Theseus

Doc returned my equipment to me, and other than feeling the same momentary boot sequence I had the first time that it was installed back on Luna, I was happy to have the device back in place. It was non-invasive on my systems when it wasn’t operational, and it had a certain heft that I’d grown accustomed to.

I spent most of the rest of that day lying in bed playing Horizon, wondering if the developers had even conceived of the kind of performance we had just pulled off. There certainly wasn’t a button to lay a trap in your own cargo bay and use the boarding hallway as a weak point in the game. But I supposed that it was a very particular set of circumstances that even allowed us to do something like that. They’d underestimated us, and we took advantage. They wouldn’t fall for it again. Next time we faced Foundation, we’d be in for a real starship battle, and I had to be prepared for it.

Between the scenarios I was playing, I closed my eyes and assessed the ship. Other than the explosion in the cargo bay, there was no further structural damage to the ship. It had thankfully been contained. The enemy core hadn’t been given an order to turn its own weapons on us or even had a reason to retaliate before Mouse had killed it and rendered the ship inert. I briefly wondered if it would have gone differently if their core had had the opportunity to activate its own damper, if it even had one. If it could have turned its guns on us while we were locked together, it could have potentially brought much more hefty destruction than what we ended up enduring down onto us. Luckily, the automated activation of the damper was activated by examining sensors outside of the ship. It didn’t account for this kind of internal sabotage, at least not at the speed with which it happened. I’d have to ask Mouse about that gun later. He’d used the same thing on our ground mission, I was sure of it. He seemed to have the entire massive gun disassembled in his room now and was cleaning and calibrating several components when I checked on him.

Joel was constantly armed. While Shaw wasn’t bound to a cell anymore, Joel was watching him like a hawk. Regardless, he seemed to openly stalk the others about the ship, no doubt gathering information and looking for faults that he might be able to take advantage of. He just kept talking with that irritating cockiness everyone hated, especially now that it was his plan that had saved us.

Aisling stayed at the helm, frequently making short range pings to ensure that we didn’t have anymore sneaky tails, sending me requests to make slight alterations here and there to account for our new blind spot. But I felt like we’d at least be clear to Venus, even at our slowed velocity. It’s not like they would send an army this quickly when we had this much of a head start.

Ray was still in bed. She had apparently slept poorly the past few days and I was glad to let her catch up.

And Doc kept an eye on my vitals and I. He was still very worried for me, and insisted I spend that next day in bed. I couldn’t argue with him, I barely had the energy to play a video game. To say that the missing cargo bay and the abuse of my damper had taken a great physical and psychic toll on me was an understatement.

“Knock knock.” I rolled my eyes and looked to the door, seeing Shaw and his escort standing in the ruined doorway.

Doc muttered accusingly “Huh, thought I closed that door. Oh wait.”

“Sarcasm is unbecoming of you, good doctor.” Shaw smiled “You’d think coming up with that beautiful plan might have earned me more favor than this.”

“Tell that to my missing cargo bay. And you’ve held a knife to the neck of everyone in this room, Shaw.” I grumbled from the bed “Like, all within the last two days. Sure it worked, but we’re limping the rest of the way to Venus. And I still don’t trust you. You’re just looking for a way to save your ass.”

“Aren’t we all?” he shrugged, still smiling that cocky smirk “From what I’ve come to understand, you all have something to fear from the grandest military corporation in the system, myself included. But I thought I might have a word with you in particular, Meryll.”

“We already talked about this, neither of us actually knows shit about what I am.” I sighed, turning over so I at least wouldn’t have to look at him physically. “Unless you were lying about that too.”

“Well, no, I really don’t know any of the details about the Arthausen project. I only know that Foundation has their finger in it and it’s a military affair. But… I do know a certain Venusian who might have an inkling about it. The woman I’d originally heard the name from, in fact. I think she may have been involved directly.”

I almost shot up out of bed. Turning back over to look at Shaw with wide eyes was the best I could manage “You’re fucking with me.” Was the first thing I said. Did he actually have a solid lead? But I let my cynicism return after my moment of surprise had passed “And what do you get out of this?”

