The Army Of Light (Kestrel Saga) (19 page)

    
Shawn pivoted back into the ship, leaving Melissa standing at the top of the
ramp, her mouth agape. Seeing he was almost through the door, she took a breath
and shouted after him. “You said it yourself in the car, Captain: people
change.”

    
He called back coldly over his shoulder before disappearing into the innards
of 
Sylvia’s Delight
. “Not them. They’re not people.” 

*          
*           *

    
Moments after he’d entered the command deck, Shawn flopped himself down in the
wonderfully forgiving pilots chair. He looked to the centermost overhead
console—a jumble of switches and lights to the untrained eye—and
expertly—albeit with marked
perturbance
—began
entering the destination coordinates into the ships navigational computer.

    
Melissa stormed into the cockpit and hovered like a vulture over his shoulder.
“I wasn’t finished talking to you, mister.”

    
Without bothering to face her, he continued to query the guidance computer for
verification of his input. When it failed to give him the proper response, he
lightly slapped the side of the unit. When it again failed, he struck it with a
rapid series of slaps and taps. “That’s funny, because I distinctly remember
ending that line of conversation.”

    
“Divide by zero error. Please re-enter data, Captain,” the female computer
voice said happily as Shawn continued to abuse the terminal.

    
After the third attempt at entering the information—and after receiving the
same error message each time—he reached up and slapped the computer harder.
This time several of the lights flickered momentarily, turned completely off,
then went back to full illumination. The captain’s jolt had the desired
effect.  The destination input light flickered from red to green, which
was followed by a rather friendly chime as the female voice of the computer
responded with “Input accepted, Captain.”

    
“I can’t believe
I’m trusting
my life to a man who has
to wallop his ship to get it to cooperate,” Melissa said, shaking her head
somberly.  

    
Thankful that she’d decided to drop her previous line of questions, he smiled.
“You just need to show it whose boss from time to time.”

    
She rolled her eyes heavily at the comment,
then
continued to watch as he entered the final pieces of information into the ships
computer. Some of the requests seemed benign, while others were completely
obscure to her. She’d done her fair share of vessel piloting in the past, but
she couldn’t recall ever being behind the controls of such an antiquated vessel
like 
Sylvia’s Delight
. She decided to momentarily put her fears
about the vehicles safety behind her for the time being.

    
“Would you…”

    
“Would I what?” Shawn snapped tersely.

    
“Look I’m… I’m sorry. Would you mind terribly if I continued to sit up here,
Captain?”

    
“What’s the matter? The passenger compartment a little too cold for your
liking?”

    
“No. It’s not that.”

    
“Well, I’m not really sure that it’s the best—”

    
“Thank you,” She offered,
then
effortlessly slid into
the copilot’s seat once more. “You really are quite the gentleman sometimes.”

    
He looked at her in disbelief,
then
shook his head
faintly as he returned his attention to the controls. “Don’t mention it.”
Catching something out of the corner of his eye, he turned his head to see her
staring at him pitifully.
“Oh no, what now?”

    
“I really am sorry, Captain.”

    
Shawn couldn’t help but look at her dubiously, because he had no way of knowing
whether she was telling the truth or not. In the end, however, he knew they’d
be stuck together for the time being, and someone had to start trusting someone
or they’d never make any headway. He shook his head, licking his lips. “Don’t
worry about it. It’s my own problem to get over.”

    
Sensing the transformation in his mood, she decided to change the topic. “I
can’t believe you managed to install a laser onto this… ah…”

    
“Yes?” he asked warily, wondering what insult she would fling at the ship this
time. He pondered briefly if
D
’s onboard computer was considering the
same thing.

    
“Vessel?” she finished without much confidence in the word.

    
Shawn couldn’t help but chuckle. “You really have a way with words, don’t you?”

    
“Meaning what, precisely?”

    
“Well, for starters, you certainly have a problem with my ship.”

    
She sighed heavily. “I’m… I’m sorry. Honestly. It’s just how I deal with stress
sometimes. Please try not to take it personally.”

