Liberty (11 page)

Never know what happened to my crew.

Flark.

I flung myself off the mattress and started pacing as I talked to myself.

“I can’t. I have to find my crew. But I have no ship, and even if I did, I can’t very well fly without a crew.”

I sighed as I flopped back down on the mattress and stared at the ceiling some more. “If I don’t go after my crew, I’ll never get off this rock. I’ll be a fugitive all my life—whatever that winds up consisting of. Maybe there’s a middle ground. Maybe I could work here for a couple of years, save up and buy a ship, and—”

I stopped short and sat bolt upright. Berrett was standing in the doorway, his eyes wide and his lips twitching.

“Are you talking to yourself?” He was clearly trying not to laugh.

I stood up. “No, and what are you doing in here?”

“Brought you some pajamas.” He tossed them onto the dresser. “Honestly, I thought you’d be out cold, but Mama wanted you to have them, anyway. What are you and yourself discussing, exactly?”

I scowled at him. “Leave me alone.”

“Maybe I can be of assistance? Offer some insight? I mean, it’s got to be hard to have a discussion of pros and cons with you on the other end of the conversation.”

I put my hands on my hips and let out a sigh of exasperation. “Look, either stop teasing me or scoot.”

“Alright, alright.” Berrett hopped on the air mattress and leaned back against the pile of blankets. “I’ll stop teasing you. What are you trying to figure out, exactly? I mean, aside from your raging mental issues?”

“I hate you. You said you were going to stop teasing me!”

“See? One minute you love me, the next you hate me. You clearly have tremendous emotional hang-ups.”

I shook my head. “You’re ridiculous. Fine. The choices are to hide or go after my crew.”

Berrett was quiet for a second. “We talked about this. Was hiding ever a real option, Dix? Of course you’re going after your crew. All you need is a ship. And I already have that covered.”

“How? Your mother is in danger. I don’t even know whose house this is, but whoever they are, the SUN will be watching them like hawks. I’ve endangered everyone here, and—”

“Dix, come on, think. Stu told you I work in a shipyard. This is Caleb’s house, of course they suspect him, but we’re safe here for the moment. Leave the details of ship-stealing to me.”

“But if they can scan your rocket, what’s to stop them from scanning the license of any ship we—”

“Hey,” he said. “I got this. Meanwhile, I think we should look up your aunt on your Cuff.”

“You are flarking crazy! They’ll be all over that! My Cuff is registered under the name Trudy Loveless!”

“Quit whining and hand it over.”

Reluctantly, I handed Berrett my Cuff. He flipped open the back and started doing who-knows-what to it.

“There you go.”

“There I go what?”

“Cuff, meet Morgan L. Fey. Morgan, meet Cuff.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You’re pretty handy to have around.”

“Okay, so now let’s take a look and see what the net has to say about Tabitha Dixon the First.”

I entered the information into the search bar. A few minutes later, my screen was littered with hits, most of them rather unflattering posts about me. We scrolled back, page after page, until finally we stumbled across an old article on a bright young scientist named Tabitha Dixon.

“The Northeastern branch of the SUN Laboratories is pleased to welcome Dr. Tabitha Dixon into its ranks. Dr. Dixon has a stunning past and a bright future as the youngest member ever to join our team of researchers.”

“Whoa,” said Berrett. “Smart lady.”

“Ye-ep,” I said, puffing out my chest. “Runs in the family.”

Berrett snorted. “Apparently it skipped a generation.”

I shook my head and returned to reading the article, skimming past the usual SUN propaganda.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. There’s not much else here. Guess she was a pretty big deal.”

“She must have been to figure out the Eternigen.” He put his arm around me and leaned in to look more closely at the article on my Cuff. I didn’t want it to, but the touch of his arm around my shoulders felt good. Comforting, almost.

“Why would they have killed her for it?” I wondered aloud.

“Maybe they didn’t want her to prove it could be done. Maybe they wanted her to ensure it never would. I could see the SUN doing that. Like hiring someone to try to hack your system to make sure you’re safe. It’s hard enough to control the masses when we’re this spread out. Can you imagine if we had access to deep space too?”

I considered that. It had never occurred to me that the SUN might actually be trying to do anything useful.

