A Pale Light in the Black

by K. B. Wagers

  Jenks spotted a few Marines, and exchanged a wave across the crowded floor before she boosted herself up on the bar. “Casper!”

  The bartender and owner of Drinking Games broke into a wide smile that lifted the pair of silver rings in his right eyebrow and made his severe face a little less murderous. “Leeroy Jenkins!”

  Jenks laughed and leaned forward so he could kiss her. “The one and only. How’s business?”

  “About to go through the roof. You ready to kick some ass? I’m hearing rumors that Navy is looking to knock you off your throne.”

  “Never happen. Can I get a water, two beers, and whatever Tamago wants?”

  “Hello, my darling,” Casper said, holding out a hand that Tamago took and squeezed.

  “How’s your boys?”

  “Amazing as always. Usual for you?”

  Jenks grinned as Casper wiggled the bottle of ouzo he’d grabbed at Tamago. The man had a mind like a steel trap and it still impressed her he could remember their drinks from year to year.

  “Beers for you and Sapphi—I got something new from a synth-brewer up in the Rockies I think you’ll both like. Is the water for your new lieutenant?”

  “Look who’s been reading up on us,” Jenks murmured.

  Casper grinned again. “More like watching the news. You all have been familiar faces lately. How’s Nika?”

  “He’s all right.” Jenks smiled. “Yes to the lieutenant. Max doesn’t drink.”

  “Duly noted. Send her to me if she gets tired of water and I’ll make her something nonalcoholic.” At Jenks’s second nod, Casper turned his attention to the drinks.

  “Oh look, it’s the NeoG,” said a familiar voice from behind them.

  “Could be worse,” Jenks replied with a smile as she turned and leaned her elbows on the bar. “We could have been called the Space Force. How’s your nose, Chad? Looks like it healed straight.”

  Sergeant Chad Chikowski stared down at her for a long moment before he broke into laughter and scooped her into a hug, lifting her off her feet. “Marry me, Jenks.”

  “You kidding? I know what you get paid.” But Jenks gave him a smacking kiss as he set her back down and turned to the wide-eyed woman standing just behind the Air Force sergeant. “Petty Officer Altandai Khan. Everyone calls me Jenks.”

  “Senior Aero Tali Jaya.” She wasn’t much taller than Jenks, with a pretty, heart-shaped face and stunning green eyes. She stuck her hand out. “It’s really great to meet you.”

  “Tali’s a big fan,” Chiko said, one arm slung over Tamago’s shoulders.

  “And you didn’t tell her you knew me, did you? Just came over here looking like you’re gonna start shit and give her a heart attack.” Jenks elbowed him before reaching out to shake Tali’s hand. “Nice to meet you, too. You competing or watching?”

  “She’s fighting,” Chiko said. “You’ll see her in the cage, hopefully.”

  “Oh, that’s cruel.” Jenks grinned and winked at Tali. “Let me buy you a drink then and tell you about the time I broke Chiko’s nose.”

  “Cold, Jenks, that’s so cold.”

  “You need me to buy your drink, too, princess?” she asked him with a grin, and dodged his answering swing.

  “You owe me a drink for the nose.”

  “You all got your seats already?” she asked after passing their orders to Casper and pressing her hand to the paypad he held out to her.

  “Taken care of,” Chiko replied.

  She grabbed her beer and Max’s water as the others picked up theirs and Tamago took Sapphi’s beer along with their drink before all of them wound their way through the press of people back to the tables.

  “Hey,” she said when she spotted Luis, tipping her face up for a kiss without thinking. “I didn’t think you were coming until later. Where’s Nika?”

  “He was tired and told me to go on without him, so I wrapped up early.” Luis smiled and kissed her. “I’ll get my own beer. Hey, Chiko.”

  “That’s a new development,” Chad said with a grin at Jenks. “We being public about our affections now?”

  “Shut up.” She dropped into her seat and passed Max her water. “Lieutenant Max Carmichael, I am sorry to introduce you, but it will happen one way or another. Sergeant Chad Chikowski: smartmouth, decent fighter, but overall pain in my ass. This, however, is Senior Aero Tali Jaya. She seems like a much better sort. I’m assuming she’s just stuck with him because they’re on the same team. Tali, have a seat.”

