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

panel to Practice Room 35 slid open.
    Naero ’s younger brother stood there. tall and lanky in his own black togs. Gray eyes. A tousled mop of black hair like their dad’s and a winning smile.
    He only played at being the bad boy because it got him girls. Especially stupid girls, but he wasn’t choosy.
    “ Hey, what are all you people doing here already?”
    He loo ked behind them. “Is that a psy helmet on the floor over there? Gosh…aren’t those illegal?”
    Naero rushed over and snatched it up before he could, stashing all of her illicit stuff away.
    “ Stow it, Janner. You didn’t see anything.”
    Jan yawned. “I never do, sib.”
    “ I’m ducking back to my quarters,” Naero said, her head still woozy.
    “ Don’t be late,” Jan warned. “Aunt Sleak’s training with us today. You know how she prizes punctuality.”
    Naero raced down the corridor.
     

 
     
     
     
    4
     
     
    In the early afternoon t hey all met for lunch before their duty shift.
    Aunt Sleak ’s lead ship, The Slipper, which they served on, was only the third largest in the Clan Maeris Merchant Fleet at 500 tons. But it was the newest, the fastest, and, ton for ton, the most advanced and heavily armed of the fleet’s five main ships.
    With a comple ment of 230 working crew, and some of their clan families, The Slipper was home to more than 300 souls.
    It ’s oval, domed Mess Hall comfortably sat and fed about a hundred people at once, so the crew and their families ate in rotating shifts.
    Now that the ship was out of jump and proceeding through sub-space in system, they could see the other ships of the fleet in tight formation nearby. The Mess Hall had its blast screens down, so it was possible to look out across a stunning 360-degree vista as they continued, on course to Irpul-4, just one leg of the fleet’s major trade run through Triax Gigacorp space.
    Naero spotted their sister ship, The Shinai, slightly behind them on their port side, protecting their flank, 600 tons, 300 crew.
    Right behind them were the fleets’ two smaller trading ships: The Nevada , 300 tons and 80 crew, and The Ardala , 200 tons, 60 crew.
    The massive Dromon , a planetoid ship, brought up and protected their rear. At 300,000 tons it obviously couldn’t enter a planetary atmosphere, but it carried a crew of 1,200 hundred and had, nearly unlimited hold space, as well as almost more firepower than a ship of the line battleship.
    The mess hall on The Slipper currently had about 60 people in it, coming and going, eating, communicating with the other ships, watching the news on INS, the Interstellar News Service feeds from various sectors, feeds primarily controlled and manipulated by the sixteen Gigacorps.
    Even a decade after the last Spacer War with the Corps ended in 2585, the old tensions remained strong in many places.
    Old hatreds did not fade easily, and the driving force of most of the Gigacorps to dominate and control everything and everyone, including space remained relentless.
    Only the Spacers and their staunch ally Joshua Tech–the only Gigacorp to side with
    them –remained independent and free.
    When the other fifteen Gigacorps weren’t fighting with Spacers, they fought amongst themselves for dominance, or even within their own systems.
    Naero stared at her lunch tray while they shuffled along in line, still feeling queasy from her morning ordeal. Usually the chow was okay.
    She ignored INS, having little interest in Interstellar politics and spin today. She still struggled to accept the fact that she was a nud, and not mope about it. What else could she do but push on?
    She also had a busy duty shift ahead of her.
    The only bright point in her birthday was her master plan.
    By lunch time it was working perfectly.
    Tyber checked the table and benches they were about to sit at with their food trays with his scanner. So did Zhen.
    “I don’t detect any traps,” he said. “Nothing sticky.”
    “ No nanoglue or stungel,” Zhen added.