or our records are not what they should be."
"And the boy?"
"Sir, it looks like it's not him."
"What? Nonsense!"
"The DNA does not match." The Commander insists.
"I don't believe it." Slamming his hand on the glass top.
"It was tested and retested. My operative got DNA from all three. The boys are brothers and that's their mother, and they are third generation related to the old man who runs the junkyard, but there is no genetic link with Starfighter."
"I, I, ...damn it! Are you sure? Did your operative get the right DNA?"
"Of course sir. He would not make a mistake like this."
"Than he gave you false DNA. That woman is his wife. I'm sure of it. I saw her with him, with my own eyes."
"Sir, that was before the purge. More than ten years ago."
"It was her. I know it was her. She's hardly changed. A woman like her you don't easily forget. This operative of yours, you say he's the real deal. A real Parzor Warrior?"
"Yes sir."
"You met him?"
"No. His condition was, he would work for me but no face to face contact."
"Then how can we trust him?"
"He's a mercenary. We can't trust him, but we can pay him. I trust him because we're the only ones who can pay him the amounts he wants. He has no reason to give us false information. He would lose a substantial flow of credits."
"I don't like this at all. I'm placing my fate in a god damned Parzor. When the Farii destroyed them all we celebrated. We were glad they were gone. Now I find there's at least one still around, and not only is that bad enough, I'm supposed to trust him?"
"We don't have much of a choice sir."
"How about our Husarii? I thought they were the same thing. Hell those stupid Carpati even worship them, and call them sacred warriors. Are you telling me our army of "sacred warriors" can't keep up with a single Parzor?"
"As a soldier sir, and as a Husarii myself, it kills me to say that no, we can't."
"Unbelievable. Is there any chance your operative is in fact the one training them?"
"Absolutely not sir. You saw what he did to them. They barely survived sir."
"But they did. Why?"
"Because he allowed them to. He only fought them when he got caught, otherwise he would not have done so, unless paid. If we pay him enough he will kill them, if that's what you want."
"No-no, absolutely not. Something's amiss here. I don't know why or how. I have no idea how they are fooling us, but that kid is connected. I don't believe for a moment that he is not Starfighter's son. We need to step back. He's bound to make a mistake. And then we'll have them all."
"I'm sure your son will help."
"That he will, whether he knows it or not."
"I'm sure he's telling the boy your story right now."
"I hope so. We need to unravel this and figure out what's going on. And don't mention the Parzors to my son. As far as he's concerned, those two were attacked by a Husarii."
"Yes sir."
"I want those kids to fear our warriors." And with that Brandberd turns of the 3D display with angry disdain.
Everyone is back at Old Tom's shed, including Adinaa. She's sitting on a stool with Old Tom at his worktable. Mirceu and The Ghost are working with a large part near the darkened shelves, under a spot light. The door opens. Andee and Nayaa walk in. Mykee jumps off his lounge, his white panel in hand, and rushes them.
"Did you see the Silver Sickle again?" He asks his older brother exited, but both Andee and Nayaa ignore him. They start scanning the place with quick glances of their heads. Snatching them from left to right, looking for anything out of the ordinary in their peripheral vision. Everyone watches them baffled.
"What are you doing?" Mykee asks confused, but Andee and Nayaa keep on. After a few seconds more, they're satisfied. "What were you doing?" Mykee insists.
"Looking for that weirdo in blue." Nayaa answers.
"It's the only way we can see him." Andee adds.
"You think he's here?".
"He could be." Andee answers.
"But he's not. He can't hide from us anymore."
"You two are nuts." Mykee responds. "I can't believe you got to see the Silver Sickle again.
"We didn't." Nayaa answers.
"Why not?"
"Ricio doesn't have it any more." Andee responds.
"What?"
"His father found out he let me into their house, and he took his ships away."
"No way! Are you serious?"
Andee nods in agreement. "It's my fault. He lost his ships because of me."
"Andee knock it off." Adinaa interjects. "He made a choice. At least we know that the Bitani punish their own as well. Was that what he wanted? To tell you it was your fault?" Adinaa counters accusatory.
"No, that's not what he wanted."
"Then what was the big emergency?"
"He had a recording of the fight."
"What?" Adinaa reacts shocked, and turns with a concerned glare to Tom. He looks back at her and both hold the stare for a while. In the background, The Ghost causally looks up at them, still working, but also listening.
"Guys come here." Old Tom signals to Andee and Nayaa. "I need to give you this." Lifting up his right hand.
