Chapter 30

Dressed in formal attire, Lee looked out of the enormous gallery windows of the SCS Arbitrage. The Sirius Navy armada spread as far as his eyes could see. There were several Farragut-class battleships and various support carriers at parallel station-keeping. Flying alongside the Arbitrage was the Resistance’s makeshift carrier, the Athos.

Lee was onboard with Xohn, both called to testify to the events they had witnessed. He delivered all the evidence, walking the assembled panel through the story he put together. He’d been waiting a couple of hours for Xohn to wrap up his testimony.

An enormous door opened, the unlatching echoing in the vast chamber.

“Commander Sollinger,” a young woman called for him. Her voice somehow carried despite the distance. “The committee has finished their deliberations. This way, please.”

He walked to the door and followed her to the large meeting room. The aide motioned for him to take the stand beside Vin Xohn.

The gallery chamber was filled with rows of people. GalNet press, Chelum, and Resistance leadership. Tarrek, Trisha, Dex, and Zee stood in the front row.

“Commander Sollinger,” Li Yong-Rui spoke from the center of a long curved desk mounted upon a dais. The Chairman was surrounded by Sirius Navy brass Lee didn’t know. But there were a few folks he did know. Colonel Reeves and Resistance leaders like General Warrick and Captain Becke were there. He stood beside Xohn on a raised circular platform lit to highlight them in the center of the gallery.

Yong-Rui continued, “Thank you for your time and for sharing this eye-opening information. The Commission has finished its deliberations and closed this inquiry into the matter of Sylus Draden’s conspiracy.”

There was a hushed murmuring among the crowd behind them. Yong-Rui tapped a sharp-sounding magnetic bearing onto a metal plate mounted to the desk before him to quiet the crowd.

“It is the finding of this Commission that Sylus Draden, operating under the alias of Alden Duryss, is guilty of crimes against the people of Hyades. We find him guilty of conspiracy, espionage, unethical genetic engineering, and genocide. Given that he has gone missing, we are issuing a forty-eight million credit bounty to anyone who can deliver him to us for sentencing.”

There was a raucous uproar of clapping from the gathered throng of people behind. Yong-Rui waited for the crowd to settle and struck the plate again.

“Before we close the record, the floor is open for you both to make a closing statement.” Yong-Rui gestured out to them.

Lee looked over at Xohn. He needed time to gather his thoughts. With a gesture, he offered the floor to Xohn first.

Xohn turned to address the crowd gathered behind them. His head was down, looking at the floor, “It’s been several years since I lost my beloved Azera. Her life was full of a fiery spirit that stirred my passion to make the galaxy a better place with my skills. Our lives together ended at the hands of Sylus Draden. I ask only that we, as a galactic community, always remain vigilant against leaders acting as thugs that believe they are above the law. This is an age of such wonder and possibility that we should abhor anyone abusing power through the deceitful manipulation of fear.”

The crowd applauded him politely. Xohn smiled and bowed his head, backing away to give Lee the floor. Lee stood forward before the murmuring crowd. He had never spoken to an assembly of any appreciable size before. Sweat built on his brow. He may have found something he hated worse than spacewalks.

“I uhh… I was just going about my life before all this happened… and I…” he searched for his words. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the people here, old friends,” he looked at Zee, who smiled and looked down at her feet. Dex stood beside her, grinning through his beard. “And new friends,” he looked at Tarrek, who gave him a formal salute. Then he turned back to look at Colonel Reeves, who nodded respectfully.

He turned back to the crowd. “But also, for those who have gone before us, killed or destroyed by this monster,” he said, looking up beyond the high ceilings. “I’d like to honor Xohn’s Azera, who died protecting his invention.”

There was a round of respectful clapping.

“And Tarrek’s brother-in-arms, the first victim of aculosis.” Lee looked Tarrek in the eye while the others cheered.

Tarrek took off his beret and held it over his heart. The half of his face that could emote remained solemn.

“Jackson Dekker, a stupidly brave pilot who sacrificed himself to save both of us—to save us all.”

The loudest area of clapping moved to a cohort of Resistance pilots in the crowd.

“My mother, Liana Mirren, deceived and destroyed by him.”

Lee waited for the clapping to die down, then waited for what felt like an eternity.

“And my old friend…” his voice caught, choked in the emotion. “Someone I will remember as the only father I’ve ever known, Victor Graves.”

The clapping grew louder. A tear stuck to the corner of one of Lee’s eyes, obscuring his vision. The applause died down until the chamber became silent.

“Look, I don’t have any fancy words like most people you heard from up here. All I can tell you is that going through all this, well, now I know how much we need each other.” He looked over at Zee, her soft smile encouraging him to continue.

