One squad rushed through the doors and began firing. The sounds of screams and combat were barely muffled by the thin transparesteel doors. Wheeler resisted the urge to look and followed Meunez and the squad that guarded them as they made their way back to the armoured personnel shuttle that would take them back to the battle group in orbit.
“We're going to be fast friends this time around Lucius, you'll see.” Gabriel Meunez said with an uncharacteristic smile, it looked like he was trying too hard.
“Oh, best buds,” Wheeler said with a wink at Gloria.
Minh-Chu Buu
The team of mechanics did in two days what would have taken him two weeks and then they were gone. The quiet that settled in was almost eerie after the clamour that had preceded it.
He walked through the low hallway, more of a large crawlway, beneath the main cargo area and checked some of the work they had done. All the systems checked out from the cockpit, they had even refuelled the afterburners.
Some of the missing access panels had been replaced and as he opened one he could see all the wiring and power regulating systems had been neatly strung parallel to the ship, from aft to fore. The last time he had seen that hallway most of the access panels didn't have covers, cables hung out and he had to manually trace many of them to find out exactly what they were for before he could repair anything.
No one had touched the Gull while it was in storage all that time and he was somewhat grateful for that. His restaurant was another story. His sisters mourned his passing for a time but life went on. They worked harder than before, his eldest sister took his place officially and since he left the accounts in order, had built the business well in the first place, she decided it was worth continuing, growing.
It took them only another few months to finish paying all the debt the business had incurred as it grew, a little slower than he would have expected but still impressive considering they were improving the place at the same time. After that they actually started publicising the small oriental eatery and hosting events. They eventually moved it into a proper restaurant space. After five years the establishment was making more than he would have ever expected and was considered a higher class restaurant, playing host to the bulk of the admiralty and high society alike.
A wealthy Freeground shipping Baron eventually put an offer on the restaurant that they couldn't refuse and they took it. There was enough money for the entire family to settle on an inner core world and start a new business. When Minh left he and his sisters worked every day, most of the money the restaurant made went to paying back what it cost to run and the debts it had incurred during a short, rough spot shortly after starting up. It was about to pull itself out of debt and make a comfortable profit, true, but everyone in the family was weary.
Upon his return the restaurant was gone, everyone was living well, there were new brothers in law, children and even college funds. The only real argument that was ongoing amongst family members was whether to move to one of the core worlds or to take a Lorander transport to one of the more developed but equally distant colonies.
The reception they gave him upon his unexpected return was overwhelming. He was thankful that Freeground had a reintegration program in place for people who had been isolated for too long. It was mostly reserved for long term explorers or pilots who had to fly secret, long range missions, but they admitted him nonetheless.
He was much healthier physically than most of the people who entered, but his isolation had been utter and at first he could only see familiar people one at a time. Even that kind of company made him uneasy. Having a normal conversation was difficult, awkward. What made things worse was the need to have someone around all the time, being alone was harder than facing someone he didn't know how to communicate with properly.
Minh wanted to contact everyone he missed, which was practically everyone he knew. The therapists and mentors at the recovery centre forced him to pace himself, however, and he would be eternally thankful for their wisdom. He was one of the lucky ones, a naturally social person who actually wanted to reconnect with people so he made very good progress.
He was still recovering, though very quickly according to the personnel at the treatment center, and he was so thankful to have Ayan. She was the crutch he leaned on so his sisters felt comfortable leaving for whichever destination they chose. There were rumours, terrifying rumours that war was coming. Worse than any war Freeground had known. After seeing what he had while serving on the First Light and being an infantryman during the All-Con war, he didn't want his sisters on Freeground when it happened. The Lorander colonies were safer and he only had to make his opinion known to them once. After he left the centre it wasn't long before his sisters took him seriously.
He seemed to be back to his old self; busy, sociable and quick witted. For the most part he was the brother they remembered and Ayan's easily offered friendship was partially responsible. He had another place to go, someone else who felt isolated and needed someone to talk to who didn't have a doctorate and she didn't seem to mind his company at all.
Ayan's futon may not have been the most comfortable place, but knowing there was someone in the next room was all he needed. He even enjoyed being woken up when she shuffled to the bathroom in the middle of the night, it was a sure sign that he wasn't still on that drifting wreck dreaming he was somewhere else again. Having coffee in the morning before setting off to work on the Gull, or Warpig, as it had been re-dubbed, was the perfect start to his day. She was a fantastic friend, and he absolutely loved making her laugh. What Jonas had seen in her was no longer a mystery, but it was difficult to see her as anything more than a friend. A friend who was his best friend's perfect match.
They were both dealing with a kind of personal crisis that few people could understand. It was just as important that they both missed the same people; Oz, Jason, Laura and Jonas. On the purpose of their mission they were in full agreement, and when it was all official that morning, when they had their orders on their command and control units from Freeground Intelligence, the feeling was liberating. They shared the urge to go after their friends in the fastest ship they could find but until the actual orders were right there in front of them it just didn't feel real.
As he opened the trap door at the end of the small walkway and climbed the six rung ladder that led up through it he caught sight of her. Ayan was wheeling her luggage behind her. Tucked under her arm was a combined tool kit and convenience bag. She hadn't seen the inside of the main hold since the day before, when she was helping with the final work on the new micro-wormhole generator. She unconsciously straightened the front of her poncho, and he couldn't help but marvel at how similar she was to the Ayan he remembered.
There were differences of course, she was curvier, shorter, and her smile was bigger, there were even dimples and she was more expressive. He hadn't known her well before, perhaps some of the differences were thanks to him becoming much more closely acquainted with her, but he swore she seemed more alive than the woman he had met on the First Light. To him, that woman didn't matter at all. The woman he was looking at right then was his good friend, someone he had grown to enjoy time with and trust a great deal in a very short time.
Minh was aware of how he'd changed as well. It was part of the therapy his sisters were called on to help with. They were to highlight the differences and talk about them. He was much quieter with people he didn't know and he was told that with time and exposure to new people that might change, but there were physical differences as well. The most obvious was his hair, it had grown down to well below his shoulders when they found him. It had been cut so it ended above the base of his neck and he preferred it that way.