“Would you like to see my telescope?” Frank Lee asked Roslyn when Grace left the lunchroom. “I purchased it in the gift shop.”
He took her to an observation deck where a large telescope sat facing the sparkler dims of open space. With his gloved fingers, he adjusted a couple settings and looked through. He nodded with satisfaction and stepped back, motioning for Roslyn to take a look. Puff leapt off of her shoulder and bound for a metal rafter to look out the thick window into open space. He seemed curious and anxious at the same time.
“You see that?” Frank asked as she adjusted her eyes to understand what the light was doing. There were two large twirling spirals of light and gas, seeming to collide with one another.
“What am I looking at?” Roslyn asked.
“Those are two galaxies colliding and dancing with one another, ten thousand years ago,” Frank said. She was painfully aware of him standing right behind her. She could have sworn she felt the heat radiating off of him. He smelled slightly of cologne but it was so subtle and it mixed perfectly with his natural smell as to be intoxicating.
“So goes the very large and the very small,” Frank said. “The strangest part of it is, before we jumped the bridge and when we were still in Athena’s system, I saw the same collision only fifteen years in the future. I snapped a few photos to compare them.”
Frank pulled up his transponder and clicked on an image of the galaxies colliding in the future, which was taken three weeks in the past. The position of the stars and the arms of the spirals were in slightly different places.
“How is that?” Roslyn asked, comparing the two images side by side on his holoscreen.
“Because Athena is fifteen light years closer to this event then Danaus,” Frank said, dripping with excitement and wonder. He was adorable in his glee.
“That’s crazy,” Roslyn said. They met eyes and a moment passed between them before Frank broke it by adjusting the settings on the telescope to look at something else.
“Now, we won’t need this to see it, but we’re in for one hell of a show in the next week or so,” Frank said, rubbing his gloved hands together.
“Really? What’s up?” Roslyn asked, trying not to grin at him and blushing in the process.
“A comet is going to crash into Gogmagog,” Frank said with wide greenish, brown eyes. Gogmagog was the super Jupiter class gas giant that swept up Danaus’ outer system. It was twice the size of Brontes. Red, blue and yellow clouds churned around the gigantic ball. Everything that it hadn’t eaten, it had captured. Each day it grew on the monitors and on the observation deck. They would pass it in a week.
“What are the chances of that happening while we happen by?” Frank said, grinning with a serene expression. “It’s providence.”
This caused Roslyn to chuckle slightly. She then shrugged and looked at the telescope. “What else can you show me on this thing?”
“Oh, there’s so much to see,” Frank said punching in new coordinates. “I can get you a pretty clear look at the Crab Nebula.”
She felt his hand on her back as she peered through the lens.
“See the Crab Pulsar in the center?” Frank asked.
When it was time to depart, she thanked him by shaking his hand. It was strange enough through the glove but also awkward as hell, because she almost went in for a hug. Puff found her shoulder once more and she stroked his chin absently. Had Puff given her space for one-on-one time with Frank?
“You’ll have to come up here with me and watch the comet collide with Gogmagog next Four Day,” Frank said holding up a white finger.
“Sounds like a date,” Roslyn said a bit too chipper. “Well, not like a…”
“It’s a date, then,” Frank said with a polite smile. “I’ll bring some wine.”
“Oh, now we’re talking my language,” Roslyn laughed.
On her way back to her apartment, all she could keep saying to herself was, Do Not Sleep with Frank Lee! Do Not Sleep with Frank Lee! She still had to deal with Drago’s mopey ass. She should have fired him when they left Athena. But something, some form of guilt and shame or obligation or she didn’t even know what, kept her from bringing the ax down on his thick neck. She wanted to tell him not to make her regret it. But she was avoiding him for most of the trip; to the point of changing directions in a corridor once to avoid passing him and Charlie Siringo. They had become best buddies, she noted. They laughed about something behind her and she wondered if Drago was making ignorant comments. She definitely should have fired that fool.
