Ancient Birthright Read Free

him about leaving his things all over the cabin if he’s just all right.
    Caraa latched onto the back of the couch and used it to push off toward Saigg’s door, snagging a fingerless glove, foul smelling boot, and a broken thrustboard binding on the way. Hand stretched out, she pressed the actiplate and the hatch silently retracted as she latched onto the bedroom’s doorframe. A blizzard of clothes, electronics, databuds, half-eaten food, and a mass of writhing three-inch long lizards called skinks, flooded from the bedroom into the living room.
    “Saigg, if you’re in there, you better be unconscious. If you’re not, when I get my hands on you, you soon will be. I told you two cycles ago to clean up this mess and get your room stowed for transjump. Saigg, dammit, answer me...or so help me, you’re going to be cleaning out waste-recycle units for the rest of your life.” Caraa’s voice cracked with fear.
    “I’m here, Mom. I just can’t get to the Itsme reader. I’m a little tied up and haven’t figured out how to get lose,” replied a belligerent teenage voice with a hint of panic.
    Caraa pushed the mass of Saigg-junk out of her way and pulled herself into the cabin. Saigg was hanging with his head almost touching the floor. The long lacing from a thrustboard soft boot tethered his left leg to his bed. His right leg was looped through the cord he’d stretched across his room to hang his thrustboard and other treasures. The covers from his bed wound around his body trapping both arms and keeping him from floating close enough to any stationary object to use it for leverage to get loose.
    She pushed off the wall and none too gently slammed Saigg onto his bed as she latched her hand to the bedframe. She pulled a small claw knife from her boot and clipped the lace binding his left leg. She slashed the right leg free of the restraining cord. The released tension on the cord snapped the thrustboard board into the wall and out the open hatch. Caraa released the bedframe and with a fierce pull, yanked the bedcovers. This had the effect of launching her to the ceiling where she rebounded and crashed back into the bed while Saigg unrolled from the covers, spinning across the room, gathering clothes, food and a large bubble of sweet drink that had been floating in the middle of the constellation of junk. When he crashed into the opposite wall, he managed to catch the leg of his desk with his tail and pull himself to a stop.
    “Answer roll call immediately. The entire ship’s crew is conducting an all-out search for you,” Caraa growled, slipping back into her bridge-speak command voice. “We thought you were wounded, or worse, from a dropout.”
    Saigg pressed his left hand and its embedded Itsme button against the reader.
    An announcement came over the comm a moment later. “All crew. All crew this is Command Prime. Passenger Saigg Garuu has been located. Return to normal duty stations and prepare for spin.”
    “I need to get back to the bridge. Get over here and strap down for spin up. I can’t talk to you right now. If I did, I don’t think you’d like the consequences. When I get back, this room better be spotless, all trash properly disposed of and...if I find even one crumb of food hidden in here, you will not, I repeat, will not, eat for a seven cycle. Oh yes...you’re grounded until you’re fifty.” Caraa straightened the ops prime sash that went from right shoulder to left hip before she pushed off and sailed out the door.
    #
    Saigg slid into his bed and pressed the tie-downs into the holdpads with an angry slap.
    I don’t know why she’s so upset. I was the one who was stuck and couldn’t answer roll call. You’d think I did it on purpose just to tick her off. What’s the big deal? So I forgot we were going to transjump. It’s not as if we haven’t been through it before. You’d think I’d planned to sleep through it. Why can’t she get a life and quit bugging me?
    The ship slowly started