"What is it?" Nayaa asks as both walk up to Old Tom
"It's a disruptor of sorts."
"What does it do?" Nayaa continues.
"It will block electronics like the micro recorders that are following you."
"Really?" Nayaa responds as she grabs the matchbox sized device out of Tom's hand. Andee does the same.
"Hide them well, and make sure you always have them with you."
"Tom. Do you have a recorder?" Tom stares through Andee without answering. "Do you?"
"Why?"
"Because I don't think that guy can hide from recorders. In the image Ricio showed us, he was never invisible."
"But it was obvious that people around couldn't see him." Nayaa adds.
"If you have one you should keep it on permanently, that way if he comes in here, he'll be visible, maybe on Mykee's panel or something."
Tom still staring at Andee, nods. "I do have one. Sounds like a good idea."
Adinaa is watching them absolutely flustered. She's fidgeting. "This is not good. Why haven't the Sentinels come to take us away?" She mumbles in panic. Andee glares at her.
"Mom. Relax."
"You don't understand." She snaps at him.
"Then explain. Who's Doggstar?" Andee blurts at his mom. She looks at him with no change in demeanor and shrugs her shoulders. Andee is taken aback. He looks to Tom. His eyes are hard. He looks stiff compared to a second ago. In the background, the Ghost also reacts with hard eyes as he looks up at them.
"You know." Andee points to Tom, but the old man turns his gaze down and takes a deep breath. In the distance The Ghost is watching with eyes open wide. Mirceu is more restrained, but he too takes a long deep breath then blocks the Ghost's view by locking eyes with him.
"The Bitani boy told you about him?" Tom asks.
"What's Doggstar?" Adinaa interjects, her curiosity peaked by Tom's stiff defensive reaction. Andee looks over to his mom.
"You really don't know?" Andee asks and she shrugs her head in the negative. Andee leans in and hugs her. Nayaa jumps in on the hug.
She's a bit surprised. "What's going on?" She questions as Andee and Nayaa pull away.
"Mom, dad was a pilot." Andee responds.
"And champion." Nayaa ads.
"What?" Mykee's voice echoes in the background. The Ghost drops the part he was holding, his eyes ogling out of his head in shock. Mykee tosses his panel aside and rushes to Andee. "What did you say?" He's besides himself with emotion, but Adinaa is suddenly calmer. Andee looks at the discrepancy between them, then at Nayaa who also noticed.
"I'm not sure Mykee, but according to Ricio, dad was a pilot, even a champion, in fact the champ
ion that beat Hektor." Andee answers to Mykee then looks up to Tom who is avoiding his gaze.
"No way! No way! Ricio's a liar. He's a punk! He's screwing with us. If dad was a pilot he would have told us. He would have given us rides in his ship. No way. He's a liar!" Mykee is bouncing with fury.
"Maybe little brother. Maybe."
"I don't believe it."
"Neither do I, but I need to talk to mom and Tom in private. Let us have this conversation, and I'll tell you what I need to tell you later."
"No! Why are you acting like Tom? He's keeping secrets from us, now you're going to keep secrets from me."
"OK, but you're not going to like what you're going to hear."
"You don't know. I want to heard it."
"Fine. The truth." Turning to Tom. "Why doesn't anyone talk about Doggstar? I've never heard of him and I thought I knew all the pilots." Then Andee turns over his shoulder to the two men in the dark. "Ghost, you know who Doggstar is, right? Mirceu? You know all the old racers. When you were a boxer you used to hang out with them." But Mirceu shrugs apologetically and turns away without a response joining the Ghost back at work. Turning to Old Tom. "See, that was a confirmation. Non of you want to talk about it."
"Who is Doggstar?" Mykee interjects almost nagging.
"Doggstar was Dad Mykee. At least that was the name of his lightship, crew, whatever."
"Dad had a lightship!" Mykee asks beaming. In the background, The Ghost looks up, eyes round as saucers. His eyes then turn hard as he stares at Mirceu baffled. Mirceu ignores him.
"Yup. And Tom knows all about it, but he won't tell us. Tom, what's the point of this? You said clear the air. Don't you think it's time?"
Old Tom fills his lungs then releases a deep breath. "I do son, I do. But you have to understand. We lived through the purge. It was a nightmare, and we had to protect you. And now, it's hard for me to change. Telling you won't help as much as
Lightship Chronicles Chapter 10 : Last Horizon Page 7