The Pan galaxy had long been swallowing up the Loop, one cluster at a time. Eon by eon, the two collided under unfathomable forces.
Molly wondered what lives were being lived on distant systems like the one where Bethany Anne had come from. Or the one her great-grandparents had fled. She wondered about the races that had come together to live collectively and cooperatively, and the ones that had continued to wage war across whatever silly bit of territory they convinced themselves they owned.
She thought about how they were doing in comparison to these other systems. Here, they had Estarians and Oggs, Secorians and Teshovians, peppered with the occasional human cities and groups. They’d survived like this for a few centuries at least, but there were still telltale signs of the years before the Great Unrest. There were still prejudices and class systems and unconscious, as well as conscious, exclusions.
She felt it every time she walked into a bar, or every time she needed to declare her human designation on a government form.
And as much as it made her feel uncomfortable and out of place, the Sark System was her home. And very soon she was going to have to leave it.
“You doing okay?” Joel looked across at her. Even though Oz was doing the driving, he still felt the need to keep an eye on the road.
Paige was asleep in the backseat, exhausted from the whole ordeal. Joel had given her something to help with the anxiety, and it had probably helped her to sleep.
“Yeah. Lucky to be alive, I guess”, answered Molly, uncharacteristically contemplative.
“Yeah. Not often severe inebriation actually saves your life. Definitely one of those stories that will become legendary as we build up this team,” his gentle chuckle helped her accept his very mild rebuke.
Molly smiled sheepishly.
She glanced over at him. “Hey, look. I’m sorry about before. The trading, and Oz. I just…I didn’t think, and when you called me on it, it just made me feel like I couldn’t do anything right.” She paused a moment before adding, “I’m sorry I reacted so badly.”
Joel could tell she was sorry. Molly couldn’t tell if that was forgiveness or pity in his eyes, though.
“It’s okay, ass-munch. I went in pretty hard on you. I expect you to think like I do, but I know at your core,” he breathed deeply and let it out, “you’re a geek.”
She looked over at him, raising an eyebrow, “Was that meant to sound patronizing?”
“Just a little,” he grinned. Molly knew he had a point.
“I’m going to put it all right. We’ll find the money some other way—a way that you agree with. And I’ll talk these things through with you in the future.”
“And I’ll look forward to lots of interesting, productive debates.” He laughed, and Molly slapped him gently on his side.
“Seriously, though. I get it. As a scientist, you’re bound to process these decisions differently. And that is going to be one of our strengths as a team.”
She snorted. “And you think like a human being, and that’s going to allow us to actually keep a team.” Molly replied, half in jest, but inside she knew it was true. “I’ll keep learning. One day, Joel Dunham. One day I’ll make you proud of my people abilities.”
He looked around before glancing over at her, “Just as long as you keep your geekiness too.”
Paige had woken up a little; she felt drowsy and anxious at the same time. She’d traded a few messages back and forth with Garet before they started driving. Molly had warned her that the jammer was deactivated and any of Dewitt’s people might still be trying to locate them, but it was just so hard not to be in contact.
In Garet’s last message, he’d promised her he’d find the best restaurant in whatever godforsaken off-world community they ended up in, and take her for pizza to celebrate her successful survival.
If she were honest, she couldn’t wait for some semblance of normalcy. She used to crave adventure but today wasn’t the kind of adventure she had meant. She sighed, and let the drowsiness help her drift off again.
“So, did you kill Dewitt?” Joel looked across again at Molly, having made sure that Oz was steering them in the right direction.
Molly glanced back at Paige, as if to say “not in front of the children.”
Joel took the hint, but Molly answered quietly anyway. “My weapon was set to stun. But I used his. You?”
“Nope. Didn’t even need to fire it.” He paused looking out at the road, but clearly wanting to say something.
Molly watched him. Waiting.
Joel glanced at her, his eyes making contact. “You know, you’ve crossed a line you can’t uncross.”
She nodded. He looked back at the road, then returned to her. “You ok?”
She nodded again.
Joel thought she looked numb. Her chest had collapsed in, probably because of the weight of what had just happened. Her shoulders were tense and her facial expression blank.
He wanted to reach over and hold her, but he couldn’t. For one, it was damned awkward in the car. Second, Paige was there and finally, Molly was skittish about that kind of thing at the best of times.
And even if she did just need to be wrapped up in his arms and reassured right now, she’d never tell him.
We’re arriving at the port in thirty seconds.
“Okay, we’re almost there,” Molly communicated, rousing herself from the numbness. She gathered up the bag she’d been nursing on her lap since just after her dramatic entrance into the vehicle.
Oz took them down to ground level and into the driveway entrance. They gave their names at the security gate, and followed the Ogg’s directions around to hangar 08771A.
As they approached, they noticed a car following them in. Oz pulled the car over right outside their hangar, and the other car tucked in behind them on the towpath.
“Looks like our boys,” remarked Joel. “Ready to meet the gentlemen who are going to get us off-world?” he called back to Paige, who was now mostly awake again.
