The Genius Asylum: Sic Transit Terra Book 1 by Arlene F. Marks Read Free Book Online Page B

see Ruby lie down on the deck behind them. She reached over her head and pulled a recessed lever in the bulkhead, and, slowly, a section of ceiling panel swung down on top of her, containing an array of colorful multifaceted knobs. “This is the original pilot’s console,” she explained, moving her hands over the controls. Then, as the engines hummed to life, she added, “You’d better buckle up, kids — I’m still driving with a learner’s permit.”
    Without warning, the little ship sprang straight up and spun 180 degrees, then made a dash for freedom, banking steeply at the last second to avoid hitting the edge of the landing deck door on its way through.
    If Drew’s breath hadn’t caught in his throat just then, he might have screamed. There had definitely been advantages to traveling in a metal bucket without viewports.
    “All right!” Ruby whooped with exhilaration and banked again. “Now we’re flying!”
    Without warning, the shuttle breached the perimeter of Zulu’s gravity field at full speed, hurling itself into space and its passengers into weightlessness. Struggling to swallow, Drew unclenched his right hand from the armrest of his seat and began prying open Teri’s death-grip on his other arm. Her eyes were like saucers. Her lips were moving, but no sound was coming out. So much for not being a space virgin.
    “This isn’t an Earth-design short-hopper, is it?” he remarked unsteadily to their pilot.
    “Very observant, Chief. It’s Corvou,” she called back. “We got it from a Nandrian ship that was passing through.”
    “The Nandrians gave it to us?” Drew recalled the description he’d skimmed from the datawafer in his briefcase: two-and-a-bit meters tall, green skin, jaws like a T-Rex…
    “Well, they didn’t exactly give it to us,” she amended.
    Drew thought for a moment that he would faint. “You stole it?”
    “Steal from the Nandrians? Do I look suicidal?” she scolded. “We traded for it. One short-hopper in exchange for a standard year’s supply of lemon juice.”
    Lemon juice? That didn’t sound right. Even if it came from an off-Earth source…. “Aren’t they allergic to our citrus products?” he asked.
    “Is that what you’ve heard?”
    “Yes. Did I hear wrong?”
    “Not exactly. Citric acid affects Nandrians the same way that alcohol affects Humans.”
    Now he was sure he would faint. “They get drunk on citric acid? On the Hub?”
    “They used to,” Ruby confirmed with a smile in her voice. “But Karim pretty much put a stop to it when he imposed a five drink limit on them.”
    They couldn’t have been happy about that, Drew realized. He hadn’t wanted to put the Nandrians on the suspect list. Now it appeared they had a possible motive for murder, leaving him no choice but to question them. According to the datawafer, Nandrians spoke in riddles. How was he supposed to get a straight answer out of a huge sapient reptile that spoke in riddles? He heard a strange gurgling sound beside him. It was Teri, stifling laughter.
    “Lemon juice is their favorite,” Ruby went on, “although they’ve been known to settle for fresh limes or grapefruit juice. They’re itinerant merchants, Mr. Townsend, buying and selling on hundreds of worlds. Whenever a ship of theirs docks at the Hub, they let us shop in their cargo holds. There’s a lot of exotic stuff in there.”
    And, by extension, on Daisy Hub as well, he realized. This could be a very interesting assignment, indeed. “And those five barrels Bonelli put on board?”
    Ruby chuckled wickedly. “Barter currency, Earth’s finest. ETA Daisy Hub in two hours, Chief.”
    “Two? I thought it was four.”
    “On paper, maybe,” she told him. “On Devil Bug , it’s two. Let me show you what this little space bomb can do.”
    She spun and accelerated again, as though trying to escape the engines buzzing angrily behind them. It was like driving full speed through the Zone at night, without headlights —