Broken Episode One (5 page)

While the Academy command clearly knew of his past
and had come to terms with it, the wider populous of the Coalition
was still clueless about the kind of man he once was. Though there
were rumors, and here and there his old enemies were happy to give
interviews, the exact details of all the terrible things he’d done
had not come to light. If they did, public opinion would swing
against him. Everyone and everything would swing against him. The
Coalition Academy would try to keep him on, but they’d have a fight
on their hands.

Or would they?

The Academy was very good at making heroes. They
were also very good at molding public opinion. When they recruited
him, they knew his past would eventually come to light. So rather
than have it revealed suddenly and sensationally, they released
trickles once in a while, but only ever after Josh finished some
important mission.

They were trying to control his image.

And it sickened him.

Yet he needed them to continue. Josh couldn’t lose
this new life. He couldn’t lose the opportunity to reinvent
himself. To make up for everything he’d done.

Still, he probably shouldn’t have shouted at her
like that. That being said, she’d taken it remarkably well.

Unusually well.

She’d smiled every time he’d berated her.

Whenever somebody verbally or physically attacked
Josh, his standard reaction certainly wasn’t a smile. It was to
fight back.

It was with these thoughts on his mind that Jack
finally made it back to his office. As he programmed the computer
to create a holographic sparring partner, he found his hands typing
in another command.

He was looking her up.

Miss Chester.

He didn’t know much about her, save for the most
important fact: she was the only child of Theodore Francis Chester
the Third, possibly one of the richest men in the entire galaxy.
Josh knew what that meant: it meant Mimi was a spoiled brat. A kid
who’d grown up without a care in the world, with everything she
ever wanted delivered at the drop of a hat.

He did, however, know one other thing about Mimi:
she’d been an Academy recruit a few years ago. Then there’d been an
accident, her fault, apparently. She’d been kicked out.

As he read the official report, it painted a
different picture. The accident had been just that, an accident.
There’d been some kind of fault in an engine system, Mimi had
missed it due to inexperience rather than negligence, and she’d
been exonerated of any wrongdoing. She’d left the Academy by
choice, not by an edict.

That wasn’t the story the cadets told. He’d heard a
couple of them talking about her once. Apparently, she was
arrogant, careless, and operated on the understanding that whatever
she stuffed up, her father would fix.

It was easier to believe the cadets over the
official report. Not because official reports were usually wrong,
just because it felt easier. Labelling Mimi as arrogant and stuck
up made it simpler to ignore her accusations.

Because if he couldn’t ignore her accusations, he’d
have to pay attention to them. And he just couldn’t do that right
now.

So, finally satisfied that Mimi could be written
off, Josh pushed up. He set his armor to disengage, ensuring it
wouldn’t suddenly leap over his body at the first sign of a fight.
Then he balled his hands into fists and approached his holographic
enemy.

He was going to do this bare knuckled. With a man
like Josh, that was the only way.

She woke up to an annoying buzzing. Blinking back
the sleep, she realized it was Klutzo. He was zipping above her
bed, making an irritating crackling noise.

“What?” She wiped the sleep from her eyes with her
sleeves.

“Received important message,” he announced as he did
a little loop in the air.

“What?”

“Job offer.”

“What?” Mimi leapt from her bed. She nearly tripped
on a pile of clothes, but she kicked them away as she steadied
herself. “What do you mean a job offer?”

“GNS saw your report on Joshua Cook. Yop J’k has
sent you a message.”

“What does it say?!” She bounced around
excitedly.

“It’s 100 pages long,” Klutzo pointed out, still
speaking in his excited electronic buzz, “I shall read it all.”

Yop J’k belonged to one of the most verbose alien
races in the galaxy. Fascinated by all languages, they would throw
every word they could into a sentence, as if they were hoarding
them. As a result, their communications tended to be astronomically
long.

“Whoa, no, wait up. Just summarize it.”

“He believes you’re someone willing to ask the hard
questions. He thinks you would make an effective investigative
reporter. He’s willing to give you an assignment to test your
worth.”

