Govi said, “It’s my understanding your parents passed away
not so long ago.”
A shadow of sadness passed over her round face. “They died in a shuttle accident just after I
turned seventeen. I never felt I got to properly
mourn them, because my situation was so up in the air. I was afraid my true nature would be
discovered since I became a ward of the Church.” Michaela shuddered.
Raxstad pointed out, “You managed to get away undetected,
however.”
She nodded. “Since
I’d finished my schooling, I applied to the military as a junior
serviceman. It’s a program for kids who
are not likely to go to college and aren’t qualified to do anything worthwhile. Once you get through that, you go on to basic
military training. Lucky us, after that
we would get to fight on the front lines in battles. It’s essentially training to be cannon
fodder. They pretty much stuck the
juniors on a ship and assigned us all the shit jobs.”
“What exactly did you do?” Govi asked.
“I slung hash in the mess.”
At their confused looks, Michaela offered up her wonderful throaty
laugh. “I served meals in the ship’s
cafeteria and cleaned up afterward. It
wasn’t awful. Plus, it gave me the
opportunity to try and escape Earth for good.
That’s why I signed up in the first place.”
“A plan that has succeeded,” Korkla congratulated her.
She gave him a rueful smile.
“After over a year of waiting and hoping. And only if that battlecruiser orbiting
Plasius doesn’t find a way to send fighters to tear everything apart before I
get out of here.”
Raxstad spoke in a forbidding tone. “They won’t get anywhere near you. Besides, you’re not going to be here much
longer anyway.”
Korkla grinned. “We
are getting you and your friend Jessica McInness off this planet. No matter how you feel about my clan, you are
going to Kalquor, where you’ll be permanently free from Earth.”
Michaela’s sudden beaming smile was the most beautiful thing
Korkla had ever seen. It was the smile
of the terminally ill patient who had received a miracle cure. Her dark eyes, so brown they were almost
black, brightened with unshed tears.
Release tentatively scheduled for June 2014
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