“Don’t worry about it.”
Hatter looked to where Hood drifted in his own Uriel fighter only a hundred fifty-three meters away and zoomed in. He could see him rubbing his eyes with his palms. The silence didn’t last long.
“Okay, fine. You were supposed to be building a charge in your capacitors while we were in transit so you’d be ready to open a wormhole when we arrived here, in the middle of nowhere.” Hood said in a rush.
“I’m sorry, I was distracted. You could have reminded me.”
“That’s not the point, you should have a handle on the basics. I just don’t get it; you can calculate wormhole navigation in your head but setting your reactor to charge a capacitor bank slips your mind.”
“I just wasn’t thinking, I’m sorry!” Hatter replied, wishing he’d never prodded.
Silence hung heavily between the pair for several minutes before Hood finally said; “I miss her too, man.”
“She was the only one who took me seriously, you know? I mean, it didn’t look like it I guess, but when it came down to it, she knew I had the chops to be in a cockpit.”
“Buster was one of the best pilots I’ve ever seen, good leader too. Tell you what, when we get back to Triton, we’ll put her picture up in the Pilot’s Den and have a drink to her.”
“Or five.”
“Or five.”
“On you.”
“You’re pushing it.”
“Hey, what’s that?” Hatter said, bringing up new tactical information. Several ships were emerging from wormholes only a few thousand kilometres beneath them.
“That’s gotta be everything the Triton had in her hangars, with the Samson in the lead.”
“What? I didn’t think she was even space worthy,” Hatter said with heavy disbelief.
“You think I’m lying? Look.”
“I’ll be damned, three engines down and she’s still running. Uh-oh. Incoming transmission.”
“Hatter, I’ll do the-“
“Good to see you folks! For a minute I thought Regent Galactic sent an entire fleet after us.”
“This is Laura Everin, Acting Captain of the Samson. What the hell are you two doing out here? You should be just about to link up with the Clever Dream by now.”
“Uh, well, this is awkward… Hood, this one’s all yours.”
“Hood here, we had a bad power connection under one of our seats, got it fixed and we were almost at full charge, about to take the last jump. Mind if I ask what brings you and everyone else on the Triton out here, Captain?”
“Not right now. Fall into formation and prepare to take the last jump with us. We’ve got plenty Uriels with enough reserve power to take you along for the ride, that is all.”
“She sounds pissed,” Hatter commented over a private channel with Hood.
“From the looks of it, I’d say she has too much to deal with to worry about the slowest pilots in the fleet.”
“Oh, who are they?”
“Hatter…” Hood started with a chuckle. “Aw, you’ll figure it out on your own eventually.”
He didn’t bother thinking on it, concentrating on piloting his Uriel fighter into the position indicated on his navigational panel. Then it struck him. “Oh, right,” he chuckled sheepishly.
Chapter 13
Pain. Whenever Jacob Valance tried to duplicate the physical sensation that preceded the act of healing Ayan after she'd been shot several times in the back on Pandem, the only result was rending pain. That morning it was his fingers. After emerging from the vibroshower and pulling his vacsuit on up to his waist he took the opportunity to try to force that projecting, healing sensation again in the tips of his fingers.
They twitched involuntarily, it was only slight, but a definite sign that what was going on wasn't all in his head. Then there was a tingle, the same type that came whenever he connected to a computer system, followed by an agonizing tearing that felt like his fingertips were being torn apart from the inside. Jake could only make the conclusion that he was doing something wrong, missing a step, it couldn't be that painful to access a function of his own body. What kind of designer would create life giving technology that caused so much pain?
He shook his hand, giving up for the day and stepped out of the small private bathroom. He and Ayan had been up talking most of the night.
Since the First Light they had taken very different paths, there were so many stories to share, and every time he offered one her big blue eyes focused on him. Most of them were from his days on the Samson, where he played the stoic captain and everyone else just tried to make the best of life on the old ship as they made their way across entire sectors.
Most of the stories starred Stephanie, Frost, Ashley, Agameg Price and Ramirez. He hadn't realized how many of their adventures were humorous in retrospect, but he was grateful for each one. Making Ayan laugh was addictive; he would burn the image of her dimpled smile into his brain if it were possible. It made the sadder stories more difficult to tell, and he generally refrained from bringing the darker times up, but when Ayan asked what happened to Ramirez, a boarding crew member who had been responsible for as many humorous predicaments as glory moments, he owed her the sobering answer.
While they were taking the Triton he had led a group of armed crewmembers to fight off boarders in the Enreega system. They fought them toe-to-toe in the main hangar and lost. Ramirez was almost dead, and could have medicated himself into emergency stasis, but decompressed the entire hangar just as several boarding shuttles touched down and unloaded fresh squads of enemy soldiers.
They were pulled out into space, and Ramirez went along with them. His vacsuit had been so badly damaged that it wouldn't reseal, and he died of exposure. Ayan's sympathy was plain, she'd lost people during her service with the military as well, some of whom had gone during their service on the First Light.
She had stories to tell as well, though hers were more peaceful. Some came from her late Freeground Fleet Academy days, others featured people she'd worked with after serving aboard the First Light, colleagues Laura and she were in Special Projects with. Ayan called her time there 'Lab Life' because, according to her, it was impossible to have an open conversation with anyone who didn't work in the lab, and the place had a subculture all its own.
Most of their work was classified the instant they entered it into a data receptacle, even the abandoned invisible straw idea that Laura and her worked on as a pet project from time to time.
"Why didn't it work?" Jake couldn't help asking.
"Making a straw out of energy fields isn't easy," she explained. "Sometimes it would pinch, it took us forever to get past the floating problem, other times it would miss the mark completely and poke you in the eye or find its way up your nose. Once it shocked Percy, one of our lab assistants, so hard he didn't trust us for months. It was something we’d play with when we hit a wall on something more important. We never got the straw working right, but we always came away from it fresh. I can’t tell you how many good ideas we had while we were puzzling it out."
She also told him about the high point of her friendship with Laura, the events leading up to and eventual wedding between Laura and Jason. Watching two of her best friends get married, knowing that they'd keep each other happy for the rest of their lives. It was like watching a dream come true, even though it wasn’t her wedding. It was one of the last things she remembered before waking up in her apartment in the Freedom Tower.
Just like Jacob's journey over the past few years, Ayan's experiences since the First Light were overshadowed by difficulties. She was plagued by Manos Disease, a genetic affliction that had progressed too far in her to be cured. She hated being taken care of, never wanted to call attention to herself, especially when everyone else was having a good time. That's one of the reasons why the wedding was so memorable, she was having one of her last good days and her losing battle with Manos Disease didn't make itself known.