Frontline sf-4 Page 12

  “We'll see,” Wheeler replied as he turned in his seat.

  “I see you've made yourself at home,” Gabriel Meunez said as he closed the distance between himself and Lucius.

  “Not by choice. Is that the real Gloria, or just another copy like me?”

  “I'm the real deal Captain, with a few improvements,” she grinned.

  “I don't have anything worth Captaining, just call me Wheeler.”

  “So you do remember your First Mate, I'm so glad,” Meunez said, pushing his knotty hair out of his face.

  “Yup, there are more holes than whole parts, but I still remember some of the best bits. What's the news? Am I getting off this rock?”

  “Perhaps we could discuss this in a more private location?” Gabriel asked quietly.

  “Here's fine. If there's anything these slugs overhear that's worth selling they won't be able to find anyone who cares to buy it anyway. Order something, be a good customer.”

  Gabriel looked around the room, unsure, while Gloria Parker took a seat beside Wheeler. “What he's having,” she ordered.

  “Well, what's the news? I've been here at least a month since you flipped the switch in my head with a hand full of credits and no prospects. I'm tired of being out of the way while you and your new bosses set the worlds on fire.” Wheeler griped as he clinked his pint to Gloria's.

  “Your predecessor has been killed by Jacob Valance, he's taken the Triton.” Gabriel Meunez whispered as he took a seat at Wheeler's other side.

  “I heard my predecessor, ” Wheeler spat the word, “was set off by someone on your end and the little explosive cocktail you keep behind our kneecaps went critical. What happened? He slag some VP's son by mistake?”

  Meunez's surprise and discomfort was plain, he glanced at Lucy, who was walking away from the awkward scene leisurely and then pacing back to Wheeler. “You're far more resourceful than I had anticipated,” he closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. There was activity beneath those closed lids, Wheeler could see the other man's eyes were rolling around in his sockets. “Ah, there it is, you managed to find one of your old Vindyne contacts, Cummings. He works for Regent Galactic now and you offered to trade future information against updates on the Triton.”

  Wheeler shook his head slowly. “You're more jacked in than last time I ran into you. Is there anything human left?”

  “Questions you don't need the answers to. Don't worry, we'll have someone deal with Cummings.”

  “Good, one more debt cleared. Speaking of which, how much is my freedom going to cost me?”

  “Oh, you're going to like this,” Gabriel said with a grin. “We need you to put a crimp in the Triton's recruiting efforts. Force them out into the open.”

  “You know, considering the size of your back yard, you'd think you'd have bigger ants to squash.”

  “The Triton is becoming a very large problem. Other fighting ships have begun recruiting from worlds our vessels haven't reached yet. A few independent Captains are beginning to follow Valance's example.”

  “So you want me to inconvenience them to death, I get it. Always the long way 'round with you old Vindyne boys.”

  “No, we want you to make joining the Triton crew look dangerous and provoke them into stepping into the spotlight. We have intelligence that suggests that they're about to disappear and that is counter to our purposes.”

  “Why don't you just give me a few ships, you've probably got a whole battle group sitting in orbit, and I'll go tear the Triton apart. At worst Valance will get off on a smaller ship and he'll be back to being a minor irritation, at best I'll slag him and most of his crew. Then you won't have to worry about him, period.”

  “His fame is reaching high enough that we risk martyring him if he is so directly defeated. There's also a chance that Triton could fit into our plans.”

  “Oh come on! You've got the biggest propaganda machine outside of the core, and your corp probably owns what, fifty entertainment studios? If there's one thing you people are good at it's making up your own story. Or, I know; you could grow another Valance and set him up as some kind of mass murderer.”

  “Then what use would you be? Make no mistake, you came at great expense and not even the results of our research with you and Valance has repaid that. We're giving you the opportunity to balance the equation. You will go out and do what you have to in order to mitigate the damage Valance is causing, to sour the appeal of the small uprising he is causing.”

  “Fine, but I do it my way this time. Give me a decent ship with a well trained crew that will follow orders. Not some collection of janitors and mechanics who've never seen the inside of anything but a bulk transport.”

  “Yes, yes. There's a ship earmarked for your use with a well trained crew. You'll be placed on her bridge when you're ready.”

  “They let me out as a sign of good faith,” Gloria added with a smirk.

  “They don't know me very well, do they?” Wheeler smiled back.

  “No, they don't.”

  “So, do you believe you can accomplish the goals we've set for you?” Gabriel asked peevishly.

  “No problem, as long as I'm free once I've finished making serving on the Triton look like a death sentence.”

  “You'll have it in writing,” Gabriel Meunez nodded. He stood and started for the door.

  Wheeler looked to Lucy, who was half way down the bar and smiled at her. “I'll be right back to pay my tab,” he reassured.

  “Better be,” she warned back.

  He and Gloria casually walked outside. There were two squads of Regent Galactic soldiers surrounding Gabriel Meunez. All of them were heavily armed, wore grey and dull green armoured vacsuits. “Kill everyone inside.” Gabriel ordered one of the Captains nonchalantly.

