Free Tin Star by Cecil Castellucci Page A

blindly take my sister onto the Prairie Rose without me? Why did she have to die? Even if I did manage to avenge them, they would still be dead, and they would still be silent. It was the silence that hurt me the most.
    I remembered how all of the colonists looked at Brother Blue as though he were a God. Even I did. After assisting him, however, I remembered feeling as though I were faking my fervor. I began to see a normal man who looked to be full of shadows. But I could not place my finger on what was off.
    I only knew that he always lit up when he said that the galaxy and its core were full of possibilities of richness beyond dreams. That was the only time that he ever seemed to be telling the truth. I was certain that it was true. There was something to be won out in that vastness.
    *   *   *
    Soon enough, the station slowly began to wake up as the first ship finally docked. The new, even when unknown, is infectious in its possibilities. I found Heckleck in his bin, sorting his stock of salts.
    “I’m going to find out what’s going on,” I said.
    “Careful, we’ll have to work hard to see who is bribable,” Heckleck said.
    “Maybe it’ll be more interesting,” I said. “Maybe I’ll find another way off of here.”
    Heckleck just rubbed his wings together.
    I made my way over to the docking bays. I could see the new security force helping to move the transition of new people as they arrived. I didn’t recognize any of them as the new members of station security until they moved into the light. It was Tournour.
    I had not expected him to be there. I had not expected to ever see him again. It surprised me that he had been sent back. Part of me wanted to march right up to him and yell at him again for keeping me on the station when I could have been gone months ago and on my way to revenge. But the change in mood on the station kept me in check. I hung back and I watched as some of the other new delegates streamed off the arriving ships. I noticed only the ones in charge spoke. They had been gifted a high-ranking position, even if it was in the backwater of space. They knew they had power. But it was not them that I watched. They were useless to me. Heckleck had advised me to look at the ones that were arriving to be new citizens of the station, the ones with the lower clerical-type jobs. They looked as though they all wanted to be as invisible as possible. They would be desperate. They would be the people to approach. They were the aliens who would trade for favors. But I could not observe them as thoroughly as I wanted to because my eyes kept going back to Tournour as he stood there organizing the whole arrival.
    He couldn’t see me from where he was. I knew that it would be better to stop staring and to get out of there as quickly as possible in case he caught me and I did something that got me into more trouble with him. Besides, by the Imperium threads Tournour was wearing, it was clear he was working with them. There was no mistaking his alliance. I felt my heart, which had almost jumped when I saw his familiar face, snap shut. Heckleck had always told me it was silly to think of anyone in power as an ally. Even if their actions seemed to indicate a bond, they would always betray you in the end. The higher up they were, Heckleck always said, the more confusing their actions could be.
    I made my way back down to the underguts.
    “Well, what shall I give you for the information?” Heckleck asked.
    He knew full well that he had to give me nothing.
    “You don’t owe me anything,” I said.
    “Then I haven’t taught you well,” he said.
    “All right,” I said, pointing to the fattest fruit in his bowl. “I want the fattest, juiciest one. The one I know you’re saving for last.”
    “That is a high price,” he said. He pretended to consider my offer. Then he plucked it from the bowl and gave it to me.
    “Tournour is back,” I said. “I thought we’d never see him again.”
    “He must