by N M Tatum
So he held his breath, said a silent goodbye to everything he loved and all the things he’d never gotten to do, and jumped.
His stomach stayed on the balcony while the rest of his body plummeted. His eyes filled with tears as they struggled to stay open against the wind. Just before they closed, probably for the last time, Cody slammed into solid ground. He rolled onto his back to see Sam, Reggie, Joel, and Peppy looking down at him.
“Why am I not dead?” Cody asked. He sat up and was hit with a powerful sense of vertigo. He was still traveling downward, but at a controlled speed.
They were gathered on top of an elevator about six square feet in size.
He looked at Sam in awe. “How did you know this was here?”
“I didn’t.”
Cody’s gut bubbled. He felt like he was going to vomit.
Sam smiled, easing his nausea. “I saw the track. It was still early enough in the evening that I assumed no one had left yet, and I figured the elevator would still be on our level.”
No one spoke until the elevator stopped. They took the few seconds of the ride to appreciate being alive in silence.
When they stopped moving, Sam leapt from the roof of the elevator to an adjacent balcony. They were now on the bottom level of the station, but there was still a sub-basement below them, and enough of a fall that they would certainly die. They moved cautiously, but quickly.
The bottom level consisted primarily of the hangar bay, which was a complete madhouse. Every attendee on the station was fighting to get to their ship and get off the station. Onsite security staff tried to establish order, but the crowd was too big and too frantic. The most they could do was break up the random fights that sparked due to the chaos and escort people to their ships.
The team blended into the pandemonium, slowing to an urgent walk and hoping no one would notice how disheveled they looked. They spread out as they approached a mass of security officers, diffusing their bloodiness so as not to attract attention. They slipped through and reached their ship, not daring to speak until they were all safely aboard.
“Joel and Sam, man the turrets,” Reggie said. “I’ll join Cody on the bridge. At least until we’re clear of the station and I’m sure no one is following us.”
“You think they came here for us?” Cody said.
“Probably not, but we gave them enough of a reason to come looking for us now.”
The team split up and manned their stations.
Cody fired up the engine, but the hangar bay was so congested, he had nowhere to go. He requested permission to launch from the traffic controller several times before getting a response. The woman on the other end of the comm sounded totally fried. It was nearly ten minutes before Ragnarok was cleared to leave.
Cody eased them out of the station then set a course for an empty stretch of space as far from the station as they could get.
“We’re clear,” he said over the general comm.
“Everyone, get to medical and get patched up,” Reggie said. “I’ll man the bridge until someone else can take over.”
Cody felt heavy as he stood. Maybe it was the yet-another near-death experience. Maybe it was the disappointment at being so close to getting the evidence they needed. He should have at least been happy that everyone believed him now. But something nagged at him. Something written in Reggie’s downturned face and slumped shoulders.
“Sorry,” Cody said.
Reggie didn’t seem to hear him at first. He looked up, like he’d just woken from a dream. “What?”
“I was obsessed with finding proof that Layton was behind the infestations. We wouldn’t have been there today if I hadn’t insisted on it.”
Reggie sank into his chair. He looked at his knuckles, bloody and bruised. He tried to make a fist, but couldn’t bear the pain.
“You and Joel were right,” Cody continued. “We’re not security forces. We’re exterminators. We should keep to what we know, not go poking our noses where they don’t belong.” He hung his head and walked toward the exit.
Reggie spun in his chair, following Cody as he passed. “We aren’t law enforcement. But we’re not just exterminators. We’re people. Citizens of the galaxy. You saw a problem, someone doing wrong, and you insisted that we step in to fix it. I’m not mad about that. I’m mad at myself for resisting it for so long. Layton Corp was behind it the whole time, and you knew that. They killed people, and I wanted to look the other way. Thanks for keeping us on track.”
Cody’s mouth hung open. His breath caught in his throat. He wanted to say something, but was terrified that his voice would crack. So he only nodded and left for the medbay.
