Chapter Text
When you can’t walk, you crawl. And when you can’t crawl, you find someone to carry you.
Now…
As Tobias headed out to the crew cabins, he stopped on a catwalk over the cargo and sighed exasperatedly at the sight below him. He changed direction and made his way down to Alex, who had yet again opened the hermetic seal on the bio-crate they’d found for Alan. “Man, I’m trying to be sensitive, here, I really am,” Tobias said, “but you’re gonna let the rot out.”
Alex grimaced but didn’t look up at him. “I apologize,” he said. “I just… I keep forgetting what he looks like. I want to know the face he died with.”
Tobias hesitated momentarily on the stairs. “Uh… I don’t mean to be rude, but… is English your first language?” he asked. “Because what you said was really weird, and I get the idea it wasn’t supposed to be.”
Alex finally glanced up at him. “Which part?” he asked.
“‘Face he died with,’” Tobias informed him.
Alex nodded and turned back to his brother. “Yes, English is not my first language,” he said. “What I mean to say is… I never actually knew my brother.”
Tobias arched an eyebrow. “Really?” he said, continuing down the steps toward Alex.
Alex nodded. “He left before I was born,” Alex said. “Before I was conceived, actually. He knew our parents intended to generate me, but never knew of me, specifically. Of him, I had holos, but he… looked different.”
“Well, it’s been a long time,” Tobias said, sitting down next to him.
Alex nodded absently. “It has,” he agreed. “He left on a military tour. Out this way. They just… didn’t come back. No one knew what had become of him. It was assumed that he was dead. I was meant to follow in his footsteps. In the military, I mean. He only ever got as far as a… a cadet. I, not being dead, obviously climbed higher. And, at first… I was proud to do so. But the more I accomplished, the more wrong it felt. I had been told to fill a footprint that wasn’t actually there. Eventually, I came to realization that what I really wanted was to let him make his own footprints again.”
“So you went looking for him?” Tobias asked.
Alex nodded again. “Yes. I left and searched many years. I learned some things about him, but nothing useful. I had a name. A face. No location. No gossip. No one knew anything.”
“Well, at least, now you can bring him home,” Tobias said.
Alex shook his head. “No,” he said. “That avenue is now closed. Better to bring him to… your mother.” Alex scowled. “Whatever connection it is that she has.”
Tobias frowned. “You’re from Shadow, aren’t you?” he asked. When Alex looked at him curiously, he continued, “I, uh, I don’t mean to pry, it’s just… You talk about home like it’s a place that doesn’t exist. And the timeline kind of fits. And I know that, in general, people who lived there but weren’t there when it got blown up mostly took to wandering.”
Alex returned his gaze to his brother. “Yes,” he said. He said nothing more.
“Right. Well…” Tobias moved to get up. “I should probably…”
“You can stay,” Alex said quietly. “If you want.”
Tobias considered the stranger for a moment. Then, he sat down again.
－ －
Then…
“So,” Cassie said, peeking into the suddenly very active guest room. “You must be one of the exodus kids.”
“No, I’m the painter,” the girl snipped, angrily stuffing various clothing items into the old, 21st century chest of drawers that had been passed down from Cassie’s great grandma. God knows how anyone got it on an Ark.
Cassie grimaced. Part of her felt bad for already screwing up, but the rest of her was pretty damn certain she hadn’t said anything wrong.
The girl shoved another shirt in the drawer then spun angrily to Cassie. “And it is not an exodus, okay? This isn’t Earth That Was. I didn’t get here on an ark. There’s no devastation--"
“I think Shadow might disagree,” Cassie snapped a bit bitterly, expertly flinging the lodger off her high horse.
Her anger fell into embarrassment, and she turned away. “Whatever,” she grunted. “Point is that as soon as Mom gets sense back into her, we’re headed straight back to Persephone.” She walked back to the open suitcase on the bed. “So there’s no point getting attached.”
Cassie rolled her eyes and moved away from the door, giving up. “I’ll try to restrain myself,” she groaned.
－ －
Now...
Cassie waited patiently by the cortex screen as the Blue Sun logo whirled idly. Finally, her mother’s face appeared on the screen, and Cassie immediately beamed back at her. “Hi, Mom!” she said. “Sorry, I wasn’t able to update you immediately, we had to switch routes suddenly and go black.”
Michelle Sosanya frowned with concern. “Is everything okay?” she asked, voice tight.
