"Have you gone completely ape shit!" Levits screamed at RJ. "We have everything we need right here. We are living in a free land. The country is just now getting on its feet. Things have just started to calm down, to be normal, relaxing. Now you want to go gallivanting across the universe on some freaking suicide mission!"
"It's not a suicide mission, and I'm not asking any of you to go with me," RJ said as she calmly looked at her immaculately groomed finger nails for any sign of dirt. She was apparently indifferent to Levits' screaming, of course Levites talked in a scream most of the time so it made a certain sense that she had become anesthetized to it. "In fact, it's an in-and-out sort of thing. After all, we have a common enemy."
"Going to the Argys and asking for their help in over-throwing the Reliance is complete and utter lunacy. These aliens hate humans. They kill humans with wanton abandon. You can't trust the Argy." Levits punctuated his words by pounding his fist into his palm.
RJ coughed loudly.
Levits gave her a curious look and then blushed. "I wasn't talking about you, RJ. You're not one of them."
"Technically, I'm as much one of them as I am one of you," RJ said.
"Damn it, RJ, you know what I mean," Levits said hotly.
"Say whatever you like about the Argy, but they hate the Reliance as much if not more than we do. That makes us logical allies," RJ said.
"What if they don't see it that way?" Mickey asked.
"Then I'll persuade them," RJ said with a crooked grin.
"Wait a minute!" Something she had just said dawned on Levits. "You're planning to do this alone? Without us?"
"Well duh! I thought I made that clear. However I won't be entirely alone; I'm taking Poley," RJ said.
"No!" Levits jumped to his feet and glared down at her. "Absolutely freaking NOT." He threw his arms around in wide arcs as if warding off her inconceivably stupid idea. "Your plan has just gone from stupid to bat-shit crazy."
RJ looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Strange, I don't remember asking your permission," she said coolly.
"Because you're a bitch!" Levits exclaimed.
"That's so mature. Isn't that mature?" RJ asked Topaz.
Topaz just shrugged. He certainly wasn't going to argue with her, but he for one had no intention of staying here if RJ and Poley were leaving.
Topaz knew it wasn't easy to be RJ. He also knew that at least part of her reason for wanting to take this particular course of action had very little to do with strategy and everything to do with getting away from the place which harbored so many painful memories for her. RJ didn't do anything small. A normal person might have moved to the next town; RJ wanted to go to another galaxy.
Levits was the most vocal of the group, not that RJ listened to him any better. Because Levits knew RJ was mostly ignoring him, he had reverted to screaming at the top of his lungs, as was his habit.
"Damn it, RJ! Would you listen to reason? You can't leave the planet right now; it's too soon. You can't do this with just tin pants, and none of the rest of us want to go."
"I want to go," Topaz said. "I think it'd be great fun."
Levits glared at him. "Shut the fuck up, old man!" he snarled out. Then he turned back to RJ. "This is just freaking insane! Ever since Whitey died and you damn near did, you don't seem to give a shit whether you live or die. This is just freaking bullshit! God damn it, RJ! Are you listening to me?" His face was now as red as the shirt he was wearing.
For answer RJ looked with great interest at the carving Poley had just handed her. Poley had taken to finding pieces of driftwood along the shore and carving them into geometric shapes. It wasn't very artistic, but considering what he was it was quite an accomplishment.
"Now that is an excellent job. Would you look at that, boys? A perfect cube!" RJ said admiringly.
Poley grinned as broadly as his genetically engineered sister, at least as pleased with her as she was with her robotic brother.
Levits anger hit the boiling point. "God damn you, RJ, you bitch freak!"
The silence that followed was almost tangible with everyone holding their breath waiting to see what RJ would do. RJ didn't really mind being called a bitch, but everyone knew she didn't like to be called a freak, which was a derogatory term for a GSH. This was of course exactly why Levits had said it. Although it was clear by the look on his face that he wished he hadn't said it now.
