Galactic Axia Adventure 1: Escape to Destiny by Jim Laughter Page B

freighter. The ship showed her years of service plying her trade, and though the paint looked new, it did nothing to hide recent repairs.
    Delmar approached a group of men loading crates into the cargo bay and pitched in to help. No one seemed to notice him as the loading continued, except that the extra strong back was most welcome. The ship was finally loaded and the ground crew sauntered back toward the operations buildings, leaving the regular crew and Delmar standing near the loading ramp.
    “You better get goin', boy,” the cargo master said. “We’re gonna lift off soon.”
    Delmar didn’t move. “I was wondering if you could use another hand. I’d be willing to do anything.”
    The cargo master eyed him suspiciously. “How old are you, boy?”
    “Just turned eighteen, sir.”
    “Let me go talk to the skipper,” the cargo master said. “You sure proved you’re willing to work.” Delmar waited nervously for several minutes. Eventually two men came back out.
    “Let me see some identification, son,” the ship captain said. Delmar showed him the identification card he had received at graduation.
    “Looks like you’ve learned something too,” the captain said. “Why do you want to ship out? You in some kind’a trouble, boy?”
    Delmar paled but kept the nervousness out of his voice. “I’ve thought about space travel for several years since my mom died. I’ve also had some trouble at home with my older brother and I want a new start.”
    The captain eyed him for a moment. The two men turned their backs to Delmar and moved out of earshot. After conferring a minute, they returned. “Okay,” said the captain. “I’ll take you on and assign you to Cargo Master Preston here. This is my ship, the Malibu . I’m in command but Mister Preston runs the crew. Now get onboard and let’s go.”
    Delmar sighed with relief. He ran over to the place where he had hidden his pack, grabbed it and ran back just in time to follow the two men up the ramp.
    “Now don’t get your head full of no fanciful ideas, boy,” Preston said as they entered the ship. “I can work 'em out’ta you before we break orbit.” The hatch closed behind them and within minutes, the Malibu streaked skyward.
    ∞∞∞
    Delmar learned quickly and adjusted to the daily routine aboard ship. It became easy to tell morning from afternoon by which of the two levels he was scrubbing. The different patterns of flooring tile were all he needed for a timepiece. Preston worked him steady but not too hard, lest all the work be done and the boy should have some free time. Out barely ten days and the ship glistened from one end to the other and Delmar could see the tile patterns in his sleep.
    However, scrubbing the Malibu’s floors did not keep Delmar from learning. He kept his ears and eyes open and his mouth shut, the first advice Cargo Master Preston had given him after breaking orbit.
    From the disgusted tone of the skipper, he learned there were problems with some of the rods of the bedsprings drive system and their power cells were weakening. They were also having trouble navigating and had to make frequent course corrections, and their communications array was apparently out of alignment. They were not making good time as they planet-hopped and would have to lay over at the next planet for repairs.
    ∞∞∞
    The Red-tail pilot could not believe his luck. He had been on patrol in this sector of space trying to find a likely spot for the cluster to open a new transit tube so they could make hit-and-run raids. This was one of the normal shipping lanes used by the humans of Galactic Axia.
    The few Axia ships the Red-tail had seen were the large cruisers and he certainly did not want to tangle with one of those. But this ship was different. From the looks of it, the ship should have been retired long ago. And though he wasn’t familiar with Galactic Axia designs, he was sure the ship coming into his detector range was only running on partial