Playing at Grown ups

A Pink Dormouse Production

Chapter Sixteen

Soolin

Not usually one to be sentimental about possessions she had none the less packed up the book and brought it with her on Del Grant’s personal transport. Arrangements for the meeting with Fleet Chief Marshall Mylo had taken considerable time due to both sides’ understandable wariness but they were now only a few hours away from the neutral planet where he was waiting for them. She was sitting in the cockpit with the book in her lap when Grant came through from his cabin.

"How many times have you read that now?"

"This copy, three times. The book itself, I don’t remember. My Mother used to read it to me when I..."

"You don’t have to talk about your family if you don’t want to. I do understand."

"No big deal." Soolin had heard all about Anna Grant and her involvement with Avon from Dayna, who had almost certainly told Grant a thing or two about Soolin’s past as well. "Are you here for a progress report or were you wanting polite conversation as well?"

What’s left to talk about? ‘Remember that old friend who killed your sister? Well I’m partially responsible for him being out there somewhere. Oh, and I slept with him in the entirely literal sense a few nights before he finally lost it.’ Not good... Would it be a gross misuse of Rebellion Funds to pay for a psychological profile of every potential partner I meet from now on?

"Credit for them?"

"What?"

"You were being thoughtful. Something I said?"

"Just thinking about where we’re headed: aren’t the natives supposed to be a little unfriendly towards offworlders?"

"Generally. But I’ve had dealings with their administration before so we should have no trouble from them. Besides, with the way the political climate is changing, a lot of planets that were hostile to everything even remotely Terran are starting to distinguish between Federation and Alliance personnel."

"I can’t believe how fast everything’s moving now. It was one thing after another towards the end on Xenon but I’m having even more trouble keeping track of this." Shit. I mentioned Xenon, hope he doesn’t hold it against me.

"A pity it took Blake’s death to get people fired up again," Grant said as he checked over the navigation readouts. "I only met him a few times and he was becoming very disillusioned towards the end. Still, I’m sure such things will be glossed over by the history books."

"One would hope so," Soolin replied, thinking of certain other events that would not look good in the history books.>

Marianne

*Message begins. "Marianne, Jayrel here. Hope that Rolcomt gadget of yours is still working and manages to pick this up. You said you could still decode our old ciphers so I’m using one for security. Anyway I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but it’s coming up to what could have been a very significant anniversary for the two of us. Fancy meeting up on Lindor to discuss old times?" Message Ends. Do you wish to reply?*

"Same frequencies and cipher, Virginia. Message begins. Jayrel, I can be on Lindor for the day itself. Our usual meeting place? Marianne. Message ends."

*Do you wish me to send that now?*

"Go ahead, Virginia."

Soolin

The planet was depressingly industrial with nondescript grey buildings crowding the main thoroughfares. Grant seemed to know exactly where he was going and strode purposely through the throngs ahead of them. Eventually they reached a bar and entered cautiously.

"He’s not here?"

"I don’t know." Grant walked over to the man serving behind the bar. "I hear the hunting’s good this time of year," he said as if making polite conversation.

"He’s through the back." The barman indicated a door obscured by shadows.

"Thank you." Grant said moving to the door.

Soolin followed him into a small, dimly lit room. The man and woman sitting at the table in the centre stood up and circled around to stand on either side of the rebels. The mercenaries both stood a little over two metres tall- not unusual in the case of the man but noteworthy in relation to the woman.

"You found us then: excellent. Fleet Chief Marshall Mylo and my second, Tansa."

"Del Grant. My second, Soolin."

"Well, make yourselves comfortable." He indicated the two chairs nearest to them. "Tansa, a bottle of wine for our guests I think."

Soolin studied the other woman as she brought a bottle and four glasses through from the bar. Not only her height but also something about her bone structure seemed unusual.

"So," said Mylo pouring the wine, "what are the terms for our fleet joining your rebellion?"

"Your people will receive the same level of treatment as those already fighting with us. I am not authorised to offer any more than that." Grant sampled the wine. "A good choice by the way."

"We earned three times that defending the Five Systems from the Betafarlian fleet."

"And now they consider themselves safe and have less need of you. Am I right?" Soolin asked.

"For the time being. But those systems and half a dozen others in that one sector alone owe the SCorps a debt of gratitude. If we join your alliance, they will follow. If we remain neutral then you will have to convince each ruler individually."

"He has a point, Grant."

"Agreed, Soolin, I would prefer that member systems joined the Alliance for idealistic reasons but better they were for us than against us in any case. However, we cannot be dictated to as to how much we pay one group of fighters while those who have been with us longer are on maintenance wages only."

"Does that include yourselves?"

Sneaky... "I work for substantially less than I could earn elsewhere as a bodyguard."

"And I could earn good money as military advisor to any one of a number of independent worlds. But we both believe in the politics of what we are doing."

Is that what he thinks about me, or is he like a lot of the others and still wondering what I’m doing in the rebellion. What am I doing in the rebellion?

"Well, many of our people have been affected by Federation hostilities or come from worlds that would be if your people were not keeping them occupied elsewhere. I may be able to persuade them to fight for a lower fee once I have been convinced that your forces are as substantial as I have been led to believe. Tansa, some more wine for our guests."

