“Why the hell would you do that?” Kella demanded. She didn’t know what the hell this guy’s problem was, but she didn’t have time for it. It had to be some ploy to manipulate her. But why? For what reason? He had just given up a huge advantage. He could have marched her all the way down to the brig, and taken back the ship. Why did he let her go?
“Because,” he said, shrugging. “I’ve decided that my current employer does not have my best interests at heart.”
“Oh really,” she said in disbelief. “And so you’re just going to quit the Military and do, what?”
“Well,” Hughes said slowly, still trying to work it all out himself. “I was thinking maybe I’d just tag along with you first and then just see where things go from there,” he said shrugging.
“Ah,” Kella said, still not buying a word with it. Hughes could see he wasn’t gaining ground with her; her distrust just ran too deep. He couldn’t believe it himself, either. A life’s worth of dedication to the Military and he was just throwing it away. Hughes consoled himself with the thought that if the Military had been as important to him as he’d made himself believe, the decision would have been far harder than it had been.
“Look, mercenary girl, I know you’re not going to believe me, so tell you what, I’ll take a seat right here,” he said, sitting down. “You go do what you need to do, and when you’ve got a moment, we can have a nice chat. How does that sound?”
Kella blinked at him. Something quiet, far back in her mind, whispered to her to trust him. Other than making things difficult by trying to take back the Praetorian, Hughes had been completely compliant. If he’d really wanted to take the ship back, a normal Military thug would have killed her long ago. If this was some ploy, she couldn’t see what he would gain from it.
After a long moment debating it, she merely grunted and walked off, picking up the thrashed medkit as she passed it by. She didn’t have time for his antics and she had to get to Gavin.
“I’ll just wait here,” Hughes called after her. She let out a sigh, but kept walking.
Once again, Kella arrived in the Praetorian’s underbelly. The AI Core was just like she remembered it, everything painted in eerie green shades. The Life Tube still stood as she remembered it, and seemed intact. She couldn’t see any reason for Gavin’s pain. She moved over to the d-com panel in the tube wall and punched up the status screen. The holo flickered briefly as it pulled up the requested data, and there she saw it.
One of the sub-systems keeping Gavin alive had been damaged in the fire-fight and the redundant backup hadn’t cut over. She quickly read through the item descriptions, flicking through the small holo-display pages. She didn’t quite understand it all, but the damaged system was in charge of maintaining the gel surrounding Gavin’s body. If the gel wasn’t constantly filtered, anomalies would begin to appear and grow, finally causing the tenant pain, followed by death.
Kella swallowed down a renewed sense of panic. If Gavin had been enduring the pain since the firefight… She quickly flicked to the system controls and searched for the method of forcing the cut-over to the redundant system, but nothing popped out at her.
“So this is him…” a voice said from behind Kella startling her. She spun and saw Hughes standing only a few feet from her staring intently at Gavin and the Life Tube. “Fantastic,” he said in awe.
“I thought you said you would wait,” Kella near-shouted angrily.
“I did,” Hughes said, taking a step towards her. “But I didn’t say how long.”
“You sunofa…” Kella growled, but Hughes was no longer paying attention to her. His attention was completely occupied by Gavin. He easily side-stepped her and reached the holo-display embedded in the Life Tube’s wall.
“What’s wrong with him?” he said as he glanced at the flickering holo-display.
“I’m not sure,” Kella said guardedly.
“Really?” Hughes asked innocently. “Because it says here that the gel-cleaning system is thrashed, and the backup system didn’t activate.”
“Fine, so you can read,” she said, unsure how to proceed with Hughes standing right next to a very vulnerable Gavin.
“Usually,” Hughes said lightly, “in Military ships, that is, one can fix this annoying redundancy problem by turning off the primary system.”
“I don’t know what that would do to him!” Kella protested.
“Yes, but you know what will happen if you don’t.”
“I know that!” she snapped angrily. She knew that if she did nothing, Gavin was certainly dead. She had to take the risk. Hopefully Gavin would forgive her later.
“Do it,” she told Hughes.
He nodded and then quickly accessed the holo-interface with the speed of familiarity. He found what he was looking for and hit the command button on the display. The holo flickered for a moment, and Kella heard a sudden stillness as fans and pumps turned off below. The hum of the rest of the Life Tube’s systems didn’t seem effected.
Finally, after what seemed an interminable amount of a time, a new series of sounds picked up. The holo-display flickered green, and Hughes looked up with a smile. “And there we go,” he said. “Secondary systems are operating at standard values.”
Kella wasn’t satisfied yet. She wanted to hear Gavin’s voice. “Gavin?” she called out.
“I’m here,” he said after a moment over her ear-piece. “I don’t know what you did, but the pain’s going away. Thanks Kella,” he said and Kella let go of the breath she’d been holding and smiled.
“See, all good,” Hughes said, killing the moment and bringing attention to him.
“What the hell is he doing in here?” Gavin snapped.
“Kind of a long story,” Hughes hedged. “Mind if I tell it somewhere more comfortable?”
“I think that’d be best,” Gavin said icily over the speakers in the small room. Hughes didn’t even seem to notice and turned and left. Kella started after him when Gavin came over her earpiece, “Are you ok?”
“Yes,” she said. “I have no idea what his story is, though,” she said.
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” he replied.
