I sat up quickly and flipped my tousled hair out of my face, looking first at Kathryne and then to Liam.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, mortified. I started stacking the material that had fallen around me.
“Leave them, dear. Natalia also took time to regain control after her surgeries. It’s part of the process. Now stand up and show us your transformation,” Kathryne said.
Liam held his hand out. The dress fell back into place and I slowly turned, knowing that Kathryne would expect a full three hundred sixty degree showing.
“It’s beautiful, Kathryne,” I said.
“A dress merely accentuates the beauty of the one who wears it. And I agree. You are stunning. You remind me so much of my daughter,” she said.
I blushed. It was high praise to be cast in the same light as Tali. In our circle of friends, Tali was the pinnacle - tough as nails, gorgeous, smart, and loyal.
“I love it! And the black is perfect,” I said. I’d originally asked for red, but Kathryne had obviously gone out of her way to choose this for me, so I’d be happy with it.
Kathryne flicked a subroutine at me and my HUD displayed a small menu of color choices. Little versions of me floated in front of my eyes. Each avatar wore a different color of the same dress. I chose the blood-red one and instantly, my dress and shoes changed from black to red.
“I’ve programmed several colors that compliment your skin and hair color. It is virtually infinite, as you might expect. Now, pull at your hem,” Kathryne said.
I did as she requested and was intrigued to see that as I pulled down, the dress lengthened. I continued to pull on it until it was all the way to the ground. I’d have difficulty walking in it at this length, but as I looked at myself in the mirror in her office, I had to admit it was beautiful.
“I’ll manufacture a small coat to fit over the top as you requested. Once it's complete, I’ll have it delivered,” Kathryne said.
Fourteen hundred credits later, we found ourselves outside her boutique. It was ironic that I could manufacture my own clothing for virtually nothing on any class-a replicator and yet I chose to spend thirty percent of my remaining funds on luxury clothing.
AN OLD FRIEND
“How about pizza?” Liam asked.
“Megliano’s? I’m famished.” I’d burned through whatever they’d been feeding me in the tank and felt like I could eat an entire pizza by myself.
He smiled and put his hand on my lower back. “I’ll call a cab,”
A moment later a silver oval vehicle dropped from the sky and landed a meter from where we stood. We climbed in and sat back in the stiff, padded lounge chairs of the cab. Liam directed it to take us to our favorite pizzeria in the University Hills district of Puskar Stellar. I looked out at the city below and was lost in thought for a few minutes, my reverie broken when I recognized the orange clay tile roofs of the university.
When we walked into Megliano’s, I discovered that Liam was a step ahead of me. Seated around a large table were our friends - Nick, Marny, Jack, Tali, and even Lena and Jenny. Half eaten pizza and empty pitchers of beer littered the table. I hugged each of my friends in turn. It was hard not to be affected by their enthusiasm.
“You’ll want to go easy on food to begin with,” Tali said. I looked at her skeptically, I was starved. “Your stomach hasn’t seen food in a month. You’ll see.”
I nodded. We’d see how that went.
“You’re so pretty,” Jenny, Lena’s little sister, said.
I smiled, “Thank you, Jenny.”
“I’ve set an exercise routine up for you,” Marny offered. The muscular woman was the security officer for Liam’s corporation, not to mention his partner, Nick’s, girlfriend. She was the sort of person who it was easy to be friends with.
“I’m ready. My body feels like it's about to explode,” I said. It was true, exercising was high on my list of priorities. My legs ached to run.
“Best thing for you,” Tali said. “Your balance will return faster if you get out and run. I’m impressed that you’re doing so well in those heels, though.”
“Where’s Ada?” I asked. Ada Chen was the other pilot in the corporation and she enjoyed gatherings, so her absence was notable.
“She and Mom are on a run to the Valhalla Platform - big load of equipment,” Liam said. “She’s annoyed she couldn’t be here.”