CHAPTER FOUR
The event went beyond breathtaking. The comet broke up into smaller pieces and stretched like a line of glowing pearls across the gas giant’s prodigious belly.
Roslyn sipped her white wine and leaned back in the fold out chair Frank brought for them to sit on and watch the collision. They weren’t alone in the observation deck. In fact it was quite crowded as people came up ship to watch. Luckily Frank had scouted them out a good spot and arrived early enough to secure it.
People cheered as the swirling clouds ate the glowing pearls. Lightning exploded around the impacts, rippling for thousands of miles in either direction. She glanced around her, wondering who would be there to gossip about her and Frank the next day. She spotted Frino and his wife. Their young son watched from his wife’s hip. Most of the people there were office techs with a few junior agents sprinkled through the crowd. She recognized Barry Gould and Sixter Windlestein seated together watching the window above. Further from them sat Hassan Sardana.
“You are watching from best spot in house, no?” Grace said from behind her. Roslyn spun and hugged her hybrid friend. Hattie was doing her best to navigate various chairs and blankets to get to them.
“Oh, hey, guys,” Roslyn said as Hattie made it up to them. The people lying on the blanket behind them would have complained if it had been anyone else but their boss standing in front of them. But all the same, Roslyn motioned for Hattie and Grace not to block their view.
“Sorry,” Hattie said, stepping to the side.
“What’s up?” Roslyn asked, feeling the mole perching atop her frontal lobe.
“You didn’t answer my text,” Hattie said assessing the situation with Frank and Roslyn. “What’s up with you?”
“No?” Roslyn frowned and pulled out her transponder. “Did I not get that?”
Hattie gave her a look that said, Don’t lie to me, girl, I’m ordained, remember.
She may have even projected the entire thought to her. This was impressive.
“Where’s Puff?” Grace asked, looking up into the rafters.
“He’s watching it on the monitor in our room,” Roslyn said.
“Oh,” Grace said as if surprised. She then tried to give Roslyn a look, but Roslyn ignored it and turned back to Hattie.
“Okay, well,” Hattie said, with a courteous smile at Frank. “I guess we need to get out of everyone’s way. There’s a spot over there, Grace. Let’s take it before someone else does and we’re forced to watch in the lounge on a monitor.”
“Like poor little Puff? Okay,” Grace said, big stepping over a secretary watching the window above from her back. “Sorry. So sorry.”
When the last pearl sank into the clouds and the last of the lightning storms died away, the crowd began to thin. Some were drunk enough to linger but she noticed Hattie and Grace had left without even saying goodbye. How awkward was it going to be now? The mole dug his claws into her brain stem and latched on for dear life.
“Well that was awesome,” Roslyn said, smiling broadly at Frank. Were there tears in his eyes?
“Oh yes,” Frank said smiling up at Gogmagog’s enormous girth, filling the entire window. It felt like they would be sucked into the mass, but she had to remind herself that they were in fact hundreds of thousands of miles from it. It was just that big that it appeared to be right on top of them.
“Well, thanks for the wine and the prime location to watch that,” Roslyn said finishing her
glass and handing it back to him. He wrapped it in a cloth napkin, very neatly and carefully and placed it next to his already wrapped glass inside the picnic basket. He was very meticulous.
“Oh, that was something to see,” Frank said, shaking his head, while continuing to arrange the basket.
“Very cool,” Roslyn said, feeling like a numb-lipped buffoon. Laughter of the painfully familiar variety jerked her head toward the door of the observatory deck. Charlie Siringo and his best friend Drago swayed into the room, obviously drunk.
“Oh, what the fuck is this?” Siringo said, pointing to the emptying room. “We missed it?”
“Shit, man, I told you we didn’t have time to stop at your room,” Drago said, slurring his words and talking exceedingly loud.
“You gotta be kidding me,” Siringo said and then took another swig off of the whiskey bottle in his firm grip.
“What the hells is going on here?” Drago said, trying to focus his eyes on Roslyn and Frank across the room.
