Broken Episode One (10 page)

Maybe she was smart enough to tell he was cooling
towards her again, because she shifted away from him and stared out
the tiny cockpit window. It showed a constant view of churning
sand. It was black until the particles of fine sand hit the
windscreen and reflected the light from within. Then you could see
the yellows and golds and pale oranges.

It could have been pretty, but he was too distracted
to tell.

Something was bothering him. It was her. Again. With
time enough to pause, he was thinking, and he remembered in short
order how this was all her fault. She’d dallied in the cargo bay,
looking for her stuff, and it could have cost them their lives. A
few minutes later and the ship would have been torn to shreds.

She’d also been dumb enough to fire that bruiser
bullet, and his back was killing him. It felt like a horse had done
a tango on it.

What else? Oh yeah, there was the little fact that
he kept having to look after her. He wouldn’t be in this situation
if Hogart hadn’t tried to kidnap her.

As the minutes ticked on by, his mood became darker
and darker.

By the time they arrived in the city, if she so much
as breathed too loud, he shouted at her.

A part of Josh realized his behavior was way out of
line. Not only was it entirely inappropriate for a Coalition
officer, but it was just wrong. She’d had a tough day, and he was
adding to it.

His anger wasn’t ready to listen to reason though,
so when he kicked open the hatch door, he didn’t bother to give her
a hand as he jumped onto the ground. Instead he watched her
practically fall out of the hatch, and he offered nothing but a
snigger.

“Right.” Without bothering to explain anything to
her, he turned on his heel and marched forward.

He’d parked his driller on the outskirts of town,
but it didn’t take long to make their way to the packed center of
the city. There were so many various aliens around, it was
practically a mob.

While he was okay to stride ahead, pushing his way
through the various alien bodies, Mimi was having a much harder
time. She kept getting stepped on or elbowed in the face.

When they’d reached the city, the aptly named Klutzo
had finally caught up to them. He’d done it in style by flying
straight into the side of a building before reorienting and zooming
up to Mimi.

She’d been clutching him protectively ever since,
wrapping her arms around the recording ball as if it was somehow
more important than protecting her own face.

"Wait, hold up a sec," Mimi said as she tried to
make her way around a massive alien with a face like a bull.

Josh ignored her.

"Seriously, just hold on so I can catch up."

"Look,” he stopped abruptly and turned to her, "I
only agreed to look after you if you could keep up. So keep up." He
turned to march away.

She latched a hand on his arm. "Wait, I thought we
agreed to stick together so we could watch each other’s backs?
That’s what you said in the driller."

He looked at her hand pointedly, but she wouldn't
move it. He was rapidly learning Mimi Chester was dogged. More
dogged than he was, and that was saying something.

"Seriously, just slow down a little. That way we can
watch each other’s backs."

He
couldn't help it
– he snorted
so loud it sounded like his nose collapsed. "You think I need you
to watch my back? You're delusional. I guess the cadets were right.
Now keep up."

She removed her hand from his arm. It wasn't a
strong move, though; she let it drop to her side weakly. Her
expression also changed, her usually bright and cheery smile
faltering.

If Josh
had an ounce of empathy, he would realize he'd crossed a line.
Compassion wasn't his forte, though
– fighting was. Whether on the battlefield or with
irritating daddy's girls like Mimi Chester.

So Josh
didn't stop. He kept crossing the line: "the only reason I'm
letting you tag along is that you're a risk to yourself. If anyone
else finds out who you are, you'll get kidnapped. And we can't
disappoint Theodore Chester, can we? That’s the only reason anyone
is ever going to give a hoot about you, Mimi; you have a famous
father. I only told you that stuff about sticking together and
watching each other’s backs so you didn’t argue. You were dumb
enough to believe it. What, you think I actually need someone like
you watching my back? You will only ever get people killed,
like
Lilly Williams,” Josh
spat.

He watched her smile fall from her lips as her
cheeks paled with some mix of disappointment and shame.

