Across The Universe With A Giant Housecat (The Blue) Read Free

barefoot, though: I liked the feeling of the cool deck under my feet, and being barefoot kept me from slipping.
    In the year that Katelyn had been with me aboard the Dragontooth , she had taken to spacefaring life as if she had been born to it. Though she was only thirteen, she had already learned how to fly the ship and had a knack for using the onboard technology that floored me.  
    “How did you do it?” I asked. “How did you find me so easily?”
    “Easily? You think that was easy? It took three days to find you in that desert! Some sand got into the sensors the first day, so I had to clear them out and then guess where you had gone. By the time I got into the air, I was sure you were dead.” Her lower lip started to quiver and I saw that there were tears in her eyes. “For three days, I thought you were dead , Alan.”
    In the midst of all her technical brilliance, it was easy to forget she was still a thirteen-year-old girl, and I was the only family she had left in the universe.
    She bolted to me, wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug. She started to sob softly.
    “Thank you for being alive,” she whispered.
    “Always. I don’t want to lose you, dear sister.” I hugged her back as she sobbed into my shirt.  
    She was right—she had almost lost me. I had been so intent on trying to stay alive and fight Randew that I hadn’t really thought about what would happen to her if I died.
    She had the ship and she had Leo for company. But that was it. There was no one else if I was gone. No family, not even any friends.
    Katelyn stood back, eyeing me. “The pod did a good job. You were on the brink of death, you know,” she said, wiping the last remaining tears from her eyes. “I found you lying on the ground near Randew’s body—he was dead—and some stabbed-up rattlesnakes.” She glanced down at Leo with an odd expression. “Leo ate the rattlesnakes. All of them. It was so disgusting.”
    “That’s my boy,” I said proudly. “One of those rattlesnakes bit me.”
    “Yeah, I know.” She shuddered.
    “And Randew?”  
    “I checked him out. Dead.”
    “How did you got me into the pod? Or even on board the ship, for that matter? I’m way too heavy for you to pick up.”
    “For me, yes. For Leo, no. He dragged you.”  
    I glanced at the kvyat with fondness. “Thanks, Leo.”
    The kyvat nuzzled my hand, looking at me with soulful eyes.
    “Where are we now?” I asked.
    “Floating in orbit of the planet. I didn’t want to stay down there any longer than we had to.”
    “Good idea.” I swallowed another cupful of water. The pod had re-hydrated me fully, but I couldn’t shake the constant thirst. I hoped it would go away in a few hours.
    A series of beeps resounded through the cabin. I recognized the sound—it meant someone was trying to contact us through the ship’s comm. system.
    Katelyn checked the nearest monitor. “It’s from the Stellar Intrepid.” The surprise, even shock, was evident in her voice.
    The Stellar Intrepid was the branch of the military dedicated to exploration and discovery throughout space. When I entered military school, it had been with the dream that I could one day join the Stellar Intrepid and become a captain of one of their ships. And now—well, it was never going to happen. I’d been injured badly two years ago, while still in military school. I had broken my spine in a training accident. And while my spine was mostly healed now with the help of medical technology, it would still always be considered weakened. There wasn’t a chance the Stellar Intrepid would want me as captain anymore, not when there were legions of never-been-injured cadets who could line up to take my place.
    It made sense, of course. A captain who was more susceptible to a paralyzing injury, as I was, was a risk they weren’t willing to take in deep space. But if it hadn’t been for my injury, I might never have found Katelyn or taken down the assassins. But still, it