  One squad rushed through the doors and began firing. The sounds of screams and combat were barely muffled by the thin transparesteel doors. Wheeler resisted the urge to look and followed Meunez and the squad that guarded them as they made their way back to the armoured personnel shuttle that would take them back to the battle group in orbit.

  “We're going to be fast friends this time around Lucius, you'll see.” Gabriel Meunez said with an uncharacteristic smile, it looked like he was trying too hard.

  “Oh, best buds,” Wheeler said with a wink at Gloria.

  Minh-Chu Buu

  The team of mechanics did in two days what would have taken him two weeks and then they were gone. The quiet that settled in was almost eerie after the clamour that had preceded it.

  He walked through the low hallway, more of a large crawlway, beneath the main cargo area and checked some of the work they had done. All the systems checked out from the cockpit, they had even refuelled the afterburners.

  Some of the missing access panels had been replaced and as he opened one he could see all the wiring and power regulating systems had been neatly strung parallel to the ship, from aft to fore. The last time he had seen that hallway most of the access panels didn't have covers, cables hung out and he had to manually trace many of them to find out exactly what they were for before he could repair anything.

  No one had touched the Gull while it was in storage all that time and he was somewhat grateful for that. His restaurant was another story. His sisters mourned his passing for a time but life went on. They worked harder than before, his eldest sister took his place officially and since he left the accounts in order, had built the business well in the first place, she decided it was worth continuing, growing.

  It took them only another few months to finish paying all the debt the business had incurred as it grew, a little slower than he would have expected but still impressive considering they were improving the place at the same time. After that they actually started publicising the small oriental eatery and hosting events. They eventually moved it into a proper restaurant space. After five years the establishment was making more than he would have ever expected and was considered a higher class restaurant, playing host to the bulk of t
he admiralty and high society alike.

  A wealthy Freeground shipping Baron eventually put an offer on the restaurant that they couldn't refuse and they took it. There was enough money for the entire family to settle on an inner core world and start a new business. When Minh left he and his sisters worked every day, most of the money the restaurant made went to paying back what it cost to run and the debts it had incurred during a short, rough spot shortly after starting up. It was about to pull itself out of debt and make a comfortable profit, true, but everyone in the family was weary.

  Upon his return the restaurant was gone, everyone was living well, there were new brothers in law, children and even college funds. The only real argument that was ongoing amongst family members was whether to move to one of the core worlds or to take a Lorander transport to one of the more developed but equally distant colonies.

  The reception they gave him upon his unexpected return was overwhelming. He was thankful that Freeground had a reintegration program in place for people who had been isolated for too long. It was mostly reserved for long term explorers or pilots who had to fly secret, long range missions, but they admitted him nonetheless.

  He was much healthier physically than most of the people who entered, but his isolation had been utter and at first he could only see familiar people one at a time. Even that kind of company made him uneasy. Having a normal conversation was difficult, awkward. What made things worse was the need to have someone around all the time, being alone was harder than facing someone he didn't know how to communicate with properly.

  Minh wanted to contact everyone he missed, which was practically everyone he knew. The therapists and mentors at the recovery centre forced him to pace himself, however, and he would be eternally thankful for their wisdom. He was one of the lucky ones, a naturally social person who actually wanted to reconnect with people so he made very good progress.

  He was still recovering, though very quickly according to the personnel at the treatment center, and he was so thankful to have Ayan. She was the crutch he leaned on so his sisters felt comfortable leaving for whichever destination they chose. There were rumours, terrifying rumours that war was coming. Worse than any war Freeground had known. After seeing what he had while serving on the First Light and being an infantryman during the All-Con war, he didn't want his sisters on Freeground when it happened. The Lorander colonies were safer and he only had to make his opinion known to them once. After he left the centre it wasn't long before his sisters took him seriously.

  He seemed to be back to his old self; busy, sociable and quick witted. For the most part he was the brother they remembered and Ayan's easily offered friendship was partially responsible. He had another place to go, someone else who felt isolated and needed someone to talk to who didn't have a doctorate and she didn't seem to mind his company at all.

  Ayan's futon may not have been the most comfortable place, but knowing there was someone in the next room was all he needed. He even enjoyed being woken up when she shuffled to the bathroom in the middle of the night, it was a sure sign that he wasn't still on that drifting wreck dreaming he was somewhere else again. Having coffee in the morning before setting off to work on the Gull, or Warpig, as it had been re-dubbed, was the perfect start to his day. She was a fantastic friend, and he absolutely loved making her laugh. What Jonas had seen in her was no longer a mystery, but it was difficult to see her as anything more than a friend. A friend who was his best friend's perfect match.

  They were both dealing with a kind of personal crisis that few people could understand. It was just as important that they both missed the same people; Oz, Jason, Laura and Jonas. On the purpose of their mission they were in full agreement, and when it was all official that morning, when they had their orders on their command and control units from Freeground Intelligence, the feeling was liberating. They shared the urge to go after their friends in the fastest ship they could find but until the actual orders were right there in front of them it just didn't feel real.

