The Pilot's Den was abnormally empty. Instead of being surrounded by the loud, competitive atmosphere, Price and Laura were enveloped in relative subdued quiet. The bartender quietly served them food from the materializer behind him; Agameg took the rice, baby carrots and grilled chicken while Laura took two bowls of stew.
“Two?” Agameg asked quietly. He had really just met her, but after running into her while going to see the Samson for himself, she asked to follow him to the lower deck pub for something to eat. He knew he'd find Ashley there too, Stephanie had asked him to check on her on his way back up.
“One for Ashley, just in case.”
“Ah, I should have thought of that.”
They started looking around for the young pilot as they slowly walked away from the bar. “Don't worry, we're all…” Laura stopped mid sentence as she spotted Ashley in a nearby booth, her legs curled up to her chest, head resting on her knees and her long straight black hair hanging over her tall combat boots. “… tired,” she finished as she nodded in the sleeping woman's direction.
“Oh my,” was all Agameg said as they quietly walked over and slid into the bench across from Ashley and sat side by side.
They watched her for a moment, not touching their food. She seemed small somehow, her shoulders rising and falling in the slow, regular breathing pattern of sleep. Her knee high armoured combat boots, something she wore out of stylish preference than practical need, looked too large for her. She was squeezed snugly against the wall of the booth, sitting with her knees folded up so tightly that she only took up the inner half of the seat.
“She's really sleeping,” Laura whispered.
“Deeply it seems.”
“I couldn't do that, not when I know there are people around.”
“She grew up with no personal space, I doubt it bothers her. She was saying that her quarters were too quiet.”
“Has this ever happened before?”
“Not that I've known,” Agameg shrugged slightly. “What do you think we should do?”
“We can't leave her like this,” Laura said as she quietly got out of her seat and moved to the other side of the booth. She gently put her hand on Ashley's; “Hi Ashley, it's Laura and Agameg,” her tone was that of someone speaking to a small, easily spooked animal.
Ashley's eyes opened reluctantly and Laura gently moved her hair to the side for her. She stared at the older woman for a moment before straightening up. “Sorry, dosed off after finishing my report.”
“It's okay, Stephanie sent Agameg to check on you and I thought I'd tag along.”
Agameg raised a hand in a mild hello. “Are you okay Ash?”
“Hi Aggie, I'm fine. Haven't had a nap like that in a while.”
Laura moved back to her seat beside Agameg and pushed her second bowl of stew across the table to Ashley. “Thought you'd be hungry.”
“Ohm'gosh I'm famished,” Ashley said as she turned the steaming contents of the bowl, it was thick, brown and had chunks of various tuber vegetables and textured tofu. “Never tried this kind.”
“It's the field harvest stew, one of my favourites since coming aboard,” Laura replied as she watched Ashley take her first spoonful and just enjoy it with her eyes closed.
“Num,” she sighed as she finished chewing.
“So you finished your after action report already?”
“Yup. Didn't take me long, I read Alice's instructions before the Samson left, recorded everything so I just had to highlight the important bits and summarize. Still, it's different. On the Samson we just did what we were s'posed to and told Captain what happened after.”
“Have you ever done military service Ashley?” Laura asked as she scooped her first spoonful.
“Nope. Captain took me in and taught me how to fly. From there I just heard snips and bits from lots of ex-military crew and Captain talking so I understand most of the lingo. That's where you're from right? The military I mean.”
“Actually I'm a trained field engineer. I got pulled into service after getting caught running simulations on a closed network with Jonas.”
“Oh, so you kinda got sucked in.”
“That's one way to put it. Best thing that ever happened to me though. If it weren't for us getting caught I'd have never met my husband, wouldn't have worked with Ayan for years on some amazing things, and I wouldn't have met you people.”
“So you like being on the Triton? ” Agameg asked.
“It's an amazing ship, and the core crew is very good at what they do. I miss my husband, but I hear we're going after him.”
“I'm glad Alice is taking us after them too, I miss Captain. Don't get me wrong, he was right to leave her in charge. Pulling that heist off was really something, don't think many people could do it and there were moments I didn't think we'd make it but everyone on the Samson made it through. Wish all the other pilots made it back, but I understand how that works. You just lose some people on some jobs. Yup, I like Alice a lot, but still, I miss having Captain in charge.” Ashley said quietly as she picked through her stew. “Don't like this tofu much though.”
“I understand, she has a very solid, straightforward command style on the bridge. I've met other commanders like that and in an emergency it can be a good thing. They tell you exactly what they need in really clear terms. Speaking of impressive talents, your flying out there was pretty amazing. Alice played it back once repair teams were dispatched and things settled down. Reminded me of an old friend of mine, only he used to fly fighters.”
