Hailey's Comet Anthology

by Selma J Lewis

  “No, we can’t do that. We can’t wear wedding rings. SWORD would definitely notice that.”

  “Oh.”

  “Is it a big deal?” Hailey asked.

  “I suppose not. It’s just usually a part of the ceremony. But… that’s OK. We’ll go to the florist.”

  “Why? The garden has lots of flowers.”

  “You need to hold flowers: a bouquet.”

  “That’s a rule?” Hailey asked with a laugh.

  “Yes,” Karen answered with finality. “This may be a minimalist wedding, but you’re going to carry flowers!”

  “Yes, Mama,” Hailey replied. “You’re the expert.” She hugged her mother. “Are you having fun?”

  “Tons of fun!” Karen replied. “Are you?”

  “I’m very happy that we’re together for this. I love to see you happy.”

  “And I love to see you happy!” Karen replied.

  “I’ve been gone a long time. I hope Jackson’s doing all right. I hope he’ll get to Ms. Grant’s house OK.”

  “Hawking, if a Wraith can’t find his way to a wedding garden, there’s something wrong with SWORD!”

  “You’re right. He’ll get there.”

  After the stop at the florist, Karen and Hailey went home. They shared a light lunch, then Karen insisted Hailey rest her leg. Hailey’s hip was hurting a little after all the shopping and primping. She gratefully accepted her mother’s offer to lie down on her bed.

  When she woke up, her mom fixed the back of her hair which had been slightly disheveled, helped Hailey into the royal-blue dress, draped the new chain and old bead around her neck, and handed her the bouquet. Karen stood back and took a long look at her daughter. Tears formed in her eyes. “You’re so beautiful, Hailey,” Karen said. “This is the happiest day of my life since the day you were born.”

  Hailey smiled awkwardly. “I’m used to being invisible. This feels really weird, being all dressed up to be the center of attention.”

  “It’s just the four of us. No one else sees or cares what you’re doing.”

  “I love you, Mama.”

  Karen stepped up to Hailey and they hugged each other tightly. “We should get going. I’ll comm for a taxi.”

  Ceremony

  Karen and Hailey arrived at the Grant house. Ms. Grant led them to the garden where a dozen chairs had been set up for guests. “Oh, there are no guests, Ms. Grant,” Hailey stated. “Just my mother and my uncle. They are the witnesses.”

  “Oh. OK. That’s… unique.”

  “Isn’t the garden beautiful, Mom?” Hailey said, changing the subject away from the awkward.

  “It certainly is. Ms. Grant, you’re a wonderful gardener.”

  “Oh, thank you, Ms. Ramirez,” Ms. Grant replied. “I’ll, uh, just get these extra chairs put away. You two can wait behind that screen over there so the groom won’t see you when he arrives.”

  “He’s doesn’t get to see me?” Hailey asked her mom. “How are we supposed to get married?”

  “It’s just before the ceremony, so when you enter he gets a ‘wow’ moment when he sees you in all your splendor.”

  “He’s here,” Hailey reported, hearing Jackson and Carter chatting as they got out of a taxi. “Carter, too.”

  “Carter’s been with him this afternoon, making sure he doesn’t chicken out,” Karen revealed.

  “Jackson? Chicken out? I don’t think so!” Hailey insisted as they disappeared behind the screen.

  Ms. Grant stopped putting chairs away to greet the gentlemen. Carter saw the half-finished job and jumped to her aid. Ms. Grant showed Jackson where he should stand. “Now, Mr. Quint, if you’re ready to begin, let’s bring in your bride.” Carter stood at Jackson’s side and they watched Ms. Grant as she gave Hailey instructions behind a screen.

  Karen emerged and stood on Jackson’s other side. Ms. Grant returned and started music playing on her tablet. After several moments, Hailey emerged. She paused in front of the screen while Jackson got his first look at his bride. He smiled widely. He wore a suit loaned to him by Carter and a single flower in his lapel. His arms were covered down to the wrists and he looked as whole and healthy as Hailey had ever seen him.