“You betcha!” Despite having been kidnapped, nearly killed, and feeling a little drugged and sleepy still, her spirits were high.
Joel had seen it before. It was the relief. It wouldn’t last. He knew that within twelve hours she would crash and probably hit some form of depression or post-traumatic stress. And that’s when she’d need them and Garet the most.
That’s when she would need to belong to a team that had her back and was on her side. As a twenty-five-year-old half Estarian/half human, she was probably no stranger to being an outsider, so Joel prepared himself for the potential difficulty of getting through to her.
He knew what he was going to do for the next twelve hours: anchor in as much friendship and team spirit and support with her as he could, so she had something to hold on to.
Nothing could get in the way of this.
He just needed to make sure he briefed Molly on his plan too. Not that she’d deliberately throw a spanner in the works, but Molly was Molly.
They emptied out of the car and made their greetings to Crash and Brock.
“What’s your real name?” Paige asked Crash.
“Chris Ashworth. But that’s just too boring, so I go by my call sign,” he grinned.
“Yes, boring and straight-laced, which ain't nothing like your personality!” teased Brock, waving his fingers like he was sprinkling his old friend with fairy dust.
“So, you guys know each other?” Paige asked innocently.
Crash hesitated.
Brock took over the conversation. “You bet we know each other. We served together for eight looooong years. We have some war stories to tell you later.” He draped his arm around Paige, and wandered over to the hangar door. Joel wondered for a moment if Brock could tell what she had been through, or whether he was always just this friendly. Something told him Brock wasn’t interested in girls, and that made him spontaneously bringing Paige under his wing all the sweeter. He smiled to himself.
The team really seemed to be bonding instinctively.
“Okay, let’s get this baby open!” announced Molly, pulling up the holo details and rallying her new gang over to the hangar door.
She went through the unlocking procedure that she’d been sent by the vendors in the event that they wouldn’t be present for the handover.
After a sequence of retinal scans and code confirmations, the handover was complete. She keyed the final code into a different keypad to open the hangar door.
The enormous door rolled upwards, revealing the interior one rotation on the cog at a time.
“WHOOP!” a sudden yell occurred in the quiet. “That is one badass motherfucker of a ship!” exclaimed Brock, echoing everyone’s thoughts.
“Can we call it ‘Serenity’?” he asked, referencing the famous human sci-fi show from the archives.
Crash was straight in with a response. “No, we damn well can’t! You know what happened to that bird? I ain’t doing no leaf in the wind kinda shit.”
The group erupted in laughter. All except Joel, who just looked at them, having completely missed the reference.
“We’ll name her eventually,” said Molly. “But right now, we need to get off-world as soon as possible. Any news on the supplies?” She looked to Brock and Crash.
Crash responded. “No, nothing. And we asked the gate to let us know if anything came in.”
Okay, Oz, can you check into that and let them know we have possession, so we’re ready for them any time now?
On it.
She turned back to the group. “The sellers assured me she was ready to fly, and all the paperwork says so too. But we need to do our own checks as part of the taking-possession sequence.” She turned back to Crash and Brock. “That’s why you gentlemen are here at this godforsaken hour.”
“Nah uh. That’s why I am here,” Brock corrected her. Then he jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “He’s just here to look pretty, you know what I mean?”
The group laughed again.
“Anyway, I’ve got work to do. Have they sent over the checklists and manuals yet?” Crash asked Molly.
Molly looked at her holo. “Yeah, lemme send the bundle to you both and then you can get going.” Molly pulled up the info packs they needed and bumped holos with them each in turn, transferring the files.
Joel stepped in, getting the rest of the group organized.
“All right, we have a plan. Crash and Brock will get going with the possession checks and preflight, and take receipt of the supplies when they get here. The rest of us will get back to the safe house to pack up and collect Garet. Then we’ll meet back here soon as we can.”
Everyone seemed to be in agreement. As Joel and Paige got back into the car, Molly told Crash and Brock, “if you need anything, just holo. Parts, approvals, anything.”
The pair nodded.
“How are you fixed for leaving when we’re set? Say by noon tomorrow? Is that reasonable for the checks?” She glanced at Brock to see if her request was practical.
Crash answered instead. “Yeah. It’s possible. I’ll need to cycle back home to pick up my kit, but that works for me. Brock?”
“Yo, I’m ready to go as soon as this bird is. My gear is in my car.”
The two looked happy. They had their work cut out for them, but this was the mission of a lifetime—and they got to call the shots without any technical supervisors or interference.
“Excellent.” Molly grinned at their forming team.
Molly got into the car while talking with Oz in her head.
Okay, we still need to find a safe house. When we leave tomorrow, we need to know what direction we’re going, at least. Can you draw up a short list based on the criteria we already started working on?
Of course. I’ll have something for you to review soon.
Perfect.
