Words:
3,641
“To the Moon and Back”
Ruby Sanz cried herself to sleep that night as usual. Just because her family owned one of the
biggest mining colonies on Mercury was no compensation for the fact that Ruby
Sanz felt alone most of the time. This was one of those times, when the
WorldCorp had tried most of her friends for made-up crimes. She was busy escaping reality by exaggerating
her real experiences in a diary she kept when the phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Ruby? It’s
Angela.”
“Hey, girl! I haven’t heard from you in
light years. How is everything?”
“Not so good.”
“What’s wrong?”
“The WorldCorp is putting me on trial tomorrow.”
“What? Why?”
“They wouldn’t tell me.”
Ruby sighed; she thought of better days when the Constitution
required people know what they’d done wrong. With new laws in place, the WorldCorp’s
corrupt government owed them nothing.
“When’s the
trial?”
“Tomorrow at ten o’clock in the Planetary
Courthouse. Do you think you can make
it?”
“Yeah. I’ll be
there.”
“Thanks. Hopefully everything will go
okay. I know the government has cameras
and wiretaps everywhere now.”
“Well, good luck. Maybe you’ll change
their minds.”
“I hope
so.”
Then, Angela hung up. First my sister, and now
Angela? The government’s denouncements of people as ‘suspected
criminals’ were getting worse. I’m
starting to think anyone they don’t like is a suspect. She
went back to writing in her diary, thinking she would get a good night’s sleep
that night. I’m going to need it if I’m
going to the trial tomorrow.
#
Ruby walked past the open
markets where people were sometimes sold as slaves to pay debts, heard the
loudspeakers blaring the WorldCorp’s propaganda. She tried to ignore it as she made her way to
the Planetary Courthouse. The courthouse
had a wooden floor and brick walls, one of the few monuments left to life on
Earth. Ruby noticed the place was nearly
empty. Everyone’s probably too busy watching Omnivision or something to care
about what the WorldCorp’s doing. She
saw the head of the WorldCorp’s, Supreme Director Antonin Grisaldi, sitting at
the bench. He banged his gavel and the
small crowd fell silent.
“Good morning.
The court will now hear the case of Delgado V. The People of Mercury. If the defense will make an opening
statement.”
A man of oriental descent sitting next to the Supreme Director stood up.
“Identify yourself for the court, please.”
“Oh, of course. Director Shen of the Far
East Corporation, your honor.”
The Supreme Director nodded. Director Shen cleared his throat before
proceeding.
“Now, as the defense will prove, Miss Delgado was
accused of one of the most heinous crimes of our time. She was found...reading in the Underground
Library. A book the WorldCorp had
specifically, banned no less.”
The crowd gasped collectively.
“It was a homework assignment!”
The Supreme Director ignored her and turned to Shen.
“And this travesty occurred within your domain,
Director?”
“It did. In the Jade City.”
“Proceed.”
“Thank you. Now, I have in my hand, a
Data Disc showing that Miss Angela Delgado was in fact reading banned
material. This footage was obtained with
the permission of the Supreme Director.”
There was a small 3-D Omnivision set in the middle of the room. Director Shen waved the Data Disc in front of
the omnivision’s motion sensor. As if it
were happening right before their eyes, a 3-D picture of Angela in her school’s
library appeared. Everyone gasped when
Angela picked up the book. Then, the
Director stopped the disc.
“I rest my case.”
Grisaldi banged his gavel.
“The court has found in favor of Director
Shen. Miss Delgado, I sentence you to
ten years of labor on the moons of Io.”
“But I didn’t even get a chance to-“
“Take her away!”
Two guards came at Angela. She tried with all her might to resist and pulled
away, but the guards came after her.
“Angela!”
Ruby ran and pulled Angela away from the guards.
“What are you doing?”
“Bringing you to safety. Follow me.”
“Where are we going?”
But Ruby didn’t answer, merely kept pulling her friend along. They ran outside the courtroom, kept going
past the people market and the trading posts.
“Ruby, where are we going?”
