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

fuel line filled the cabin. That wasn’t promising. I held my breath as I managed to land her near the shop, and noticed how much had changed. It looked bigger, with more of the town being repaired or under construction.

I killed the power and jogged for the exit, exhaling as my boots landed on soil. She must have spotted me coming, or more likely had heard the labored flight of my ship, because the woman walked from her shop with a confident gait, a look of disapproval mixed with a sneering grin, which made for a confusing expression.

“Didn’t expect I’d see you again,” she said, her voice carrying a familiar southern drawl. Okay, there might have been a reason CP sounded like that. I hated to admit that I’d actually missed the woman, but there it was.

“Wasn’t planning on coming back either. How’s it going, Bello?” I tried to sound casual and cool, but it fell flat.

“You sure you want to do this?” she asked, stepping closer. I saw a heavy tool in her hand, and her jumpsuit was covered in oil stains.

“Do what? I need your help, Bello. Can we go inside to talk?” I asked. She was still beautiful. After four years, she looked even better.

“I have nothing to say to you, Hawk.” She never would call me by my given name.

It was cloudy, but the sun had a way of sneaking past the wispy layer, finding the back of my neck. I started for her, and a beam of light landed on the ground in front of me. I followed the light up to Aster on the rooftop, pointing a Widowmaker at me. I lifted my hands, trying to keep my calm. “Guys, I just need your help with Capricious. I can pay,” I said loud enough for Bello and her sidekick to hear.

Bello waited a moment and shoved her tool into a front pocket. The weapon’s red marker vanished from the earth, and she waved me inside. “By the Primary, I didn’t wake up today thinking Hawk would be showing his pretty face.”

I smiled, unable to refrain. We’d had a great relationship, until we hadn’t. Then it had gone south really fast. “You surviving?” I asked.

“So far. Don’t know if that’s enough, is it?” Bello kicked the door open with her boot and held it while I entered the shop. It was precisely as I recalled: in a state of disaster. There were hoverbikes, landracers, Pods, and other various pieces of equipment in numerous states of disrepair covering the entire place. The lights were dim, and I swore I heard a wild animal sniffing among the wreckage. I saw her ship, Velvet, parked just beyond the space, and it looked like she’d cleaned it up and made some improvements since I’d last visited.

“Some things never change,” I whispered, surveying the mess.

“You’re damned right. You’re selfish as ever.” Bello wiped her hands on her jumpsuit and glared at me. “If you came back to the scene of the crime, you require something you can’t find elsewhere. Which means you don’t have a job, and you’re broke.”

“You always could read me like a book.”

“Books have large words and complicated plots. You’re much easier to read than a book, Hawk.” She smiled now, and I finally relaxed.

“You’re right about everything, and look, I am sorry about how things ended,” I told her.

Her hair was cut shorter than before, white-blonde, and her eyes seemed darker, but happier somehow. “You don’t have to explain yourself. It took me a while to realize why you left. You’re meant for bigger things than flying around the Wastes, Hawk.”

“Still, I could have told you,” I said, breaking eye contact.

I almost jumped when her hand grabbed mine. “It was easier that way. I’m just glad you waited four years to come again, because I couldn’t have—”

“Who’s here?” a voice asked. The man walked in, his chest wider than the old iron stove Bello used to melt metal.

“It’s Hawk,” she said, stepping back.

“Well, I’ll be a parrot’s cousin, it is Hawk, in the living flesh.” Grid charged ahead, lifting me in the most awkward embrace of my life. He smelled like sweat and meat.

When he set me down, I cleared my throat and noticed how he positioned himself beside Bello. “We got hitched and even sprouted a couple little potatoes.” His big fingers went into his mouth, and he whistled a high-pitched screech. “Bon, Jess, get in here!”

A little girl with long white hair entered from the far door, holding the hand of a chubby boy.

“You have a whole family,” I murmured. This was good, I told myself. Bello was attached, and that would make this deal a lot smoother. “Congratulations,” I said, and only a slight part of me didn’t mean it.

“That Capricious I heard?” Grid was already walking outside as the kids arrived, and I waved at them. They hid behind their mom’s legs.

“You can fix her up?” I asked.

“Fine. But it might take a couple of days,” she told me.

____________

Walking the Wastes was a strange occurrence. The day was hot, but lucky for me, Grid and Bello had said Capricious would be ready soon. The roads smelled peculiar, and I learned it was a chemical spray used to keep weeds from growing through the gravel. Town was only a mile from their shop, and I decided I could use a tour of the place to see how much had changed.

When I’d last been here, many of the houses in the area had been boarded up or abandoned—built three hundred years ago, some longer. Long before the Tech Rise and subsequent nuclear disaster that had overtaken Kansas. I bet if I used my ThermaSuit’s Geiger counter, I’d still find traces of radiation in the earth, but an annual dose of rad meds kept the people healthy.

As I went farther, I began to see people outside. A man watched over his herd of cattle, leaning against a waist-high wooden fence. He glanced at