“Just watching the collision like everybody else, Drago,” Roslyn said in a voice full of warning.
“Yeah?” Drago staggered toward them. She could feel Frank Lee’s body tense and then ready itself.
“Go back to your room and sleep this off, Drago,” Roslyn said, holding up her hand palm out.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do on my personal time, Ros,” Drago said, his head seemingly too heavy for his thick neck. He stepped closer and now Roslyn tensed. Instinctively she reached for her pistol, but realized she was unarmed.
“Drago, what you do next could really affect your future,” Roslyn warned. “You need to think this out.”
“Screw you, asshole,” Drago said waving his limp hand at her.
“Easy, friend,” Frank said in a low voice.
“Up yours, ding dong. I’m not your friend,” Drago said, puffing his broad chest at the thinner and shorter man. “Best be advised to stay the hells out of it.”
“What’d you call me?” Frank asked, putting his left foot in front of his other.
“You don’t want my shit, ching tong, or whatever the hells your name is,” Drago said. Charlie Siringo hurried to get between them.
“Okay, chief, let’s go find trouble some place else,” Siringo said, putting his hand on Drago’s heaving chest. Drago shoved it away.
“Hey, now, Drago,” Siringo said. “Cool out.”
“Why does everybody think they can tell me what to do?” Drago said, spittle forming on his dry lips.
“I’m trying to help you out, brother,” Siringo said in his friendliest voice.
“Yeah, well, I’m not the one needs help out…” Drago said and attempted to shove Frank, only to have his wrist twisted backward until it was fully behind his back and threatening to snap. But instead of submitting, the big man used his size and leaned back into Frank, then using his hip he spun and shook Frank loose of him. He then tackled the smaller man.
“Drago!” yelled Roslyn but it was to no avail. Drago took Frank down to the ground where he began to pummel him. Siringo tackled Drago off, but not before he could get a few blows into Frank’s chest and face. Drago shook Siringo off like a flea and was back on his feet. Frank flipped up to his feet from his back and took a fighting stance that suggested years of martial arts training. He wiped blood from his nose with his thumb and looked at. This seemed to invigorate him.
His eyes went wide but focused. As Drago lunged toward him, looking to tackle him once more, Frank spun on one heel and kicked the big man in the chin with the back of his other foot. There came a loud snap and Drago stumbled backward and stammered briefly before shaking his head.
But Frank didn’t wait for him to clear it, and leapt and kicked at the same time, connecting to Drago’s stomach. The blow sent Drago backward into the bulkhead. This was followed by several rapid-fire punches to the face and then throat. Drago slumped down the metal wall and as he fell Frank landed a knee to his nose, busting it instantly. Blood oozed from both nostrils and filled his mouth. He spat out a bloody tooth.
“Stay down, friend,” Frank said, ready to kick him hard in the face. With the metal bulkhead behind him it would prove a devastating hit. It could cause brain damage.
“And by the way, Drago,” Roslyn said coming to stand over him. “You’re fired. When we get to Danaus, you can find your own way back to where ever the hells you came from.”
*
Sage had only three weeks to find them at least a temporary place to call home in North Vader. The delay from Gogmagog slowed the process that much further. Roslyn’s butt-sweat irritated her. She returned to the head to apply more toilet paper to the affected area, before heading off to a meeting in the rented room on the eighteenth deck.
What was she going to do with all those people relying on her to find them a safe place to deposit their families? Sage had emails out with people from Yanker to New Oldtowne. The New Vegas boom was still in full swing it appeared. New Vegas, under the steadfast eyes of Bat Matters and Earl Wyatt, had become a proper city, according to the information Sage was getting through emails.
Yanker sprang up out of another gold find only a year before. It had once been a booming silver town. But the silver tapped out and the town died. Then slightly over a year ago, someone found gold and the camp sprang back to life. It meant it was still feral and no place to bring families.
The senior agents met in an office room to discuss the future. What came out of that meeting was a decision to attempt to find enough lodgings and office space in New Vegas to relocate the firm. Roslyn and Frank Lee helped Sage with the legwork.