Ruby stopped all of a sudden.
“What’s wrong?”
“We’re here.”
#
Angela gazed at the sign, her mouth hanging open.
“Here? The
shipyards? But you just got your Flyer’s
License a week ago.”
“So? I still have it. I can fly.”
“A WorldCorp ship? Somehow I don’t think
their insurance covers fugitives.”
“What else can we do?”
“There has to be another solution.”
The guards were coming. Ruby stared at
her friend.
“It’s now or never.”
Angela sighed.
“Fine.”
Ruby smiled.
“I knew you’d come to your senses.”
What am I doing? Angela thought as Ruby pulled her towards
the shipyards.
#
The shipyards were a massive building similar to a
parking garage. Ruby approached the
doors.
“Uh, tiny detail.
Don’t you need a WorldCorp ID to get in?”
Ruby looked at the card slot on the door.
“Not to worry.
My dad works for the WorldCorp.”
Ruby pulled a keycard from her coat and scanned it.
“Access granted,” a mechanical voice said. The door
swung open and the guards barged into the shipyards.
“Hurry!
They’re right behind us.”
The sound of laser guns shooting added to her fear. Ruby climbed into a ship called Pegasus
and began to rev the engine. The guards shot at the window and broke it.
“This is bad.”
Ruby pulled her friend into the ship.
“This thing won’t start. Come on!”
Ruby turned the keycard again, to no avail. A third time finally started the engine.
One of the guards climbed into another ship and
started it.
“Ruby, we gotta go NOW!”
The ship lifted off.
“May I recommend hyperspeed?”
“Good idea.”
Ruby shifted the gauge to H for ‘Hyper’ and they blasted off.
The guard in the ship spoke into his walkie-talkie.
“Sir, we lost them. I
don’t know where they’re headed.”
“That’s okay. It’s a WorldCorp
ship. I happen to know someone who can
track it quite easily.”
#
Katherine Tempest sat in her office, gazing at her
handheld mirror. It’s good to be me,
she thought as she applied makeup to her face.
She was a beautiful woman whose looks had gotten her the position. She’d
been asked by the WorldCorp to come all the way in from Venus to work merely
because of her fame and beauty. Her
preoccupation with herself was interrupted by the sound of her door opening. She
glanced up to see one of the Supreme Director’s zombies enter.
“Yes?” she asked sharply.
“Hello, Miss Tempest. I’ve come under the orders of the Supreme
Director.”
“And? Is that supposed to impress me?”
“No, I just-"
“Please get to the point, sir. I have
enough to do without concerning myself with worrying about Director Grisaldi’s
affairs.”
“Yes, well. Maybe you’ve heard about the
fugitive-“
“Angela Delgado, convicted of Reading in the Third. What about her?”
“She and another female have hijacked a WorldCorp ship. We don’t know where they’re headed. Being the Director of Navigation, I thought
you could help us find it.”
“And should I find these fugitives, I presume I’m supposed to turn them to
you?”
“Yes, and we will turn them over to the WorldCorp for proper punishment."
“I suppose I can help you with that.”
Katherine turned away from him to face the supercomputer on her desk. She
punched in the ship’s name. In a second, she had her result.
“For someone who reads, this girl’s not too smart. They’re headed to planet Polaris.”
“Polaris?”
“Yes, as in the most notorious place in the galaxy. If I were you, I’d let them go.”
“Why?”
“Because any visitor who spends more than a few solar days on Polaris turns up
dead.”
#
The Pegasus touched down on planet Polaris. Ruby saw the neon sign for Flo’s Cosmic Café
glowing in the distance. I know what
that really is. It’s a pirate hangout. She looked for somewhere nearby that
would provide a safe haven, but didn’t see anything. Still, she tried not to let Angela in on that
fact.
“Why did we come here again?”
“I told you, the Witch Doctor lives here. She can tell us where to go.”
“If we’re not hacked off by pirates first.”
“Please. Those are just myths.”
“No, they’re not. My cousin knew a guy
who came to Polaris alone one time. The
pirates got to him in less than a solar day.”
