Chapter 6       "You're son?!" Nara's jaw dropped. She had expected a revelation, but not one of this magnitude. Suddenly, Zairum's 'special interest' in Cy made sense. The tabs he kept on him in the Eltorian Military, the peace offering during the Eltorian War, even his interest in Cy's movements after the war, it all suddenly made sense. Zairum wasn't just securing what he thought would be a better future for both sides, he was watching out for his son. "I realize this may seem like a shock." started Zairum. "No, it actually explains a lot about your behavior toward Cy." replied Nara. "So you suspected all along?" asked Zairum. "Not exactly, your motivations never seemed to make sense to me. I always thought there had to be more to it, but I didn't think...." "That I was his father?" offered Zairum. "Yes." "Understandable. I suppose I should start at the beginning." Zairum sat back in his chair as he began to remember a time long forgotten.       "When I was younger, just before I took my place on the High Council, I was assigned a position on an exploration mission. I had already secured a place for myself on the council through my distinguished record of service in the Guardsmen. This was merely a mission with which to finish my time with the guard so I could move onto the council. We never really expected to find anything." "But you did." interrupted Nara. Zairum nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, we happened onto a vessel on its own mission of exploration. It had already been damaged. We discovered later that it was due to a meteor shower. The craft was apparently signaling for help, and so we attempted to aid them. We took the surviving crew onto our ship. But try as we did, we could not communicate with them. Thinking back on the events that day, it didn't matter to me. Our routine exploration mission resulted in first contact with a new species, it seemed an excellent way to finish my career in the guardsman. Thus I made sure I was involved in every aspect of our attempts to communicate with them."       "So what lead to the breakthrough?" asked Nara. "There was a junior officer among the surviving crew. Due to the death of most of the command staff, she was the highest ranking crew member left alive. She acted as their representative. Her name was Amanda, Amanda Sterling. I worked with her, trying to build a basis of communications between our two people." "What was she like?" asked Nara. Zairum smiled, remembering her features warmly. "She was unusual, or that was my first impression of her. She had brown hair and eyes, like Cy's, except her hair was long. She kept it bound behind her head, like you do." "We call that a ponytail." stated Nara. "Go on, please." Zairum continued. "She was tall, about Cy's height as a matter of fact. Her uniform was like his as well. She was uneasy with her command, but excelled at it regardless. She was very patient too, which helped our work together immensely. She also had a way about her. It was completely disarming, yet she still retained a hint of danger, like she could strike out at any moment." Zairum's smile grew broader.       "No wonder you fell in love with her." said Nara. "I did not mean to." replied Zairum. "I tried to keep the situation objective. But as we broke down more and more of the language barrier, I found myself strangely attracted to her. And it seemed to me, that she felt the same. My second, Jarnon, warned me to mind my emotions. But in the end, his words fell on deaf ears. Our usual meetings were taken in private, the time we spent together in each session grew longer as the time we spent discussing formal negotiations grew smaller." "Sounds kind of romantic." commented Nara. Zairum chuckled slightly. Nara seemed surprised by his reaction. "I suppose it was. I know I certainly agreed with you at the time. We spent a total of four years in the void beyond the Sol System. In that time, Amanda and I did fall in love. We decided to keep it secret for the sake of the negotiations. Though Jarnon eventually found out. He said nothing, as per my request. That was shortly before things started getting heated between Amanda's crew and my own. The terrans wanted to go home. We wanted them to wait until we finished with the talks. They were growing less and less patient. It was about that time that Amanda told me she was with child. I wasn't sure what to do. Amanda decided that we should finish the talks as soon as possible and get everyone home before her pregnancy would be noticed. It seemed logical and straightforward. However, we didn't know where Earth was at this time. So we had to try to salvage the navigation maps from the damaged terran vessel. This took time, too much time."       