Interlude 4
Time: CY 9786 AD 4863Location: the Hephaistos solar system.
The chaos in the empire had not gone unnoticed. Along the edges of the empire predators that the starship and her sisters had once held at bay began to stir and move inwards towards the shattered remnants of the realm. Populations that had escaped the horrors of the war were ravaged by a new enemy. The fortunate members of those populations died quickly
| Chapter 4 | Chapter 6 |
Alternity - Chapter 5
Rev's Goodbye
Time: CY 10087 AD May 5164Location: Fellenhoff Drift
The
crew was crowded into the Maru's common room, waiting for Beka to give last
minute instructions before they left the ship to shop and to explore the
drift. The Maru had just arrived on Fellenhoff Drift after a particularly
long and boring trip involving several slipstream transits, and now that
the data and utility cables had been connected, Trance and Harper were practically
dancing in their eagerness to get off the ship and explore their new surroundings.
Rev as usual was a study in calmness.
"Harper," instructed Beka, "you have your list of repair parts and my budget. Go out and see what you can find. Trance, I want you to go with him and insure that he stays within the budget. After you're done keeping him from breaking the bank, head out to the local markets, and see what you can find to restock the larder."
"And mail - don't forget mail call," said an excited Trance.
"It's already uploaded, babe," responded Harper. "I did that the moment the data cables were connected. But, uh, I don't know why you're so excited; it's always just bills for Beka, or epistles from Rev's spiritual pen pals. All you and I ever get is junk. "
"I know, and it is sooo great! Because you can buy your own moon or you can make millions without ever leaving the comfort of your own homeworld!" Harper and Rev gave the young woman dumbfounded looks while Beka just shook her head in disbelief.
After Trance and Harper had left on their errands Beka went to her quarters to contact the port authorities about unloading the Maru's cargo, and to read the mail that Harper had uploaded. As her engineer had predicted, it was mostly bills and collection notices most of them covering debts acquired by her father before he died, some of them having been incurred before she had even been born. She printed out the list of of bills and began splitting them up into two piles, those she needed to pay on immediately, and those which could be postponed. She was swearing softly under her breath, wishing maledictions upon her creditors, her father, and the FTA's laws which held that a child inherited her parents debts, when she heard someone entering her quarters. Turning around she saw Rev, he was was holding a message printout in his paw.
"Am I interrupting anything important, Beka?" he asked
"Not at all, Rev," she answered." I'm just going over this collection of bills." She waved her hand at the two stacks. "Pay now and pay later. What do you have there?"
"It's a message from my superiors on Krishnamurti. Do you remember how I once told you that it was my desire to open up a hospital on Kingfisher? Well, apparently an anonymous benefactor has donated a very large sum of money to our society, for just that purpose."
"Rev, that's great. It's just what you wanted."
"There's more to it than that, Beka. I've been picked to administer the hospital."
"You've gotten a promotion!" exclaimed Beka. "That's even better news." Then the implications of what he had said sunk in. "Hey, wait a minute, if you're going to be administering the hospital, you can't do that from the Maru."
"I'm afraid you are correct, Beka. I'm sorry to inform you that I will be leaving the Maru." He walked over to Beka's desk, picked up the bills and collection notices Beka had put in the pay later pile and began looking them over.
"But, but Rev..." spluttered Beka. "What am I, we, going to do without you? You've been with me almost since the day I took over the ship after my father's death. And the kids, what will Harper and Trance do without you to keep them out of trouble?"
"You'll do just fine, Beka.," said Rev looking up from the stack of bills. "It was you who kept the Maru running after your mother deserted your family, and your father began to seek solace in Flash. If I remember correctly, from what you told me, you were about the same age as Mistress Gemini is now when you became master in all but name of the Maru."
"But the kids, Rev, how about them? The Divine knows Harper needs all the help he can get. And Trance is still just a girl."
Rev placed one of the bills Beka had classified as pay later onto the pay now pile, ignoring Beka's scowl as he did so.
"Mistress Gemini is really quite a capable young woman, Beka. Her naivety and innocence are more the result of her unfamiliarity with your species' customs and culture than an innate simplicity. As for Master Harper, he survived malnutrition, contaminated air and water, disease, the Nietzschean occupation of his homeworld, raids by my people, and somehow in spite of all that, and the fact that it was illegal for the conquered inhabitants of Earth to learn how to read, he educated himself to be a master engineer. Tell me, Beka, I know you have seen the scars on his body, and comforted him when he was in the grip of his nightmares, but have you ever really talked with him about his life on Earth?"
"Not really, I know his parents were killed by Nietzscheans when he was young and he was raised by an aunt and uncle. And that two of his cousins were killed after being infected during a raid by some of your people, but that's about it. When he was newly arrived aboard whenever I tried to bring up the subject he told me he didn't want to talk about it. Eventually I stopped asking.""
"I have talked to him about it on several occasions. For some reason he is willing to talk to me about his past. Are you aware that he killed his first man at the age of twelve? It was over a piece of cheese."
At Beka's incredulous look Rev went on.
"He was returning from one of the Than relief agency food distribution centers with the cheese when he was waylaid by a pack of older boys. Rather than surrender the food he chose to fight. In the course of the fight he crushed the skull of one of his attackers with a brick. By the time he was 15 he was considered an adult, and had established a reputation among the local resistance movement as a designer of improvised weapons and booby traps. One of the reasons he agreed to stay with you when you left Earth, was that by the time you arrived the Nietzscheans had placed a rather large price on his head."
"I guess I tend to underestimate Harper. To me he just seems to be nothing more than a brash kid. And Trance seems even younger."
"They are both far more than they seem, Beka. But they will still need your guidance, and how does our engineer say it? A firm hand on the reins. Also, I'm hoping that you will be seeing me regularly once the hospital is established."
"What do you mean, Rev?"
"The hospital will need to import most of its medical supplies from off world. I recommended that you be given the contract to ferry the supplies from wherever they are purchased to the hospital. My recommendation was accepted. If you accept the contract you will be visiting Kingfisher on a regular basis."
"Rev, I don't know what to say."
"Saying that you will accept the contract would be appropriate."
"Well, of course we will."
"Excellent, I was truly hoping that you would. I'll miss you and the children, but we both knew that my time here was going to end someday." "Now, if you will excuse me, I'd like to gather my things before our two young crew members return and try to help me pack. It will take me about half an hour to pack if I do it by myself, with their help it would undoubtedly take a week."
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