by Francis, Ron
She laughed as she realized the old Reece was coming back. “Oh, I just couldn’t bear to go a minute without staring at that gorgeous face of yours.” She teased.
“Wow, a lot really has happened in the last month,” he laughed. “I’m supposed to be the one teasing you. What is this galaxy coming to? I always knew you loved me, though,” he laughed, amused by his last comment. Suzy just rolled her eyes as she brought him a tray of food.
“Lunch time, and while you eat, I'm going to go get a shower. I'll be back shortly; the medbots can help you with anything you need until I'm back.” As she turned to leave, she glanced back at her patient, and was once again hit with how good it felt to have the weight lifted.
Reece happily dug into his food. He felt very hungry, even though he knew he wouldn't be able to eat too much. At this point, he was still surprised he was even alive. Suzy must really be a talented doctor, and she definitely was a good friend.
______
Josiah and Kimi were halfway to Banar when he brought up the subject. “You’re not being fair to Jesse,” he started carefully. “Maybe he should have known you were interested, but he didn’t. He has always been terrible at reading women. I told you that you would have to make the first move if you wanted him to think of you as more than friends.”
“I know,” Kimi admitted, averting her eyes from him. “But it still hurts. I am not even sure he's into me. I think he might be, a little. I just couldn't stand Cassie,” she continued, obviously frustrated. “I really tried to like her, but I just couldn’t. How could he not see she was just using him?”
“I know she used him, Kimi, and he’s still hurting from that. Maybe she didn’t realize she was using him...”
“Oh, she knew, alright,” she interrupted. "She knew, and as soon as she got everything she wanted from Jesse, she was gone; not even a goodbye.”
“Either way,” he began. “Now he’s got you upset with him about it and it’s hurting him even more, Kimi. Maybe he's into you and maybe he’s not, but either way, you still need to speak to him about this,” he concluded. “It's not like he purposely tried to hurt you.”
“I can’t help how I feel, Josiah,” she countered. “Seeing Jesse with someone else hurt. I guess it's the disappointment, too. Jesse hadn't been with anyone since Rebecca died, and they had an epic love story. I guess I figured that after six years of being alone, if he wasn't interested in me it would at least be someone...worthy. She looked away, sadness filling her beautiful eyes, and he couldn’t help but feel for her. It wasn’t her fault, but it was a tough situation. “I'm not sure if I even want to be with him anymore, Josiah.”
“That might be the case; your feelings could have changed. Can you at least begin treating him like a friend again, even though you are still hurting? He is trying, Kimi.” He could see she was contemplating what he had just said and decided it was enough for now.
“We are almost there,” he pointed out, changing the subject.
She looked at her friend and said. “You are right, Josiah, and I will try to get things back to normal between us.” Her conclusion and matter-of-fact tone let him know the conversation was indeed over. She pointed to a building with a large sign that advertised light drives as he made a left and began down the road.
He noticed Banar was a very interesting city. Everything seemed almost perfectly symmetrical. The city was organized and clean. Everywhere he looked, he could see buildings reflected in their opposites. It almost seemed like Banar was looking in a mirror. Every building was mirrored on the other side of the city. As a matter of fact, if you looked to either side of the government building at the center of the city, every building had an exact opposite stretching all the way across the city. He was enthralled by this amazing mirrored city. He was so intrigued with the layout of the city that he almost hit another speeder that had stopped in front of him.
“I know it is a very interesting place, Josiah, but maybe you should keep your eyes on the road.” Kimi laughed as she gently reprimanded him.
“Point taken,” he laughed wondering how he would have explained a crash like that to the others. “You just saved me from being the butt of many jokes from Jesse and Collin.” He added with a grin. She laughed as he pulled the speeder over in front of the building that they hoped sold FTL drives. They climbed out of their speeder and walked into the building.
______
Reece had finished as much as he was going to eat, and he was exhausted. He didn’t need to sleep yet, but he did need a rest. He was very thankful that Suzy had come back because he felt like he needed someone to talk to.
He was anxious to get out of bed and begin training to see how far he had to go, but he knew Suzy would never agree, not for a few days.
“Don’t worry; you can probably begin training in two or three days.” Suzy called from across the room as if reading his mind as she walked towards him.
Reece sat in his bed with a deeply contemplative look on his face. She was about to ask him if everything was all right when he spoke.
“I’ve never really had friends before, Suzy,” he began, changing the subject. “The crew of Endeavor is really the first friends I’ve had since I was a small boy.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Reece. I can’t imagine why,” she replied playfully.
“Seriously, I thought I had a friend back in the academy on Sollonia. That’s the planet I’m from. The one friend I thought I had lied and cheated and almost got me thrown out of the academy, all because of a girl. He liked a girl I was seeing. I wasn’t even serious about her, and would have broken it off if he would have just told me how he felt. After that, I decided I didn’t need friends. I became the best soldier I could so I would never have to depend on anyone else. It’s been a lonely road,” he looked as if he were far away.
She wasn’t sure why he was suddenly telling her all of this, but she wanted to comfort him. “Well, that’s all over. You’re sort of stuck with us now. All the way back to Earth if you would like,” she smiled as she spoke.