"You know what I think you need?" RJ asked.
"No, what?" Levits asked with a lump in his throat.
"I big wet kiss." RJ stood up and moved towards him.
He backed away from her. "Now damn it, RJ . . . Damn it, I'm trying to have a serious discussion with you, and . . ."
"Shut up and kiss me," RJ said.
"Leaving our base, going across the universe on a suicide mission. . . I can't let you do that alone, RJ! It's just crazy . . ."
RJ pinned him against the wall and kissed him. He tried to push her away, which of course he couldn't do till she wanted him to. Everyone was laughing.
"Now damn it, RJ, this isn't funny."
"Everyone else seems to think it is. If you're going to call me a bitch freak, you had better by God give me one hell of a kiss," RJ ordered.
Levits smiled in spite of himself. "You really are a bitch," he laughed.
"And you're really a bastard; so kiss me," RJ said. She moved her hips against him seductively.
He kissed her. They kissed long enough to make everyone else uncomfortable before they parted.
Topaz saw the look in Levits' eyes and the bulge in his pants, and knew at least one of them hadn't been playing.
"So since we're all in agreement, I see no need to postpone my little trip. I say Poley and I leave a week from tomorrow." She turned and left.
Levits turned to look at the others. "Damn it all. Do you realize what she wants to do? She's talking about leaving Mickey in charge here, taking Poley and riding off to Argy to try to con the aliens into helping us kick the Reliance's ass. She's not happy to rid the zone of the Reliance, she's not even happy to kick them off the planet. She wants to kick them out of the universe and that . . . It's crazy; it can't be done."
"Well, she's not leaving me here I can tell you that right now. But RJ's never wrong. If she thinks we should try to get the Argy on our side, I say that's what we do," David said.
"David . . . if she told us we should launch torpedoes from our butts you'd agree with her. If she just has to fight, then let us pick the next zone and take it on," Levits said. "Going into space . . . It's just crazy."
"I agree . . . I say no," Mickey said authoritatively. "RJ can't leave. Not now, not ever."
"My sister will do what she wants," Poley said, not looking up from the new carving he was working on. "None of you will be able to stop her."
"He's freaking right." Levits started pacing the room like a caged animal. "If she wants to go, then she's going, and there's no stopping her. Shit!"
"I understand why Mickey is so against RJ's plan," Topaz said. "Because of Mickey's position here he doesn't have the option of leaving. He doesn't want to lose his friends." Topaz fixed Levits with a stare. "I don't understand you, Levits . . . What's really bothering you?"
Levits stared daggers back at Topaz. "Don't try your pop psychology shit on me, old man. She wants to go, I say let her go. I'm staying right here. Rest of you saps hell-bent on joining her on her suicide mission go right ahead." His words sounded every bit like the crap that they were. They all knew that he'd swear he wasn't going right up till the last minute and then bitching all the way be the first to follow RJ where ever RJ was going, and the fact that they all knew he was just blowing, pissed him off royally. He turned and stomped out of the room.
"Who shit in his cereal?" Poley asked. They all turned and stared at the robot. "What?" he asked with a shrug.
Exhaustion was starting to take its toll on Janad. The metal rolling thing had been almost upon her before she woke up, and she'd barely gotten away. She couldn't remember the last time she'd managed more than a few minutes sleep in a row, got to eat a whole protein bar at one sitting, or even gone to the bathroom without having to jump up and run to stay ahead of the relentless metal bastards.
She'd learned the hard way what would happen if they caught her. She hadn't moved fast enough, and one had shot a beam of light like the weapons she'd seen the Reliance soldiers use. It hit her arm leaving a bad burn. Left untreated, it caused an equally bad fever.
She didn't know how much longer she could hold up.
"Because I don't want them to go, that's why!" RJ said insistently. "I don't want them with me."
"You said them. I'm assuming that means you're all right with me going, then," Topaz said.
"I understand your reasons for wanting to go . . ."
