The Planet Thieves Read Online Free PDF Page A

over two weeks at A1, but it had grown in patches and an instructor eventually made him shave it.
    Mason and Jeremy were bound by a shared fight. Two years earlier, Mason was scrapping with four cadets from Academy II. They’d been picking on a thin-limbed A1 second year in the gym, pushing him around, shoving him against the equipment. Mason said to the group, “Stop.” Just once, because he wanted to give them a chance.
    They didn’t stop. The biggest kid just backhanded the second year casually and knocked him to the floor. So Mason waded in, fists and legs lashing out at their weak spots, but it was still four on one. Jeremy showed up just in time, and their combined fury drove the four cadets away with injured knees and black eyes.
    Afterward, as they were helping the younger cadet to his feet, Jeremy said, “It didn’t look fair.” He shook both their hands, then left.
    The cadet told Mason, “You shouldn’t have done that. Thank you and all, but you embarrassed them. They’re only going to come back at me harder. I would’ve taken the beating.”
    The idea baffled Mason; he hadn’t stopped to consider that his help wasn’t welcome.
    Mason told this to Jeremy in a message, and the two of them visited the four attackers in their quarters later that night, to make sure they knew what would happen if they retaliated against the second year. As they were leaving, Jeremy said, “That’s neat. We didn’t even have to hit them.”
    â€œSometimes you can talk to people,” Mason said. “Or maybe they’re just afraid of us.”
    Mason only saw Jeremy whenever units would join together for group exercises, but they seemed to automatically remain friends.
    â€œYou try the door?” Jeremy asked now, cracking his knuckles.
    â€œUh, Commander Lockwood just told us to stay here, like five seconds ago,” Stellan said. He was hovering behind Jeremy and Tom, wringing his hands nervously.
    â€œRelax,” Mason said. “We are. We just want to make sure we can get out if we need to. You know, in case the Tremist show up.”
    Merrin smiled with one side of her mouth. “I almost believe that.”
    â€œQuiet!” Tom hissed. His fingers danced over the terminal. The screen flickered for a second, then flashed red. “It won’t let me out. Which is actually okay, since this means we can follow orders for once.”
    â€œSee what the ship is doing,” Mason said, peering over Tom’s shoulder.
    â€œIs that an order, Captain Stark?” Tom said. He raised an eyebrow.
    â€œYou know you want to see too, so don’t give me a hard time.”
    Apparently Tom did want to see: he pulled up a new screen, which showed a top-down image of the Egypt. A small red dot at the very front of the port cylinder showed their location. On the far side, the starboard side, near the engineering level, it showed the Tremist ship connected to the Egypt’s main hatch.
    â€œThat’s not good,” Jeremy said. “We should be out there cracking Tremist skulls.”
    â€œNo, we shouldn’t,” Tom said. “We should follow orders like actual soldiers.”
    Mason put a hand on Jeremy’s shoulder. “Relax, Jer. We don’t have weapons, and we don’t know where the defenders are deploying—”
    â€œWe’d get in the way,” Tom said, less delicately.
    â€œSo we just wait here?” Merrin asked, hands on her hips. “What if they overtake the ship?”
    â€œWaiting here is a fantastic idea,” Stellan said. He didn’t look afraid, exactly; Stellan just respected authority. He figured the fastest way to captaining his own ship was to follow orders, always. Mason could respect that. He tried to be the same way, but sometimes following orders was nearly impossible for him. Or rather, he found himself questioning every order, and he found the dumb ones hard to follow.