Toyo placed a gentle hand on Shawn’s shoulder. “Then perhaps I am in error. Old age is the dragon we can never escape from.”
As Melissa placed her coffee cup on the bar, Shawn quickly moved in to snatch it just as her hands slid away. He attempted to down the rest of the liquid, but was met with an empty mug.
“Sorry,” Melissa said halfheartedly.
“That was my coffee, you know?”
She stared back at him innocently, then smiled fiendishly. “Serves you right, you know.”
“How do you figure that?” he asked in wonderment.
Toyo piped in. “She’s right, you know? Keep drinking that stuff and you’ll checkout before you know it.”
“Oh, so you’re taking her side in this,” Shawn chuckled. “I’m the one who’s been cheated.”
Toyo tittered. That’s when Melissa took the opportunity to speak up. “We should probably get going, Captain,” Melissa offered with a soft smile, both to the captain and to their host. “It’s a long flight to Corvan.”
Shawn nodded as he accepted the fact he was going to have to take her there sooner or later. “So it is, Miss Graves. So it is.”
“Is there anything I can get for you,” Toyo asked politely. “Anything a humble old soldier can do for his friend and his lovely… partner, is it?”
Shawn quickly corrected Toyotomi. “Employer, Toyo,” then he looked to Melissa. “She’s my lovely employer.”
“Employer. Yes, of course. I must again be in error.” Toyo smiled and offered a slight bow of his head.
“The only things that come to mind are a few provisions to get us there and back, maybe a little fuel, and—”
“And?” Toyotomi asked playfully, knowing full well what Shawn was about to add to his small list.
“And, if you can spare the power, maybe you can charge up the lasers on the old girl.”
Melissa coughed in shock. “That thing has weapons on it?”
The captain gave her a warning glance, which she was quick to answer with a sly wink.
Toyo clapped his hands together in delight. “Ah, Shawn. Not only would I be happy to do each of those things for you, but know now that they are already done.”
Shawn knew better than to ask for further clarification. “Thanks for going to the trouble.”
“I owe you, Captain-san. We both know that. I will say, for the record…” his words trailed off as he looked to Melissa, then back to Shawn, “if there is such a record to be made of this conversation, that I will officially miss seeing you in action once again, Captain.” Toyo then slid his eyes to Melissa. “Consider yourself honored, my dear, to have Shawn Kestrel to lead you safely into the lion’s den to retrieve your cub. There is not one like him in a thousand parsecs of here… perhaps even more. Of all people, he is most worthy of your trust.”
Shawn looked to Toyo in confusion, but let the statement pass with a roll of his eyes. “I think I’m officially done drowning in your compliments, Toyo.” Shawn gestured to Toyo with his empty mug. “Besides, you seem to be out of coffee.”
“Then we are in agreement, Captain?”
“We always end up that way, don’t we?”
The three rose from their respective stools as Toyo walked them back to the main foyer. Once Shawn and Melissa had gathered their personal effects, Toyo was there to escort them out of the front door. Outside, the same long, black hover limo that had delivered them to the house the day before sat idly by, waiting to ferry the duo back to the loading docks. Toyo opened the car’s rear door for Melissa, but before she entered she turned unexpectedly and embraced the older gentleman tightly. It surprised both Toyo and Shawn. The captain watched as Melissa slowly let go of Toyo and without another word entered the vehicle.
Shawn then took the liberty of approaching his old friend with a grin. “I’m afraid you aren’t going to get the same treatment from me.”
“I know you would never dishonor me in such a fashion, Captain.” Toyo replied coolly.
Shawn sighed heavily, still trying to wrap his head around everything Toyo had told them. “You know,” he began after a moment, “that this is crazy. I mean, the Kafaran’s rearming, old enemies realigning into a new threat, not to mention a government conspiracy. Can you really be that sure about the information you’re getting from your network?”
