Her Brother's Keeper - eARC Read online

  “But I don’t want to go to juvy,” Annie cried. “It’s not fair!” How is he letting this happen?

  Her father gently brushed the hair out of Annie’s eyes. “Come on, honey, no more tears for right now. I’m going to talk to the judge and see if there is another arrangement we can work out. You’re a minor, you’re under a lot of stress because your mom is pregnant and your father is leaving, it was your first time alone in the city, and a drugged-up hooplehead poisoned your horse. Those are some pretty extenuating circumstances. I called my lawyer and she’s pretty confident we’ll be able to make a deal.”

  “But…” Annie protested.

  “No ‘buts’ now,” her father said. “There’s nothing for it. Come on, let’s get you out of here. Captain Blackwood gave me a pass for two days, so I’m here for you.”

  Annie sniffled as she stood up. She felt sick. It was all too much. “I wish I could just go with you, Daddy,” she said. “I just want to leave this stupid planet.”

  Annie’s father stood up and looked thoughtful for a moment. “Yes, well, one thing at a time. Let’s get you signed out.”

  * * *

  It had taken some legwork, and he’d had to call in some favors, but Marcus was able to get his daughter a court hearing the very next day. This was fortunate, because he was scheduled to lift off from New Austin shortly after that, and didn’t want to have to ask Captain Blackwood to delay for his sake.

  Marcus had been afraid that Ellie would go ballistic when he told her what happened. Annie had tried beer and beaten a girl so badly that she’d been hospitalized. She was mad at Annie but she was furious at Victoria Alexander and her sleazy father. She considered him and his entire family a bunch of degenerates who were a blight on New Austin. Marcus happened to agree, but they were a blight with a lot of money and good lawyers. He had to take that into consideration.

  Marcus’ lawyer, an old friend of his named Serendipity Kim, represented Annie during the hearing. The Alexander family lawyer, a well-known, high-priced celebrity attorney, made an appearance and demanded the hearing be dismissed. He insisted an adult criminal trial be scheduled, but the judge wasn’t having any of it. Especially, Marcus noted with a smile, when both Wade and Captain Blackwood herself testified to the judge that they’d overheard the conversation wherein Mr. Alexander threatened Marcus and his family. The judge had dismissed him from the courtroom, and made it clear that the Alexander family was to leave the Winchesters alone.

  Upon the advice of Ms. Kim and her father, Annie pled guilty, as a minor, to an assault charge. It could have been a lot worse, but given the circumstances the judge didn’t want to throw the book at her. By old law going back to the founding of the colony, stealing or harming another colonist’s livestock was a serious offense on New Austin. Given that, Ms. Kim was able to convince the judge that Annie didn’t deserve to go through an adult criminal trial.

  The question remained of what was to be done with her? Marcus knew there was no way the judge was going to let her be released into the custody of her mother, especially since Victoria wasn’t going to get off so easily either. In trying to calm Annie down, Marcus had downplayed juvenile detention somewhat. It wasn’t horrible, but he didn’t want his daughter out doing manual labor projects with a bunch of underage criminals, separated from both of her parents and far from home. She was distraught enough with everything going on, especially with her horse having been poisoned, and he feared juvy would make a bad situation for Annie a lot worse.

  Not having many options, Marcus approached Captain Blackwood with a proposal: Annie would be released to her custody and would serve as a crewmember-in-training for the duration of the mission. Space was dangerous, yes, but at least he didn’t have to worry about her being all alone, or getting attacked by some crazy delinquent.

  Captain Blackwood surprised Marcus by readily agreeing to the proposal. She had the bunk space, she explained, and such arrangements were quite common on her adopted homeworld of Heinlein. A shipboard environment offered discipline and structure that would straighten out a rowdy teenager. She’d be in a secure environment, and the mission to Zanzibar wasn’t as risky to the ship itself as, say, pirate hunting.

  Annie, predictably, was thrilled at the proposition. Ellie, on the other hand, was adamantly against it. She wasn’t going to allow her daughter to leave her for up to two years, with no real way to communicate with home. “I’m losing my husband,” she’d said, “I’ll be damned if I’m losing my daughter too!” She especially wasn’t happy with some of the hazard clauses in the proposed contract, similar to the one Marcus had signed.

