Lost Planet 02 - The Stolen Moon by Rachel Searles Read Free Book Online Page A

party?”
    â€œDo I have to?”
    â€œNo. Go ahead—I’ll tell them the captain called for you.”
    â€œHe’s not coming down to the party, is he?” Chase felt silly for even asking.
    Maurus’s smile twisted into a regretful look. “No, but you should go visit him on the bridge. I’m sure he’d like to wish you a happy birthday.”
    Chase shrugged. He already felt stupid enough about his age blunder—he didn’t want to interrupt activity on the entire bridge just because it was his birthday. He left Maurus and headed for the stairs, but instead of going up he went down, farther and farther until he was deep in the lower part of the ship somewhere near the engine room, an area he wasn’t as familiar with. He wandered the dark metal corridors of the lower halls, looking for anything that might possibly be Lilli’s hiding place, but there were too many doors and hallways and ladders to search. Finally he found a dark entryway and sank down against the wall. He closed his eyes and rubbed them. Wherever Lilli’s hiding place was, he wasn’t going to find it. She’d just stay hidden forever, which was probably the way she wanted it.
    Soft footsteps came down the hall and stopped beside him. Opening his eyes, he expected to see his sister and was surprised by the sight of long golden hair—and puffy red eyes. Analora stared back at him in surprise. Her cheeks were shiny with tears.
    â€œAre you okay?” he asked.
    â€œNo,” she said bluntly. “Are you?”
    Chase shrugged and sighed, looking at his hands on his knees. After a moment, Analora came over and sat beside him on the floor. “Sorry, that was a dumb question. Nobody just sits by themself on the floor of the engine deck hallway if they’re feeling awesome.”
    Chase gave a half-laugh and paused, trying to think of something to say. “What are you doing down here?”
    â€œJust walking around. Remembering stuff. I used to play down here with my friends.”
    Chase looked around at the sterile hallways. “It doesn’t look like a ton of fun.”
    A wistful look crossed her face. “You’d be surprised. When we were really little, when my mom still lived on the ship and I was here all the time, we’d pretend to be defending the ship from raiders. Or sometimes we’d pretend to be the raiders. It was pretty great. Then my parents split up and I started having to go to Jypras half the year, and when I’d come back it would always be something new, a different kind of game.” She sighed. “And now they’re all gone.”
    â€œYour friends? Where are they?”
    â€œGenevieve’s parents got transferred to another ship. Samir was older than the rest of us, and smarter than the rest of us, so he went off to university. And Dany … he got sent to Fleet academy.” Her voice threatened to break. “I went to the engine room to see Chief Kobes—Dany’s his son—and he told me he’s back on disciplinary status. I can’t even message him.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” said Chase awkwardly.
    â€œNo, it’s okay,” she said, wiping her eyes. “It’s stupid of me to sit here and bawl about losing my friends to someone who doesn’t know them or me, really.” She took a deep breath. “So what’s your story?”
    Chase hesitated. He’d assumed that she at least knew his cover story about being an orphan from Trucon, but maybe the doctor hadn’t told her. Or she hadn’t asked. So he told her the sanitized, crew-friendly version of his life story in brief.
    Analora’s face grew still as she listened to him speak. “That’s awful,” she said quietly when he was done. “I followed the Trucon events in the news when it happened. I can’t even imagine what it was like for you.”
    Chase shook his head. “It’s weird, I