Liberty by Annie Laurie Cechini Read Free Book Online

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
    B ERRETT 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