Toyo nodded thoughtfully at Shawn, then turned his head to face Melissa, now seated comfortably in the car behind the closed door. “Don’t just take my word for it.”
Shawn gave him a crooked smile. “I have no idea what that means.”
“I know.”
Done with the riddles for the time being, Shawn stepped back and performed a perfectly executed bow. “Until the next horizon, my friend,” Shawn said with a solemn nod.
Toyo returned the pleasantry in like style. Shawn couldn’t interpret the expression on Toyo’s face, but he had the distinct impression that something was definitely going on in his mind. If anything, Shawn could almost say Katashi looked envious. Before Shawn could inquire about it, Toyotomi reached out a hand towards Shawn, which the captain took in a firm and friendly handshake.
“May the sun always shine on your path, Captain Kestrel.”
*
The ride back to the warehouse district—and Sylvia’s Delight—was both uneventful and strangely silent. Only the sound of the hover engines, themselves barely discernible in the comfortable confines of the transport, could be heard as the car whisked the passengers through the still slumbering downtown of Welga.
Nestled in the back seat of the car, the silence hung between Shawn and Melissa like a thick fog for reasons neither of them could describe. The conveyance wound its way through the twisted streets, lightly skimming a few feet above the road and kicking up small clouds of dust as it passed over silt filled potholes in the uneven surface. The car continued around a sharp corner, then shot straight and true for the decrepit warehouse number seven.
As the imposingly large, crumbling structure came into view, Melissa spoke up for the first time since they’d left the Katashi family residence. “Toyo is a good man, isn’t he?” Her tone was thoughtful, yet somewhat cautionary.
Shawn took his time in formulating an answer. He could see the gleaming hull of Sylvia’s Delight—always a welcoming sight—parked right where they’d left her. He watched as the ship came more into focus, and he noted several umbilical hoses attached to the underside of D were bringing onboard fresh water and other materials while simultaneously pumping out the waste. As he gazed at the Mark-IV, memories of the past flashed through his mind as he contemplated Melissa’s question. Some of them were the stuff of horror tales, while others were things that the most pleasant dreams were made of. “Yes, he is,” he said into the glass, looking out of the side window as the hover car came to a halt near the aft cargo hold of Sylvia’s Delight. He then turned his eyes to Melissa. “One of the very last.”
“And… my father?”
Shawn sighed heavily before answering. “If you’d have asked me yesterday, I wouldn’t have hesitated to answer that. But… after what Toyo told us last night…”
“You’ve formed reservations?”
There was a long moment of silence between them before Shawn continued. “The one thing your father and I had in common the most was our distaste for killing. True, we were at war and we had a job to do, but I can tell you with full confidence that he liked it even less than I did, and I hated it. Now, to hear he might have been working for the government on some super-weapon capable of utter decimation…” Shawn shook his head in disdain. “Let’s just say it’s far removed from the man I remember.”
She wore a blank expression on her face, and it was impossible for Shawn to tell what was going through her mind as she processed his words. He did understand, however, the conflict that must be going on in her mind between the person she thought she knew and the person her father might actually be. How do you reconcile that?
“My father was always a p
eaceful man at heart. That is a fact I’ve always known,” she began, her tone utterly confident. “In fact, I used to have this dream that he would someday become a major figure in of the Unified council, maybe even more,” she said as she half laughed, half struggled to hold back tears Shawn saw welling in her eyes. She turned to him with a look of utter despair. “What’s happened to him, Mister Kestrel?”
Shawn knew she was looking for something more than just an answer to the admiral’s whereabouts. He gazed into her eyes, and on impulse cupped her hand as it lay peacefully on the seat between them. “People change, Melissa. Sometimes for the better, sometimes…” His words trailed off he looked out beyond the front widow of the car. He felt his own despair welling up, knowing that his next words could hurt him as much as they could her. “Sometimes not so much.” He released her hand, then reached for the door handle and slipped out of the car before she had a chance to reply.
