by Aer-ki Jyr
Sarah walked out a few steps ahead of Brad and Jenn and got to the desk-like terminal first, then gave the attendant there all their names as Brad slowed to a stop and let the girls get a step ahead of him.
“I’m sorry, I’ve only got the two of you listed,” the attendant said with a frown. “Jenn and Sarah Stuzi. There’s no Brad Minnen at all on our lists, regardless of birthdate.”
The two girls spun around and looked at him horrified as he set his duffle down on the ground and walked up to them, giving the attendant an apologetic look.
“That’s right, there’s not. I turned down the invite.”
“What the hell?” Jenn said angrily, glaring at him only slightly more harsh than Sarah was.
“You wouldn’t have gone without me.”
“I’m not going without you,” she said firmly, picking up her duffle but Brad grabbed it and held her in place.
“You are going. Both of you. Wherever this ship is headed you’ll be safe there because no one knows where it is and no one can come back to tell anyone about it. It’s where you need to be.”
“So do you,” Jenn said defiantly.
“Come over here, both of you,” he said, dragging Jenn and his duffle away from the attendant so she could process the next people in line.
“What in the galaxy are you thinking?” Jenn said, lowering her voice a bit, but anyone nearby could still hear and she didn’t care if they did. She just wanted to avoid outright yelling and was a hair away from that as it was.
“This is where we go our separate ways, Jenn. I didn’t tell you earlier because you might have stayed with me. If you did I would have looked out for you, but by getting on that dropship I’ll have succeeded in keeping you safe. You’ll be out of harm’s way and that’s what matters. Both of you,” he said, glancing at Sarah. “You’ve been family the past few years and I have no regrets, but your future lies on that mystery planet. Mine does not.”
“And why not?”
“Because if I go there I can’t come back, and when I heard that I realized I had never wanted to run. Part of me was always wanting to get in the fight, but I had you two to look after so that took priority. I’m accomplishing that mission here and now, and you can hate me for it if you want, but once you get on that dropship you’ll be safe…so you’re getting on, now.”
“That’s my decision,” Jenn said, a tear forming in her left eye.
“And it’s my decision what I do as well. I’m not staying in the Rim Region. I’m going back.”
Sarah covered her mouth in shock, but Jenn simply sagged and started crying. Part of her had always suspected, but she’d never really given it much thought.
“I love you,” he said sincerely, “but you won’t be seeing me again regardless of what happens. You two,” he said, looking at Sarah, “take care of each other and survive this. I don’t know what the future holds for Star Force, but I’m a warrior and I belong in the fight. I never really was a civilian. In retrospect I just needed a long vacation, the last bit of which you’ve made very rejuvenating. I thank you for that.”
“Our 5 years aren’t up,” she said, almost pleading.
“I’ll accept responsibility for that and sever the seal. There’s no reason for you to wait up on me. I won’t be coming to wherever you’re going, so I want you to get on that dropship and start thinking ahead while remembering us as a good few years and an important part of your life, because that’s what it is for me. It would have lasted longer except for the V’kit’no’sat, but such things we can’t control. I’m glad to have known you…both…but we have to part ways here and now and I’d like to do that without fighting. You’ve been good for me, Jenn, but I have to do this and where I’m going you can’t follow. So be safe, please, for yourself and Sarah, but also so I don’t have to worry about you.”
“Damn you,” she said in a whisper, lightly punching him in his tight chest. “Why do you have to be so…”
“Heroic,” Sarah finished for her.
“Yeah…that. She always told me you were too good for me.”
“Wrong,” Brad corrected. “I chose you for a reason.”
“And that reason doesn’t still exist?”
“The part of my life that you fit into is coming to an end. You are still worthy. Don’t let her or any other twit convince you otherwise.”
“Hey,” Sarah mildly objected.
“You really have to do this, don’t you?”
“It’s who I am, Jenn.”
“I know,” she said, leaning her forehead against his neck. “I know.”
Brad hugged her warmly, then looked down at her thin, flowing hair. “I’ll always love you, but don’t tie your heart to me. I’m letting you go so you will be safe and free to live. Let me go too and make this a beginning rather than an end.”
“But you’re so hot…” she said sadly, and in that moment he knew that she’d be alright.
“You’re not bad yourself,” he said, pulling her face up and kissing her one last time. “Stay in shape.”
“Count on it,” she said, summoning up the courage to let him go, because she knew there was no way to hold him here and he deserved better than to have her try. “Thanks for the memories.”
“I never told you this, but after the lizard war a part of me was tore up inside from all the gore. It never really healed until I found you. Now I’m whole again. Thank you for that and the memories.”
“She may hate me for this now, but she’ll get over it,” Sarah said, walking up to Brad. “I have to at least once.”
Sarah grabbed and kissed him long and hard, then backed away glad that he hadn’t stopped her.
“Grab your duffles and get going. Start your future in the next few steps with no regrets. Our time was temporary, but you two should always stick together. Don’t change that now or ever. I envy you that.”