"You forget who the hell you're talking to!" Topaz said losing patience with her for the first time during their conversation. "I know exactly why you don't want them with you. Because they're going to die. You, me, Poley, we're not likely to die. But David and Levits will. You think if you remove them from your life now you won't have to live through losing them. But the truth is you'll just lose them sooner. Normal people die, RJ, and people like you and I have to learn to live with that. They want to go with you . . ."
"They don't want to go. David insists on going because he thinks he has to pay for his crime by suffering as much as I do, and Levits. . ." she laughed. "He doesn't want anything to do with any part of this mission. He is only now insisting on going for what you and I know is the most stupid of reasons. . ."
"Because he loves you," Topaz said with a gentle smile, "that's not such a stupid reason."
"That's not what I was going to say," RJ said nervously.
"But it's the truth. I'm not an empath, and I know it, so I know that you know," Topaz said gently.
RJ sighed. "The mission has a lot more chance of succeeding without them getting in the way."
"I disagree; I think it has a better chance of success with them," Topaz said.
"How so? Levits hates David, and he never wants to go into space again. David hates Levits, and he knows nothing about space or space travel. In a lot of ways he's still just a green work unit."
"Levits is a starship pilot . . ."
"Who's terrified of space and flying . . ."
"But he knows what he's doing, RJ. You're a quick study, but you've never actually flown a starship; he has. David thinks on his feet when his dick doesn't get in the way, and whether you want to believe it or not, you need them. Look at what you have accomplished together. True, there were setbacks. But together you freed a country," Topaz said.
RJ seemed to accept what he was saying. She sat down and ran her fingers through her hair before looking at him again. "But, Topaz . . . Don't you see? If they go with me there is a very good chance that they will never see Earth again. That they will never have normal lives. They could have that here, but only if I leave. I want them to be happy."
"Levits has already lost one woman that he loved. Do you really think he could survive losing another? As for David, I think he only lives for the chance of redeeming himself in your eyes. If you can look me in the eye and tell me that either of them will be happy if you leave them here, then I'll quit arguing with you right now."
RJ looked at Mickey, and Mickey looked at her. "You're leaving me here. Can't you see how that makes me feel? You're all going away, and I'm staying here."
"I will miss you, too, Mickey, but it's the only way. You're too important here . . . Besides, you have a life here. None of the rest of us really do. You have to stay here and have a normal life for all of us. You have to stay and be our eyes and ears here on Earth. Someone has to stay with Marge; someone has to maintain her."
"If you go. . ." he shook his head and tried not to cry. "I'll never see you again. I know that, RJ. I know when you leave that you'll never come back."
She knew he was probably right. "I may come back."
"No you won't. I know you won't." His tears fell then. "I know I have to stay, but I don't think you have to go. I think you want to go. That even Levits who is bitching and moaning wants to go. But you can't run from your pain, RJ. It won't stay here; it will follow you."
She nodded. "What can I say? You're right. I know you're right." She turned to look at the mainland. "But there is nothing for me here but pain, Mickey. I don't want to leave you behind, but I do want to go. I can't stay here. Something has happened to me, and I have to try and fix it because I don't like the way I feel."
"Why . . . Why did you make me President?" Mickey asked. "Surely I was not the best choice! Topaz, or David, or Levits. . . you."
"Me!" She laughed. "No, not me, Mickey, and not David. Never David. No one trusts David anymore. Topaz? We all know Topaz isn't playing with a full deck. Besides he belongs to another time. And Levits? Levits has been in a leadership position before. Something went wrong, and he never wants to be in that position again. Don't you get it, Mickey? We're all crazies in one way or another. You're the only one of the inner circle that's sane – normal."
The little man laughed. "Me, normal! Look at me. I'm not even three feet tall."