We fell into a comfortable pattern of conversation and eventually the attention moved away from me and my surgery and back to the normal business of everyone’s day to day life.
A couple of hours later, Liam called a cab to take us back to the compound where we’d been living. My surgeries had placed our lives on hold, but now that we were on the other side of it, Liam would once again turn his creativity to building his business. I hadn’t wanted to ask him in front of the entire group, but I was curious what he might be thinking.
“What’s next for you and Nick?” I asked.
“To be honest, I haven’t given it a lot of thought. We’ve mostly been taking local runs,” he said. “I think Dad and Nick have something brewing though they’ve been awfully quiet about it.”
“What do you think it is?”
“It has to be big, they’ve been working on it for a while,” he said. “But I have no idea. Nick’s been steering clear of me until your surgery was done. Now that you’re out, he’ll bring it up.”
I smiled. Nick was always the planner.
“I want to visit a friend of mine next weekend,” I said.
He nodded slowly. “I planned a run so I could give Mom and Ada a break. I could cancel it, though.”
“No, actually, I'd like to go by myself. Shri is a shipmate from the Dunham and she needs a friend. She was badly injured and her family can't afford the surgeries to make her whole again. I think hearing about my surgeries brought up bad memories,” I said.
“How far away is it? We could free up a ship,” he said.
“I'm going to take a grav-bike,” I said.
"Where would you get one of those?"
“Tali said I can rent one. Shri is down by Olympus Mon, it’s only six hundred kilometers. I can make it in two hours,” I said.
“I’m not sure I like you being out there on your own. What if you run into trouble?” he asked.
“I'll be with Shri's family, but I’ll pack a blaster. Besides, how much trouble can I get into, her family is a bunch of luddites,” I said.
"Luddites?"
"They don't like technology, don't wear smart fabrics, that sort of thing," I said.
It had been a source of tension for Shri while recovering in the hospital. She'd been burned over most of her body and the Navy had replaced her skin with synthetic. Her mother, while grateful to have her daughter back, had been horrified, causing a great deal of tension during recovery.
"Technology is in everything. That's stupid," he said.
"It drove Shri nuts, but it was a religious thing. Her sister and brother wouldn't even visit her in the hospital," I said.
"And you're going to their house?"
"Shri needs me," I said. The cab landed at the compound and we got out. “You up for a run?”
“In heels?” he asked.
I slugged him in the arm and must have caught him off guard as he toppled over.
“Oops, sorry,” I said, reaching down with my left hand to help him up.
“Ouch, careful with that thing. It’s loaded,” he said, rubbing his arm.
“Really? I barely touched you,” I said.
“Yeah, well it hurt.”
As we changed clothes, I noticed two things. First, his arm was red where I'd hit him and second, he clearly thought a lot of my naked form. So far, I hadn't allowed things to go too far when we were making out. Call me old-fashioned, but I believed we needed to be committed to each other before considering anything more. If Liam had proven anything to me in the last year, it was his commitment. In my heart, I knew I'd never find someone I cared for as much. I'd k
nown it for years, but I had difficulty trusting my instincts. I'd seen plenty of divorce in my family.
"You seem happy to have me home," I said, waggling my eyebrows suggestively.
"Hey. What happened to not looking when we're changing?" he asked. I thought it was cute that he was embarrassed as he turned away.
"Take me out for a run and I'll let you give me a proper homecoming," I said.
"Don't joke about that," he said. "I'm okay with the way things are, just don't be mean."
"Who said anything about joking?"
His eyebrows shot up. "Seriously? Frak. Get your shoes on, we've got some serious running to do."
When we emerged from the habitation domes, we found Tali out front, sitting on a picnic table, leaning back, clearly waiting for us.
"Ready for a run?" Tali asked.
"How'd you know?" I asked.
"My first trip to the tank was for my legs," she said.
"I thought you told us it was just your arm," Liam said.
