by Richard Dee
“Who stowed away?”
“The Gyrl who replaced Jev, she had the stolen disc and I took her to Callo. She said that she was Jev’s sister but I don’t know how true that was. She had guts, I’ll give her that.”
He nodded as if he knew more than he had admitted. “And that turned out alright for you?”
I remembered being tied to the chair and the thought that I was about to be shot, Miro tearing Freefall apart and the relief that I had got away. “Yeah, just another day at the office,” I said.
He attracted the barman’s attention and more beer appeared. “So you went to Tauro for the Silver Moons job, met Elana, and Rixon happened.”
“That’s it, you know that part of the story. After Elana was gone and I had acquired Irin, Miro was still sniffing about. After Jintao, we went to the Villiars start-up world and kept our heads down.”
“Good plan, Miro was known as a terrier.” He saw my blank look? “It’s a small dog from old Earth, once they get their teeth into something they never let go.”
“Ahh,” I said, “one of those.” The description fitted Miro perfectly.
“Yes, my guess is that he found you.”
“He found me far too easily for it to be random. Twice!” Griff looked surprised. “Twice, that’s more than coincidence.”
“While I was working the Silver Moons, we went to Ma Ester’s for R and R. It was a spur of the moment idea. He happened to be there. And again, on the Villiars world, one of the Truth Movement found me there. But the thing was, Miro was the person tracking him.”
“Trouble just follows you around,” he remarked. “Was that when you went to Prairie?”
I didn’t bother to ask how he knew. “That’s right, we left one jump ahead of him. What we found there nearly finished us once and for all.” I told him about the missile and the damage we had sustained.
“Sprites are sturdy little things, aren’t they?” was all he said. “But it was worth it, you saw something, didn’t you?”
“Oh yes, there were huge doors in the hills leading to a cave, they’re not quarantine worlds because of genetic problems, as the Federation claims. It’s because there’s evidence of aliens on them.”
“Do you have any of this evidence with you?” he asked.
I gave him a micro-disc, the one that never left my pocket. He plugged it into his phone and played it in silence. It showed us exploring the cave on Prairie. He saw the grey boxes and all the things we had found.
“And why did you go to Qister?” he said. He hadn’t touched his latest beer; he was too engrossed in my story.
“The Gyrl, the one I took to Callo. That was why Sal came and found me. She had been arrested. Sal told me that I’d know where to go to rescue her, but I didn’t. Then I realised, her name was a clue. It led me to the Alysom Caves.”
His eyes lit up as if something had suddenly clicked in his head. “Mayve Scolas, clever,” he muttered.” I’d never mentioned her name, surely that proved that he knew more than he was letting on. I let it pass, I could come back to that later.
“Exactly, and that was where Miro turned the machine on. Or it turned itself on, I don’t really know, it all went a bit crazy for a while.”
“I heard, except not the reason, there was nothing about a machine. The official story was seismic activity or archaeologists or something.”
The reality was that Miro had managed to find an alien machine. Like the ones we had seen on Prairie, only this one was active. Somehow, it had sensed our presence. I enlightened him about what had really happened. The conversation that Miro had with the machine. The cave collapse, our escape. “Then the aliens sent a message.”
His face lit up. “That was what they called the accidental missile firing. I know about that as well.”
“We got loads of artefacts from Prairie to the university on Callo, they’re being analysed, the results will be shared when the time is right.”
“So that’s what you’ve been up to; no wonder you want a rest.”
I looked out of the window, even though we were down a back street, I could sense the bustling city, people rushing around, I longed for the peace of space, just me and Irin, with nothing having any hold over us.
“The last thing I need right now is to rush off on another mission of mercy, or discovery or whatever. I just want to go back to hauling pallets of fruit around; at least they don’t shoot at me, or generally try to mess my life up.”
He finally remembered his beer and emptied it in one. “And now you have Rixon to find and Irin to reunite with her family.”