“It’s fine, Mom,” she said. “We were acting on a distress signal and, unsure of what we were walking into, cut communication so we couldn’t be sussed out before we got there.”
Mrs. Sosanya’s frown did not entirely abate, knowing that what Cassie really meant was that the rescue had been sketchy and the crew hadn’t wanted to be caught by Alliance. “But you’re coming home now?” she asked.
“Yep!” Cassie said, nodding excitedly. “Rachel and I have missed you guys a lot. Um, but, on the business side of things… If you’ve got work for us, then you have a half crew to help. But we can’t take any other jobs right now.”
Michelle looked confused. “But this town’s half your Rim profit.”
“I know, but we ate time on the rescue, and… um, Rachel and Tobias are gonna be busy… So…” Cassie tugged at her short locs self-consciously. “Um… If you could do me the favor, I need you to ask Loren to hail us? She keeps accidentally leaving her sourcebox off, so…”
“Did something happen to Tobias?” Michelle gasped.
“No!” Cassie cried, before remembering to tug on her earlobe in signal to stop asking questions. A system that Marco had worked out after only a week of Cassie living on Jian Seng. “No, um, we just… Tobias needs to talk to her.”
Michelle sighed and nodded. “Alright,” she said, putting her hands up in defeat. Cassie hated when she did that. “Alright. When are you landing?”
“Round about dawn, your time,” Cassie said. “But, uh, we’ll probably desert dock. Closer to Loren.”
Michelle frowned disapprovingly and wrung her hands. “Alright,” she said. “Well, be home by nine, and we’ll have breakfast for you and…?”
“Just me an’ Jake, I think,” said Cassie. “Rachel’s goin’ with Tobias, and you know Marco ain’t sociable unless he needs to be.”
Michelle nodded again. “I missed you, honey. I’ll be happy to see you in the world again,” she said with the thin smile of a woman who never got to stop worrying.
“Me, too,” Cassie said with a genuine smile. She reached forward and ended the transmission.
She flopped onto her back and mulled things over for a bit before getting up again and heading up out of her cabin. She walked out toward the other side of the ship, past the weapon storage barrels, and to the door of the infirmary. She tapped lightly on the door and waved to Erek when he glanced up. He motioned that she could come in.
Not wanting to wake Tom, though his current state probably had more to do with drugs than natural rhythms, Cassie closed the door carefully behind her. “Hey,” she whispered, smiling meekly. “I thought you’d like to know that we’ll be landin’ in a few hours, if you wanna get a nap in ’forehand.”
Erek raised an eyebrow at her from where he sat on the tile floor with his back against the cabinets. “Is that to say that I’ll actually be able to leave?” he asked wryly.
Cassie scowled. “We ain’t kidnapped ya,” she said.
He didn’t look like he trusted her. “Why not?” he asked. He motioned to Tom’s unconscious form. “I know your secret, and I’m helpful to it.”
“Less helpful if you don’t want to be here,” said Cassie. “And it puts us out to be cartin’ around an extra passenger for no reason.”
“So why not shove me out the airlock?” he asked. “Your pilot doesn’t seem against it.”
“Tobias?” Cassie laughed. “Tobias is just a nerd with a big mouth. He rarely escalates into a brawl, and when he does, he’s on the floor in three seconds. ’Sides, we’d never let him. We may seem like a bunch of vicious and felonious miscreants, and we are, but we do prefer honey to vinegar.”
Erek couldn’t help a small smirk of amusement. “Tactical amicability?” he asked. “Did your Companion come up with that?”
Cassie grinned confidently. “Now what makes you think he’s the only smart one on this ship?” she asked.
He glanced to her, reading her carefully, then laughed. “You know… I think, perhaps, there is more to all of you than I may have initially presumed,” he admitted.
“There usually is,” she said kindly, turning back to the door.
“You know,” Erek interrupted. “Catching flies with honey instead of vinegar usually has to do with manipulating people to get what you want.”
Cassie glanced back and shrugged. “I s’pose it does.”
“Are you trying to trap me, Ms. Sosanya?” he asked.
She shook her head and smiled. “No need,” she said, stepping through the door. “You’ll stay of your own accord. You like us.”
－ －
Then…
The girls stood opposite each other in the dark night, only the light of a single moon highlighting the still glistening blood splattered across Rachel’s face, chest, and arms. They stood there, staring at each other from opposite sides of a corpse and not knowing what to do.
Finally, Cassie asked, “Are you okay?”
