Liberty (27 page)

“Captain!” screamed CiCi.

I felt the color draining from my own face as I heard more shots being fired inside
Liberty.

“Flarking piece of ....” I looked down at Hobson and the words faded before I could say them. Swear words didn’t quite cover it.

“This is not how I planned the day to go,” he mumbled.

I wasn’t about to leave my best friend. I mustered all my strength, hefted him up in my arms, and tottered down to the hold. Hobson moaned with pain as I wobbled into a bulkhead and slid back to the ground. There was blood everywhere. As I stared through the doors to the hold, I saw Bell, CiCi, and Rivera hunkered down in one corner.

In the other were at least ten shooters.

“All that’s holy,” I whispered.

“Where?” asked Hobson.

“Shut up, Hobs. Rivera! Cover me!”

I lifted Hobs again and maneuvered as fast as I could for the side exit. Hobs moaned louder in my arms, the pain becoming more than he could consciously bear.

“I’ll save you, Hobson, I promise,” I said.

“Mmm, love you too ....”

“Hold your fire.”

The woman’s voice sent a chill through my body. I ignored it and kept moving for the door.

“Tabitha Dixon, if you want to live, stop right now and turn around.”

Ha!
I didn’t care if I lived. I cared about getting Hobson help. I said nothing and kept heading for the door.

“You can’t save him if you’re dead.”

I turned and faced Eira Ninge.

“You have no right to attack, this is—”

“A sanctuary planet?” Eira stepped toward me, clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, and smiled.

I felt sick. In person, her smile was terrifying.

“You are not actually
on
Neptune. You are on
my
ship. Ergo, you
have
no sanctuary rights. Also, I wouldn’t go out that side door. There’s at least fifty feet between you and the ground, and every second that goes by that distance increases.”

“What?”
I cried. “How did you even land?”

“Don’t be simple, Dix, it’s unbecoming. Don’t you realize by now that everyone has their price? Getting on the planet was not a problem. My ship landed on yours and lifted off. Poof! You’re not on Neptune. Isn’t that convenient?”

She continued to walk toward me. “How about a trade, Tabitha? I’ll call off my soldiers, we land the ship, you get Hobson some medical attention, possibly get dressed. It must be awkward, you know, running around in nothing but a bra.”

“That’s it? You’re just going to let me go?”

“Of course.”

As the words left her cherry red mouth, Hobson shifted in my arms, and the chain with the vial on it clinked against my chest.

Eira’s eyes widened and then narrowed. She leapt for my throat, but Rivera shot her in the shoulder before she could reach me. Eira yelped in pain as she sank to the ground in front of me.

“Run!” yelled Rivera. He slid a sailboard across the ground and into the wall just beyond the side door.

I shot Rivera a dirty look. “I’m a teenage girl, not the Hulk!” I looked down at my friend. His eyes were wide with pain as he reached for something in his pocket.

“What are you doing?”

“Put me down,” he muttered. I did as he asked. Hobs’s face scrunched up as he pulled a key from his pocket. “Rivera!” he screamed. With the last ounce of strength in his body, he threw the key to Rivera, who snatched it out of the air before hunkering back down again with his gun.

I looked at Hobs’s pale face, the beads of sweat shining on his forehead.

I had to be stronger than I was.

For Hobson.

I grabbed him under the shoulders as bullets erupted around us. He cried out in pain as I pulled him along the ground and onto the sailboard. I wrapped the foot straps around each of his arms.

“Trust me?” I asked.

He nodded.

I pushed the sailboard with Hobs on it out the side door.

I leapt out after him, grabbed the handlebar, and engaged the engine just in time to pull up and land. Hobs yelped in pain as we hit the ground. I let go of the handlebar and pulled Hobs towards the house, screaming his name and trying to keep him conscious. I had almost reached Miriam’s courtyard when Eira’s ship thrusters roared to life.

She was flying away with my ship and my crew.

“Flark!”
I yelled.

