"Jane?"
"Jon?"
"Where are we?"
"A Robot Named Clunk, by Simon Haynes."
"Figures," murmured Aline.
"And?"
"It's tea time for tank crews."
I sighed.
The silence stretched.
"All done," announced Jane.
"Huh?"
"All what done?" asked BA.
"I merely had to immobilize the tanks for a while so Clunk could get away safely."
I closed my eyes and shook my head.
"And that needed all of us, why?"
"Well it didn’t."
"Seriously?" asked Aleesha.
Smoke started rising from the tank. The crew noticed it, dropped their metal mugs, and dived for cover away from the tank.
Nothing happened.
In Ashes Born
Fourteen
"Where are we?"
"I'm not sure yet," said Jane. "Why do you always ask before I can possibly know?"
I let that pass.
"There's a station out there," added Amanda.
"There's always a station out there," mumbled Alison.
"And some very weird looking ships," put in Aleesha, ignoring Alison.
"How weird?" I asked.
"Just look," demanded Amanda.
I looked. They were weird.
"Got a connection to the station," said Jane. "Diurnia. Now where do I know that from?"
"You tell us."
"Are they going to freak out when they see us?" asked BA.
"Probably," laughed Aline.
I looked at her, and she had a point. We were the weird one, here.
"Jane?"
"On it. The ship's suit is now configuring for chameleon mode. We'll be invisible in a moment."
The view vanished, and returned, now purely cam based from the suit.
"Any idea why we're here?"
"Still looking. But I think we need to dock with the station."
"Can we?" asked Alison.
"What do you mean?" demanded BA.
"Does the ship have the correct docking stuff for stations here?"
"Err," started Jane. "No. At least it shouldn’t have. But maybe Thirteen changed the ship when he sent us here."
"You're assuming it was Thirteen," I said.
"True. We've not figured out who it is, but we usually have what we need, so docking clamps for this station should be part of what we need. Therefore they should be there. If not, maybe we don’t dock."
We didn’t even notice her checking. She went on.
"Yes, there's a different set of docking clamps, and station couplings there now. We are supposed to dock."
"Wont that freak them out?" asked BA. We all looked at her. "Invisible ship, asking for docking permission, without a registered name or whatever they use for IDing ships. 'Hello, this is the invisible good ship Gunbus, requesting docking permission.' I mean, the name alone is going to freak them out."
"We'll dock quietly at one of the empty ports," said Jane. "We can at least clamp from our side, and that should hold the seals just fine. I'll pick the lock, and you can go aboard."
"What if someone else tries to dock there while we're there?"
I thought it was a very real concern. Jane fixed me with a steely eye look.
"There will be a very loud bang outside which no-one will hear, a lot of debris as the trying to dock ship either breaks up or explodes, which will likely damage ships on both sides, followed by a station hull breach, and all the alarms going off."
She said it deadpan.
"So we wear suits while there," said Amanda, "just in case."
"But we can't wear our uniforms in there," said Alison. "I mean, it's presumably a civilian station. Isn't it?"
"Yes," said Jane. "I can see inside now, and it's definitely civilian. In fact, I can see no sign of military at all, and no-one is carrying guns."
My mouth was hanging open. They were discussing clothing, while ignoring the whole issue of a very loud bang outside.
"Civvies then," said Aleesha. "What sort of style Jane?"
"There seems to be two sorts. Some sort of one piece ship suit, on the baggy side by our standards, or standard civvie look. Jeans, top, and jacket will do fine. Boots are common, so yours are okay."
"What's up with you Jon?" asked Aline.
"Very loud bang outside?"
"Keep up Jon," said Amanda. "That only happens in a worst case scenario. Right Jane?"
Jane smiled, and tapped her nose with a finger. I wasn’t at all reassured.
The smile faltered, but became a grin instead.
"What?" asked Alison.
"How long since any of you ate?"
