Reginald shrugged. "What do you want?"
"You've sent a human team to the new planet," Ralph said.
"Cogen. That's what the natives call it."
"I want to lead the first official mission. The first one that comes back."
I turned to Ralph. He never lead missions. Ever. And then it hit me. If Ralph went, I would go, too. "What about Laak'sa?"
"Laak'sa's been done. I want a new one. Or worlds around it. I want my own mission, Reginald. I want my own team on my own terms."
I felt the anger rising again, a betrayal. "Ralph, we have to go home." Ralph ignored me. Reginald ignored me. I felt like a little kid again. The grown-ups were talking, dear, time to be quiet. But I didn't want to be quiet. "I have to go back," I said again to Reginald.
"Jake." Ralph's tone said it all. Not now, dear, time to be quiet. Pat pat go play. I sat there and fumed.
"I think that can easily be arranged," Reginald was saying, but not to me. He wouldn't look at me. Not the rest of the time we were in there. He couldn't look at me, the wuss. He wouldn't just tell me no. He was going to string me along and let me think there was hope when there was not. And Ralph. I'd have so much to say to him once it stopped hurting. Did he know all along? Why hadn't he said anything?
"And I want transport back to Laak'sa."
I was ignored.
"I mean it. You don't want to be around me anymore, Ralph? That's fine. I'm almost an adult. I'll dress up and talk nice about StarTech and get you your approval and then I want a ticket back to Laak'sa."
"We'll talk about this later, Jake." He was looking at me as if I just embarrassed him in front of the primary during a ceremonial feast. He was trying to make me feel like that little kid. I wasn't going to let him get away with it. I am not a kid. Not really. Not after all I've seen and done.
I struggled in the poofy chair, but managed to stand up. I wanted my answer and had no plans to do anything else until I got it. "Why? Why do you get what you want but I don't?"
"You're a kid. You don't know what's best. Now sit down and stop it with the tantrums."
"What's best? Seriously?" I had to laugh, but it came out sounding bitter and mean. "You're joking, right? Was it best to send me hurtling through space with no idea if I'd live or die? Hm? Or was it best to take me away from everyone I know? Was it best to send me from the only friends I've ever had? Or the people I love? And all for what? So that Dad can say his kid went to Earth, that's why. So I can be a damned spokesman for a company I don't actually work for, by the way." I said the last part to Reginald. I just wanted to make that fact clear. "That's really what's best for me? I'll do your bit. And then I want to go home. Period."
Reginald looked at Ralph. Ralph looked at Reginald. Ralph looked at me and clenched his teeth. But I would not back down. Finally he threw his hands in the air. "You don't even know you'll want to go back! Maybe you'll find some hot little human and want to stick around. You're so hell bent on hating Earth. Has it ever occurred to you that you might like it? No. It hasn't. Because you're too busy moping and sulking. I thought more of you than this, Jake. I really did. You didn't have a problem moving to new worlds out there. Why do you have such an aversion to it here? No," he said quickly. "Don't answer. I don't want an answer because it won't be real. Just think about it. I will not make Reginald agree to your terms because you are a child and your parents put your welfare in my hands. So until you turn eighteen, you're stuck with my decisions. My decision is that you'll stop acting like a baby, suck it up, and deal with it. And you'll do it because this is something your parents spent their entire lives working for. I don't care if it means nothing to you. It means everything to me."
And with that, the case was closed. He put me in my place good. I'm not saying I was acting like a baby, like he said. Didn't I get up every day and jump through their ridiculous hoops? The evidence was clear in my arms and legs. I had the muscles of the Qitani athletes that compete for their community standings! I was reading the crap Lena kept giving me, which I now realize was ordered by StarTech. I was doing the research, I was putting in the work. And I hadn't complained about it, not much anyway. I was not being babyish, and that was a low blow.
But he was right about it being my parents' life work. Their number one goal was human interaction with every sentient species across the universe. And after I cooled down in my room by staring out the starlit window while Ralph pretended not to be angry with me, I thought about Reginald's position, StarTech's position in the world and beyond. They are right on the threshold of Mother and Dad's best dream, and I could help them get there. I could help realize the goals of every member of our crew. I could stop being the accidental kid underfoot and start being a true Cosworth in my own right.
And after I did, I would approach Reginald and request my payment. It was a fair payment. It was not like I was asking for the same as Ralph, to take over anything at StarTech. I didn't think I was demanding anything unreasonable at all. I was simply asking to go home. Older, wiser. Maybe bring new tech of ours, maybe be able to send back further advances from the Qitani. I thought it was a fair price. Reginald just had to see that I earned it. With new resolve and a "big plan" firmly settled in my head, I felt secure. If I was good enough, I thought there was no way he could turn me down.
Chapter 4
We moved in the morning. I grabbed my holocom, the only "possession" I had, and followed the bot Charles down the glass hallway again, and then down, down, down, instead of up, up, up. After a few minutes, the doors of the elevator opened into a "suite", as Ralph called it, that Charles insisted up and down was no more than "standard human accommodations on Earth". The rooms were like nothing I'd ever seen. There were five large rooms, for starts, and each single room was larger than any three combined on Condor One. They reminded me of the palace on Laak'sa in size, but not in style. On Laak'sa, everything was the smooth, pearly metal mined there. Smooth and cool to the touch, which was always refreshing even through the mesh of my suits, in the humid climate. Our suite was...fluffy. Like the chair in Reginald's office. The couches could eat you. They kept pulling and pulling until I had to struggle and beg for help. The chairs around the big table in the dining area were the same. How was I going to eat my dinner if I spent the whole time trying to pull myself out of the chairs?
The bedrooms were even worse. The floors were covered in thick, poofy carpet. I told Ralph it felt like walking in the bogs of v-2445, and he laughed. He wasn't mad at me anymore, not exactly. But there was still something between us. Maybe it was just part of growing up. I said my good byes to Mother and Dad. Would Ralph be next?
I hated the bed the worst. It was enormous. I was used to sleeping in my cubby on the ship, a firm mattress just big enough for sleep with the lock-in straps cocooning me in a safe net. The bed in our first set of rooms on Utopia was larger, but it was still firm. Ralph called it a hospital bed, and said, "Well at least some things didn't change." The beds in the new place were too soft to sleep on. I climbed in the middle and it felt like I was being consumed by a Nha-ne, only this time, Little Blob wouldn't be there to save me. I had to roll for what felt like hours, but eventually I plunked off the edge and landed on the fluffy floor. I'd sleep there. It was still soft, but at least I knew I wouldn't drown in it.
We had to wait for "the team". We didn't meet them the night before after all. Reginald wisely decided enough was enough for one day and let us go back. It meant crossing the terrifying glass bridge of doom again, but I was just glad to get away.
"It's a lot to absorb. Sleep on it. We'll get a fresh start in the morning."
I didn't do much sleeping. But my resolution to be so good that he could not deny my little payment did make me feel refreshed. At least I knew. At least I had a plan.