Mimi slapped a hand over her mouth. She couldn’t
believe it. Or could she? Just as her elation peaked, so did her
suspicion. Had her dad set this up?

She had asked him to stay out of it, and he’d always
listened to her in the past. So hopefully he hadn’t called Yop J’k
and begged the guy to offer her a job.

Maybe, just maybe, Yop really was impressed by her
questioning skills.

With her stomach still churning with excitement,
albeit a little subdued now, she nestled her hands onto her tummy
as she got ready to ask the most important question. “Where does he
want me to go?”

“He wants you to do a report on the Suqo
Interstellar Baking Championship.” Klutzo did another loop in the
air.

“A ... baking championship?”

“It is a contest in which people compete to decide
who makes the most delicious baked goods from across the
galaxy.”

“I know what it is. I just thought ... I’d get
something more exciting for my first assignment.”

“According to the official report, the Interstellar
Baking Championship is the most thrilling baking stand-off in all
the Milky Way.”

It was useless arguing with Klutzo, so Mimi chose to
nod her head instead.

Plus, it
wouldn’t be that bad, would it? And Klutzo was right
– it probably could get pretty
thrilling. The contestants could get pretty heated. Last year two
pulled pulse rifles on each other and had a shootout in the donut
round.

And, to be honest, she could understand why she
wasn’t getting a better assignment as her first job; she had to be
tested first. In fact, when she looked at it objectively, this was
a pretty good first mission to get.

“The Interstellar Baking Championship is in
approximately one standard Earth week. It will take you that long
to travel there.”

“Wow, so we have to leave now?”

“We have five minutes to relax,” Klutzo pointed
out.

“Five minutes? I have to pack!” Mimi ran out of her
room and into the main area of her spacious apartment. It had an
incredible view of the bay beyond, and just to the left she could
see the sprawling Academy grounds.

As she raced about, she paused for a second to stare
at the Academy. To think, she was finally putting the past behind
her. She was finally getting her break.

And she had Josh Cook to thank, of all people.

“GNS will fund your transport, and they have sent
through your tickets. Due to a glut of travelers heading to the
Championship, unfortunately we will not be traveling in style.”

“That’s fine,” she snorted, “it’s been a long time
since I’ve been out in a luxury cruiser. I think I can handle
cramped spaces and reconditioned food.”

“The transport in question is a modified Class Y
tug. It is the only ship leaving Earth today that is headed in that
direction.”

“Class Y? Oh ... well, I suppose beggars can’t be
choosers. It’s my first job, and I’ll be happy to get to it if I
have to walk frankly.”

When it came to rating the comfort of transportation
vessels, Class Y was practically the worst. It was one above Class
Z, which meant the ship technically had to have life support and
nothing else. She’d have to bring her own rations and hope like
hell she got a seat.

Nothing could dampen her mood as she prepared,
though. By the time she made it out the door with Klutzo in tow,
she was ready to burst out into song.

She’d been trying for her break for so darn
long.

It was finally here.

Though the sun was shining and the birds were
actually chirping as she raced across the city to the secondary
transport hub, the day wouldn’t turn out quite as nice as
promised.

...

Josh took a seat on the rust bucket of a transport.
By the time he sat down, she was already full to the brim. Though
he usually travelled in Coalition cruisers, this mission was
different. He’d been sent to look into a potential smuggling ring,
and the captain of this very vessel was suspected to be
involved.

Though Josh usually dealt with Rebuilder tech, when
there wasn’t an imminent threat, the Coalition used his skills
elsewhere. Plus, he had a unique perspective when it came to
smuggling rings; unlike the other Coalition officers sent to
investigate, he’d been in one.

He knew exactly how operations like this worked.

He tried to arrange himself in his seat so the
springs under the threadbare foam didn’t dig into his butt. It was
a thankless task, but eventually he found a position with his legs
sprawled out before him and his scuffed boots lodged against a
raised section on the floor.

