Carl had his back to her at the kettle as he spoke. “I’m really sorry about what your friends went through. I’m sure it’s obvious that I had no intention of anyone getting hurt in all of this.”
Paige sat down hesitantly on a stool. “Yeah I’m sure,” she agreed.
He turned to face her as if surrendering. “I’m sorry. I feel awful. And I miss you. I don’t want you to take your things and leave.”
Paige felt the sadness rise in her heart. She didn’t want that either. “The problem is,” she explained slowly and quietly, “you do this for a living. You have secrets and you look the other way. You don’t operate on a code of right or wrong… Your business operates no matter who gets hurt or what evil you might be helping.” She paused, glancing down at her fingers, her words weighing heavy in the air.
A tear escaped one eye, and she swiped it away. “I can’t be a part of that. I can’t be with someone who operates in this gray area.”
Carl had left the tea and was at her side. “But I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know how to put this right. Tell me, and I’ll fix it.”
Paige shook her head, her mind all jumbled and her heart consumed with a stabbing pain. “I, I don’t know how to fix it. I thought I’d just come for my things and see what happened over the next few weeks. I… don’t have any answers.”
She turned and picked up the things she had gathered, and popped them in the bag. “Maybe you could gather anything else into a box and I’ll pick it up in a few days?” she said, closing the bag up and getting ready to leave.
Carl nodded, his face expressionless. “Sure,” he said, a little more coldly now.
Paige shook her head, chastising herself for coming here so soon. She made a beeline for the front door and was away into the airlock before Carl could think of the next thing to say.
The kettle finished boiling, pulling his attention, but he didn’t move. He just stood, motionless, in the empty kitchen.
Gaitune-67, Safe house, common area
“What is that noise?” Sean asked, wincing.
Joel paused the video game they were playing. “Ohhh, that,” he chuffed. “It’s the front door bell. I think Molly or Oz set it to be the sound of that spaceship on that show she loves… Doctor something or other.”
Sean frowned. “Sounds like a robot dying. And who would be ringing it. We don’t have friends who just pop round.”
Joel shrugged as Sean got up, moving carefully so as not to knock over any beer bottles. He shuffled over to the door in his house socks and saw Carl on the other side of the airlock. Surprised, he hit the button to allow him in.
“I’ll just get Paige,” he said, mouthing through the airlock door to him.
Carl shook his head, looking agitated. He tried to mouth something else.
“Molly?” Sean asked, trying to make sense of what he was asking.
The second chamber equalized and Carl stepped through. “Molly,” he repeated. “I’d like to speak with Molly, if I may?”
Sean looked confused for a moment more, a series of scenarios flashing through his head. Paige and Carl. Molly and Carl. Paige and Molly and Carl. His processing slowed. Paige and Molly- He quickly shook his head, dispersing the distracting thoughts.
“Just a second. I’ll try and find her,” he said, leaving Carl to step through the second part of the airlock into the foyer.
Sean connected his holo with Molly’s. She answered straight away, and he explained that Carl was here to see her.
“She’ll be right through,” he said. “Would you like to wait in here?” he suggested, indicating through to the double doors, then leading the way.
Carl followed, and Sean deposited him in Molly’s conference room, before padding back over to his video game with Joel.
He crashed back down on the sofa and picked up his holocontrols.
Joel looked at him quizzically. “Was that Carl?”
Sean nodded. “Yeah. Wants to talk to Molly.” He paused, contemplating again. “That’s odd, right?”
Joel took a swig of beer watching Molly appear from the basement. She turned left into the corridor where her conference room was. “Yeah. Very,” he agreed.
Molly’s conference room
Molly stepped into the room to find Carl turning around to greet her.
“Carl,” she exclaimed, unable to keep the surprise from her voice. “I… wasn’t expecting to have a visit from you.”
Carl nodded gravely. “Yes, I’m sorry for the intrusion. I was hoping we could have a chat.”
Molly waved at a seat and he sat down. She then settled in a chair a few seats down the table from him.
