Truehearts & The Escape From Pirate Moon by Jake Macklem (ebook audio reader TXT) 📕

Forcing her eyes open, Ace struggled to focus. I need to… She stumbled, splashing water out of her backpack. Why’s it so hard to think? Steadying herself, she watched the lily pad floating on the river. The red flowers are really pretty. I think Mick would like them.

“I do like them.” The graveled voice resonated with a thick urban accent.

Ace smiled. “I knew you would, Mick.”

The tall man stepped in front of Ace, his metal left arm glinting in the setting light. His slacks and white tank top were clean and so vividly bright compared to the dull reds, purples, and blues of the moon. “They’re pretty, but it’s getting late Ace. It’s time to head back.”

Ace nodded. “Okay. Will you walk me to school, Mick?”

“Sure kid. I’ll walk with you.” Mick reached out and took Ace’s hand and together they headed to the woods. “How’s school?”

“It’s hard. I don’t like it. The classes don’t make sense and I’m always alone.” Ace absently latched the tooth and cable of the Tree-knocker hide.

“What about the teachers? You can talk to them, can’t you?” Mick asked.

“There aren’t any. I have to figure everything out by myself. It’s not fair,” Ace pouted.

“What I tell you about that?” Mick snapped.

Ace recited, “The only thing fair in the Verse is that it’s equally unfair to everyone. But Mick, this is different. The tests are pass or fail. And failing means I’m kicked out of school.”

Mick shrugged. “So don’t fail.”

Ace cocked her head and lifted her eyebrow.

“You don’t fail often,” Mick continued.

Ace stopped. “Mick, I don’t want to die.”

Mick gently lifted Ace’s chin with his big metal hand. “No one wants to die, kid. But there are those who die and those that fight to live… And what do we do?”

Ace smiled a tight-lipped grin. “We shank shit up and take as many of them with us as we can.”

“That’s right, Ace.” Mick smiled proudly. They started walking again. The shadows of the woods deepened as the light continued to fade overhead. With Mick leading the way, they made their way to Ace’s tree-pile hut.

7: Cam

Cam set up his tripod so the recorder faced the rising sun. He sat next to it, watching the bright star through the hazy green edge of the gas giant. “I‘ve already covered ten or eleven kilometers this morning. Went to sleep as soon as it was cool enough. You would not believe the heat, Gwen. The whole moon’s covered with iron dust and it just soaks up the heat all day and soon the ground is as hot as a flapjack griddle. I woke up in the middle of the night. It‘s cooler but still warm. And that gas giant, her name is Ophelia—at night, it fills half the sky. Real beautiful, and plenty bright enough to see by. Makes everything look green.”

The sky brightened as the sun rose over the horizon, shifting the light to a deep crimson. “They call Mars the Red Planet, but this moon is the reddest thing I‘ve ever seen. There‘s so much iron here. Even the dust rusts. And it gets into everything, Gwen. The grass and leaves, even the sunrise and sunset. That’s why I wanted to share this with you, babe. The first dawn in a new place. It‘s special. Hell, I‘m probably the first poor bastard that ever had to deal with the heat, but seeing something like this...”

Cam fell silent, basking in the beauty of the rising yellow sun as it passed behind the green haze of the nearby planet. As more of the star moved beyond its green filter, more light fell directly through the moon‘s atmosphere, igniting the sky above him into a conflagration of colors. Crimsons and pinks, oranges and yellows, the morning light swirled through the spectrum, dark to light. The colors changed quickly, but not before Cam was able to admire the various hues between the shades. Eventually, it would fade into the bleaching and blinding mid-rotation sun, but for now...

Forgetting that he was off-camera, Cam smiled and pointed at the glory. “This is why I love doing this, Gwen. This makes it worth it. Orbital scans tell us that it‘s an iron-based satellite and that the atmosphere is biocompatible with a high neon saturation. School tells us that iron and neon are red. But when you‘re on a rock like this, in a moment like this, you don‘t just see it. You feel it. You can practically smell it.” He inhaled deeply, snorted, and exhaled in a huff.

“Okay, this place smells like a nasty old MRE can, but that‘s the best part! There are lots of new worlds that are open to humans willing to settle or prospect. Some worlds are just now being colonized. I want that for us, Gwen. I want to raise our boys alongside other species, under new stars. I want them to be able to see the Verse! And think of what they‘ll learn. They’ll learn things we can’t even think of asking about. There’s more in this Verse than just a dying planet and memories. We could be a part of something bigger than anyone ever thought possible, and I want that for us. I think the boys deserve it.”

Don’t push it. “Your love is what has kept me going for the last two years. Your face is the first and last thing I see every day. Knowing I’ll be there holding you in my arms when you watch this, the feeling I get, nothing in the Verse is gonna keep me from that joy, Gwen. How’s that saying go… wild horses couldn’t drag me away. I’m coming home, Gwen. I’m coming.” Cam tapped the record button and turned off the power. She’ll like that. He grinned as he thought of her smile and the