"But your head is normal, Mickey. Your wants, needs and desires are normal. You're not filled with hate or fear of failure. You aren't consumed by grief or looking for things you haven't lost yet. When the chips were down, you came through. Under pressure you kept things going. The people know they can trust you if there is a crisis. They also know you're one of them; that they can trust you to do what's right."
Mickey dried his face. "I've never had to do any of it alone before."
"You're doing it alone now, Mickey," RJ said. "When is the last time the inner circle made a decision on policy? Besides, you won't be alone. You have a wonderful mate in Diana, you have surrounded yourself with capable people, and don't forget you'll have Marge. We'll be able to communicate over com-link most of the time."
Mickey nodded and swallowed hard. He couldn't make her feel bad about leaving because he realized she had to go, and the others had to go with her or she would be alone.
He mustered a smile. "At least say you'll try to come back to visit."
She nodded, her own tears spilling onto her cheeks. "I'll try." She hugged him tightly.
"Careful, RJ. You'll break me."
They both laughed and talked about something less serious – matters of state.
Topaz saw her walking on the wall and went to join her. She was brooding again.
"You know leaving won't change things," he said at her shoulder. She didn't jump; she'd known he was there. He wished just once he could sneak up on the bitch and scare her silly. "You can leave all that behind, but you can't run from what's inside you."
"So I've been told. But I can sure as hell give it a try," RJ said.
"You have to let go of your grief, RJ," he said quietly. "It's consuming you, stealing any happiness you might have. They wouldn't have wanted that. Not Sandy, and certainly not Whitey."
"I can't help the way I feel, Topaz. I can't just turn it off," RJ said.
"How do you know? You haven't even tried. I'm not asking you to turn it off, just turn something else on. Open yourself back up." Topaz drew a deep breath and released it slowly. "Listen to me. I know how you feel. Don't you think I've had grief? Here's a simple, inescapable fact – they're all mortal; you and I and your metal brother are not. Unless a meteor drops on us we will probably go on living forever. I've been doing it longer than you have; I know what it's like to watch everyone you love die. Realize this, you would have lost him eventually anyway. Best-case scenario you would have watched him grow old and sick and die. Let them go. Start to live again. You can't grieve forever."
"Have you ever had your beating heart ripped from your chest?" RJ turned to face him, her expression a mask of rage. "No, you haven't. So don't tell me you know how I feel, because you don't. No two people feel things in quite the same way, and as you have just so carefully reminded me, I am very capable of grieving forever." She turned on her heal and stomped towards the building.
"That doesn't mean you should!" Topaz yelled after her. He looked out at the mainland and mumbled. "Damn hard-headed girl. Sometimes she reminds me of myself."
It was a Reliance trans-mat station located deep within the bounds of Reliance-held territory, far away from the rebels in their starving, disease-riddled state. It was run by the military as were most things Reliance, but they were not a military installation, and most of the personnel were common class two labor units.
They did a valuable service for the Reliance. They transported items from the planet's surface to the moon to be shipped to the outer worlds. They also received from the moon goods that had been transported from the outer planets.
Lately they'd mostly been shipping crates of cotton and wool fabrics, simple metal farm equipment, and cooking utensils. They'd been receiving hundreds of brown colored humanoids from the planet Beta 4. These humanoids were to be trained briefly and used as shock troops in the event of any new attacks by the rebels.
The new free state was a total failure. All military personnel had been warned and placed on alert. The Reliance felt that it was only a matter of time till the rebels, driven by hunger and out of hope, would attack other Reliance held zones in the hope of securing much needed food and medical supplies.
But this far from the front Jake wasn't worried about the rebels. Jake wasn't worried about anything. He watched as the truck backed in and the forklift took the crate off the back and brought it towards the trans-mat loading area. He knew what was in the crate before he even looked at the manifest the truck driver handed him. More cotton. All morning it had been cotton. He nodded his head, and the forklift put the box down in the trans-mat loading area. He pushed a button and watched as it disappeared before his eyes. As many times as he did this in a day you would have thought it would have become routine, but he still marveled at the process. Something that big and that heavy just vanishing only to reappear thousands of kilometers away on the moon! Several people had tried to explain to him how it worked, but he still didn't have a clue. So for him the moment when something disappeared, or appeared was still magical. He signed the trucker's manifest and handed it back to him.
