by Reiter
“Good skill then, JoJo,” Sarshata said smiling with a hopeful gleam in her eyes.
“Now I’m liking you again,” Jocasta said, holding up her left index finger but not turning around. It soon lowered to point at Codges without her having to look at the man. “… and we’re only on pause, old man. I get the feeling you’re going to be spitting your apology to me through a bloody mouth!”
Reynold Fieldsmith did not know what to say, and he barely knew what to do other than what he had been instructed to carry out. He looked at the man called Calamity, but only briefly for fear the man would look back. He stammered as he saluted and quickly turned to get back into the lift. The doors closed and Sarshata turned to face Eugenia.
“Captain, she is everything you promised and a bit more.”
“You approve of that behavior, Commander?!” Alistair asked.
“It isn’t the textbook way, to be sure,” Sarshata quickly stated. “But it is the way she has adopted for herself. You were rude in your opening move… she moved to shake your hand… you continued to be rude… in the way of the pirates, you are either yearning for a quick death or the chance to flex your muscles.”
“I did not know you were so well-graced in their culture,” Codges replied sharply.
“Show me a short-traveled Star-Wing and I’ll show you an F.O. waiting for the glory to come to them. And you should mind your tone, Lieutenant… I can take you in and out of a cockpit.
“But by the life of my fathers, I get the feeling I am not the only one who can make that claim,” Sarshata thought as she watched the lift-car descend. “I can see why Spade taught her… and it looks like he trained JoJo the very same way he was taught; the same strengths… and perhaps the same weaknesses. I wonder if that was on purpose!”
All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.
Sun Tzu
(Rims Time: XII-4203.28)
Reynold shook his head for the fifth time since he left the company of three Elites. He looked at Jocasta who looked back questioningly, but decided not to speak. “Man, oh man,” he whispered, walking quickly. He thought it best to be rid of her as soon as humanly possible. “I’ve heard of some people choosing to live dangerously, but damn!”
“I know! That dude’s gotta be pushing five hundred, right?!” Jocasta ribbed, watching the man lose his composure and the confidence that had helped make him look so attractive before.
“What?!” he asked, looking at her. “I wasn’t talking about him. I was talking about you!”
“Me?!” she asked, feigning ignorance and very much enjoying herself. “What did I do?!”
“What did you do?!”
“Hey, someone steps to me, I step to them,” Jocasta said with more bravado than when she had spoken to Codges. “My momma didn’t put me here to be someone’s punching bag.”
“She did if she had a lick of sense in her head,” Reynold argued.
“Now you’re just making broad assumptions,” she joked, starting to smile before Reynold huffed off in a nervous fit. “Well, he’s great coming out of the hover-car, but can he do a loop? I think not!
“WhathtefreakingHELL!” Jocasta whispered one stride into following Fieldsmith. Her body stopped abruptly and shuddered as her boot stomped down on the floor.
Unlike her normal itches, this was not a soft pull at the back of her neck. Before Jocasta could realize that she had moved, her blaster had cleared her holster and her thumb had depressed the switch to power up her cane. She heard two gasps in the distance – people who had seen her draw her gun – but Jocasta could not be bothered with them at the moment. They were not the source of the itch… it was above her… and close!
Her eyes darted left and right, up and down, finally finding a stairway she could take up to the next floor. Her body exploded into two pressing running strides, then a slight hop and heel click, and Jocasta bound up to the landing of the stairway halfway between the floors. She started to jump again, but she could detect something else: whatever she was detecting had now felt her.
“Easy, Jocasta,” she thought. “No element of surprise, and you have absolutely zero backup.”
“Mistress!” Tuitonn projected, not at all liking the fact he had been overlooked.
“Dammit!” Jocasta scolded herself. “Sorry about that, T-Ball.”
“Live and learn, Mistress.”
“Yeah, let’s hope,” she whispered as she cautiously took the half-flight of stairs.