Nara wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer, but she asked the question, "What happened?" "One the other crew members rallied a number of the terran troops to try and force us to take them home. Amanda tried to talk them out of it. Her loyalties were called into question and her pregnancy was discovered. Amanda was beaten, they were going to kill her for betraying her species. Jarnon saw this, knew what she meant to me, and ordered his men to save her no matter the cost. A riot followed shortly thereafter, each crew fighting for lives against the other. With Amanda and I caught in the middle. It ended with the several deaths on both sides. Amanda and I obviously survived, as did Jarnon. We had no choice but to report the incident to the High Council." "What did they have to say about it?" asked Nara. "The terrans were to be taken prisoner until they could come up with a permanent solution. It took over two years of deliberation for them to come to a decision. In that time, Amanda gave birth to my only son. He looked human but the terrans none the less wanted the child destroyed. I ordered her transferred to a private cell for her own protection. In the meantime, my own crew demanded answers in regards to the child. I was willing to tell them the truth, but Jarnon persuaded me otherwise. He said it would ruin my appointment to the High Council."       "So how did you hide your involvement?" asked Nara. "Jarnon came forward and proclaimed he was the father to the child. I had saved his life many times in our service to the guard together. He felt he owed it to me. I saw no harm in it, as it would only bring about censure and nothing more. So I supported his ruse. The crew believed it. Soon after the incident passed, we found the star charts which would allow us to return the terrans to their home planet. Once we had the High Council's approval, we could do so. It looked as if everything was going to turn out well after all." "But then the High Council finally passed its ruling." concluded Nara. "Yes. They deemed the species too immature to open dialogue with their homeworld. They demonstrated violence towards us and were deemed a danger to our people. The terran crew was to be silenced immediately, to hide our presence to the terran species. So we were ordered to kill them all, quickly. The half-breed child was also supposed to die, as well as the individual which fathered it. I begged Jarnon to reconsider his pledge to me. He would not be swayed. I appealed to the High Council to save the terrans' lives. They would not be swayed. I kept trying. In the end, they conceded that the child was the only true innocent and thus would be spared. Nothing else I did mattered. The night cycle before the sentence was to be carried out, I visited Amanda. She cared nothing for herself, she made me vow to watch over our child, the two year old boy who would become Cy Sterling. I agreed without hesitation. I spent that whole night cycle with her and my sleeping son. Just before the day cycle began we said our final goodbyes."       "That was when they were all jettisoned out an airlock, right?" Zairum hung his head in shame. "Yes." "Cy, told me about that. He thought both his parents died that day. But his father called for him to be removed from the airlock, didn't he?" Zairum still hung his head. "Yes." "You should have told him." stated Nara. "He had a right to know." "I know he did but..." Zairum stopped mid sentence. "It does not matter now." "Yes, it does." answered Nara. "Because Cy isn't dead." Zairum's head came up suddenly. "What?" "He's not dead. Professor Algernon and I figured out he was most likely shunted into an alternate reality before the explosion. We're working on getting him back." "If there's anything you need from me - any form of help - please do not hesitate to ask!" said an excited Zairum. "We're fine right now, thanks. But if we do need anything I'll keep you in mind." Nara got to her feet, intending to leave. Zairum quickly stood up to help her. "I'll have my assistant leave you a means of communicating with me at any time." "Don't change the subject, Zairum. Cy is alive and you've got something to tell him when he gets back." She pointed a finger at him, "If you don't do it, I will. But I think it would be better for both of you if he hears it from his father." Nara paused at the door, "Oh, and goodbye...Dad." Zairum stared at the door a moment after she left. "Goodbye, Daughter." * * *       The shuttle touched down on a landing pad just outside Exofleet Academy. The trip had been thankfully uneventful. Kaz had behaved himself and was giving Mandy a wide birth. Mandy didn't mind the cold shoulder because she found Kaz repulsive in his present state. The trip had given her the opportunity to get to know Jared Mathison. He turned out to be quite a good guy. Too bad he's taken. thought Mandy. Not that it really mattered, Jared was sweet and all, but definitely not Mandy's type. Just before landing, Mandy ran over the list files she was to retrieve from Exofleet's main database. In the few minutes that the landing took, she committed them to memory.       