Just when Janad was sure she couldn't make it one more day the soldiers came back, and the metal rolling things went away. Relieved, she found a locker she had used to hide in before and crawled in. Her arm throbbed in pain, and her head pounded. She was fevered, so sleep was a long time coming. Finally exhaustion took over, and she fell into a fitful sleep.
"Hey!" Thomas said. "Look at this data from the robot."
"Looks like we have a stow-away," Michel said rubbing his chin. "You suppose it's the same girl we were chasing around on the way in?"
"If it is, she's a hell of a lot smarter and quicker than I would have thought these primitives would be," Thomas said. "We better hunt her up before we go. Shoot to kill."
Janad didn't get much sleep. She awoke to the sounds of the crew pounding on the walls and screaming, and she didn't have to wonder what they were looking for – she knew. They had apparently turned the metal things back on, because she could hear the all too familiar clicking sound they made when they moved. Resigned to the inevitable, she sunk down in the locker. She was too tired to keep fighting and in too much pain. She didn't have the energy she needed to escape them. Maybe if she stayed put they wouldn't find her. It was unlikely, but if she came out now they'd find her for sure.
RJ stood on one side of the crate and Poley on the other. With one kick they sent the door flying across the cargo hold. Topaz, Levits and David jumped out with lasers at the ready. They were sort of disappointed when no one was there to greet them. Just crate after crate of cotton cloth.
Levits walked up to RJ and whispered in her ear, "All right it worked, but it still sucked." Levits hadn't appreciated being nailed into a crate and basically delivered into the hands of the Reliance.
"It wasn't my idea; it was Topaz's," RJ whispered back.
"Actually, I stole it from some old Greek dudes," Topaz said.
RJ nodded her head towards the door leading to the rest of the ship, and Poley walked over to it. He pried the cover off the control panel with his fingertips and shorted the wiring out so that the door opened with a shower of sparks. He looked back at RJ and smiled.
"Let's move. The party isn't over yet, boys." RJ took point, and Poley brought up the rear. As they rounded a corner they ran into a troop of armed soldiers following a security droid. RJ hit the droid with her chain making it fly into a hundred pieces. With the laser in her other hand she killed one of the soldiers.
"Geee-od, it's RJ!" One of the soldiers screamed. The troop turned and ran in the opposite direction, firing over their shoulders.
The rebels gave chase.
Michael closed the door to the flight deck. He was out of breath, and his leg was smoking. He slapped at his pants putting out the fire there. He was so scared his limbs were trembling, and he felt like he was going to vomit. He punched the buttons and opened a channel to the moon base.
"We are under attack! Repeat. We are under attack. The rebel RJ is on our ship! Repeat. The rebel RJ is on our ship, and we are under fire. Please open hatches and send reinforcements immediately!" Michael screamed into the receiver.
Laughter was his answer.
"I'm not fucking kidding!" Michael said in disbelief.
"No, but you are fucking screwed," a voice answered back.
"Who the hell is this?" Michael screamed.
"It's me."
The door behind him crashed in with a shower of sparks. The woman stepped up on the fallen door, her wrist communicator held to her smiling mouth.
"Over and out," she said as she snapped the chain into his head.
Janad could hear them right outside the closet door. It wouldn't be long now. She could pretend to be dead. Or maybe if she didn't put up a fight they would just chain her up again, and she could live to fight another day.
She heard someone's hand on the locker handle and froze still not sure of her course of action.
RJ and Levits had headed for the flight deck. David, Topaz and Poley had headed for the mess hall where Poley detected a second security droid and they presumed more men.
They weren't disappointed.
