“Exactly who do you think I am?” said Jolo.
“You are Jolo Vargas. And I don’t want to die,” she said.
Jolo couldn’t take it any longer. “I’m not here to kill anyone,” he said, but he could tell she didn’t believe him. Suddenly, he was deflated.
“Perhaps the synth doesn’t have what it takes,” she said.
“Naw, he don’t. But I do!,” said Greeley, smiling.
Jolo looked at the woman in wonder. She was stronger than the freighter man, willing to trade herself for her life. It saddened Jolo that she would think so little of him. He holstered the Colt. The game was over. They didn’t know about the box.
“Perry Como or Dean Martin?” he said.
“Huh?” she said, tilting her head.
“The song.”
“Oh. Perry.”
“1954, by old Earth reckoning.”
“If you are going to kill us, then get on with it.”
Just then Katy called on the comm. “Jolo, we got three scouts and a few larger boats that just popped into the sector. We gotta go now.”
“If you want,” Jolo said to the woman, “I’ll take y’all off this dead boat. There are some other boats coming.”
She just looked at him. “Please just take what you want and go, Synth. We are not fools. The ships are here for our rescue.”
“I hope so.”
Jaxxon
On the planet Duval
Bertha was the queen of the large house made of clay and wood that sat just outside of Jaxxon. It was low slung and open and allowed the air to flow through so the heat wasn’t so bad during the harsh summer. Marco said it was built in the old style. It housed nearly a hundred misplaced kids and mothers, and a few broken pirates, there ostensibly to help with security. But people from Duval took care of their own, the only real trouble coming from the Federation and most recently the BG.
Katy landed the Argossy on a pad near the house. Jolo had been quiet all the way back from the dead freighter. They had dodged a bullet and come away with some Fed rations. Jolo knew this was cause for celebration. The only sore spot, mainly for Greeley, was not getting the black box. Or the woman.
Jolo couldn’t speak. What was there to say? The crewman and the woman pretty much had him pegged and he couldn’t get over it. Just like Marco would say, Jolo thought, it is what it is. Finally Katy broke the silence.
“Okay. What’s up?,” she said to Jolo, who was slumped in his chair on the bridge. “You look like your dog died.”
“I’m fine,” was all he could muster.
“Aww, he’s wounded,” said Greeley.
“Wounded!” yelled Katy, and started squeezing Jolo with her hands, starting at his shoulders, moving down his arms, patting him like a medic searching for broken bones.
“Naw. Here,” said Greeley, pointing to his chest.
“I’m fine!” yelled Jolo. “Now let’s stash the goods and get gone. The Argossy needs repairs.”
Katy gave Greeley a questioning look.
“A snooty Fed woman kept callin’ him a synth and hinted he didn’t have the requisite parts,” he said.
“What?” said Katy.
“You know. A tool, a thing. A wanky wank,” he said.
“Wanky wank? Why would she say that?” and then she paused. “Wait,” Katy looked at Jolo, “You got one, right?”
Jolo just shook his head and started for the storage bay.
That night Bertha had a celebration under the stars. The air was cool and dry and Jolo sat with Katy and Bertha on the long porch steps of the big house. Hurley, Koba and George built a bonfire and Bertha’s crew set up tables. Everyone who lived with Bertha had chores to do and the kitchen crew was especially busy that night.
Jolo stared off into the big fire, skinny kids running and dancing around it, happy and free. They didn’t know about the food shortage, didn’t know that they’d soon be eating Federation rations stolen by a notorious pirate. Jolo and the crew stashed the crates in several hidey holes close to the house, buried deep enough to avoid detection by a scan, even at close range.
The kids had split into two groups: a bunch of tall boys were the BG and the smaller kids were the pirates. They had mock battles and the big kids usually came out on top. Through all of it, Jolo kept hearing his name being called by the leader of the pirates. Finally, after another defeat, one of the little boys ran up and grabbed Jolo’s hand.
“Help us, Cap’n Jolo,” he said, pulling on his arm. Jolo looked at Katy.
“Get out there and save us, Captain,” she said. So the battle started again, but this time the good guys had a secret weapon and when the BG boys came on the attack there was Jolo Vargas and his crew of mini-pirates waiting. Jolo wondered just how the pretend battle would go down. He stood there for a moment in thought, a serious look on his face, realizing his force was heavily out-manned. Then Katy yelled at him: “Smile and pretend you are having fun!”
So he smiled real big, at which point the BG boys stepped back. “The smile doesn’t work,” he yelled back to Katy.
“That’s because your fake-ass smile is a little scary,” said Katy, laughing.
And then Jolo pretended to pull out his gun, which was actually his finger, and he charged, followed by a wave of little kids. This time the BG force fell away, ending up in a big pile of yelling, laughing, raucous kids. Somehow Jolo ended up in the dirt under a mountain of giggling arms and legs and dirty little feet. They immediately
