Answers Part 3
05 Dec 2017MMMMMalcolm
29 Nov 3303The stops at Herzog Gateway and Littrow City have become routine. I no longer have to ask the dock workers to tend to my ship. Once, I even caught a glimpse of a few waiting for me to touch down. I made a note to thank the respective foremen with more generous “tips”. The only formality was the passenger mission board. I could not access it while airborne; even with “Auto Dock” handling the ship, I had to wait until I completely landed before contracting new fares. It was frustrating, but I tolerated it.
At least the payouts were increasing. Once completed, this trip should pay fifteen million credits. I accepted the transactions and boarded the passengers as fast as possible; barely clearing the bar of politeness. Well, in any other system I would have been considered polite. I’m sure the Imperials thought me down right rude. Maybe that’s why my reputation is so low? In any case, no one filed a complaint with the transportation office. So I turned my attention back to where it has always been, to Kay.
Besides her apparent fear, I had no idea what she was thinking. Did she believe me? I guess so. She hasn’t left. That has to count for something. The mass lock indicator went out on my console. I hit the button that initiated a hyperspace jump and prepared to find out.
“Frame Shift Drive charging. 4…3…2…1…engage.”
Kay walked onto the bridge like clockwork. She was still silent, she was always silent, but the atmosphere wasn’t as frigid as the vacuum outside the ship this time. When she sat in the co-pilot’s seat, both her hands rested on the arms of the chair. I didn’t have much more to add about me, so I asked the question burning a hole in the back of my head.
“Why did you come looking for me?”
“I’ve been asking myself that very question these past few days. I had made up my mind never to even think of you again once I read that letter you wrote.”
“That was what I was hoping,” I confessed. “You seemed the type that would be offended by a total stranger asking you to run off with him. So, I tried my best to dance on the line of being a rude gentleman. I had planned to think of something similar, but more elaborate, at the end of my vacation. Circumstances dictated otherwise.”
“Thanks, I think,” Kay replied, rolling her eyes.
“Well it was all I could come up with on such a short notice,” I shot back, childishly defending my faux pas. “The question remains, why did you come?”
“Because of Marcus.”
“Who?”
“My late husband; you remind me of him sometimes. Tall, handsome, every bit the gentleman.” I smiled a wide Cheshire grin.
“But, now after coming here, I’m reminded you’re not him.” My smile disappeared.
“Being back home with my family for the holidays was supposed to have been a celebration, a refuge, a new beginning. It wasn’t. Despite their intentions, they overwhelmed me with questions about how I was feeling, was I finally going to give up this dangerous business, did I find someone new. Even though I said I wasn’t going to think of you again, I caught myself doing just that. Next thing I know I’m running out here. It’s been three years; you’d think I was done running. But that’s the last thing …”
Kay trailed off. She was looking right at me, but what she was seeing wasn’t this ship, this time, or this space. My question did little to refocus her attention.
“What happened?”
“Besides each other, we loved nothing more than bounty hunting. It’s what brought us together in the Pilot’s Federation. I overheard him telling some friends it was a tradition with the men in his family. I asked him since he was so experienced in the subject, if he had any pointers a rookie huntress could use to stay a step ahead of her prey? He said he could show me better than he could tell me, so we became wing mates. By the time we graduated, we were bunk mates. Shortly, after we both ranked up to competent we were married.” A smile flashed across Kay’s face as she drifted through her memories. I realized I was the first person who has ever given her this opportunity so I just listened.
“Life was good, for us at least, not so much for the pirates. Station leaders would tag ‘em, we would bag ‘em, and our combat rank would grow.” The smile faded into a shadow. “Only Marcus’ grew faster than mine. He was at Master while I struggled with Competent. He was always saving me, looking out for me. I felt like I was holding him back. That’s why I didn’t argue when a contract took us out to Sanos.
The op looked simple enough. Hunt down a pirate lord who was tormenting a Federation system on the edge of the bubble and hiding out in the frontier. I brought up the fact the pirate was ranked Elite, but He reassured me we could take him together. Only, we couldn’t. Or, I should say, I couldn’t.
The pirate flew a stolen Federal Corvette and he had two Cobra MK IVs as escorts. Marcus had his Fer De Lance and I my Vulture. I took one Cobra. Marcus engaged the other and the Corvette. He danced his FDL under and near the rear of the Corvette, away from two big beam lasers. While his own lasers ripped apart the Cobra. It was beautiful stick work, but if I had been watching my own opponent as closely, I would have seen him flip around and knock out my shields, my missile rack, and half my hull with his rail gun. All I had left was my beam laser. Marcus swooped in and destroyed the Cobra, but it left us both vulnerable to the Corvette. His last words to me were to run back to Allen Ring, he’d meet me there. He never showed up.”
Tears welled is Kay’s eyes, but by shear will they never dropped. She never sniffed. Her makeup never smudged. She just stared off while the past lifted off her shoulders like mist from a meadow on a Clear spring morning. I envied her, and felt sorry for her. I feigned the suave gentleman, but deep down I was a selfish street rat, looking out for number one no matter who it hurt. I never had a close friend. I couldn’t imagine the pain of losing one. I longed to help; somehow make things right. I guess I didn’t keep my thoughts private, because Kay was back “with” me.
“You have your own problems to deal with. You need my help more than I need yours.”
“How could you possibly help me?”
“I can start by telling you you’re in debt to The Club.”
The navigation computer beeped. We reached Littrow City. This time Kay didn’t go back to my quarters.
“And you need a crew.”
I smiled and prepared to land.