by Richard Dee
“So who are you?” persisted Myra. “If you’re not the border patrol?”
He laughed. “Me? I’m just another Rixon.”
We set off ourselves and crossed into Federation space, I wanted to call Griff, Rixon asked me not to tell him that he was on board. I just sent a message telling him that we were OK. He would be bound to get it out of me if we spoke.
“So what’s the big news?” he asked.
“Have you met Melva?” asked Myra.
He looked up. “It’s weird hearing her voice after all these years,” he said. “And it’s even worse knowing that it’s all that’s left of her. I really thought that I had got you all safe. Who’s Melva?”
It was time to tell him the rest of it. “After you vanished, we went to New Devon, the four of us and started work. Griff bought an agency and we built up a good trade.” He nodded as if he knew; maybe he had been keeping his eye out.
“Myra went to tell your mother that you were dead, she was away for months. I thought she’d left me but she came back. We got the voiceprint done not long after that. Then Vlad caught up with us and she was gone.”
He looked sad. “I heard; that was when I was still intending to come back. When I heard about Myra, it didn’t seem right. Messinya would have criticised me for not looking after her. I couldn’t do it.” He paused for a moment. “You still haven’t told me, who’s Melva?”
“I found out the reason why Myra was away so long, Melva’s our daughter.”
He got up and went out. “I need to think,” he said as he left.
Chapter Twenty
We never saw him again for the rest of the trip. He must have sneaked out in the middle of the night for food and a drink but he kept to his cabin while we were up and about.
I asked Myra if she had registered the details of Rixon’s ship. “She’s called the Sister,” she said. “Registered to an A Chris Palva, a citizen of the IW.”
“Good work, we might have to find it again on Kendye, not a word to Rixon.”
“OK, Dave, just so you know, he’s been racking up quite an Ultraband bill from his cabin terminal.”
“Where’s he been calling?”
“Hard to say, it’s all encrypted traffic via multiple accounts, almost as if he’s assembling an army.”
What was he up to? “Maybe it’s to do with getting my family back,” suggested Irin.
Then, just before we arrived at the customs post above New Devon, he appeared.
“Sorry,” he said. “I had a lot to decide, a plan to make. You gave me a surprise there. I used your Ultraband a bit, I hope that’s OK. There were things I wanted to find out.”
“No problem as long as you used a dummy account.”
He gave me a pained look. “I taught YOU that one, don’t worry, it was all secure.”
“When we land, stay on board, don’t let Dannika see you. I’ll speak to Griff and come back and get you.”
“Once you know it’s safe?”
“That’s right. How legal are you in the Federation?”
He smiled. “I’m OK, I think,” he said. “I come over quite a bit and I’ve never had problems. My names not associated with any crimes. Anyway, I’m a citizen of the Neutral Worlds now.”
In the event, I added his name to the crew list with fingers crossed. He could always hide for arrival but that might cause more problems later. It was better to keep him out in the open.
The customs accepted it without any questions, we were cleared to land.
Irin was strained about him being left alone on Freefall. “Can we trust him?”
“Yes, I think so.” I had to hope that I wasn’t fooling myself. To show that I hadn’t gone completely soft, I’d told Myra that she was only to move at my voice command. Dannika was bound to be around when we landed. I wouldn’t mention Rixon to her, hoping he would keep out of her sight.
Sure enough, Dannika was there to greet us. “Hi Dave,” she said, as I opened the ramp. “I gotta message from Melva, she’s away on a job just now but she’ll see ya soon, she said doan go off again till you sin her.”
It was raining so we took the car into town. We walked into the office.
“Griff, I need to tell you something in confidence.” Ria snorted and left, I could imagine her listening behind the door. Irin went with her.
“When we met Rixon, we were found by the IW security forces,” I told him.
“Do you mean the General?”
“Yes, she was there. You mentioned her before, didn’t you?”
“If there’s anything slightly illegal going on in the IW, she knows about it. Let’s just say that she’s famous among a certain class of person. When did she arrive?”
“Almost as soon as we met Rixon.” He nodded.
“It was probably the box that attracted her to you.”
Hang on a minute! I had been against turning it back on, for the very reason that it would attract attention to our meeting. Griff had insisted, saying it would be suspicious if we hadn’t. I realised then, Griff had wanted the General to turn up. I had been duped into doing what Dolmen wanted, using the General to rid him of Malkin because he wasn’t strong enough to do it himself – and without any suspicion falling on him. Griff must be in it up to his eyes, despite what he might say. Griff and Rixon were keeping in touch, whatever they said.
“Did he get away?” he asked.
“He had a lookout, they called him away before she landed. We were scanned and taken into orbit, away from her troops. We were interrogated. Then she offered us a deal.”
“Doesn’t surprise me, she’s devious; fair but devious. What did she offer?”
“She wants us to lead her to Malkin, in return for our promise she let us go.”
“What did Rixon say? About Malkin and Irin’s family?”
“He knew and he wasn’t happy about it. He said that Makin had overstepped the mark, gone against the families. But that he wasn’t strong enough to do anything about it.”
