Rebel (Rebel Stars Book 0) Read Online Free Page A

reflected from Neptune. Genner's vehicle came to a stop. Rada's parked beside it.
    "I've been in contact with a team on Triton," Parson said across their comms. "It's going to take them a couple hours to get ready and a few more to reach us. I can't think of any good reason to leave these carts until then."
    "What if they're late?" Yed said. "Or decide it's not worth it?"
    "What kind of questions are those?" Rada said. "Someone will come for us."
    "You don't know that. There's no government on Triton besides IRP, and they don't believe in giving help to outsiders. What if no one's willing? And we can't offer them enough to risk it?"
    "Then we're dead, aren't we? Unless you learn to eat ice and breathe vacuum, we're dead. What point is it to plan for something that can't be escaped?"
    "Enough," Parson said. "I've already negotiated with the team. If that falls through, we'll find another one. Absurd-case scenario, I can offer someone the Turtle ."
    "'Less it blows up," Karry muttered.
    "Right," Stem said. "Or they wait for us to die, then invoke the Law of the Inky Void and claim it gratis."
    "Glad to know I hired such dauntless optimists." Inside the cart's cab, Parson turned to Rada and grimaced. "If the time comes to openly speculate about our own deaths, we'll do so then. In the meantime? Kindly shut up."
    Both carts fell silent. After a long pause, Karry burst out laughing. For an instant, Rada was senselessly enraged by him, and then she joined him, squeezing her eyes shut, doubled forward, the laughter of the whole crew pealing through the comm.
    It grew quiet again. They rehashed the run-in with the Scimitar , Parson relating the initial phase of the encounter to those who hadn't been on the bridge at the time. Stem made some not-quite-jokes about wishing he'd filled his suit's water pouch with pig, but despite the excitement—or perhaps because of it—Rada felt no particular yearning for a drink.
    The others were still talking, but she found herself nodding off. She jerked awake, heart racing, and checked her O2 levels. Seeing they were fine, she let herself drift to sleep.
    The first time she woke, the comms were silent, the inside of the crater perfectly motionless. The second time, Parson and Genner were talking softly, technical details about the state of the Box Turtle . As Rada awoke, she gathered that Genner believed the ship was unlikely to explode, but couldn't yet rule it out. It sounded to Rada like they were going to have a long leave ahead of them.
    Captain didn't say as such, but she knew that if repairs cost too much, she'd be out of a job. She opened her eyes to gaze out on the stillness of a place that was neither night nor day. At the moment, her job was her only tether to responsibility. Without it, it would be like being bounced from the surface of the tiny moon. She would float into darkness, into space without end, and vanish into the abyss surrounding everything.
    "Captain," Genner said. "I think I've got…a ship."
    Across the cab, Parson pressed his face to the window, looking up at the sky. "An unknown? Our team only left port a half hour ago."
    "It's unknown, all right. But you won't find it up there."
    "I pay you to help me understand whatever's happening, Genner. Not to annoy me with cryptic hints."
    "I'm sorry, Captain." She hesitated. "The ship isn't in the sky—it's in the ice."

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    "Genner," the captain said slowly. "Please tell me you haven't gone insane. I really don't want to add 'finding a non-crazy pilot' to my lengthy list of things to do."
    "It's not for sure," Genner said. "But that looks far too regular to be anything else. Nature doesn't draw straight lines."
    "So you think it's a ship? Under the ice?" Behind his faceplate, Parson furrowed his brow. "We've scanned this entire moon. So have dozens of people before us. Why are we only seeing this now?"
    "If the scans were perfect, we wouldn't be prospectors, would we? On top of that, it's under multiple layers of ice. If we