  “Nice to meet you, Max.” Chad threw a salute and then clapped Luis on the shoulder. “I’ll escort Armstrong to the bar so I can get all the good gossip.”

  Max surprised her and introduced Tali around to the table, so Jenks sat back and drank her beer, cataloging all the people who wandered into her line of sight. An hour passed, Tali and Chiko retreating to their own space as more NeoG fans and fellow Neos joined them in the corner. Max was deep in a serious-looking discussion with D’Arcy. Tamago was on the dance floor, enjoying themselves with eyes closed and body swaying.

  Jenks was three beers in, leaning comfortably against Luis’s shoulder and moving her head to the music, when Sapphi came around the table to sit next to her.

  “Navy is strangely absent tonight,” Sapphi murmured in Jenks’s ear. “Though I spotted Chau and Willington staking out tables when I went upstairs earlier.”

  “You went upstairs alone?”

  “What do you think I am, a newbie? I did warn Max about that, by the way. Naw, D’Arcy went with me. Good thing about having a man with a mysterious rap sheet longer than I am tall on our team.” Sapphi grinned. “Nobody came near us. We think Max is famous? They all know who he is.”

  “You haven’t found out anything about who they got to replace Holden, have you?”

  “Locked down tight,” Sapphi confirmed with a nod. She made a little face. “There are rumors swirling like mad they’ve got some ringer who’s going to beat your pants off.”

  “Ha!” Jenks took a drink of her beer. “Unlikely, but whatever. Let me know if you find something out.”

  “Oh, you know I will. They’re messing with my projections and it is pissing me off. Hey, speaking of assholes.” She raised her voice as a trio of naval personnel approached. “Chau, you figure out how to hack a level-one passcode yet?”

  “Fuck you, Zika.”

  “Your mama maybe. You? Not in a million years, sweet cheeks.”

  Jenks reached for her beer, eyeing the trio over the top of the glass. “Rude to turn off your handshakes, Chau. I know Willington there.” She pointed at the slender pilot on his left. “Who’s your friend? My new toy?”

  “Maybe,” Chau replied, but there was something about his smirk that told Jenks they were just playing with her. Still, she was never one to underestimate an opponent, so she eyed the brawny ginger for a long moment before taking another drink.

  “Well, if you’re not going to be polite and introduce them, run along. You’re ruining the music with your face.”

  Chau flipped her off and turned on his heel, the others following him across the dance floor.

  “Wow, are we going to make it through the first night without a fight?” Luis said.

  “Nope,” Jenks said. She was up and out of her chair as Willington shoulder-checked Tamago with enough force to send the petty officer flying into the crowd. Jenks launched herself at him and tackled the spacer from behind, knocking him into a crowd of people on the other side of the dance floor.

  Jenks got in two good punches before someone pulled her off, and the only reason she checked her punch was because there was a good chance it was Luis.

  It was not.

  The blow to her jaw was hard enough to ring her bell and sent her staggering back into the arms of an onlooker. “Kick his ass, Jenks!” they shouted, setting her upright and pushing her forward toward the unknown ginger. Before she could do much more than make eye contact with him, Max hit the guy like a ship coming out of a wormhole.

&n
bsp; They crashed into another table, the occupants of that one able to scramble out of the way before they were tangled up in the fight.

  Willington was still down, but Jenks spotted Chau and gestured. “Don’t start none,” she said with a grin just before Luis and Ito intervened.

  “Break it up. Get your men and get out.” Luis pointed at Willington as he groaned on the floor.

  “They assaulted us!”

  Jenks took a step forward, but Luis put a hand on her upper chest. Behind Chau she could see D’Arcy trying to wrangle Max as she spit curses at the unconscious man on the floor and unsuccessfully swallowed a laugh.

  “Everyone saw Willington hit Tamago,” Luis replied calmly. “But if you really want to call the cops and go through the procedure, we can. I hear the brig here is pretty nice.”

  “Or we could take this outside,” Jenks said. “Come on, big guy. You wanna fight me? I’ll break you in half.”