“We’ll be fine. We already got away from
the WorldCorp’s guards.”
“Yeah, and now we have no food, no shelter, and no
rubicons to buy anything. This was very
well planned, I must say.”
“I actually brought a few rubicons.”
“You think this is funny? We could die
out here, Ruby.”
“I’d rather die than live under the WorldCorp anyway.”
Angela sighed.
“Look, that’s not the point. I’m going back to the ship.”
“Whatever fuels your hyperboat.”
Angela hadn’t been inside the ship more than a few
minutes when she came dashing back out.
“Finally came to your senses?”
“No, it’s not that. We’re out of
fuel. We’re stuck here.”
#
“So? We’ll just stock up at one of the Star Fuel
Stations.”
“Didn’t you stay awake during our History of Planets class? These stations are all controlled by pirates
who charge ridiculous prices. Unless you
brought somewhere in the galaxy of 1500 rubicons, we’re bound.”
“Not quite as many.”
“I didn’t think so. Now what do we do?”
“Call our parents on our OmniLinks?”
“I don’t know about you, but my parents would go
unorbital if they knew I was here.”
“Yeah, mine too. I don’t know what else we can do,
though. I’m linking them.”
Ruby pressed a button on her phone and the screen lit up: ‘Connecting to
StarNet, one moment please...’ After a
few seconds, Ruby gasped.
“What?”
“My OmniLink won’t connect to the StarNet.
We can’t make a call.”
#
"You’ve got to be kidding me. Maybe we can try mine instead,” Angela said.
“It’s pretty much the last hope we have.”
Angela began pushing the buttons on her OmniLink.
“Stupid thing...come on.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I think we’re too far from the StarNet to get any reception.”
“That’s a problem.”
“Now what?”
“We could go visit the Witch Doctor.”
“Fine. I’m up for anything at this
point. How far away is her house?”
“I don’t...”
Ruby suddenly stopped midsentence. She gazed out into space, her eyes wide.
“Ruby?
What’s wrong?”
“Space Pirate ships. They’re coming our
way.”
#
“What are we going to do?” Angela asked.
“I don’t know. The ship’s out of fuel, and there’s
no way we can outrun them.”
“I wish we could find the Witch Doctor’s house. She would help us.”
Ruby and Angela could only watch as a massive shadow loomed over them.
“Those are some pretty big ships,” Ruby said.
“Maybe they’ll leave us alone.”
But the ships began firing on them.
“Or not. Grab
my hand!”
Angela did, and they began to run towards Polaris’ capital, Root-Amman.
More ships swarmed around them. What could they possibly want from us? We
barely have any rubicons to give them! Just a little bit further...
But it was too far.
Another blast from the ship knocked them off their
feet. One of the ships began descending
to Polaris’ surface and the others followed.
“Something tells me this is bad.”
“You think so?”
#
The ship descended to the surface like a metal
leviathan threatening to devour the Polarian dirt. Bits of blue dust that formed Polaris’ surface
were flung helter skelter in a blast of air.
“We have to hide somewhere.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
They didn’t have time to decide before a pair of boots with spurs on the bottom
emerged. It looks human, Angela
thought. She saw the figure was human
indeed. He was wearing a long flowing
black cloak embroidered with the lightning bolt and skull symbol that
represented the Space Pirates. Three
other people emerged behind the leader, a short and stocky man and two women
who were the same in appearance except for having blonde and brunette hair. Ruby shot Angela a nervous glance.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just realized something. This is no
ordinary pirate crew.”
#
“What are you talking about?”
She gestured to the leader with the cloak.
Angela gasped.
“You’re right.
That’s the famous pirate Henry LaRue!”
“More like infamous.”
Angela recalled a time when she’d had a crush on LaRue, seeing his picture on
Omnivision and being too young to understand his methodology. She blushed a
little bit as LaRue stepped between them.
“I see my reputation precedes me.”
“What do you want with us?” Ruby said as
bravely as she could.
“We came looking for something.”
“That’s specific.”