“Why, the very thing that drives me most. Curiosity. Believe it or not, being an information broker, you get to learn a surprising amount about what’s really happening in this system. The money’s good wherever I find it, but the story is my real passion. And you could have a very special story behind you. And there… MIGHT be some real opportunity to extort some Foundation heads with this…” and there it was. Of course it came back to greed for him in the end.

I rolled my eyes “You know what? Whatever. Sure. Let’s meet with your friend, see if she knows anything. You’re smarter than to throw our positions Foundation’s way while you’re with us. I may as well try to find answers where I can.”

“You sure that’s a smart idea?” Joel finally piped up “You said it yourself, can’t trust this asshat, and we discussed earlier how it’d be a bad idea to broadcast yourself to these people, can’t trust them either.”

“No, I absolutely can’t.” I repeated “That hasn’t changed. I know Captain said we’re laying low there, but I don’t have any other leads, and it’s pretty clear by now that they were already after me. They’re not going to get anything they don’t already know if the scientists snitch on us. If I’m going to spend my life running away from these Foundation fuckers anyway, I at least want to know what’s at stake if they do catch up to me.” I had a pretty good idea that I’d be locked away in some kind of scientific test facility or something. I might never feel Theseus or any other starship around me again. Maybe they’d manipulate my memories again. But I still didn’t know what exactly I was FOR in their eyes. I didn’t know what the goal was.

Doc nodded to me “I suppose it can’t hurt, so long as you don’t go it alone.”

I’d feel a lot safer if Doc did come along with me, but I didn’t think either of us would be kidding ourselves if we thought we could be much ‘protection’ for one another. “How about Mouse?” I asked Doc “He might be interested in the technical aspects. And if shithead here leads us into an ambush, he knows how to run a firefight.”

“Mouse?” Shaw gave a laugh “The kid? You think that teenager’s gonna be able to gun people down?” he sounded amused “That was a real neat trick he pulled with that cannon, but that was hardly a cold-blooded shot against infantry.”

“You don’t know Mouse.” I answered, confident in the boy’s ability to act in a dire situation by now. “He’s not just ‘some kid’. He’s been through way more than you’d think. Hell, bet he could outshoot Joel.”

“Yeah, fuckin right.” Joel chuckled “Kid’s a good enough shot, and those arms give him a big advantage, but he’s too attached to his gadgets. That bigass rifle he made is probably the gun he’s best with.”

“Wait, he MADE that thing?” I smiled, already impressed at Mouse’s engineering, but that was a devastating weapon for someone his age to have developed on his own.

“Yeah. Calls it the Thunderbolt.” Joel smiled back, clearly equally impressed by it “Thing can fire heavier rounds than Theseus can. I don’t even get how he can put that much stopping power into its shots. Takes an age to set up and reload, but you saw what it did to that pirate ship. Ripped right through and exploded the damn thing. He has to press his own ammo for it though. They don’t sell that kind of caliber… anywhere.”

I actually had to let out a small laugh at that. “Okay, that’s awesome. But back on topic, I don’t really think he can carry that onto a colony… or have the time to set it up if we’re in trouble. But he can handle a rifle well enough, right?”

“Oh come on now.” Shaw sighed “It’s Venus. It’s arguably the safest place in the inner colonies. I doubt I could get enough people in a room together that would care about pulling one over on you from there. Unless their precious colony itself is in danger, they’re practically pacifists. Do you really think you need a gunman escort?”

“Don’t mean there’s no cutthroats. Every place has ‘em.” Joel warned before his voice went more lighthearted “I’m sure there’s even dangerous folks over on Titan, yeah Meryll?”

“How the hell would I know?” I shrugged and closed my eyes to do some quick diagnostics, grimacing once more at the feeling of the missing chunk of my shell. “For all I know, I’ve never actually even been there.” I was glad I could speak on the topic more lightly now. It was more than a little bit liberating to be free of my old false life, or the power it had over me when I first came to the realization. “But Joel’s got the right idea for once, we’ll take our protection in with us.”

“Fuck you mean ‘for once’?” He replied and we both glared at each other, smiles on our faces as if daring the other to make another quip. I think we were finally starting to understand each other a bit better in that moment.

“Alright, fine, fine, do whatever you like as long as we go see her.” Shaw held his arms up in surrender to our insistences and started limping back out into the hallway “This buddy buddy starship family thing is getting too weird for me.”