“Survive,” Jenn told him as she and Sarah turned and walked back over to the attendant, with the people in line letting them cut back in.
Brad stood in place, watching them quickly get processed and cleared for departure, and to their credit they didn’t turn back. They did as he had asked, moving forward rather than clinging to the past, though he did just long enough to see them walk up the boarding ramp into the dropship and then waited for it to seal up and lift off. Only then did he let Jenn go in mind as well.
“I’ll try to survive,” he whispered where no one else could hear, “but that isn’t the top priority. Keeping you and everyone else like you alive is.”
Brad picked up his duffle and walked back the way he’d come, then headed off through the city, not back to his quarters, and after a few hours arrived at a Star Force recruitment station staffed primarily by Tolsoi, but that didn’t matter. They were all part of the same empire and this station functioned the same as all the rest no matter what planet they were on.
He walked up to another attendant with his duffle slung over his shoulder and looked down at the smaller monkey.
“Hello, Human. What can I do for you today?”
“My name is Brad Minnen, birthdate July, 3170,” he said as the attendant immediately started typing in his information to look up his file. “I’m a former Commando and I’m here to reenlist…”
10
February 9, 3607
Shangri-La System (Cygnus Arm)
Inner Zone
It had taken nearly a year to get here, but Sarah and Jenn had finally arrived at their destination system. They didn’t know where it was exactly, for all they were told was that it was out in the Cygnus Arm of the galaxy and on the far side of The Nexus. That meant they were near to the edge of the galaxy and off the maps of even the biggest races and alliances. No one knew for sure what was out here, and that meant they were effectively lost in the wilderness and virtually impossible to find by the V’kit’no’sat or others so long as no trail was left for them to follow.
Not telling even those coming into the system where they were was probably
one of those safety protocols, though if they weren’t allowed to leave Jenn wondered why. Maybe a few people would travel back, but she knew that she and Sarah wouldn’t be on that short list. This was going to be their new home, and as the holographic map of the system manifested itself coming out of the arrival jump nearly everyone on the ship watching at various displays had their breath catch in their throats.
The girls were in a commons area along with a few hundred others watching a huge display that shifted from the single dot of the white star they had braked upon and expanded out into a full system map. The dot became slightly larger as the tracking lines from nearby stars disappeared and the planets popped up…all 306 of them, not counting moons.
Sarah’s jaw dropped. “What the hell…”
“Oh my,” Jenn said, starting to see all the little icons for cities, space stations, and ships. The planets weren’t full, not by a long shot, but there were cities sprinkled here and there across what looked like most of them, and with the moons included that put the count of ‘worlds’ at over 2,000 in this single system. “This is freaking huge. You could fit the entire population of Sol in here ten times over.”
“Getting them here is the problem,” a person standing next to Jenn added. “A few hundred million at a time doesn’t cut it.”
“At least we have a safe place to go,” Sarah pointed out. “All of us.”
The Human shook his head. “Not the entire Star Force population. The empire is too big.”
“The Humans though,” Jenn added.
“Do you really think the Dinosaurs will only go after the Humans?”
“Probably not,” she said with a frown as the ship’s route popped up on the map, indicating which planet they were heading to…which in this case was technically a moon of a gas giant, but it was slightly bigger than Earth and a third of it was covered in water. The name tag was highlighted, showing everyone what was apparently going to be their new home, or at least their departure point.
“Minbar,” Sarah said. “Sound familiar?”
“Nope.”
“Star Force has a habit of naming stuff off legends.”
“Really?” Jenn asked, glancing at her. “I never knew that.”
“Where did you think Corneria came from?”
“Corn I suppose.”
“No. Some guy told me it came from an old video game. Minbar probably comes from something else too.”
“Huh. Have to look that up when we get back to our quarters. I figure we’re going to be waiting on a dropship for weeks before we can get off.”
“Yeah, probably,” Sarah said as the ship made its way around stellar orbit to get to the jumpline for the gas giant that held Minbar in its orbit far away from the star. “I can’t believe there are so many planets. I wonder how long they had to look to find this place.”
“I’m surprised no one else found it. This is an empire in a single system.”
“You’re right. I wonder if there aren’t any neighboring races out here.”
“Good question. Someone could give us away if there were.”
“That’s a long way to send a message, but yeah, they could.”
“The Archons know what they’re doing,” someone else said as they passed by, with several other people filing away from the crowd to get on with other things.
“Even if they don’t,” another person added, “it’ll take the V’kit’no’sat forever to get out here, and they’ve got a lot of closer targets to worry about.”
“Yeah,” Jenn said, frowning. “And a lot of troops slowing them down.”
Sarah grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “I miss him too.”
“Itching for another kiss?”
“You’re seriously never going to let that go, are you?” Sarah complained.
“Nope,” Jenn said, tugged Sarah a little closer to the giant map as people were leaving.
“It was just one kiss!”
“He was still mine.”