"Second surgery was my arm. And, for the record, withholding information is not the same as lying and I don't like oversharing. So do you want to run?"
"Let's go," I said. My legs actually ached from lack of exercise.
Tali nimbly jumped from the table and set off at an easy jog. I knew from experience she could maintain a pace at least twice as fast.
"Take it slow for the first few kilometers. Your brain needs to work things out, if you go too fast you're going to end up on your face," Tali said as Liam and I caught up with her.
She was right, it took all of my concentration to simply jog with her and even so, I took several hard falls. I quickly learned that catching myself with my right hand was by far the best approach. Its ability to absorb damage was amazing.
After twenty minutes, it was time to pick up the pace. I slapped Liam on the butt as I passed him on a dead run up a long hill.
"Seriously? After … ten kilometers …. you want to … go faster?" Liam complained. I heard his labored breathing behind me as he tried to catch up.
"In half a kilometer, there's a path that will take you back to the house, Liam. I'll see if I can help her run off some of this energy," Tali said to Liam as she passed.
"Yeah … good … idea," Liam said, dropping back, sounding relieved.
"You ready for this?" Tali asked. "You know you're going to fall if you keep going this fast, right?"
"I've fallen three times already. I want to go fast."
Her face lit with an evil grin as she slapped my butt, turned and sprinted down the path, leaving me behind.
Her burst of speed was amazing and I poured everything I thought I had into catching up. I watched, frustrated, as Tali continued to pull away from me. That small lapse in concentration was disastrous. My foot caught a rock and I careened off the trail, rolling to a stop. The synthetic skin still transmitted pain, but I'd expected it to be a lot worse. I'd soon know my body more intimately, every spot that was patched and those that were not, if I kept falling like this.
Tali ran back and leaning over, with her hands on her knees, looked down at me. "How bad?" she asked.
"I don't know if I can get up," I lied.
"Did you break something?" she asked, concerned.
I slowly got to my feet and looked at my suit liner, which had been torn in the fall. As soon as Tali stepped behind me on the path, I took off at a sprint, leaving her behind. I pushed as hard as I could, knowing she'd be on me in a moment. The sheer visceral joy of moving so fast was addictive and my lungs burned as they tried to keep up with my muscles.
"You don't play fair," Tali puffed out as she caught up with me.
"I seem to remember someone telling me there is no fair." It had been one of Tali's reminders when she'd helped me learn to cope with my grav-chair.
"Touché," she said.
When we finally got back to the compound, I was a mess. I'd wrecked several more times and my suit-liner was tattered. I was also going to need to apply some of the med-patches Dr. Lemaigre had sent along for tissue repair.
"Thanks for the run," I said to Tali.
"Thank you, kid. I haven't had a running partner who could keep up with me for years. You're getting better. You might not feel that, but you didn't fall for the last two kilometers and we were cruising. Feel free to run the property anytime you want," she said and walked back up toward her house.
I found Liam sacked out on our bed in the habitation dome. It wasn't that late, but I could smell that he'd showered before he finally collapsed. I swear that man could sleep in a night club. I stripped off my clothes and tossed them into a pile of items we'd laid out for the reclaimer.
"Hey, beautiful," he said.
I laughed. Of course he'd wake up when I took my clothing off.
"I'm just hopping into the shower," I said. I should have been tired, but I really just felt thirsty and hungry. "I'll get to you in a few minutes."
The shower felt great and most of my abrasions were just dirt and rock that had been embedded in my skin. I rubbed the debris off and looked a lot better. I'd apply a few skin repair med-patches anyway. A video they played while I was in the hospital suggested maintenance was the key to keeping the synthetic skin system healthy.
"Urgent communication request, Shri Ganguly," my AI informed me as I toweled off.
Accept comm.
"Hi Shri, what's going on?" I asked.
"Tabby! Thank you for picking up. I didn't know who else to call. Someone just took a shot at me, I think they were trying to kill me," she said.
