Liberty (30 page)

It was my turn to smile.

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!”

I ran full speed down the halls toward Hobs’s lab. I skidded to a stop in front of his door. It looked like someone had held a blowtorch to the lock.

“They couldn’t have gotten inside, even if they’d broken the lock,” said Rivera, sauntering casually down the hall.

I whirled around to face him. “What?” I asked. “How would you know?”

“Remember when he threw me the key?”

“Threw you the ...”

My mind faded back to Hobs’s last moments. Gunshots. A silver key flying through the air.

I stared at Rivera.

“It wasn’t your average key. He knew we’d be captured, and that they’d find that key on me. As soon as they tried to use it on the lab doors, a security program engaged and nothing short of the ship being blown to bits would open that room.”

Berrett let out a low whistle. “Wish Caleb and I had thought of something that clever. When did he install that?”

“Probably while we were on Mars,” I replied. “How are we supposed to open it now?”

Rivera smiled and looked at me. “Biometric key. Only one person can open it once it’s like this.” He pointed to a scanner to the right of the torched door.

“Me?” I asked.

“No, the Easter Bunny,” said Rivera.

I looked into the scanner. Nothing happened.

“Hmph. That should have worked,” said Rivera.

“Captain?” asked Bell.

“What?”

“Remove your contacts.”

I pursed my lips together. “Look, I don’t know if I can—”

“Yes, that is what you said about the asteroids, do you remember?”

I nodded. “Okay, gimme a sec.”

I turned away and popped my purple lenses out. I hesitated before turning around. My crew had never seen my real eyes. It felt strange, even after everything we had gone through, to be so naked, so myself with them. I took a deep breath and faced them with my own eyes.

“Wow,” said Berrett.

“What?” I cried.

“Nothing.”

“Something!”

“Y..... ha..... your eyes, they’re pretty, that’s all.”

“Really?” said Rivera. “Flirt later. Right now, scan your pretty eyes and open Hobs’s lab.”

“How did you know about this, anyway?” I asked.

“Oh, Captain. There is so much you don’t know about me.”

I tried to read him, but I couldn’t. “You made so much more sense before Neptune.”

Rivera laughed. “Trust me, this version is better. Now look in the scanner.”

The door popped open and the four of us stepped inside.

Scattered across his lab table were beakers, ingredients, random piles of junk, and one thick, leather-bound journal with papers and notes sticking out of it at odd angles.

I picked up the journal, let it fall open, and started reading.

Spent most of the day thinking about temperature. It has to play a role ... and when I wasn’t thinking about that, I was thinking about Dix’s eyes. I saw them once when she didn’t have her contacts in. She has incredibly beautiful eyes.

I blushed.

“You okay?” asked Berrett.

I slammed the book shut. “Fine. It’s mostly just talking about experiments.”

“Come look at this,” said Berrett.

With the journal in my hands, I walked over to Berrett, who was facing a wall of shelves. On one shelf was a whole row of beakers, filled to the brim with a swirling, silver liquid.

“Oh, my... he didn’t ...” I picked up a beaker and held it in my hands. My throat tightened and the strength threatened to leave my legs. “This was his surprise,” I whispered.

Berrett took the journal from me and starting flipping through pages. “Berrett! Give it back!”

“I just want to see what it says about—”

“Give it back!”

He held it as high as he could, well beyond my reach. I jumped up anyway, determined to retrieve it.

Rivera intervened and plucked the journal out of Berrett’s hands. “You two are such infants. Look, the last ten pages is where the important skud is. The whole process, everything we need and every step we have to take ... he wrote it all here. He finished that batch maybe fifteen minutes before Eira attacked.”

The shock overwhelmed me and I stumbled to the nearest chair. I heard Rivera yell for Miriam and CiCi. The crew danced and laughed and hugged each other. I sat in my chair, stared at the silver liquid in my hands, and thought of Hobs.

As I ran back to the cockpit, my crew on my heels, the sight of the sleek, black ship tailing us in the distance didn’t faze me one bit. Not even Max could ruin my day now.

Hobs had given me one last gift.

A chance at life.

A chance for freedom.

I swore by every star in the System I wouldn’t waste it.

Annie Laurie Cechini is a connoisseur of every type of geekery. She writes with a sonic screwdriver pen, owns a Tribble named Nimoy, and often threatens in all seriousness to name a child after a character from the Star Wars lexicon. Liberty is her first novel. You can learn more at her website,
www.annielauriecechini.com
.