“This wouldn’t have been a problem two years ago,” said Griff. “Dolmen’s power must be fading.”
There was shouting outside. Ria and Irin were arguing. Ria came back in, Irin was trying to calm her down. She must have told her what had gone on, it had rekindled their argument.
Ria was less than pleased. “Irin told me what happened. So Rixon’s managed to convince you that he’s innocent? Without any proof, he’s trying to smooth talk his way out of it, blame someone else. My friend Elana was killed by him, his defence was that he had to! Now he’s done nothing to stop this Malkin taking Irin’s family, even though he guaranteed their safety.”
“Well think of what would have happened if he hadn’t,” I said. “Elana would still have died on Jintao, so would I. So would Irin, and her family; although you might not mind that one I suppose. Is that any better? What could he do to stop Malkin anyway? Rixon’s not running a crime family.”
“He’s put himself at risk by what he did,” Griff pointed out.
Did that make it my fault? Maybe by Ria’s logic it did.
“But that was the deal. Rixon made the decision; he should take the consequences, not you or your family. Certainly not Elana.”
“Who are you to judge, Ria?” asked Griff. “Why does anyone have to die? A six-year-old boy is hardly a combatant, is he? Nor is a grandmother. Irin might not be squeaky clean but it’s a bit much to hold her family hostage. Then there’s the collateral damage, this man Costa. How guilty is he?”
Ria wasn’t giving up so easily. “I thought you’d defend her, this is no better than what happened to Myra.”
That was below the belt. “Ria, that was years ago, shouldn’t we let it rest?”
She turned on me. “So that’s OK in some sort of macho way then, you promised me that you’d make him pay.”
“And I promised his mother that I wouldn’t hurt him. There’s more than one way to keep a promise, Ria. I have to satisfy both of you, somehow.”
“If he
was in front of me, I’d know what to do.” I’d better not let slip that he was less than fifty miles way then. I changed the subject.
“How did you know Elana anyway? She wasn’t from Wishart, she told me she was from Aliston; that’s on the other side of the Federation. How did she come to mean so much to you?”
“I knew her from the web; we would chat when I was stuck on that farm, dreaming of getting away in the Sprite, like my father had promised me. She was encouraging, telling me all her adventures and how she would help me. We planned on getting a company of our own going, I’d provide the ship and she would find the work for me. Of course, my father stopped all that when he sold you the Sprite. Then I met Griff; so it never happened. After Myra, while you were off feeling sorry for yourself, we still had a business to run. We needed help. So I got back in touch with her. Elana was working the freighters, not in command but near enough to the top to be useful, she was telling us what was going on and where there were openings. We were chatting a lot; she had all sorts of interesting stories, about her life on the freighters and before long we developed a real friendship. I went to see her a couple of times when she had leave, we got on really well. She was sacked unfairly; when you said you needed a mate for the Urssa job, she was one of the first names that came up. I thought that I was repaying her for all the help she had given me.”
That explained it all. “She was great, Ria, a real asset, we got on well and she was good at the job. I’m as upset as you are about what happened. You must understand, neither of us made her go, in fact she was all for it. I need Rixon now to find Irin’s mother and son. I understand your anger but is it fair? It wasn’t exactly him who pulled the trigger was it?”
“You’re just defending him; you all stick together.” Her argument was faltering. I pushed a bit harder.
“No, I’m trying to be sensible. What’s done is done and I think that we should move on, you only met him once.”
You could see that she was torn, just to add to the fun Melva arrived. “You’re blocking my bay, Dad,” she said. “I had to land in the extension. I could hear the shouting from outside, what’s been going on since you left?”
“We’ve been to see Rixon, over in the IW.”
She looked annoyed; the words came out in a rush. “What? And I missed it? You’ve been there twice without me. That’s not on, I’m coming next time. Is he OK? Did he know about Irin’s family?”
“He’s fine. It’s a long story. Irin’s family are in danger, but not from him. There might be a way of dealing with the people holding them, it all depends. Rixon’s very angry, he gave his word and now someone else has gone back on it for him.”
Ria looked less than impressed at my defence of Melva’s uncle. “I really want to see him,” she said, “he’s the only other family I’ve got.” At that point she saw Ria’s face. “Despite what you might think of him,” she added, her jaw jutting out.
I had an idea. “Where are you staying tonight?” I asked.
“I was planning on staying on the ship,” she said. “All my gear’s on there. Do you have your car? I got a lift in with Jimbo. Can you drop me off?”
That was a perfect excuse for us to go, hopefully by the morning, Ria would have calmed down before she met Rixon.
Melva sat in the back as I drove to the port, past the bay with Freefall, the rain rattling down on the roof. It made conversation difficult, little was said. I wanted to ask her about how she was getting on, and explain all sorts of things, she seemed preoccupied.
“I’ll pick you up in the morning,” I said as I dropped her off. “We’re going to have a proper discussion about what to do next, whether anyone likes it or not.”
“OK,” she said, “but what about Rixon? Will he be there, or on a video link? It seems to me that we can’t do much without his input.”
“Don’t worry about that,” said Irin, “it’s all arranged.”