Like prevent an intergalactic war.

“While we have all this free access,” said Berrett, “maybe we should try to figure out who Eira is.” He took my Cuff and typed in GSP, Inc. Up popped a fabulous looking site, with all kinds of interactive ways to plan a voyage to almost any planet in the System.

“Touch ‘About Us’,” I said.

He did, and sure enough, there in all her evil glory was Eira. Below her picture we found a short biography.

A graduate of the Académie on Venus, Eira Ninge studied medical sciences with the intent to become a neurosurgeon. A diagnosis of severe essential tremor at age 15 forced her to change her career path, and at 16 she began to work alongside her father at Galileo Space Pioneering, Inc. On the tragic death of her father in System Year 34, Eira assumed control of GSP, Inc., making it the number one company in space pioneering technology.

“Ha! That doesn’t cover the half of it!” I cried. “Bet she wrote that herself.”

“Shh!” whispered Berrett. “Mama’s probably already asleep next door.”

I winced. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” He gave me back the Cuff and stood up. “Lots to think about, huh?”

“That’s putting it mildly.” Eira had gone to the Académie. I felt as though I had just stuck my head in a fire hose.

“Try to get some sleep. We can talk about it more in the morning if you want.”

“Thanks, Berrett.”

He turned around in the doorway and looked back at me. As I stared up into his dark brown eyes, electric currents zipped through my entire body. I held his gaze as long as I dared, then looked away and stared out the window. I could hear the smile in his voice as he turned to go.

“It’s just pajamas, Dix.”

B
RIGHT ELECTRIC LIGHT STREAMED INTO MY ROOM FROM THE
hallway. I swatted at it, wanting it to go away. I pulled my covers over my head and retreated into the warmth.

“Tabitha? Honey, time to rise and shine,” said Mama B.

Hmph. No rest for the wicked.

I crawled out of bed, blinking and barely able to see in front of me.

“Not used to the lights?” she asked.

I shook my head. “What time is it?”

“Six-thirty in the morning.”

She was fully dressed with a blanket in one hand and a steaming cup of coffee in the other. The smell of it wrapped around my nose and made my stomach growl. Her thick blonde hair was pulled up on each side by a set of barrettes. “Berrett was up an hour ago,” she said.

I crawled out of bed, she set her coffee cup down, and we folded blankets together.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“Upstairs. I think he wanted to go to the shipyard, but Caleb thought it was too risky to have either of you out in the open.”

“Oh.” As we folded up the blankets, a question that had been nagging at the back of my mind rolled out of my mouth before my brain could stop it. “Is Berrett your kid or does everyone call you Mama B.?”

She smiled. “Yes and yes. Is the fact that I’m pink and he’s brown confusing you a little?”

“No, I just ... well, I ... I just wasn’t sure what to call you, exactly.”

I am such an idiot.

Mama B. pursed her lips, but the corners of her mouth quivered, like she was trying to suppress a laugh and look stern all at once. “Tabitha, honey, do you want to throw your clothes in the wash while we have power? I can loan you some of mine. They might not fit perfect, but it’ll be better that way if you’re going out. I have a cabby hat I can give you too. I used to steal Frederick’s all the time.” She smiled and sipped her coffee.

“Frederick?” I asked.

“Jordan’s father. He never minded my cabby hat thievery. He was a good man. Jordan’s a lot like him. Looks just like him too.”

“Well, he must have been very hot—er ... uh, handsome.”

On fire this morning. Absolutely on fire.

“Ah, so you think Jordan’s handsome? Well, I think you have excellent taste, honey. Of course, I am completely biased.”

I smiled in spite of myself. She was so disarming, so seemingly oblivious of my blundering, so ... motherly.

“Go on into my room, find whatever’s in that closet that’ll fit you, and get dressed, hon. Big day ahead of you.”

I walked into the other room and started rifling through the closet. “How long do you guys usually have power?”

“At our house, we usually max out around two in the afternoon on a day like today. When we aren’t doing chores, we can sometimes make it last until seven or eight at night. Helps that we’re gone so much of the day. I don’t know how Caleb and his wife manage it with four small children.”

