“I'm game.”
He pulled two glasses out from behind the bar and sprayed them with a small water hose that sputtered a moment before focusing into a clean jet. “I'm surprised. You'd think Wheeler would move in behind the bar,” Jake said plainly as he poured two half glasses.
“Cheers.” Jonas said as they clinked glasses. “I couldn't even begin to imagine how blind sided you feel right now. I would have sent you a message but the Clever Dream moves faster than most transmission services.”
“I saw the wormhole exit point. That's a nice ship.”
“It is, Alice has done well for herself.”
Captain Valance took a second sip of scotch and swirled the amber fluid in the glass, watching it, unable to look at Jonas. “Is she mine or yours?”
“That's a difficult question to answer.”
“Oh?”
“Well, if you were to test her DNA you'd find she's not even related.”
“So she's adopted.”
“I'm not supposed to tell you any of this. She wanted to say so herself, but I know she's scared. I know I would rather find out right away than be surprised later.”
“By?” Jake asked, trying not to sound impatient.
“When I was seventeen I bought the best artificial intelligence I could find. It cost me a year's savings and I customized her, left her on my arm for almost seventeen years. She saw everything. I talked to her as though she was my best friend, and she was.” He didn't give Jake a chance to say anything, just pushed on through it. “When I was in command of the First Light we ran into trouble. Some of my senior staff and I were captured by a super carrier owned by Vindyne.”
“I've heard of them.”
“I had built a switch into Alice after a few years of having her, where I could turn off all the limitations imposed on the cores of artificial intelligences. I don't know why I did it at the time, maybe I thought she had the right to make all her own decisions one day, but years later when we were captured I let her loose through their wireless network. She ran rampant and from what she's told me she absorbed some predatory programming and used the systems on that carrier to force herself into the emptied mind of a woman who was about to be programmed as an unwilling colonist. She was a former prisoner, a murderer with a few fragment memories left, but Alice got through it. A few years later she went after you thinking there was only one of us and got you free. Vindyne, or rather, a few people left over from that company have been after her ever since.”
Jake just let it sink in for a minute, looking through the transparent section of hull out into the blue and white starry haze outside.
“She sees me more like a brother, we grew up together. When she watches footage of your captures, the speeches you gave for the Aucharians, it's different. She looks up to you, it really is like she's looking at her father, a mentor.”
“She shouldn't. I come with an entirely different bag of trouble. I've only been alive a few years and I can't count the number of enemies I've made. Most of them are counting the days until they get out of prison. Some day there'll be a couple hundred very bad people on the roam with one eye looking for my face.”
Jonas looked at the other man, he was brooding, quiet. “Hey, you saved my butt when you were minutes old. Everything that's in my head was in yours when they brought you out. Somehow you managed to delete, or suppress all the memories they gave you. You did it so they'd stop trying to use me as some kind of guinea pig, or read me like a database. That's the first thing you did when they flipped the switch and brought you online, even though you felt just as much like me as I did. You must have been convinced you were Jonas Valent right up until they sat us down in front of each other. I know I couldn't have done that, and not just because I don't have machinery in my skull, but because I couldn't let go of everything I know, all my experiences, and the people I love, not for anyone,” his eyes settled on the white silk scarf dangling from Jake's neck.
“I always wondered what this was about. Just couldn't let it go.” Jake said as he pulled the scarf off carefully. “I even had it repaired once.”
“I had a few girlfriends, but none of them could hold a candle up to the last one. I hope she's been well in the time I've been gone,” he stared at it, draped over his hand. His thumb stroked its smooth surface. “Her name is Ayan Rice. She was the Engineer on the First Light and did I ever fall for her. I was so lucky she felt the same way. It's all I could think about ever since they woke me up two months ago. Finding my way back,” he nodded to himself and looked back to Jake. “That is until I found out about you. Over the last couple days I've been glued to the holoprojector with Alice. We can't stop watching the clips the Hart Newsnet has on you, there are days worth. One take down and take over after another, even a few gunfights that law enforcement agencies put up just in case they ever get another chance to catch you.”
“I think I could name each one,” Jake chuckled. “Most gun fights are pretty short, and the ones that last a while are memorable.”
“You're something completely different. I couldn't even pretend to be you, I wouldn't know where to start.”
“Ah, you'd get it down. I'm not so hard.”
“Are you kidding? I focus on technical details, work as many tools as I can into a solution to make things go smoother. You're all about the quickest point between A and B, and man, you get there whether you have to run, crawl, or fly.”
“I just do what I have to. One thing's really buggin' me more than anything else though, what happened? I mean, I've heard Wheeler's version, that he betrayed you and you got taken by Vindyne, but what happened from your end?”
“Well, when we got back to the rendezvous point at Starfree Port Vindyne came in right after us with so much firepower the Port wasn't willing to back us up. Major Hampon, this irritating prick who had interrogated me the the first time Vindyne got their hands on me and really held a grudge got on my personal comm and told me if I turned myself in willingly they'd let the First Light and what was left of my crew go. I gave myself up and watched them take a wormhole home.”
“See, I don't know if I could do that.”
“I bet you could, but that's not the point. Vindyne was there within seconds of our arrival, I suspected Wheeler turned us in.”
“He told me straight on, he sold you out along with all the framework technology. I guess I should thank him before you kick his ass.”
Jonas laughed for the first time since they sat down, it was a huge relief. “I guess so. Speaking of which, where is he?”
“He's in the brig. You can see him if you want. There's an extra code you need to punch in to speak to him though, it's zero eight one one.”
“I think I will,” Jonas took a long look at Jake, and after a moment he looked back at him. “You going to be all right?”
“Yeah, no matter where I came from, I've come most of the way myself after Alice dropped me off on the Samson. I can't complain about the stock I'm bred from either,” he offered his hand. “I'll get you back to Ayan as soon as I can. At the same time I want you to remember; you always have a place on this ship.”
Jonas shook it firmly. “I might take you up on that. On a ship this size there might just be enough room for the two of us. What about Alice?”
The pair started for the exit but saw a small personnel lift at the end of the bar. Jake shook his head as they made their way to it around a few tables. “Strange thing about that, I owe her as much as you do. If she hadn't have broken me out of wherever they were keeping my pod I'm sure I would have been mulched or put to work in a mine somewhere. Besides, for years now I've thought of her as my daughter, my blood. I even looked for her mother for a while. Why shake that kind of love?” The word felt strange, he couldn't recall the last time he'd said it aloud, maybe he never had. There was nothing to remember before being let out of his cocoon. Somehow, when he thought of Alice and his long search for her, that word, love, felt right, and it brought a smile to his face.