Hidden Blade

By Lee Ma

Jimmy Wu had always thought that space-ninjas were a bad joke made up by the captain and crew-- until their spaceship was invaded. With the crew locked away, it's up to Jimmy and his twin sister, Jenny, to fight the fierce, mask-wearing super pirates. Their only help comes in the form of a conflicted robot and the mysterious new mechanic, O

• Language: English
• Publisher: 4ward Publishing
• Release date: Oct 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781953802002

Book preview

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Spaceports were the most boring places in the galaxy. At least that’s what Jimmy thought as he and his twin sister waited at the mouth of one of the many dark and empty alleys found in port. He tapped his foot, the small hand-blaster in his pocket bobbed up and down.

Perhaps if their father, Baba, had allowed them to explore the bustling market, Jimmy could have marveled at the things and people that were gathered from all over the galaxy in the port-city. He could have seen the tailless chameleons of Korinth or the skinny, grass-wearing people of Veegon. But instead, he was stuck waiting for Baba, who was terribly, horribly late. Jimmy and his sister, Jenny, had played so many rounds of tic-tac-toe in the dirty street that they were undeniably bored.

Jimmy had started counting how many times he coughed due to the dirty, unfiltered air around him. He was up to twenty-three.

Jenny was bouncing off the walls of the alley, literally. She was taking a running start to see how far up the crumbling cement she could leap before gravity took over. Jimmy wondered how long it would take before she hurt herself. He could almost hear First Mate Jacquez now, yelling at Jenny for using up valuable medical supplies on her hare-brained schemes, whatever that meant.

Ever since Jenny had once washed her red dress with Jacquez’s white clothes, accidentally turning them pink, the first mate was always complaining that children didn’t belong in space and should stay on-planet like good little boys and girls. Even though it was years ago, Jimmy still remembered how cold and hungry he and his sister had been after their mother died. He didn’t want to stay on-planet ever again.

A small hand tapped his shoulder. He glanced at Jenny. She had widened her almond-shaped eyes and her sparsely-haired eyebrows were pulled up in a pleading expression. Could we please pretty-please play Chopsticks?

He raised a skeptical brow. Chopsticks was a counting finger game that Baba had recently taught them. One that Jimmy almost always won. You promise not to be a sore loser?

Jenny scoffed. Who says I’ll lose?

He shrugged and got his hands ready. When she was about to lose, she took advantage of Jimmy’s cough and tried to cheat. Jimmy calculated the future possible moves and realized he’d still win, so he let her; it made his victory all the sweeter. He even chanted, Cheaters never prosper.

    She turned bright red and crossed her arms. Then she twisted away, her long black braid swung, hitting him in the face.

   Jimmy rubbed his stinging cheek. He opened his mouth to yell at her for hitting him, but then quickly shut it again when he noticed her shoulders heaving up and down. She was crying. Look, Jenny, it was just a stupid game. Let’s play something else.

    She sniffled. When is Baba coming? We’ve been waiting forever.

    He turned away, staring down the busy street lined with dusty stores and rickety stalls. Trucks hovered down the lanes, stopping every few meters because of all the traffic. People carrying crates and bags weaved through the stalled trucks as they made their way through the market.

He didn’t see any sign of their father, but he did see a man in white with a very stiff mustache that extended ten centimeters on either side of his face. It was the first mate, Jacquez, and he was only a block away from them. Jimmy groaned. He was about to warn Jenny that they could expect a scolding soon when she screamed behind him.

He twisted around. Jenny was gone. He ran toward the disgusting, dank alley and looked into it.

A scraggy man with missing teeth had grabbed Jenny by her braid and was dragging her into the darkness. Jenny was clawing at his dirty arms like a tiger. She chomped down on the man’s wrists and shook her head like she was trying to tear into some chewy meat. Instead of getting the strange man to leave her alone, it only seemed to make him madder. He grabbed her by the neck, digging the ragged ends of his dirty long nails into her flesh. He slammed her head against the alley wall. She went limp.