    
“I’m not sure there’s any other way to take it.”

    
“Well, if we’re going to work together, then you’ll have to figure one out. I’m
certainly not going to be the one to change.”

    
There was a marked moment of silence after she spoke. Something about her
statement had brought him some peace, though. At least they were on the same
page when it came to realizing they needed to be civil to one another. Whether
he would continue to take her insults personally or not was a different matter
entirely.

    
“There are actually two laser cannons on either side of the ship,” he began.
“They’re concealed behind tri-tonic plated panels to avoid both visual
detection and multiphasic scans.”

    
Melissa flattened her lips,
then
the ends slowly
curled into a demure smile. “That’s illegal, Captain.”

    
“What are you, Fleet Security?” he chortled.

    
She was quick to respond.
“No, of course not.
It’s
just that I—,” seeing he was acutely staring at her, faltered. “Oh, never mind.
And… you’ve used these lasers before?”

    
“A time or two.”
Shawn said as he flipped the internal
gravity stabilizer on.

    
Melissa felt the slight tug of the artificial gravity take hold of her boots.
“And when was the last time?”

    
“About three weeks ago. Why do you ask?”

    
“I’m just wondering if they’re as finicky as everything else on the ship,” she
said as she gestured her hand around the cockpit.

    
There was an annoying series of beeps and blips from the console, which
momentarily distracted the captain. He then turned and gave Melissa a
frustrated sneer. “Seriously, you just can’t help it, can you?”

    
Her shoulders dropped.
“For heaven’s sake.
Give me
some time to adjust. Besides, it’s not like I called this thing a flying death
trap or anything.”

    
“Is that how you feel?”

    
She thought about it for a moment.
“Would you like a sugar coated
lie or the hard truth?”

    
“I’m thinking that neither is a good option right now.”

    
“You’re probably right,” she agreed.

    
“Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with my guns, Miss Graves,” he replied
derisively. “They shoot just fine.”

    
“I’m sure they do, Captain. I’m sure they do.” Melissa stared through the
center view port at the distant hill that Toyo’s house was secluded on.  A
low hanging cloud had wrapped itself around its top, as if to blanket the
naturally imposing formation from the colder atmosphere above. “So, you served
with him during the war?” She said aloud.

    
“Katashi?”

    
“Yes.”

    
“I thought we went over this the last time we were in the car?” he asked. If
they had, her facial expression told him she wanted to go over it again.

    
“Does it matter?” she said, confirming Shawn’s assumption.

    
Shawn continued checking the rest of his gauges. “Guess not.
Either
way, yes.”

    
“But, you didn’t fight together.”

    
“What makes you say that?” He asked over the hum of 
D
’s engines
warming up.

    
Melissa shrugged. “I’m just making an observation, that’s all. I gather that
Toyo was in intelligence and you were—”

    
“A fighter pilot.
So what?” he cut her off rudely.

    
“You know, you could stand to be a litter nicer yourself, Captain. I’m trying
to make an effort here, if you hadn’t noticed. And, as you yourself pointed
out, we’re both better off if we’re not at each other’s throats.”

    
He knew she was right. In truth, Shawn had no idea why at this particular
juncture he’d decided to be snarky towards her. He also knew nothing
half-hearted would suffice now that it was his turn to offer an apology for an
unwarranted offense. He turned and looked into her shimmering green eyes in
complete sincerity. “You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s just...”

    
“Yes?” she asked, searching those cobalt blue eyes just before he had a chance
to avert them.

    
“It’s just the way life’s made me.”

    
Not understanding, she still recognized an apology when she heard one. “It’s
quite alright, Captain.”

    
“The whole ‘Captain’ thing is really starting to sound too formal. Don’t you
think we could—?”

    
“No. No, I don’t think so,” she stammered slightly. “Anyway, what I was going
to say was that you were a line officer, and that it was just funny, that’s
all. Usually the two circles of pilots and intelligence officers don’t mesh
very well.”

