Hailey's Comet Anthology

by Selma J Lewis

  “Yes, Papa,” she replied obediently.

  “Karen must be glad that Minutio is dead because he was trying to kill her daughter, not to mention he scared her when he abducted her. I’m not sure she understood anything about the bigger picture. I don’t think she’s the right person for you to go to for advice.”

  “I wasn’t asking for her advice. I was asking for…”

  “Absolution?” Ram guessed. “I believe that’s why Handler Schwartz is concerned about you.”

  “I don’t need absolution. I work in the best interest of the UOE, perfectly within the directives and authorizations given to me by SWORD.”

  Ram looked at her carefully. She didn’t waver under his intense scrutiny. “Hailey, what do you think of me?”

  “What?” Hailey asked, caught off guard.

  “Do you think I’m less than a person?”

  Hailey stared at her father, utterly blindsided by the question. Slowly, she tried to compose an answer. “I think you are a decent person, doing what you think is most important for the most people.”

  “Does that make me a good person?” Ram asked.

  “I, uh, supposed it…”

  Ram saved her from her awkward stall. “I am not good. I am not bad. I make decisions based on set priorities and calculations. But I remember a time when I had feelings of self-respect or self-loathing. I look back on it without emotion now, but I do remember emotional consequences for my actions.” Ram looked away from Hailey for a moment. “I may be better off now,” he said, “or maybe not. But I know you still have emotions.” Hailey felt awkward. She had never discussed her father’s place in the human race with him before. The truth was, she did consider him to be less than a person – not because he was worthless, but because he had been robbed of the thing that made him truly human. He was a tragic figure, doomed to a life without happiness, without friendship, without the family he once loved so much.

  It was phenomenally unfair that a good man like Andre Ramirez lost the human part of his life while cheaters, criminals, and murderers lived to gain their inhuman desires. “Papa, I think you are a good person. You’ve always done what you thought was right; you always thought about others. You still do. It’s not right that people like Sjorn or Minutio or Kinkade live while you –” she clamped her mouth shut, stopping short of implying her father was dead inside.

  “I am not currently concerned with the likes of those men. I am only concerned about your fate. While you are within your legal mandate to kill when necessary according to your best judgement, what is it doing to you? If you seek Karen’s approval, then you are seeking to cleanse the part of you that is good – the part of you that is not a Wraith. You will never receive absolution for the actions you take as a Wraith, so you must determine how much guilt you can accumulate. Lucky’s concern for your well-being is well-founded.”

  Hailey knew everything Ram said was true. She did feel a burden of guilt and shame for her actions as a Wraith. She did feel like she was losing her grip on the part of her that was human, the person she hadn’t been since she was sixteen, innocent, in love, and happy. “I thought Lucky was questioning my authority in the situation,” she said softly. “But she was concerned about me.”

  “That is my analysis of my conversation with her.” He paused. “You told Mango once that you were ‘haunted’ by the memories of killing people. Do you really want to add more ghosts to your conscience?”

  “I’ve added those twenty-seven I didn’t save…”

  “That is irrelevant. They are not on your tally sheet. Millions of people suffer in circumstances SWORD cannot address. If you had not been on Sigmatál, hundreds or thousands would be dead. The fact that only twenty-seven died is one for the win column.”

  “I guess it doesn’t feel like a win to me.”

  “Exactly my point. You have to live with the results of all of your decisions, legal or not, right or not. Lucky desires to minimize your life-long regret. As a retired agent, I assume she would know more about that than I.”

  “Can I ask you something, Papa?”

  “Of course.”

  “Do you remember loving Mama?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was your love enough to overcome your own regrets?”

  Ram took a long time to respond. Hailey watched his face for any sign of feeling or recollection. At long last, “No,” he replied, “but Karen’s love was.”

  Hailey sat in a comfortable chair in the transport’s lounge. She had a lot to ponder as she travelled through compression to Larisse. Unexpectedly, Laura entered. “Lucky, I didn’t know you were on this ship,” Hailey said neutrally.