David had assumed that the soldiers were looking for them, but it was pretty obvious by their shocked looks that they had no idea that they had been boarded. There were six of them and the droid. The combat ready rebels took them down as fast as they could fire their lasers.
Topaz looked at the size of the mess hall. It was huge, and that just didn't seem right for a cargo ship.
"This can't be a cargo ship," Topaz said. "Why would they need a mess hall this big, and why are there so many soldiers on board? A cargo ship only needs about six people to run the whole show, and we've already killed more than twelve ourselves."
"This isn't a cargo ship," Poley said matter-of-factly. "It's a military troop carrier."
"What the fuck is going on?" David asked.
Topaz shrugged.
"Come on. Let's find RJ," David said.
They left the room at a run.
Janad poked her head out of the closet. The metal rolling thing was smoking, obviously broken, and all of the soldiers lay dead. Whoever those people had been they didn't like the Reliance any better than she did. But she wasn't about to come out until she knew a lot more than she did now. She closed the door, curled up in a ball and went back to sleep. She knew instinctively that these people were not going to be interested in hunting for her.
On the bridge RJ checked out the ship's log. "Did we kill twenty-five men?" RJ asked.
"Yes," Poley answered.
"We're being hailed from the freaking base," Levits said. "We have to answer them. We are still tethered, and we have to have them un-tether us. If we say the wrong thing . . . we are so freaking screwed."
"Then talk to them, and don't screw up," RJ said.
Levits gave her an angry look. RJ took more chances these days. She didn't care what happened. She wasn't afraid of dying. In fact Levits got the idea that she would welcome death. What she seemed to forget on a regular basis was that they would die a lot easier than she would, and he for one didn't want to die. Not yet. Hell, he didn't feel like he'd even had a chance to live.
It had been a long time since he'd piloted a star ship. The last time he'd done it everything had gone horribly wrong. He wasn't as sure as RJ was that he even knew the right thing to say to moon base control. He sure as hell wasn't as sure as she was that he was up to flying this thing.
Levits looked at Topaz who nodded his understanding and raised his wrist-com to his mouth, "Marge, clear the channel."
"Done," the mock female voice squawked over his transmitter.
"What the hell's going on over there, Thomas?" the space traffic controller's voice screamed.
"Had some trouble with the communication system, but we've got it fixed now, and we're prepared for takeoff."
"I was beginning to think you guys had been attacked by rebels or something," the guy said in a joking tone.
"No, everything's fine here. We're prepared for un-tether."
"Roger. Un-tether in five. . . four. . . three. . . two. . . one. . ."
They felt the ship jerk as the tube that tethered the ship to moon base and allowed the ship to be loaded and unloaded was detached.
"Commence undocking," the space trafficker said.
"Powering up front thrusters and undocking . . . now," Levits began backing the ship out of the dock. It wasn't easy; it wasn't a procedure the computer could do. You had a read-out with a picture of your ship between two lines, and you had to stay in just the right spot. Jerk even one centimeter one way or the other, and you could strike the docking bay tearing a hole in your ship and ripping the bay apart. Not exactly the stealth approach one wanted to take when you were stealing a Reliance ship. When they had backed out of the dock without incident he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Moving toward the jump gates now."
"You're all clear. Take off when ready. Safe flight," the tower informed them.
"Thanks," Levits answered.
Levits powered the ship up and started to move slowly away from moon station and toward the jump gate. When he got a good look at the gate Levits relaxed a little. The jump gate was big enough to hold three battle ships at once. If he couldn't hit that hole then they all deserved to die in the cold vacuum of space.
RJ sat next to him accessing the ship's database. "Twenty-five men to man a freighter; that makes no freaking sense at all," she said.
"This isn't a freighter. It's a military troop carrier," Poley and Levits said in unison.