"No idea," I said. "But now you mention it. Why?"
"Because I figured out why we're here."
There was a short pause. Jane's grin got wider.
"Spill it!" demanded BA.
"We're in 'In Ashes Born', I think. By Nathan Lowell."
"So?"
The word was accompanied by my raised eyebrow.
"So this series has the best breakfast, of any."
"We're here for breakfast?"
I think BA was scandalized. She seemed to realize her voice was loud, and higher than normal.
"Breakfast?" she repeated softer, and in a more normal voice.
For her anyway. Drill sergeant origins tend to leave a person with a certain amount of forcefulness in their voice. What we weren’t used to was BA being shocked. Of course, we all grinned at her.
"Breakfast," confirmed Jane.
Fifteen
Docking went off without a hitch.
Or at least, half a hitch. Gunbus was secure, and we all packed into the small airlock, since it was the only one which fitted the stations. I could have sworn the airlock had moved though, but like as not, Thirteen had tweaked the whole front end of the ship. It was very disconcerting.
I’d had to tell Angel to stay put, and Jeeves coaxed her back to her kitty castle with some treats. Jane had looked, and there was no sign of pets anywhere. Nor did there seem to even be a pet supplies shop.
Jane was staying behind. She claimed seven was a crowd, and her not eating would stand out as peculiar. But I think the real reason was, the potential bang was a real concern. Sure, she was still on the ship when her avatar left, and the avatar was more versatile. Or maybe she just hated breakfast. I usually didn't eat breakfast, and truth to tell, I could've gone a decent steak instead, but it did feel like breakfast time, and I was hungry. Jane of course didn’t eat. Or she could, but apparently the mess for her was worse than for us. I dragged my thoughts back to the station, before nausea set in.
The station airlock opened without any problems, which was not surprising, since Jane had been hacking airlocks for a long time now.
As we stepped out onto the concourse, no-one gave us as much as a second look. Actually that wasn’t true. Plenty of guys gave the girls a second look. And a few girls as well. But they were not looking at us as anything particularly out of the normal. I'm sure gorgeous girls entered the station all the time.
The next airlock around, had a name on it. 'ProdSon 1500' it announced, which was presumably an abbreviation. I mentioned it to Jane sub-vocally.
"Prodigal Son," she said in my PC. "Something they call a fast packet. Seems to be a small freighter. Scheduled to leave this afternoon."
"Do we need a sign on our lock?"
"Just doing one. We're now 'Gbus'. I think we need to supply a leaving time as well. I'll use 2100 today. But I don’t think we'll be here long."
"Where too?"
"Follow your arrow."
I followed the arrow. The twins fell into step behind me, with Alison, Aline, and BA behind them. For a moment I wondered where the others had gone, but there was no answer to that. We were all armed, but the suits hid them from curious eyes. Which was just as well, because it was quickly obvious no-one strutted around in triangle formation he
re, let alone armed.
The arrow led to a lift. We entered, realigned still in the triangle, and Jane told me to press the button for two down.
"The numbers go up and down," she said. "The docking ring is the middle deck. Up for all the higher class levels, down for ship operations, administration offices, and crew amenities."
The lift dinged, the door opened, and we stepped out. The arrow took us to the left, and we continued strutting. More ship suits down here, but people in civvies were going in and out of establishment doors, so we seemed to fit in.
"Is that bacon?" asked Amanda suddenly.
It certainly did seem to be bacon. Our steps faltered, and the triangle turned into a group, just as a sign became visible above a not too prominent door.
'Over Easy' it said. The arrow was pointing at the door. It opened as we approached, and a couple came out. They were both carrying takeaway cups.
Inside, we found a long counter with seats at it, and a series of booths. There was only one booth empty. It comfortably fit four people, so six was a bit of a squeeze. It would have been less so, had we not all been wearing concealed guns. It was looking more and more like we didn’t need them, but my luck when I didn't expect an attack, was when one happened. Paranoid? Probably. With my history though, the one thing for sure was I wasn’t paranoid enough.