  As he opened the trap door at the end of the small walkway and climbed the six rung ladder that led up through it he caught sight of her. Ayan was wheeling her luggage behind her. Tucked under her arm was a combined tool kit and convenience bag. She hadn't seen the inside of the main hold since the day before, when she was helping with the final work on the new micro-wormhole generator. She unconsciously straightened the front of her poncho, and he couldn't help but marvel at how similar she was to the Ayan he remembered.

  There were differences of course, she was curvier, shorter, and her smile was bigger, there were even dimples and she was more expressive. He hadn't known her well before, perhaps some of the differences were thanks to him becoming much more closely acquainted with her, but he swore she seemed more alive than the woman he had met on the First Light. To him, that woman didn't matter at all. The woman he was looking at right then was his good friend, someone he had grown to enjoy time with and trust a great deal in a very short time.

  Minh was aware of how he'd changed as well. It was part of the therapy his sisters were called on to help with. They were to highlight the differences and talk about them. He was much quieter with people he didn't know and he was told that with time and exposure to new people that might change, but there were physical differences as well. The most obvious was his hair, it had grown down to well below his shoulders when they found him. It had been cut so it ended above the base of his neck and he preferred it that way.

  He was also more fit. Soon after realizing he was alone and adrift within the station segment he started doing workouts he had learned during his time with the infantry. That expanded as he swung from the supports spaced underneath the walkways, engaged in aerobics he had seen his sisters do growing up, and other physical activities that were challenging but not daring enough so he could end up seriously injured and alone. As a result the man they found years later was covered in lean muscle and he had never been in better shape. He hadn't lost any of his skills either thanks to fighter pilot and marine simulations that were loaded into his command and control unit.

  He wasn't malnourished thanks to the materializer and the natural foods he grew. Minh knew that he had been very fortunate in his circumstances but he didn't feel that way yet. The therapists told him that he would eventually realize how lucky he had been despite his isolation. One of the points they kept bringing up was that he finally had time to do so much he had never gotten around to before his isolation, like learning how to play classical electric guitar and write in Quoc ngu and Chinese. He had even started writing a few fictional interactive settings, but without access to holographic reference images or help from anyone else none of them were ever finished.

  He gathered his long hair with his hands and strapped it into a ponytail. “ Pssst! ” he hissed between his teeth, surprising Ayan and evoking one of her bright, winning smiles. “I was starting to wonder if you had cold feet,” he teased.

  “Are you kidding? I've been looking forward to this my whole life. Going out into the galaxy on some secret mission, it's like one of the contraband movies Jonas would send to me over the networks before we met.”

  “What do you think of the colour?”

  She looked around at the inside of the twenty two by twelve meter cargo bay. “It's…” she hesitated “… yellow.”

  “I know, I found the paint in an old locker just outside. The deck master said I could have it.”

  “Well, it's a lot better than the mix match that used to be in here. What did you do with everything you cleared out?”

  “There was a lot of garbage, we cut it up and fed the mass converter with it, so I guess it's all reserve power now.”

  “Even that old statue?”

  “The Indian one?” Minh smiled.

  Ayan nodded.

  “Oh no, the old chief's in my room. I hollowed his head out so I could use him as a planter.”

  She laughed and shook her head. “At least he'll be put to good use.”

&nbs
p; Minh closed the hatch behind him and took her luggage. “Shall we? We're scheduled for departure in twenty…” he looked at his command and control unit, the same one he had used for nearly eight years, “twenty-three minutes.”

  “Let's. I meant to be here earlier, but I ran into my mother then had to say goodbye to Doctor Anderson. He wishes you luck, by the way.”

  “He came by the ship yesterday. How is your mother?”

  “Alive, sad to see me go, but I don't think she'll try to talk Intelligence out of making it happen.”

  “Good, I'm glad she made it out of the Blue Belt.”

  “So am I.”

  “Did she say anything about what happened?”

  Ayan didn't think about it until then, but her mother didn't say a word about the Paladin or why she was forced to abandon ship. “No, I guess that's above our pay grade.”

  Minh's eyes went wide, his jaw dropped, and he gasped exaggeratedly. “We're getting paid?”

  Departure

  The command deck observation area was dim and quiet. Several high ranking officers sat quietly working through reports, reviewing intelligence materials or just watching the ships come and go. Admiral Jessica Rice knew the show she had come to see would be starting soon and she walked to the large observation windows towards the area of space used for projecting wormholes. The view from her office, just on the other side of the large command deck was all wrong, and she didn't feel like watching on a monitor.

  For the first time she could remember she felt old. When her daughter had set off on her first military assignment she wasn't there to see her off, nor was she able to watch her leave on the First Light or any assignment in between. She had watched Ayan take her first steps, say her first word; 'ommy'. Her heart felt full in that moment, there was nothing more precious, no one more dear than her daughter.

  Her daughter. Was it the woman who had most likely died in a part of the galaxy she'd never seen? Was it the woman who was about to leave again? Was it both? Could it be both? Every time she started thinking about Ayan she started down a long spiral of distress and confusion. So many beginnings and endings all at the same time and she felt as though she just didn't know what to think anymore. Nothing felt as simple as it should have been.