  She returned his smile and started the short journey to the center of the garden where her groom waited for her. She left her cane behind and limped her way to Jackson. He never took his eyes off her.

  Ms. Grant gave a short speech about marriage and fidelity, compromise and selflessness, then had the bride and groom say the required words: the promises that they would forevermore look after and support each other. When it came time to exchange rings, they had none. “Oh,” Ms. Grant said, surprised again by the odd wedding couple. “Well, that’s all right. It’s not required. OK, then. By the authority granted to me by the City of Tercero in the Colony, Light One, I pronounce you legally married under the laws and customs of the United Orion Empire. You may seal your union with a kiss.”

  Jackson held Hailey’s face in his hands. “I love you,” he whispered, following the words with a gentle kiss on her lips, then a tight hug. Karen, Carter, and Ms. Grant applauded the couple and they all hugged and laughed and smiled ear-to-ear. Hailey was hugging Carter when she saw a man standing at the edge of the garden. She released her uncle and stared at the uninvited intruder. He wore a black jumpsuit and a deeply troubled expression.

  “Falcon,” Hailey said. “What are you doing here?”

  Derek shook his head at her and turned to leave. Jackson and Carter went after him and caught him before he got too far from the house. “I believe my wife asked you a question,” Jackson rumbled at him. “Please do us the courtesy of answering.” They muscled him back to the garden where Hailey approached him with her cane and without her bouquet.

  “You’ve been here the whole time?” she asked. Derek was a Wraith, but he was not as experienced at controlling his bio-signs as Hailey and Jackson were. “I see. What’s your mission? Who sent you? Certainly not Lucky.”

  Derek scoffed. “Lucky is blind to what you are.”

  “Oh? What am I?”

  “A sorry excuse for a Wraith. Obviously, your limbic monitor’s failed. You screwed me up on my first mission, worrying about people’s feelings and making sure everyone’s happy,” he said sardonically. “That’s not how we’re trained.”

  “Your mission,” Hailey repeated.

  “To find out what you two are up to,” he said with superiority.

  “Who sent you?”

  “Director LaMont.”

  Hailey rolled her eyes. “That figures.” She looked at Jackson. “He hates me.”

  “He doesn’t hate,” Derek interrupted. “He is loyal to SWORD. More loyal than you are.”

  “He absolutely hates me,” Hailey countered. “And Lucky loves me. You think you have to be an emotionless robot? You think you have to bury the last shreds of feeling left in you to do your job? That’s not how we work, Derek. That’s how they trained you, but it doesn’t work in the field, in real life.”

  Derek’s facial temperature rose by half a degree, as it always did when Hailey talked to him. “The training is the way we’re supposed to work! Just because you’ve abandoned your training doesn’t mean you have a better way. Your way is wrong!”

  “Why are you getting upset?” Hailey asked calmly.

  “Because you are the reason I’m being held back. I could be on a real mission right now instead of following you around this stupid colony.”

  “Derek, you’re emotional.”

  “It’s Agent Cochella,” he raised his voice.

  “The reason you’re not signed-off for real missions is that you can’t find balance. These outbursts are clear evidence of instability.”

  “How dare you call me unstable? I was perfectly stable before I met you.” He threw himself at Hailey, but she parried his swinging arm. Jackson and Carter were instantly on him, pulling him away from her.

  “You listen to me, Falcon. I have served the Empir
e and SWORD for twenty-six years,” Hailey said to him. “They took everything from me, but I’ve managed to get some of it back and make my life bearable. None of the things I’ve gained personally have had any effect on my work. Thadeus LaMont, however, holds a twenty-two-year-old grudge that absolutely affects his work.” Hailey recalled that Ram had talked to Derek back on the Scabbard. “What did Director Méndez tell you about my work?”

  Derek had to admit, “He said your style works for you.”

  “Exactly. Is he the least bit emotional about anything?” Hailey asked.

  “No,” Derek conceded.

  “No,” Hailey confirmed. “He is the ultimate objective observer. He knows about my relationship with my mother. He knows about my relationship with Carter. He knows about my relationship with Jax. He still considers me a capable agent.”