LaRue lowered his voice.
“Why don’t you come with me? I’ve got something to show you.”
#
Angela and Ruby traded suspicious glances, which
LaRue apparently caught.
“What? Oh,
the whole plunderer and pillager of the cosmos thing? Relax; I’ve given all that up. I’m a good guy now, see?”
He flashed them a badge from Galactic Command, the policing power of the
Galaxy.
Angela gave Ruby a questioning look as if asking
for her approval.
“What do you want from me?”
She looked at Henry and sighed.
“What do you want to show us?”
He smiled widely.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
#
Larue led them far beyond where the ship had just
landed, into the woods of the Great Polarian Forest.
"Uh, what exactly did you want to show
us?" Angela said.
LaRue pulled a lazer gun out of his pocket.
"Give me all your rubicons!"
Angela's eyes opened wide. She shot Ruby
a glare that seemed to say Look what you've gotten us into.
"Follow me!" Ruby yelled.
They took off running from the Great Polarian
Forest, with lazer shots following just behind them.
"Great idea you had!"
"I was only trying to save you!"
"That worked well, didn't it?"
Ruby didn't answer; she was too busy running.
"Angela!"
One of the shots from the lazer guns knocked Angela to the ground.
#
Ruby whirled around, turned back to help her
friend.
"Ruby, save yourself! I'll be okay."
"I'm not leaving without you."
Ruby saw that the other members of the crew were
closing in on them.
"I'm coming!"
Ruby ran back to her friend and pulled her off the ground.
"Can you stand?"
"I think so."
"Good. Then its time to start running."
"Yeah."
Angela and Ruby kept running.
"Where are we going to go?" Angela asked.
Ruby gasped suddenly.
"I think that's the least of our
problems."
#
Angela looked to where Ruby was pointing.
"So? It's just a ship."
"It's a WorldCorp ship."
"You're right! We've gotta get out
of here."
"Follow me."
They ran away from the edge of the Great Polarian Forest towards a neon sign in
the distance that said "Flo's Cosmic Cafè" in glowing 3D letters.
"Good thinking."
They headed for the door, but LaRue blocked their entrance.
"Going somewhere, ladies?"
#
Great! Ruby began wishing she'd never left Mercury,
never fled the tyrannical rule of the WorldCorp. At least it was safer there, even though
it was miserable. She needed some
way to distract the pirates. Nothing comes to mind. Just to make matters worse, the WorldCorp's
guards were approaching. She did the
only thing she could think of; she charged at LaRue with all her strength. Angela began trying to help her friend, to no
avail. LaRue held them off easily and
aimed his lazer gun at Ruby. Ruby's heart began pounding. She could feel her hair stand on end.
"I'll ask you one more time. Give me...the rubicons."
#
There was a sudden jolt as LaRue was elbowed by
Angela.
"Come on!"
She took Ruby by the hand and they began running.
"There's a shipyard not far from here,"
Angela whispered.
"Good thinking."
The other members of the crew began giving chase,
but LaRue stopped them.
"Hold it.
It's not worth the trouble. If we
don't get them, something-or someone- else out there will."
#
Ruby stopped running suddenly.
"What are you doing?"
"The pirates stopped chasing us. If
we play our cards right, maybe we can get out of here without the WorldCorp
noticing."
Angela nodded.
They began to make a stealthy bid for the shipyards.
Shoot. I think I feel a sneeze coming on, Angela thought.
It
couldn't just wait a little longer?!
She tried to hold it in.
"Ahchoo!"
The guards turned towards them.
"There they are!"
Ruby glared at her friend.
"My glitch."
#
They took off, running, towards the
shipyards. At least we don't have to
worry about stealth anymore, Ruby thought.
"Get back here!"
The guards began to fire at them.
"We're not gonna make it!" Angela yelled.
"Yes, we are!"
Ruby pulled her friend closing to the glaring sign.
"They're catching up!"
"Then we'd better run faster."
Ruby sped up, all but dragging Angela with her.
"I'd like to end this thing with my arm
attached, if it's not too much trouble."
