Unmitigated Rage
22 Aug 2019Falcon15e
The next several days passed in a haze. Not much really happened, another series of investigators came and went, Lambast’s father did his best to expedite the investigation and eventually, even the Cleve Station Manager made a special trip to the Lambast house hold to express his gravest condolences. Kaisla, usually talkative and full of energy moped about and stayed to herself. Silently, she was going through her own hell. The same undoubtably felt by survivors and people who experience loss far too soon. She couldn’t let herself forget that she never told her father that she loved him a final time or how she had taken all the little things for granted.
Finally, that hollowness started to fill with bile, rage and hatred. Eventually, that formed itself to a hardened determination. She was going to kill them. All of them. Finally, when Lamb was sure enough that she was okay, Lambast returned to sleeping in her room, Kaisla in the guest bedroom alone. She loved Lambast like a sister and her parents had been equally as fantastic. She was glaringly aware of this as she packed up her few items, left a short note and snuck out of the hab. She knew her departure would wake up the family and hoped the note would at least help them not to worry about her.
Her plan was solid (so she thought). She would take the Sidewinder to Cleve and figure out where to find the thugs that killed her friends and parents. After figuring that out, she would agree to sell the Sidewinder to the station and prior to them taking possession she would use the credits to buy a stockade of missiles and then ram the penthouse where the thugs stayed; simple. Yes, she would be killed in the process but it would be worth it to kill those bastards.
All this was dwelling on her mind as she snuck into the garage next to the Adder where Lambasts’ father had parked the Sidewinder only days ago. She climbed inside, locking the hatch and powering up the systems. She hated what she was about to do but there wasn’t any other way around it - she didn’t have the remote to open the bay door so she rammed it. The Sidewinder crumpled the thin door and she rocketed off into the night just as she could see Lambast and her parents scrambling inside the house to get to her.
As the Sidewinder accelerated out of Eravate Two’s thin ionosphere, she watched the hazy gray turn to black. The windscreen cleared as the ship accelerated further out. She was able to quickly identify Cleve and steered the nav system toward it. She pulled the little cow out of her jacket pocket, kissing it on the nose and then replacing it carefully. Her mind was too full of other thoughts to even think that maybe her docking request would be denied. It had never happened in the past so there was no notion in her mind of it happening this time. An she wasn’t denied, she was cleared to an entry pad just past the mail slot. She made certain to keep her flying slow and controlled and descended down gently to the pad, flying the ship as smooth as she could thinking that it would at least make her father proud. She powered down the Sidewinder and headed out to the station. Her first place to look would be the bar. Sleaze balls always like to hang around bars. It wouldn’t be long before she would figure out what the incompetent security forces couldn’t: who was responsible for her parents death.
Her slate had a meager credit balance from her sporadic allowance. It wasn’t that her parents weren’t willing to give her a regular allowance, she was just frankly to busy to bother doing chores. She swiped the slate in front of the pay terminal while giving the flight operations clerk a friendly, tight-lipped smile. Station Flight Operations often saw all sorts of weird things so seeing a 14 year old in a over-sized flight suit with pajamas on underneath wasn’t too odd. She made it as far the main causeway waiting for the tram to the lower levels and eventually, the bar when a man walked up next to her, looking down,
“Well, well...if its not the best pilot in Eravate space.”
She looked up briefly, trying to give a confident smile, “I’m sorry Sir, I think you have me mistaken for someone else.”
The man turned to face her, hands in his pockets. “Do I...Ms. Kaisla?”
Kaisla recognized the uniform of the Federal Station Security Services. Beyond that, she had no clue who this man was, besides, anyone can forge a uniform. Its with this in mind when she turned to run but she was too slow, the mans hand reached out and grabbed her arm in a vice-like grip. “Not so fast young lady.”
Kaisla fought to wrench his grasp free but it wasn’t much use. The man casually bound her first wrist then her second. He shifted his grip to her upper arms. “Please stop resisting. I will tase you, I’ve never tased a kid before and I don’t want to start tonight.”
Several minutes later, he led her into a tiny room located at the back of the Station Security office. As he led her through the door, he reached up and disconnected the power cord to a camera in the corner of the room. Kaisla noticed as she sat on the cold metal chair. “Unplugging that cause you gonna beat me? GO AHEAD!” She spat.
The officer wiped the spit from his chest as he sat down in the chair across from her. “No, I’m unplugging that because there are ears everywhere.”
Kaisla tilted her head in confusion.
The man continued, “You don’t remember me do you? About six months ago after your excursion in the Type 2?”
Kaisla could recognize him but in the sense that a kid recognizes any adult - as just there. “Yeah, so?”
He sighed. “Listen kid, I know you’ve been through a lot. I also know its not fair. But a hard life lesson is that life is not fair. To go along with that, I’m not your enemy here but that doesn’t mean that other people,” he nods to the disconnected camera in the corner, “who should be the good guys, always are. Do ya follow?”
Kaisla understood but only in the sense of black and white. “Like dirty cops?!”
Johnston nodded, “Yeah kinda, but its not always clear cut like that.”
Just because she didn’t know what else to say, Kaisla put on a defiant look, “What now then?”
“Now,” Johnston said standing, “Your very nice guardians are going to come retrieve you and take you home before you do anything that you’ll regret or will get you killed.”
Kaisla slouched in her chair, “What about my Sidewinder?!”
Johnston turned, “Your Sidewinder? I got news kid, that belongs to the bank. You’re just lucky they haven’t came to collect on it already. It was your father’s name on the title - not yours. Now that he’s passed away, sadly, it defaults to them. Your father didn’t have a will.”
Johnston’s wrist chimed. Visitors were at the secure access door to get in the station. “C’mon, your guardians are here. And I want you to remember just how fortunate you are to have a family that is willing to take you in. I know that’s hard to remember right now but please, try.”
As frustrated, angry and full of rage as she was, Mr. Johnston was right, she was lucky to have Lamb and her parents had taken her in like a daughter. She was grateful for that.
He led her out of the interrogation room and into the lobby prior to buzzing in Lambast and her family. Lambast ran over and wrapped her in a hug. Kaisla returned it and then walked over, head down and apologized to her parents. They exchanged a glance and thanked Mr. Johnston for watching out for her and responding to their call so quickly.
She looked back at Johnston before leaving the station, he smiled and said, “Remember kid, you could be the best pilot in the universe but it won’t do you any good if your dead. Take that advice seriously this time.”
They sat in silence in the flight back down to Eravate Two. As they settled in to land Lambast leaned over, whispering in her ear, “I told you we would get those bastards but we have to be smart about it.”