Liberty

by Annie Laurie Cechini

  Berrett and I looked at each other. A tiny glimmer of hope was in his eyes, and I knew the sweet prospect of revenge was radiating in mine.

  “Won’t she suspect you?” I asked.

  “Of course she’ll suspect me. She’s a paranoid, delusional psychopath! She suspects everyone, which is why you’ll be riding with me, in my ship. The shuttle will remain here. She’ll think you’re saying your goodbyes. I’ll set up a meet with her, and you’ll sneak on board when I give you the all-clear signal.”

  “Wouldn’t it be smarter to use the shuttle that can, you know, hide?”

  Max grinned. “Eira’s ship is state of the art. She already knows you’re here, Dix.”

  Before I could object, Max slapped a silver chain around my wrist.

  “What is that?”

  “A tracking bracelet. Don’t want to lose you in the shuffle if things don’t go to plan,” said Max.

  I shook my head. “Whatever. Let’s just get this over with.”

  We headed out of the café and followed Max to the nearest dock. As we headed down Max’s docking strip, Berrett grabbed my arm and stopped me in my tracks.

  “Whatever happens, I’ll always have your back, Dix. You know that, right?”

  “Yeah. I got yours too. Thanks for everything, Berrett.”

  He nodded, his lips pursed tightly together as he helped me into the ship. “Dix, what’s your game plan if this works out?”

  I didn’t answer. I wasn’t about to tell him that no matter how things went down, I wouldn’t be coming back to the System.

  JUSTICE: CHECK 28

  MAX’S SLEEK, BLACK SHIP SLUNK THROUGH THE SKY LIKE A panther padding along a tree limb without a sound. The interior was minimalistic and modern, sharp angles, bold lines, and lots and lots of black. I drummed my fingernails against the arm of my leather chair.

  Luxury always made me uncomfortable.

  “What’d you tell her?” I asked.

  “Just said I wanted to talk. Told her I had some news that she’d be interested in.”

  “And you’re actually going to be inside her ship when we upload the program?” asked Berrett.

  Max pulled another small piece of plastic from his pocket. “My ticket to staying awake. I stick this in my mouth and plug my nose, and all is right with my world. I’m free to execute my part of the plan and you’re free to get your ship and your crew. In order to maintain my good standing with the indomitable Ms. Ninge, I will of course be sticking around and feigning unconsciousness.”

  “You are a piece of work,” said Berrett. “I’m just glad you’re on our side.”

  “Don’t kid yourself, Berrett, I’m on my side. You just happen to be on my side too at the moment.” Max pointed out the shield. “There she is. You two go get suited up and wait for me to dock.”

  Berrett and I headed down a corridor and into a small locker room. We pulled on space suits and grabbed our helmets.

  “You ready for this?” he asked.

  “Sure.”

  We walked into the airlock and waited for Max to let us out. Through the shield we could see Eira’s enormous ship inching closer to ours. As we docked with her, I heard Max’s crackling voice through the speaker in my helmet.

  “Remember, Dix, either way this winds up, I get out clean. Whether or not you get what you’re after is entirely up to you.”

  “Right. Wouldn’t hurt you either.”

  Max laughed. “I always knew you were a smart kid. Now go do your thing.”

  I nodded to Berrett, and we stepped out of the airlock and onto the hull of Eira’s ship.

  Max was pretty brilliant, I had to admit. He had docked in such a way that Berrett and I would be invisible to her monitors. We quickly found the port and waited for Max’s signal.

  “Hey, Dix?” asked Berrett.

  “Yeah?”

  “You okay?”

  “As okay as I’ll ever be.”

  A short, high-pitched tone sounded inside my helmet. “That’s the signal,” I said.

  Berrett held open the little hatch while I inserted the drive. The base of the drive lit up as the program loaded into the ship’s mainframe computer.

  “Sixty seconds?” asked Berrett.

  “Sixty seconds. Berrett?” I asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “Hold me?”