“OK, see you then.” She leant across and kissed my cheek. “Bye, Irin,” she added as she got out of the car and ran to the ramp.
When we were on Freefall and settled in the lounge, I asked Irin what had got Ria started.
“She thought that you would have killed Rixon for what happened to Elana,” she said. “I think it was why she was happy to see you go to Greenfield; she was sure that you’d keep your promise. When you came back and you hadn’t done it, all the old things came back to the surface.”
“Are you talking about me?” Rixon came in and sat down. Dannika couldn’t have spotted him; she had never mentioned him when we got back, just carried on doing something on her tablet and waving to us as we drove up the ramp.
“Have you been keeping out of sight?”
“The Gyrl hasn’t been on board, apart from coffee and the heads. I’ve been in the wheelhouse, talking to Myra,” he said. “Talking and doing a lot of thinking. I’ll help you find Malkin and take him down. In the end, what I said and what happened are two different things.”
“Thank you,” Irin sounded surprised.
“It’s important I kept my word,” he repeated. “Malkin has no right to try and break it for me.”
“Come in with us tomorrow and meet Griff and Ria,” I said. That was the next thing we had to sort out. “Melva will be there as well, I have to pick her up on the way.”
He looked dubious. “Do you think it’s a good idea? Ria isn’t very likely to put the kettle on for me.” It was quite a surprise to see him worried about meeting a woman.
“It’ll have to be done some time.”
“I guess you’re right, I need to psych myself up for that though. Give me a night’s sleep and I’ll decide in the morning.”
“Fair enough, we’ll go and face them after a good breakfast.”
That seemed to satisfy him, he changed the subject. “As a matter of interest, Dave, where did you go after Jintao?” he asked innocently. Which wasn’t very subtle, or tactful. It was probably a good thing to ask me here, with Ria absent. After all, it had started with the death of Elana, which he was ignoring. Ria would have had a fit if she had heard him.
“After Elana died, we got a job with Villiars,” Irin said. “Thanks to Costa on Jintao, the same man who is now missing. A bit of world-building on a new planet.” If he noticed the sarcasm in her voice or the reference to Elana, he never showed it.
“And then you disappeared for a while,” he added. “There were rumours about a find, some discovery that’s being kept secret; it wouldn’t be anything to do with you would it?”
Was everyone aware of what we had found on Prairie, and on Qister?
I pretended not to understand. “What sort of discovery?”
“C’mon, Dave, I might not be Griff but I still hear things. It’s no big secret over there. The government of the IW knows a lot about the Khayan.”
That stopped me in my tracks. “What! How do they know?”
“We have the same things as you do, on the quarantine worlds,” he said. “The caves, the grey machines, the discs. Except that the IW government are a bit less paranoid about it. There are a lot of artefacts, more than you have over here; I guess. Despite what the Federation think, the system in the IW is a lot more open. Most people know a bit about them, they know that there’s a team working on the discs, preparing for any eventuality.”
“Do you know if they can understand the discs?”
“Ah, that’s above my paygrade, but I do know that we’re not officially worried about them.”
“Yes, we were on Qister, in the Alysom Caves, there were boxes and a Federation team. Somehow, the boxes were activated, they spoke to us.”
He looked shocked. “Spoke to you?”
“Their machines must be incredibly sophisticated. They disapproved of us, but they gave a few clues about their story. I’ve been told to say nothing, the Truth Movement are analysing the things we recovered, ready to go public.”
“Myra also said that you were on Prairie, that you were damaged by a missile.”
He shook his head. “I’m not talking about that tonight either. I’ll have to say it all again if I see Griff and Ria tomorrow and I’d rather only do it once. If I’m going to do something about it, I need to get some things set up. Which means that I’m going to have to come in and see him, Ria too, I guess. I’ll just have to get it done and over.”
He got up and walked out.
“He didn’t seem that excited about meeting Melva,” said Irin as we prepared for sleep.
“Perhaps he’s afraid of her looking like Myra, bringing it all back,” I suggested. Knowing who she was had affected me; Rixon was bound to think of his sister when he saw her.
Chapter Twenty-One
In the morning we all got into the car and I drove it down the ramp. “Are we going over to pick Melva up?” Rixon asked. “I saw you drive past last night, over towards the other side of the port. I assume you were dropping her off.”
He had been strangely silent up to then; it was a big day for him, meeting Melva, then going on to see Griff and Ria, justifying his actions, like I had had to. I know how I had felt; it must have been a lot for him to adjust to.
I stopped by the entrance to the bay; Melva must have been waiting just inside. As she came into view, Rixon saw her and jumped out, running towards her.
“Where’s he off too so quickly?” asked Irin.
Rixon got to her, swept her up in his arms. They embraced, I left them to it. After a moment they stepped apart, holding hands. Rixon led her back to our car. They both squeezed together in the back seat for the trip into town.
“I feel like I know you,” they both said, almost at once. There was no sign of awkwardness between them as they spoke at once, exchanging news and laughing. I was relieved that the first part of the day had gone well, now we just had to wait and see how his meeting with Ria went.