"Allow me to buy the next bottle." Grant stood up.

"No, I have a deal with the bar owner. You can return the favour when we visit your base."

"Who said..." Soolin missed the rest of Grant’s question as she was studying the woman again.

"I know what you’re thinking," Mylo whispered to her, "and you’re right, she isn’t human." Soolin looked at him.

"Are you?"

"Half and half, but that’s not particularly uncommon where I come from. Most people who are third or fourth generation on my homeworld have at least one native ancestor. We just don’t talk about it much."

"Surely that’s reason enough for you personally to want to fight the Federation? They aren’t exactly alien-friendly."

"True, but then my world is not one the Federation has ever tried to colonise. Too well defended and too far out for them to bother with."

Tansa returned with the wine and the conversation centred once more on the Alliance rather than on individuals.

By the time the third bottle was nearly emptied, terms had been agreed upon, subject to Mylo visiting at least one base under appropriate security. Soolin was pleased to see that Grant, at least, understood the importance of keeping secret base locations secret.

"And now we seem to have finished negotiations for the evening, I suggest one more bottle of wine and," Mylo pulled a small silver box from his jacket and handed it to Grant, "White Leaf- fresh- not the processed variety you find on most planets."

Soolin wondered if there was a diplomatic protocol for how to react when offered proscribed substances.

Grant opened the box.

"Not seen this in a long time. And yes, it was processed every time I was offered it before." He took a leaf and passed the box to Soolin.

"Dorian gave me some of this a couple of times. Of course he preferred custom synthetics most of the time. Not sure what happened to his stocks after he died."

"I think I could make an educated guess," said Grant.

It was nearly midnight, local time when they finally made their way to the rooms they had hired in a nearby guest house. Soolin paused outside her door.

"I’m still pretty wired, do you want to come in for a while? There must be a drinks replicator or a mini-bar in here."

"Don’t mind if I do. You can give me your opinion on our new friends. Or maybe on some old ones?"

Uh oh. Wondered when he’d get around to that... "Here we are, wide selection of drinks at exorbitant prices." She programmed a spritzer for herself and waited while Grant got his own drink. "I think the SCorps will give us the edge we need. You knew Avon well then?"

"I knew him for a long time, don’t know if that counts as the same thing. He was a trouble-shooter on a project I was involved in, when we first met. Somehow we found we had a mutual interest in certain classified projects- he wanted to beat the official researchers to discoveries so he could make money out of their ideas- I wanted to channel the information to my political contacts. Once he figured out that we weren’t in competition he took me down to the dive where he obtained his information and anything else he felt like dabbling in."

"Such as?"

"The usual: stolen goods, drugs, sex, the odd bit of hacking on commission. I think a lot of it was because he was bored: he never got the big break he deserved because he didn’t have the contacts or the money. He started doing the odd bit of work for some of the groups I was in touch with out of amusement rather than any political interest. We lost touch when I started spending more time away from Earth, then I heard that my kid sister had started seeing him. I got an express transport back, tracked him down and told him in no uncertain terms what would happen if he hurt her in any way.

"I was working on Arcos when I heard that Anna was dead and by the time I got back Avon had been shipped offworld. It was nearly two years before we met up again and I got to hear his side of the story. I kept in touch with the Liberator up until the Galactic War but afterwards things were a little chaotic. I was involved in fighting on some of the worlds that seceded from the Federation in the aftermath of the war; helped set up interim governments; brokered alliances between neighbouring systems. Eventually I made my way back to Earth, getting there just after the coup failed. It was a big shock finding out that Anna had been alive all along, playing all sides for her own ends. It must have been a lot worse for Avon, from what Dayna told me."

"Before my time, I’m afraid. He was screwed up by a lot more than that when I first met him. If we’d managed one really successful hit against the Federation then maybe he could have given himself a break for long enough to get his head together. As it was he just went downhill; Vila was covering for him a lot of the time but the rest of us should have noticed and stepped in."

"How did he die?"

"What have you heard?" She was playing for time and he probably realised it.

"Very little. There was one scrambled transmission from Gauda Prime, from which we made out that the main base had been compromised and Blake was dead, then we heard nothing for two weeks until the casualty list was broadcast to all known rebel groups. That was when things took off in earnest and it’s only now that I’ve had a chance to ask anyone about what happened."

"Do you really want to know?" She finished her drink and got another. "I killed him. I was the only one of us who would do it and guarantee to do it cleanly."

"And if I were to say I don’t believe you?"

"Why would I lie? He screwed up once too often. It was the only logical solution."

"You need to be drinking something stronger than that," said Grant fetching two shots of a particularly noxious local spirit. "To Avon, wherever he is."

"To Avon." She downed the drink, then took a long gulp of the spritzer to try and drown the taste. "Still happy to be working with me?"

"More so: I know how far I can rely on you. I’ll call back in the morning and we can discuss arrangements for escorting the Fleet Chief Marshall to your base."

Soolin considered asking Grant to stay then remembered just how wrecked she was and merely gave her agreement to his plan.

On to Chapter Seventeen

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