  His face registered confusion and surprise, but he put his arms around me. I shivered inside my suit, not so much afraid of the danger we were facing, but more that I would never feel his arms around me again.

  The timer went off and I put all my emotions away. “Okay, let’s go.”

  I opened the hatch and climbed into Eira’s airlock. According to the schematics Max had provided, Eira held the prisoners in a brig on the lower level. We pulled off our helmets, engaged gravitational control, and dropped to the floor of the chamber. I shoved open the door and Berrett and I tore down the winding staircase and through the hall, leaping over unconscious guards as we went.

  “Of all the skud you’ve dragged me into, this is by far the creepiest,” said Berrett.

  An involuntary shiver went up my spine. “Thanks for that. Now focus. The brig’s around that corner.”

  As we rounded the corner, I heard Berrett yell and felt him push me so hard I flew into the nearest wall. I yelped in pain as my shoulder made contact, but I didn’t have time to investigate the damage. Three guards were standing in front of the door to the brig, and they were firing at us.

  Berrett and I hid behind two support columns as bullets flew past us and ricocheted down the hallway.

  That made it kind of hard to aim.

  I reached for my knife and gun, drawing both at the same time. I shot the left shoulder of one guard and flung the knife into the right thigh of another guard. Berrett flung his silver dagger into the stomach of the third guard, who doubled over and slumped to the ground. He didn’t get back up.

  “Hit the guy with the knife in his leg!” I yelled.

  I barreled into the remaining guard, driving my elbow into his wounded shoulder. He screamed in pain as I slammed him into the wall. Grabbing his head, I bashed it against the metal frame of the brig doors. He slumped to the floor. I whirled around to check on Berrett and was not at all pleased at what I saw.

  Berrett’s punch to the guard’s eye had not done much to deter an attack. The guard had, alarmingly, pulled the knife from his leg and was slicing the air with it, trying to take Berrett out. I scrambled for my gun and shot the knife out of the guard’s hand.

  “Playtime’s over, kiddo,” I said. “Next shot goes through your heart unless you kneel down, right now.”

  The guard didn’t have to say a word for me to understand that death might have been his preferred option at that moment.

  Not my problem.

  I grabbed a handful of plastic zip ties out of my pocket.

  Berrett stared at me. “What on earth are you—”

  “Tying them up,” I said.

  “Oh. Smart.”

  “I know.”

  I grabbed the keys off one of the guards. Just before I got the keys into the lock, a bullet bounced off the door in front of me.

  “Flarking skud!” I yelled.

  Berrett and I ducked down and stuffed ourselves into the corner. Two more guards were behind the columns with guns aimed right at us.

  “What are we gonna do?” asked Berrett.

  “I’m all out of options. I can’t get a good shot off with them hiding behind the columns, so the knives are useless. I think we’re trapped.”

  Berrett looked into my eyes.

  “I love you, you know.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  Berrett reached for my hand. A bullet barely missed his arm.

  We couldn’t move, and the clock was ticking. We were so close. My crew, my ship, Berrett ... all were within my reach, but I couldn’t open the flarking door.

  I had nothing left. I was trapped.

  Which is when the two guards’ h
eads were violently banged together.

  “Dix, what the flark are you doing?” asked Max.

  “Max!”

  I leapt up and ran to him. I threw my arms around him without thinking.

  “Okay, yes, hugs, now let go and get that door unlocked,” he grumbled.

  I pulled away and hurried to unlock the brig.

  “I send you in to do this one simple thing, and you wind up getting stuck and needing my help. Good thing I was conscious.”

  “Yeah, yeah, we’re very grateful,” I said. “Now get back upstairs and go play dead.”

  “Aye, Captain,” said Max. He turned and headed back down the hallway.

  I opened the brig and had to hold my breath.

  “Captain!” cried Bell. She was beaten and bleeding, but was by far in the best shape out of everyone. My stomach lurched at the sight and smell of their wounds. “Mama B. was right. Neptune was the better prison.”