  Captain Blackwood must have taken a shine to Annie, Marcus thought, because she was being very helpful through the entire ordeal. She’d sat down with Ellie for an hour, over coffee and tea, explaining exactly what shipboard life was like, the risks, the realities, and what Annie would be in for. Marcus didn’t know what she said to her, exactly, but after they were done talking Ellie agreed. She broke down and cried, hugging Annie tightly, but she agreed to let her go.

  And why not, Marcus thought to himself. He was only a couple years older than Annie was now when he’d enlisted in the Espatier Corps, and he’d been a hell of a lot less mature than his daughter was. At least this way he could keep an eye on her, and she’d be a very long way from Carlos and other teenage boys. Not that Carlos was a bad kid. He’d gone to the hearing to testify on Annie’s behalf. He’d stood up for her and beaten the shit out of a drugged-up adult. If Annie insisted on growing up and having a boyfriend, Carlos seemed like an alright kid.

  Marcus was relieved, and Annie ecstatic, when the judge agreed to the proposal. She was to be released into the custody of Captain Catherine Blackwood for a period of not less than one local year. He reminded Annie that if, upon her return, the captain reported that she was not satisfied with her service, that she could be sent straight to juvenile detention. Annie said that she understood, the judge banged his gavel, and that was that.

  So it was that shortly before he was supposed to leave New Austin, Marcus found himself outside of a courthouse in Aterrizaje with his wife, his daughter, his new captain, her XO, Wade, and his lawyer. It was enough to make a man’s head spin, but he was happy that it had all more or less worked out. Annie had loved Sparkles dearly, and losing the horse was devastating for her. Shipboard life, with the discipline and work that it entailed, would keep her from dwelling on the loss.

  Annie approached her parents in tears nonetheless. “Thank you, Daddy,” she said, hugging each of her parents tightly. “Thank you, Mom.”

  Ellie was crying too as she held her daughter. “You be careful, do you hear me?” She looked over at Marcus. “You bring my little girl home safely, Marcus. You bring her home to meet her sibling.”

  “We’ll be home before you know it, baby,” Marcus said, even though they all knew that wasn’t true. “I’ll look after her.”

  “Please don’t make me regret this,” Ellie said. “Please, Marcus. Look after our little girl.”

  Captain Blackwood approached. “I hate to interrupt, but we do need to be going. Crewman Apprentice Winchester has a lot to learn and will be doing a lot of on the job training. I’ll keep her busy.” She looked Marcus’ wife in the eyes. “And I’ll keep her safe.”

  Ellie nodded, wiping the tears from her cheeks. Annie stood up a little straighter and thanked the captain for her help.

  “Don’t thank me yet, crewman,” Captain Blackwood said. “I promise you this will be the hardest thing you’ve ever done.”

  The resolute expression on Annie’s face made Marcus proud. “I won’t let you down…Captain,” she said.

  Captain Blackwood nodded at Annie, then looked over at her executive officer. “Wolfram? She’s all yours.”

  Nodding, the stern, Germanic spacer turned to face Annie. “Crewman, come with me. We’re heading directly back to the ship. We don’t have time for a proper orientation before liftoff. You’ll need to pay attention and lea
rn fast.”

  “Okay,” Annie said.

  Wolfram leaned down so that he was eye to eye with Annie. “Crewman, when addressing an officer, you will address him by his title and call him sir. Am I making myself clear?”

  Annie’s eyes were wide. “Y…yes sir!”

  “Good,” Wolfram said. “This is not like the netcast shows, Crewman. The Andromeda is not staffed by a band of plucky misfits. Space is a harsh mistress, an alien environment unfit for human life. We survive there only through good order, discipline, and hard work. Failure to do your duty, and do it correctly, will get you and others killed. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, sir!” Annie replied, standing up so straight she looked like she was going to break. Marcus remembered his first day in boot camp and tried not to laugh at his poor daughter.

