The Army Of Light (Kestrel Saga) (30 page)

    
“Shawn!” Melissa shouted, then with lighting fast reflexes reached out and slapped
him hard across the cheek.

    
“Hot damn,”
Krif
belted out. “That’s what I’m talking
about! I’ve wanted to do that for years!”

    
Shawn rubbed at the red imprint quickly forming on his cheek, speaking even
more calmly than before. “I thought you promised you wouldn’t hit me anymore.”

    
Melissa, obviously still spun up over Shawn’s outburst, wasn’t relaxing as
quickly. “I promised that I wouldn’t punch you, and I’d silently included no
longer kicking you into that agreement as well, even though it was against my
better judgment to do so at the time. However, there is no contract in the
universe, spoken or written, that takes away a woman’s right to slap a man if
she feels he’s gotten out of line with her.”

    
“You know, I wish I had a video recording of this,”
Krif
injected. “That way I could watch that slap in slow motion right before I go to
bed at night.” He smiled and then patted his stomach. “Oh well, I guess I’ll
just have to live with the memory. Thanks for that, Miss Graves.
Really.”

    
Satisfied that, for the moment, she’d silenced Shawn, she turned her wrath
towards
Krif
. “Since we’re all through with pretenses
here, let me make one thing perfectly clear to you, Captain. I’d watch my
words carefully, unless you fancy the idea of scrubbing toilets with a
toothbrush.  I am a senior, level-seven OSI operative. I’m not at all like
the rookie field agent that’s regularly assigned to this vessel. I’m a command
agent, working directly with Beta Sector intelligence. As such, I easily outrank
you and anyone else on this ship. I can pull operational command from you, your
crew, or this ship at any time I like.”

    
Krif
narrowed his eyes and leaned in close to her, so
close that she could smell the cheddar cheese he had on his broccoli for lunch.
“Are you sure about that?” he whispered menacingly.

    
His tone put her back on the defensive, although she was loath to reveal that
to him. “Of course I’m sure.”

    
“Then you need to check your facts, lady,” he sneered. “Once you went AWOL,
your clearance level was immediately revoked. Your former rank and
title mean exactly jack squat right now.”

    
There was something in his tone that gave her pause. “We’ll see about that,”
she said resolutely. “All I need is a transmitter and I’ll get the OSI Director
on the vid-net personally. Then we’ll see who’s suspended, Captain.”

    
Krif
smiled wickedly.
“The ships
currently under a communications blackout.
Besides, why waste the
channel bandwidth when you can talk to him in person?”

    
She cocked an eyebrow in confusion. “What?”

    
“He’s here, now, onboard the 
Rhea
.”

    
“That’s impossible,” she tried to sound confident. “The Director has hardly
ever left the home system, much less the Central Core worlds.”

    
Krif
sighed deeply. “Then that might explain why he’s
really pissed off about being here. You see, I don’t exactly know what
information you’ve stolen, or what secrets you’ve got locked in that thick
skull of yours that the OSI wants back so badly. And frankly, I don’t care.
What I do know, however, is what a man looks like when he’s been jerked
around,”
Krif
motioned to Shawn’s angered expression.
“I give you Exhibit-A. The Director was no less upset when he came onboard, and
I’m sure he’s even less congenial now that he’s been waiting nearly a half an
hour for you to report to him.”

    
She didn’t want to give
Krif
the satisfaction of
seeing her sweat.
“Where?”

    
He waved his arm in the direction of the door, “As soon as you’re through, take
a right. Briefing room three will be the third door on your right. And, just in
case you decide to get lost again, I’ll escort you there myself.”

    
Melissa glanced at Shawn, but seeing the anger seething beneath his skin,
refrained from saying anything that would only make things worse—if that were
even possible. She turned to leave the room, wondering at the same moment if
she’d ever get the chance to explain it all to him. Telling half-truths and
lies came with the territory when one decided to become an OSI agent, but this
time the situation was… different. She was different, and he was different.
She’d not only wounded Shawn, but something inside herself as well, and it left
a bad taste in her mouth. However, with the Director of the OSI waiting down
the hall, she only hoped there would be time for her to explain it all to
Captain Shawn Kestrel later.

