The Alliance Read online

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  From the Author

  About the Author

  Copyright Page

  THE ALLIANCE

  Jason Letts

  CHAPTER 1

  Mars was a terrible place to be an orphan.

  That’s what five-year-old Rion Istlegaard thought as he sat on a dingy bench between a docking bay and a terminal tunnel in the planet’s dusty spaceport. He tried not to stare at the handful of morose, diminutive figures peeking out from behind grates or around takeoff equipment in the vicinity, but what he saw in their half-starved eyes and on their ragged clothes was a glimpse into a nightmare he didn’t want to imagine.

  Rion turned his attention instead to his father, who was standing in the distance outside their Gravilinx X1 cruiser talking to a bearded man with a massive belt buckle extending nearly from his chest to his knees. Father had told him to wait on the bench for a few minutes before he’d return, and Rion was more than ready for that wait to be over. But the conversation continued, allowing plenty of time to ponder why they hadn’t taken their usual vessel, the much faster and fancier Voidjet Zero, or why his mother hadn’t accompanied them like she always did.

  A few adults crossed through the tunnel on their way to some other bay, nearly distracting Rion from noticing that his father and the man of enormous belt buckle had turned to look directly at him. Father’s lips moved as if to say something to him, but the distance and hum of a nearby liftoff prevented him from hearing.

  Rion thought to get off the bench and answer the call, but before he could move a muscle, his father had turned away and ducked up the cruiser’s entryway ramp.

  Alarmed, the young boy hopped off the bench and dashed for the ship. The ramp ascended and the engines began to flare, urging him to push his run into a dead sprint. The bearded man slipped away down a different corridor, and as soon as he exited the circular landing platform, a warning force field signaling an imminent departure blocked Rion from entering.

  He stood there, his hands against the reddish field, feeling like the wind had been knocked out of him. The Gravilinx X1 kicked up a cloud of dust as its thrusters propelled his father up through the colony’s atmospheric bubble and into space beyond.

  Shaken, Rion watched until the ship left sight, the force field abated, and the dust settled. Why hadn’t his father waited for him to board? How long would it take for him to return to his senses and turn around? What had he been trying to say? The image of him moving his lips before rushing into the ship was burned into his memory.

  At least ten more minutes passed before Rion decided to return to the bench and continue to wait. That’s when they came for him.

  At first a boy even smaller than Rion stepped out from behind a drum in the terminal to come forward, but others quickly followed. His assessment that a handful had been around was woefully inaccurate. At least a dozen closed in on him, all boys, and some were a few years older and significantly bigger.

  The way they looked at him made Rion think they were going to eat him. Still breathing heavily from the shock of his father’s sudden disappearance, he motioned to stand on the bench in a vain attempt to retain some distance, but one grabbed the fabric on his back and yanked him completely off. Their hands were everywhere, in every pocket and crevice, grabbing and pulling. It seemed like they were going to strip him naked.

  Somehow he got his footing and managed a good look at the biggest and most aggressive among them. Without even thinking, he swung his arm as hard as he could. His fist connected and a wail followed that echoed against the walls. Angered, the boy shoved Rion hard enough to knock him to the unforgiving floor.

  “That little weasel hit me on the nose!” the boy said, clenching his fists and clearly contemplating going in for more.

  Another boy, this one with hair so encrusted with soot and Martian dust that it seemed stiff as nails helped Rion up, though the impact affected his balance.

  “You nearly cracked his skull open,” the second boy said to the first, who scoffed and wiped some blood from his lip.

  “Maybe then we’d be even, but some time in your new home will have to cover the difference. I’m Wud, and I’m in charge around here. If you touch me again, I’ll have you tied inside the exhaust shaft of a Quince racer before takeoff. Does he at least have anything good on him?”

  “Not much other than this little metal disc with something etched on it. Looks a little like a hand with one finger shorter than it should be,” another boy said. Rion had never seen the disc before and wasn’t aware he’d been carrying it in his pocket. Wud came forward and inspected it closely before flinging it on the floor.

  “Junk,” he scoffed. “Well, I’ll give you credit, kid. We’ve been here a whole two minutes and you haven’t said it yet. I’ll show you where you’ll sleep and then you can get some food when you’re ready. I’ll tell you now. It ain’t pretty and there are no supernova sheets.”

  Rion swallowed as the kids started to turn away, not seeming to care whether he followed them or not.

  “I’m not staying here. I just have to wait and I’ll be gone soon,” he said.

  Wud swung around with a beaming smile, laughing so hard he put a hand on his chest. A chorus of laughter erupted around him as every boy found nearly limitless humor in his simple statement. Wud finally caught his breath and some of the redness faded from his cheeks. He came over and dropped a heavy hand on Rion’s shoulder.

  “I hate to break it to you, but mommy and daddy aren’t coming back, but it’s good to know you’re no smarter than the rest of us at figuring that out.”

  Rion pushed Wud’s hand away, eliciting a flash of anger that recalled the boy’s earlier threat.

  “Yes, they are,” Rion insisted. A look at the boy with the crusty hair gave Rion the impression he should’ve kept his mouth shut. Wud rolled his eyes.

