Shanghaied to the Moon (21 page)

“Like Tony. Like Bob,” Val says, sad.

Things are so different now. I know what he means, what he sees and feels, when he turns inward to that memory. Val and I aren't separated by this mist of make-believe anymore. And even though I wouldn't get that flag for him, he rode it out for me.

“Like you, Val.”

Val reaches out and strokes my head, once, rough and awkward. “I tell ya, kid. The best of us don't always make it.”

“Yeah.” I sniff and he sniffs and we both look away from each other toward the wreck of
Old Glory.

Eventually, he says, “There'll be an inquiry. Good thing we didn't complete the whole mission, the way it turned out.”

“Sure is!” Imagine getting caught with that flag. But now the rich collector who financed the trip won't get any return on his investment. “What about the expenses?”

“I'll have more than enough to repay expenses once Alldrives settles up. I'm more worried about the kidnapping charge.”

“I told Dad you didn't kidnap me. I'll tell the court that, too, if I have to.”

Val considers this. “In that case, I should get off with only a few months in jail.”

“Jail!”

“I've done worse time, you know that.” He looks out at the stars. There's Cassiopeia, the constellation Mom saw from the beach the day they canceled the official search for Val. How many times did she look at the stars, wondering, hoping?

“No booze in jail. Maybe I'll write my memoirs. Set the record straight.”

He's sitting here full of his own new hopes because of Mom. “Dad blames you for Mom's death.”

“Sometimes I blame myself, kid, crazy as that is. So don't be too hard on your dad, okay?”

I nod even though I don't really understand what would make either of them feel that way.

Val sighs, then gets a look of deep remembering. “I'll never forget how she came strutting into my AstroNav tutorial, confident as you please. She was shorter even than you. Had that coiled copper hair. All attitude, your mom, even as a freshman. Set my back up, until I saw what she could do …”

First year at Space Academy. Mom would've been fourteen, a year older than me. He knew her longer than any of us!

Val looks at me, blinks. “And now here you are.”

“Dad wants me to stay away from you. He says you're dangerous.”

“What do you think?”

“I'm with you!”

He frowns. “We screwed up out there. It's not supposed to be that exciting. You train and prepare so things go along smooth and dull. Most pilots run a tourist liner to Mars. Or haul ore.”

“Now you sound like Dad. No way I'm going to haul ore!”

“I figured,” Val says, nodding. “We need a star drive, kid. That's the next step for our kind.”

“Do you think it'll happen?”

“There are a few possibilities. One thing's certain. If you aren't a rocket pilot, and one of the best at that, you won't ever get the chance.”

Val's already given me a better chance than I ever had before. “If you coach me, I could be the best. Will you?”

“I'd like that, kid.” There's a yearning in his voice. Mark sounds that way when he discovers a really neat new code, or Dad when he finds an amazing new electronics circuit. It's an eagerness to get down to work with something new and wonderful. “But you shouldn't be associated with me if you want to get into Space Academy.”

“Why?”

He looks into his lap. The eagerness slips behind a mask as slick as the plastiskin. “Alldrives owns the place. It'll blow your whole career if they know we're a team.”

“Then I won't go! You can teach me everything.”

Val considers, then shakes his head. “No. You have to go to Space Academy. You'd never get a decent job.”

“I don't want a decent job. I want to
do
something!”

“Like go to Pluto?”

“Yeah. But how? There's no ship.”

He looks straight at me. The harsh light bleaches his eyes to the palest blue, like the Moon in a daytime sky. “Oh, that's right. Lost in the sun. I never could keep those 3-Vids straight.”

His words are like our own secret code. Of course Val Thorsten would never let the Valadium Thruster fall into the sun! Not
that
ship!

Hide everything! That was the plan he and Mom made. I didn't understand before. He meant the Valadium Thruster, too! He used the lifeboat as a decoy. He made the last bit of his trip back to Earth in it and left the VT out there somewhere, parked, just like in my wildest dreams.

“You mean—”

“One step at a time, kid.” He silences me. “Let's get you through Space Academy first.”

I can only nod. Always a surprise. Like when I first met him. I'm back on Pad 12 and he's thrown open that tiny hatch to unknown adventure again …

About the Author

Michael J. Daley's career as an author has been inspired by a lifelong love of science, spaceships, and science fiction. He writes his stories on a solar-powered laptop in a five-foot-square tower room. This keeps him well acquainted with the cramped conditions in spaceships! When not traveling among the stars, Daley lives in Westminster, Vermont, with his wife, children's author Jessie Haas.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2007 by Michael J. Daley

Cover design by Jesse Hayes

ISBN: 978-1-4976-3875-4

This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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New York, NY 10014

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EBOOKS BY MICHAEL J. DALEY

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