Baxter Moon, Galactic Scout Read Online Free Page A

don’t let me down, I might not be alive much longer,” I said, gasping for air.
    She eased up on the hug. “Oops, sorry. Sometimes I forget my own strength.”
    She released her bear hug. I fell to my feet and took a deep breath.
    Elvin walked over and patted me on the shoulder. “You don’t think you’re a dog or a penguin?” he asked.
    I shook my head. “Nope, I just got a lecture. She got a rush call. I was saved by the bell. She didn’t even get a chance to give me any demerits.”
    Kymm from Kappa-II squad walked over toward me. Kymm was Kappa’s pilot. Their version of me, complete with attitude and all. She had long blonde hair, a little button nose and a nice smile, when she smiled. She was no Commander Jasmine, but then again, nobody is. She was still good looking, but I would never tell her that to her face. After all we were rivals. Friendly rivals, but rivals nevertheless.
    Kymm gave me a little punch in the arm. She just loved flirting with me like that.
    “Nice going, ace,” she said. “You had the grand slam of simulated screw ups. Killing yourself, your crew, destroying your ship and irking off your commanding officer.”
    “When I do anything, even mess up, I do it mega time,” I said.
    “You’ve had enough practice at it,” Kymm said.
    Kymm may have been even cockier than me. Of course she had good reason. She was a bionic. Not a full-fledged half girl/half machine one like you see in sci-fi videos. She had small improvement chips (or ICs for short) planted in her eyes at birth. These chips let her see across a broader spectrum than non-augmented humans. She could see in the dark. She could see heat. She could even zoom in. At times I wished had improvement chips implanted in me, though most of the time I was glad I didn’t. After all, this way when I did accomplish something I knew it was me doing it, not some chip. I can’t help thinking when you start relying too much on chips that can be mass-produced you lose some of yourself. You lose a bit of your humanity. A bit of what makes you different from anybody else.
    Kymm’s navigator Chriz and her tech Lobi had walked over. They laughed.
    “Yeah, nice going, Ace,” Chriz said, mockingly. “Not even one of the Betas would be dense enough to go into that asteroid field! They don’t call it the
field of sure death and total and absolute
complete destruction
for nothing.”
    “Hey!” Elvin said. “Baxter lasted five minutes and ten tics in the field! That’s a record!”
    “Dead is dead,” Lobi shot back quickly.
    Kymm shot Lobi an angry look. “We all screw up from time to time. Even me,” she said. “At least he had the guts to give it a try.” Kymm looked at me and gave a slight, hardly detectable, smile. It was enough to make my heart skip a beat or two. Lobi and Chriz both just backed away, like whipped pups.
    “Thanks,” I told Kymm.
    “Don’t mention it,” she said. “Maybe you’ll save me sometime,” she said with a laugh. Yep, she couldn’t help flirting with me.
    Watching Kymm as she walked away, I tried to remind myself she was a fellow pilot, not a girl. Okay, with the long hair, that smile, those, well curves, she was a girl, there was no denying that, no matter how hard I tried. Still, she was a fellow pilot and rival first and girl second. I kept repeating to myself, she’s a pilot, she’s a pilot, she’s a pilot.
    Zenna tapped me on the shoulder, bringing back to the moment at hand. “I think there’s somebody else you need to talk to,” she said. She motioned, ever so unsubtly, with her head toward the corner of the room. Sitting there at a table was GiS. He was concentrating on his computer screen. He was pretending not to notice I had walked into the room. Zenna may not have been book smart, but when it came to common sense, she beat me hands down.
    I made my way through the crowd over to GiS. He knew I was coming over but didn’t acknowledge me. He wasn’t going to make this easy. Chimps