  “You’re going to pay for this, Jenks!” Chau swore even as the crowd started to close between them, ushering him and his companions away.

  “Die mad about it!” Jenks shouted from over Luis’s shoulder as he lifted her up and carried her back to the table. They were greeted by cheers when he set her down and Jenks laughed at the sigh only she could hear.

  “You are a horrible influence, Dai,” he murmured with a chuckle.

  “I am the best sort of influence.”

  People were clustered around Max, laughing and slapping her on the back. Jenks caught her eye, smiled, and tapped her fist twice to her heart before holding it up. Max echoed the gesture with a grin.

  Letters

  Commander Martín/Rosa—

  I regret to inform you that we lost the tail on the men from the bar. They vanished somewhere near Cairo despite our best efforts. It was a risk, but I don’t know how else we could have held them without some kind of charge (and we all know the bar fight was wholly Jenks’s fault).

  However, we’re having luck elsewhere. I’ve been informed that PeaceKeeper forces on Trappist-1e have located two more laboratories suspected of producing the LifeEx dupe. They’re serving warrants and raiding the places as I write this.

  Our forces have locked down on traffic into and out of Trappist. So far no more ships containing the dupe serum have been apprehended. I don’t think we’re entirely in the clear, but I think we’re getting there.

  V/R

  —Commander Yevchenko/Stephan

  Stephan—

  Thanks for the update. Will pass it along.

  —Rosa

  T-minus Three Days until the Boarding Games

  “Nervous?”

  “A little,” Max admitted, glancing over her shoulder at D’Arcy and then back at the growing crowd.

  “Don’t sweat it too much. The press will mostly focus on Jenks. She doesn’t mind it.”

  As if to prove his words, the crowd suddenly erupted into cheers and Jenks lifted her arms into the air as she came through the door. There was a broad grin on her face and her spiked hair was done up in alternating stripes of blue and green. A rush of reporters surrounded her, shouting questions, and she shouted answers back, clearly enjoying herself.

  “Lieutenant Carmichael!”

  Max jerked as a reporter called her name.

  “You don’t have to talk to them, if you don’t want to,” D’Arcy murmured as the man headed their way. “I like to just glare until they go away.”

  “Somehow I don’t think I’m imposing enough for that.” Max pasted that practiced smile from her childhood onto her face instead.

  Please don’t let me say anything wrong.

  “Lieutenant Carmichael, I’m Anatol Grace with Military Sports Network. This is your very first Boarding Games, how are you feeling?”

  “We’re ready to go, it should be a good competition.”

  “I’m sure you’re familiar with the Orbital Guard’s epic failure in last year’s Games?”

  D’Arcy stiffened at her side, but Max kept her smile in place. “I’m not sure I’d call coming in second place among such a difficult crop of competitors an ‘epic failure,’ Anatol, but yes, I’m aware of last year’s performance.”

  “Your older brother, Scott, is on the CHNN’s returning championship team. How do you feel about going up against him?”

  Max froze, but thankfully D’Arcy came to her rescue, leaning forward with a smile.

  “Max here is in the hand-to-hand competition, whereas her brother is a sword guy. So she’ll likely see him in the Boarding Action, but other than that all she’s got to worry about is Jenks over there.”

  “Lieutenant!”

  Max looked to see Rosa waving at her and then glanced back at the newscaster. “Sorry, have to go.” She turned and headed for Rosa, D’Arcy following beside her.

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem, kiddo. You’ll want to start prepping some answers about your competition, though. Those questions come hard and fast during the Games. Especially during the formal interviews, tomorrow. And even I can’t get out of those.”

  “I’ll be all right.”

  “I know.” D’Arcy chuckled. “As long as I don’t have to peel you off a reporter it’s fine by me.” He dodged her swing with a laugh and headed across the mats to where Locke sat.

  Max blew out a breath. She’d done the prep with Sapphi already and been to all the meetings so far about their competitors, but apparently questions about her family were still going to throw her for a loop.

  That’s what she needed to get over and fast, because she could almost guarantee someone would ask her tomorrow.

