Lunatic by Chris Daruns

Author:Chris Daruns
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: World Castle Publishing, LLC
Published: 2024-01-18T02:31:36+00:00

Chapter 4

Leo Young met me in the airlock.

It was a near-run thing, my carbon dioxide filters were nearly tapped out, and my suit’s batteries, which powered the heaters, sat at a whopping four percent.

“What happened to you?” the Young’s patriarch asked. He was alone. The rest of his clan were likely working at their various jobs around the homestead.

“Tell me what you know about the Free Luna movement?” I asked, practically in a growl. I was in no mood to be fucked with.

Leo took a step back. “We’re not part of any free luna anything.”

“Maybe not you. But your brother was.”

Leo shook his head. “I honestly don’t know what Noam got up to most of the time. He came and went as he pleased. He did his surveys, collected his samples, and wrote his academic papers with minimal interaction. He practically lived in his suit and, with the rest of us being busy, sinking the new shaft. We didn’t see much of each other.”

I made my way to their kitchen and helped myself to water from the purifier while he talked. My left hand and forearm had swollen considerably from the barotrauma of decompression and looked like I had one Mickey Mouse hand. Leo saw it but didn’t comment.

“What your brother was getting up to got him and my nephew killed. So I’ll ask again, what do you know about the Free Luna movement?”

Leo sighed. “He talked about uniting the clans into a trade bloc to fight the falling prices of H-3. I told him it was nuts. That he’d never get the clans to agree to cut off Earth. We’re too reliant. Still are. We fought about it. Argued.”

“And his supposed fall? You don’t believe that was accidental?”

“No.”

“So why lie to me?”

“Because I had no proof.” Leo threw his hands up. “It could have been accidental. I don’t know who else he talked to. I didn’t even know Declan was involved until you came knocking. This place is deadly. Accidents happen here, and people die. You know that better than anyone.”

“Watch it,” I warned him. “So, who else is involved?”

“I don’t know,” Leo said.

“Look, my rover just got sabotaged, and a couple of assholes tried to kill me. I barely got away. Everyone who was involved is in danger.” I held up my injured hand as proof.

“Was it the Medinas?”

“Fuck yes, it was the Medinas! Are you dense?” It was my turn to yell.

Leo exhaled and hung his head, nearly collapsing. Then he laughed, then tried not to laugh, then laughed anyway. I knew that look. I saw it in battle every once in a while. The elder Young was a man who’d finally broken, who kept up a stern face through storm after storm and was finally too bent to stand anymore. Leo Young shattered in front of me.

“I have to sell,” he whispered. “I don’t know what to do. They killed my brother, and now I have to sell everything to them… I don’t know how to fight back.

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