Free Prisoner of Earthside: A Novella (STRYDER'S HORIZON Book 2) by Daniel J. Kirk Page A

crop?
    “Oh, there she goes,” Cam reported as the officer hitting on Jimmy tried to walk off without any shame.  “To be fair to Jimmy, she isn’t very pretty.”
    “Most of you aren’t,” Thom said.
    Cam let her sunglasses droop low enough to glare from above the rims. “We’re all you’ve got.”
    “And that’s why I’m so willing to die.”
    Jimmy wandered over to their patch of the gray beach and surveyed the scene behind them.
    “What time does this nonsense end?” Jimmy asked.
    “Sit down Jimmy, the ladies won’t bother you so much if they think you’re with us.” Cam patted a spot next to her.
    “No, I’m ready to head back inside.”
    “That officer you were chatting up could’ve gotten you back in the barracks,” Thom reminded him.
    Jimmy shook his head, “Officers are looking for kids, their salary doubles remember? The Colonials’ complimentary gift for making another moron.”
    “Shame that only works for officers.”
    “Only babies worth a damn.” Jimmy had stopped looking around. Thom noticed he was fixed on something behind them, and his concern started to worry.
    Thom adjusted, but Cam had already taken notice herself. And she gasped.
    “Oh shit.”
    Cam’s wish came true. This was about to be the last Moonday for any one on the Moon of Echoearth.
     
    Dust wouldn’t settle. Thom watched it hang and dance, and do whatever dust can do in zero gravity.  Maybe it prefers not to cling onto something stationary. Thom was pretty sure dust doesn’t register emotions, but he’d been wrong about a lot of things.
    He had thought he’d have more time to figure things out.
    They didn’t even bother to knock everyone out. Those of who survived the attack were all trading embarrassed and guilt-filled glances as they were carted off to the Red Empress to be properly annihilated. Thom figured there would be no other reason to keep them alive other than to be part of some sicko’s fetish, a demonstration of the Red Empress’ superior power over the galaxies.
    There were a lot of prisoners, too.
    They were all strapped in tubes for safekeeping while the soldiers of the Red Empress jetted back to claim their victory and medals.
    Thom kept trying to replay the events in his head, but aside from the explosions and some ugly looking breasts separated from their owners he couldn’t get a grasp on how he ended up in one of these tubes and not dead.
    He just kept thinking he was picking something up when it all happened. But the past didn’t matter anymore. Thom needed to prepare to face death.  He needed to do some deep soul searching.
    Then he spotted Cam.
    Thom forced a smile at Cam. She had finally come through and noticed him staring. Apparently, she wasn’t ready to smile back. He shouldn’t have smiled. There was no reason to. Things were only going to get worse and they only had each other as eye candy on the long journey to wherever the Red Empress called home these days.
    Space travel was a slow process.
    It made wars even longer.
    No cryogenics for prisoners of wars, they get to ache through every moment of the long journey. Thom figured he’d be insane by the time they executed him. Perhaps, Thom thought, that’s why they do it . So the people of the Red Empress could see the prisoners as mad men and it is easier to justify their unprompted attacks.
    Or maybe it just wasn’t in the budget.
    Just like Thom’s rescue wouldn’t be in KorCorp’s or even The Colonial’s budget.
    No one cared about a drill-runner. They weren’t expected to live long anyway.

1: THE HANGOVER
     
     
     
    Someone said my name. I ignored it of course. I was at Macy’s Pub for one reason and one reason only. The Workman Brewery had unleashed an anniversary Imperial Brown Ale that had finally reached Burnside.
    “Dammit, Kimmie. You’re drunk.”
    Alice Murphy looked maddened by that observation, which made me mad. Which meant—I probably was a little drunk.
    “I went by your shack and waited