The Firestorm Conspiracy by Cheryl Angst Read Free Book Online Page A

visions he feared had yet to materialize.
    The soldiers across from him reminded him of his first transport to Alpha. He’d been young, not more than eighteen or nineteen, and horribly naive. Terrified about serving in space, but determined to hide the fact, he’d laughed and told jokes for the entire duration. Sympathy for the boys facing the exact same situation thawed some of his terror. He leaned over and said, “Hey, did you hear the one about the debutante, the police officer, and three pigeons...”
    * * * *
    The air in the corridor was strangely thick, muffling sounds and fooling the ears. People passed John as he left the dock and moved further into the moonbase. Artificial gravity, coupled with the forced air circulation, made his movements seem slow and slightly lightweight at the same time. One of the young soldiers from the transport came up alongside him.
    “Hey, old man, where you headed?”
    “Overnight Visitors’ Quarters,” he replied. John smiled as the youth fell in step with him. “I’m catching another transport in the morning.”
    “Me too,” he said. “I’ll walk over with you. I’ve studied the schematics for the base, and I think I can get us there pretty quickly.”
    John didn’t want to burst the lad’s bubble by telling him he also knew the way.
    “Is this your first time here?” the young soldier asked. “Because this is my first time. I’m being posted to a transport ship. I’m going to be working as an assistant to the quartermaster.”
    “Sounds exciting.”
    “It is. My mom is so proud of me getting this post right out of my Basic Officer Training Course. Most people spend at least a year or two on Earth before receiving a posting in space.” He paused for breath. “Does it feel weird here to you? I know it does to me. They warned us about that when we got our transport briefing, about how the moon’s lower gravity still exerts a force over everything, and while the artificial gravity compensates for it, the tiny fluctuations cause a feeling of mild lightweightedness.”
    “Ah.”
    “Here. I think we go this way.” He pulled John down a hallway leading to nowhere. “The schematics showed a smaller utility corridor that will cut almost five hundred meters off our walk.”
    John raised his eyebrows as the corridor opened up to reveal the entrance to the Visitors’ Quarters. Granted, two decades had passed since he last visited the moonbase, but he’d spent enough time there during his various tours of duty that he was surprised he’d never noticed the corridor.
    The line at the computer terminal shuffled at a reasonable pace and John soon found himself at the front. He swiped his ID chip across the panel and waited for the optical scanner to confirm his identity. Within seconds the machine beeped, recording the code that granted him access to the rooms beyond the steel doors.
    “Okay, old man, I’m going to leave you here.”
    John smiled at the ensign.
    “I’ve got to check in to the Junior Officers’ Quarters before twenty-one hundred hours or I’ll get the worst room.” He laughed and clapped John on the shoulder. “I’ll see you around. Take care, old man.”
    The young officer dashed off down the corridor with the speed common to men his age. John smiled ruefully, remembering his own enthusiasm when he had started out in the UESF. Picking up his bag, he strode resolutely toward the large steel doors and his first night back in space.

Chapter 11
    “What do you mean we aren’t declaring bankruptcy?” Robert Llewellyn asked as he stormed into his sister’s office.
    “I fixed it. All right?” Meredith spun her chair, turning her back to him.
    “How?”
    “It’s complicated.”
    “Shit. Is it legal?”
    “Don’t you dare judge me.” She whipped the chair around to face him. “I worked my ass off keeping this company solvent. I sacrificed my marriage, my family, and some days, God help me, my sanity just to keep your father’s name on the