they took it. There was enough money for the entire family to settle on an inner core world and start a new business. When Minh left he and his sisters worked every day, most of the money the restaurant made went to paying back what it cost to run and the debts it had incurred during a short, rough spot shortly after starting up. It was about to pull itself out of debt and make a comfortable profit, true, but everyone in the family was weary.
Upon his return the restaurant was gone, everyone was living well, there were new brothers in law, children and even college funds. The only real argument that was ongoing amongst family members was whether to move to one of the core worlds or to take a Lorander transport to one of the more developed but equally distant colonies.
The reception they gave him upon his unexpected return was overwhelming. He was thankful that Freeground had a reintegration program in place for people who had been isolated for too long. It was mostly reserved for long term explorers or pilots who had to fly secret, long range missions, but they admitted him nonetheless.
He was much healthier physically than most of the people who entered, but his isolation had been utter and at first he could only see familiar people one at a time. Even that kind of company made him uneasy. Having a normal conversation was difficult, awkward. What made things worse was the need to have someone around all the time, being alone was harder than facing someone he didn't know how to communicate with properly.
Minh wanted to contact everyone he missed, which was practically everyone he knew. The therapists and mentors at the recovery centre forced him to pace himself, however, and he would be eternally thankful for their wisdom. He was one of the lucky ones, a naturally social person who actually wanted to reconnect with people so he made very good progress.
He was still recovering, though very quickly according to the personnel at the treatment center, and he was so thankful to have Ayan. She was the crutch he leaned on so his sisters felt comfortable leaving for whichever destination they chose. There were rumours, terrifying rumours that war was coming. Worse than any war Freeground had known. After seeing what he had while serving on the First Light and being an infantryman during the All-Con war, he didn't want his sisters on Freeground when it happened. The Lorander colonies were safer and he only had to make his opinion known to them once. After he left the centre it wasn't long before his sisters took him seriously.
He seemed to be back to his old self; busy, sociable and quick witted. For the most part he was the brother they remembered and Ayan's easily offered friendship was partially responsible. He had another place to go, someone else who felt isolated and needed someone to talk to who didn't have a doctorate and she didn't seem to mind his company at all.
Ayan's futon may not have been the most comfortable place, but knowing there was someone in the next room was all he needed. He even enjoyed being woken up when she shuffled to the bathroom in the middle of the night, it was a sure sign that he wasn't still on that drifting wreck dreaming he was somewhere else again. Having coffee in the morning before setting off to work on the Gull, or Warpig, as it had been re-dubbed, was the perfect start to his day. She was a fantastic friend, and he absolutely loved making her laugh. What Jonas had seen in her was no longer a mystery, but it was difficult to see her as anything more than a friend. A friend who was his best friend's perfect match.
They were both dealing with a kind of personal crisis that few people could understand. It was just as important that they both missed the same people; Oz, Jason, Laura and Jonas. On the purpose of their mission they were in full agreement, and when it was all official that morning, when they had their orders on their command and control units from Freeground Intelligence, the feeling was liberating. They shared the urge to go after their friends in the fastest ship they could find but until the actual orders were right there in front of them it just didn't feel real.
As he opened the trap door at the end of the small walkway and climbed the six rung ladder that led up through it he caught sight of her. Ayan was wheeling her luggage behind her. Tucked under her arm was a combined tool kit and convenience bag. She hadn't seen the inside of the main hold since the day before, when she was helping with the final work on the new micro-wormhole generator. She unconsciously straightened the front of her poncho, and he couldn't help but marvel at how similar she was to the Ayan he remembered.
There were differences of course, she was curvier, shorter, and her smile was bigger, there were even dimples and she was more expressive. He hadn't known her well before, perhaps some of the differences were thanks to him becoming much more closely acquainted with her, but he swore she seemed more alive than the woman he had met on the First Light. To him, that woman didn't matter at all. The woman he was looking at right then was his good friend, someone he had grown to enjoy time with and trust a great deal in a very short time.
Minh was aware of how he'd changed as well. It was part of the therapy his sisters were called on to help with. They were to highlight the differences and talk about them. He was much quieter with people he didn't know and he was told that with time and exposure to new people that might change, but there were physical differences as well. The most obvious was his hair, it had grown down to well below his shoulders when they found him. It had been cut so it ended above the base of his neck and he preferred it that way.
He was also more fit. Soon after realizing he was alone and adrift within the station segment he started doing workouts he had learned during his time with the infantry. That expanded as he swung from the supports spaced underneath the walkways, engaged in aerobics he had seen his sisters do growing up, and other physical activities that were challenging but not daring enough so he could end up seriously injured and alone. As a result the man they found years later was covered in lean muscle and he had never been in better shape. He hadn't lost any of his skills either thanks to fighter pilot and marine simulations that were loaded into his command and control unit.
He wasn't malnourished thanks to the materializer and the natural foods he grew. Minh knew that he had been very fortunate in his circumstances but he didn't feel that way yet. The therapists told him that he would eventually realize how lucky he had been despite his isolation. One of the points they kept bringing up was that he finally had time to do so much he had never gotten around to before his isolation, like learning how to play classical electric guitar and write in Quoc ngu and Chinese. He had even started writing a few fictional interactive settings, but without access to holographic reference images or help from anyone else none of them were ever finished.
He gathered his long hair with his hands and strapped it into a ponytail. “ Pssst! ” he hissed between his teeth, surprising Ayan and evoking one of her bright, winning smiles. “I was starting to wonder if you had cold feet,” he teased.
“Are you kidding? I've been looking forward to this my whole life. Going out into the galaxy on some secret mission, it's like one of the contraband movies Jonas would send to me over the networks before we met.”
“What do you think of the colour?”
She looked around at the inside of the twenty two by twelve meter cargo bay. “It's…” she hesitated “… yellow.”
“I know, I found the paint in an old locker just outside. The deck master said I could have it.”
“Well, it's a lot better than the mix match that used to be in here. What did you do with everything you cleared out?”
“There was a lot of garbage, we cut it up and fed the mass converter with it, so I guess it's all reserve power now.”
“Even that old statue?”
“The Indian one?” Minh smiled.
Ayan nodded.
“Oh no, the old chief's in my room. I hollowed his head out so I could use him as a planter.”
She laughed and shook her head. “At least he'll be put to good use.”
Minh closed the hatch behind him and took her luggage. “Shall we? We're scheduled for departure in twenty…” he looked at his command and control unit, the same one he had used for nearly eight years, “twenty- three minutes.”
“Let's. I meant to be here earlier, but I ran into my mother then had to say goodbye to Doctor Anderson. He wishes you luck, by the way.”
“He came by the ship yesterday. How is your mother?”
“Alive, sad to see me go, but I don't think she'll try to talk Intelligence out of making it happen.”
“Good, I'm glad she made it out of the Blue Belt.”
“So am I.”