“I hate to add to your woes, but whichever Energy is being used at the moment, it isn’t ThoughtWill. I am not sensing the least bit of activity with regards to telepathy. To be on the safe side, I have erected a field over you to alter your features.”
Jocasta stepped out on to a very wide corridor. Turning to face the source of the feeling she had perceived, she could only see the lift doors closing and as they closed, the sensation she was experiencing diminished greatly. Seven people were in the lift-car, five of them wearing Star-Wing gray and white uniforms. One pale man and one dark woman were clad in black, and both had their backs to Jocasta. The man stood in the center of the car, looking as if he exuded authority.
“I can see the controls for the lift,” Tuitonn notified. “It is bound for the visitor’s lot.”
“Can you hit the button for the next floor?”
“Not without being clearly marked,” Tuitonn replied.
“Kot!” Jocasta exclaimed in frustration. She had been too careful – taken too long. She knew the speed of the large lift-car. Without blasting a hole in the shaft and dropping down, she would not be able to catch it. She did not think her gun had the power to do that quickly, and with the footfalls coming up the stairs, she doubted she would be given opportunity to plant a bomb.
“What do you think you are you doing?!” Reynold asked in a high-pitched voice.
“Trust me, Fieldsmith, you don’t wanna know,” Jocasta replied, holstering her weapon and powering down her cane. Tuitonn lowered his illusory image from over Jocasta’s face before she turned.
“Good looking out, T-Ball,” she thought. “Appreciate the assistance.”
“Well, if you’re done gallivanting about, your room is this way.”
“Lead the way, handsome,” Jocasta said softly and they walked to a tram station.
“And what is this,” Jocasta asked as she walked into the foyer.
“This is your room,” Reynold explained.
“Who do I call when I get lost?” Jocasta joked, looking down into the living room. Reynold laughed as he walked over to the wall panel.
“I think you might be underestimating a few things. This is a VIP suite. It was set up for you the day after you made contact with Snow.”
“I see.”
“There is a com-station room next to the main bedroom, but you can reach just about anyone on the base using one of these panels. Can I get you anything… anything at all?”
“Oh, baby,” Jocasta winced. “That ship sailed so long ago that it’s gone over the horizon! The best thing you can get for me is lost.” Stammering for a moment, Reynold turned and exited the room. The doors slid closed behind him and Jocasta locked them.
Tapping her brace-com, Jocasta mapped the area before she left the foyer. As she expected, there were a number of surveillance devices planted throughout the room. Blasting them all would have been too much trouble, but the ones in the com-station room would need replacing. She needed to get word out, and she wanted a certain level of privacy while doing it. The programs in the brace-com quickly assimilated the com-station and opened a channel. It took only a few seconds and she was relieved to see Llaz’s face show up on the monitor.
“Good to hear from you, Captain,” he said calmly. “How are things where you are?”
“Good, they’re still learning,” she thought. “No listed locations over an open channel.
“Can’t complain, Boss,” she replied, sitting bac
k in her chair. “Feeling like it might be a little too rich for my blood. I think I might be fast-tracked to get things started. Did you make all the deliveries?”
“Negative, Captain,” Llaz informed. “We had all kinds of trouble with our guidance systems and had to pull up short. We might have to ferry the cargo out to your favorite Baroness.”
“Fine, but if you put a scratch on my lander, I’ll ship you home in pieces!” Jocasta threatened.
“Aye-aye, Captain,” he said while smiling. “We’ll get the buffers out to wax her down.” A beep sounded from her brace-com and Jocasta lifted it to read an incoming message. Shotgun cleared us a line. Says it’ll work for only three minutes. Onyx Barony and the Haggenshire are swarming with F. M. warships. 11 to the count so far. Made a course change for Black Gate unless you say otherwise. OVER.
