Read Liberty for Free Online

anything that would substitute for a sailboard. “Come on, baby, I don’t wanna lose you!”
    A small explosion rattled my ears.
    “Ahhh, flark!” I yelled.
    At least, I think I did. The explosion deafened my ears, leaving me and the Misfit irreparably damaged. After shooting the last of my crew mates into space, I had woven my way through the asteroid belt and into the emergency jump gate, which put me within an easy flying distance of Earth’s orbit—and almost made me throw up again. Being sucked through the space portals always resulted in a nauseating stomach drop. Inexplicably, the SUN hadn’t held me at the gate, but Eira had managed to stick right with me all the way here, blasting asteroids out of her path and doing some major damage to my baby along the way. I don’t know how she found out, but somehow Eira had stumbled upon the truth of my identity and what I had dangling around my neck.
    Which, unfortunately, left me with only one option.
    Well, half an option, anyway.
    “I’m so sorry, baby!”
    As my ship skidded into the atmosphere, I grabbed my keys from my pocket, unlocked the plastic shield, and slammed my hand down on the Big Red Button.
    Yes, that Big Red Button.
    I figured Eira would have killed me already if that’s what she really wanted—her ship had more than enough firepower to take me out. I, however, wasn’t about to sit around waiting for her to board and torture me to death to get what she wanted. I had used every last second of the power in the generator to run circles around the behemoth star ship, drawing her down into the atmosphere of Earth. I thought I might like to die on the planet where I had been born. I had given my crew the chance they needed to escape and, as far as I could tell, they had all made it out safely.
    It was the only happy thought I had left.
    I felt the whirring of the Misfit’s engine die under my hands. I couldn’t hear the torrent of swear words that left my lips in the succeeding seconds. I looked through my singed bangs at the smoking gauges, knowing I had zero time left to get off my ship.
    Assuming I wanted to live.
    I used one of my remaining seconds to debate the point, and then leapt headlong from the cockpit and into the terrible silence of Earth’s blue sky.
    “Well, now what, you moron!” I screamed at myself. Not that I could hear it. Not that it mattered. I would be dead momentarily. I felt rather than heard my ship explode over my head. I flapped my arms. I tried to fall flat, to somehow delay my imminent death.
    I probably should have written a will.
    In the midst of contemplating my demise, I suddenly felt my body being jerked up rather than dragged down.
    “What the—”
    Two strong arms had me around the waist. We swerved and narrowly avoided a falling hunk of ship.
    I looked around and saw a helm et and m y own reflection staring back.
    “Oh, great, and a bloody nose? Because that is exactly what I need right now. Fantastic!”
    I assumed my rescuer was responding, but I couldn’t hear for beans. I doubt that I could have heard him anyway over his rocket pack.
    I rolled my eyes and pointed to my ears. “I got nothing! Ex-plo-sion,” I screamed. At least ... it felt like I screamed.
    Conversation, I decided, was useless. I needed to get on terra firma, and fast. I pointed down.
    The skuddy little worm dropped me.
    I shook my head and sighed. I knew I was toast from the second that horrible demon ship laid her eyes on my baby.
    My ship ... my beautiful, piece-of-skud ship was falling to the earth around me, and soon it would all be—
    “Aaaaaaaaaugh!”
    I was once again jerked up by the waist.
    “You’re sick, you know that?” I yelled. I watched as the larger flaming bits of my ship fell where I had just been falling.
    I raised my eyebrows.
    “Guess it could be worse. Now, why don’t you put me on solid ground?” I yelled.
    The helmet nodded.
    Oddly, as we whipped through the air trying desperately to avoid falling