  I put a hand to her bruised cheek as Berrett picked the lock on her shackles. “Bell, once you’re loose, help Berrett free the others.”

  “Aye, Cap.”

  “I knew you would come for us,” whispered CiCi.

  I put her right arm over my shoulders as she fell out of her chains. “Always. Now, let’s get you out of here.”

  Bell was able to help Miriam, while Berrett and Rivera walked on either side of Mama B.

  “I’m sorry we have to hurry, but we only have a few minutes left before the guards recover from the knock out gas,” I said. “We have to get to the loading bay. It’s up the stairs, and—”

  “Dix, there’s an elevator,” said Berrett.

  “Where?”

  “Here, on the right side of the hall, just before the stairs. See it?”

  I nodded and pulled CiCi toward it. She groaned in pain, barely maintaining consciousness.

  “Hang in there, sweetie. I’ll get you back to your baby soon.”

  “Okay, Cap. Did you save Hobs?”

  I didn’t answer. I looked at Berrett in desperation, but he was totally focused on helping Mama B.

  “Cap?” asked CiCi.

  I hung my head. “I couldn’t save him, Ceese.”

  Her face crumpled and she probably would have cried if she had the strength to. We rode the elevator up. It was fast, but every second that passed left me wondering just how many we had left to spend. The doors slid open, and we hurried as quickly as we could toward the loading bay. Just as we were about to head inside, I noticed a familiar set of blonde curls and cherry red lips staring up at me from the deck plating of the hallway. I could see her trying to speak, but the knock out gas made it impossible. She wasn’t fully recovered yet. Max was lying beside her, peaceful as a dead man.

  My free hand went straight to my gun. I had found my chance to be rid of her.

  To be free.

  “Berrett!”

  “What?”

  “I need you to take CiCi.”

  He looked at me strangely as he came over. I knew he could read my thoughts.

  “You’re nothing like her.”

  That’s all he said. He turned and walked CiCi into the loading bay. I could see my crew, battered and broken but together, making their way to Liberty.

  I looked down at Eira, then back to our ship.

  I knelt down and put my face right next to hers. “This is for Caleb and the shipmen.” I punched her and broke her nose. A part of me thrilled to the tune of her groan of agony. “This is for Hobs.” I hit her again and gave her a black eye. With her one good eye, she stared hungrily at the chain around my neck. I clicked back the hammer and aimed.

  “Wait!” yelled Berrett. He raced to my side, breathless. “We need her alive.”

  “What?” I screamed.

  “She’s got Liberty locked down. We need her to give us the access code or we can’t get the ship out of the bay.”

  “Flark.”

  I knelt down next to Eira and waved the vial of Eternigen in front of her nose. “You want this? Give me the code to my ship.”

  Her eyes glowed. She whispered something I couldn’t understand. I put my head down closer to her.

  “Never.”

  I pulled away, tugged the chain over my head, and dangled the vial over her face. “Are you sure? Never is an awfully long time.”

  “All ... have to do ... is wait.”

  I blanched as I realized she was right. She had us. All she had to do was lie there and, just as she had always planned, she would win.

  After everything I had risked, I was about to lose anyway.

  “Oh, for pity’s sake!” cried Max. He got up, walked over to one of the ship’s consoles, and started hacking into the data base.

  “You!” growled Eira, the strength of her voice slowly returning.

  “Save your energy for the minions who care,” said Max. “I got it! The code is—seriously, Eira? Seriously?”

  “Max!” I cried. Time was running out.

  “Right, right. The code is capital B-a-i-t, the number four, capital T-a-b-i-t-h-a.”

  I rolled my eyes and then yelled the code out to Berrett. I heard Liberty’s engine roar to life as I knelt down next to Eira Ninge, the vial dangling from my fist.

  “This is for me, you flarking slag,” I hissed.

  “Dix, no!” cried Max.

  With all my might, I threw the glass vial to the ground.