    
If they were both still alive.

    
The moment Melissa and
Krif
had exited the briefing
room, Shawn let out long held breath with a deep sigh. Paying little attention
to
who
else was in the room, he paced to the wall near
where
Krif
had been standing and pressed a small
blinking switch near a recessed panel. A section of the wall slid into an
alcove to reveal a near panoramic view of the stars, with the planet Minos far
below. Shawn leaned himself against the five foot tall window frame and stared
at the beautiful blue-green world, watching as congealing cloud formation
inched across the western ocean, casting a dark shadow over the otherwise
unblemished surface.

    
After a moment of silence, Lieutenant Commander Brunel walked up beside him and
peered out of the view port as she spoke. “Captain Kestrel, may I ask you a
question?”

    
In truth, he’d forgotten she was still in the room. Not bothering to turn from
the visage of the slowly receding planet, he shrugged his shoulders. “Go
ahead.”

    
“What happened between you and the Captain? Why do you dislike each other so
much?”

    
He grunted. “Dislike is far too soft a word.”

    
“Well, what word would you use?”

    
Shawn smirked and turned toward her. She was standing close, much closer than
he’d assumed. It surprised him, but he didn’t move away. “I’m not really sure
anymore. I used to call it hate. But, it’s been a long time, so maybe it’s
festered into a deep loathing by now.”

    
“I’d still like to know why, though.”

    
“Is it important?”

    
She seemed to search for the answer. “Sure. Well… actually, maybe. Honestly, I
really don’t know for certain.”

    
He sat himself on the corner of the briefing room table, arms folded across his
chest. “It’s a long story.”

    
She glided to his side and propped herself against the table beside him. Her
dark eyes sparkled under the florescent lights, and she smiled pleasantly.
“I’ve been told I’m a good listener. Was it during the war?”

  
  “Something
like
that,” he offered. “We had
a… falling out, you could say.”

    
“I wouldn’t say. After all, I’m not one to gossip, Captain,” she said with a
grin. “Though, I’ve heard more than a few stories about you from some other
pilots. I guess I was just curious about the legendary Shawn Kestrel.”

    
Shawn shifted his eyes from the desk, briefly scanning the strikingly
attractive pilot that had admittedly saved the lives of both he and Melissa.
Her dark hair was spilling over her shoulders in a very un-military like
fashion—a sign of lax regulations—and he wondered what other changes had
occurred in the service since the end of the war. The corner of his mouth
turned up into a half smile as he considered her statement. “It’s classified.”

    
“That’s a little childish, Captain,” she beamed.

    
“Maybe I’m simply playing it safe.”

    
She jerked her head back
slighly
, a look of doubt
washing over her face. “Well, now that doesn’t sound like any of the stories
I’ve heard about you.”  

    
“That’s the funny thing about stories, Commander. Sometimes there’s very little
truth to them.”  

    
She looked away, as if considering what he’d just said before she advanced in
her questioning. “My call sign is Raven. It’s… well, what everyone calls me.”

    
He nodded.
“Alright then.
Raven it is.”

    
“Well, that’s not really what I had in mind. Being that you’re a civilian, and
considering that I’m off duty for the next twelve hours, I don’t think I’d mind
if you called me Roslyn.”

    
Shawn suddenly realized that she was standing dangerously close. “Roslyn,” he
repeated softly.

    
“Shawn,” she repeated in the same tone, adding a wink at the end.

    
He wanted to ask her what was to be done with him, his ship, and his mechanic.
But, before the conversation got any more involved,
Krif
reentered the briefing room in a rush. Shawn leaped away from the table in
surprise, putting as much space between himself and Roslyn as he could. Brunel,
on the other hand, hadn’t moved an inch, still leaning casually against the
table as her eyes shifted from Shawn to
Krif
, then
back.