"You need to call the sheriff," I said.
"I did. He just left the house."
"Did he catch anyone?"
"No. He doesn't believe me," she said.
"Doesn't your AI have a record of it?"
"No. I was out in the orchard and I wasn't wearing anything that could record. They think I'm having a PTSD flashback, but it really happened," she said. "I'm sure it happened."
The thing was, she sounded anything but sure.
SHADOW OF OLYMPUS
"Who were you talking to in the shower?" Liam asked.
"Shri. She's having a pretty rough time of it. I think she's having flashbacks," I said.
As I took in more of the room, I realized that Liam wasn't wearing anything other than a blanket. I'd made a promise, but my mind was filled with Shri.
"You want me to fly you out there?" Liam asked. He slid from under the covers and started pulling on his suit liner. I felt bad, but I also appreciated that he understood I needed to deal with this.
"I'm sorry, Liam. It will be our time soon, I promise," I said.
"I get it. I'm not going anywhere. So … drop you off?" he asked.
"Can you drop me at the grav-bike rental?" I asked.
"What is this about grav-bikes? I don't get it." He sounded frustrated.
"I've always wanted to try one and this seems like the perfect time," I said.
"It's getting late, you sure you don't want to wait until morning?" he asked. "You only have three hours of daylight left."
"It's only a two hour flight.”
He continued to protest. "I don't know, Tabbs, it just seems so soon after your surgery."
I leaned over and gave him a kiss. "I know, but I kind of need to do this for me. I'll have my comm and it's not like you can't come get me in twenty minutes if necessary."
"Frak. Okay.” He wasn't happy about it, but he wouldn't get in my way.
"You're the best."
I pulled on tight jeans, a sleeveless t-shirt and the heavy boots I'd replicated. I threw some med packs, water bottles and meal bars into a bag and chuckled. That bag pretty much represented everything I owned.
I could have taken a cab down to the vehicle rental shop, but Liam wanted to drop me off. Once we arrived, I kissed him at the air-lock and made him leave before I continued inside. One reason I'd jumped at a visit with Shri was that I needed to get my head clear.
I had a big decision t
o make. I'd wanted to be a Navy pilot for as long as I could remember, but things had changed. The fraternity I'd so badly wanted to join had discarded me as damaged goods. Only through strong-arm negotiation had Liam opened a door back into the Academy I thought closed forever.
I'd grown up without much of a family. My mother abandoned my father and me when I was six stans. Dad struggled to raise me and did the best he could, dividing his time between a business he loved and a daughter he felt responsible for. I'd learned at an early age to value the people I could trust. The shiny notion of belonging to the fraternity of the Navy was now tarnished for me and I was no longer certain of my future. I was also unwilling to lead Liam on if I wasn't ready to commit to him. I'd seen what my mother's leaving had done to my family and I wouldn't repeat her choices.
I shielded my eyes, watching as Hotspur left me at the desolate station, stirring up a cloud of dust. She was a beautiful ship and Liam waggled the wings as he gracefully flew away, a final goodbye. I was in the middle of no-where on a butte overlooking a sandy Mars valley. A wide road, mostly untraveled, ran past the station and disappeared around a bend behind a rocky outcropping.
"You Masters?" The husky voice of a woman asked.
I turned to see the owner of the voice, a middle aged woman with graying hair and smudges of dirt on her face.
"Aye," I said. I could smell Marine on her.
"We're just getting you set up in the shop. You sure you want to take out an 850? That's quite a bit of bike for a swabbie," she said. Her reference pegged her as Army, which meant she was from Earth. I suspected she hailed from North America, given her clipped accent.
"Yet to make something I can't fly, sail or drive," I said.
"Might be your day then," she said.
I took it as friendly repartee and was too excited to really get into it with her.
"You get me checked out on it?" I asked.
Out of the Tank (Privateer Tales Book 7) Page 2