  “Do I have to explain everything to you? Look at us. Do you think we’re here by choice? No, none of us being here is an accident, and neither are you. You can thank the Mars Regent of the Planetary Alliance.”

  “What, why?”

  “Because it’s a big trick. A hundred ships a day use this spaceport, and all of them have to submit a ship manifest form before landing. The form makes it sound like they just want to know about crew and adults, but when the inspector comes around on the ground asking about kids too, and the numbers don’t add up to what was submitted before, there’s a colossal penalty.

  “I’ve been here for two years, and people keep falling for it because the Regent and the Alliance keep the trick a secret. All the planets have their tricks. Either your family has enough charges to pay the fine, or the parents have to choose between giving up all their money and their ship or leaving their precious bundle of joy behind. The Regent’s transit authority knows when a passenger is discharged, and that fine is then added to the reentry fee for that ship. That makes it so that no one’s parents make it back here ever.”

  Rion stared into Wud’s cold eyes, not wanting to believe it.

  “No, they’re coming back,” Rion said, his eyes burning on the verge of tears. Although his parents worked a lot of the time, there was never a moment when he wasn’t looked after. Nothing in his memory showed any inkling that they’d simply leave him behind.

  “Look at those shoes. They’re Opticas. And that Preen jacket and Holvid pants with the diagonal stripes look like they’re r
ight out of a storefront,” said the other boy with the grungy hair.

  Wud gave Rion a judging look and snorted. For all his time here, Wud was still plenty puffy and rounded. His skin had some red splotches, particularly around the neck.

  “You’re right, Bailor,” Wud said, stooping closer to assert his snide face directly in front of Rion’s face. “This kid’s parents probably had plenty of money. Must be some other reason they decided to unload him. I know. They just didn’t like him.”

  Rion had already decided he didn’t like Wud and refused to cry in front of him, though holding it back was getting harder all the time. Glaring with as much rage as he could muster, Rion crossed his arms and sat back on the bench, where he would wait until his father reentered the Mars bubble and picked him up.

  Wud didn’t seem to appreciate his response.

  “Have it your way. We’ll see if you don’t come around when you get hungry,” he said, smiling as he strolled away toward the tunnel. The other boys followed along behind him. Only Bailor glanced back at Rion before departing. Once they were out of sight, Rion picked up the disc and returned it to his pocket.

  Twice Wud appeared alone while Rion waited on the bench by the vacant docking bay, offering something to eat, and both times Rion ignored him. The wait had gone on for a full six hours when Wud appeared a third time, this time with something that looked like chocolate purposefully smudged near his lips. The boy seemed to relish his position as food-broker, savoring the power the indebtedness from the rest of the group gave him.

  At some point in the last hour, Rion had resigned himself that his father wouldn’t be returning, at least not this day, and the ache in his empty stomach roared in a way he didn’t know was possible.

  Wud didn’t bother to say anything this time. He simply strolled over and stood by the bench, weakly suppressing a knowing smirk. After a pang in his stomach, Rion caved immediately.

  “What do you have to eat?” Rion asked.

  Wud glanced about as if surprised by the question.

  “What? I don’t have anything for you to eat. We all have to get our own food, but I can show you how to do that. There’s food all over the place here. There, there, over there,” Wud said, pointing down the various tunnels toward other docking bays and the ships within.

  “Stealing,” Rion said, putting it together. The boy in front of him tilted his head to the side and winced.

  “Stealing is one way of looking at it. I have another. All of these ships have things of mine already in them that their passengers don’t know aren’t theirs yet. Which way is right? I don’t know. Does it really matter? I have to eat and as long as I can keep the spaceport inspectors and the ship owners from catching me, I’m going to take as much as I can.”

  Rion grimly put his chin on his fist and looked at the floor as he processed what he would do.

  “So I’m supposed to walk into one of these spaceships, raid the galley, and get out with my arms full of food?”

  Wud chuckled.

  “It’s nice when it’s that easy, but that’s the basic idea. Just don’t get yourself caught or else you’ll be treated no better than a rat. It wasn’t more than a week ago that a kid got ejected from a ship during takeoff right before it breached the bubble. I can show you where he splattered against the floor. The blood stain and some bone chunks are still there. The bigger body pieces were taken away after some rats had a good go at them.”

  Rion’s eyes widened as he imagined falling from one of the ships blasting off around them and colliding against the rock hard surface below.

  “Oh,” he said. Wud grinned in response to Rion’s display of fear.

  “Of course you don’t have to only take food. Usually there are all kinds of valuables around that you can hawk to traders in some of the colony’s slums. I have so many charges I’ll be able to buy my own ship by the time I’m twelve!”

  Wud’s boasting drew little enthusiasm from Rion, who was still stuck on how he would go about getting his hands on some food in one of these ships. Another hunger pang strongly pushed him into seeing the logic of Wud’s perspective, but being splattered on the floor seemed a worthwhile thing to try to avoid.

  While Rion pondered, Wud licked the chocolate from the corner of his mouth.