I noticed the way he had casually dropped it into the conversation. “You want me to find him then; why? Is it because Ria wants me to make him pay for Elana?”
He shook his head, just as more beer arrived. After the waiter had departed, he took a drink and looked me straight in the eye. “No, Ria doesn’t know I’m asking you, at least not yet. She’s angry with him, the thing is she hardly knows him. But I do, I lived with him for years. I want to know how he survived, what he’s been up to. Will you do it?”
The truth was, I wanted to find him as well. “Yes, I will, but as I said to Irin, I’m not dispensing Ria’s justice.”
“That’s fair enough, at least, not until we know how he survived, eh?”
So, I had two things to do, why were there always two things to do? “Why can’t life be simple?” I asked.
“Nature of the beast, boy,” he said, getting up to use the rest-room, “I’ll bring us more beer, while I’m up,” he said. I ate a few nuts. There were getting to be a lot of empty bottles, it reminded me of my time on Nara, after Myra. Living in the bar, sleeping where I sat, surrounded by empty bottles. That was a time of my life I didn’t want to remember, apart from the bit where…
“So, what will it be first, find Rixon or Irin’s family?” Griff's voice stopped my thoughts. “I’ve asked around, Villiars aren’t letting on. They have a few projects that are possibles, I might be able to get you out to one of them though, they’re screaming for supplies.”
“I need to speak to Irin, at the moment we know that her family are safe. Hopefully, she can get in touch with them soon and put her mind at rest.”
“She doesn’t think it’s anything to do with Rixon?”
“No, and I agree with her. I was there when he said that he would guarantee their safety. They went off with a Villiars manager. It was common knowledge on Jintao, everyone we spoke to confirmed it. Even Kal Rivers knew about it, and he was on a different planet.”
“Oh well that’s good then…” he was about to say more when Ria and Irin walked in laden with bags.
“I thought we’d find you here,” said Ria. “Shall I get more drinks?”
“Hi,” Irin said, coming over to kiss me. She bent over in front of Griff; Ria saw his look and slapped him. “I can’t leave you alone for a moment,” she said.
Griff got up and they ambled to the bar, arm in arm.
“We’ve had a great day,” Irin told me. “I’ve filled Ria in on all the news; she knows what happened since Elana. She says that there are a lot of new Villiars worlds, they’ve expanded. But they’re all a long way away, on the outer rim, not the IW side. They’re still putting in the relay stations for communications, the signal stuff is very intermittent.”
“That explains it then,” I said, relieved. Irin could relax a bit; we could work through the area if Griff could get me a job out that way. Perhaps Evers would remember the contact details, we might find out some other way. It was a long trip but with new worlds the rewards were big, they needed lots of stuff and were happy to pay.
“I have an idea,” Ria said when they returned with more drinks. “I wonder if Myra’s mother knows where Rixon is?”
Griff shot her a look, it suggested that Messinya was not a popular subject for conversation. She had been peripheral to my life. I had never met her and only knew that Myra had gone to see her when Rixon had vanished and the Chenko threat was real. I
n all the intervening years, she had never been mentioned. I wondered if Ria had a motive for saying that. Was she still in touch with her? If she was, surely she would have told her what I had been up to, about his involvement with Elana. Messinya would know he was alive.
Rixon had never mentioned her, in all the time that I had known him on the Orca. There seemed to be little holding the family together. Or was she worried that I would get dragged away, that I would be off to find Irin’s folks; before I had the chance to fulfil my promise to make Rixon pay.
On the other hand, seeing Rixon’s mother, knowing that I was intending to do her son harm, was a bit much. Or was there something else going on?
“I think we should keep well away from Messinya,” said Griff. “She’s trouble.”
Ria was about to speak; instead, she smiled and sipped her wine.
“So what do you want to do?” I asked Irin.
“There’s no rush, Freefall has work to be done,” she replied. “We can relax for a couple of days.” In other words, do nothing. It sounded like the best plan to me; Irin was learning how I liked to operate.