"Then why the hell are they using it to haul cotton fabrics to a third class planet like Beta 4? Hell, Beta 4 is a planet that both the Reliance and the Argy's consider to be too useless to conquer. What are they getting from the planet that they find it necessary to use a military ship with full armaments and manned by twenty-five armed soldiers?" RJ asked absently of no one in particular as she continued trying to find the part of the manifest which would tell what the ship was picking up on Beta 4.
"Maybe the Argy have been trying to cut off supply routes," David suggested.
RJ nodded. "Yeah, that's a good answer. But it's too easy, and for some strange reason the older I get the more I distrust easy answers." She scrolled back a page. "'Live stock.' The manifest says that they just delivered a shipment of 'livestock.' We're supposed to pick up another shipment of 'livestock' this time round."
"Well that explains the extra manpower anyway," Topaz said thoughtfully.
"But it doesn't explain why they're using a military transport," RJ said. "And it doesn't say what sort of 'livestock' they are taking from Beta 4. Besides, we were in the ship's hold; it didn't smell like shit to me."
Levits didn't want to deal with something as trivial as missing shit. He had enough to worry about hitting the gate and slinging this thing into hyperspace in less than five minutes. "They sterilize every ship that comes in as soon as it's unloaded. When a cleanup crew gets done on a ship like this . . ."
"There would still be some trace of shit," RJ said getting out of her seat. "Then there's the problem of the livestock itself."
"What do you mean?" Topaz asked.
"Well, the way I understand it, the only animals that populate Beta 4 are lizards and a few small mammals. Nothing worth transporting across the vastness of space," RJ said thoughtfully. "Poley and I are going to go down to the hold and see what we can find."
"RJ, I'm getting ready to make the jump to hyperspace in less than five minutes, and just between you and me, I'm not at all sure that I remember how to do this," Levits said. "I thought I would be piloting a freighter. I had Marge give me a crash course on freighters, and now I'm flying a freaking troop carrier. They aren't the same."
"I have faith in you," RJ said turning to smile at him. "If you can't hit a jump gate that big, we deserve to die in the cold vacuum of space."
Levits mumbled obscenities under his breath as RJ and Poley left the flight deck.
David and Topaz stood at a view port looking out at the planet Earth. Both men were transfixed, momentarily forgetting everything except the fact that they had traveled through space and were now looking down at the planet of their birth. It seemed surreal.
Topaz who had spent hundreds of years on the surface of the planet looked at Earth set in space and thought about the beauty of it. To think that when he was a child few men had ever seen this view first hand, and interstellar travel was only a dream. As a child he had dreamt of going to the stars and conquering new worlds, but by the time interstellar travel had become a fact he was already in hiding from the Reliance. Now he was finally going on a real adventure. He was finally in the heavens, leaving the Earth behind, seeing truly different things, and having completely different experiences. He couldn't wait till the Earth disappeared from view.
David on the other hand looked at the Earth with longing. Something told him he had better take a good long look because he was never going to see Earth again. In a few minutes the ship would take off, and the Earth would vanish from view. He was never going home. He really didn't know where they were going or why. He was leaving behind everything that was familiar, including the free country he had dreamed of and fought for. He was going off into space on a mission that he didn't understand and that was probably impossible to execute. There was nothing under his feet but several metal floors and empty endless space. It felt to him like he was standing on a string over a bottomless pit. Thinking about it left a weird over-empty feeling in his stomach. Of course that just might be the residual effects of the terror the trans-mat had thrown him into.
David hadn't understood the way the trans-mat worked. He assumed that the box simply moved through space somehow. He certainly hadn't been prepared at all to have his body completely disassembled and its particles flung through space to be reassembled. It was over in a matter of seconds, but he didn't think he was ever going to get over the filthy feeling it left him with. It was as close to being dead as he could imagine being. Levits and RJ seemed to take it in stride, and he hadn't expected the robot to react. Topaz' reaction was one of pure adulation. In fact upon completion of the reconstruction of his body's atoms, he had yelled Cool! so loud that RJ had immediately clamped a hand over his mouth, and they had all prayed that they hadn't been detected.