  The gymnasium where the bulk of the Games would take place was currently a riot of noise and people. Workers on the far end were putting the final cages together, while on the other end she spotted the blue-on-black uniforms of the Navy team congregated around one of the sword arenas.

  “You holding up?” Jenks asked, tapping Max on the arm. “You’ve got that wide-eyed, ‘what have I done’ look on your face.”

  “Feeling it a bit,” she admitted. “How do you do so well with all these reporters?”

  “Practice, mostly?” Jenks replied with a shrug. “It’s just part of the show. But I like being in the spotlight and I know you don’t. Don’t sweat it, LT. You can totally be the mysterious one if you want. Even in the formal interviews, just give the bare-minimum answers.”

  “Won’t that make me—” Max saw the movement out of the corner of her eye and reacted on instinct alone, catching the blur rushing at Jenks with an arm across their chest. She stepped into the move, putting her hip into theirs and dropping them to the floor.

  The silence was broken by laughter. First Jenks and then the person Max had just body-slammed.

  “Holy shit, Jenks, did you hire a bodyguard?” They were laughing so hard they could barely get the words out.

  “Sorry.” Max felt her face heat and stepped back, hands up.

  Jenks put a hand on her shoulder, still wheezing with laughter. “Candy’s fine, Max. Well, they’re a Marine, so that’s a variable.” She reached past Max and stuck out a hand with a grin. “Haven’t you heard? People are trying to kill me.”

  “Trying and failing,” Max corrected.

  The slender person in front of her bounced from one foot to the other after Jenks pulled them into a hug and grinned. “We’ve been on the outer rim doing mining patrols for a month. The Boondock Saints were with us so we could practice, and they didn’t bother sending us back until yesterday.”

  “Figures.” Jenks shot Max a look. “Marines don’t care much about the Games. Candy, this is my teammate Lieutenant Max Carmichael. Max, meet Corporal Flynn Candance.”

  “Nice to meet you, Lieutenant,” Flynn said. They rubbed a hand over their shaved head, which was decorated with what Max thought were brightly colored pieces of candy. “Don’t get us wrong. The Games are fun and all. We’ve just got better things to do out there.”

  Jenks punched them in the shoul
der. “So you think. I know better. You’re all playing pranks on each other and bitching about your lives.”

  “Hey, Jenks,” Nika said, coming up on Max’s right side. He was out of the wheelchair, but moving slowly with a pair of crutches under his arms. “Rosa wanted to see you.”

  Jenks nodded and took off across the gym floor.

  Max saw Flynn’s eyes snap wide at the sight of Nika and the emotions rolling across their face before they forced out a smile. “I was just about to ask Jenks how you were, man.”

  “Been better, been worse,” Nika replied, holding out his left arm as Flynn stepped forward and folded him into a hug.

  “It’s utter bullshit, man,” Max heard Flynn whisper before they kissed Nika on the cheek. “I’m glad you’re alive, though.”

  “Me too.” Nika scruffed Flynn’s head before he stepped back.

  “Lieutenant, it was nice to meet you. I’ll see you in the cage, God help me.”

  Max smiled and waved, watching the corporal lope off before she met Nika’s curious gaze. “I may have body-slammed them. Hush. They were running up on Jenks, I didn’t know what to expect.”

  “Still twitchy about the other night?” Nika chuckled. “You are getting more like Jenks with every day that passes, which, I will not lie, is a terrifying prospect. Next thing I know I’m going to have to help Luis carry you two out of bar fights.”

  Max laughed. “I doubt it.”

  “You’re probably right.” His grin was delighted as he teased her. “If only because if we let you and Jenks loose in a bar again there’s not going to be anyone standing.”

  “I’m never going to live that down, am I?”

  “It’s looking unlikely.”

  “What’s up?” Jenks asked Rosa.

  “Finally got a roster sheet for the Navy team, and . . . over there.” She pointed.

  “Holy shit, would you look at that,” Jenks murmured, tracking the massive man who’d appeared across the room.

  “Lieutenant Parsikov, demolitions expert. That’s your competition, Jenks.” Rosa patted her on the back.