“Good point,” Finn commented. “Just looking at the controls for the maxjack gives me a headache.”
“All right, we'll take four hours to make the ship ready with some help from the station, give anyone who wants to depart a chance to disembark and then we'll make best speed to Ao Katamari and hope Frost hasn't found even more trouble.” Captain Valance ordered.
The Price Of The Evening
He had kept everything she left there in a drawer under his bed. Alice was surprised and starting to realize that the ten weeks they spent together made a huge impact on him. The night before was just like old times. The fact that she had been gone didn't so much as come up.
Alice had forgotten how much he made her laugh. How safe and content she felt when she was with him. For a few hours and through the restful sleep that followed she felt like all the pressures she was under, the urgency in her life was far, far away.
They had both woken up when one of his five crew members woke him up. He had to help load their latest cargo. So he kissed her neck, wrapped the sheets around her and left.
The light mood and contentedness of the night before had begun to fade while she was in the shower. He had a custom water shower built into his quarters, something especially rare in space and she had tried it for the first time shortly after meeting him. It was a luxury, something no one did for fear of drowning if the gravity ever gave out while the water was on and because it put more pressure on a ship's recycling systems. Pulse showers were common in space, they shook particles of dead skin and dirt off of the body and gathered them in a reservoir. Some of them even converted the waste material into energy. No risk of drowning, but the feeling, of which there was little to none since the vibrations were so quick and finely tuned, was completely different. It just didn't seem as cleansing.
As she brushed her hair thoughts of just staying around for a while were difficult to dismiss. Alice just didn't want to leave. She was filled with a kind of regret, a sort of dread that she didn't understand before she had become human. As an artificial intelligence she could store the memories of the last night perfectly and revisit them in every detail whenever she liked, the only thing missing was the spontaneity and unpredictable nature of a new experience. As a human things were vastly different. The memories were already fading, the emotions were already tainted with the thought of leaving, the idea of having to tell him she was only passing through. At least she'd have the chance to tell him this time, to say goodbye just in case she could never return.
Her brooding was interrupted as the door slid open. Bruce smiled, stepping inside so the door closed behind him and he just looked at her.
She smiled back, very aware that she was wearing nothing but a towel.
“Want to come along for a run to the third planet? Our cargo won't keep for long.”
“I wish I could,” she replied sadly.
Bruce sat down beside her and took off his work gloves. “You took Wendy's run to Yuelle Varr.”
Alice leaned against him and He put his arm around her shoulders. “I had to. I found my father, he's looking for me. If I don't take this I won't have enough fuel to make the trip.”
“That overgrown fighter. You should sell it and buy something that refuels every twenty years like the Skipper.”
She ignored his comment, it was an old argument and she knew that wasn't what was frustrating him. “I'm sorry, I have to go find him.”
“Why can't he just come out here? Why doesn't he come after you? He's your father for God's sake.”
“I can't risk sending a relayed transmission.”
“Right, the guys who're after you. The ones that hauled me off.”
She looked up at his face. He didn't seem as angry as she expected to be when this came up. She knew they'd talk about it eventually. “I'm so sorry.”
“Don't worry, they just roughed me up for a couple hours, dug around in my brain with some kind of scanner and knocked me out for a couple weeks. I woke up in a crate they had dropped off for the crew. You should have seen their faces. It was almost worth it.”
“I wish I could have warned you. I never meant-”
Bruce cupped one of her cheeks in his hand. His eyes told her everything she needed to know about how he felt. “If I could follow you I would. If I could make the galaxy safe for you somehow-”
“I know,” was all she could manage through the oncoming tears.
There was so much pain, he was used to being in control of everything around him and knew there was nothing he could do to change her mind, to make her stay. “Just come back. Some day when it's safe, or when you're tired of running. Tell me how you are, where you are if you can. I'll be here, you know I'll be here.”
She nodded, wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. “I will. As soon as I can I will.”
They held each other for long minutes until the intercom beeped. “We're just about ready Captain.”
“I'll be up in a minute,” his voice didn't show the merest hint of what was going on in his quarters.
They let each other go and he tilted her chin up, wiping her tears away again with big, gentle fingers. “I love you. Don't forget us out here,” he whispered.
“I'll never forget,” she replied before kissing him briefly.
“Be safe out there,” he stood and made for the door.
“I love you Bruce,” she said before it could open.
“Just don't wait too long,” he said quietly as he left.
She washed her face, got dressed and quietly made her way off the ship.
On his way to the bridge Bruce stopped inside an empty bunk room and activated a computer terminal. Without looking at the keys he typed in the twenty seven digit code to open a secure channel and proceeded to punch in the ninety one point alphanumeric pass code. The signal travelled through the station's communications network to satellites in dead space then to a micro wormhole generating transmitter.
He turned and started tidying up, smoothing down creases in the made beds, blowing out the dusty corners on the small desk and straightening the chair. It was all in the programming. If he were to remember anything about what he was about to do it would be heavily overshadowed by his memory of straightening up. He wouldn't know why he was doing it, but he didn't have to. As long as there was a memory to fill the lost time he would suffer while waiting for the transmission to be acknowledged.
The computer terminal signalled that someone on the other end of the transmission had received the codes. He turned, entered in the coordinates of Yuelle Varr, a description of Alice's ship and its approximate expected arrival time then shut the terminal down.
A moment later he had arrived at the bridge hatchway with nothing but the sorrow of a parting lover on his mind and in his heart.
More Trouble
The planet was one massive city divided into thousands of districts. Millions of buildings reached for the sky, a few were even taller than the environmental control facilities that punctured the grey blue sky with their rods and platforms. Most travellers considered the entire planet a port, since no one could imagine anyone in their right mind staying to try to make a life amongst the sixteen billion inhabitants.
The ground had disappeared ages ago, before anyone living could remember what it looked like. Smog choked the inhabitants of the lower cities while the criss crossing walkways and guide rails going around, through and between most of the tall structures blocked out the sun. As one moved higher up they found everything became more expensive. If you were to go further down to find what you wanted things got dangerous, competitive and selection tapered off. The poor, desperate and hidden folk ruled the congested underside. Anyone who could avoid taking a trip beneath the upper districts did. The underside had a reputation for swallowing less fortunate travellers.