Was Once a Hero by Edward McKeown Read Free Book Online

that.”
    Shasti
smiled again.   It seemed the day would be
full of such surprises.  
    “You’re
an anachronism, Robert, a throwback to the days of white knights.   Even now, with Enshar staring us in the face,
you’re thinking of ways to keep looking for her.   Why?   Tell me why?”
    He
looked at her blankly for a second.   “She’s my wife.”
    “Wife,”
she said with surprising bitterness, “just a word.   It tells me nothing, Robert.   You’ve searched for years for a woman whose
ship disappeared in unknown space.   When
the ship doesn’t come back, the crew doesn’t.”
    “Yes,”
he replied.   “I know all the
sayings.   Your life is the ship’s plus
the air in your suit.   I’ve heard them
all.”
    “Yet,
you continue,” she said.
    He
looked at her intent face and gave a small sad smile.   “Do you know what I was before I met Lisa?”
    Shasti
shook her head.
    “Lonely,”
he said.   “Living a life without purpose
or passion.   Never had to struggle for
anything, everything was handed to me because of my family’s wealth.   I never knew if someone loved my wallet or
me.
    “Then
I met Lisa.   She wasn’t impressed with
the name Fenaday.   I found I had to be
more than a spoiled rich kid to keep her.   She told me once that I was her world.   That’s a lot to live up to.”
    “When
her ship disappeared, I wasn’t prepared to just stand there and take it.   I wasn’t prepared to be reasonable.
    “I
may not be the toughest or the brightest.   God knows nothing I’d done before prepared me for this life.   I’d be dead a couple of times if it wasn’t
for you and dumb luck.   What I am
though,” he added with a grin, “is what the Irish are best at, stubborn and
unreasonable.”
    She
stared in frustrated incomprehension.   “Words and words.   They mean
something to you, born-human.   To me,
created and engineered, they convey nothing.   The meaning seeps out of them.   All I have left is the sounds.”
    Fenaday
looked at her tentatively.   Created?   Engineered?   Her past was something she’d never discussed, a place barred and
warded.   Today, Shasti seemed so
different, so much more approachable.   “You’ve never told me about your life on Olympia.   All I know is the same wild rumors—”
    She
stood abruptly.  
    Too far, he thought.   Damn.   He waited, dreading that she would storm out.
    After
a long, dark moment, Shasti sat back down, as if she’d forgotten the reason for
rising.   She dusted imaginary lint from
her sleeve.
    “Sorry,”
he ventured.
    She
nodded, not looking at him.
    “For
now,” she said, before the silence could lengthen again, “since neither of us
wants to spend the rest of our lives in a cell, we need to focus on how to do
this and survive.   You know they’re
watching the ship.”
    “Yes,”
he said, equally anxious to get back to neutral territory.   “I’ve spotted several of them on the external
monitors.   As obvious as they are being, I
suspect they want us to know they are there.”
    “We’ll
need a crew,” she said.   “We are not
going to find a lot of people in our situation.”
    “How
about you taking the executive slot?” he asked.  
    She
shook her head.   “I don’t have the
navigation math or the certifications but I wouldn’t want the last fool back
even if he wasn’t locked up.”
    “No,
I don’t want him back either,” Fenaday mused.   “I’m promised a number of people by this Mandela, specialists he said,
and better than what we could find, but still...”
    “We
don’t want them in charge,” she warned.   “God knows their real agenda.”
    “Agreed.”
    “We need
an X.O. who isn’t in their pocket,” she continued.
    “I
met a hot pilot with Belwin Duna,” Fenaday said, “navy-trained and a Wing
Commander.   For some reason—and it is
just a hunch—I feel he is trustworthy, at least where it doesn’t cross
Duna.   His name is Telisan, a