Carl took a breath and fiddled with his fingers. “You must think I’m an awful person,” he started. He looked back up at her from his hands. “And I really want to apologize for my part in everything you and your people went through.”
Molly bobbed her head, not entirely sympathetically, but patiently hearing him out. “That’s not why you’re here though?” she pressed, trying to get to the real issue.
“Er… no,” he said, hesitating. “I’m here because I need your advice.”
Molly frowned, confounded.
“About Paige,” he added.
Molly couldn’t quite understand what he was asking, but she sensed a sadness deep within him. In fact, tapping into his feelings she found it difficult to hold a grudge against him. “What about Paige?” she asked.
“I know I’ve failed her. And she came by to pick up her things earlier. But…” His voice kept catching in his throat as he battled against the feelings in his chest.
He took a breath and composed himself a little. “She’s disappointed in me. But I don’t know how to fix it. I understand why she doesn’t want to be with me. I get it. But I don’t know what to do about it.”
Molly felt a little overwhelmed. Not just by the sensations of feeling his emotions that were running through her circuits right now, but by the enormity of the task he was putting to her. How should she know how to fix this shit? This was precisely the kind of thing she’d ask Joel about.
Joel, she thought. Maybe I should get him in here?
She breathed. But he isn’t asking Joel. He’s asking me. Paige’s friend. She looked down at the desk, thinking.
Eventually she spoke, choosing her words as carefully as she could. “I don’t know the solution to your problem. This kind of thing isn’t my forte. And I don’t really know you at all. But what I do know is Paige. And she is an amazing person. She’s kind, and forgiving, and she sees the good in everyone. So here’s what I think you should know.”
Molly’s certainty and conviction in her words seemed to grow as she spoke. “Number one: she is worth fighting for. Period.”
She counted her points off on her fingers. “Number two: you have to just try. And keep trying. Show her you can make better choices. Get her to help you, and include her in whatever changes you want to make.”
Molly’s tone was confident now. “If you two are going to make it as a couple you need to be talking through these things, and figuring them out together. Even if you’re both hurt, or mad. Even if you’ve fucked up.”
She could see Carl’s demeanor shifting in front of her, from one of despair, to a man with hope. “Don’t run from the pain,” she told him. “And even if she rejects you at first, I refer you back to my first point: she’s one hell of a woman, and worth every effort you exert fighting for her.”
The room was silent as Carl sat awestruck looking at Molly and churning her words in his mind. After a few moments it was like he suddenly remembered to breathe. He took a breath, and the spell he had been under seemed to lift a little. A couple of tears trickled down his blue skin and he wiped them with the back of his hand.
Slowly he started bobbing his head, as if rehearing it and integrating it into his psyche. “Yes. Yes. You’re right. She is sooo worth fighting for. And she is so kind and sweet. If anyone is going to help me work through this, it�
�s her.”
He put a hand to his chest and deliberately forced himself to breathe again. “Thank you,” he said, looking deep into Molly’s eyes. “I came here lost. And you’ve shown me the right track. I know what I need to do.”
He went to stand up and Molly got to her feet too. They bowed slightly, and Molly accompanied him out into the corridor and then to the airlock.
“Thank you again, Ms. Bates. This has really meant a lot to me… And I hope to be seeing you again soon. Under better circumstances than when we first met,” he added, his embarrassment showing.
Molly smiled. “I’ll look forward to that,” she said, hitting the airlock button and watching him pass through and out.
She could hear Sean and Joel duking it out across the common area. She glanced back at the Estarian making his way across the rock to his truck.
Can’t believe someone thought I could help with something like that.
It appears much is changing, Molly Bates. You’re not going to be able to keep pretending you don’t know the answers for much longer.
Molly chuckled to herself. Perhaps…
She headed over to the common room where the boys were messing around in full competition mode. She spotted the beers on the table. “Can you spare one of those for the boss?” she asked, pointing at the beers.
Joel paused the game, much to Sean’s frustration. He leaned over the table, picked one up, popped the lid off it, and handed it to her. Then he picked up his own and cheered her.
She slumped down in the adjacent sofa and watched as Sean and Joel continued their duel.