Shawn walked to the driver’s side of the vehicle, resolved to open the door for Melissa so she could exit. As he neared the vehicle, however, the short, mouthy Denarian got out of the driver’s seat and beat Shawn to his objective. Shawn dejectedly held up his hands up and backed slowly away from the door. “It’s all yours, friend,” he offered cautiously.
The Denarian grunted before answering. “A wise decision, hu-man.”
As soon as Melissa exited the vehicle, the scaly creature closed the door and stood to face off with Shawn. “Mister Katashi said to inform you that your ship is ready, and that he’s placed a few extra items into the cargo hold. He also said to have a safe trip and to come back anytime.” The Denarian’s hideous eyes turned to Melissa as he licked his lips with a slimy forked tongue.
“Does that mean I’ll have the pleasure of seeing your pretty face again?” Shawn asked.
The Denarian’s smile faded to a scowl almost immediately. “Don’t get cute, Kestrel. Just be glad you’re on the friendly side of my gun,” it said as it patted its chest, signifying its weapons were holstered close to its body and out of sight, “and not the business end.”
Kestrel stared the alien down, crossing his arms across his chest. “Don’t worry, friend. I’ll remember it, just like I remember how helpful you all were during the war.”
The Denarian shrugged, appearing to smile, but it could just have easily been something bad he ate. “That was a long time ago, Captain.”
“Not to everyone it isn’t.”
The creature leered at Shawn. “You know, Captain, it’s a tragedy what happened on Cortorolla V. A Sector Command star base in complete ruin, orbiting a destroyed colony world like an enormous tombstone. It’s a shame really. I even heard there was a Denarian cruiser not two parsecs away when the battle broke out.” The creature made a pitiful slithering sound with its tongue. “I wish there was something we could have done. But, war is like that, isn’t it? It fills our dreams and nightmares with the great and unanswerable ‘what-ifs’ of the galaxy.” The Denarian turned before Shawn could reply and stepped into the car, speeding away a moment later in a cloud of dust.
Shawn glared at the car until it disappeared from view, then turned and stepped into the open hold of the Mark-IV with Melissa close on his heels.
“What was all that about?” she asked with unease. “He seemed… well, I just didn’t take you for someone who would condemn an entire species for one person’s shortcomings. You didn’t need to be rude to him and—”
Shawn spun on his heels and held himself like a statue directly in her path. “Let me be clear on this, alright? It is not a him, nor is it even a person. It’s a Denarian. And, if you don’t recall you’re history too well, then let me refresh your memory: the Denarian’s weren’t exactly our allies during the war, got it?” He turned to continue up the ramp.
“But, neither were they are enemies,” she defended as she rushed up behind him.
He halted in his tracks, stopping so suddenly she nearly ran straight into his back. He turned tersely to stare into her eyes once again. “Yeah, but that didn’t help the war efforts any. There were more than a few times we could have used any assistance to win those battles, Cortorolla V being one of them. But then again, Cortorolla wasn’t a battle at all, really. It was the systematic slaughter of over three hundred unarmed civilian colonists on a world less than three light-years from Denarian space. When a passing Denarian cruiser received the colony’s distress call, do you know what they did? They offered their assistance in exchange for payment… up front.
“I didn’t mean to say—” she tried softly, but was quickly silenced.
“The Denarian’s had their chance to impress me… multiple times… and they failed. I give them no quarter because they gave us none. It’s a known fact that, over the course of the war, thousands died—some of them friends of mine—because the Denarian’s wanted the Unified government to pay for their courage during a wartime situation. The Unified government refused, not because they didn’t need the help, but because they didn’t have the spare credits to spend on mercenaries. So, if it’s not already abundantly clear to you, Denarian’s will get no love from me.”
Shawn pivoted back into the ship, leaving Melissa standing at the top of the ramp, her mouth agape. Seeing he was almost through the door, she took a breath and shouted after him. “You said it yourself in the car, Captain: people change.”