Almost as soon as we were seated, the last two stools at the counter were taken. Shortly after, the door to the kitchen opened, and a man wearing an apron came out. He hugged one of the two new arrivals, and for a moment, I could see a certain resemblance between them. They exchanged a few words, and the cook went back to work.
"Ishmael Wang," said Jane. "Freighter captain, and recently had someone dear to him murdered. The man with him is an old friend, and they're in the middle of starting up a new freight venture. The cook there is also the owner, and Ish's father. Apparently Ish had been eating here for fifteen years, before he found his father owned the place."
"Any particular reason I need to know any of this?"
"No. Just background."
"What will you have?" asked the young man now standing next to the booth, in a spotless white tee shirt, denim pants, and white apron over the top.
Jane prompted me.
"Coffee, eggs, bacon, toast, and Frank's finest. For five." He nodded after each, scribbling on a slip of paper. "I'll have the same without the coffee."
His nod missed the beat this time. Obviously not ordering coffee was a rarity here. I assumed projectile vomit was also. But give me coffee, and that's what you got. There was no question for an alternative drink, so maybe coffee was the only option here. Or maybe you had to ask. Juice was probably the standby, but who knew what they actually juiced, and I wasn’t sure I really wanted to find out.
"How? How many? What kind?"
It rolled off his tongue like he'd said it a million times.
"Over easy, three, wheat."
The others were looking at me with confusion on their faces.
"Welcome back," he said.
He walked over to the window into the kitchen, and slipped the paper into a metal thing which held other slips of paper.
"Order Frank."
"What was all that about?" asked Aline, who was making the most of being in wiggle contact with my side, and whose hand was lazily stroking up and down my thigh.
Jane was right. I should have been paying more attention to her. But at least she recognised the need to give me space. Now though, space was something we didn’t have.
"Jane told me how to order. I've no idea what Frank's finest is, but presumably we'll find out very soon."
The young man was back very quickly, and five coffee cups were filled, and the sixth removed. The aroma had the girls sniffing their cups before sipping, while I tried not to gag.
"Get a grip Jon," said Jane.
I made an effort.
The two men at the counter received their meals. One of them set to, while the other took three bites, and started asking questions of the other. But the food seemed to occupy them both, and they ate rapidly.
Ours arrived shortly after. Each plate was piled with potatoes and onions, done in a way I’d never seen before, with bacon all through it, three eggs on top, and two slices of toast on the sides. It smelled divine.
The girls stopped talking about the coffee. We all made eye contact for a few seconds, and reached for the cutlery. In short order, plates were empty, and the coffee cups refilled.
"So?" asked Jane.
"You were right."
"Told you."
I ignored the tone.
"Jon?"
Amanda sounded almost tentative, which was completely unlike her.
"What?"
"We have to get some of this coffee."
"We have to get a lot of this coffee," amended BA.
"Cargo bay full," muttered Alison, between swallows.
"In progress," said Jane, to all of us. "Means we'll be here all afternoon."
I had a sudden thought.
"How are we paying for all this?"
"No problems. I told the chandlery we were only passing through, and the ship didn’t want an account on this station. While you've been eating, I visited a jeweller, and sold some diamonds. I have a personal account, and I'll be along to settle up your bill very shortly."
"Diamonds?" piped up Aline. "You have diamonds?"
The fingers of her left hand waggled unconsciously. My eyes went from the hand to her face, while I was trying not to flinch. The other girls were laughing.
"We saved…"
"Looted!" interrupted Jane.