Reggie spun in circles. The ship drifted without him at the helm to guide it. They’d had it. They’d had the proof in their hands. It all could have been done. Suzz could have been tossed in prison, the infestations and attacks would have stopped, and the team could have gone on their way. Intergalactic Pest Control could have focused on being a growing business.
It wasn’t just that Reggie hadn’t believed Cody from the start that was bothering him—it was the thought of what they would have done if they had caught Suzz. What would he have done if they’d uncovered a massive conspiracy that had killed dozens, cost billions and threatened to leave tens of thousands without jobs? Go back to killing rats? How could he go back to business as usual after something like that?
Though, thinking about it, they had no business as usual. All of their jobs had been related to Layton and Dr. Suzz.
He felt like the ship, drifting.
The long-range comm blinked, alerting him that he had an incoming call. Thinking it could be a job or Dewayne, he answered it. Had he known it was his parents, he would have let it ring.
“Reginald, what in the name of Jeezum Crow happened to your face?” His mom’s voice reached a shrill pitch that Reggie had never heard before.
“My goodness, Reg,” said his dad. “Are you okay? Do you need me to call someone?”
Reggie sank further into his chair. “No, I’m fine. We just finished a job. Well, kind of. It didn’t exactly go as planned.”
His mother said something, a comment that quickly morphed into one, unending slew of concern and judgment. Reggie didn’t register any of it.
His dad noticed the dark mood that was swallowing his son. He placed a gentle hand on his wife’s shoulder, a subtle gesture to the outside observer, but in the context of a thirty-year marriage, it was as obvious as if it had been painted on the wall.
She quieted, and then she, too, noticed that something was bothering her son.
“What’s up, Reg?” his dad said. “The job go poorly?”
Reggie’s immediate thought was Yes, absolutely. But he didn’t want to rehash it. He didn’t want sympathy for a potentially lost contract.
“Dad, how did you know you liked your job? That it was something you wanted to do for the rest of your life?”
Reggie’s father considered the question…though it seemed more like he was considering whether he wanted to give the answer he already had, not trying to determine what that answer was.
“Can I be honest with you, son?”
“Please.”
“I don’t like my job.”
Reggie’s mom looked shocked. She slapped her husband on the shoulder. “Don’t tell him that.”
“No,” Reggie interjected. “I want to know. Honestly.”
“I never liked my job,” his dad said. “Not to say I dislike it very much either. It’s just my job. It’s what I do Monday through Friday, nine to five. It’s what I do in between all of the things that I actually want to do. It’s what allows me to do the things I want to do.”
“Like what?”
“Like own a house. Have a family. Play golf. Buy the trailer that I got last year so your mother and I can finally take that cross-country trip we’ve always wanted to take. Buy a space ticket one day so we can fly out and meet you.” He wrapped his arm around his wife. “Your job do
esn’t have to be what defines you. Your career doesn’t need to be the only thing in your life that fulfills you. It shouldn’t be. You should have lots of things that bring you joy.” He squeezed Reggie’s mom tightly against him.
Her smile at that moment was one of the most genuine expressions that Reggie had ever seen on her face.
“Do you understand what I’m saying, son?”
“Yeah,” Reggie said to his dad. “I do.”
“Good,” his mom said. “Now maybe you can tell me about this job you just had. What sort of pest could do that to your face?”
Reggie wiped some dried blood from his nose. “Humans.”
“The worst kind of pests,” his dad said with a smile.
His mom elbowed him in the side. “This isn’t funny. What are you doing fighting people? I thought you killed bugs and rodents and such. Was this a job, or were you just fighting people? Was it that Sam person?”
