Chapter Nineteen #3
A message flashed on the viewscreen: Station tractor beam engaged.
“Space Potatoes! They are really playing hardball, aren’t they.” Jack tried to use his computer codes to get Crooked Halo Station’s tractor beam to release them, but everything he tried laughed at him.
“Now what?” he asked, throwing his hands up in frustration.
Outside the viewport, smoke curled across the dock platform. Blue-black smoke with sparks of blue light. Thick robes moved within it and the station enforcers disappeared.
Veyre stood beside the exterior dock control panel, one gloved hand pressed to the screen of the mechanism. Sparks spat from beneath his palm and, after a few seconds, the tractor beam released them.
Madelaine stared through the glass. “Who are you?” she said.
Veyre looked up, but his masked visage didn’t convey any answer. Though Jack could not see his face, he felt the man’s gaze land on them.
The masked stranger lifted two fingers in a gesture that was not quite farewell and not quite a warning.
Then smoke swallowed him.
Madelaine hit the thrusters.
Their ship tore free from Crooked Halo Station as warning lights flashed across the dock. The old station fell away beneath them, its warped ring blazing with neon and alarm strobes.
Jack held onto the arms of his chair as they shot into open space.
Behind them, Crooked Halo Station shrank into a disheveled circle of light at the edge of the galaxy.
Ahead, the route to Keirios reappeared on the navigation display. Still waiting and ready to go.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Jack exhaled. “Well. That was a nice little shopping trip.”
Madelaine let out a shaky laugh and leaned back in her seat. “We almost died…again.”
“We’ve almost died before.”
“Several times.”
“At this point, I’m getting used to it as part of every stop we make.” Jack grinned. “And yet this time, we got fuel with the near-death experience.” He pointed proudly at the green readout. “Three beautiful bauxite cubes, one of them named Bert.”
“No. We are not naming the fuel.”
“Too late. Bert saved us.”
“No. Veyre saved us.”
Jack’s smile faded. “Yes. He did. Twice. I wonder who he is, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do.” Madelaine looked out at the stars. “He knew about our mission. I feel like I should be renamed the Clueless Courier. Everyone we meet along the way seems to know more about what I’m doing on this errand than I do.”
“He also knew about me, which was uncomfortable in the moment and right now.”
Madelaine nodded, her eyes round with awe. “Specifically, he knew your name.”
“Yep. In some instances, that might be considered flattering. In this case, less so.” Jack wasn’t so sure he liked any strangers knowing his name.
Although, if they ever encountered Veyre again, Jack would make a point of thanking him for the help at The Halo, as the space station inhabitants called it.
Madelaine turned toward him. The cockpit lights softened the worry in her eyes, but did not hide it.
“When the silent moon asks for your name, give it his,” she murmured. “That wasn’t creepy at all.”
“Oh, yes, it was.” Jack swallowed. “Do we even have a silent moon on the itinerary?”
She shrugged. “How should I know? Every new package is an exciting and new surprise.”
“Well, surprises can be good.”
“If we ever have a good surprise on this journey, and I’m not holding out hope it will happen,” she said with a half-smile. “Because so far our only surprises have been challenge-filled, life-threatening, terribly bad news or all of the above.”
“Well, we’ll likely get used to all-of-the-above surprises, right as we finish the errand.”
“Maybe,” Madelaine said and turned to study the trajectory monitor.
Jack didn’t move a muscle. He liked sharing the close space with her even if they weren’t talking.
His heart was perhaps foolishly in love with someone he might not get to keep, but hope lived within him that regardless of their future, she loved him.
He knew she did. They loved each other and they were married.
They might not be able to stay together but he’d worry about that later.
Once all of the packages were retrieved and Madelaine had finished this important errand, Jack knew that, as a couple, they would likely be over.
And even if their impromptu marriage wasn’t annulled, Madelaine would have to go back to Alpha-Prime because of the choices and sacrifices she’d made. Sacrifices that did not include him in her life. He stifled a long-suffering sigh.
Jack thought about his possible options once this journey was over. Would he try to go with her to their home planet? Maybe. Alpha-Prime wasn’t the worst place he could think of to live out the rest of his days, especially now that he had been to the garden spot delight of Malvoraxis Veil.
Of course, he would miss his family and his life on Earth, but if he got to have a life with Madelaine, it might be worth it. It was his most fervent consideration.
The ship settled into faster-than-light alignment. Stars stretched in long silver lines ahead of them.
Madelaine’s hand rested near the console, close enough that Jack could reach it if he wanted to. And he really wanted to. So he did. He covered her hand with his, squeezing her fingers gently.
She looked down at their joined fingers and did not pull away.
“We lost precious time,” she said softly, her focus back on the trajectory monitor. “Time that I feel like we are going to regret losing.”
“Maybe, but it isn’t your fault that thieves are everywhere in all the galaxies. Besides, in that lost time, we gained fuel and survived.”
“True. Then again, we also gained more questions.”
Jack squeezed her hand. “We’re good at questions.”
“Are we, though?”
“No. But we’re getting better at surviving long enough to ask them or think up better answers.”
That almost-smile returned, warmer. “Maybe we are at that. We do make a good team.”
“We do.”
Madelaine turned her hand beneath his and threaded her fingers through his. He squeezed her hand again.
Outside the ship, the wild edge of the galaxy fell behind them.
Ahead waited more Paladin Courier secrets, silent moons that would need his name and maybe a hooded stranger who disappeared into smoke, at the ready to help when they were in dire need.
But the fuel tank was full, the stars were wide open, they were back on track for the Paladin Courier’s important errand and, most importantly, Madelaine Archer Grey’s hand was in his.
Jack decided that counted as a win. A strange one after their recent adventures. Possibly a dangerous one as they went along.
But a win all the same.