“That's one way to put it. Best thing that ever happened to me though. If it weren't for us getting caught I'd have never met my husband, wouldn't have worked with Ayan for years on some amazing things, and I wouldn't have met you people.”
“So you like being on the Triton? ” Agameg asked.
“It's an amazing ship, and the core crew is very good at what they do. I miss my husband, but I hear we're going after him.”
“I'm glad Alice is taking us after them too, I miss Captain. Don't get me wrong, he was right to leave her in charge. Pulling that heist off was really something, don't think many people could do it and there were moments I didn't think we'd make it but everyone on the Samson made it through. Wish all the other pilots made it back, but I understand how that works. You just lose some people on some jobs. Yup, I like Alice a lot, but still, I miss having Captain in charge.” Ashley said quietly as she picked through her stew. “Don't like this tofu much though.”
“I understand, she has a very solid, straightforward command style on the bridge. I've met other commanders like that and in an emergency it can be a good thing. They tell you exactly what they need in really clear terms. Speaking of impressive talents, your flying out there was pretty amazing. Alice played it back once repair teams were dispatched and things settled down. Reminded me of an old friend of mine, only he used to fly fighters.”
“I wasn't able to watch the replay, but I saw a lot of it while it was going on. You were amazing,” Agameg added.
“I did what I had to, I don't think Larry's going to be talking to me for a while though,” Ashley said with a crooked grin. “He had to tie his brain in knots to get us into hyperspace. We were moving too fast, almost lost another engine pod when we took off because of the shear.”
“I saw that pylon, it's ripped almost all the way through,” Price said as he drew a pile of rice towards his mouth with a practiced hand and a pair of chopsticks.
“Uh-huh. Think they'll scrap the Samson this time? Paula was screaming at me from the debarkation ramp all the way to the hangar lift. I'm probably gonna be in trouble for walking out on inspection while I was in charge of the Samson. ”
“I think everyone understands you might have been a little frazzled after so many close calls in one run. They'll cut you some slack even though Alice is running the ship as close to Freeground Fleet standards as possible,” Laura reassured.
“I'm more worried about the Samson. ” Ashley pressed.
“Oh, no, they won't be scrapping her. You missed the fight between Paula and Finn. He told her to get everyone she had to extract the hypertransmitter and then to get to work on the Samson. That turned into an argument over authority, which Finn was losing until Chief Grady backed him up. She was just about hopping until even Frost and Chief Vercelli backed him up, then she shut up and got everyone working.”
“I shoulda stayed for inspection,” Ashley said, shaking her head with a faint smile. “How long until we get to the Captain you think?”
“Well, we're hiding behind a rock in the Artemis asteroid belt while we do repairs. Alice, er, Captain Valent said we'd be under way in about six hours. It'll take that long to finish building the adapted hypertransmitter into the Triton's main emitter array. They're also repairing all the damage to the hull and cloaking systems,” Price said with a smile.
“Thank God! This time we'll get a chance to see what's going on before anyone notices us,” Ashley sighed with relief.
“You're telling me. Even with the heavy shielding the Triton took a beating. She weathered it well, but I'd rather have more of an idea of what we're getting into this time. I think Alice was right, someone knew we were coming,” Laura said.
“Stephanie thinks the killer and our mole are different people. Doesn't help much because she still doesn't know who either one is though,” Ashley commented around a chunk of potato.
“I've heard that your husband is an intelligence agent of some kind,” Price said as he turned a slice of his simulated grilled chicken over.
“He specializes in information systems and data mining. They've had him on some secret operations and put him through some special training too, but he never told me about most of it.”
“That must be hard,” Ashley commented, all her attention on Laura. “Not knowing everything about him, I mean.”
“I didn't ask. If I need to know about what he's doing at work he'll tell me. I trust him.”
“Wow, I've never had something like that with anyone. Well, maybe with Finn, but our spark went fizzle-poof and out while he was in stasis. Where is he, by the way? Still working?”
“Yup, I checked on him after leaving the bridge and he was just popping his first round of stimulants. They can't pull him away from the hypertransmitter or the main emitter room. I think he feels responsible for blowing the system out.”
“He saved our butts. I'll have to remind him next time I see him,” Ashley said, shaking her head. “He works too hard.”
“He reminds me a bit of Jonas when I first met him,” Laura nodded.
Ashley left her spoon in her mostly empty bowl and crossed her arms; “'Kay, I'm confused. Jonas was Captain's brother, right?”
Laura smiled and shook her head. “No, that's just something he let most of the crew believe. Years ago Jonas Valent was captured by a corporation named Vindyne, who made a copy of him. Alice, who was once an artificial intelligence that he owned but had downloaded herself into a human body, went after him. When she rescued who she thought was Jonas, it turned out to be Jacob Valance only he didn't have access to the memories that they had copied from Jonas.”
“Whoa.” Ashley said as she looked from Laura to Agameg, whose eyes had become perfectly round green circles.
“Whoa,” he agreed.
“So Captain is actually a copy of someone else and that explains why he can heal really fast, maybe they gave him a little something extra, but how did he start remembering all of a sudden?”
“I think it was meeting Alice or Jonas in person. I can't be sure. All I know is that by the time Ayan and I got here he was already remembering and it started to happen a lot faster after she passed away.”
“Who was she? I know there's a monument for them and all the other people who died when we first took Triton in the Botanical Gallery now, but I haven't figured it out.”
“They were very close, I've never seen two people fit so well together. Even so, they didn't get much time together before Jonas was taken by Vindyne. She never stopped looking for him.”
“She was your friend?”
“After the First Light she was my best friend,” Laura said with a sad smile.
“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring all that up.”
“It's okay, it feels good to talk about her. Besides, she was the kind of person that people talked about when she was alive, why should we stop now?”
One Turn After Another
It was unbelievable that the magbike had gotten so far. Several air support positions had taken shots at the rider as the obvious, loud, bright vehicle moved through the streets at incredible speeds.
Still he came towards the rear of the defensive line down one of the main streets that had been cleared by virus infected bots. “Why don't they just use heavy artillery to destroy him and the bike?” he asked over his proximity radio.
“Haven't you been listening to frequency nine soldier? The high seat doesn't want to see any more unnecessary damage done to the city.” The answer came from one of the sergeants peevishly.
He looked around at the clutch of soldiers dressed in green and brown armour, looking like some carapace shrouded beetle versions of humans in the rally and reserve point. They were just inside the commerce building