“No, Mom, it wasn’t Sam. It’s hard to explain. The job has gotten bigger than I ever thought it would. Pulled us in a direction I never expected. It put more pressure on me than I thought it would. I always thought this would be a great way to make some money, to build something of my own with my friends. A way to stay out of a cubicle. Freedom.” His voice fell away, pulled down by some unseen weight. “But, on this latest job, I learned something. There’s a person who’s hurting other people. Targeting them so she can get revenge or something, get rich. And we might have the ability to stop her.”
“And that’s not the freedom you wanted,” his father finished for him. “That’s more responsibility than you bargained for.”
“Yeah.” A spark of excitement lit in Reggie, thinking that his dad understood him.
“Too bad,” his dad said, and that spark went out. “You don’t always get to choose what’s expected of you. You choose what you give, how you meet those expectations, and then you live with your decision. But you can’t wish away the fact that you have the opportunity to do the right thing when no one else can.”
His dad sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t think you want to, anyway. I think you want this responsibility. You’re just afraid to take it. Because that means letting go of that idea of freedom you had. It means growing up.”
Silence filled the bridge. A silence that betrayed the noise in Reggie’s heart.
He wanted to yell his appreciation, but instead said, “Thanks, Dad.”
A sound from behind him startled him.
“That was beautiful.”
Reggie turned to see Joel leaning against the wall, pretending to wipe away a tear.
“Joel!” both of Reggie’s parents yelled, full of joy.
And the touching moment was dead. Joel sauntered in like he owned the place. Though, he partially did, so Reggie could forgive that. But even though he had just experienced one of the most honest and heartfelt moments of his life with his parents, he had no patience for their gushing over Joel.
Reggie’s mom clapped her hands over her mouth in a horrified gesture. “They got you too? Those barbarians.”
Joel brushed it off. “You should see them.”
Reggie’s dad started shadowboxing. “I bet you gave them the old one-two, didn’t you?”
Joel mirrored Reggie’s dad, shuffling around the bridge and throwing punches. “I gave them the old one-two-three!”
The two of them erupted in laughter.
Reggie wanted to puke on them.
The laughter stopped suddenly.
“I’m all patched up if you want to—” Cody froze as soon as he stepped onto the bridge and saw the huge images of Reggie’s parents. Their jovial faces turned to ones of scorn and disapproval.
“You seem to have gotten off without so much as a scratch,” Reggie’s mom said. “Someone not pulling his weight?”
“What? No. I just came from the medbay. I cleaned up all the blood. Injected medical nanites.” Cody fumbled with his words, trying to justify his clean appearance. He realized that the more he spoke, the bigger the hole he dug. Reggie’s mom only seemed to grow more skeptical. “Never mind,” he muttered.
Reggie’s mom stared lasers into Cody’s chest. They burned holes through him. But they also seemed to light something on fire, igniting an indignation inside him that he’d never felt, empowering him enough to voice it.
“No, you know what? Screw that.” Cody’s jaw tightened.
Reggie’s parents looked like they’d just watched a vagrant take a dump on their lawn.
“I do a lot for this team,” Cody continued. “I pilot the ship. I do absolutely everything computer related. I’m the one who insisted we follow the leads on Layton. I don’t know if Reggie told you about that, but it’s a pretty big deal. Corporate conspiracy type stuff. People have died. Whatever. Point is, I’m an important part of this team and this business and I don’t deserve to be shit on by you every time you pop by for a chat.”
The bridge filled with stunned silence. Reggie’s parents blinked, the only sign that they hadn’t been frozen. When it looked like the silence would stretch on forever, Joel finally spoke.
“Glory hog,” he said out of the corner of his mouth.
“I didn’t want to say it,” Reggie’s dad said, “but I thought it. That is not the way to be part of a team. Trying to take all the credit for yourself.”
“And that language,” Reggie’s mom said. “I’m calling your mother as soon we finish here. Shameful.”
The flame of indignation that had burned so bright in Cody’s chest was doused. His heart was a cold, frigid lump again. “Fuck it,” he mumbled under his breath.
