Frontiers Saga 10: Liberation Read Free Page A

other doctor, the one with the funny accent… is she from Corinair?”
    “Yeah. That would be Doctor Galloway. She’s really good. Of course, all the Corinairan doctors are really good. From what I understand, they’re more advanced than the doctors you have on Earth.”
    Tony looked at Josh. His eye squinted, and a confused look crossed his face. “So you’re not from Earth, either?”
    “Me, no. Never been there.”
    “But you’re not from Corinair, right?”
    “How’d you know?”
    “No accent.”
    Josh nodded. “I was raised on Haven.”
    “Is that near Corinair?”
    “A few months ago, I would have said no, but now that I’ve traveled all the way to Sol, Haven seems really close to Corinair.”
    “This is getting really confusing,” Tony said. He looked around the room, hoping for someone that might offer some information about the condition of his friend.
    “You’re worried about your friend, aren’t you?” Josh said.
    “Of course I’m worried about her. No one has told me anything since I got here—except for you, that is.”
    “Listen, I know this probably sounds stupid, but I’m telling you, the doctors here do amazing stuff. They’ll take care of her. And whatever they can’t fix, the nanites can.”
    There was a long pause. Finally, Tony sighed. “I hope you’re right.”
    Josh looked around, unsure of what to say next. He glanced at the time display on the wall. He still had five minutes to kill. “So, what’s your friend’s name?”
    “Synda.”
    “She your girlfriend or something?”
    “No, nothing like that. We used to spar together in the gym, back before the Jung invaded. Until a week ago, I hadn’t seen her in months, not since the invasion.”
    Josh turned his head toward the hatchway. In the corridor outside, he could see Captain Scott talking with two strangers in EVA suits. Two medical technicians joined them and led the two strangers away, after which the captain stepped through the hatch and walked toward Josh.
    “How are you doing, Mister Hayes?” the captain asked as he approached.
    “Great, sir,” Josh answered. “Never better.”
    “That’s what I want to hear,” Nathan answered. “Have you seen the doc?”
    “She’s somewhere around.”
    “I’ll be back in a moment,” Nathan said as he left to find Doctor Chen.
    After Nathan left, Tony asked, “Who was that?”
    “That’s the Aurora’s captain.”
    “Aren’t captains usually older?” Tony wondered.
    “I suppose. I haven’t met many myself,” Josh answered. “Captain Scott’s pretty good, though.”
    “Scott? As in Nathan Scott, the president’s son?”
    “Yeah, but I thought he was a senator or something,” Josh said.
    “He was elected president of the North American Union just after the Aurora was reported lost. A lot of people say he won with the sympathy vote due to the loss of his son.”
    “I didn’t even know there was such a thing.”
    “What?”
    “Sympathy votes.”
    “You don’t have them on your world?”
    “We don’t even have elections on my world.”
    Tony squinted, becoming curious. “Where exactly is your planet?”
    “Haven’s not a planet; it’s a moon orbiting a gas giant. It’s in a system just outside the Pentaurus cluster.”
    “I have never heard of the Pentaurus cluster. Where is it?”
    “Using Earth’s coordinate system, I couldn’t rightly tell you. We had to convert everything over to the Takaran’s galactic coordinate system in order to work with the new navigation systems they installed.”
    “Well, how far is it from Earth?” Tony wondered.
    Josh laughed. “About a thousand light years.”
    “You traveled a thousand light years?” Tony asked in disbelief. “You must have amazing ships.”
    “We came in this ship,” Josh said, “in the Aurora.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah,” Josh said, somewhat boastfully. “Her jump drive is amazing.”
    “Jump drive?” Tony wondered, his eye widening.
    “It allows us to instantly jump