  “I just barely made it. Thanks for not letting me know where you’re going,” Laura replied, sitting in a nearby vacant chair.

  “I figured you were not in the mood to see me, and Agent Chan could’ve told you were I went. I wasn’t trying to hide anything from you. You don’t usually accompany me on missions.”

  “Missions aren’t usually so personal,” Laura observed.

  “You think I need watching, huh?”

  “Frankly, yes.”

  Hailey shrugged. “OK. If that’s how you want to waste your time…”

  “It’s only for this mission, to get this particular man. I want to support you, to help you do what’s right when you may really, really want to do what’s satisfying.”

  “I get no satisfaction from killing people,” Hailey countered. “I told you before: it’s just practical. But if it makes you feel better, Ram helped me understand your point of view.” Hailey looked at her amiably. “Thank you for your concern.”

  “Oh,” Laura said, jarred by the sudden lack of dispute between them. “You’re welcome.” Laura shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “Comet, can I ask you something personal?”

  “OK.”

  “What is it like to have parents?” Hailey was surprised by the inquiry. She furrowed her brow, so Laura elaborated. “I mean, you call them ‘Papa’ and ‘Mama,’ but they didn’t raise you the way most people are raised, so you don’t have that parent-child history. I used to think you visited Karen for her sake, but maybe you get something out of it, too. And calling Ram ‘Papa’ is unexpected. He doesn’t give you any emotional connection, yet you seem connected to him anyway.”

  “Do you remember your parents?” Hailey asked Laura.

  Laura shook her head. “Not anything resembling a family. Maybe a few snapshots of events…”

  “I couldn’t remember anything about my life before Fansha, but when I saw my mother, I knew she was my mother. There was a deep memory of knowing her and calling her ‘Mama’ even though I couldn’t remember daily life with her. She likes it when I call her that.”

  “And Ram?”

  “It was the same. But my mother welcomed me home with twenty years’ worth of stored-up love, while Ram simply recognized me.”

  “Why do you call him ‘Papa’?”

  “I dunno. I guess I hope that deep down he still has some feeling for me or Karen. He does seem to care about me, in his own way.”

  “Do you feel the same about both of them?” Laura asked.

  Hailey thought for a few seconds. “No.” She smiled when she thought of her mother. “Karen loves me unconditionally. She always assumes the best and forgives the flaws. She is the one person in the galaxy who will never, ever let me down.”

  It was Laura’s turn to think for a second. “Have I let you down?”

  “No, Lucky. You’re a constant friend. I couldn’t do my job without you.”

  “But you feel something for Karen that you don’t feel for anyone else.”

  “We all feel, Lucky. It’s just low-power.”

  “No, not for you. You were crying when I found you with Karen in that diner.”

  “My eyes were watering from the dust,” Hailey deflected. Laura looked at her with a cocked head. Hailey knew Laura understood what she saw. Hailey sighed. “When I was in the T’skala Nebula with Arti
e Kinkade, I was stripped of everything that made me a Wraith. I felt weak and helpless and hopeless. I cried. I learned that it was therapeutic and, along with a good night of sleep, the next day I felt much better. It’s a tool for me now. A stress reliever. It’s not always a sign of an emotional breakdown. Crying in my mother’s embrace made us both feel better. A burden was lifted.”

  “You can cry on demand?” Laura asked, still not understanding Hailey’s unprecedented capacity to be a Wraith with abilities unknown to other Wraiths.

  Hailey thought. “I have to be pretty wiped out from… whatever,” she answered. “And Karen gets emotional, so that helps.”

  “Can I ask you about Jackson?” Laura asked hesitantly.

  “What about him?”

  “What do you feel for him? I mean, is it more…accessible than the normal tamped down emotions we all have?”

  Hailey held her lips tightly together. Only Hailey, Jackson, Karen, and Carter knew about the hack, and Hailey decided it should stay that way. She shaded the truth for Laura. “When I think about him, there’s not much there. But when I saw him eleven years ago, and he was so hot, and that smile…”

  Laura smiled, remembering that Jackson was an excellent specimen of human male that got her heart beating a little faster, despite her LM. She nodded. “I understand.”