“I wasn't able to watch the replay, but I saw a lot of it while it was going on. You were amazing,” Agameg added.
“I did what I had to, I don't think Larry's going to be talking to me for a while though,” Ashley said with a crooked grin. “He had to tie his brain in knots to get us into hyperspace. We were moving too fast, almost lost another engine pod when we took off because of the shear.”
“I saw that pylon, it's ripped almost all the way through,” Price said as he drew a pile of rice towards his mouth with a practiced hand and a pair of chopsticks.
“Uh-huh. Think they'll scrap the Samson this time? Paula was screaming at me from the debarkation ramp all the way to the hangar lift. I'm probably gonna be in trouble for walking out on inspection while I was in charge of the Samson. ”
“I think everyone understands you might have been a little frazzled after so many close calls in one run. They'll cut you some slack even though Alice is running the ship as close to Freeground Fleet standards as possible,” Laura reassured.
“I'm more worried about the Samson. ” Ashley pressed.
“Oh, no, they won't be scrapping her. You missed the fight between Paula and Finn. He told her to get everyone she had to extract the hypertransmitter and then to get to work on the Samson. That turned into an argument over authority, which Finn was losing until Chief Grady backed him up. She was just about hopping until even Frost and Chief Vercelli backed him up, then she shut up and got everyone working.”
“I shoulda stayed for inspection,” Ashley said, shaking her head with a faint smile. “How long until we get to the Captain you think?”
“Well, we're hiding behind a rock in the Artemis asteroid belt while we do repairs. Alice, er, Captain Valent said we'd be under way in about six hours. It'll take that long to finish building the adapted hypertransmitter into the Triton's main emitter array. They're also repairing all the damage to the hull and cloaking systems,” Price said with a smile.
“Thank God! This time we'll get a chance to see what's going on before anyone notices us,” Ashley sighed with relief.
“You're telling me. Even with the heavy shielding the Triton took a beating. She weathered it well, but I'd rather have more of an idea of what we're getting into this time. I think Alice was right, someone knew we were coming,” Laura said.
“Stephanie thinks the killer and our mole are different people. Doesn't help much because she still doesn't know who either one is though,” Ashley commented around a chunk of potato.
“I've heard that your husband is an intelligence agent of some kind,” Price said as he turned a slice of his simulated grilled chicken over.
“He specializes in information systems and data mining. They've had him on some secret operations and put him through some special training too, but he never told me about most of it.”
“That must be hard,” Ashley commented, all her attention on Laura. “Not knowing everything about him, I mean.”
“I didn't ask. If I need to know about what he's doing at work he'll tell me. I trust him.”
“Wow, I've never had something like that with anyone. Well, maybe with Finn, but our spark went fizzle-poof and out while he was in stasis. Where is he, by the way? Still working?”
“Yup, I checked on him after leaving the bridge and he was just popping his first round of stimulants. They can't pull him away from the hypertransmitter or the main emitter room. I think he feels responsible for blowing the system out.”
“He saved our butts. I'll have to remind him next time I see him,” Ashley said, shaking her head. “He works too hard.”
“He reminds me a bit of Jonas when I first met him,” Laura nodded.
Ashley left her spoon in her mostly empty bowl and crossed her arms; “'Kay, I'm confused. Jonas was Captain's brother, right?”
Laura smiled and shook her head. “No, that's just something he let most of the crew believe. Years ago Jonas Valent was captured by a corporation named Vindyne, who made a copy of him. Alice, who was once an artificial intelligence that he owned but had downloaded herself into a human body, went after him. When she rescued who she thought was Jonas, it turned out to be Jacob Valance only he didn't have access to the memories that they had copied from Jonas.”
“Whoa.” Ashley said as she looked from Laura to Agameg, whose eyes had become perfectly round green circles.
“Whoa,” he agreed.
“So Captain is actually a copy of someone else and that explains why he can heal really fast, maybe they gave him a little something extra, but how did he start remembering all of a sudden?”
“I think it was meeting Alice or Jonas in person. I can't be sure. All I know is that by the time Ayan and I got here he was already remembering and it started to happen a lot faster after she passed away.”
“Who was she? I know there's a monument for them and all the other people who died when we first took Triton in the Botanical Gallery now, but I haven't figured it out.”
“They were very close, I've never seen two people fit so well together. Even so, they didn't get much time together before Jonas was taken by Vindyne. She never stopped looking for him.”
“She was your friend?”
“After the First Light she was my best friend,” Laura said with a sad smile.
“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring all that up.”
“It's okay, it feels good to talk about her. Besides, she was the kind of person that people talked about when she was alive, why should we stop now?”