“Children? I didn’t see any—”

“Oh, they were safely tucked away long before you two arrived.”

I exhaled as the full weight of the danger I had put these people in hit me. I tried to keep the conversation light. “Wouldn’t it be aces if you could save up power somehow?”

“Or at least install your own solar panels,” she replied.

“Yeah.” I pulled on a tunic and cinched my belt around it, then shimmied into Mama B.’s jeans. They fit around my waist, but the legs stopped partway up my calf. I pulled my boots on and stuffed the ends of the jeans into the tops.

Problem solved.

Mama B. came in as I was zipping up the sides of my boots. “This tavern we stay at on Mars has solar panels. Only nobody cares because it’s Mars.”

Mama B. laughed. “You must have had some crazy adventures.”

I sighed. “Yeah. Crazy adventures that have put all of you in danger.”

“You’ll have to tell me all about it over breakfast.”

I swallowed hard. Not the topic I really wanted to get into over eggs. Still, I followed her up the steps and out into the bottom floor of the townhouse. We walked up to the second level where the kitchen was. Caleb’s wife was fussing over breakfast and three very small children. I felt awkward and unsure of how to help, so I fidgeted with the hilt of my knife and tried to avoid making eye contact with the little guys.

Berrett, on the other hand, seemed perfectly at ease. In between shoveling down mouthfuls of scrambled eggs and toast, he played peek-a-boo with a kid in a high chair.

I thought I was safe, that the tiny monsters would be engrossed by Berrett, but one of them wandered over to me and tugged on my borrowed tunic.

“Escews me?” asked the boy. His dark curls framed round, ruddy cheeks. I coughed and looked away, but the little one was relentless in his quest for my attention.

“Escews
me?” He tugged on my tunic so fiercely that it threw me off balance and I had to kneel down.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

Obnoxious little monster.

“Are you a pwincess?”

My mouth opened, but no words came out. I had no idea how to respond to that. Caleb’s wife laughed and Mama B. smiled. I went red in the face. “No, kid,” I said gruffly.

“Huh. I fought you was.”

The boy went back to his breakfast. I tried to shake off the urge to smile as I filched a piece of bacon and quickly snarfed it down.

“Buster, she is most certainly not a princess,” said Berrett. He grinned over his shoulder at me. I tried to squelch the sensation of butterflies taking flight in my stomach.

“Maybe, maybe she’s a dwagon hunter!” said Buster.

He took his fork and made it fly around and growl.

“Yeah, that’s what I am,” I said. I took the plate that Mama B. handed me and sat across from Berrett. “Tabitha Dixon, Dragon Slayer.”

“Isn’t that a bit cannibalistic?” asked Berrett.

I glared at him and threw a piece of toast at his chest.

“Children,” said Mama B. “Behave.”

“Yes, Mama,” said Berrett. He kicked my shin lightly under the table. I cried out in disgust.

Mama B. folded her arms and unleashed a look only a mother could give. “Jordan, let the girl eat.”

Berrett frowned and turned his attention to his remaining breakfast.

I smirked, and then started counting tiny monster heads. One, two, three .. “Thought you said there were four.”

“There are,” said Caleb’s wife. She put down her spatula and shook my hand. “I’m Gwen. Sorry we didn’t really meet yesterday. My oldest is on her way to school.”

I bit down on my lower lip. “I’m very sorry to have put your family in so much danger. I’d hate to think what would happen if—”

“Nonsense. You’re safe for now, as long as we keep you under wraps. The people around here are not exactly friendly toward the SUN. You could have marched in our doors in broad daylight and no one in this neighborhood would have said a word.”

“So why’d they come here?” I asked.

“The network,” said Mama B. “The SUN has access to everyone you know, and everyone they know. It’s quite easy for them to use that information to track down anyone connected to a crime, and then threaten to harm those loved ones if the criminal doesn’t emerge.”

My eyes widened. “Did they threaten you?”

“Don’t worry about it, Tabitha,” replied Gwen. “It’s nothing we can’t handle.”

I stared at Berrett. “What can I do? I can’t just stay here and endanger you like this.”

“Help me fold laundry,” said Mama B. “It’ll give us a good chance to get to know each other.”