Aboard the Flutningsaðili
Max Pike watched from the control room as the pilots took the freighter down into Teshov space.
“The client should be here within the hour,” Pascal Randalf reported from the console chair next to him.
“Good,” Max responded. “Have alpha crew around and ready to start unloading level four. We need to have this done before the authorities arrive for inspection. This escapade has already delayed us several hours.”
Randalf nodded, and turned to open up a channel from his console to get the ball rolling on the orders.
“Sir?” the pilot reported back through the channel on Max’s console.
Max hit the speak button. “What is it?” he asked irritably.
The pilot spoke his message as efficiently as possible. “Sir. We’ve got the go ahead to land, but we’re being told that we’ll be subject to an inspection right away.”
Max sat up. “On who’s orders?”
“General Reynolds of the Federation,” the pilot answered.
Max’s face paled under his blue skin. “The Federation? What are they doing in this system? Let alone this shit little planet.”
The pilot assumed it wasn’t a rhetorical question. “I have no idea, Sir,” he responded politely.
“Pull up,” Max instructed.
“Sir?”
“Pull up. Don’t land.”
“But, Sir…”
“I don’t care, just pull up,” Max insisted.
The pilot’s voice wavered in fear. “We haven’t the fuel, and if we don’t comply we’ll be in breach of a direct order. They will be within interplanetary law to fire.”
Max racked his brains, clawing at his head trying to think of a solution.
The disembodied voice pressed. “Sir? Your orders?”
“Land. Land. Land the damn thing,” Pike responded, angry like a rat backed into a corner.
Randalf had heard some of what was going on. He watched nervously as he ended the connection with the team leader in charge of alpha crew. “What is it?” he asked.
Max shook his head, dropping his face into his hands. “We’re fucked. That’s what,” he declared getting up out of his seat.
“Where are you going?” Randalf called after him.
Max barely heard as he wandered out of the control room. It would be a matter of hours before their secret was discovered and he was taken into custody.
And around the same time his client would find out, and be forced to take ultimate action to protect themselves.
He had known the risks when he signed up for this. He thought he’d accept the consequences. And yet, now it was unraveling his mind churned trying to find a way out. A way to go back.
He opened his holo and tapped a message to Carl.
FEDERATION AT TESHOV. WE’RE DONE. GOOD LUCK!
SEND.
At least that would give him a head start. After all, it would only be a matter of time before the Federation traced the flight plans back to Carl and his company.
Maybe Carl would get a few more weeks with a heads up…
He wandered down the corridors back towards his quarters. The crew bustled around him just like any other trip. Working hard, busting their asses for their next pay check. Their next promotion.
The reality of it dawned on him as he walked, as he realized how pointless it all was.
Gaitune-67, Safe house
Carl hopped up into his truck, feeling emotionally spent, but with a new optimism growing inside of him.
He’d fucked up. That was true. But Molly was right. This was Paige they were talking about. He couldn’t just let her walk out of his life.
He was going to fight for her.
No matter what.
He started the engine, and then realized a holo communication had come through. He paused, and swiped to open it up.
He read the message. It was from Max Pike.
FEDERATION AT TESHOV. WE’RE DONE. GOOD LUCK!
He read the message several times, each time the implications became more and more real. The sensation of hope that he felt just moments before had been obliterated. Gone. A distant memory.
He had no choice.
He had to run.
If the Federation were involved it was only a matter of time before they traced calls and connections back to the person who had been organizing the whole thing.
Him.
But it wasn’t the Federation he was worried about. It was the people he had been shipping for. The clients. Governments. Dark ops. Criminals. Terrorists. He didn’t ask questions, but they knew who he was despite his low profile. They could find out where he was.
And if they even suspected the Federation was onto him, they would make it their business to find out where he was, so they could ‘manage the risk’.
Which meant a bullet in his head.
He looked at the message again.
They probably already knew. The second that ship was boarded, they knew.
There was probably someone on their way here now.
He turned off the engine and rested his head against the headrest, his mind scrambling for something - anything - that would make this go away.
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