Trance's Gift Chapter 1

Trance's Gift - Chapter 1

Written by Xeromem and Mizor(aka squid109 and krashkart)

Time: CY 10089 May 5166 – Day 1
Location: The Eureka Maru's common room - Bathsheba spaceport

" Like it or not, Boss, we owe them. So what are we going to do?" Harper hadn't raised his voice but the words seemed to echo throughout the Maru. As Beka sat there in silence Harper's eyes remained fixed on her letting her know that she wasn't going anywhere until he got an answer from her.

Beka took her time considering all the aspects of the situation. The smart thing to do would be to say that Jenni and Concepcion's problems were of their own choices. The right thing would be to accept that sometimes your choices were made for you The smart thing to do would be to keep Trance on the Maru while she and Harper concluded their business and to depart as quickly as possible. The right thing could endanger all of them if Fagin and Sikes heard that Trance was in the spaceport. The smart thing could lose Trance. The right thing could break her heart if it turned out Jenni couldn't be saved or if she refused to leave the planet. After a moment Beka realized something else. Jenni was wrong about choices. Sometimes choices weren't easy.

As she considered all of those things Beka looked at Trance and realized from the look in the younger woman's eyes and the way she had told the story that Jenni and Concepcion were family to Trance. They were just as much family to her as she and Harper were. As she thought that Beka could almost hear her father from when she was still little and he wasn't yet addicted to flash. 'Booster Rocket, family always takes care of family regardless of what the smart thing to do is.' She knew that be it right or wrong in the end there was only one answer that would allow her to live with herself.

"You're right Harper we do owe them so we're going to help if we can." Beka could feel the tension leaving her body as soon as she said that. "The question is how," she empathized the how, "are we going to help them?"

"Well I know what we can do," said Harper almost snarling the words. "We can make those two scum bags Sikes and Fagin disappear, or maybe be found in pieces scattered about the port."

"No!," exclaimed Beka and Trance at the same time.

Both women stopped, looked at each other then once more began to speak simultaneously.

"I'm not interested..." began, Trance.

"We don't want to do..." started Beka. She stopped and nodded to Trance. "You first, Trance."

"I don't care about Fagin and Sikes," said Trance. "I just want Jenni and Concepcion to be safe and taken care of."

"We're not going to commit murder, Harper" said Beka in a tone that left no room for argument. "Those two may deserve it but we're not going to be the ones to do it. Besides if the police noticed Trance is in port she, and we, will be the first people they would suspect. If we're going to do anything it will have to be more subtle."

"Does that mean you're going to help them?" asked Trance, hope in her voice.

"It means we're going to look into it," replied Beka. She fixed Trance with a solemn look. "But I want you to remember this. Jenni is a flash addict. I know what flash can do to people and how dependent they can get on it even when they know it's killing them. It's quite possible that Jenni may not want to leave Bathsheba. The same could go for Concepcion as well if she's an addict too. Do you understand?"

Wordlessly Trance nodded her head in an affirmative.

"Good." said Beka obviously relieved that Trance understood that it might not be possible to save her friends. She picked up a flexie that had been lying on the table and tapped on it a couple of times. "What did you say was the name of the officer who helped you out when you were leaving?"

"Asagawo," said Trance. "I don't know his rank or first name. He was always just Officer Asagawo to us."

"Good enough," said Beka entering the name into the flexie "It's too late to do anything today but tomorrow morning Harper and I will pay a call on the local police headquarters and see if we can speak to this officer Asagawo."

" Aren't I going with you?" asked Trance.

"No," said Beka. "You and the baby are going to stay aboard the Maru. You'll be safe here. Far safer than you would be on the street and considering that you're most likely a wanted felon it probably wouldn't be a good idea if you strolled into a police station to ask for the one person who would certainly recognize you.

Trance started to object but changed her mind when she saw her husband shaking his head 'no' "What will you do if they know I'm in port and ask about me?"

"We'll tell them you said 'hi'" answered Beka.

Chapter 2