“Trying to go it alone is choosing to live a hard life that’s hardly a life worth living. Trust me, I know. We have to remember we’re better together. We have to. Together—that’s real living. And when evil and corruption rears its ugly head, when we see things going the wrong way, standing up together to resist—as a Resistance—well, we can reshape the galaxy. Together makes all the difference.”

There was a roar of clapping with some yelling from a strong contingent of Hyades Resistance fighters in the crowd.

Lee turned back to the commission on the dais. Reeves, Warrick, and Becke were clapping for him. Li Yong-Rui placed the gavel ball on the plate, looked Lee in the eye, and clapped with a respectful, shallow bow.

He leaned over to Vin Xohn and whispered, “Remind me never to do that again, alright?”

“But perhaps you have a newly marketable skill,” he winked back.

Lee shook his head with a wry smile.

After the commission adjourned, people milled about for a time. It seemed a never-ending stream of people wanted to shake his hand. When his hand became numb, an aide approached him. Between greetings, she whispered, “Mr. Li wishes to have a separate meeting with you, Commander.”

“Ahh, yes… I’m sorry,” Lee said to the next person in the still sizable cluster of folks waiting for an audience. “Please, folks, you’ll have to excuse me. It seems I’m being called away.” He waved and turned to follow the aide out of the gallery.

He was escorted to a much smaller room with a floor-to-ceiling window. It appeared to be a simple viewing room. The fleet hung in the distance. The almost opaque obsidian glass double doors opened to Yong-Rui, who stepped beside him to take in the view.

“Quite a speech, Commander.”

Lee shrugged the comment off and continued to stare out at the fleet.

“I had a call with the Chancellor of the Empire. It appears you are more of a hero than you realize.”

Lee raised an eyebrow.

“This entire affair was an effort by the Senator and his son to annex the entire Hyades Cluster. It was a power play. A region of trillions of new subjects would have made Draden the most powerful Senator in the Empire.”

“I don’t understand; why was Sylus fighting his father’s forces? Some sort of ploy before he surrendered everything?”

“Hubris,” Yong-Rui said.

“Hubris?”

Yong-Rui smiled. “It’s an old story—a son eager to emerge from his father’s shadow.”

“Sylus was trying to beat his father?”

“Indeed. More than that, it appears he was trying to embarrass his father, out their plot, and cast blame on him. Had it succeeded, it might have made Alden Duryss famous, securing his political influence.”

“So all that anti-xeno stuff was just a ruse?”

“That’s how Sylus legitimized the build-up of military assets under his control.”

“But in the battle, Sylus used them against his father.”

Yong-Rui nodded, “Exactly.”

“So the ThermARC was never about fighting Thargoids.”

“Correct. My military advisors believe it was part of securing combat superiority. Unlimited stealth.”

“Right, that makes sense. They could have held any territory they wanted if they’d gotten it to work right. Good thing Xohn sabotaged that.”

“The Chancellor also informed me the Patrons of Madius Draden have filed a petition to challenge him. Given his newfound lack of support, I wager he will be out of office by year’s end.”

“I didn’t think replacing a Senator was possible.”

“It’s not a frequent occurrence, but in the light of a scandal, it happens. The Draden family drained their fortune to pull this off. Amusingly the old codger has announced he’s renewing the Find Sylus Draden Campaign. Somewhat ironic, I must say. If my data is right, it has a very low probability of success. You have to admire the stones on the man to try to double-dip that well.”

“Sounds like the move of a desperate man.”

“Indeed.”

They stared at the fleet hanging in the distance—smaller ships dancing between giant cruisers and carriers.

Yong-Rui broke the silence, “Magnificent, wouldn’t you agree, Commander?”

“Absolutely. It’s quite a ship you have here—quite a Navy,” Lee gestured at the ships beyond.

“I think so,” he said with a wry expression. “How much do you like it, Commander?”

“What do you mean?”

“Enough to join us with an honorary rank of Major?” he said, serious enough that Lee took it as a genuine offer. After a short silence, Yong-Rui added, “After some training and orientation, of course.”

Lee furrowed his brow, “Me in the Sirius Navy? I’m not sure I’m the military type, sir.”

“Lee,” he stopped, putting his index fingers together over his mouth. “May I call you Lee?”

He nodded.

“Lee, you helped stop a territory grab that would have altered the sociopolitical climate in a region affecting trillions of lives.”

“It wasn’t only me, sir.”

“Be that as it may, you delivered the report that made this possible. Your actions saved countless lives from more bloodshed and disease. Together, we ended this war before it could even start. Because of your intel, I didn’t even have to fire a shot. That’s the mark of superior tactics only made possible by having the right information at the right time. You made that possible. Sirius needs people like you.”

“I’ll at least consider it, Mr. Li.”

“That’s all I ask.”

He turned to face Lee. “Think about it. It’s an open offer.”

“Thank you, Mr. Li,” he offered his hand to shake.