  “All right, I can do this,” Rion said, taking a deep breath as he got up from the bench. If he had to steal once to make it through the night until his father got back, it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe they’d even be able to pay for it later, or maybe he’d just forget about it and it wouldn’t matter.

  “There we go,” Wud said, clapping his hands together. “I’ve got the perfect ship for you. We’ll start off with an easy one. I saw these people stumbling black-out drunk out of their ship less than a half an hour ago. Left the entry ramp wide open. They’ll be gone for hours and probably wouldn’t notice you even if they caught you standing right in front of them in the cockpit.”

  It sounded good, but Rion stopped himself from going right along with it.

  “What’s in it for you?” Rion asked, sure there was a catch. Wud seemed to be awfully helpful for someone who wanted to pound him to a pulp a little while ago.

  “For me? Nothing. Well, I shouldn’t say nothing. All I want in return is for you to have my back. If something happens to me or I’m in trouble, you have to help. Deal?”

  “Fine,” Rion said, wary but too hungry to turn his back on a path that led to food.

  Wud escorted him away from the bench, down the tunnel, and through a section of the terminal. Along the way, Rion noticed several of the other orphan boys here and there, some of them appearing to pursue other targets. Bailor sat on the floor near the docking bay that was apparently their destination. Beyond in the circular landing pad was a Gravilinx JKA, similar enough to the ship Rion had arrived on to make him believe for a split second it was his father’s ship.

  Rion had studied every make and model of spaceship out there as obsessively as someone his age could. The differences between the JKA and the X1 were minute but unmistakable: the shape of the landing pads, some darker coloration near the ends of the gray wings, and thinner walls around the engines that made for a louder ride. Despite those differences, the layout of the ship was virtually identical, and the unlikeliness of getting lost inside was no small relief.

  “What are you waiting for?” Wud asked, getting impatient.

  As he had promised, the entry platform was wide open and not a soul was around. Although he’d never been to the Mars spaceport before, the security at even state-of-the-art ports on Venus and Saturn’s moon Titan were left up to the ship owners, and if the owners of this ship were gone, they’d never have a clue unless he did something stupid like activate the engine, initiate a diagnostic of the drives, or engage in some communication over the com.

  Getting caught up in the details of the ship’s capabilities sapped his nerve. Another uncomfortable ache in his stomach and a dry mouth brought his attention back to where it belonged.

  “I can do this,” Rion said, taking a deep breath.

  “We’ll be right here waiting,” Wud said in a friendly tone. The shove against his back was less congenial.

  Wud and Bailor watched the small boy take deliberate steps toward the ship’s ramp. Rion’s progress was steady enough, and soon he was out of earshot. Wud crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. First a smile cracked across his lips, then some thinly restrained chuckling began.

  “What’s so funny?” Bailor asked. It took Wud a moment to get a hold of himself.

  “This ship is scheduled for departure in only a few minutes, and the owners will be back any second. They’ll be scraping bits of this kid off the floor. That’ll teach him to take a swing at me.”

  Rion quickened his pace the closer he got to the ramp. Dead silence pervaded the area, including inside the ship, as best he could tell. Breaking into a run might draw attention from someone passing by the tunnel, so he stalked up the incline with a fa
ir measure of restraint.

  Before he even reached the cabin, a pungent odor singed his nostrils, nearly making him gag. Some kind of chemical was in the air, immediately putting a bad taste in his mouth. He noticed some of the personal belongings of the ship’s occupants, mostly clothes that had been scattered haphazardly about. Stacked boxes on top of a pallet took up a large portion of the main room. Some of them were open with more clothes poking out.

  Continuing on to a narrow walkway leading to the sleeping quarters, Rion slid open a panel and gained access to the closet-sized galley. Smiling, he yanked open the cooler and a cupboard at the same time, both of which were packed with all kinds of goodies. His hands hardly knew what to go for first. There were caramel rushies and cider cakes wrapped in plastic. He grabbed one of the cakes, tore it open, and took as big a bite as he could. Sweet and fluffy, he thought he’d never had one as good. In the cooler he found chicken and beef stock beside some ration dinners. Whether or not the orphan boys on Mars had any ability to cook up rations was a mystery to him, but he grabbed a couple anyway.

  After choking down the rest of the cider cake, he stuffed his pockets with more of the sweets from the cupboard. Because he could, he grabbed a pack of spicy volcano chips and jammed it down his pants. He took one step toward the walkway when he heard footsteps on the rattling entryway ramp.

  “I don’t want to spend another minute in this dump,” said an angry woman. “I knew we wouldn’t find anyone willing to buy these knockoff clothes. Should’ve continued straight on to the tourist stations and gambling barges around Jupiter like we intended, until you spilled that container of coolant with your clumsy butterfingers.”

  “It’s not as bad as it was now that we’ve aired the ship out,” a man said defensively.

  Before he could think, Rion silently slid the galley’s panel closed. Now in darkness, he could hear the couple walking around in the cabin. Depending on how quickly they got to the control panel in the cockpit, the engine could be activated and the ship could be airborne in as little as a few minutes. When it passed through the bubble’s scanning screen, the couple would be alerted that they had an additional occupant. That was if they didn’t happen to come looking for a snack before takeoff first.