asked as he took the command seat.
“I'm going to have two squads stay in the Cold Reaver on a live comm channel and the whole technician crew is going in armoured vacsuits. I don't have enough information to trust these people.”
“So something seems off to you too, huh?”
Ayan nodded as she took her coffee from the tray. “I don't want to spend more than six hours on that station. We should be able to make a difference in that time with our own equipment.”
“Good luck. I'll be watching the comm line from here. If you need anything just say the word.”
“I hope we don't. Where's the Cold Reaver right now?”
Oz checked the remote flight control status display. “It's just about to dust off from the station. Looks like the Clever Dream will get here first. Jake's got a load of slaves ready to be processed. He's ordered almost all the security personnel down to the main hangar to register them and give them each a comm and location bracelet.”
“Isn't it a little early to trust these people? I know they've had a hard go of it, but we've got to screen them somehow.”
“And we are. The databases from Jake's bounty hunting days were all updated this morning. He's got about a quarter trillion entries there, so if someone's not listed then they were born on a scrub colony.” Jason replied.
Ayan shook her head. “It's like he's made for this sort of thing. There's a lot I — we don't know.”
“I could tell you a few things if you take me with you,” Ashley offered cheekily. Larry nudged her and cleared his throat quietly. “Sorry, if we go with you.”
“Bugging to get off ship Ash?” Oz asked with a raised eyebrow.
“There's nothing happening here, sir. Darris can take my shift, he and his navigator passed his qualifier.”
“I know,” Oz smiled. “You're stuck here for a while. Jake wants you ready for something else.”
“Do I get to know what it is?”
“He hasn't posted the details yet, but I'm not going to reassign you, sorry Ash.”
“Huh, weird,” Ashley said as she turned back to the helm and rechecked their position. “Well, can't complain. It's not like there's a nice sandy beach down there or anything.”
“Nothing's changed,” Larry reassured her, pointing to the main navigational hologram. “We're still right where we're supposed to be.”
Ayan couldn't help but smile at Ashley's ease at her station and everyone around her. She wished she could be so light hearted. “I'm off, see you in a few hours.”
“Chief Grady says he'll have three teams meet you in hangar two,” Jason told her as she passed. “He almost signed up himself, but didn't want to add to the long list of people leaving the ship.”
“Concerned?”
“As long as we keep everything under control, no. Just be careful. If anything even looks like it might go wrong it'll be better to over react than to get caught by surprise while we're stretched thin.”
“Be careful, be watchful, I know. Don't fuss,” Ayan replied.
Chapter 11
Ayan had checked the armoured layer of her uniform into the foredeck armoury and barely noticed the pair of Triton guards who watched over the security desk as she checked it back out. She was too wrapped in her own thoughts. She didn't know when it happened exactly, but she had started thinking about her argument with Jake again. The thoughts seemed to drift between that and her mother's heartfelt farewell when she left Freeground. It seemed like her mother, the Admiral, wanted to make a real effort at making amends with her daughter. She'd promised to do so before, more times than she could count ever since she registered for junior cadets when she was fourteen. She'd signed up while her mother was deployed, knowing that getting involved with the military would frustrate her to no end. Jessica Rice wanted more for her daughter, to become a scientist or doctor or other well respected specialist.
Ayan remembered her need to rebel, her urge to get away from the cushy quarters her and her mother lived in, surrounded by other military brats. The junior cadets, and a month later the Junior Military Academy seemed perfect and she even got the blessing of her guardian, Felicia Morrow. Ayan never understood that, she was sure that Felicia knew her mother would be furious at her for letting her daughter enter the cadet program.
The first six weeks were hell. They called it Junior Program Conditioning, but it was boot camp, pure and simple. They did everything they could to get them in shape, wear them down and strip them of their personal identities. Between the constant exertion, classes, sleep deprivation, drills and removal of privacy they almost succeeded.
After those six weeks Ayan felt stronger, like she had accomplished something all on her own for the first time in her life. Amidst her feelings of pride and fresh confidence she gained a new respect for her mother. It was something she didn't reveal to her for long years.
Boot camp came to a close and when she was given the choice she signed up to join the Junior Military Academy. There was no going back, she'd found what she wanted to do and within the first year she enrolled in the starship engineering program. The regular combat and standard forces training was mandatory, so she underwent all the rigours of the infantry while taking the officer and engineering courses. Some days she barely had the energy to attend the advanced mechanics and science classes she'd added to the already filled curriculum. Her scores were always high, so they allowed her to do it, but thinking back she wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
The Academy became her life. Her room in her mother's home was a distant memory only months after entering the program. Her mother's first visit, six months after she'd signed into the Junior Academy, was tense. All the instructors knew Jessica Rice personally or by reputation. She was a Major in the Fleet at the time with an impressive career and a great deal of combat command experience.
Her instructors had fantastic things to say about Jessica Rice's daughter. She met with all of Ayan's instructors before she visited her. She didn't know her mother was back from deployment until she pulled her out of command simulation exercises. Everyone in her class knew Major Rice had come to see her brilliant daughter, and Ayan couldn't have felt more overshadowed. It was as if most of her peers suddenly came to the realization that Ayan did well because her mother was a well known commander in the Freeground Fleet, that everything she was doing was made easier.
To make matters worse, her mother's lecture began on a congratulatory note but ended with disapproval. She wouldn't pull Ayan out of the Academy, but also couldn't help but make it clear that she wanted something better for her darling little girl. Several years later Ayan realized that her mother had played a dirty trick on her. Infuriating her was a motivational tactic, nothing more. Her mother wanted her to succeed, as she had succeeded, only she had gotten an early start and Jessica Rice wanted her daughter's performance to reflect positively on her so she was willing to do anything to ensure that she'd stay in the program while she was away.
Ayan excelled in the Junior Academy and when she entered the Freeground Fleet Academy at the age of seventeen she turned down the offer of taking a pass on boot camp since she'd done it before. It was almost like a vacation the second time around. She was in excellent shape, knew exactly what to expect and had worked harder throughout her Junior Academy career. She didn't speak to her mother once in her first year and posted marks in the top percentile of her class.
She didn't have time for personal problems. Ayan saw the very thought of communicating with her mother as an inconvenience and a distraction. She justified her silence by telling anyone who asked about her family; 'she sees the scores, she knows where I am and that I'm beating her marks.'
Her reverie broke as the express car she rode arrived in the hangar. Two of the technician teams had arrived ahead of her and were helping each other make sure they'd secured the armoured layer of their vacsuits properly. I never thought I would be one to avoid my problems, not after spending years away from my mother. She should have put an end to that behaviour, being the adult in the relationship. I'm doing it again with Jake. I've seen the side he doesn't show everyone and now that he's let me in a little I'm mad to see more! It makes him even more