Chapter Seven
The idea of finding Rixon went away over the next few days, there was enough to distract us. Griff and Ria left everything to Jimbo and we all took off for the coast. Borrowing an all-terrain vehicle and camping gear from one of Griff’s friends, we toured the beaches and harbours. We stopped in the middle of nowhere, swam in the clear seas, fished in secluded bays and generally unwound.
Irin and I never discussed finding Rixon, or her family. Neither did Griff and Ria, but it still lurked around in my head, I knew that I would have to do it sometime. Ria mentioning Messinya had got me wondering.
In the end, we had to go back, there was a lot to do, Freefall had needed work, which had been finished. It was time for me to start earning the money to pay for it.
The last night, on our way back, we finally discussed what we were going to do. Irin was content to find Rixon first, she hadn’t wanted to call Evers for a few days now, the break had relaxed her, as well as what she had learned about Villiars from Ria and Griff.
“We need to make a plan,” I said. “We don't have much to go on, only that Rixon had a cruiser and was hanging around the Silver Moons.”
“We have his engine signature,” said Irin, “and we know what type of ship it was.”
“It’s a start, but he might just have changed ship.”
Her face fell. “Oh, yeah, I hadn’t thought of that.”
“There’s something else that you shouldn’t forget,” Griff added. “He’s a criminal, we can't be too open about looking for him, we have to be a bit circumspect. I know some people that I can trust; they can put out a few feelers.”
“Meantime, I guess I’m back to hauling fruit.” He laughed and slapped me on the back.
“Welcome to reality.”
It still bothered me that Rixon had never got in touch, in all those years. He must have heard that Griff was alive, if he’d been around the gangs he would have heard about the Chenko’s and Myra, he would have known that the threat was over, why hadn’t he said anything?
“I need to tell his mother that he’s alive,” said Ria. “I’ve been putting it off since you told me.”
So Ria had been in touch with Messinya, while I’d never gone to see her, what would she think of that?
“Do you talk to her?” Griff said. He sounded surprised
“I speak to her every now and again,” she said. Griff’s face was a picture; he had discovered something that he didn’t know.
“Perhaps it’s time that I went to see her,” I suggested but Ria shook her head.
“I’ll do it,” she said.
“But I want to, I realise that I should have seen her all those years ago and I didn’t. Every time I brought the subject up, you talked me out of it.”
“There was a reason.”
“What was it?”
Ria said nothing. “Well, I’m going to find her and see her.” I had made my decision. “I know she’s a surveyor and her name’s pretty distinctive. This time you’re not going to stop me. I need to make my peace with her.”
“You can’t,” she was suddenly forceful.
“Why not? Is it because of Irin, should I go on my own?”
“It’s nothing to do with her, although it might not be very tactful. It’s because we had a deal, the three of us, Messinya, Myra and me. When all that Chenko stuff was going on we made a pact.”
“And left me out,” Griff rumbled. “I knew that there was something, that I wasn’t included. Ria has never told me, all I know is that I was to put you off if you ever said that you wanted to see her. I thought that was the end of it.”
I shared his annoyance. “I could ask you the same. Look, I can understand it when the Chenko’s were in the picture and I know I should have done it sooner but she deserves to know that her boy is alive and I think I should be the one to tell her.”
“It wouldn’t be tactful to take your new lover; to see your ex’s mother,” Ria said. I could see the harmony of the last few weeks vanishing very quickly.
“If you mean Irin,” I said it before she could. I squeezed her hand. “She has a name and she can tell Messinya about what her boy was doing, she was with him for a year. All I can say is that we used to be friends. Then he tried to kill me. Anyway, Myra was a long time ago, I didn’t leave Myra for Irin.”
“There must have been a reason why Rixon changed,” Griff said, trying to diffuse the developing argument. “It must have been important. You’ll have to be tactful discussing it with Messinya. I suspect making contact now will stir it all up with her. Trouble is, you don’t know where it’ll lead you.”
