by M. D. Cooper
“I thought they’d never leave,” Thompson said as he closed the inner airlock.
“Good times,” Sera smiled.
The bridge was empty when Sera stepped onto it. Cargo was off duty, and Jessica asked Cheeky to join her in reviewing the specs of the ISF fighters and how the Intrepid would stack up against the enemy fleets.
Sabrina responded after a moment.
Sera laughed.
Sera felt her ire rise for a moment, but forced herself to let it go. She knew enough not to attempt to control everything. That road ultimately led to total loss of control.
Sera reached behind her headrest and pulled the hardlink cable out and connected it to the port at the base of her skull.
When Sabrina confirmed the hardlink, she activated the U-layer transmitter secreted away in her shower. She set the co-ordinates for the message, and called up the script she had pre-recorded. Sera paused for a moment and listened to her words, wondering how they would be received, what the FGT would require of her in return. She pushed aside her indecision and sent the message.
The ship’s power usage meters rose and the reactor increased its burn to cover the discharge she had pulled from the SC batteries.
THE LAKE HOUSE
STELLAR DATE: 10.27.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid, Orbiting Fierra
REGION: Bollam’s World System, Bollam’s World Federation
“Think you were a little hard on her?” Joe asked as he led Tanis to the maglev station.
Tanis let out a long sigh. “Maybe…I don’t know. It’s not like she can have any secret so mind-blowing that we can’t handle it. We’re going to figure it out, she should just tell already.”
“Reminds me of how eager you were to share the details of your mission at Toro,” Joe replied.
“That was different,” Tanis said. “Those records were sealed. I couldn’t talk about it.”
“Don’t play games with me,” Joe locked eyes with Tanis as they stopped and waited for a train. “You may not have felt any of your decisions on Toro were wrong, but you felt shame for how it was handled, how you were treated—by the military, your father, and your husband.”
Tanis broke eye contact. Even after all the years, thinking back to those days hurt more than she cared to admit.
“OK, point taken.”
Joe asked privately.
Joe’s face split into a smile so bright Tanis almost had to look away. He grabbed her by the waist and spun her around.
Tanis laughed and he set her back on the deck plate.
“Let’s get out of here and enjoy our reunion,” he said. “All that unpleasant saving everyone’s skin stuff will come crashing back on you soon enough.”
“Gee,” Tanis said with a chuckle. “You sure know how to take a load off my mind.”
A maglev car pulled up beside them, and they stepped on, along with several other passengers—more than a few were whispering about seeing the general.
Tanis sat and rested her head on Joe’s shoulder, blocking out the worry and all the distractions around her. There was no doubt in her mind that they would come out on top of this challenge.
Joe was right. She needed to take this time and relax and rebuild her reserves.
They didn’t speak for the rest of the ride to Old Sam, neither verbally, nor over the Link.
The maglev made several stops, and passengers came and went, but Tanis barely noticed. Eventually the train came to rest at their stop, a station half a kilometer from their cabin.
They disembarked and walked down the long, wooded path, arm in arm.
In the woods around them birds sang and the sounds of small animals going about their business could be heard. Tanis saw a mother deer and her fawn in a clearing as they neared their destination.
“It’s good to be home,” she said with a contented sigh.
They rounded the bend and her breath caught. She expected to see the cabin and its grounds overrun by weeds and debris—after all, with the time in stasis after leaving Kapteyn’s Star combined with the months following her abduction, neither of them had been to the cabin in years.
But there it stood, the yard clean, what appeared to be a fresh coat of paint on the walls, and the garden overflowing with fruits and vegetables.
“Did Bob arrange this?” Tanis asked as they approached.
“No, I did,” a voice said from behind them.
Tanis turned to see Ouri stepping out from behind a tree. Her shipsuit was covered in dirt and a pair of work gloves hung from her belt.
“Ouri!” Tanis cried out and rushed to embrace the woman. “Thank you so much for this. You have no idea what it means…I guess that’s why you ducked out of our meeting early.”
“And had Priscilla make your train take longer,” the colonel grinned. “It hasn’t all been me. A lot of us from the SOC, command crew, and no small number of Marines have been down here. Even Amanda was here not long ago weeding your strawberry patch, but she had to run and prep to trade off with Priscilla.”
“Come inside,” Tanis said and took Ouri’s arm. “I’ll make coffee—I imagine there’s coffee.”
Ouri chuckled. “Your larder is fully stocked. I would come in, but you have no idea the workload I’m shielding you from right now. I came down here because I wanted to see the look on your face, but I need to get back to the grind.”
“Are you sure?” Tanis asked. “I know your boss; he works for me.”
“I seem to recall that, yes,” Ouri replied. “But if I stay, Sanderson is going to start calling both of us, and I want you to enjoy yourself for a few more hours at least.”
“OK,” Tanis agreed. “But we have to sit down before long, you’ll really want to he
ar about my little trip, especially New Eden.”
“New Eden?” Ouri gasped. “You were there? Is it as beautiful as we hoped?”
“You’ll just have to wait and see,” Tanis said replied with a wink.
“Are we sure this is our Tanis?” Ouri asked Joe. “She seems far too easygoing.”
“I think the smuggler crew she spent the last few months with has rubbed off on her,” Joe replied.
“Stars, I really do wish I could stay,” Ouri said, a frown clouding her expression. “But duty calls. I’ll see the two of you soon enough.”
Ouri turned and walked back up the path, leaving Tanis and Joe to spend a last moment admiring their home before stepping inside.