Chapter 21
The Dewitt Residence, Kensington Quarter
Detective Chaakwa Indius stood in the middle of one of the most beautiful kitchens she’d ever seen, looking over the mangled body of William Dewitt.
He was riddled with bullet holes; someone wasn’t leaving his demise to chance.
The rest of her team circulated, collecting intel and assisting the forensic science teams. There were blood samples in this room and the one above. Some were already known to be Estarian, but there was one Estarian/human sample. That would narrow the search down.
She wandered through the living room, where everything was pretty much undisturbed.
“Make sure we get 3D scans of everything. I want to be able to walk every room of this place in simulation down the line; this was a hit. We need to treat it as such. We’ll find the sons of bitches that did this”
“Never had you pegged as a homicide kinda girl.”
She looked up. There was a handsome Ogg standing in the doorway, casually taking notes on his holo.
“I never had you pegged as a guy who crashed other officers’ crime scenes,” she responded without missing a beat.
“Good to see you, Chaakwa,” he replied, smiling.
“You too. Now get out of my crime scene,” she grinned back.
“Captain said you might need some help. Purely advisory, of course. I know better than to poach your cases.”
“Well, since you’re here, I wouldn’t say no.” She paused. “As long as you have no intention of poaching this case off me?”
Detective Antonio Rogers made a cross over his middle where his heart would have been.
“Well, good then. I was going to try and reconstruct what happened upstairs. Care to join me?”
“Lead the way!” He made a majestic gesture towards the doorway he’d been standing in, and Chaakwa mock-bowed as she carefully extracted herself from the room, watching where she was walking to avoid accidentally treading on evidence.
“What’s going on here?” Antonio asked, following her up the stairs.
“I’m not sure yet. We’re still trying to figure out exactly how many people were here. Dewitt would have had security, but they’re nowhere to be seen. From the blast pattern, it looks like military equipment was used to take the door out quickly and quietly. Military haven’t admitted to any involvement yet. So we’re working on the theory that this was a paramilitary group with instructions to silence Dewitt before we got to him.”
She mentioned the blood samples.
“The half-human one might prove useful,” he agreed. “Perhaps even traceable, if they’re in the system.” With his experience on homicide, Antonio knew that these things could take a bit of investigation to get all the elements involved tied together. Truth be told, he didn’t think he could crack this case without the insight Chaakwa had into the political scene.
He was glad just to be assisting on this case.
And there was no doubt in either of their minds that this was politically motivated, considering the story that had just broken.
“We’re canvassing the area in case anyone heard anything that might help, and one of the guys is working on getting into the security footage,” Detective Indius continued briefing him.
She led the way up the wraparound staircase Joel and Molly had bolted up less than an hour before.
“This is the room where we found the only other blood source. The half-and-half.”
She walked in and opened the closet where Paige had been kept. “We think he may have had a hostage, and that the blood is from a graze or a head wound. Not enough for a bullet injury.”
“Let’s put a rush on that blood sample. That person may be our only witness to what went down here,” Antonio suggested.
“You think they got away? Safely?” asked Chaakwa, a sense of urgency returning to her voice.
“Hard to tell with the state of the place. It does look like a professional intervention. If the second force was related to the other bad guys, it doesn’t bode well. It may be a continued hostage situation.”
Safe house, fifty kilometers west of Uptarlung
Returning from the Spaceport, Oz pulled the car up at the safe house. Garet came running out and barely let Paige get out of the car before he had his arms around her.
“I was so worried,” he told her. “Are you okay?” He fussed and helped her into the house. Paige was looking fatigued again, despite dozing in the car.
Joel noticed Molly watching them as they went into the house. The two of them remained in the car.
Joel spoke. “She’s going to crash in a few hours. She won’t be herself for a while, and we’re going to have to help her deal with that.”
“What do you mean, ‘not herself’?” Molly was genuinely curious. This Sarkian insight shit was beyond her.
“Well, she’s going to be moody. Cranky. She’ll probably say things that she doesn’t really mean, simply because she’s trying to figure out what happened to her, and why it happened to her and not someone else. Her relationship with Garet will probably shift too.”
“How?” asked Molly, her eyes on the open door. Light was spilling out of the house and onto the gravel. For a second she remembered the last time she had been here, then forced her attention back to what Joel was saying.
“Well, if their bond isn’t that strong, she’s going to eventually see that all this was because of him and that she doesn’t want to be with him anymore.”
“Ha! Well, she practically fessed up to that before we were taken. I guess the kidnapping gives her a nice out.” Molly’s voice was cynical.
If anyone else were there Joel would have found it inappropriate, but he couldn’t help smiling at her interpretation of the situation.
“Saves her doing the whole ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ thing!” he agreed.
Molly’s eyes, only half-seeing and somewhat trancelike, were still fixed on the open door. “Reckon we should get our asses inside?”
“Sure.” Joel got out and grabbed some of his gear, then went around to the other side to help Molly, who was moving a little slower. He had thought that by talking with her about Paige’s reaction, he might make her aware that she would probably go through something similar.
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 20