  “Good,” Wolfram said. “Now come with me.” He looked up at Captain Blackwood. “Kapitänin,” he said with a nod, and led Annie off to the rental van.

  Captain Blackwood looked apologetically at Eleanor Winchester. “Wolfram can be tough, but he’s fair. He runs a tight ship. Annie’s in good hands. We’ll make a spacer out of her.”

  Ellie looked thoughtful. “You know what? Maybe this is good. She’s out here drinking beer, getting into fights, and who knows what else. She thinks she’s all grown up now? Let her live by grown-up rules. She’ll appreciate how good she had it.”

  Captain Blackwood nodded. “I need to be going myself. Mr. Winchester,” she said, looking at Marcus, “you can take the rest of the day off to spend with your wife. We’re in final preparations for our departure, but I don’t need you on the ship for that. Just make sure your people are all accounted for and in place well before our scheduled launch.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Marcus said. As the captain left, and his lawyer excused herself, he turned to Wade. “Hell of a day, huh?”

  Wade agreed. “It worked out. Too bad about the horse, though.”

  “If I ever get my hands on the little bitch that did that to my daughter, I’m going to choke the life out of her. I’m glad Annie broke her face.”

  “I’m gonna take off, Boss,” Wade said. “I’ll screen the others and let them know we’re on liberty until liftoff. Go spend some time with your wife.”

  “You should go visit your sexbot,” Ellie said, a twinkle in her teary eye. “She probably misses you, all alone in that storage unit. You keep neglecting her and she’ll start cheating on you with the other appliances.”

  Wade shook his head. “You know…”

  Marcus laughed out loud. Ellie was sad, but she was tough. She’d get through this.

  Chapter 14

  The Privateer Ship Andromeda

  Capitol Starport, Aterrizaje

  New Austin

  Captain Catherine Blackwood steepled her fingers patiently as she reclined in her command chair. The entire crew was strapped in, either at their duty stations or in their racks. New Austin had made for a pleasant visit, but Catherine had business to attend to, and it was time she got underway. Her command screens showed her that everything was in order and that all systems were functioning as they should be. The ship rumbled quietly as the engines idled hot.

  A window popped up on her screen. At the same time, a calm voice came over her headset. “Andromeda, this is traffic control. You are cleared for launch on your planned trajectory.”

  “Roger that, control. Thank you,” Colin, who was up on the flight deck, replied. “Andromeda out.”

  A klaxon sounded and red lights flashed. All boards were still green. Satisfied, Catherine tapped her headset. “Colin, take us up.”

  “Roger that, Captain.”

  The low rumble of the idling engines grew into a throaty roar. The vibration increased to a rattle as the ship was buffeted by the thrust reflecting off the landing pad. All at once, the roar reached its crescendo, and Catherine was pressed back into her seat as the Andromeda left the surface of New Austin. She kept a watchful eye on her screens, even though she had complete confidence in her pilot and wasn’t expecting trouble. Launch and landing were the two most dangerous parts of a ship’s flight. An accident or failure that would, in space, be an annoyance, could be catastrophic during atmospheric flight.

  On another of her displays, Catherine watched the dusty surface of New Austin recede into the distance as the Andromeda rocketed toward the heavens on a plume of smoke and fire. My God, I do love it so, she thought to herself with a smile.

  Spaceport control contacted the Andromeda one last time. “Andromeda, spaceport control. You have left our airspace. You are go for throttle-up. Safe travels.”

  Colin replied crisply, “Roger that, spaceport control, we are go for throttle-up. Thank you. Andromeda out.” He then announced over the intercom, “Stand by for throttle up. Three…two…one…mark.”

  On Colin’s mark, he opened up the ship’s engines a little more. Most spaceports had altitude and thrust restrictions on inbound and outbound ships. An engine sufficient for interplanetary travel could be extremely destructive to ground infrastructure if not managed safely. Catherine was pressed deeper into her acceleration seat as the ship rocketed away from the surface at four gravities. She was unable to suppress the wide grin that appeared on her face. She loved this part, the launch, screaming into the heavens on a tin can spitting hellfire. It was a sensation the very first astronauts on Ancient Earth had experienced, and it bound spacers of every era together.