He continued. “My parents died when I was young, and my uncle raised me. I always felt it was more a chore for him to have me there. I could never seem to do anything to please him. He was a difficult man. He was a military man, so I thought my decision to join the military would finally be the thing that made him proud of me. Mostly, it just seemed he was happy to be rid of me. I spent my whole life trying to please a man that just wanted me gone. How’s that for irony. The only thing I was ever able to do to make him happy was leave.”
Suzy looked concerned as he spoke. He was sharing obviously painful memories with her, and she wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was just a need to tell someone after almost dying. He continued as she just sat there listening.
“Kora was the first woman I’ve ever loved. I know you might find that hard to believe. I’ve been with a lot of women. Meeting the ladies and getting them to like me was always easy for me. I know I flirt with everyone, and I know you get a little tired of it…”
“I actually missed it during the last month,” she admitted with a smile.
He smiled back as he continued. “I guess I’m telling you this because I consider you my closest friend. No one has ever done for me what you’ve done for me. I’m not just talking about saving my life and taking care of me all this time. I’m talking about how you always look after me to make sure I’m all right. I’m talking about how you always include me. Jesse and the guys are all great. I know now more than ever that they do care about me, but you are the one that remembers the little things. I only hope I can be the friend you deserve in return.”
“Reece, you are a great friend to me. Even when you are teasing me, I know you wouldn’t bother if you didn’t care.” She replied sincerely, taken aback by his admission. She considered Reece a friend. She just had no idea that he considered her to be so close a friend. He looked like he was really tired, so she turned the lights down and returned to his side.
“Just get some
rest for now, Reece. I’ll be here when you wake up again. In a couple days, you’ll be training with Kimi in the landing bay. You better get your strength together, because she won’t take it easy on you.”
“Thanks, Suzy,” he replied as his eyes drifted shut.
______
Jesse had finished his work on the cooling system and he and Commando had come up to keep an eye on the bridge. Collin and Bessa were still working on the FTL drive in engineering. Suzy was making sure Reece was being taken care of. Kimi and Josiah were trying to buy an advanced FTL drive for Collin to get a look at. Jesse agreed it might come in handy if they missed their window, and Earth wound up being further away than their current FTL capabilities could manage. He was wondering how Reece was doing when a transmission alert caught his attention. He put the transmission on screen and Josiah’s face flared to life.
“We found the place, Jess,” Josiah began. “They actually have a brand new one they can sell us right now, but it is more than we planned on. Do you think someone can bring some money out to us?”
“How much do you need?” Jesse asked.
“We only brought two hundred thousand chrons, we'll need a hundred thousand more,” Josiah replied.
“Okay, I’m on my way,” Jesse began. “Collin is still working on the FTL drive with Bessa, and Suzy is in with Reece.” He answered their unasked question. As the transmission ended, he called down to Collin on the ship speakers. “Collin, I have to bring some money to Josiah and Kimi for one of the Conglomerate’s FTL drives. SAMMI will alert you if any ships jump in system or any forces land on the planet that we should know about.”
“Copy that,” Collin replied as Jesse was already on his way to the landing bay.
Jesse drove out to Banar at his speeder’s best possible speed. He didn’t need to worry about directions. He was tracking Josiah’s communicator. He hoped Kimi would have a better disposition towards him than she had recently. It seemed to him that he spent a lot of time thinking about Kimi lately. He just wished things would get back to normal between them. He thought about Kimi a lot more than he did about Cassie; that was for sure. He had left her crew as friends, but he wasn’t sure what his relationship was with her now. He was in no rush to find out, either. He knew their relationship had hurt Kimi, and for that he was sorry. He wasn't sure at this point if he would ever be with Kimi, but he did love her friendship. He badly wanted their relationship back to normal.
He pulled up to the building Josiah and Kimi were standing out in front of. He handed the money to Josiah without getting out of the speeder. He was a wanted man and did not want to draw attention to himself. For the first time, he noticed how chilly it was out there and shivered a little as he started to speak.
“Jo, I’m gonna take off. If I get noticed, I don’t want anyone to know we were together. It would make it more difficult for you guys to get the drive back to the ship.” He gave a wave and turned right down the next street. His blood ran cold when he saw a group of Conglomerate soldiers. They were with a group of Garrinoras’ men going door to door through the space travel business district. They were looking for him, and were maybe ten minutes from finding Jo and Kimi. He called Josiah over the comm and let him know what was going on. Josiah mentioned that ten minutes would be cutting it too close. He knew how much the FTL drive meant to Collin and possibly Endeavor, so he volunteered to be the diversion.
He banked around the next building so he could come at the soldiers from the opposite direction. He parked his speeder and hopped out, pretending not to notice the search. As he was entering a business that specialized in shielding, one of the pirates shouted.
“THERE HE IS.”
