Star Road Read Online Free Page A

down on the surface of Pluto in five minutes.”
     
    Rodriguez checked that the harness, a belt and a pair of cross-shoulder straps, were tight.
     
    Then a voice. The girl, the Chippie.
     
    “That’s funny.”
     
    Rodriguez turned to her, seeing more clearly now. Short, dark hair. And blue-green eyes that glowed catlike in the pale light.
     
    “What is?”
     
    “Why’d they name the planet after a dog? Not even a real dog.”
     
    And despite what lay ahead—the responsibility, the unknown, the sheer adventure of it—Rodriguez laughed. He decided not to tell her that Pluto was also the Roman god of the underworld.
     
    The shuttle began its easy glide as it made its way into the airlock chamber.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    Annie Scott watched the load lifter raise a massive metal crate and lower it into the SRV’s cargo hold.
     
    At first, it looked like the crate couldn’t possibly fit. And then, as if to force it, the operator bumped the crate into the undercarriage of the Star Road vehicle.
     
    “Whoa! Bloody hell!” a man standing close to Annie yelled. “Take it the fuck easy! Jee-zuz. Who’s in charge here?” His accent was a thick Scottish brogue.
     
    Annie saw the operator look down at the man, maybe measuring him for a fight if it came to that. Then he looked to Annie, who raised her eyebrows a bit. The operator stopped the machinery.
     
    “You got a bunch of monkeys working this thing? Goddamn!” Then louder, directly at the motionless operator, “Where’s your captain, genius?”
     
    Annie took a few steps closer to the man.
     
    “That would be me.”
     
    The man turned to her, his face registering ... what?
     
    Disbelief? Confusion?
     
    Embarrassment.
     
    As if he thought the Road was for men only
     
    In other words ... total bullshit.
     
    “Captain Annie Scott.” She extended her hand for him to shake.
     
    The man rubbed his chin, momentarily stumped. Then shook hands with her. His calloused hand felt like a slab of overcooked beef.
     
    “That your load, Mr.—”
     
    “McGowan, and it sure the hell is. My mining suit. You have any idea how much one of them things costs?”
     
    “Actually, I do.”
     
    Annie knew that the far-flung mining operations relied on these kinds of freelancers, guys with the expensive suits built to their personal specifications, a necessary entry way into a lucrative, if often deadly, business of off-world mining.
     
    Sure, miners made a lot of money. But most of them never came back. And if they did, they were never satisfied, and they went out again. Things happened once you burrowed into an unknown planet.
     
    Which certainly explained the guy’s jumpiness.
     
    “Those suits,” Annie said, nodding at the frozen load operator, “they’re built to resist a lot of stress, right? Cave-ins? Meteorites and such?”
     
    “Yeah, so?”
     
    “You think”—and here she leaned closer, as if the two of them were sharing a secret—”a little bump from my ground guy here trying to edge it into the cargo hold could hurt it even a wee bit?”
     
    The man’s face remained set. Then a bit of a smile.
     
    He certainly looked seasoned, to Annie’s expert eye, but who knew? Something was bugging him. Maybe he was prone to roadsickness.
     
    She’d have to keep an eye on him.
     
    “I guess not.” Then, a genuine smile.
     
    “I hope so. He looks lonely.” She shot Rodriguez a sly smile. “So why doesn’t he come over and buy me a drink?”
     
    Then: “He looks …” She touched her forefinger to her lower lip, which glistened with a deep-red lipstick. “Interesting.”
     
    Then she stopped as Rodriguez took a slug of the beer.
     
    Tastes as good as it looks.
     
    “Whoa. Look at him. That guy over there. Looks damn eager, doesn’t he? He might be worth a chip. Edgy, anxious. Some freaks like that stuff.” “Go for it.”
     
    After another deep slug, Rodriguez turned and glanced at the man Sinjira had spotted. He wore a long coat even