The landing ramp of the shuttle lowered, allowing the passengers to disembark. Standing on the landing pad, waiting for them, was their contact. She was a bit taller than Mandy with short brown hair. She wore the uniform of a drill instructor and her nose ring shined in the sunlight. "Rita!" Jared bolted down the ramp to greet her. She seemed very surprised to see him, "Jared!?" She threw her arms around him as he approached. "What are you doing here?" "Ms. Wang needed an escort, I volunteered." answered Jared. Mandy cleared her throat loudly behind them, "Don't mind me, I'll be over here when you're done with the hellos." She wandered over the edge of the landing pad. Kaz Takagi stumbled down the landing ramp. "Kaz? You look terrible, kid." Kaz noted her presence. "Thanks for the fashion update, Sgt. By the way, nice nose ring." Rita's face went from concerned to angry without a moment's hesitation. Jared stepped between the two. "Can it, Takagi." He looked at Rita. "He's having some issues, he doesn't know what he's doing." Rita gave Kaz one last glare and turned away. "I've heard, I didn't want to believe it though." She turned to leave the pad, motioning with her left arm for the others to follow. "Come on. I've made all the arrangements, might as well not waste any more time." * * *       "This is it." Rita stepped through the triple reinforced door into the vault-like room. At the end of the room, opposite the door, was a large computer station. The two mounted seats in front of it were empty. The station's computer screen covered most of the wall. "I have security clearance for the four people in this room. It is active indefinitely or until I decide to terminate it. You were each given an ID badge when you arrived at the academy, don't lose it or you can't get in." Mandy Wang stepped forward and glanced at the terminal. "Might as well get to work then." "One more thing before you do." Rita pointed to a small compartment near the entrance. "In the unlikely event someone hostile gets in here, there are two sidearms in this locker. You can use them to defend yourselves." Mandy cocked an eyebrow, "Given the security level of the Academy, you don't really think that will happen do you?" Rita smirked, "I'm required to say it, protocol and all that." Kaz leaned against a wall and withdrew a small metal flask from one if his pockets. "Well, since the hard part is over, I say 'bottom's up'!" He started to unscrew the top as Mandy casually walked by him and snatched the flask from his hand. "Hey!" Mandy said nothing and headed to the terminal. "That's mine!" yelled Kaz. Mandy turned to face him. "What you do on your own time is your own business, but this is mission time." Mandy slipped the flask into her own pocket. "And this has no place here." "Listen you..." started Kaz. "No, you listen," interrupted Mandy, "people's lives are depending on the information we're gathering here. I don't know what moral code you subscribe to - and quite frankly, I don't care - but mine doesn't allow your type of behavior in a situation like this. So one of two things can happen right now: One, you can get your ass in gear and actually be of some use on this mission; or two, I can ask Mathison for his sidearm again. Your choice. What's it going to be?" Rita shot a perplexed expression at Jared. "I'll explain later." whispered Jared. Kaz looked a tad uneasy, "I'd prefer it if we could keep any type of gun away from you." Mandy took a step forward and poked him hard in the chest, several more pokes followed as she made her demands. "Then forget about your precious liquor, shut your mouth, quite your incessant belly-aching, slap your butt in one of those seats, and do exactly what I tell you!" Kaz backed into the wall. With no where else to go, or any other options, he relented. "Okay, okay!" He wormed his way out from behind Mandy's finger and had a seat in one of the chairs. Mandy took the other for herself. Rita looked to Jared, "I like her." * * *       "So how many is that?" asked Kaz. "Twenty -five." answered Mandy. She saved the document to a disk then executed the print command. Mandy decided that having both a digital and a hard copy would be a wise move. Kaz was in no position to argue. It wasn't as if he was any real help. He had more or less sat in his seat for