Read Online Starbounders by Adam Jay Epstein - Free Book Online Page A

with colored tubes connecting distant points, not unlike the subway maps he’d seen on a school field trip to DC. A ship icon was heading toward one of the tube entrances. Was it theirs?
    â€œThose walls aren’t going to clean themselves,” Wilcox snapped. Zachary turned from the display. “What, you’ve never seen a Kepler cartograph before?”
    Zachary shook his head.
    â€œYou can’t just bound anywhere you want, anytime you want. You have to use the folds in space that are already there. Without the cartograph we’d be lost in the outerverse.”
    Zachary knew from his flight-simulation activity at Indigo 8 and his training at home that every spacecraft had an internal navigation system called a starbox, containing maps and an autopilot. It was the heart and brain of any ship. Of course, he had never seen one in action before.
    Zachary resumed scrubbing the underbins and caught a glimpse through the open flight-deck door of Kaylee and Ryic using the mops to clean up the cabin’s floors and ceiling. The stringy mopheads were magnetically clinging to whatever surface they made contact with, soaking up all the mold they touched. Zachary finished wiping down two of the underbins before Wilcox ordered him to his harness.
    Zachary pushed off, floating back to where Ryic and Kaylee were already strapping themselves in. It wasn’t long before Zachary could see sharp prongs emerge from the front of the dreadnought. They began to pulse, and suddenly another interdimensional fold opened. The dreadnought shot through the hole, Zachary once again felt as if he was spinning like a top.
    When the ship emerged, the sun that he knew was gone and the celestial atmosphere had a blue-green glow that reminded him of the bonfire where the vreeks had multiplied back at Indigo 8.
    â€œWe just arrived at the outer ring of the Milky Way,” Wilcox announced. “Approximately ninety thousand light years from Earth. The next bound will take us to the edge of the Stringer Nebula. Sit tight. It won’t be long.”
    He wasn’t kidding. Barely a minute passed before the dreadnought was jumping through another fold. This time the ship exited into a solar system that had two suns and hundreds of planets orbiting them.
    â€œJust one more leap to the tundra planet,” Wilcox said. “Crew, grab your spaste pouches and eat up. Mop monkeys, you’ll dine when this ship is sparkling like an auxbot’s rear end.”
    Once again the webbing released, and Zachary and Kaylee were free. And once again, Ryic remained stuck in the harness.
    â€œClearly these were not built for Klenarogians,” he said philosophically.
    Zachary and Kaylee floated over to help, but before they could pull Ryic loose, a loud crash sounded from the cargo hold. One of the crew members gave an exasperated sigh.
    â€œThe vreeks are getting restless,” he said. “I’ll go lower the freezer’s temperature. See if a little more cold won’t calm them down.”
    He soared through the cabin to the cargo hold entrance and disappeared inside.
    â€œGet a move on, ragboy,” Wilcox shouted at Zachary.
    â€œI think he likes you,” Kaylee said.
    Just then, a blast echoed from the back of the dreadnought. The crew member who’d gone to check on the vreeks spiraled out of the cargo hold with a hole seared straight through his Indigo 8 jumpsuit. He hit the wall and reached out, grabbing Zachary’s leg.
    â€œThe ship is being hijacked,” he said with his last breath.

«FIVE»
    â€œY ou three! Up here!” Wilcox commanded Zachary, Ryic, and Kaylee.
    The remaining crew members were grabbing sonic crossbows from the underbins, and Zachary and Kaylee were tugging at the webbing still holding Ryic captive.
    â€œCome on, Ryic,” Kaylee said.
    â€œI’m trying!” he cried, struggling to pull himself free.
    Zachary wasn’t sure what was about to come out