Space Race (Space Race 1) Nathan Hystad (ebooks children's books free .TXT) 📖

Capricious bumped and clunked as I lifted her off the landing pad, and I rose into a useable transfer lane, flicking the hull’s commercial lights to life. Few vessels moved through the Oasis-owned skies, telling me things were more dire for my previous employer than I’d thought. It made me smile. I set the ship on auto-pilot while I shaved and showered. The simple act quickly put me into a better mood.

I stared at myself, almost not recognizing the man in the reflection. Major Barnes was right. I had been a kid with the world at his fingertips, and I’d given it all away. Losing my mentor, my hero, had changed everything, and now I wondered what my life could have been like if I’d stayed in the circuit. I dried my short brown hair and sighed, trying to rid myself from thinking about what-ifs. Longing to change the past wasn’t a healthy train of thought.

The trip to Sage Industries’ zone took an hour moving at the top speed allowed on suborbital commercial flights, and I climbed back into the seat, switching to manual controls. Capricious lowered as I adjusted my lights to a recreational ship’s marking as I descended for my parents’ building.

Sage was the top dog. Among the Primary Corporations, they’d been leading for as long as the ranks had been established, meaning they not only owned forty percent of what had once been known as the United States and Canada, but also half of Mars and all of Enceladus, among a vast array of the Kuiper Belt. To put it bluntly, they were a powerhouse.

Their biggest competitor was Luna Corp, but to most of the population, there was one true Primary, and that was why I’d started the circuit under Sage’s brand. That was because of my grandfather’s endorsement and I knew it. It had started out so fruitful.

My luck eventually ran out.

My parents’ building was pristine on the exterior, like most things within Sage’s region. The city was predominantly used in manufacturing girders for housing construction and infrastructure on their moons and Mars, with over two million people working on the processes each and every day of the week, trading off in relentless shifts. Both of my parents worked at one such production site, with my mother in data entry and my father supervising the lines.

Robots rolled along the grounds, snipping at foliage, sweeping the sidewalks, and doing whatever else the round metal drones did twenty-four hours a day. The parking lot was full, and I had to use the overflow for commercial deliveries. Only people in Sage’s cities could afford Pods, though they were owned by Sage, of course. Everything was leased by the company. When you were laid off like me, you were cast aside.

It was strange being here. It had been five years since I’d been back. I was usually out of town for any sort of holidays. I had a good excuse, living on Capricious for ninety percent of the year, so my parents never made a big deal about it, but after recent events and my mother’s few words, I knew it was time to return. Arlo, we need you to come home.

The city was inland from the West Coast, the Pacific Ocean twenty kilometers away, but I could almost smell it on the breeze. The air was humid, such a difference from the dry, arid Oasis that was anything but its namesake. Their building was one of five in this sector, each of them made of a blue reflective glass. They were all identical, and it took a moment to orient myself and recall which of the towers they lived in.

When I found the entrance, I moved aside as a family of six was being escorted out.

“We didn’t do anything! You can’t—” The man’s words were silenced as they were shoved into a Corporate transport, the lights on top of the hovering vehicle blinking red.

An armed guard by the ship stared at me and started to approach when his partner exited. I quietly slipped around him and into the complex before the door closed. The transport lifted off, flying without an alarm into the air.

I took the lift to the twenty-third floor and got off, seeking their unit. I didn’t have a chance to knock, when the door opened, and I watched my mother. She was so small, her hair pulled into a severe ponytail. Her eyes were red-lined, and I saw how gray she’d become. What had happened to the vibrant woman I remembered making me study each night for my pilot exam? Who’d cheered me on during every event, and had celebrated my victories with love, keeping me humble the entire time. The woman who’d smiled no matter how grim the circumstances.

“What is it?” I asked, searching past her for my dad.

“They took him.”

I barged into the small but tidy unit. “Who? Dad?”

“They went to his work and said that they needed people to manufacture on Mars. They gave him one day, and then he was gone.” She broke down and was crying now. I hugged her, feeling how fragile she was in my arms.

“Sage is forcing Dad to work on Mars? For how long?” I asked, fury boiling in my veins. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not since the treaties had been signed and implemented by the Board four generations ago.

“They didn’t say. He was told they’d compensate us, but I haven’t seen anything yet.”

“When did they take him?” I asked, suddenly ashamed of my lack of communication with my family.

“Two months ago,” she whispered.

I flopped to the compact couch that faced their kitchen. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“Because you were working, and I didn’t want to worry you. I know how upset you become, and…”

There it was. One moment of weakness, and it always came back to bite me in the ass. Everything would have been fine if I hadn’t screwed up five years ago. Well, it didn’t matter, because I had peace