The Ice Mines of Chana: Epilogue
03 Dec 2016TheDarkLord
Kooi Hub, Chana. Faulcon deLacey Anaconda “TDL Agamemnon”.June 3302.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6
[DIRECT] Claudia Elliott: Glad to catch you before you left. Dinner?
[TO] Claudia Elliott: Not in my nature to leave without saying goodbye. 1900 local at the place we met?
The smell of grilling meat filled my nostrils as I re-entered the faux-industrial bar-restaurant. Claudia sat at the bar looking stunning. She was chatting to the barmaid who looked me up and down again before going back to wiping down the bar. I was sure she had a smirk on her face.
Claudia reached an arm around my neck and pulled me in for a quick kiss. I asked the barmaid for a lager as Claudia & I headed to an empty booth. She sat on one of the benches, and beckoned me to sit beside, not opposite her. She reached out and put a hand on my knee, looking at me for several seconds.
“Chaos in the office. I managed to sort out your mission payment though. Hopefully I can settle the team down – it seems that the company wants me to take the position that has become vacant,” she looked tired.
“Lots to do then. Give me a shout if you want me to help with any other promotions,” I smirked. She smiled a wan smile, and her big pretty eyes roamed over my face.
“I can’t seem to stop replaying the end in my head.” She turned away, took her hand off my leg, and looked down at the table. “Just… so… final.”
“The first one is exceptionally visceral. You’ll re-live every moment over and over for a while, but you’ll stop thinking about it soon. I promise.”
“How many ships have you killed?” She looked up from the table, searching my face for an answer. It was my turn to inspect the wood grain.
“I have no idea. I split my time between bounty hunting, mining, and undertaking special assignments for the Emperor. I really couldn’t say.”
“Hundreds?” She asked.
“Higher than that,” I said, my tone distant.
“Oh.”
The conversation stalled then, and thankfully food arrived. We ate in silence, the air heavy with unasked questions.
“Is that what it means to be considered Deadly?” Claudia asked. It must have been five whole minutes since I’d answered her last question. “All that murdering?”
“I don’t think of it as murdering. It’s mostly property destruction and criminal rehabilitation.”
“Hah! That’s some justification!” she spat.
“I only shoot criminals, enemies, and in self-defence. Usually because of the first two rules, the third one is already in force. I perform services for the Emperor, and local law enforcement, and I defend myself. I’ve been flying for a while, so the tally mounts up. It’s not really something I think about.”
“No women no kids, huh?”
“The ‘no women’ rule tends not to apply any more as there are many capable and motivated combat pilots who are women. But if you work for my enemies, or there’s a bounty on your head, or you attack me, then you’d better have the kit you need to make me run.”
“So space is as violent as people say?”
“It can be. If you’re out there working for yourself, you need to be ready to fight, run or hide at all times. If that’s not your style, there are loads of safe careers running cargo in corporate fleets, or less safe careers in navies.”
After dinner we walked a little. Through a park, arm in arm. Two lovers out for an evening stroll. I had put the discussion out of my mind. There was a harder one to come. Just now, I was content to wander alongside her, stealing glances and kisses, and periodically stopping for more intense moments of passion. For Claudia, the stroll wasn’t aimless. She had a route in mind, and we left the park behind, entering a residential district. We arrived at a tall structure that reached up towards the docking bays. These vast arcologies were habitation for thousands of people, with lower environmental impact than the low-rise developments in other stations. They had achieved prominence in the space-locked Coriolis communities because of their efficiencies. And with their size and variable levels of gravity, inhabitants could live at a level that suited them physiologically.
“This is where I live,” Claudia said.
“I’ve heard about these arcologies,” I said. “We are a bit more low-rise at Malaikudi. How are they inside?”
Claudia smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”
***
The next morning, I woke after Claudia. I got out of bed and looked out of the window. The view was magnificent across the habitation and commercial spaces. The sky was a moderately convincing artifice to hide the vast docking structure in the centre of the station. It was very similar and yet quite different to the habitation space in Leopold Heckmann Ring.
I wandered through to the kitchen, where Claudia was reading from a datapad. She’d made breakfast.
“Hi,” she said. “Sleep well?”
“Yes, thanks,” I replied, taking the proffered mug of coffee.
“Heading out today?” she asked. It was light in tone, but a question of some enormity. Out of the apartment? Of the station? Of her life? I struggled to find the right words, the right expression, the right way to say that, yes, I was heading away from Chana today, and there was a likelihood that it would be a while before business brought me back.
“I’m on active operations in Rusasaei. The group that I belong to is solidifying its presence in the system after last week’s expansion. They need me and Agamemnon,” I replied. It was the coward’s way out. Instead of saying that I was leaving of my own volition, I’d blamed the mission, the purported greater need of the group.
“Fair enough. I’ve got lots to do here,” she said. “Archer being dead should make life less trying on a day to day basis. It feels like this is a good opportunity to stabilise and try to move forward.”
“I’m glad to hear it. I’m going to sort this expansion in Rusasaei, then spend some time as a Navy courier. Fancy myself a Cutter.”
“Sounds fancy,” she replied. And then “Right, I need to get to work.” She stood, and started towards the door.
“Sure. Of course.”
Silence again as we took the lift down to street level.
“I need to go this way, and the docking bay transport is over there,” she beckoned to the terminal from which I could catch a shuttle back to my ship. She gave me a quick peck on the cheek, before turning and heading determinedly away.
Back aboard Agamemnon, my mind reeled from the encounter with Claudia. Such a beautiful woman had come into my life, spent time with me, and then gone back to her day job without so much as a ‘by your leave’. It was the closest thing I’d come to a relationship in years. It had felt good. And although it seemed like a clean emotion-free break, it now felt bad. A radiant light had come in, shone for just a few days, then gone as fast as it had arrived.
I castigated myself mentally as I leaned forward and tapped “Launch” on the Anaconda’s control panel. I reset the security back to standard, programmed Rusasaei as my destination, and lifted Agamemnon from the docking bay pad. I climbed and rolled whilst accelerating forward to form up with the exiting traffic.
As the Anaconda’s nose broke the inner seal of the force-field, a message popped up on the comm:
[DIRECT] Claudia Elliott: Godspeed Commander. Please stay safe for me. Hopefully we’ll have another encounter before too long. x
I smiled, and leaned back in my Captain’s chair. I remembered the passion of the last few days. She was lovely, that was undeniable. As the Anaconda cleared the Coriolis’s mass lock, I gave a thought to flipping my mission and heading back.
It was time, a choice had to be made.
“Frame Shift Drive charging…”