Burke squeezed his eyes shut and knitted his fingers together, white knuckled. “I'll tell you everything if we just stay here. We ran together for eight years, that's gotta count for somethin'.”
“Thought it did, then you got off an' left me hangin' by the heels with no scratch. I had to go to Nan's crew, you know what woulda happened if Captain didn't turn back an' pay for me?”
“You woulda had to work it off, that's all.”
“My arse! She'd have me strapped down and put out for chow for those damned cannibals she uses for pit fightin'! I was worth less than nothin' if Captain wouldn't agree ta a sit down.”
“I didn't… how could I know?”
“How'd ya not? We both had a record for breakin' inta ships in that system, you did those jobs with me! I couldn't even sleep in an underpass, police woulda snatched me up on a warrant no doubt, you left me there to get done in, to get done and gone! Don't even try ta pass any o' this mess onto Silver, he doesn't have the chops or stones to get into my accounts an' drain 'em.”
Burke tilted his command and control unit so Frost could see it and showed him a list of accounts. “I'll do it now, pay you back right now.”
Frost watched as he selected all his accounts and sent the funds his way. It was almost as much as had gone missing after he left the Samson. “That's a start,” he said with a tight lipped smile. When the transfer was finished he looked Burke in the eyes, they were red and watering, nervous and desperate. “Now take yer C and C off lad.”
“W-wha, I-”
“Do it.”
He followed instructions and glanced at a young man with a tray as he walked by. The young fellow's brow furrowed and interpreted the glance as a desperate summons.
Frost picked up the half arm length command and control unit off the table and dropped it on the server's tray. “Now we can get started, boyo,” he said eagerly to Burke.
“Is there a problem here?” asked the server as Burke put his head down on the table and covered it with his hands.
“My friend and I were just leavin'. Give that ta the next security man you see. It has ta go to the Security Chief herself, be sure he knows that.”
Burke rolled his head to the side and looked to the server. “Don't let him take me,” he said through brimming tears.
“Sir, I think I should call security,” the server said.
“I outrank ye by five stripes boy,” Frost said coldly. “I've a traitor right here, an' I'm takin' him in,” he stood and grabbed Burke's collar in his fist.
Burke whimpered loudly as he was pulled out of the booth and hauled to his feet. Frost jammed the barrel of his sidearm against the hinge of his jaw so hard his molars ground together.
“Sir, I really think-” the server started to insist.
“Ye shut yer hole or I'll drag yer ass to the mast room before mornin' shift starts an' the Captain's first duty o' the day will be to come up with a punishment for your subordination. He's not a mornin' person.”
“Yes sir,” relented the server quietly.
“All brains and no backbone, some things never change,” Frost grunted as he led the much thinner man towards the door, pushing and lifting.
“Everything all right boss?” asked Hunsler as he and two other gunnery crew members just off early evening watch stood up at their table.
“Will be soon, puttin' this traitor off ship tonight. I'll be back for the next round.”
“You sure sir?” asked another gunnery crew member.
“Does it look like this pup can turn his luck around? Eyes on yer drink lad!”
As the gunnery crew members sat back down and watched Frost leave with his prisoner, Burke tried to grab for one side of the door only to have his grip forced loose as he was pressed through.
The trip down the hallway to a darkened crew cabin was quieter than Frost had expected. Burke's breathing was heavy but Frost could tell the man was steeling himself for whatever was coming next.
Once they arrived Frost tossed him into the middle of the room, where he stumbled over a low coffee table. Frost had his sidearm aimed squarely at him, there was nowhere to go, at least not fast enough to dodge a full on blast from a highly charged disintegration weapon. The vacsuits might take one shot from such a weapon, but certainly not a second. “On your knees, Burke,” Frost instructed quietly.
He hesitated; “please, there's history and-”
“Your knees, you git!” Shamus exploded.
Burke obliged, his eyes flinching from his old friend to the floor; “You and I've b-been through some tight spots, s-seen some good times and…”
“You must've thought I was the most daft man aboard, that's the only reason why you'd borrow my ident. Dinna think I'd figure it out.”
“N-no, I don't know, you j-just don't check the little things…”
“Well we've got proper folk goin' through that kinda thing, we're watchin' each other's backs. You'd probably stifle here, feel smothered, but you're lucky. If it weren't for all the good folk here I woulda slagged you by now.”
“You're right, I shouldn't be here, I don't d-deserve…”
“There's truth to that, aye.” Frost backed up to the door and locked it without taking his eye off Burke for more than a second, punching in his personal security code. “Now take off that suit.”
Burke looked at him for a moment, confused.
“Take it off!”
He did as he instructed, signalling the suit to slit all the way down the front by dragging his index finger across it while pressing the button under his collar.
“Give it here.”
He pushed the suit towards Frost.
Shamus drew it the rest of the way to him with his foot and manipulated the room's controls for a moment. “You remember Sigma Aconis? That crew we found all frozen to death when their hauler sprung a leak they couldn't get to?”
“D-don't, please, not that.”
The air in the room shifted as Frost finished setting the environmental controls to slowly depressurize the compartment and cool the air. His own vacuum suit head piece sealed. “Now there's somethin' botherin' me. How in blazes did you get on this ship?”
Burke's eyes looked in every direction, searching for some kind of solution, any way out of his current predicament. “Came aboard by mistake, didn't know Captain was running the show until I was all hired on.”
“Ye really do think I'm the dullest soul,” Frost took three quick strides forward and pistol whipped the other man with every ounce of strength he had. “You have less than a minute before there's real damage done, then not long after 'till you're dead! The truth, you whoreson!”
Burke started trying to pick himself up off the carpeted deck and gave up, fighting for breath and wincing at the two teeth Frost had just broken. “Captain'll have me done in-”
“What? Who d'you think you crossed here? I'll have ye dead with no answer an' sleep just as sound as if ye gave me one and lived to tell about it. Speak up, might be that the Captain'll give ye a kind of mercy I won't.”
“Wheeler! As soon as I got planetside I caught a call from the Stellarnet for anyone just off the Samson. I sent a message, got one back from Wheeler, said he'd give me a place on his ship an' a fair share of the bounty from Jake. We knew if we left you there with no means you'd have to call on him for help, and I gave Wheeler the transmitter codes for the Samson. I swear that's how it was!” Burke answered hurriedly as he felt the air grow much colder, thinner.
“Well that answers how he tracked the Samson so quick. D'you know you almost got all of us killed? That bastard was capturin' Ash an' a couple others for himself an' killin' everyone else.”
Burke shook his head emphatically; “I didn't know. Thought he was takin' Captain on the ground.
Frost just shook his head and let the point rest. “What the hell kept you aboard Triton when Captain took over?”
“It's like I said! Tried a few times durin' recruiting runs, even tried to leave with those Aucharian military types, but they stopped me, said I wasn't in their database. There's eyes on every important spot on the ship!”