Yong-Rui bowed instead. “Be well, Commander Sollinger. May your credits flow and all your landing pads be free.”

Lee smirked and watched Yong-Rui leave out of the double doors. Reeves stood outside.

“Commander, may I join you?”

“Of course.”

She stepped into the room and faced him, ignoring the view.

“Where to next, Commander?”

Lee folded his arms, “You’re not going to recruit me, too, are you?”

“No, no. Yong-Rui put me in charge of a Sirius Navy Marine division—a Thargoid task force. Don’t get me wrong, you’d make a fine pilot, but Thargoids would eat you for breakfast,” She said with a slight smirk. “You still didn’t answer my question.”

He let out a sigh. “Zee, Dex, Xohn, and I are headed back to Glist. I’m going to help with the repair efforts on Foden Dock. After that, who knows?”

“Ahh,” she squirmed. Lee could see she was uncomfortable about her part in damaging it.

“It’s okay,” he assured her. “Yong-Rui put up the funds to repair it. It’s been long overdue for upgrades anyway. They’re sending the SCS Free Trade carrier to help ferry all the repair materials.”

“Well,” she cleared her throat. “I wanted to come to say ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’. If you hadn’t helped convince me about Draden… I would have followed blindly.”

“I’m glad we could convince you, too. Otherwise, I’d probably be back in jail somewhere. You turned out on the right side of this. If you’re ever in our neck of the woods… You should drop by.”

“Perhaps I will, Commander,” She put a hand on his shoulder and flashed a smile he almost didn’t think she was capable of doing. Then she walked out, leaving him to stare across the grand fleet floating over the blue terraforming world of Chelum B4.

Lee flew the refit Python, recommissioned as the Knight Walker with Vin Xohn in the co-pilot’s chair. Li Yong-Rui insisted the captured Python be reconditioned and outfitted to Lee’s specifications. Given all that he and Xohn had done, he tried to ask for a Corvette. Yong-Rui’s response was something about being “responsible with resources” or some other frugal nonsense.

In truth, Lee couldn’t be happier with the Knight Walker. It was well-equipped, and between Vin Xohn and Li Yong-Rui’s connection with other engineers, every system had been optimized to the limits.

In his heart, though, he’d always have a special place for the Nightcrawler. All its quirks, the COVAS giving him unhelpful advice, and the ability to outperform despite its age was just like Vic. He had to wonder how the Knight Walker might come to reflect him over time.

It was a fitting fate for the Nightcrawler, for the essence of Vic, to be a life-long floating prison for Sylus Draden. Lee could only imagine Sylus staring at the “easy way out,” taunting him every day for the rest of his miserable existence. How insane would that drive a coward like him?

“We are in range, Lee. I am dropping us now,” Xohn’s accented voice broke into his thoughts.

“What? Oh, right. Thanks, Xohn. I’ll let our guests know.”

“And you are still docking this thing. In the training simulations, I have not gotten that far yet.”

“Alright, I’ll dock it. Park us off the edge of the station, okay?” Lee shook his head, smiling. It was nice to have a co-pilot. It meant a higher chance someone was paying attention. It reduced the possibility of making a ’loop of shame’ when overshooting their destination.

Lee switched on the internal comms, “Zee, Tarrek, we’re here.”

They arrived at the tattered remains of Foden Dock in the Glist system. Lee, Xohn, Zee, and Tarrek joined Dex to rebuild the outpost. It took two weeks of cleanup efforts before they made enough progress to spend some time on Dex’s bar.

A Shot in the Dark had seen better days. There was more damage than anyone had expected. Although thoroughly wrecked, there was one thing that survived. The old digital jukebox was still in perfect condition, with its colorful lights and memory intact.

They all pitched in to help Dex clean up the debris. It took a couple of days’ effort to clear it all out. And another few days to install new furnishings, courtesy of Dex’s insurance policy.

There were also some new items donated by the Sirius Corporation from Li Yong-Rui, much to Dex’s protests. “I don’t want no fancy corporate spy equipment,” he had said.

He would only accept the new bar tops after Xohn thoroughly analyzed them for anything other than a mag system and lighting rig.

With most of the installation work done, only a few new GalNet displays to mount, and some tidy-up work; the bar began to look like a proper establishment.

They gathered around the new central bar counter. Lee leaned against it next to Zee and Xohn. Tarrek stood beside Xohn around the corner of the bar.

Dex took his customary place inside the bar ‘pit.’ He looked at them all gathered around and, misty-eyed, said, “I can’t tell ya how much it means t’ me for y’all to help.”

“That’s what friends do, big guy,” Lee said.

“Thank you, Dex,” Zee said. She had a sweet smile on her face.

“For what, darlin’?”

“For always giving us a place to get together. Someplace that, no matter how far we go, we can come back to and relax.”