“Smart ass,” she said as she typed: Good call on Black Gate. If the F.M. isn’t already there, he’ll have eyes about. Watch yourself. Any word from Z? OVER. “Just make sure you get fully paid this time. That was the first and last time shortage comes out of my end!”
Llaz then sent: No contact as of yet. We are making a straight line for the aperture. Hope to hear from you soon. “Oh ye of so little faith,” he remarked.
“It’s not my faith that’s hurting!” she replied sending: Good Job, Boss!!! Hope to have word to you in a couple of days! OUT! “Just send me a signal when everything is wrapped up and I can check my accounts.”
“Will do, Captain.”
“Hey, Boss,” Jocasta said before he could disconnect. The channel to her brace-com had been closed with time to spare, but she was not yet done talking to her Second Mate.
“I’ve got a young crew, out there in the middle of everything, with a pissed off Field Marshal bearing down,” she thought. “I can either roll the dice by leaving things where they are, or attempt to draw him off from his chase. Of course, it might not be the choice to play that makes a difference... it might just be how I play it! Rouge made it pretty clear the man’s a military genius. I’m not even going to go there. She also said he had an ego and then some!”
“Yes, Captain?” Llaz asked.
“Tell the Brain Trust that the acquired yacht handles like a dream!” Jocasta said with a bright smile on her face. “I made it all the way to the Pearl Barony without a hitch!”
“I’ll be sure to let them know, Captain.”
“Good. Starblazer out.”
** b *** t *** o *** r **
“What the hell was that?” Silnee asked as she stepped back from the comm-station. “What does she think she’s doing?!”
Llaz sighed, letting his head chin to his chest. He reached forward on the console and opened the microphone. “Shotgun, give me another sensor sweep of the sector, please?” Llaz turned around in his seat and looked up at Silnee.
“All ships,” Kryltane reported. “It looks like they are gearing up to get underway, Boss. Each and every ship has been recalled, and I’m seeing energy build ups in each engine compartment.”
“That’s what she’s doing,” Llaz added. “She just hooked the Field Marshal.”
“Whoa!” Kryltane exclaimed. “I’m picking up some chatter. It seems like the outer patrols and sweep teams will not make it back in the time they’ve been allotted. They’ve been ordered to land on the Haggenshire instead to await the arrival of the ‘Relief Fleet’.”
“Hey, Shotgun, is that platform still at a dead-stop?” Llaz asked as he considered his options and the instructions he had received from his Captain.
“Affirmative,” Kryltane replied. “Main engines are cold. Thrusters are keeping it just outside the baronial marker. They’re also still tied to the scanner-buoys those sweep teams have been dropping.”
“Appreciate it, Shotgun,” Llaz said before deactivating the link.
“Which means going back to the Onyx Barony is definitely not a good idea,” Llaz stated. “How long before we can come down from maximum stealth field intensity?”
“About six hours,” Silnee answered, walking over to the helm of the ship. She took her seat and checked the course that had been laid in during the course of Llaz’s conversation with JoJo. “Did you read Deolun’s report?”
“Every word of it,” Llaz sighed. “He doesn’t know how to expand the stealth field to cover a draft-door into the slip-stream. Ordinarily, that would not be a problem. But with the Field Marshal’s men aboard the Haggenshire, they’d read that signature and come running.
“Then, of course, there is a matter of size,” Llaz added. “This ship feels like home to some of us, but we’ve both been to smaller cities! We can’t just enter any door like the Captain did. We’re down to seventy percent of our power reserves. Six more hours of running like this and we should be somewhere around two-thirds left.”
“Give or take,” Silnee added before looking over at Llaz. It was not the first time she had seen him seated in that pose: his elbows on his knees, his hands interlocked with the sides of his index fingers pressed against his lips. It was his thinking pose.
