Read Spacer Clans Adventure 1: Naero's Run for Free Online

affected her deeply on so many levels, even through her shock, finally starting to hit home.
    She reached back and massaged her stiff neck, and checked her long black hair, clipped up tight in a knot behind her crown with her mother’s gold hair clasp. Spacer-style to fit into the orbs of their flight helmets.
    Great…with her hair pulled back, she could tenderly feel the big inflamed zit swelling up right smack dab in the middle of her forehead like a small blemish volcano. How wonderful.
    Well, s he might be a mess inside and out, but she still had work to do. On the job, it didn’t matter how bad she looked–pimples, boils, and all. Parts of her cared; other parts did not.
    Aunt Sleak would join them shortly after the Merchant Fleet Command Ship– The Slipper– landed only an hour or two behind them.
    Naero led a vital but relatively standard delivery mission to Irpul-4’s dumpy, dangerous starport.
    Whatever her inner turmoil, duty demanded that she keep good order and fulfill her obligations to her clan and her team.
    She shifted and turned slightly in her green gel-chair , encircling her like a spongy cocoon that mostly filled the inner egg of the flight pod.
    She found herself c ompletely incapable of getting comfortable in what was normally a favorite environment for her. She squirmed and shifted all the way.
    Piloting anything that moved or flew usually relaxed her, but not today.
    A nother spell of pain crashed into her skull. Zhen warned her that she might suffer them in random waves. They could hit at any time, night or day, ranging from dull aches to almost knocking her out.
    To hell with that.
    Naero wouldn’t stand for it. She’d deal with the pain and consequences of her actions, and find a way to muscle through them, just like she always did.
    Her hands fidgeted on the fligh tsticks on either arm of her flight chair. Each stick was covered with delicate controls, allowing her to maneuver in almost any direction.
    As mission leader, she piloted the lead transport of seven bulk haulers, with three formed up on her mark in tight formation to either side. Their glifter crews were no doubt snoozing blissfully like her own.
    She focused on the thr ee open view screens before her: left, right, and forward and slightly up. Shining slices of reinforced screen with the blast shields open, looking out into the Irpul System.
    The fourth planet bal looned at their rapid approach, swirls and patches of deep violet, lavender, several shades of blue, and gray, punctuated by a few spatters of light here and there as they approached on the side of the world shrouded in night.
    She switched over to manual controls on final approach. The dual stick controls of her lumbering GV-hauler resisted, stiff and sluggish like her big friend Gallan wrestling with her.
    Haisha ! Sometimes she kept these old transports up and on course by muscle and force of will alone. Just the way her parents...
    She winced and flared her small sensitive nose, drinking in machine smells and the ozone of high energy impulses from advanced electronics. All of her acute senses seemed further heightened in flight, especially because of her elevated emotional state.
    Landing shields full-front. They entered the atmosphere, punching through in radiant sprays of sparks and flames.
    Stop sulking over them.
    She couldn’t do anything about their deaths now. They wouldn’t want that. They’d taught her and her brother better. Go forward. Complete the task at hand.
    Who was she kidding?
    A gaping, aching hole sucked a cold roaring hurricane of despair and loss straight through where her heart and soul used to be.
    She loved her parents dearly, though she didn ’t give voice to that so much anymore. And to make matters worse, when last she’d seen them, they hadn’t parted well. Naero argued and fought with them intensely and repeatedly about her and Jan having to go work for Aunt Sleak again. Their less-than-favorite and only aunt.
    Cold, demanding,