  “Exemplary,” Jackson corrected.

  “Thank you,” Hailey said to her husband, giving him a friendly smile. She turned her attention back to Derek and sighed. “Look, I just got married, yet I’ll go back to work when I’m cleared. Same with Jax. What business is it of yours, or LaMont’s, or SWORD’s if we want to make a commitment to each other?”

  Hailey took a step closer to Derek. “I remember being in the academy and thinking the whole thing was magical. I remember feeling like I had been saved. But after all these years, I see it differently. Jax and I serve constantly; we break our bodies for the job, but we don’t bow down to SWORD anymore. After twenty years, you might not either.”

  “I will not be disloyal to SWORD,” Derek insisted.

  “Neither will we! We’ll serve the citizens of the Empire as long as we’re physically able to do so. But you’ve got to understand who we work for. SWORD owns us. They’ll own you for decades. After that, they’ll cut you loose. They simply don’t care about you once you’re not an asset. Ask Carter what SWORD left him with when he retired. Ask Lucky. Ask anyone! They don’t deny it.”

  Derek was dumbstruck. SWORD was a gift-giving entity in his book. They gave him a home, an education, a host of enhancements that made him strong and far superior to anything he could have achieved on his own. Hailey saw the conflict in his face.

  “Derek, Jax and I have found a balance between being Wraith and being human. Eventually, you can, too. I tried to give you a head-start, but maybe every Wraith needs to discover it on his own. I’m sorry my advice was not helpful to you. I’m sorry you’re so torn now. I’m sorry you feel no joy in either of your identities. I’m sorry.”

  Derek stared at her, unable to form a coherent response. He didn’t know what he felt. Whenever she talked to him, it made sense on a deep, buried level in his heart, but it was not what his trainers taught him.

  Karen approached the young man. “Derek, I’m Karen. I’m not a Wraith, but I know a few Wraiths pretty well. It is possible to be human and be a Wraith. I think it takes effort, trial-and-error maybe, to find your way. But I know it starts with holding on to that human part that’s in there somewhere,” she said, pointing to his chest. “Would you prefer to be a robot?”

  Derek looked at the woman who was old enough to be his grandmother. She looked at him kindly, even though he had ruined her daughter’s wedding. She held a hand out to him, even though she didn’t know him. Derek felt a deeply buried memory of family – of his own grandmother. “I don’t have anybody,” he told her. “My family’s dead, my only friend at the academy is gone. The teachers are abusive and cold.”

  “I know, Derek,” Karen soothed. “I know you’ve lost a lot. We’ve all lost a lot.” She patted his arm. “We don’t have to remain empty. We can find new people to love. I’ve done it. Carter’s done it. Hailey and Jackson have done it. You can do it.”

  Derek looked longingly at Karen’s face. “How?”

  “Find the place in your heart where Hailey’s words make sense to you. Keep it alive. Use it when you’re not working. Practice when you’re travelling. Talk to people like they’re your equals… and believe it.”

  “We are only superior artificially,” Hailey added. “On a human level, we were untrained. We need to work and learn to get up to the level of regular people.”

  Derek looked at her again, but not with judgement or anger.

  She stared back at him, seeing the lost-orphan-turned-single-minded-one-man-army she once was. She would never wish to go back to being that young person. She was older now, less quick to heal, but she was also wiser – and happier.

  Derek saw her peaceful confidence and compared it to Fox’s shallow harshness and LaMont’s petty anger. He wished to be like her. He wished to be a human Wraith. At a loss for anything else to say, he tried, “You, uh, look nice, Agent Ramirez.”

  Hailey laughed. “An excellent start, Derek! Thank you.”

  “I believe we have dinner reservations,” Carter said, rescuing Derek from the awkward attention that was on him.

  Jackson looked at Hailey and they communicated non-verbally. “Derek, would you like to join us?”

  Derek looked around at everyone. No one was opposed to the invitation. “Uh, no, thank you, Agent Quint. This is a private family event. I don’t want to intrude.”