If he were a nicer guy, he'd stop. Instead he gave a
sharp chuckle; it felt pretty darn good to wipe the ever-present
smile from Mimi Chester's lips.

Without another word, he turned on his heel and kept
marching forward.

If he'd been cognizant of anything save for his own
success at putting her down, he'd have realized she wasn't
following him anymore. In fact, Mimi had turned away to forge her
own path through the crowd.

She was
done with him. Her worst fears had been confirmed: Josh was cruel.
She could forgive his history
– she understood some people came from troubled
backgrounds, and you had to cut them slack. But she could never
forgive cruelty – that little glint of satisfaction in his eyes
whenever he insulted or belittled her.

She didn't want to travel with him, even if he was
the only "friendly” face in this crowd. She'd have to head out on
her own and try to find a transport off this planet.

Though she was apprehensive of the task ahead, she
wasn't scared. She'd always been taught that fear hid the best
things in life. To succeed, you had to leverage loss against gain.
If that meant striking out on her own on an unfamiliar and
potentially hostile alien planet, so be it. But if she was lucky
and diligent, she could turn this into an opportunity: a planet
like this would be full of stories just waiting to be told.

She
wasn't about to walk up to the first dodgy looking dude she saw to
ask him if he had any juicy goss; she wasn't that stupid. Though
she hated to admit it, Josh was right: if any more people found out
who she was, she would be a target. But he was forgetting
something
– she'd lived with
that fact her whole life. She knew how to handle herself. She knew
how to keep a low profile. Okay, so Hogart had been a bit of a
surprise, but she hadn’t had Klutzo with her then.

You see,
in a pinch, Klutzo could turn into a security drone. Not many
people knew that
– her father
had designed the orb himself, and had ensured it had enough
shielding in place to pass as an ordinary journo ball. But the
point was, now Klutzo was back with her, she was safe
again.

So as she walked forward, she was sure to keep him
close.

She didn’t need a guy like Josh; she could do this
herself.

…

It took him too long to realize she wasn’t following
anymore. It took him even longer to realize she hadn’t tripped over
or lagged behind.

She’d wandered off.

When he realized that, he flipped out. In that
single instant Mimi managed to confirm every suspicion he had about
her; only an arrogant idiot who relied on other people to fix her
problems would do something like this.

His very first instinct was to leave her. She
deserved whatever was coming. If she was foolish enough to think
she could make it alone on a planet like this, she might as well be
taken out of the gene pool. Okay, that sounded kind of harsh. And
as soon as he thought it, Josh realized it was the old him
thinking. Still, the very fact she could nick off on her own meant
she either wildly overestimated her own abilities or underestimated
the enthusiasm of criminals to kidnap high fliers. Every two-bit
pirate on this planet would give his left arm for the daughter of
Theodore Chester. And they’d gladly lop off both her arms if
required.

Back when Josh had been a smuggler and pirate
himself, he would have given anything for a target like Mimi. She
could be ransomed for a fortune. Then again, now that he knew how
annoying she was, maybe she wouldn’t be worth the effort.

The goons in the throng around him wouldn’t share
his same compunctions. If Mimi got too rowdy for them, they’d knock
her out. If she talked too much and started asking inconvenient
questions, they’d just cut her tongue off.

So, despite the fact he really wanted to leave her
so she’d learn her lesson, he knew he couldn’t. He had a duty as a
Coalition officer. Chester Enterprises, or CE for short, was one of
the Academy’s biggest contractors. Their R and D division was
responsible for all the coolest new tech. To get Theodore Chester
offside would be suicide for Josh’s career.

“You owe
me, Mimi,” he muttered to himself as he turned around, searching
for her through the crowd. He was glad of her plain clothes
– she’d stick out like a daisy in an
oilfield. Everyone around him was dressed in the usual mashed up
style of pirates, drifters, and vagabonds. From stained leather
vests adorned with broken devices, to necklaces made out of
salvaged pulse fuses – there wasn’t a simple tunic and pants in
sight.