David didn't want to leave Earth. He knew he wasn't important to this mission that he didn't understand, and he would have preferred staying on Earth. But he was damned if he was going to be left behind, and he didn't want to stay in Alsterase alone. Couldn't, in fact, have stayed there without the others if he had wanted to because someone would have killed him.
RJ was leaving, and he was sure RJ had no intention of returning to Earth. David could barely remember his life before RJ, and although the closeness they had once shared had been shattered, he still couldn't imagine being separated from her now.
The ship jumped into hyperspace with a jerk that almost knocked David down, and the Earth was gone from view. He took a deep breath and quickly wiped the tears from his eyes. It was way too late to change his mind now even if he had wanted to.
David wondered if he would ever get over this horrible feeling that there was nothing substantial under him. He wondered if he was ever going to get used to the fact that he was basically nowhere. Wondered what he was expected to use as a point of reference for his existence. Was he here? No, he had moved and now he was here. No, moved again! The whole thing was weirding him out.
RJ fingered one of four sets of manacles affixed to the walls of the hold. "Now what do you suppose these are for? I can't think of any 'livestock' that has hands."
Poley shrugged his shoulders. "Nor can I. Perhaps it is used as punishment for unruly soldiers."
"Every ship has a brig for that," RJ said moving away from them. "Of course they might have changed policy. Those are a lot cheaper than a cell, and a lot more irritating."
RJ took a pocketknife and scraped the crevices in the hold's floor. She handed what she found to Poley who quickly examined the findings.
"No animal waste," Poley informed her.
"Don't tell me what there isn't, Tin pants," RJ said in an exasperated tone. "Tell me what there is."
"A few cotton and wool fibers. Dirt, I'm assuming from both planets, human skin fragments, DNA, and what I have to assume are the skin fragments of a Beta 4 humanoid. More of the later in fact than the former."
"Now . . . I wonder why that is?" RJ asked rubbing her chin.
"Maybe it fell off the crates that were loaded in here from the planet, and maybe . . ."
"Maybe we have no idea. I don't like it, Poley. I don't like it at all."
"Avonlea, Avonlea! You're off course. Repeat you're off course." The moon base operator was screaming at him over the communications port.
Levits decided to have a little fun. He linked in. "Yeah, well, how's this? I'm stealing your freaking ship, so I don't give a shit!"
RJ skidded to a stop beside him. "Change course for Beta 4."
"What?" Levits screamed at her.
"Change course; we're going to Beta 4," RJ said.
"For shits sake, RJ, I just told moon base . . ."
"What the hell did you say?" the moon base operator asked.
Levits cleared his throat. "Ah, we ah. . . Just a little ship humor, sir." He shrugged silently in answer to the look that Topaz gave him. "I'm making that course correction now. Thanks I sure wouldn't want to get lost out here in hyperspace."
"You OK, Thomas?" The operator asked.
"Yeah, just a little constipation. Happens every time I spend any time in a space station. Over." Levits cut the transmission and turned to face RJ.
"You want to tell me what the hell's going on?" he asked.
RJ smiled at him and bent down to kiss his check. "Now if I knew that we wouldn't have to go to Beta 4, would we?" She straightened, turned on her heel and started out of the room.
"Damn it, RJ, would you give me a straight answer? What happened to your big win the Argys over plan, and why in hell's name are we going to a hole like Beta 4?"
She was gone and obviously wasn't going to answer him.
Levits turned to Topaz. "OK then, answer this one for me. Why does she keep kissing me when I'm screaming at her?" Levits asked.
Topaz and David both laughed.
"She does it because you find it unsettling," Topaz said.
"I think she does it because she likes him," Poley tossed out and then left obviously to go look for his sister.
They all laughed now. "Better take your vitamins, Levits," David teased. "Think you're up for it?"
"I'd certainly find that unsettling," Levits laughed.