BooksBarbecue
Back Off Planet
Chapters (54)
  1. Title Page
  2. Also by Aileen Erin
  3. Dedication
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Chapter Three
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Chapter Nine
  13. Chapter Ten
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Chapter Fourteen
  18. Chapter Fifteen
  19. Chapter Sixteen
  20. Chapter Seventeen
  21. Chapter Eighteen
  22. Chapter Nineteen
  23. Chapter Twenty
  24. Chapter Twenty-One
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-One
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  43. Chapter Forty
  44. Chapter Forty-One
  45. Chapter Forty-Two
  46. Chapter Forty-Three
  47. Chapter Forty-Four
  48. Chapter Forty-Five
  49. Chapter Forty-Six
  50. Chapter Forty-Seven
  51. Off Balance
  52. To My Readers
  53. Acknowledgments
  54. About the Author

That was why I forced myself to watch the news multiple times a day. I couldn’t get caught. Especially since my mother and I were the only two high-level Aunare targets that managed to run before SpaceTech could murder us. There was a hefty reward for anyone who had information on our whereabouts. And if someone actually turned us in, their whole family would be set for life and then some.

If things could get worse, I wasn’t sure how.

The news tonight was normal. One image caught my eye. A massive SpaceTech warship was landing on Terra 10—one of the colony planets on the edge of SpaceTech’s official empire. A report of increased Aunare activity in the area sparked SpaceTech’s IAF—Interplanetary Armed Forces—to arrive in force, quickly securing the area.

If they said the Aunare were dangerous, and they needed more forces in the area, then it had to be true. Right?

Except it probably wasn’t true. I’d bet my day’s wages from the diner that the Aunare weren’t even close to that colony. SpaceTech wanted the humans to feel the alien threat all the time and used it to justify all the crap they did.

Another image caught my eye. The Albuquerque spaceport. Large ships—some commercial, but most were SpaceTech issued—lined up, waiting to land as far as the eye could see. The ticker underneath said that there was going to be a gala for the groundbreaking of the spaceport’s expansion.

I shook my head at the screen. That meant that there were going to be SpaceTech officers showing up for it. I needed to be extra careful until they cleared out.

Slowly, all six channels—including my off-the-grid ones—changed to cover a new story happening on Earth. I flicked the button, linking all the vidscreens to show one large image: a half-Aunare guy, maybe a couple years younger than me, being dragged into an execution arena in Ohio.

Damn it. I looked away for a second but then made myself watch.

He was bleeding and dirty. Whoever had found him had beaten the crap out of him. SpaceTech liked to make a big spectacle of murdering any person with Aunare blood or ties left on Earth. There was a sizable reward for whoever turned in the enemy, and they got the added bonus of the best seat to watch the execution.

I whimpered and squeezed my eyes shut, but that didn’t stop the sound coming from the screens. The guy pleaded for his life, and the crowd yelled, calling him names that should never be uttered. Not ever.