Drawing his hands into fists and setting his jaw
into a hard line, he pushed through the crowd.

She’d be sorry if he couldn’t get to her in time.
Then again, she’d be sorry when he did find her; he was going to
give her hell.

…

The secret of fitting into a place like this was to
get the right set of clothes. She stuck out like a sore thumb in
her tunic and pants. So the very first thing she did was grab a
whole bunch of junk she saw on the side of the street and cobble
together a costume. Under Klutzo’s instruction, she managed to make
an outfit fitting of a planet like this: a vest fashioned from a
piece of stinky leather ripped off an old flight seat, pants sewn
together from scraps of flexi-metal, and a necklace of discarded
gun batteries.

It was very cool, but very smelly.

She also changed her hair. With liberal use of
engine grease, she made a mohawk on one side, and let it lie loose
on the other. It looked like a frozen wave ready to crash on her
scalp.

Now she was dressed, she was getting fewer and fewer
stares, and with Klutzo’s help, managed to navigate to the less
seedy areas of town.

“Right,” she mumbled under her breath, “time to get
out of here.”

She’d already figured out that the best and only way
off this rust bucket of a planet was to assume a false identity.
One more mention of her real name and things could get messy.

To get a false identity, she’d have to get somewhere
quiet enough so Klutzo could reprogram her chip. Embedded in her
sternum from birth, her identity microchip could be used by anyone
with the correct scanner to ascertain her name and other pertinent
information. But given time, Klutzo would be able to alter it so it
told the galaxy she was someone else.

You
weren’t meant to be able to reprogram identity chips
– in fact, it was very, very
illegal. It was also technically tricky. Klutzo could do it though
– just another feature her father had built into its operating
system. If the Academy ever realized what Klutzo could do, she’d be
in serious trouble. Then again, they’d probably turn right around
and order a bunch for themselves. An undetectable security drone
always had its uses.

While
Klutzo was
– as the name
suggested – a total klutz most of the time, his security program
was unaffected. If he needed to, he’d transform from a cutey always
banging into walls and muttering an electronic sorry, to a top
class armored drone ready to chase down even the most agile of
enemies.

If she’d had him inside the driller, things would
have gone differently. Then again, it was probably a good idea that
Josh hadn’t seen Klutzo’s true abilities; Josh would have ratted on
her to the Academy for sure. Despite the fact he clearly had a
litany of crimes hiding in his closet, he struck her as the kind of
guy to take glee in getting someone else in trouble.

Now Mimi was ready, she needed to find a ticket out
of here. Even with her identity chip reprogramed and her disguise
in place, she couldn’t be confident she wouldn’t be recognized. She
could run into some of the other passengers on the ship. Or, for
all she knew, the inhabitants of this god awful planet could
deliberately keep astride of all matters relating to the richest
folk in the galaxy, including the exact identities of their
kids.

She had to be careful.

So, with that mantra playing on her lips, she
travelled to the very edge of town. This far out, the cramped
buildings of the inner city thinned. The rusted metal towers got
shorter and shorter, until only a few squat buildings remained
right on the edge of the city.

In the distance, the desert was a strike of
yellow-gold along the horizon. Even as she walked through the
streets she could feel the crunch of sand under her feet. It was
hotter too, though a chill late-evening breeze was starting to make
her cheeks tingle and her arms shiver.

“If we continue on for two more blocks, we will
reach the very edge of the populace,” Klutzo informed her.

He was speaking in full sentences, which was a good
sign. His ordinary operating system had been wiped so many times it
was a wonder he didn’t slur and dribble. It was also an indication
that, in part, his security program had kicked in. In fact, it had
likely initiated back when the transport had crashed. While Klutzo
could technically have easily gotten her and Josh out of the belly
of that broken ship, he would have only done it if absolutely
necessary. To reveal his true identity prematurely could get Mimi
in a lot of trouble.