One of the shipping containers was filled with supplies, and Ayan couldn’t help but smile at the sight of it being unloaded. “It’s a reassuring sight,” Laura said from her side.
“Yes it is,” agreed a liberated slave as he passed by with a group of similarly dressed people. Most of them were smiling at the sight of incoming supplies. “Time to unload the groceries,” another added.
“I’m just glad we’re on solid ground. From the looks of the ships, they must have been pretty close to sinking.” Ayan observed, gesturing towards a nearby, fat bellied hauler ship. Its landing struts were still caked with mud all the way up to the hull.
“Most of that’s backsplash from vertical takeoff,” Stephanie explained from her left.
Ayan hadn’t noticed her approach, and turned to greet her with a smile but that intent as well as the expression faded as soon as she caught the woman’s expression. She looked nearly furious. “Everything all right?”
“No, everything’s not all right. We’ve been here less than a day and you’ve got us hooked in with a crime boss who happens to be our landlady. You know who Patrizia Salustri is?”
Ayan hadn’t been angry, truly, out of control angry since she was a teenager. When she lost her temper, the world shook, the edges of her vision blurred, and it was all she could do to keep from leaping bodily at her rival. She’d never seen Stephanie in that light before, but who else was as close to Jake? Who knew the man he had become better than her? That, along with the suspicion that Patrizia, the tall, elegant, beautiful mysterious woman she’d just met could be one of Jacob’s ex-lovers was enough to crush the emotional barriers Ayan used to compartmentalize her feelings. “That’s it,” she breathed, stepping right up to the Security Chief. “You don’t have the right to put me down, fringe trash.”
Stephanie took a step back, her expression softening.
Ayan followed her, holding position, nose to nose toe to toe. She was no longer Ayan, the awe filled traveller. She was a Commander, military trained, a two time boot camp graduate, survivor of ship to ship as well as person to person combat, and she wasn’t going to be insulted, not when she was suppressing so much anger and frustration. She unleashed all the fury she had at not being able to return to the Triton and help her people along with everything else and everything but Stephanie’s brown eyes disappeared. “Are you talking down to me Chief? You couldn’t find a serial killer on your own ship and you’re talking down to me?” The feeling of air filling her lungs to the brim, of pushing all of it out with her stomach as hard as she could was like a violent ecstasy. “What the hell has got you thinking you can bust my chops about how I do my job when you’re not doing yours?” Ayan took a quick, deep breath and squeezed her final words through gnashed teeth. “You get your ass over there and supervise your people while they unload the bread I brought home today and set up a perimeter detail while you’re at it.” Ayan watched her. “In case you can’t remember the proper response, it is ‘yes sir!’”
“Yes sir,” Stephanie mewled. The woman had melted, fear and uncertainty was plain in her eyes.
“Again, before you embarrass yourself!” Ayan demanded.
Stephanie snapped to attention and barked; “Yes sir!”
“Dismissed!” Ayan shouted as a reflex.
Stephanie turned on her heel and began to stride away.
Ayan was about to let it go, to walk to the Clever Dream and hope that would be the last time the spectre of military discipline would show, but she saw the look of frustration on Stephanie’s face. Even from the side, it was instantly recognizable. What little anger Ayan had surged to the surface. “Oi! Next time you even think of giving me attitude, I’ll give your job to Leland March. At least he looks as useless as he is!”
With Laura close behind and eyes on her from every direction, Ayan marched towards the main boarding ramp of the Clever Dream. She stepped into the first officer’s quarters, why, she wasn’t sure, and Laura was right behind her.
“Wow, I’ve never seen that side of you. Where’d that come from?” Laura asked.
“Too many years on the parade ground,” Ayan rasped as she sat on the bed hard enough to bounce and lowered her face into her hands.
“Jason told me they used to call you Sunspot because of your temper, but that was just…” She trailed off for a moment before concluding; “Military. That was Commander Ayan.”
Ayan could hear Laura turn around and notice how quiet she’d gotten, and the moment she sat on the bed beside her the tears started flowing.
“Oh,” she said as she put her arm around her shoulders.