“Language,” Reggie’s mom snapped. She seemed ready to tear into him some more when her face froze again. It was stuck in a different look of shock. Not the horrified kind, like with Cody’s outburst, but like she’d just witnessed the birth of a rainbow. “Oh my.”
She looked at something behind the guys. They turned to see what had elicited such a reaction.
Sam stood in the doorway. She felt like she’d just walked into the middle of a funeral.
“Who is that lovely, young woman?” Reggie’s mom asked.
Reggie raised his eyebrow. “Mom, that’s Sam. The newest member of the team? You’ve met her before.”
Reggie’s mother’s mouth fell open. “Why, yes, of course. I didn’t…I didn’t recognize her without that horrid mask.”
Sam’s eyes darkened.
“I’m so glad you decided to get rid of it,” his mom continued. “Such a frightful accessory. And it hid such a lovely face. Why would you ever wear such a thing?”
This was exactly the reason she wore the mask. People like Reggie’s mom. People who made snap judgments based on a glance. She hadn’t wanted anything to do with Sam when she wore the mask. She was no different than Millie, who’d wanted nothing to do with the Notches, who was perfectly willing to throw them under the bus until they proved useful.
Sam remembered slapping Millie, and a smile spread across her face. Even though it was rooted in her pleasure at wiping the smile off someone else’s face, the fact that she could smile at all at that moment was significant. It was a subtle action that signified a significant change.
She didn’t care about Reggie’s mom. She didn’t care about Millie anymore, or any of the countless people in the galaxy exactly like her. Sam wore the mask to protect herself from those people. From everyone who would look down on her. The caretakers at her orphanage. The people who passed her by on the street when she had her hand out. The gang leaders who would view her self-consciousness as weakness. And it worked.
But it also protected her from people like Reggie, Joel, and Cody. From people who would be true friends. Family.
She wasn’t afraid anymore. Of the Millies or the Reggies. The people who would shun her or the people who would welcome her as a sister. She was ready to be seen by them all.
“Asthma,” was all she said in response to Reggie’s mother’s q
uestion.
Reggie’s mom seemed to suspect there was more to Sam’s answer, but also knew enough not to press the issue. She changed the subject instead. “I suppose you’ll be leaving the ship now, then?”
Sam raised her eyebrows. “Why would I do that?”
“A beautiful, young woman like you doesn’t want to be stuck on a ship with three smelly boys.”
Joel and Cody wanted to object to being called smelly. Reggie wanted to melt into human goo and seep between the seams in the floor.
“I won’t be going anywhere,” Sam said.
“Thank god for that,” Reggie said, mustering his spine. “Otherwise we’d be dead ten times over.”
“At least,” Joel added.
“And we wouldn’t have this business. Or this amazing ship,” Cody said.
Reggie’s parents leaned forward, suddenly interested. This annoyed Sam. Again, they were dismissive of her until her value was made known.
“What do you mean?” Reggie’s dad wanted to know.
The guys regaled them with all of their adventures and all of the times Sam had saved their asses. Cody took great delight in telling them about the times Sam had saved Joel from utter humiliation with various women.
When the guys finished talking, Reggie’s parents leaned back again the way one does after eating a large meal.
“So,” his mom said. “You aren’t trying to date my son? Or any of them?”
“Too busy keeping them alive,” Sam said. “Even if I wasn’t, no, I’m not. They’re like brothers.”
His parents smiled, genuine smiles of appreciation. They nodded to Sam, said goodbye to everyone, and ended the transmission.
The team looked at each other, facing in at the center of a circle. Reggie’s anxiety melted away. They had all just barely escaped another situation that could have easily killed them. It would have killed many others, had they taken the team’s place. Sure, they’d failed to get what they were searching for, and they may have made their presence known to a mega-powerful sociopath…
But they were happy. They were more of a team than ever.
An alarm sounded on the monitor panel.
Reggie groaned. “That’s not my parents again, is it?”