“Dix ...,” whispered Hobson.

“I’m here, I’m here. The healers will be able to—”

Hobs shook his head. “I’m ... done, Dix. I’m ... going ....”

I held his hand and took a deep breath. “You are going home. With me. We’ll take you back to Venus and—”

“Yeah. Venus. My lab ...” He smiled slightly as his breathing became more erratic. His grip on my hand became painfully tight, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t about to let go.

“Yes, Hobs, your lab. You can hide there and we’ll get the crew and the ship back while you’re getting better and—”

“Tabitha, are you there?” he asked.

“Hobs, I’m right here, I’m right here,” I cried. I took his hand and pressed it to my cheek.

“Tabitha ... can I have a kiss?”

A sob broke from my chest. I leaned down and pressed my lips gently to his, my tears spilling over onto his face.

“Don’t cry ...,” said Hobs. He reached up to brush my tears away, but there were too many for him. “Your face is so pretty, even ... even when you’re sad, Tabi ... Tabitha ... I always kept my heart in a box. In a box in the floor. It’s where I’ve always ... I’ve always loved you. No one else ... just my ... my ... Dix. My ....”

His body relaxed in my arms as his spirit left his body behind.

“Hobs!” I screamed. “Isaac! Wake up!
Wake up!”

I heard footsteps coming up behind me.

“Dix?” asked Berrett.

“Wake him up!” I screamed.

Berrett yelled for Miriam, not realizing that she wasn’t there.

Eventually, other healers came.

Someone pried me off Hobs, I don’t remember who.

Time stopped. Everything stopped.

Hobs was gone.

I don’t know when I realized the screams echoing in the wind were mine.

I
DON’T REMEMBER HOW I WOUND UP IN THE BATHROOM, BUT
I do recall I cried so hard I gagged over the toilet. The warmth of Hobson’s last goodbye was still on my lips and his blood was on my hands. I didn’t want to wash it off, didn’t want to lose him, couldn’t bear to say goodbye. I screamed and punched at pillows and threw things that were never made to be thrown. The sound of shattering glass and porcelain only fueled me.

None of it mattered.

Nothing mattered at all.

Hobs had been in love with me, and I’d had no idea until just before the life rushed out of his eyes.

I curled up in a tiny ball on the bathroom rug, shivering and lost. I couldn’t accept it.
Any minute now,
I told myself,
Hobs will come bounding into the room with that bouncing mass of blond curls and put his arms around me and I’ll feel okay again.

Any minute now
..

“Hobs!” I stood up, kicked the door, and screamed again.

I don’t remember anything between that scream and when one of the healers came in. Hours may have passed, or just minutes. I don’t know. By the time she arrived, my eyes were practically swollen shut, and even if they hadn’t been, I didn’t want to open them.

“Let me see your hands,” she said. I shook my head and curled around them. “Tabitha, give me your hands. We need to get you clean.”

“No!” I yelled. “You can’t take him away!”

“He’s not here, Tabitha. Hobs is home now. He’s safe, and he’s free of pain. He’ll always be with you.”

Tears rolled out of my eyes as my body flailed and shook. I don’t know how, but the healer managed to uncurl me and help me get cleaned and dressed and tucked into my bed. I cried until I fell asleep.

For the next three days I was violently ill, so they tell me. There was a healer with me round the clock to monitor me. I didn’t care. I tried to tell them it didn’t matter, but for some reason that only made them more concerned.

Go figure.

Night after night, I dreamed that I was sitting in my old bedroom, cradling the vial as waves of people came up my staircase, silently accusing me with their faces.

My family.

Caleb.

Hank, Mark, Bethany.

The little family from Titan.

Hobs.

The squealing mist came and took them all away, and in the background, I could hear Eira laughing.

Four days after Hobson was murdered, Berrett poked his head around my door.

“Dix? Can I come in?” he asked.

I nodded. I didn’t care one way or the other.

Finally, I was numb.

