“It's only everything Special Projects ever touched. It came with the personal data my mother gave me.”
“Wow, they were busy.”
“Freeground gave Laura and the Ayan before me a whole staff and from what I'm seeing they kept on applying for more people. They took on everything but backwards time travel from the looks of it.”
“Well, no one bothers with backwards time travel. Something to do with the radiation and exploding.”
“That would do it. Nature doesn't much like people going back and changing things.”
“So, what are we doing today?”
Ayan turned the display off and smiled at Minh. “I'm starting with yoga and moving on to infantry fitness training. I want to try to get in shape without the regeneration and fitness meds Doc Anderson gave me. They're non-genetic treatments, but I want to see how I do without them.”
“Well, I'll help as long as you don't try to keep up. I'm pretty pumped,” Minh said as he posed and flexed, making exaggerated strained faces to match.
Frost's Morning After
Cold drool had pooled on the brig bunk and Frost groaned at the sensations of dry mouth and his throbbing head. He was still tired, wished he was still drunk, and knew by the bright lights that it was five in the morning, time for the inmates to wake up for morning inspection.
“Good morning.” Captain Valance's amusement couldn't be missed.
In that instant Frost hated Jacob Valance more than anything or anyone he'd ever met. He sat up, wiped his cheek and mouth then glared at the Captain. “For some, aye.”
Jake burst out laughing at the dirty look Frost shot him and handed him a spill proof mug of black coffee with a recovery agent additive. “This'll get you feeling steady enough for the gunnery deck.”
He took the tall silver mug and smelled it. “Strong enough ta clear rust. Thank ye sir.” As he took the first long drink of the strong coffee his irritation at being awakened by the Captain began to fade.
“Hard night last night, I can't tell you I don't know how you feel. It's gotten around the ship though.”
“Has it?”
“It won't harm your reputation much, your men are behind you more than ever. Alice had to break up a brawl between off duty security and gunnery personnel.”
Frost's eyebrows raised and he sat back on his bunk. “Oi, that's a mess. How many?”
“Close to three hundred were involved.”
“Three hundred! How did Alice break it up?”
“She and Stephanie's lieutenants turned the lights on and started stunning people from on top of the bar. Nothing breaks up a brawl like gunfire, stunned or dead, doesn't matter much when people don't have time to see the difference. A few other senior officers joined her on top of the bar and club night was called off.”
“Crew can't be happy 'bout that. I've never been much for dance clubs, more a pub crawler myself, but people were lookin' forward to it.”
Captain Valance nodded. “Now Security personnel are blaming Gunnery and Maintenance crews and vice versa.”
“I'd have have never thought.”
“It's not because of last night, though it didn't help. There's a growing environment of mistrust between the departments.”
“On account of Burke.”
“No, because of the way you handled it. You didn't trust Stephanie's people to do their jobs and everyone knows it. The whole brawl started over someone in the Gunnery crew telling someone in Security that your people handle their own business, they don't need security 'in their faces.'”
Frost ran a hand down his face. “Bloody politics. I'll give up the deck for a while if that'll fix it.”
Jake laughed and shook his head. “Sorry, no easy way out on this one Chief. If you try to back out of the position it'll look like you were forced into it from the top and if you think that brawl was something…”
“Aye, you're right. Then there's only one thing for it.”
“Make peace, whether you and Steph are off for good and you just have to put a good face on it or you make amends, it doesn't matter. Your people have to see that something is working, otherwise this'll go on.”
“Aye, and I'll have to be real hard on 'em for this.”
“And make sure they know they need the Security Department as much as anyone else. It's going to be hard, especially considering the history behind all this.”
“Well, I'm sure if Steph won't take me back she'll at least be willin' ta make nice for the crew.”
“I'm not talking about that; she shot Grace, remember? That's come up all over again. The rumours about Steph orchestrating her death to get her out of the way are all back.”
“Oi, that business again. I'll get this all put right Captain, won't be easy, but it'll get done.”
“Good, I'm headed to the Bridge, Steph's just outside.”
Frost put down the mug and hurriedly tried to sort his hair out while looking into a small mirror built into the wall of the cell. “I didn't mean I'd sort it just now, maybe after a shower an' such.”
“I meant right now,” Jake said with a crooked grin as he left the cell.
Stephanie stepped inside mere seconds later. “You and Jake have a good talk?” She was in her long coat, combat boots and black vacsuit, ready for her shift but she looked tired.
“Aye, heard about the brawl in the main obi-deck.”
“You should have seen the aftermath, I'm just coming from main observation now.”
“That couldn't a been an easy mornin'.”
“Or night, they woke me up at two, I've been there ever since.”
“Sorry lass, I've made a right mess o' things. Shoulda trusted ye from the start, if anyone knows what kind o' spot Burke left me in, it'd be you.”
“Do you mean that?” Stephanie asked, smiling a little. Her brown eyes were fixed on him.
“Aye.”
She shook her head and chuckled. “For all the cons you've run you're a bad liar.”
Frost stood up and put his hand on her shoulder. “Now don't be difficult, lass.”
The look she gave him could have killed. “Don't be difficult? ” she growled through clenched teeth.
“What I mean ta say is that you need ta give me a chance ta prove myself, that's all.”
“By going on a drunken tear and showing up at my door? Do you realize how it looks when the Chief of security can't control her boyfriend and needs her own team to step in?”
“I'm sorry, that's not somethin' that woulda happened if the old boys were 'round, they'd have kept me level enough to know better or at least have held me down long enough ta find sense.”
“The old boys; you mean Silver, Burke, Carrie and Turner?” Stephanie shot back. “Half of them are dead, the other half turned on you for your bank accounts and left you stranded. They're walking waste.”
Shamus just stood there and stared at her for a moment. The five of them had been running together on and off for years, signing up on the same ships, getting in on the same cons, watching for opportunities and calling each other in when they could.
For the first time since she'd known him it was obvious that she'd actually hurt him. His gentler expression faded and was replaced by something made of stone. He looked away from her; “guess I'll stay off the bottle then. Make it plain to the crew that all this is as much my fault, nothing ta blame you or your men for.” He turned to pick up the spill proof mug from where he'd left it on his bunk.
Stephanie hadn't thought about it, how he didn't have any old friends left. She was the closest thing. They'd always had an easy time together when they were just talking amongst friends in the Samson galley, or stuck in the same bunk room while another area was damaged or under repair. Sure, the physical attraction didn't come for a long time, it took a change of scenery to realize there was chemistry, but of all the Samson crew they had known each other the longest. If he was talking to someone else about old friends, she might have been part of the list he mentioned, or at least she hoped she would be. “Frost, Shamus, I'm sorry,” she said, reaching out to him.