He broke into a run in the opposite direction from where Josiah and Kimi were. He was trying to give them the time they needed to get away. The soldiers and pirates began to cause quite a commotion as they chased after him. He rounded the next corner and ducked the swing of a soldier’s blaster rifle. Instantly he was fighting three men. He knew he had to disengage quickly because there were almost two dozen more on the way. He spun through the three men, hitting one with an uppercut that took him off his feet. He didn’t stop to engage the other two. He just kept running. By the time he turned the next corner, blasterfire was ringing out all around him. He figured he needed to be chased at least one more block before Josiah and Kimi would have enough time and distance to make a clean getaway. As he rounded the corner of the next building, he heard some sort of loudspeaker.
“Colonel Jesse Marcos, this is Colonel Jaketh. You are under arrest for crimes against Zinnebulous. If you resist, we will open fire.”
They already had opened fire, but he wasn’t about to stop to let Jaketh know that. That announcement was loud enough that Josiah and Kimi had to have heard it. They would be worried if he didn’t get back to the ship soon. They knew they were in no way supposed to stop to help him. That would just put all of them in jeopardy and defeat the purpose of his diversion. He rounded another corner to see a net flying at him. He unclipped Helga and morphed her to her blade function. In one motion he had cut through the net, and kept running towards the three soldiers that fired it. He switched from blade to staff and knocked the first soldier out cold. He blocked a swing from the second soldier as he took out his blaster and stunned the third. He turned back to the second soldier and hit him with a jumping kick in the side of the head, dropping him to the ground. He fired the grappling hook from his weapon and quickly ascended the building. By the time the next set of soldiers had rounded the corner, they only saw their three unconscious comrades. Jesse knew it was only a matter of time before they had birds in the air searching for him, so he figured he should move quickly.
He shot his grappling hook back towards a building he had previously passed. He used it as a zip line and landed on the roof. While he was crossing, he didn’t see anyone below. They must have all reconvened where he beat up those three soldiers. He wasn’t about to take any chances. He deftly sliced through the lock on the roof door and entered the building. He quickly repelled forty-three stories down the stairwell and entered the fourth floor. He moved through the offices with a sense that he belonged there, and no one questioned him. As the building alarm went off noting the open roof door, he stole a long coat and a hooded shirt while everyone was distracted. He put them on as he entered the tube to the lobby. He walked out into the cold wearing the proper attire of a citizen of Banar for a cool day. If someone were looking closely enough, they would see his boots were a little different than everyone else, but that was it. He only needed to move quickly and hope no one noticed his footwear. He walked almost twenty minutes away from where the soldiers and pirates were, but he knew it wasn’t going to be good enough.
He hopped a gate into a speeder train platform and waited for the next westbound train. He hoped there was a stop near that small village he spotted fifteen kilometers east of Endeavor's position. He walked past a loner that wasn’t paying attention and lifted his ticket. He left more than enough money to compensate him. He hated to do it, but he couldn’t risk going to the counter with the military after him. A westbound train arrived, and he boarded at the other end of the platform from the man whose ticket he was using. He sat in a crowded car facing the window. He didn’t want to seem like he was trying to be alone, so he made sure there were people around. He just didn't interact with any of them.
He found out there were only three scheduled stops, one of which was the village. The speeder train was fast enough that he wouldn’t be too far behind Josiah and Kimi by the time it was all said and done. Night was beginning to fall, and he was wearing black. He figured not too many people would notice his run back to Endeavor. He took the opportunity to rest on the train, even though he knew he could not let his guard down for a second.
The train reached his stop and he disembarked from the car furthest from the station without being noticed. He circled around the back of the speeder train. He waited and watched from behind a train that was no
t in use. He noticed a group of soldiers checking everyone that had exited the train, and he knew he was in trouble. He took off at a run, staying behind speeder trains that were not in use, ducking under some of them and heading for the back of the station’s speeder train depot. He arrived at an energy enhanced fence and decided his best bet would be to go over. He removed the coat and hooded shirt he had taken. Now, the night made him nearly invisible in his black battle suit. He climbed on top of an out of service train car. He ran the distance of the train and jumped, hoping to clear the fence. He barely nicked the fence with his foot as he cleared it. The brief contact was still enough to send a jolt through his body. He didn’t get the full force because the contact was minimal, but the contact was enough to make his body spasm and land badly. He landed flat on his stomach and his whole body hurt. Even worse, the fence would likely show contact had been made to those watching from the operations center.
______
……..Back on Earth, Nina was addressing her inner circle. “We have the production angle taken care of. We could easily meet demand while we are moving our factories and getting them set up on Polisia. That’s not going to be a problem at all. What I want to discuss is what might be a problem if we move.”
“It would tick off Natora and half of the military,” Manny offered.
“I consider that a bonus,” Nina replied. “I hate that man with a passion.”
“But that doesn’t mean we outwardly want him against us, Nina,” Serge added.
“Why not? What's the worst he can do? Jason asked. He had always shown a good amount of dislike for Admiral Natora. Manny knew Jason wasn't above taking less than moral routes to deal with people like Natora. Jesse had kept that side of him reigned in, but it would be up to them to keep it in check until Jesse returned. “His people tried to kill you guys. And we all know that his people don't do anything without his knowledge or approval.”