Laura had always been a good friend, the best. She’d met so many people in Junior Academy, then Fleet Academy and the military. Many of her best friends had died years ago, service mates who perished on the Sunspire during combat action. Others drifted off as service took them in different directions, and for Ayan, that meant up the command ladder, further separating her from fellow graduates and the acquaintances of her youth. Then she was reborn, and everyone but Doctor Anderson and Minh were gone. When she arrived aboard the Triton, the reunion with Laura was the sweetest. There was no forgetting or replacing such a friend, and as she sat on the edge of the bed Jacob Valance had slept in the night before crying for reasons she couldn’t quite put together yet, she had never been more grateful that she was there. Laura didn’t ask why she was in tears, she just kept her company while she got them out of her system, but then, she did want to give her an explanation. “I have no idea what I’m doing here,” Ayan managed as she wiped tears away.
Laura handed her a tissue, where she’d found it, she had no idea. “You’re doing great.”
“No, I’m really not. I mean, all day we’ve been running about, trying to make a proper place here and I manage to sign the first contract the Government presents, then strike a bargain with a crime lord. What kind of madwoman does that?”
“The intelligent, flexible kind.”
“Oh, and said crime lady all but said; ‘me and your Jake are old shagging buddies, think you can meet us up again?’ God, I’m so lost. So completely, utterly lost,” Ayan punctuated with a long blow of her nose.
“There’s no-“
“And as soon as I get back I go off like a drill sergeant on one of his most trusted people.” She sat silently for a moment, reviewing the incident. “I have to apologize.”
Laura caught Ayan before she could finish standing up and sat her back down. “Oh, no you don’t. She had it coming, I mean she really had it coming. You bent over backwards and worked miracles today. I mean, think about it. None of us have been here before, you couldn’t call back to the ships because we don’t have a local code, and they needed you to get supplies, somewhere to land and the permits to move. I wouldn’t know where to start. Then she has the nerve to give you grief over getting it all finished in the nick of time?” Laura shook her head. “You actually managed to do what anyone in your position would want to do, and she deserved every word.”
It was easy to believe Laura, everything she said was true. “Maybe bringing up the serial killer was going over the line just a little,” Ayan admitted.
“But did you see the look on her face?”
Ayan couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t think she’ll doubt me aloud again. Jake’s going to hear about that though.”
“So? I’m pretty sure he’ll agree Stephanie was in the wrong. Respectful colleagues present advice and alternatives, not criticism without support.”
“They used to tell us that in Officer Training.”
“And I’ve heard you say the same to people in the lab.”
Ayan looked at Laura, whose eyes went wide as she realized her blunder. “Wasn’t me,” she said quietly.
Laura smiled back at her and nodded. “It was. A little different, but everything she was, is in you. Besides, the woman I’m sitting beside is something greater.”
“Sure, there’s more of me, especially in the hips, and in the front,” Ayan countered, playfully.
“No, well, yeah, but-“
“Well, thank you!” Ayan laughed, feigning injury.
“It suits you. It really does, but really; as you are, I can’t imagine you sticking to an Engineering department, or a research lab. You’d do wonderful in either place, but after spending the day with you today I see so much more in you. An ambassador, an explorer, a problem solver, and it’s all wrapped up in a confident, charming package. I think, no, I’m sure Patrizia was actually envious of you when she realized you were the one who gave Jake his scarf. I think you made a mystery real for her, I think you lived up to what she pictured in her mind as a woman she couldn’t compete with.”
“Oh, come on,” Ayan said with disbelief. “Not in this lifetime, or any other. Did you see her?”
“Yes, and she was hanging on your every word, especially when you stood up to her and actually countered her price with an offer of your own.”
“Must happen all the time,” she replied with a barely suppressed smile.
“You know it doesn’t, and if something did happen between Jake and her, it’s probably ancient history now. Just talk to him about it.”
“That ought to be an interesting conversation,” Ayan sighed. “But I think I will.”
“Good. It’ll be fine.”
“You’re amazing, Laura. Busy picking me up off the floor while Jason’s still out there. I’m sorry.”
Laura closed her eyes and nodded. “I’m worried, but I’d know if something happened to him. Wherever he is, I know he’s doing his best to come back to me.”
“Minh should be back soon.”
“I know. I think I’ll try to get some rest before he arrives. Do you mind?”
“No, I think I’ll wait for Jake in the Captain’s quarters.”
“Good luck. I think everything’s going to be fine though.”
“I hope so.”