Unreal 2] Hard Crash by Ryan Hughes

Author:Ryan Hughes [Hughes, Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Zofia felt the sting in Melnori’s words. As she helped set up camp—making a real lean-to shelter now, and refilling her water bottle in the river—she couldn’t help but think about what he had said. Not pure enough to be the Nali messiah, eh? That was certainly true enough, given her past, but did it have to be so obvious?

Just once in her life she would like to feel needed. Not the way she had been needed in the break-in at the starship works—for her code-breaking skill and her invincible attitude—nor even the way she was needed here to help carry Gerick away from the Skaarj. She would like to be needed for something more important than that, something more personal. For her character.

That was a laugh. Melnori may not have been the soul of tact, but he had pegged her right. She had never met a situation she couldn’t screw up, never helped someone out without expecting something in return, never—

Wait a minute, she thought. When the Vortex Rikers had crashed, who had immediately started helping other people out of their cells? When the Skaarj had come, who had stuck around to protect those same people? Granted, she hadn’t laid down her life for the others the way Jack or the Australian guy had, but she was pretty damned proud of what she had done. All without a single thought for herself.

Well, okay, maybe she was hoping that somebody among the prisoners could help her get free, but still, it wasn’t like she was charging them by the hour or anything.

An avenging angel, eh? Why the hell couldn’t she be the one? Not that she believed in some silly alien prophecy for a second, but just for the sake of argument, why not? She wondered if wanting some­thing like that to be true was akin to saying you were macho. If you want to be the messiah, you’re not qualified.

Hah. The New Washington colony had tried that approach with their leaders, voting into office the people who least wanted the job, and they had wound up with the worst idiots in the galaxy. After their economic collapse, they had immediately installed a fascist dictator and were glad to have him. All of humanity had learned from that debacle: if you want something done right, hire someone who wants to do it.

That let her off the hook. Zofia had no more desire to become an alien avatar than she had to become a fascist dictator. All she really wanted was to get off this damned planet—preferably without going back to prison—and try a fresh start somewhere else. Of course, if Melnori was telling the truth about the situation here, she might just have to help him drive the Skaarj off the planet first, but she didn’t have to fulfill some silly prophecy to do that. Sacking a city or two and stealing a starship ought to be sufficient.

As she walked back into their camp with her water bottle dripping cold river water, she caught Boris looking off into the distance, lost in thought.

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