Berrett sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned over, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands folded.

“I’m so sorry about Hobson. He didn’t deserve that.”

I nodded. “No one does. She murdered him, Jordan.”

“I know.” He scooted up toward the headboard so he and I were sitting next to each other, and then put his arm around me. I nestled in without thinking. He rested his head on mine and kissed my forehead.

“Dix?”

“Yeah.”

Berrett pulled out his Cuff. “Eira still has the rest of the crew. Dix ... she has my mother.”

I looked up at him, confused. “Eira still has ...”

“They couldn’t get off her ship in time, remember? She took off right after you and Hobson escaped. Eira’s got
Liberty
and she’s holding the crew hostage.”

Berrett gave me his Cuff.

Tabitha,

If you want your crew returned to you alive and whole as opposed to receiving their mutilated bodies in a box, you will meet me with the vial at the coordinates provided. You have 48 hours.

I looked at Berrett. I could see my feelings mirrored in his face, so tired, so defeated. All the fight was gone.

“What else can I do?” I asked. “If the SUN doesn’t get me, she will. I can’t beat her
and
the SUN, Berrett. I have to give myself up.”

Berrett stared down at his hands. “I’ll go get a shuttle ready.”

T
HE HEALERS LENT BERRETT AND ME A SPECIAL SHUTTLE TO TAKE
Hobson home. They put his body in the most ornate coffin I had ever seen. It was made of wood, and from the looks of it, it was hand carved. Incredible motifs ran along the sides while intricate designs graced each corner of the coffin. It was fit for a prince, a perfect final resting place for the hero who had saved my life. One of the healers approached me before we took off.

“This shuttle cloaks, Ms. Dixon. You should be able to take your friend home without fear of detection from anyone watching Neptunian space.”

“Thank you,” I replied. It was barely louder than a whisper.

I had never flown a ship that cloaked before. The healer gave Berrett and me instructions on how to make it work, and then we took off. We flew to Venus in almost complete silence. The occasional sentence necessary for flying was exchanged almost curtly. I knew what Berrett was thinking. He was thinking how the second he got his mother back he would be free of me, how stupid he was for saving my life, and how horrible I was for taking all these risks with other people’s lives, just to get what I wanted.

I really was no different from Eira.

I set my jaw and focused on flying the shuttle. The healers had already sent a message ahead to Hobson’s family, informing them that Morgan Fey, a fellow crew member, would be bringing his body home. They would be waiting for us at the landing dock just outside of Avalon. The thought of seeing Hobson’s family didn’t faze me. Nothing fazed me.

I was dead too.

Once we arrived on Avalon, Berrett and I carried Hobson’s casket out of the ship. Hobson’s mother and father walked to the casket where their dead son lay. Tears crawled down his mother’s face, and his father’s chin quivered fiercely. They were pale and drawn.

I cleared my throat. “I’m so sorry,” I said. “He meant everything to me. He was my best friend.”

“You flew with him?” asked Hobson’s father.

I nodded. There were others who had come to take the body away. I watched the casket go. I knew in my heart that my soul was curled up inside that casket with my friend. That day they would bury us both.

“Tell me what happened,” said Hobson’s mother.

“We were attacked, an unexpected firefight. The ... the shooter was aiming for me,” I said. “He was in the way.”

She nodded. “I know my son. I’m sure if he had to choose, he would have chosen this. If he’d seen it coming, he would have stepped in front of that bullet anyway.”

She smiled at me through her tears, and I realized she recognized me. I locked and screwed down the grief that threatened to overtake me.

“I know. I loved him so much,” I replied. I bit down so hard on my lower lip that I could taste blood. She patted my shoulder, then took her husband’s arm and followed her son’s casket to the carrier. I watched until they were out of sight.

I turned to Berrett. “We have to go clear out his lab. We have two hours before his funeral starts, and I need something to do to pass the time anyway. I can’t just sit here thinking about it or I’ll go crazy.”