  “We shared a lot of memories. I guess that all sort of came back to the forefront when I was with him. It was nice.” Hailey smiled as she thought back to the last time she saw him. It was more than nice. It was fantastic and intense and real. She fought the urge to hack the LM right then so she could feel her love for Jackson fully. She couldn’t override the LM in front of Laura. That was too much of a risk to take.

  “Comet, you know I care about you. I would do anything to keep you safe and bring you home. I’m sorry if you feel like I let you down – that I didn’t support you the way you wanted me to.”

  “Forget it, Lucky. Turns out, you’re smarter than I am. Well, righter than I am, anyway. Ram was surprisingly paternal back there. He didn’t threaten to pull me from the field or anything. He just patiently talked and listened. Then talked again until I saw his point.”

  Laura chuckled. “I guess I’m not very paternal.”

  “He has a certain… authority that is not connected to his position as Director of Public Relations.”

  “Authority over you, because he’s your father.”

  “Karen said he was a good man. I think he still is, though his ‘goodness’ is simply a deep understanding of and dedication to the ‘commonly accepted morals and laws of the citizens of the Empire.’”

  “That sounds like him,” Laura agreed.

  “Not a shred of humor or passion or love to go with it, but good nonetheless.” Hailey looked at Laura’s face, no longer stressed with concern about her going off the rails. “That’s what parents are like: people I am honored to be related to.”

  Larisse

  The ship arrived on the Larisse landing port near the entrance to the resort. Every traveler in the port wore a smug self-confidence borne of their exceeding wealth. The employees who assisted them with their luggage and land transportation were of a different class: the ones waiting on the wealthy to bestow upon them some small token in the form of points or even just bits. They served with deference, but it made little difference. The rich got rich and stayed rich by keeping a firm grasp on their points. The working class continued to work.

  Though Hailey enjoyed many of the same perks on SWORD rest facilities as these snobs received at the resorts – relaxing massages, fantastic meals, soft beds, clear pools – she felt that she deserved it, since she worked constantly for the Empire and wasn’t even paid beyond housing, transportation, and meals. A career as a Wraith was not a road to riches or fame. And when she retired, she would be on her own to find a way to survive in the UOE economy. Thus, she felt justified in her abhorrence of the arrogance of the idle wealthy who thought they were somehow more deserving of points than the woman who pressed their clothes, or the man who cooked their meals.

  Hailey hoped to be finished with her business on Larisse within a day so she could leave the lavish playland of the opulent few.

  “What’s causing that bio-reaction, Comet?” Laura asked.

  “Disgust.” Hailey marched to the taxi stands and climbed aboard an empty one, waving off the workers who were ready to carry her luggage for her – she had none. When Lucky and Comet were in the taxi driven by artificially intelligent computers, Hailey remarked, “Have you noticed that you never have to wonder if a Kinkade owns something? They stamp their name on everything, like a little kid saying, ‘mine!’”

  Laura shrugged her eyebrows. “If they were smart enough to inherit billions…”

  Hailey snorted. “Yeah.”

  “What’s the plan here?” Laura asked.

  “I go in, find Kinkade, bring him out. Then you take him so I can take a shower over at the decontamination station.”

  Laura smiled. “Seriously, though, you have a slam dunk in a SWORD court with this guy. Don’t go shooting him, OK?”

  “If a prominent man like Kinkade disappears into a SWORD prison with little or no explanation to the public, Ram’s gonna have an endless problem with PR. Kinkade’s lawyers will never let it go.”

  “If you shoot a prominent man like Kinkade, Ram’s really gonna have a problem,” Lucky countered.

  Hailey looked out the window. “I’m just going to pick him up. It’s SWORD’s problem what to do with him.”

  Hailey spent the next ten minutes wrestling herself into her black Wraith suit. Laura asked, “Why didn’t you change on the transport?”