the past two hours and done nothing other than twiddle his thumbs. He kept eying Mandy time and again. Though Mandy would have liked to have thought it was her womanly charm at work, she knew it was simply the flask in her pocket attracting all the attention. Rita and Jared had left the room and were most likely catching up with each other in the outer chamber. "Twenty-five." reiterated Kaz. "That's a lot." "Not in comparison to 200." answered Mandy. "Still, its quite an accomplishment, we should - I don't know..." "Celebrate?" offered Mandy, her hands still moving flawlessly over the keyboard. "Hey, now there's an idea!" said Kaz. Mandy stopped working and eyed him. "Are you really that stupid? Or is it desperation?" Kaz scowled and got up from his chair. He opened the door to the chamber and left, doing his best to slam the armored hydraulic door behind him. Mandy shrugged her shoulders and went back to work. * * *       With report number seventy-five successfully tracked and cataloged, Mandy noticed that Kaz had returned. Not even wasting a glance in his direction, she started looking for report number seventy-six. Kaz sat himself down in the chair next to Mandy. He wore a big self-assured smirk across his face. "What's wrong with you?" asked Mandy, a little unnerved by it. "Oh, nothing." said Kaz. He continued smiling and looked her over from head to toe. Mandy stopped typing, stole a glance out of the corner of her eye in his direction, then continued. Kaz seemed pleased with himself. He got from his seat and went behind her chair. His hands landed softly on her shoulders, rubbing them gently. Mandy stopped typing again. "What are you doing?" "You look tense. Just trying to help." He continued massaging her shoulders, this time closer to the neck. "I'm not tense, thank you anyway." "Really?" said Kaz with a strong hint of doubt in his voice. "Really." replied Mandy. "Then why are your shoulder muscles so tight?" Mandy forced her shoulders to relax. "That's better." said Kaz. Mandy rolled her head a little, she was just starting to enjoy it when she caught herself. "Let go." She swatted his hands away and resumed her work. Kaz seemed confused as he sat down again. "Something on your mind, Takagi?" Kaz was going to pretend ignorance, but decided against it. "What are you, the ice-queen?" Mandy stopped typing and ran a number of possible scenarios through her head. "Torres shouldn't be telling you anything she heard from Nara, especially if I'm involved." Kaz looked surprised, indicating that Mandy had surmised correctly. "She mentioned you had a thing for me." said Kaz dryly. Mandy turned to face him. "I had a 'thing' for the man you once were. If he comes back, you be sure to have him look me up. Until then, keep your filthy hands off me." Mandy promptly returned to her work. Kaz stood and stalked out of the room again. This time he didn't bother trying the slam the hydraulic door. * * *       "Give me the flask." Mandy continued typing as if she heard nothing. She heard the distinctive sound of a gun being handled. It sounded as if it were just behind her head. "Now." Mandy didn't answer, she just kept typing. "Did you hear me?" asked Kaz. "Oh, I heard you. I'm just not listening." Kaz shook his head. "You are some piece of work, do you know that? Need I remind you who has the gun here?" Mandy found file number 135, saved it to disk, and sent it to the printer. "I am aware of the fact you have the gun. I'm also aware of the fact the safety is still on and the barrel has something lodged in it." "What?" Kaz pointed the weapon straight up, with the base of the handle positioned just over Mandy's left shoulder, and peered into the barrel. Mandy stopped typing with her left hand, brought it smoothly over her left shoulder, and neatly plucked the power cell from the butt of Kaz's weapon. "Hey!" yelled Kaz. But the power cell was gone, probably to the same damn pocket Kaz's flask had went. "What makes you think I won't just take that power cell - or my flask for that matter - from you?" Mandy spun her chair around and leveled her own weapon at Kaz. "Because this one's loaded." "Good answer." conceded Kaz. He dropped his useless gun and slowly backed out of the room. * * *       "Report number 150, copied and sent to printer." said Mandy aloud to herself. Rita and Jared had come in an hour or two ago to ask her if she wanted to catch a bite to eat with them. Mandy refused, preferring to continue her work, though she accepted their offer to bring something back for her. She felt a tap on her shoulder. "Here's your dinner." Kaz handed her a wrapped sandwich and a canned beverage. "Thank you." Mandy took them from Kaz and turned from the computer station. "So you can stand