pee my pants.

  Berrett led us close to a smoldering bit of the Misfit’s hull. He crawled under it, pulling me in with him. “Roll under me and hold on. Tight.”

  “What?”

  “Not that, sicko. I’m going to launch us, and if you’re not hanging on you’ll be left here for the SUN to find. If we do this right, we’ll both disappear. Now roll under me and hang on.”

  I rolled under Berrett’s chest and nestled beneath him, locking my arms around the back of his neck.

  You know, because that’s not all kinds of awkward.

  Still, you do what you have to in order to survive. I’m not sure why the universe kept trying to teach me that lesson, but it sure felt like we had entered dead-horse-kicking territory.

  “What are you waiting for?” I whispered.

  “You think the remains of your ship are stable?” he asked.

  “Nope,” I replied.

  I hadn’t thought about that as I was rifling around looking for stuff.

  Oops.

  “Neither do they,” said Berrett. “So when part of it explodes and a small piece of debris flies away, they’ll think nothing of it. We just need them to be close enough to landing that we can shoot above them without them seeing us.”

  “Berrett?”

  “What?”

  “I love you.”

  “You’re weird. Now be quiet.”

  “Wait, how are you going to make the ship ex—”

  Before I could finish my sentence, Berrett tossed something behind us.

  A tooth-rattling explosion erupted at the same instant Berrett ignited his rocket pack. We flew into the air, and as I looked back one last time to see the remains of my precious Misfit, I saw them.

  At least thirty SUN carriers. For one crashed ship.

  They knew.

  PARKED 5

  BERRETT AND I LANDED IN THE SOFT, SPRINGY GRASS OF A park just as the sun was beginning to set. Earth had a different smell than the colonies on Titan. The smell of Titan was newer, more ... chemical and plasticine and hi-I-was-recently-terraformed. Earth was different. Earth smelled old in a comfortable way. I wondered for a moment if some part of me remembered the smell of Earth.

  Then other wonderings kicked in. Wonderings like how the flark did Berrett wind up with a military grade explosive? But first things first.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  Berrett flipped his visor open. “Jersey. Let’s go sit for a minute and take a breather.”

  I balked, my delight in his attractive eyes giving way to annoyance as I crossed my arms. “No.”

  “No? What do you mean no?”

  “I mean no! I have no idea who you really are or why you saved me or where in the system you managed to get your hands on that kind of explosive. And on top of all that, I can’t exactly stop for afternoon tea. You saw all those ships. They could have seen us. They could be tailing us right—”

  “They aren’t. Besides, five minutes won’t make that much difference and I have a question for you. What does the Underground mean to you, exactly?”

  I knew just enough about the Underground to not be very impressed. They created safe houses to sit around and talk about how they were going to stick it to the SUN, but I never heard about anything serious coming of it. In my mind, the Underground was just a bunch of adults who had allowed the SUN to screw up the System, content to sit around and whine, waiting to die off and hand the problems over to the next generation.

  My generation.

  Still, Berrett was my only hope at the moment.

  Time for some diplomacy.

>   I flopped down on the bench next to him. “It means you don’t agree with how the SUN is running things, and you’ll do anything short of, you know, actually stand up and fight them or do something to change your circumstances. Am I in the ballpark?”

  A spark of anger flickered in Berrett’s eyes. “Not a fan?”

  So much for diplomacy.

  “I’m not a fan of anyone, okay? I’m just a cargo runner. I need to find a ship, get my crew back, and figure out how to deal with Eira the Psychopath.”

  “Who?”

  “Eira Ninge. She’s the horrible slag responsible for this flarking mess I’m in.”

  “Wait, the Eira Ninge? The president of GSP, Eira Ninge?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes, that Eira. Turns out she’s a heartless nutbar, and she thinks I have something worth killing for. The real question here is, are you gonna help me or get in my way?”

  Berrett stared at me. “Are you human?”

  “How do I know you’re not one of the bad guys?”

  “Because if I worked for the SUN, you’d be dead already. They don’t send in thirty cruisers to take prisoners.”

  I nodded with no small amount of reluctance.

  Berrett sighed. “Alright, look, I wasn’t supposed to tell you this, but the Underground sent me to find you. I’m one of their runners. I can get you what you need, but first, you wanna explain to me why exactly the System wants you so badly that they’d send thirty military cruisers in to pick up one girl?”

  I cried out in disgust. “I am a seventeen-year-old starship captain, pilot first class, thank you very much, and—”

  “And you’re just one girl. I fail to see the need to send in so many cruisers, unless you’re some kind of crazy wizard, which is out based on your total inability to fly.”

  “Lost my broom.”

  “There’s a joke in there, but you haven’t answered my question,” said Berrett.

  “Give me one good reason why I should tell you anything.”