  “Never know where Kinkade’s minions are. I’d rather surprise him.” The taxi drove past the hotel entrance and swung around to the side where a private road led to Kinkade’s mansion half a klick behind the resort.

  “See you in a few.” Hailey left the cab and easily scaled the gate which spread across the small drive. A robotic, armed property guard addressed her with a warning to halt and identify herself. Hailey had grappled with similar sentries in the T’skala Nebula. To see one again sent a slight chill through her body. But in an instant, the chill was replaced by the heat of action as she drew her long blade and smote the appendage with the weapon off the body and the camera-laden head off the top.

  She advanced lightly up the driveway to the house, checking through all spectrums visible to her through her enhanced eyes and implanted visual cortex resequencer. Signals from security cameras, alarm systems, and communication devices crisscrossed the structure. A gardener spotted the head-to-toe black-armored figure and backed away, frightened. Hailey pointed at him, then pointed at the gate she had recently cleared, and the man ran in that direction – away from whatever misadventure was about to befall the house.

  Kinkade sat at his home office desk, reviewing pending deals that would put his name on more buildings in the Empire. He was in the middle of a sip of an alcoholic beverage when he heard the first gunshots. He froze mid-sip, stunned to hear his robotic guards firing their weapons inside the house. He regained a measure of control and got to his feet, not quite sure what to do next.

  “Intruder alert Artemis Kinkade for your safety follow me,” a monotone voice said as a robotic bodyguard entered his office. The weaponized machine waited for Kinkade to get moving, then issued more instructions. “Artemis Kinkade must be secured in the safe room level sub-one proceed with haste.”

  Kinkade ran for his bunker in a lower level of the house. His bodyguard was right behind him, ready to intercept any attack on its master. Gunshots and falling metal echoed through the mansion. Kinkade turned into a non-descript stairwell and descended the stairs toward a thick, graphene door. Behind him, the bodyguard clattered on the ground. Kinkade didn’t stop to look back. He dashed through the opening and put his full bodyweight into closing the door.

  A black, gloved hand stopped the door from closing all the way. It was clear he was n
ot going to win a shoving battle, so he dashed to the opposite side of the room and picked up a gun.

  Comet was through the door and on him in a flash, slamming his hand into the armory shelf. The weapon dropped to the floor and Kinkade howled in pain. Hailey didn’t let go of his wrist. She pulled it behind his back and forced him into a chair. She backed off and sheathed her blade while he looked at her in terror. Though not tied to the chair, Kinkade was captive in it nonetheless.

  “Who are you?” Kinkade demanded, trying to sound braver than he felt. Hailey removed her helmet. He stared at her, still unaware of the identity of his visitor. “Who the hell are you?” he shrieked.

  “Temper, Kinkade.” Hailey found a rolling stool and sat down on it, pushing off a wall and stopping in front of the angry rich man. “I suppose you deserve to know who’s come to arrest you.”

  “Arrest me? Who the hell do you think you are? You’re not Sector Security, and you’re not EURO. You’re just some two-bit thief, come to steal from me.”

  “I’m worth way more than two bits. SWORD has invested millions in me.”

  Kinkade’s face lost all color. His mouth hung open dumbly and his eyes searched her face and body for clues to her identity.

  “You’re wondering who I am…” Hailey teased somberly. “I think you know who I am.”

  “Ramirez…” Kinkade whispered, fear stealing his voice from his throat. “Ramirez,” he said more strongly. “You killed my son!”

  “I did not. But I can tell you what happened in the T’skala Nebula.”

  “I know what happened! My son died! You were the only other person there!”

  “Someone’s been keeping information from you. I was not the only other person there.”

  Confusion clouded his face. “Allen told me—”

  “The pilot? He was in on it up to his eyeballs. There were others with me and SWORD agents came to the asteroid to rescue us. I have plenty of witnesses who will refute your pilot’s version.”

  “Your SWORD agents can’t be believed. And there were no others.”