  Eira’s face contorted and her eyes flew open wide as the tiny vial shattered. The rest of her body unable to move, she watched me smear the Eternigen into the deck plate in front of her with the toe of my boot. I picked the chain with my mother’s ring out of the shards of glass and placed it back around my neck.

  Eira turned her eyes to me. They were full of hate and rage, and a gargling scream strangled in her throat.

  “Well, flark,” said Max. He grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall and sprayed it into the Eternigen and, to my endless delight, Eira’s face. He dropped his coat onto the floor, mopped up the mess, grabbed the coat and my elbow, and marched me onto the landing deck. “Let’s get out of here, you. Eira, darling, good luck trying to extract any traces of Eternigen out of that.”

  It was my turn to smile.

  FREEDOM 29

  I SAT IN MY QUARTERS ON THE EDGE OF MY BED, HOBS’S velvet box in my hands, his last words echoing in my mind.

  Oh captain, my captain! I have a surprise for you! You’re going to love it!

  It’s where I’ve always loved you. No one else ... just my Dix ....

  My eyes brimmed with tears as I pried open the squeaky lid. Inside was a silver locket, simple, straightforward, and shaped like a heart. I held it up and read the words Hobs had engraved on the face. Live Free Or Die.

  I wiped my eyes with my sleeve as I popped open the locket. Inside were two pictures of Hobson and me. I snapped it shut, pulled my mother’s ring from my other chain, and slipped it on with the locket. I wrapped it around my neck, clasping it in the back without looking. I tucked the locket inside my shirt, felt it and the ring lie against my chest where the Eternigen had rested. My feelings overwhelmed me. My mind went blank as my emotions crashed and pulled inside of me.

  It was time. Time to start thinking about the others more than myself. Time to be a better person.

  Time to go home to my family ... and to Hobs.

  I sat in my Captain’s chair. Bell was beside me. Rivera, CiCi, and Mama B. were being held captive in the healing room by Miriam, who was tending to their wounds. I had lost track of Berrett.

  “Captain, are you sure you want to do this?” asked Bell.

  “I told you, it’s safer for everyone this way.”

  “You didn’t tell Berrett, did you?”

  I didn’t answer. Berrett would never let me get away with my plan, but he just didn’t understand. It was the only way to keep everyone safe.

  “To say I don’t like it would be a gross understatement,” said Bell. “And ‘e will be ‘eartbroken.”

  “I can’t
imagine to whom you are referring, but your complaint will be duly noted in my log before I leave. Don’t worry.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I know.”

  “Captain?”

  “What?”

  “You are my best friend. ‘Ow can I sit by and let you do this? I would rather go with you than ‘ave you give your life for us.”

  “Don’t think I’m all that excited about this either. Now quit being all ... feeling-y about this or I’ll lose my nerve. This is the right thing to do, and it’s the only way to guarantee your safety. You can’t talk me out of this, Bell.”

  I wasn’t keen on the idea of drifting off into space, but Max’s tracking bracelet needed to keep flying past the edge of the System in order for my ruse to work. The minute I had destroyed the Eternigen he had tossed me onto my ship, hopped into his, and had been tailing us ever since. Once I got Max off Liberty’s trail, my crew could escape to wherever they wanted. Bell was a capable pilot and Berrett would make a great first mate.

  It was the best thing to do.

  However, as usual, I had grossly underestimated Berrett.

  “Dix!” he cried as he threw open the cockpit doors. “Where’s Hobs’s letter?”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Just where is it? I need to see it.”

  I eyed him suspiciously as I pulled Hobs’s letter from inside my jacket. He snatched it out of my hands and knelt on the floor.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Look! Hobs wasn’t capitalizing things weirdly for no reason.” He pulled out another sheet of paper and wrote out all the letters Hobs had capitalized in his letter.

  “F-I-N-D ... Find! Find ... my ... J-O-U-R—”

  “Find my journal!” finished Bell.

  I stared at Bell, then Berrett. He smiled. “Hobs wants us to finish the formula.”

  “His journals are in his—oh, flark, they’re in his lab and Eira had Liberty!”