    
Krif
locked eyes with the attractive pilot,
then
hurriedly tossed a metal file folder onto the pristine
desktop. “Lieutenant Commander Brunel, would you excuse us, please? Mister
Kestrel and I have a few things to discuss.”

    
She lifted herself smartly from the table “Yes, sir.”

    
Krif
caught her attention just as the doors opened
for her. His tone was lower, barely above a whisper. “Commander, I’ll debrief
you at 1630. I’d like to go over your flight recorder data.”

    
She nodded smartly.
“Of course, sir.”

    
As she exited the space, Shawn watched in her direction until the doors had
closed. Meanwhile, Shawn was the subject of
Krif’s
scrutiny. 

    
“You don’t know when to quit, do you, Kestrel?”

    
Shawn gave him a look of innocence. “What do you mean, Dick?”

    
“Brunel’s a fine officer and one hell of a pilot.
I
don’t want you clouding her objectivity. Do you get me?”

    
“I’m afraid I’ve been out of the loop for a while,
Krif
,
so why don’t you explain it to me.”

    
“Back off Brunel, Kestrel, and any other crewman on this ship you might think
of getting involved with. Is that clear enough?”

    
“Relax, Dick. She’s just got a mild case of hero worship. It’s nothing to get
your knickers in a bunch.”

    
“Listen, asshole, I didn’t come all the way here just so you could play
footsies with my officers.”

    
“You know something? Your right, Dick” Shawn added defiantly. “You didn’t. So
let’s talk about that, shall we? What am I doing here,
Krif
?”

    
“Believe me, I’ve got better things to do than waste my time recounting all the
ways you could have been a better officer.”

    
“Then fix my ship and let me go,” Shawn replied, putting do emphasis on the final
words.

    
“Out of the question.”
The reply was sharp, and its
underlying meaning left little room for debate.

    
Still, that’d never stopped Shawn before.

    
“You can’t keep me here, Dick, and you know it. I’m a certified free trader in
good standing with the Unified Trade Guild and I’ve done nothing wrong—lately.”

    
“Semantics,” the stout officer scoffed. “I’m sure I wouldn’t have to look far
into your merchant record to find something to hold you on. Besides, we just
apprehended you transporting a rogue OSI agent. That alone is reason enough to
hold you.”

    
Shawn quickly realized that the only way he was going to get anywhere was if he
stopped bucking a played along with
Krif
, if only for
a little while. “Well, you did it. Congratulations. You got me, my ship, my
crewman, and the only paying passenger I’ve had in weeks. We’re not going
anywhere, okay, so now can you tell me why in the hell you have me here?”

    
“For starters, as I said, your being here was, and still is, against my better
judgment. Aside from that, I had nothing to do with it. I’m just an officer
following orders. That has a familiar sort of ring to it, wouldn’t you agree?”

    
“What’s that supposed to mean?”

    
“Don’t play the naïve rookie, Kestrel. You know damn well what it means.”

    
“I’m a little rusty with standard fleet procedures.”

    
“You always were.”

    
Shawn drew his hands to his hips. “We can always put on a pair of gloves…
settle it like we did back in the day.”

    
Krif
shook his head, then leaned against the
conference table in the same position that Roslyn had occupied earlier. “I
don’t play those games anymore.”

    
“What’s the matter? Worried about what’d happen to that command pin on your
lapel if you broke regulations?

    
Krif
snorted. “While I know you won’t understand
this, I have a respectable place on this ship… and in this fleet.”

    
“And a responsibility to safeguard the property, personnel,
and civilian lives that are under that command, right?”

    
“That’s right.”

    
Shawn folded his arms across his chest. “I seem to remember that same tired
line coming out of your mouth that night on Delta VII.”

    
“I don’t need to rehash this with you. Aside from it now being officially a
classified matter, Delta VII was out of my control.”

    
“So you said back then.”

    
“And I’m saying it again now, for the record, and for the last time.”