    
Shawn concurred. Normally, intelligence operatives and the fighter pilots were
different sides of two very different coins. While all officers essentially
come out of the same mold when they graduated Sector Command Academy, Shawn and
Toyo’s career paths had taken them in wildly different directions during the
war. Usually an officer stuck to his own community, because only the people you
worked or flew with truly understood where you were coming from. However, when
Shawn had met Toyo during the last year of the war—during that first fateful
mission—they’d formed a deep friendship few officers ever can, regardless of
whether they represented the same branch insignia on or not.

    
“Toyo and I were an exception to the rule,” he said slyly.

    
“You’re probably right,” she said approvingly after a moment.

    
Shawn nodded curtly. “So, how’d you know the intelligence community didn’t get
along so well with others in the service?”

    
“Oh, just stories, really. Rumors, I guess you could say.”

    
“From your father?”

    
“Yes,” she said, then smiled brightly as a memory washed over her. “He had more
than enough words about the Office of Special Intelligence. Surprisingly, most
of them were good.” She laughed mildly, and her smile was almost radiant.

    
Almost.

    
Nonetheless, Shawn was glad they were getting along once again. “You want to
know something?” he asked. “Besides Toyotomi, I had a few other run-ins with
the OSI myself during my tour.”

    
“Oh?” she asked in honest surprise. “And how did those go?”

    
He shrugged. “I could take them or leave them, I suppose. Mostly leave them, if
you know what I mean?” Her expression told Shawn she didn’t. “Often it was
during post-mission debriefings, when the OSI officer attached to the ship
would question us as to what we’d seen while we were out on patrol or in
combat.”

    
“But… you were never on the wrong side of one of their investigations, I gather?”

    
“I’m afraid not,” he smiled at her. “Does that surprise you?”

    
She snickered. “I don’t think ‘surprise’ is the word I’d use to describe it,
Mister Kestrel.”

    
“Then what word would you choose?”

    
She brought a finger to her chin in contemplation.
“
Astounded
—or
perhaps even
amazed
.”
She looked at him in all seriousness, but
then let out an uncontrollable laugh. It turned out to be infectious, and soon
the captain had joined in.  

    
“Oh, God.
That felt really good,” she said, wiping a
joyous tear from her eye when the laughter had subsided. “It feels like an
eternity since I’ve had a good laugh like that,” she said, leaning back in what
she now felt was the most amazingly comfortable chair in the galaxy.

    
“I’m glad it was at my expense,” Shawn offered with a gracious nod.

    
“You’re not sore, are you?”

    
He smiled widely.
“Of course not.
It was nice.”

    
She looked at him curiously.

    
“I mean, it felt nice to laugh… for me to do it, I mean,” he stammered.
“To laugh.
Out loud.”

    
The recent memory of a dashing pilot, dressed in a tuxedo, and swaying gently
with her to soft music passed before her eyes. She shook the image clear, but
it didn’t clear the smile from her face. “So, Captain? When do you arrive at
Corvan?”

  
  “We aren’t going directly to Corvan from here.”

    
“But I thought—”

    
“Whatever you thought, you’ll have to stow it in the overhead compartment. We
need to get back to Minos first.”

    
“Minos is in the opposite direction,” she indicated the relative direction of
Corvan by pointing out the view port. “I’d rather go forwards than backwards.”

    
“I’m not going anywhere else without my mechanic. He’s helped me out of a lot
of jams, and nobody knows this ship better than he does. If we want to
undertake a journey like this, believe me, he’s an asset that we can’t do
without.”

    
“So, the truth comes out. Even you don’t have faith in your own
ship.”

    
“I have as much faith in my ship as I do in gravity. The simple fact remains
that we’re going into unknown territory here, and the last thing we need to
happen is to get stranded on some dead rock out there, well beyond the
protection of the Inner Sphere. Unless, of course, you don’t actually mind
being stranded out amongst the stars,” he waved his hand at the billowy clouds
stretched out above the ship, “or God knows where else—alone… with me…
forever.”