Leave her alone! Jimmy charged at the man but was punched back. He crawled to his feet, his cheek swelling in pain, and then shakily pulled the hand-blaster Baba had tucked in his pocket that morning. He pointed it at the smelly man who still had his claw-like hands wrapped around his sister’s throat, and hesitated. Baba had always told him that the blaster would kill people it hit and to never use it unless he was serious. Did he really want to kill this man?

A deep voice (Jimmy dimly recognized it as belonging to Jacquez) shouted at him, Jimmy! Shoot him now!

He hastily pulled the trigger, but his scrawny arms had not been prepared for the recoil. The plasma went wide when the blaster jolted in his hands. The man dropped Jenny to the dirty ground and faced him with a snarl. His claws reached for Jimmy’s neck. Jimmy locked his elbows and pulled the trigger again. The second shot downed the stinky man.

Jimmy dropped the blaster. He ran to his sister and pulled her up. She wasn’t moving and her face was pale, like his mother had been when she died. Jenny!

Another blaster fired behind him. Jimmy jerked away. Jacquez was standing over the fallen man. He tucked his blaster back in his belt and suddenly was right next to them. He kneeled down and tapped Jenny’s dirty cheek with his clean hands. Jimmy’s stomach unwound when her brown eyes fluttered open. She groaned.

Jacquez crushed them both against his chest. The naval award pins on his itchy jacket dug into Jimmy’s cheek. He snarled in Jimmy’s ear, Don’t you ever hesitate to shoot, ever again.

1

Five Years Later

Jimmy Wu hated stopping in spaceports. The air was grungy with exhaust, the buildings and inhabitants all caked in the grime of three megahours worth of space dust. Even the starch white uniforms of the most fastidious naval officers would turn gritty and gray if they lingered in port for too long.

This was why, Jimmy supposed as he fidgeted at the entrance of Jacquez’ quarters, that the captain’s first mate almost never left the spaceship when they were on-planet— unless there were a high-class resort nearby. Or Baba was late coming back from market, which was more common.

This brought Jimmy to reason number two of why he hated spaceports: having to talk to Jacquez before he even left the ship.

Normally, Jimmy could find ways of avoiding Jacquez when they were in space. The maze of narrow winding hallways and blind turns made it possible to hide forever. Besides, there was no reason for a twelve-year-old cook’s boy and the first mate to ever interact when the ship was inflight. But the moment the Leman docked in some squalid spaceport, he had to go tell Jacquez that his father was leaving for the marketplace or his irritable twin sister would.

He sighed, wiping off his sweaty palms on the pants of his brown jumpsuit. Then he knocked on the dura-steel door. His jutting knuckles chipped off some flakes of white paint. Better me than Jenny, he thought to himself.

The door swung open with a click. Jacquez never let anyone forget that he had once been Lieutenant Jacquez of the United Planets Navy. He always wore white pants that were so stiff that the fabric looked as unbendable as the polished pins and metal stripes festooned on his bleached yaun-wool jacket. He even kept an immaculately waxed mustache that extended like clock hands on either side of his face.

He looked down at Jimmy. The black bristles of his mustache quivered as he blew air through his hooked nose. "Couldn’t you at least rub the smudge off your face before coming here to tell me that your father requests leave to collect more food supplies? Again."

Jimmy rubbed the back of his bony hand against his cheek, saying, Baba—

Use a handkerchief like a civilized human being!

He struggled not to roll his brown eyes like his sister would have done. If Jenny were here, she would have called Jacquez an uptight interfering jerk. But he didn’t want his father to get in trouble, so he had to keep his cool around Jacquez. Always obey. No insubordination.

Obeying wasn’t possible since he didn’t have a handkerchief to wipe his face with, but he could do something else; and it wasn’t against any official rules. The ends of his lips curled up into a wicked grin, which he quickly hid behind his brown sleeve. He sucked loudly on the hem of the sleeve and used it to wipe away the flour