"…the wealth of a lot of worlds as we fell back in front of the Darkness advance. When the timeline shifted, it should have all been put back where it came from. And if Jane has diamonds, apparently it's still with us as well. While most of it is on Hunter's Haven, I had some of it stashed on each ship, just in case we need hard for raising funds. Especially now we're cast adrift in the galaxy, and don't know where we are, and who's around us. And this was before the timeline shifted and I assumed we'd have to cross interstellar space to find a jump point, and who or whatever was out there. No-one's going to take electronic credits, so we needed something negotiable. If diamonds don’t work, there's other stuff which should."
"Whose fault is that?" asked Aleesha.
"Sorry what?"
"She's asking whose fault it is we don’t know anything about where we are now," said Amanda.
"Now, now? Or now back on the station now?"
"Keep up Jon," said Aline. "You've been in isolation for simply ages."
"Two days!"
"Three," muttered Alison, who'd had another coffee refill.
"Twenty months," said Jane, now standing by the booth. "I've paid, so we better get out of here. They want the booth."
We slid out two at a time, Alison hastily finishing the last of her coffee first, and followed Jane out.
"Go tour the station for a while," Jane went on. "If you find something you want to buy, let me know, and I'll join you."
"And you'll be doing?" I asked.
She tapped her nose with a finger, and walked away.
"What was twenty months?" asked Alison.
"Jane has a bee in her bonnet about how long the author hasn’t been writing us."
"That’s weird," said BA, "even for Jane."
"How do you fit twenty months into three days?" asked Aline.
"Absolutely no idea. Shall we walk?"
"After that feed," said BA, "I need to jog."
"Oh, hell no," said Amanda. "If I jog now, I'll puke."
"We're walking," I said firmly.
We didn’t actually see much of the station. Around the other side before the lifts, we found a pub called the Millar Moth. The lounge chairs were comfy, and the beer was, how shall I put it, quaint, although quite tasty. We stayed there for the afternoon, had really good burgers for dinner, and Jane turned up to pay again.
Back at th
e ship, we all stopped inside the airlock, and our jaws flopped open.
The entire cargo bay, all three levels high of it, was filled with pallets of coffee.
Star Magi
Sixteen
Something hit me so solidly in the back, I was face down on the floor before I even knew we'd shifted again.
My suit hadn’t had time to go into protection mode, but now it did, only leaving my face uncovered, since at the moment it was pressed to the floor, and there was no danger coming from that direction. Suit integrity was down much the same as a pulse rifle hit, but it hadn’t been one. Pulse rifles generated very specific hits, and this'd felt more like being hit across the back by a sack of potatoes.
Sounds around me suggested the rest of the team had taken fire as well, and were in the process of ducking for cover.
In front of me, as my head tilted up to see where I was, a man was half way through a dive to my right. There was nothing outstanding about him, but it was possible he was the intended target. He vanished to the sound of standard side arm pulses, which appeared to be coming from multiple places behind me.
"You ok Jon?" asked Jane, through my PC.
"Sure. I like it down here."
Given the amount of time I did tend to spend laid out on the floor or a deck, I should do. Normally I knew why I was there though. Normally Jane did too, but this didn’t stop her chuckling.
I pushed myself up onto my elbows, and swivelled my head around to see who'd shot me.
A girl was standing there, a look of horror starting to cross her face. She was dressed in a fitted bodysuit with trailing robes hanging from her belt. I continued getting up, and back on my feet, turning to face her properly, guns already out of their holsters and coming up.
Shock quickly turned to annoyance, presumably because I wasn’t supposed to get up again. The odd thing was, she didn’t have anything in her hands. But at the same time, she had the look of someone who killed without due consideration.
I caught sight of someone rising from cover to fire at one of my team, now all firing back. There was the look of a uniform to him, and I hoped this wasn’t the station security force, as things could get awkward if it was.
My PC flashed a warning my guns were in kill mode, which was unusual for me, but I didn’t recall setting them back to stunners after their last use. And besides, this slip of a girl had tried to kill me without an introduction, and had earned a stunner bypass. Due consideration this time, only rated a few passing thoughts.
Crossover: It's a Jon Hunter thing. Page 5