Later that afternoon, as they relaxed in front of the dying embers of their fire, Tanis suddenly reached out and grasped Joe’s arm.
“You resigned your commission for me?”
Joe chuckled. “Just got to that place in your queue, eh?”
She sat up and turned to him.
“What were you thinking? How could you…” her voice trailed and she let a slow smile creep over her face.
“You and your belief that the mission is everything,” Joe chuckled. “I thought you were beyond that.”
“I am,” Tanis said with a sigh. “It was a momentary relapse. What I meant to say was thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Joe said pulled her close for a long kiss, which Tanis returned.
Suddenly she pulled back, her piercing eyes locked onto his. “Wait. If you resigned and/or went AWOL, how is it that you were in command of the Andromeda when you scooped us up?”
“It turns out, Bob forced Jason to back down. My resignation never hit the official record,” Joe said with a shrug.
“It’s nice to have your friendly neighborhood AI-god on your side,” Tanis said with a laugh.
“The next thing in your queue is likely a note from Jason telling you that my punishment is up to you,” Joe said with a wink.
“Oh is it now?” Tanis asked as she leaned back and pulled him on top of her. “I wonder what we should do about that?”
AN UNEXPECTED INVITATION
STELLAR DATE: 10.28.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid, Orbiting Fierra
REGION: Bollam’s World System, Bollam’s World Federation
Sera tried to swat away Helen’s voice. “Lemme ‘lone…sleeping.”
Sera snorted and turned over; fighting the voice that was telling her she should wake.
“Kay, kay.” Sera knew from decades of experience that when Helen thought it was time to wake up, there was no fighting it.
Captain Andrew’s warm chuckle filled her mind.
Sera checked and grimaced.
Sera tried to compose her mind, this sort of thing was important, probably not to be missed.
Sera almost laughed—she had been wearing a short jacket and nothing else. If only he knew. Then again, she considered, he had probably seen a lot in his years. Perhaps he did know.
The captain closed the connection and Sera heard Helen chuckle softly.
Sera held a hand up and turned it over slowly. Her glossy black skin was a thing of beauty but it would be nice to change its color.
The play of light across her fingers began to lull her mind back to sleep when the realization struck her that the dinner was in three hours. Cheeky was going to kill her! She quickly connected to Sabrina’s shipnet and messaged her crew.
Sabrina said.
Thompson and Cargo were already arguing about who was going to get to stay behind and determined that a combat sim would be the decision maker. Sera was surprised that she didn’t hear Nance arguing with them about whose turn it was. Usually she hated these sorts of things. Instead the bio asked:
Sera was stunned. Even Cheeky stopped her food-related discussion with Sabrina.
Sera groaned inwardly and was about to tell Cheeky to deal with it, when she heard what sounded like a mental sob come from Nance. She had never heard anything but stoicism from her bio and was out of bed and in the corridor in moments. Cheeky emerged from her cabin at the same time and they met at the door to Nance’s cabin.
Cheeky gave Sera a long look, neither sure what to say.
There was no response, but after a long moment the door opened and the two women stepped inside. Neither had ever entered the bio’s cabin and they were both taken aback by what they saw.
The walls were colored a soft pink and lined with shelves that held row upon row of dolls. They ranged from replicas of holo stars to ancient china dolls. It was both cute and a little bit eerie at the same time with dozens upon dozens of eyes following their every move.
Nance was sitting on her bed in a long shift, tears streaming down her face. Sera looked at Cheeky. A bet or two would be settled over this. Nance, as it turned out, did not sleep in her hazsuit. They quickly sat down on either side of their crewmate, wrapping their arms around her.
“What’s wrong Nance?” Cheeky asked softly.
“There’s not enough time to get ready,” Nance replied around a sniffle.
“You want to go to the dinner?” Sera asked.
“I always want to go,” Nance said. “I just can’t because of that damn suit.” She pointed to the hazsuit that was draped over a chair.
“I don�
��t understand,” Cheeky frowned. “You could have just taken the suit off and come to any of the dinners and parties we’ve been to over the last few years.”
Nance shook her head. “No, I couldn’t have. To be around strangers and all their germs and filth without protection? I would have had no appetite…I probably would have gotten sick and thrown up on someone.”
The fact that Nance was irrationally terrified of germs was no surprise to Sera and she mouthed see, not a fetish, to Cheeky, over Nance’s head.
“What changed?” Sera asked. “How come you aren’t worried about germs on the Intrepid?”
“It was that med-tech, Terry. She said she used to be—still is actually—terrified of germs and sickness and infection. She tried everything to stop it, but she couldn’t stop thinking about all the bacteria and microbes that live in and around us. She had the perfect solution though.”
Nance looked up as she spoke, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
“Not something mental I hope,” Sera said. “Those quick fix mental alterations always have unpleasant side-effects.”
“No, nothing like that, I’m still terrified of germs, but she has nano and systems that monitor it all and show her exactly what is living in and on her body as well as the ability to remove anything she doesn’t want there. She recognized me as someone with similar issues and shared her nano with me and helped me upgrade my AI with the monitoring systems.” Nance gave a happy smile. “I don’t have to be afraid anymore.”
“That’s great Nance!” Cheeky hugged her. “So what’s the problem?”
“I don’t have anything to wear! All I have is that damn suit!”
Sera laughed and Cheeky giggled.
“Anywhere else that may be a problem, but you have Cheeky here. I’ve got everything you need,” the pilot said.