The Terran Representative by Angus Monarch Read Free Book Online Page A

want to be a part of this anymore. I had to handle it; I couldn’t slink back to my cryo-chamber. Maybe it was too much responsibility, but I had to try.
    I started to cry. Tears rolled down my cheeks. They collected around my nostrils and pooled at the tip of my nose to drip off and splatter my shirt.
    This was it. I didn’t know if I could handle Nasee Four, but we were almost there. Maybe there’d be a group of people who had outrun Kaur. They’d be there to welcome me with open arms as their rescuer. We’d head off, settle somewhere with me as their leader and forget about everywhere else.
    I doubted it.

Chapter Seven
    The Omanix ’s shuttle touched down on the surface. The door slid open to reveal a barren pock-marked landscape. I’d been briefed that Nasee Four was the fourth of four Trojans following the planet Nasee. At one time a colony had been chartered to hollow out the Trojan. They’d gotten partway done before running out of money and abandoning the project.
    “How far is the hatch?” I said.
    We jumped out of the shuttle. Puffs of grayish dust plumed up from our footsteps as we crossed the barren landscape. The gravity was low enough that we bounded, almost bunny hopped across the surface. Our movements reminded me of the way the first men to walk on the Moon had moved.
    “Not much farther,” said Wards. She leapt ahead of us, scanning left and right as she went.
    Dell followed behind me. “Remember,” he said, “do not engage anyone that we come across.”
    I felt his stare penetrating the back of my helmet. His only words to me before we left the Omanix were to not engage on my own; don’t speak, don’t call out, and don’t act until he told me to do so. He had been professional but curt, and I noticed a hard edge to his tone. I didn’t know if it was me or the situation that caused him to act in such a way.
    Ahead of us Wards stopped and hunched over something. “Found the hatch,” she said. “Accessing the door panel.”
    “The Omanix is still picking up all fifteen life signs in the habitable area,” said Dell. “Open the door when you can.”
    “Manually overriding the door security,” said Wards.
    We continued to bunny hop towards her spot. The stars behind her looked like a tapestry hanging as backdrop. The stars looked so close and the gravity so weak I felt like I could launch myself into space. There’d be no goodbyes or explanations, just me flying away into the emptiness.
    The hatch burst open. Wards screamed and shot into space. Dell grabbed my shoulder. My feet flew out in front of me as their momentum kept them going. I let out a small cry and fell backwards onto my back into a cloud of grey dust.
    “Wards,” I yelled. I reached out with my hand at the small speck that was Wards disappearing into space in the same way I had just thought about.
    “I’m fine,” said Wards. “Suit’s fine.” Her voice was shaky, and we could hear her trying to control her breathing. “There was some kind of explosive on the door. Booby trapped.” She said something I didn’t understand but the intonation was one of frustration and anger. “Scan didn’t pick it up for some reason.”
    “ Omanix is sending the shuttle out,” said Dell. “They’re going to nab you before you get too far.” He looked at the blown hatch. “We’re still moving ahead.”
    “Got it,” said Wards. “I’m going to take a little R and R. Let you do the heavy lifting.”
    I laughed, half in relief and half at the joke, as Dell and I headed down the ladder into the Trojan. “See you before too long,” I said.
    “Be safe,” she said. “I’m closing out this channel.”
    Dell and I came to the bottom of the ladder and flicked on our headlamps. A hallway appeared before us out of the dark. It had metal grating for flooring, metal walls and massive ground to ceiling supports whose bulk dwarfed my own.
    “Be careful of more traps,” said Dell.
    It felt like he spoke to himself more than to