A smile formed on her face, recalling the last two times she had taken the opportunity to look at him and watch his movements. The most recent event had happened in the desert on Gulmurr, after he had visited the Witch. The time before that they had been in the Mess Hall, about to witness Z take on and defeat over a half dozen men. On the calendar, neither event was too long ago. In the standing of their lives, however, Silnee remembered Llaz easily enough, but it took effort to recall the scared little slave girl clinging tightly to Maxworth’s Math.
“Makes me want to ask him what the Witch said to him,” she thought, recalling what had been said to her. Words that felt more bitter now than when she had first heard them.
“Your name is Silnee, but perhaps it should be Second,” the Witch had said. “That is what you are, desperately following others when your best fate will only come to you when you lead. So long as you follow, you will always come one stride too short of what you seek.”
“So here I sit, playing second to Boss, second to Cutter, and second to the Captain while she’s off at Sky Stone. She didn’t even ask if I wanted to go!”
“Heads up, Tolip,” Llaz directed as he pressed buttons at her console. “We’ve got a transmission request coming from Black Gate! Or at least, we did. Where did it go?”
“I’m not sure,” Silnee said as she began entering commands. “I’ll see if I can get it back.” The consoles on the Bridge all went black after her third entered command. “Okay, that was obviously not the right button.”
“MannA curtain has been lowered,” Satithe reported.
“Satithe?!” Llaz and Silnee said in unison.
“Crew of the Xara-Mansura, it is good to be back among you,” Satithe announced. “We will all have our opportunities to share and catch up. But for the moment, prepare to reverse course.
“Llaz, Tolip, if the two of you could report with the other Team Leads to Lab One, please.” The two only took a moment before racing for the door.
** b *** t *** o *** r **
“That was impressive, Master,” Eleda said, lifting Amosse up from the floor. She returned his staff to his hands and resumed her battle stance. “Whoever initiated your training gave you a very solid foundation. Your defenses are strong, but there will come a time when you must initiate the engagement.”
“Might I suggest you begin with training him how to move without a weapon first,” Dungias said, walking into the room and standing closer to Eleda’s weapon belt than she was. The woman did not hesitate, lunging at Dungias with a left-handed palm thrust for the face. The Traveler leaned his head out of the way of the attack and Eleda spun away from him, grabbing her weapons belt. She came to a stop, the belt fastened around her waist and devoid of the weapon housing units that fell to the floor where Dungias was now standing, one meter behind Eleda.
“Eleda, say hello to the fine foundation provider,” Amosse said. “Everyone just calls him Z.”
“Why don’t you give us a moment,” he suggested. “If he had come to do any harm it would have been done already.” Dungias pulled back his hood and looked at Amosse as Eleda gathered her things, the practice weapons, and left the room.
“Master?”
“A long way from the gutters of the Bowels, eh?” Amosse joked. The sentiment was crushed by Dungias’ glare. “What can I do for you, Z?”
“You have influence within the ranks of power at Atsildylweer College. Summon one who can teleport.”
“You know, even when you’re angry, you’re at the very least polite,” Amosse remarked as he started typing commands into his wrist-com.
“I am sure if I had been making a request, I would have said ‘please’,” Dungias clarified. Amosse nodded, receiving the implication.
** b *** t *** o *** r **
The doors to Lab One opened and the four team leads poured into the room. They entered to find a maintained aperture with Amosse, Jovasor, and Dungias walking through it. Silnee clapped her hands together, rising up on her toes.
“Permission to come aboard,” Dungias said, looking directly at Llaz.
“Permission granted,” Llaz replied, advancing to Dungias and offering his hand. The two locked forearms before leaning into one another for an embrace. “It’s good to see you, sir.”
“All the same, Llaz.” Dungias looked up to see the others. “Shotgun.”
“Sir!”
“Siekor.”
“Welcome back, sir!”
“Tolip.”
Silnee stammered before running toward the Traveler. Llaz managed to get out of her way as she threw her arms around Dungias. He placed a patting hand on the back of her head.
Llaz looked over at the other two men. “Doc, it’s good to see you again.”