New Vegas was unrecognizable to Roslyn, Hattie, Drago and Talbert. Most likely it was unrecognizable to Puff as well. What had once been a muddy lot with ropes around it on the outskirts of the camp now was a major shuttle port with three separate terminals with fifteen gates and located relatively close to downtown.
The Belle Star was now called Pretty in Sphinx. The building had been refurbished and a large lion headed sphinx adorned the front façade. Roslyn stood on the corner of Main Street and D Street, mesmerized by the changes. She was happy to see Greasy Pete’s lunch counter still in business. Judging by the line to get into the place, it was doing very well. There was a courthouse with a jail down the block and up two more streets, guarded by two-armed muscle heads wearing red scarves, was a bank.
“They have a brothel with human prostitutes,” Charlie Siringo said coming out of a swanky looking hotel. With sexbots being more economical and humane, women had long stopped being forced into the sex trade. Human prostitutes were a rarity and therefore a luxury that not many could afford. Humans who enjoyed sex and being paid enormous amounts of money for it made up the high-end trade.
The thing that surprised and pleased Roslyn the most was seeing the park. At its center there were five futbolito fields, with advertisements on the boards of local businesses. Children and adults played on the fields, kicking and screaming and laughing; their parents and loved ones cheering them on.
Roslyn and Talbert made their way to the sheriff’s station once they’d settled into the hotel. It was a new hotel located on the northern outskirts of town. It was one of four hotels that had enough rooms to accommodate her staff. So she spread them out amongst four hotels, all located on the freshly built fringes of the city.
“Looks like you guys have this shit locked down,” Roslyn said, shaking Earl Wyatt’s hand and then turning to shake Bat Matters’.
“Money and commerce talk,” Wyatt said behind his walrus mustache. “We’re running with a staff of over a dozen peace officers.”
In the larger room there were cubicles and staff members milling about. It reminder Roslyn of a mid-sized town’s police station back on Earth. More specifically, it reminder her of the time she’d been arrested in New Jersey for stealing swatches from a convenient store. She couldn’t even remember the name of the beach town. It had been someplace on the Jersey shore.
“It’s
still not enough,” Bat said taking his place behind the large desk. He was the sheriff; Wyatt was his number one deputy, making him his number two. She had once thought Drago was going to be her number two. But that sad bastard had gone his own way once they landed on Danaus. She didn’t care to even find out where.
“Where’d you find these deputies?” Talbert asked, looking out the glass wall at the cubicles. “They got any training?”
“Well,” Bat smiled and looked at Wyatt. “That’s a long story. But originally we hired a few of those Red Scarves, but they were thugs and took things personally. At least their leader did.”
“That one blew up in our faces,” Wyatt added with a slight chuckle. He then sipped his coffee.
“Had to let a few of those guys go,” Bat said, leaning back in his desk.
“That’s one way of putting it,” Wyatt said, shaking his head.
“Things go south?” asked Talbert.
“That’s fair to say,” Bat replied with a grimace.
“As far as these new staff members go,” Wyatt said, putting his coffee mug on Bat’s desk and leaning on it. “Some of the older ones are vets and people either Bat or myself have worked with in various places along the way. And some of them recruited people they’d worked with and so on.”
“Ah,” Talbert said and made a clicking sound with his tongue.
“What happened with the Red Scarves?” asked Roslyn.
“We have an understanding as of now,” Bat said, again glancing at Wyatt to suggest there was way more to the story than that. “We stay out of each other’s way.”
“Yeah?” Roslyn asked with a tilt of her head. “And how’d they take that? There are other chapters out there I think. Right? It’s a larger affiliation. No?”
“Well, that’s what we’re finding out,” Bat said.
“So our timing couldn’t be anymore gods damned better, then?” Roslyn said with a grin at Talbert. Due to past grudges, Bat didn’t generally like them, but this explained why he’d been so welcoming and down right friendly.
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