“So, after much agonizing on the subject, I’ve decided the Military isn’t what it used to be. I’m not really a fan of being sacrificed without the courtesy of being told about it.” A small lie of omission, really. Hughes wasn’t comfortable with revealing the true inner battle he’d faced. He didn’t know these two well enough, and wasn’t of a mind to stick around long enough to do so. “So, I’ve decided to resign, effective immediately. Since I’ve been given up for dead anyway, it shouldn’t be too much trouble for someone of my talents to get around, and I’d be happy to get off at the next populated planet you guys come across.”
“Are you kidding?” Gavin asked. “Right now, we’re stuck. Without major repairs, I’m not getting off this planet. Your buddies are still hanging around, and for all I know, planning a major counter-offensive to wipe us out as we speak. What do you really want?”
Hughes sighed. He’d allowed for this possibility. “I simply want, to be free, I guess.”
“You guess?” Gavin fired back.
“Well, yeah,” Hughes said earnestly. “It’s not every day I betray everything I know.”
“More of a reason to not trust you,” Gavin said with an air of finality. “I’m sorry Major…”
“Just Hughes,” Hughes interrupted.
“What?” Gavin asked, off guard.
“I’m no longer with the Military. I’m fairly certain I’ve established that fact. So, just Hughes. Or Mr. Hughes. Or Evan. Whichever you prefer.”
The camera remote that had been floating impatiently around the lounge stopped and centered on Hughes for a long second. Kella, who had only been listening up to this point, knew that reaction. Gavin had been unprepared for the response and was thinking things over. After hearing Hughes talk frankly for the past ten minutes regarding his decision to walk away from the Military, she’d gotten the impression that the man had been coming to this decision for quite some time. The recent events had been the final nail in the coffin, as it were.
Finally, the remote resumed its movement. “Ok Mr. Hughes,” Gavin said in a strange monotone. “Let me ask you one final question.”
“Alright,” Hughes said, repositioning on the couch to get comfortable.
“A hypothetical, you might say,” Gavin started. “We’re trying to leave this planet, and your friends are blocking our path, and the only way through, is with their destruction. What would do?”
“As that is a fairly possible hypothetical,” Hughes said slowly, “I would have to say that I would do nothing.”
“Nothing,” Gavin repeated.
“Nothing,” Hughes confirmed, nodding to himself as much as the others. “I know the people on that ship, you see, there are good people over there. Some, not so much, but they’re all Military. They all have their duties. They wouldn’t understand my decision, about as much as you two have I’d imagine. But at the same time, I don’t wish them harm. So, my answer is that I would do nothing. I would neither help you, nor hinder you. What happens after, happens.”
“Convenient answer,” Gavin said.
“It is,” Hughes agreed. “I won’t deny that. But I will not kill someone for doing their duty. And since I won’t go back to the Military, this rather puts me in an ugly situation.”
“It does indeed, Mr. Hughes,” Gavin said solemnly. “Kella, can I see you on the bridge a moment?”
“I’ll wait here while you two discuss things,” Hughes said pleasantly as Kella stood.
“So what is your opinion?” Gavin asked as the bridge door sealed behind her.
“It’s a tough decision, Gav,” she said walking to the bridge viewport and staring up at the jungle canopy. “But something tells me he’s being honest.”
She heard him sigh over the earpiece. He’d gotten into the habit of talking into the earpiece to her, and it just seemed natural that he would use it whenever he was talking to her.
“I agree,” Gavin said after a moment, coming to his decision. “I hope I’m not wrong Kella, because otherwise this could turn out to be the worst blunder in the History of mankind.”
Kella chuckled. “I’m sure there are better ones.”
“Well, let’s go welcome him to the ‘crew’. Another mouth to feed,” Gavin groused. “I’m not running a daycare here!”
“I thought I was running a rest home,” Kella ribbed back.
“Leader,” the man operating the forward sensor dome called out. “We have a signal.” The bridge was dark, almost dark enough to lose people in with the only light coming from the various holo-displays glowing from around the bridge. The sensor domes, large transparent blisters set out from the main bridge, held some of the best sensor packages money could buy. They were a necessity in their line of work. Without the Hunters, the Deep Wolves would never be able to find prey, and that just would not do.
Tenner Anders looked up from his reading, the glow of his d-com’s holo-display creating unnatural shadows and splashes of light across his craggy face. He’d been going over the intel transmitted from the Buyer. It had been updated at great personal cost from the copy Kella had originally received in her botched attempt to steal the Praetorian. With the new information, Tenner was well prepared for his Hunt. This time, he was taking charge of the mission personally, and when he found that upstart pup, she’d learn a few lessons the hard way.
“From where?”
“A small planet called Falldown. It’s in the Dog Arm,” the Hunter reported as he sent a copy of the sensor data to Tenner’s station. The planet wasn’t too far at all, Tenner noted with anticipation as he looked it over. And in the Dog Arm of the galaxy; a good omen.
“Helm,” Tenner barked out. “Set course for Falldown. Maximum velocity. Relay the coordinates to the rest of the fleet.”
“Yes, Leader!” the helmsman and the communications officer barked out simultaneously. Tenner sat back in his command chair as a nasty smirk crossed his butchered features. Soon, he’d catch up with his wayward pup. Soon, he’d be able to take his frustrations out on her hide. And soon, the grand prize would be his. “You’d better start running little pup,” Tenner sneered. “The Deep Wolves are coming for you.”
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