“Aww,” the burly man wiped the moisture from his eyes with his normal arm.

“This deserves toasting,” Tarrek said, raising an empty cup.

Lee snapped his fingers, “That reminds me. Yong-Rui gave me another gift to give you once the bar was back up and running.”

Dex’s face dropped back into full argument mode, “Now, I told ya, I don’t want any of that fancy man’s corporate spy screb.”

Lee chuckled and headed to the bin in the corner of the bar, where he stowed the gift, “I think you’ll enjoy this one.” Lee loved every minute of it. In many ways, it was old times reborn, but now they were all more than friends. Everything they’d been through together, from the attack, the prison, the war.

They were family now—a family Lee chose.

He snatched a nice gift-wrapped box out of the bin. Returning to the bar, he offered the big man a beautifully handcrafted wooden box.

“What is it?” Dex said.

Lee gave a devilish grin, “Open it and find out.”

After hesitating, Dex reached out with his bionic arm to take the gift. He used his normal arm to pull the ribbon off and open the top of the box.

“Bless my stars,” Dex said, eyes wide in wonder.

“What is it?” Xohn asked.

Dex pulled out a bottle of Lavian Brandy. “2282,” he whistled, marveling at the bottle. “Nice to have rich friends.”

“Yong-Rui said it’s no big deal; the transmitter’s in the box.”

Dex cocked his head and glared at him.

Lee snorted back at him.

The bearded giant grabbed his expensive, clear, low-field glasses. Then he popped open the bottle and poured a round for everyone—himself included. He held up his glass, turning it in front of him, “To friends.”

“Friends!” They said in unison and took a sip.

Xohn tried to take a sip, and some extra brandy splashed across his face. The amount that made it in, he had no tolerance for and began coughing immediately. Lee smacked his back until his cough settled.

“Tell me that’s not your first drink of alcohol,” Lee snarked.

“That was my first drink,” his voice hoarse.

They laughed together and spent the night swapping stories. Lee told them about escaping Foden Dock and spacing Xohn out of the bay. They relived their time in the Arber Penal Colony.

Tarrek talked about training Jackson in the simulator. They toasted their fallen friend in a shared moment of silence.

Xohn and Lee told them the whole story of confronting Sylus Draden.

Zee shared some of Lee’s choice phrases under CO2 hypoxia. He would have been more embarrassed if not for the brandy.

Lee couldn’t take his eyes off Zee most of the night. He loved how she fit in with the boys. They caught each other’s eyes more than a few times that evening.

By midnight, Xohn was passed out. Tarrek, though also stumbling drunk, picked him up and carried him out of the bar.

“He better not toss on me,” he said, staggering, trying to keep his feet under him to support Xohn’s weight. Zee walked them out of the bar to keep them steady to the nearest lift.

Dex cleaned and wiped the glasses and the new glowing bar top. “Thanks for getting us all out alive. Anytime you need me, I’ll be your right arm.” He held up the bionic one.

“Thanks, Dex,” he grinned. “I’m not going far. I thought I might get in on the terraforming in Chelum. I heard there’s some decent money to be made bringing in the atmospheric catalysts.”

“Smuggled no less, I take it?”

“It’d be nice to avoid some of Yong-Rui’s tariffs.”

He smiled and winked, “That’s my boy.” He stowed the bottle of Lavian Brandy on a mag shelf and tossed his cleaning towel into a cleaning bin. “I’m gonna turn in. Spend some time with your gal, Lee. Enjoy the place, but lock up when you’re done, okay?”

Lee looked at the remaining brandy in his glass and nodded. “Sure thing, Dex.”

As Dex walked out, he pushed a few buttons on the jukebox, and a lilting melody of a lightly strumming guitar played as if from some distant land. A man’s falsetto voice “oohed” over a light guitar-like instrument and began to sing “Somewhere over the rainbow…”

Lee took in the words of the song.

“And the words that you dream of, once in a lullaby…”

The lyrics stirred up images of his mom. Her smile. Her hugs. The way she made him feel like he could do or be anything.

“Oh, somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly. And the dreams that you dream of, dreams really do come true. Someday, I’ll wish upon a star. Wake up where the clouds are far behind…”

It made him think of Vic. He pictured the old man sitting on the edge of a pier on a lake outside of a quaint little cabin somewhere—like one of those old-time homes used to be. He sat with a peaceful smile, fishing his days away.

“Where trouble melts like lemon drops, high above the chimney top, that’s where you’ll find me…”

He could almost see the old man’s wrinkled face, smiling with pure joy. He took the last sip of his brandy, letting the words fall over him.

Then he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to find Zee smiling softly at him. In her, he saw his future, his rainbow, his wishing star.

He stood up without a word and pulled her into a close embrace.

And together, they danced.