“Fine, do you want to kiss my boyfriend?”
“You don’t have one.”
“When I get one?”
“Only if he’s as hot as Brad.”
Sarah sighed. “So you’re never going to get off my back?”
“Hey, you got the kiss. This is the payment for it.”
“Still worth it,” Sarah admitted as they looked up from underneath the edge of the map at all the glowing little spheres sitting on tiny looping lines that indicated their orbits. “Do you think they’ll let us pick…later I mean?”
“Maybe. There’s a lot of options. You just wanna chill for a while or find a job?”
“Don’t know how many there will be here.”
“There will probably be Star Force jobs.”
Sarah wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like working for stipends.”
“Might not be a bad idea for a few years until this place fills up some more.”
“You think it will? That’s a long haul we just made.”
“Maybe more than a few years then. Those stipends are nice after you’ve earned them.”
“I’m not that patient, and I really want a bigger set of quarters again. Bigger than the Star Force upgrades,” she added, for when you worked for them you got an automatic upgrade while you were employed.
“Would you mind if I did?”
Sarah glanced at her. “Depends if I could float us both. But even if I did, we’re not going to be able to rebuild our wardrobe very fast.”
“I don’t think they’re going to be shipping in specialty items.”
“Damn, you’re right. We’re going to have to do some hunting. Someone here has to be making custom clothing.”
“It’ll be nice to settle down again. Hopefully somewhere with an atmosphere we can breathe. I’d like to go outside again and get some real sun.”
“Just go and get your skin tone changed. The medbays on the ship will do it.”
“That’s cheating.”
“Why you want to roast yourself and fight uneven tan lines I will never understand,” Sarah said, looking up at the planets again. “I’d rather spend my time on just relaxing. You can’t do that when you’re worried about light angles.”
“You got me there. Hey, we’re insystem now.”
“Yeah, so?”
“The database should be updating, right?”
“Yeah, it should be. We can access everything here.”
“Let’s go find how many clothing retailers there are and how much they’re charging.”
Sarah cringed. “Probably expensive as hell.”
“Time to find out what we’ve got to work with.”
“Yeah,” she said, glancing up at the map one more time. “We gotta start somewhere. Future and onward.”
“Future and onward,” Jenn repeated as the two turned and worked their way out of the crowd and back to their quarters so they could start getting acquainted with their new home system.
Two months later…
As it turned out, Minbar was a jewel of a world. The gravity was slightly higher than Earth’s, so when you went outdoors your body felt it a touch for a few steps then it all blurred together. The atmosphere also had more oxygen, so you felt invigorated when you went outside the standardized interior environment and that had spawned a lot of outside development.
Right now Sarah was off working a temporary job for Star Force that actually paid straight credits in lieu of the civilian economy that was almost nonexistent here, while Jenn was on an off day from her job in a startup company that some of the previous evacuees had created. It was a custom clothing company that she’d sought out to inquire about potential purchases and after talking with her for a few minutes she straight up got offered a job.
It was a lot of irregular work, but there was a very big market with people who had credits but little to spend them on. She had a chance to get very rich long term here, but right now her pay was nonexistent as company profits were being reinvested into more equipment to expand
the business. Sarah wasn’t patient enough for that, which was why she’d decided to take a ‘credits now’ job while telling Jenn that she was relying on her to rake in the big numbers later.
They had acquired a decent-sized set of quarters, but it was taking almost all of what Sarah was making to cover the rent. Both of them agreed it was worth it as they got their normal lifestyle, absent now for years, back in line with what it had once been…and to be honest, this planet was actually a little better than Earth had been and a whole lot less crowded.
Right now Jenn was floating along the shore of one of planet’s oceans inside the protected perimeter that had energy shields allowing water to pass through but nothing harder, meaning she didn’t have to worry about critters biting her or floating off too far from shore in her personal inflatable panel that she was laying out on and soaking up the sun…which was a little less intense this far out compared to Earth.
That meant it took longer to tan, but as Sarah had suggested Jenn wasn’t caring at the moment. Just relaxing as the gentle wind rocked her with tiny waves that were very therapeutic after a long workload yesterday. Her body was holding up find, but it was her mind that needed relief and this ocean swim park was just what she needed.
Jenn was able to float wherever she wanted for more than a kilometer out into the shallow waters, with the one safety feature required being the bracelet that she wore. It functioned as an emergency transmitter, flotation device, and short term oxygen backup if needed, given that this was water and drowning was easy if you were taken off guard and knocked underneath the surface.
If her wristband registered a medical emergency nearby medtechs and rescue crews would be here within a minute, which was another reason she could just relax and enjoy the natural environment of the planet as her mind wandered in and out of oblivion. One thing that was on and off her mind was the date, for today was the last day of her seal with Brad that she’d never bothered to cancel. His offer to do so with full responsibility had come through on the evacuation ship but Jenn hadn’t accepted, choosing to let it expire on its own and holding onto him that last little bit so he didn’t have a bad mark on his record.