“Are you going to tell?” Rachel asked, and Cassie could hear the terror in her voice. Cassie wondered if this was more or less terror than Rachel had felt, running into the thief in the dark.
“Not if you don’t want to,” said Cassie. “It was self-defense, though. I saw that.” She stepped forward bravely, reaching out to request Rachel’s knife.
Rachel looked down as though only just realizing that she had the weapon in her hand. She handed it over. She just kept staring at Cassie, as if waiting for some kind of cue.
“Are you okay?” Cassie asked again.
Rachel looked down at her assailant. Slowly, she shook her head. “No,” she squeaked. Before, she could stop them, tears were streaming down her face in great big sobs, and Cassie immediately rushed forward to scoop her up in her arms, tucking her face in against blood-drenched hair.
“Ssh, it’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s okay. The world will be here tomorrow.”
－ －
Now…
She just stood there. Waiting.
Awkwardly, Alex stepped forward, away from the side of the bio-crate. He extended a hand to her in a stiff, quick, robotic movement. “Uh, Mrs. Matsumoto－”
“Miss,” she corrected. She turned to him, scowling. “I know you?” she asked, as Rachel rapidly gestured for him to put his hand down.
“I’m… My name is…” He seemed to be having difficulty pulling the right words out. “Alex,” he said at last. “They said that... that my brother requested to be brought to you?”
Loren’s eyebrows went up. She turned toward Tobias, where he stood off to the side clutching at Rachel in his uncertainty. “You didn’t mention,” she said grimly.
Tobias shrugged. “I wasn’t sure what was okay to say on the Cortex,” he admitted. He spoke extremely quietly as though hoping she wouldn’t hear. “This kind of seemed… Independent, so－”
“It ain’t Independent,” Loren snarled suddenly. “It ain’t nothin’.” She spun back to Alex and shoved a finger at his collarbone. “I don’t know it. I don’t know you. So how ’bout you haul your blue ass straight off my piece of rock, and take your shit elsewhere?” She turned away from them and stalked back toward the tiny, ramshackle farmhouse.
“What?” Tobias demanded. “Loren!” She didn’t stop. “Loren!” He ran off after her. “Oi! Okaasan! Matte!”
Rachel glanced back at the ship, currently only containing Marco and Tom, then turned uneasily at Alex. “So…” she said, twisting her arms awkwardly. “Just you, me, and the dead guy.”
“Should we… go after them?” Alex asked uncertainly.
Rachel shook her head. “Nah,” she said, sitting gracelessly on the bio-crate. “That looks like family business. Best let them work that out first.”
Uneasily, Alex sat on the dirt next to the box, falling as soon as he was half-way down. Rachel laughed loudly and told him he had the legs of a foal. Alex blushed and fidgeted. “I suppose I must spend to much time in space,” he mumbled quietly.
Rachel raised an eyebrow. “Whatcha mean? Gravity rotor on your ship was just fine.”
“Uh…”
“Anyway, I don’t care,” she said, waving a hand dismissively. “I’m more curious about that blue thing?”
“Uh…”
“If you’ve got Alliance history, you can tell me,” she said, smiling beautifully. “I ain’t fought in no war.”
Alex shook his head. “I really don’t know where she got that impression,” he said, honestly. “I am… I am very much not Alliance.”
“‘Very much’?” Rachel repeated. She whistled appreciatively. “Wow, that’s a lot.”
Alex looked her with confusion.
After a moment, Rachel laughed. “Wow, you don’t have much of a sense of humor, do you?”
“I am afraid I do not,” he said stiffly. They both turned at the sound of a slamming door to see Tobias and his mother take their shouting out onto the porch. Rachel had no idea what they were saying, as she couldn’t translate “distant, pissed off Japanese.” A moment later, Loren went back inside and Tobias followed, slamming the door again. “Is this normal?” Alex asked.
Rachel snorted. “Where did you grow up?” she asked.
Alex shrugged.
“Didn’t know Shadow had a place called” and Rachel mimicked his shrug.
“I can tell you’re being mean,” Alex said hollowly.
Her face fell. “Sorry,” she mumbled, and she slid off the bio-crate and onto the ground. After a long moment, she held out her hand to him.
Alex eyed it suspiciously. “What are you doing?” he demanded.
“Offering to hold your hand because you’re upset and I’m not a complete shithead,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Come on, you won’t catch anything.”
Still confused, Alex reached out and put his hand in hers. She forced a weak smile and squeezed his hand briefly. Strangely, Alex found himself somewhat comforted.