  Stuck in her chair until the ship reached escape velocity, Catherine had little to do unless disaster struck. Her crew was competent and her ship was in good order, just as it should be. She thought it would be unprofessional of her to gush to her crew about how proud she was of them, and how much she loved watching them work, but she made her feelings known in subtler ways. Still, just to keep herself from daydreaming too much, Catherine pulled up their planned trajectory on one of her displays.

  In ninety-six hours, they would rendezvous with an automated fueling station in high solar orbit. Getting from the surface into space consumed a lot of propellant, so much so that larger, capital-class ships were typically not capable of atmospheric flight. This limited their versatility and left them reliant on orbital infrastructure for support and maintenance, but it allowed for hull designs much larger than even the biggest of atmospheric ships.

  Her reaction mass tankage topped off, the Andromeda would then boost along a trajectory that would take them to the Lone Star System’s third, and least used, transit point. It was there that her long journey would really begin.

  I hope you’re still alive, Cecil.

  * * *

  I hate this part, Marcus thought to himself. He’d spent plenty of time aboard ships while in the Espatiers, but he’d never been fond of getting shot into space on a thermonuclear blowtorch. Travel from civilized spaceports generally had an impressive safety record, but Marcus could never shake the feeling that the ship was going to rattle itself apart, leaving him to plummet to his death.

  Annie, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying herself. “This is amazing!” she said over the intercom. The strain of the acceleration did nothing to dampen her enthusiasm. The eight newcomers to the Andromeda were each secured in their individual berths, which doubled as acceleration couches, but had an open channel with one another so they could chat. Wade remarked that it had been a long time since he’d done this, but seemed fine. Ken Tanaka had fallen asleep somehow. Devree Starlighter cried out with excitement as the Andromeda hit four gees; she found the whole thing as thrilling as Annie did. Benjamin Halifax grunted tersely and muttered the occasional obscenity. Jeremiah Hondo seemed perfectly at home under acceleration, and chatted with Wade. Randall Markgraf joined the conversation briefly, complaining of light-headedness, before blacking out.

  The team had nothing else to do while the Andromeda was accelerating at more than one gee, and Annie was too much of a novice to be allowed to roam the ship while it was under high acceleration. At two gravities, Marcus recalled
, you could get up and walk around. It was like carrying another man on your back. You just had to be careful about falling down. Many spacers wore shoes with arch supports, and swore by them.

  At four gravities, though, it wasn’t safe to move about unaided. A fall that would result in only a bruised butt and ego under normal circumstances could break bones and burst blood vessels at four times the gravity that the human body was designed for. Falling any kind of a distance could kill a man as if he’d flung himself off of a building. Driving the point home, a small red light above the hatch to his berth informed Marcus that it was sealed. He couldn’t get out if he wanted to.

  It’s a good thing I’m not claustrophobic. The kind of berth he found himself in was often derisively referred to as a coffin, but it was actually comparatively spacious. Marcus had enough room to stretch, move about some, and climb in and out without bumping his head. That in and of itself was a luxury he would have paid good money for on more than one long haul in a Concordiat Fleet troopship. “Hey kiddo,” he said, straining under his own weight. “How you holding up?”

  “I’m okay!” Annie insisted, though she sounded a little less enthusiastic now.

  It’s also a good thing there’s a relief tube in here, because I have to piss. Being compressed under four times one’s normal weight tended to dramatically exacerbate a full bladder. “Good. I’ll be right back,” Marcus grunted to the group. “I gotta piss.”

  “Good luck,” Wade said with a strained grin. “Don’t hurt yourself.”

  “That’d be a hell of a thing,” Marcus mused. “All this planning and preparation, and I get incapacitated trying to take a leak.” Chuckling to himself, Marcus signed off of the group chat and strained to get the relief apparatus into place.

  This is the first day, he thought to himself, straining to urinate under his present, apparent weight of 332 kilograms. What have you gotten yourself into?