He called back coldly over his shoulder before disappearing into the innards of Sylvia’s Delight. “Not them. They’re not people.”
*
Moments after he’d entered the command deck, Shawn flopped himself down in the wonderfully forgiving pilots chair. He looked to the centermost overhead console—a jumble of switches and lights to the untrained eye—and expertly—albeit with marked perturbance—began entering the destination coordinates into the ships navigational computer.
Melissa stormed into the cockpit and hovered like a vulture over his shoulder. “I wasn’t finished talking to you, mister.”
Without bothering to face her, he continued to query the guidance computer for verification of his input. When it failed to give him the proper response, he lightly slapped the side of the unit. When it again failed, he struck it with a rapid series of slaps and taps. “That’s funny, because I distinctly remember ending that line of conversation.”
“Divide by zero error. Please reenter data, Captain,” the female computer voice said happily as Shawn continued to abuse the terminal.
After the third attempt at entering the information—and after receiving the same error message each time—he reached up and slapped the computer harder. This time several of the lights flickered momentarily, turned completely off, then went back to full illumination. The captain’s jolt had the desired effect. The destination input light flickered from red to green, which was followed by a rather friendly chime as the female voice of the computer responded with “Input accepted, Captain.”
“I can’t believe I’m trusting my life to a man who has to wallop his ship to get it to cooperate,” Melissa said, shaking her head somberly.
Thankful that she’d decided to drop her previous line of questions, he smiled. “You just need to show it whose boss from time to time.”
She rolled her eyes heavily at the comment, then continued to watch as he entered the final pieces of information into the ships computer. Some of the requests seemed benign, while others were completely obscure to her. She’d done her fair share of vessel piloting in the past, but she couldn’t recall ever being behind the controls of such an antiquated vessel like Sylvia’s Delight. She decided to momentarily put her fears about the vehicles safety behind her for the time being.
“Would you…”
“Would I what?” Shawn snapped tersely.
“Look I’m… I’m sorry. Would you mind terribly if I continued to sit up here, Captain?”
“What’s the matter? The passenger compartment a little too cold for your liking?”
“No. It’s not that.”
“Well, I’
m not really sure that it’s the best—”
“Thank you,” She offered, then effortlessly slid into the copilot’s seat once more. “You really are quite the gentleman sometimes.”
He looked at her in disbelief, then shook his head faintly as he returned his attention to the controls. “Don’t mention it.” Catching something out of the corner of his eye, he turned his head to see her staring at him pitifully. “Oh no, what now?”
“I really am sorry, Captain.”
Shawn couldn’t help but look at her dubiously, because he had no way of knowing whether she was telling the truth or not. In the end, however, he knew they’d be stuck together for the time being, and someone had to start trusting someone or they’d never make any headway. He shook his head, licking his lips. “Don’t worry about it. It’s my own problem to get over.”
Sensing the transformation in his mood, she decided to change the topic. “I can’t believe you managed to install a laser onto this… ah…”
“Yes?” he asked warily, wondering what insult she would fling at the ship this time. He pondered briefly if D’s onboard computer was considering the same thing.
“Vessel?” she finished without much confidence in the word.
Shawn couldn’t help but chuckle. “You really have a way with words, don’t you?”
“Meaning what, precisely?”
“Well, for starters, you certainly have a problem with my ship.”
She sighed heavily. “I’m… I’m sorry. Honestly. It’s just how I deal with stress sometimes. Please try not to take it personally.”
“I’m not sure there’s any other way to take it.”
“Well, if we’re going to work together, then you’ll have to figure one out. I’m certainly not going to be the one to change.”
There was a marked moment of silence after she spoke. Something about her statement had brought him some peace, though. At least they were on the same page when it came to realizing they needed to be civil to one another. Whether he would continue to take her insults personally or not was a different matter entirely.
The Army Of Light (Kestrel Saga) Page 13
