Free Frontier: Book One - The Space Cadets by Laurence Moroney Page B

from the truth about
who I am.”
    “ Who are you?”
    “ My name is Kim.”
    “ Yes. I know. It ’ s a common name in Korea.”
    “ It ’ s also the name of the family that
have controlled the Democratic People ’ s Republic of Korea since its
founding over a hundred years ago. How else do you think I survived
the nuclear war? ”
    Aisha sat for a moment. The family
that had controlled the country. That had brought it to war with
the West. A war that had claimed the life of her own father. She
felt anger growing.
    “ I wasn ’ t a part of it, ” said Soo-Kyung. “ I am as much a victim
as you. ”
    The pit of Aisha ’ s stomach went cold. That war had killed her father.
Soo-Kyung ’ s family was
responsible.
    “ You could judge me for what they
did,” she said. “But you ’ d be wrong to do
so. You can ’ t hold me guilty by
association.”
    Aisha sighed. Anger
wasn ’ t right. She didn ’ t want to blame Soo-Kyung. Finally, she said, “You
sound just like Patrice.”
    “ Patrice?”
    “ Smith.”
    “ Oh. First-name terms now,
huh?”
    She wasn ’ t going to let Soo-Kyung change the topic. “I
don ’ t know what to say.”
    “ Well, nobody else knows who I am.
Only you. If you want to report me, I am at your mercy.”
    “ But the files show you are
someone else.”
    “ Files, which in your case, are
locked. If you were to report something it would probably be
believed. They clearly hold you in high regard.”
    “ So, why?”
    “ Why what?”
    “ Why come up here?”
    Soo-Kyung looked thoughtful for a
moment, like she was searching for the right words to say. “For a
new start. If I were to stay on Earth, someone somewhere, would
recognize me, and my life would be ruined, or I ’ d be killed. I want that fresh start, Aisha. And I
beg you, as a friend , to let me have it.”
    “ I want to be mad, I really do. I
want to blame you for--”
    “ Then do so, I ’ ll understand.”
    “ No, ” said Aisha, reaching out her hand. “ You ’ re right. Fresh start. Let us not
hold each other accountable for the sins of our
fathers. ”
    “ Your father, at least,
didn ’ t sin, did he?”
    “ I don ’ t
know,” said Aisha. “But my files are locked for a
reason.”
    “ And I think they put us together
for a reason. I wonder if those reasons are related.”
    Soo-Kyung looked thoughtful for a
moment. She walked to the glass windows, overlooking the stars. “I
haven ’ t ever been able to trust someone as
a friend,” she said finally. “Because of the family I come from. I
have trusted you tonight.”
    She turned and held out a hand.
“Friends?”
    Aisha looked at her hand for a
long moment before holding it in hers and shaking it. “Friends,”
she nodded, first smiling, then grinning, and finally embracing the
Korean girl in a giant hug.
    She surprised even herself at the
warmth of her feelings, and knowing that she really meant
them.

Chapter
11
Bully
    Wherever you are, and whomever you
are, there are people who will, for whatever reason, try to put you
down and make life difficult for you. There are many ways to deal
with people like this, but there’s only one truth: You never start
the fight, but you always finish it.
    No matter the cost…
     
    It had been a long and
difficult morning, and Aisha was tired and hungry as she entered
the mess hall. The doorway was partially blocked with other
enrollee students.
    Enrollee was the official
name to students like herself who had come through open enrollment,
but the other students had far less kind words to describe them.
Everything from rabble to scum to meteors had
been muttered near her. The first two were obvious, the third she
had no idea.
    “ When they throw us out the
airlock, we ’ ll burn up in the atmosphere
as meteors,” Soo-Kyung had explained one night, seemingly
unbothered by the implicit threat.
    “ Shouldn ’ t we talk to the authorities,” Aisha had asked. “They
can ’ t do that, can they?”
    Soo-Kyung shook her