"And I'd like to get out of here alive."
"Point taken."
They had just reached the shipyards when the guards caught up to them.
"Where do you think you're going?"
#
Ruby opened the doors of the shipyard, trying to
get to a ship as fast as possible while Angela locked the door behind them.
"Hurry, Ruby!"
Ruby began searching for a ship. She
suddenly became aware of a thudding sound outside the door.
"They're breaking the door down."
"I got this. No worries."
Ruby opened the door of a ship and motioned for Angela to follow her inside.
"You can't possibly-"
"What other choice do we have?"
Angela followed her friend into the craft silently.
"This is pretty roomy."
"Yeah. Good place to hide
fugitives."
Ruby put her keycard in the ignition.
"It won't go!"
#
"We must need a specific keycard."
"Where can we get it?"
Angela got out and examined the shipyards.
The door burst open.
"Hold it, you two!"
They aimed laser guns at the girls.
"Angela!"
Angela spun around to see two of the men aiming at her. She scanned a rack of keycards as fast as she
could. It must be here somewhere!
The guards opened fire. Angela deflected their fire with an old piece
of scrap metal in the corner. Something tells me this won't hold for long.
The keycard has to be here somewhere. Here it is!
I just hope I can get to the ship in time.
#
She spun around.
"Ruby!"
Angela tossed her friend the keycard and ran towards the ship. Ruby caught the keycard.
"Stop her!"
The guards lashed out, grabbing Angela.
"Let me go!"
She struggled against them as Ruby began heating up the engine. What's she up to?
Angela closed her eyes. The next sound she heard was that of a laser
gun shooting.
#
The guards had fallen. Angela opened her eyes. I'm alive? She smiled at her friend in the distance. Ruby
motioned for her to hurry up and Angela climbed into the ship.
"Thanks. That was really
brave."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll worry about that later. Let's get out of here."
Ruby brought the ship up and out of the shipyards, flying off the Polarian
surface slowly. The guards recovered
quickly.
"They're getting away."
"Then follow them. If we take a
speed ship, we'll catch them in no time.
I'm going to put out a warning.
As of now, they're fugitives in every part of the galaxy."
#
"Whoo!
Girl, that was awesome!"
"Thanks.
But I would guess that we're not done with them yet."
"More like they're not done with us, but at least we escaped for now. Where are we going?"
"I hadn't really thought about that yet," Ruby said, playing with the
computerized navigation system, "Why don't you pick us out a nice planet
or star system?"
"Will do."
Angela began scanning through their options, with the computer announcing each
planet or location as she scrolled to it.
"Ooh, I've always wanted to go to Venus!"
"What better time than when we're fugitives with a ship?"
"It seems a lot better there. I
hear they even have Free Thought!"
"No way! Let's do it!"
"Ok."
Angela pressed the picture on the screen of Venus.
"Now setting co-ordinates for Venus," the computer said,
"Expected arrival: Approximately 10 Light Years."
"Ten light years? We have to go
faster than that!"
Ruby shifted the craft into hyper-drive.
"Venus, here we come!"
#
"That was a long flight," Angela said.
"Yeah, but it was worth it.
Look!"
Ruby pointed out to Venus' landscape.
"Wow.
It's nice to have a natural place without any huge skyscrapers blocking
the view."
Ruby nodded.
"You're telling me. I bet there are a lot of
advantages to living here."
She began to guide the ship on its descent.
"In fact, I might stay here."
"The WorldCorp would find us."
"They'd pretty much find us anywhere."
Ruby was silent for a moment, gazing out over the terrain. The ship landed softly. Then, something swept
over her. Not a normal feeling, but a
mixture of emotions.
"I don't care if they do find us. There's something about this place..."
"Like what?"
"I don't know."
Ruby felt as if she truly belonged there, as if a
better world were waiting, away from the corruption of the WorldCorp and its
members. She didn't care whether the
guards found her or not; it was where she felt most comfortable. Here, Ruby Sanz was no longer an outsider. She was home.