Crossways Read Online Free

of concentric rings which looked as though they had been made and remade several times over, expanding organically with encrustations and additions which owed little to long-term planning and much to immediate necessity. Massive cylindrical structures jutted from the outer rings, presenting weaponry always at the ready.
    White floods on the external docking cradles glinted off the solar collection tiles that covered almost every exposed surface. On opposing sides of the main station, two additional wheels, each big enough to be an independent station in its own right, pivoted on projecting arms.
    â€œI knew it was big, but . . . that’s big,” Cara said.
    She knew Crossways’ history, its grab for independence, but she’d never quite appreciated its size before. Seeing huge liners dwarfed by its bulk brought it home.
    â€œThe outer ring is ten klicks in diameter, with eight levels,” Ben said. “And that’s before the additions. You’ve got to admire a good engineering project. The station supports close to a million people, and she’s armed to the teeth: pulse-cannon, torpedoes, lasers, and enough fighters and fighter drones to make even the Monitors wary of approaching without permission.”
    The Olyanda survivors were here, somewhere, saved from the immediate double-threat of plague and hostile incursion. Mother Ramona and her lover, Norton Garrick, the station’s head crimelord, had given assurances that they’d be safe, but how could any station, even one of this size, absorb ten thousand displaced persons?
    â€œSee that section there”—Ben pointed—“the one that looks as though someone’s taken a giant bite out of it . . .”
    â€œIt looks like old damage,” Cara said.
    â€œIt’s from Crossways’ war for independence,” Ben said.
    â€œBut that’s a century ago,” Kitty butted in. “Couldn’t they have fixed it by now?”
    â€œIt doesn’t look like they want to.” Cara kept her eyes on the screen. “Sometimes keeping the damage visible is a good reminder not to let it happen again.” She didn’t even realize she’d said that out loud until Ben glanced over with a sharp, suspicious look before turning back to answer Kitty.
    â€œCrossways survived and prospered while the megacorp that tried to subdue it withered,” he said. “That’s a point of pride for the locals, some of whom are descendants of the original revolutionaries.”
    â€œNot all criminals, then?” Kitty asked.
    â€œThere are a lot of legal businesses, some legitimately occupied in supporting the illegal ones. In fact, unauthorized crime is dealt with just as quickly here as anywhere, perhaps even more harshly.”
    â€œThere’s such a thing as authorized crime?”
    Ben shrugged. “Most of the organizations on Crossways have learned not to shit on their own doorstep. It operates in much the same way as any station, except with a wider range of services on offer, no questions asked.”
    Cara had experienced Crossways only once before, and it had not been under the best of circumstances. She wondered whether she would ever be able to settle here.

Chapter Two
A NEW HOME
    B EN TURNED TO CARA. “FOR BETTER OR worse, Crossways is home, at least for a while,” he said. “You once told me you didn’t want to live the rest of your life on a space station.”
    â€œI didn’t. I don’t. But we can’t go back to either Chenon or Earth, can we?” She shrugged. “Your home? My home? They’re all closed to us. We don’t work for the Trust anymore.”
    â€œI think Crowder trying to kill us makes a pretty good case for constructive dismissal,” Ben said. “Besides, we’re wanted criminals now.”
    She sighed. “Well, we do seem to have stolen a spaceship. I guess that means we’ve descended to the