being away from it." commented Kaz. "I beg your pardon?" "The computer, I was beginning to think you two were joined at the hip." explained Kaz. "There's a lot riding on this mission. The sooner it gets done the better." answered Mandy. "So what is it?" asked Kaz. "Huh?" said Mandy through a mouth full of sandwich. "Nice table manners." commented Kaz. "I'm not at a table." replied Mandy after swallowing. "The mission, what is it?" asked Kaz. Mandy looked confused. "Didn't they brief you?" "Not really. I wasn't in the mood to be briefed on anything at the time." Mandy relayed to Kaz what Nara had told her. He seemed shocked and overjoyed by the news. "Then, they're not dead!" Kaz jumped to his feet and paced about nervously. "Still, we should get them home as soon as possible. They could be hurt or stranded somewhere. Why didn't you tell me this before?" asked Kaz. Mandy fished Kaz's flask out of her pocket. "You were too busy trying to get this back." She placed it on the computer console and moved her hand away from it. "There it is. The object that has dominated your life over the past few hours. Go ahead, take it. It is yours after all." Kaz stared at her, not sure what to make of her actions. "You should know, it will always demand more than it gives in return. There it is. You can let it sit there, and help the friends you claim to care about, or take it and see how many years it can take from you. You're move, Lt. Takagi." * * *       Rita and Jared walked the halls of the academy heading nowhere in particular. They had a good day with each other's company. "How long till you leave?" asked Rita. "The way Wang is going? I'd say sometime later tonight." Rita gripped his hand a little tighter. "I never thought I'd say this about anyone, but she's too good at her job." Jared laughed lightly. "Well, I can't say I blame her, lives could be on the line." "I never said that I couldn't understand." said Rita. "I just wish we had a little more time together." "Me too." said Jared. "But that's the way it goes sometimes." "You know, I could ask around. Maybe, find an opening for you in technical or something." Rita looked at him, her face full of hope. Jared smiled. "Tell you what, you see what you can do and I'll think about it." "Good enough...for now." Jared let go of her hand and put his arm around her. "Knowing you, you've probably already got something lined up for me." "You'll find out soon enough." said Rita slyly. "Think we should check on Wang and Kaz?" "Probably a good idea, wouldn't want one killing the other while we're gone." Jared rubbed his chin a moment. "Bet you 5 credits Wang has him right where she wants him." Rita cocked an eyebrow. "You've been hanging out with Pellegrino again, haven't you?" "Don't dodge the issue." replied Jared. "I say the reverse. Nara told me she could never hurt Kaz." "Speaking of which, Rita, you shouldn't have mentioned that to Kaz." "Sorry, it slipped. But what's done is done and Wang doesn't stand chance against him." "Then its a bet." Jared chuckled devilishly. "Something you're not telling me?" asked Rita. "Remember that reference to my gun that Wang made back in the computer chamber? Well you see, the reason Kaz was so scared was...."       "She really shot at him?" asked Rita. "Twice." said Jared. "My credits could be in jeopardy here." "Oh trust me, they are." commented Jared. They reached the outer door to the computer chamber. The door opened as they approached and Wang stepped through it. "Looks like she's not as tough as you thought." said Rita. A moment later Kaz walked through the door carrying the sealed case which presumably had the required reports in it. "Care to rephrase that last remark, my dear?" Rita shook her head in disbelief. "We're ready to depart for Venus, Trooper Mathison, Sgt. Torres." said Mandy. Kaz stood silently behind her. "What about you Kaz? Ready to leave?" Kaz answered with a surprisingly polite, "Yes, ma'am." "Why don't you head to the shuttle, I'll catch up with you." said Jared. Wang gave an acknowledging wave and left with Kaz in tow. "Well then, time to pay up." said Jared. "I'll get it to you next time." said Rita dryly. "Something must have really gone wrong in there for her to put him in his place like that." Jared apparently wasn't listening. Something caught his attention in the inner chamber. He turned back to Rita. "Or maybe something went really right instead." "What?" asked Rita. "Nothing. Walk me to the shuttle?" "Just you try and stop me." said Rita, in her best Drill Sergeant voice. She grabbed hold of his arm and they walked to the landing pad. In the inner chamber, the pale electric light gleamed softly off the polished surface of an untouched metal flask. On to Chapter 7