It was time for me to commit; no more running. “I want to see Rixon again and I guess that his mother will as well, once she learns that he’s alive. I expect she’ll forgive him. If I get grief from Messinya, well perhaps I deserve it. If you won’t tell me where she is, I’ll just have to go and find her myself.”
And I had to leave it there. Ria shut up and looked daggers at me. We had found a new source of tension between us, replacing Elana with Messinya. I took Irin to our tent before she could say too much. She was upset at the way things had gone, we spent the night talking and I managed to calm her down before we slept for an hour or so, as the dawn was breaking.
I could hear Griff and Ria having the same sort of conversation in their tent, why did all the good times have to end in bitterness? Secrets and promises were the answer, we kept them and made them without a second thought; when honesty and getting things out in the open would have avoided all the angst.
The next day we arrived back in the city, we had spoken little since the discussion, it was clearly a problem between us. As soon as we could, Irin and I went back to Freefall, to find that all the work had been completed; we were ready for a cargo.
I called Griff, he told us to stand by and he would send details of a job. About four hours later we got a message and clearance to fly out, we were off to exchange a load of power cells from a mining colony a day or so away. As he told us, we heard the rumble of lifters. Our cargo had arrived. I checked the stores and water, sent Dannika, our Gyrl, off to the shop for a few things, and got the hold ready.
It was good to get back into the swing of things again; we watched the load, checked the lashings and set off for Scip-52. I’d never heard of it, Myra found it in her data bank. “It’s a small moon,” she said. “It’ll be suit work to discharge.”
On the journey we discussed Rixon and any involvement that he might have had in her family’s disappearance, again. The lack of information was starting to play on Irin’s mind. I thought that I had managed to convince her that it wasn’t to do with Rixon, everyone had the same Villiars story, Evers, Eyck, even Kal Rivers. They were on some new planet, having a great time and when the communications setup got going, we would hear all about it.
We landed on the moon, beside a small pressu
re dome, and suited up. After sealing the accommodation, we opened the hold and started work. It took several hours to shift the new and replace them with the old, then we were invited into the dome for a meal by the grateful miners, who had been there for several months. They were glad of the chance to talk to someone new and thanked me for the luxuries that I had sent Dannika for. I had remembered how it felt to be stuck out in the wilds, so I had brought chocolate and news and sports video discs for them. Irin said that I was getting soft.
When we got back and inside, Myra told me that we had received a message. It was from Evers, he was sorry he hadn’t been in touch but he hadn’t located Costa. Villiars were having some sort of security panic and he couldn’t access the files. He promised to keep trying.
Irin looked like she would cry. “It’s OK,” I said, “just a setback, nothing has really changed. The longer it goes on, the sooner until either Sanja gets in touch with you, or Costa gets moved on and brings them back. At least Villiars have a record, it shows that it’s genuine.”
“You’re right,” she said, as we took off and started to make our way back.
We had hardly left the system when we got another message. Irin snatched at the handset, this time it was Ria who was calling. “I’ve spoken to Messinya,” she said, “and told her all about you…” There was a pause. “And your current status.”
“And?”
“She says that’s fine, she understands, and says if you want to see her, she’s on Caluga.”
“What else did you tell her?”
“That I stopped you from knowing where she was, she shouldn’t blame you.”
“And what was her reaction to that?”
“She said that didn’t matter. If you had really wanted to find her, she says that you would have ignored me and found her anyway. I guess that’ll give you something else to talk about.”
Ria had changed, subtly but she had. I wondered if it was to do with Elana, or Irin or a combination of the two. Maybe she too felt guilty for the past. Who knew?
New Devon was on the way to Caluga, we only stopped off long enough to drop off the power cells. At least now I would get paid. It would help reduce the red numbers in my account. We grabbed some stores and fresh water, took off again as soon as we could and headed for Caluga.