He wasn’t in his uniform, hence the scuffed boots.
He was in civilian clothes, as, according to his ticket
information, he was visiting a resort ship out in the Nubria
Cluster.

He hated resorts, even though technically he’d never
been to one. Still, the very idea of them irritated him: rich folk
swanning around spending all their money while others waited on
them like slaves.

Just thinking of it brought up one prime example:
Mimi Chester.

It wasn’t the first time he’d thought about her
since her “interview”. For some reason, she wouldn’t get out of his
head.

“Holy crap, speak of the devil,” he said as he
watched in surprise as none other than Mimi Chester walked onto the
transport.

At first he couldn’t believe it. What the hell was a
spoilt brat like her doing on a tin-bucket transport? Was she lost?
Or was she looking for him?

“Take your seat,” the Captain said to her as she let
him scan her wrist device, no doubt checking she had a valid
ticket.

“Sure, one question though ... umm, are there any
bathrooms on this ahh ... cruiser?”

“Yep, but the gravity ain’t working in there. Hasn’t
worked for years.”

“Oh. So ... we have to sleep in our seats until we
get to our destination?”

“If you want to sleep, yeah.” With that, the Captain
walked off.

“Oh wow,
I can’t believe this is my first assignment,” Mimi muttered to
herself as she clearly looked for a seat. “This is
just
—”

Josh watched her turn his way. It took her a second,
then her eyes drew wide.

He crossed his arms.

“Take your seat,” the Captain suddenly snapped at
her.

“Oh, I’m just looking for a place to sit,” Mimi said
politely.

“There.” The Captain pointed to a seat next to
Josh.

Mimi looked sick, but nodded and made her way
over.

“Oh my god, it’s you,” Mimi muttered as she took her
seat, immediately closing her arms around herself.

“Correct, it’s me.” Josh leaned back in his seat,
enjoying the sound of the leather creaking as he crossed his arms.
“And no, you can’t have an interview. If you turn that on,” he
pointed to the recording orb with a stiff finger, “I will throw it
against the wall and stamp on its memory circuits. Got it?”

Though she looked uncomfortable to begin with, she
didn’t gasp or swallow. He’d just threatened her, and all Mimi
Chester did was bite her lip awkwardly. “… Throw it against the
wall and stamp on its memory circuits? That’s not the usual threat
I get. I thought the only legal action you could take against an
unsolicited recording was to wipe its memory banks, not crush them
under your foot.”

Josh crossed his arms stiffer. “I think we’ve both
ascertained I’m not an ordinary Coalition officer.”

“Yeah. So … maybe I should find somewhere else to
sit.” Mimi pushed up from her seat, neatening her casual clothes as
she did. For somebody who was the daughter of the richest man in
the galaxy, she sure didn’t dress like it. She was in plain grey
pants with a light blue tunic on top. They didn’t match, and here
and there they were slightly threadbare.

She had a pretty face, though. It was probably
genetically engineered, he thought meanly. From her red cheeks to
her sparkling eyes to her lustrous brown hair, no doubt her father
had picked her out of a catalogue. It didn’t matter that
genetically engineering humans was illegal, and that Mimi really
wasn’t pretty enough to justify such an accusation, Josh didn’t
edit his thoughts.

But he did watch in barely subdued glee as she
walked over to one of the flight crew and asked for another seat.
When the man told her that the only other seat was on his lap, Mimi
politely declined and made her way back.

Josh shot her a sarcastic smile. “What, you didn’t
immediately call daddy and get him to buy you a transport
instead?”

She sat down next to him, adjusting her ugly tunic
until it sat neatly across her knees. Then she set her recording
orb down, as far away from Josh as she could.

They dwindled into silence.

It was uneasy.

Though she wasn’t rising to his bait, that didn’t
matter. He had this urge to keep insulting her. So as the transport
started with an ominous rattling gurgle, and Mimi made a worried
noise, Josh took the opportunity to lean a little closer. “Not too
late to get out.”