  “What? You have better plans already?” Hailey asked with a sideways smile.

  “No, ma’am, Agent Ramirez. I have better respect,” he said humbly. “Please forgive my intrusion on your wedding day.” He bowed slightly and started to leave the garden.

  “I’ll be right back,” Carter said, jogging after the youth. He caught up in the street and put an arm around Derek’s shoulders. “Where’re you staying tonight?”

  “Hotel,” Derek answered vaguely.

  “Why don’t you crash at my house tonight? We can talk. Or play cards. Whatever.”

  “You don’t need to watch me. I won’t report them.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. Now, crash at my place? I assume you know where it is if you’ve been following Comet around.”

  “Yes, sir. I know where it is.”

  “OK. Good. I’ll see you there later tonight. If you get there first, I’m sure you’ll be able to pick the lock.”

  “You trust me in your house?” Derek asked.

  “Are you gonna do something illegal? I don’t have much to steal…”

  Derek smiled faintly. “I’ll see you tonight. Enjoy your party.”

  “Thanks, man,” Carter said, holding out his hand. Derek shook it and watched Carter return to the garden. “Where do I sign?” Carter asked as he rejoined the group.

  Ms. Grant, who was stunned speechless by the whole interaction, held the license in her hand. Carter and Karen signed it and asked what was left to do.

  “I, uh, I will file this at the Civic Center and it will be officially recorded,” she said at last.

  “We’re official!” Hailey exclaimed, throwing her arms around Jackson and kissing him.

  With his prosthetic arm around her waist, supporting her on her weak side, Jackson led his wife out of the garden followed by Karen and Carter, who twirled Hailey’s cane around jauntily in the air.

  Epilogue

  Director Thadeus LaMont and Doctor Lisa Hamlin reported to Mango’s office, as ordered. They sat together facing the Director of Wraith Activities – their boss. Mango stared at them as well as any Wraith ever could. Thadeus shifted uncomfortably in his chair. At last, Mango spoke.

  “I have a report here filed by a Wraith not yet cleared for solo missions. Falcon. Do you know how an unauthorized agent was sent on an unauthorized mission to spy on two of our own?”

  Neither underling answered.

  “I believe, Dr. Hamlin, that I told you there was nothing to be concerned about regarding Jax and Comet, yet you pursued your own agenda and convinced Director LaMont to go behind my back and send Falcon to catch them in some kind of… what exactly did you expect him to find?”

  “Ma’am, I had a feeling that something was not right with them. I didn’t know what to expect.”

  “And what did you
discover was ‘not right’ with them?” Mango asked.

  “Nothing, ma’am,” Dr. Hamlin answered meekly. Mango set her gaze upon Director LaMont.

  “Thadeus, which rule did Comet fight against that makes you despise her to this day?”

  “You’ll know what you need to know when you need to know it,” LaMont muttered.

  “What was that? I don’t have aural implants. Could you say that more clearly?”

  “You’ll know what you need to know when you need to know it,” LaMont stated.

  “Lisa, Thadeus, you’ll know what you need to know when you need to know it,” Mango repeated menacingly. “And the only thing you need to know right now is that SWORD no longer requires your services. Security will escort you to your quarters to collect your private things, and then you will take the first transport off the Scabbard.” The stunned department heads stared. Mango stood. “Did I stutter? Get off the station. Now.”

  Jackson and Hailey sparred in the gym. He was adept at using his “turbo hand” as Hailey liked to call it; he could spin his blade like a propeller and a host of other moves not in his arsenal before. She was back in fighting shape and stronger than ever.

  In her office, Mango watched the security feed from the gym. Whenever the pair of Wraiths were locked in a hold, they snuck kisses onto each other surreptitiously. When they finished their workout, they retired to a single room, not separate quarters.

  Mango knew she’d have to send them out on missions again soon, but she smiled at the closed door in the dormitory hall where their quarters were located and decided the Empire wouldn’t fall apart if the Wraiths enjoyed a few more days of honeymoon.