Board Thread:The Mech Bay Bar'n'Grill/@comment-24866242-20140514220513/@comment-24866242-20140526062031

“Boc Bás. Cat’s Death.” Her words were a whisper, her eye locked on the hand that covered Ben’s so she did not see their reactions. “Tis Gaelic.”

With a growl, Ry uttered one name. “Joslynne”

For a moment, Ben just blinked at them them. After taking a long drink from his bottle, he set it down and folded a hand over the one Kat still covered with her own. “Well, my story involves eight years in deep space. I think maybe you’ve got a more interesting one to tell.”

Kat sighed heavily. “Y’were two weeks o’er due. We were nae t’worried. Tarin hae told us y’d deviated t’rescue a ship, but I’ll admit th’ concern was growin when we dinnae hear from ye. One day…. word arrived tha’ y’were dead.”

Again Ry growled. “Wit flowers. She sent flowers wit a card readin ‘Sorry fer th’ loss of yer brother.’ She’s been sendin’ ‘em every year since. Same day, same message.”

Ben frowned. “You’re sure it was her?”

Ry nodded, took a long pull from his tankard before adding. “Yeah. We tracked down th’ first florist. Th’ owner was surprised when we asked who had sent th’ delivery. She looked right at Kat and said she had.” He shrugged. “Kat hadn’t, so it stood ta reason…. Th’ bitch had a standing order. We cancelled it. Didn’t seem ta matter, though. Th’ flowers still came.”

Kat sighed heavily. “She’s still oot there, Ben. I’m thinkin she thinks yer actually dead.”

Ry toyed with his tankard absently. “Maybe she’ll come up fer air when she learns Ben’s alive an’ well. We’ve been trying to track her down all these years. Th’ woman has gone deep. We tried everyone ta track you down; Th’ New Oregon Military, Dent, got word ta Max… tha’ barkeep who helped you. There was hope you made it home, but no one had seen ya.”

Kat squeezed Ben’s hand. “We nae gae up. We wouldnae b’lieve y’were dead, even after we found th’ Colorado, though…“ she sighed. “I admit I nearly lost hope a’ tha’ point.”

“So what happened next?”

Ry leaned back in his chair. “Not much, I’m afraid. The debris had drifted a long way by th’ time it was salvaged. The crew that found it didn’t keep any kind of logs about wha’ direction it drifted from. We set up a search grid a light year out from th’ salvage zone and came up empty.”

As they had been, Kat took over the conversation. “We started visitin’ th’ closest systems next but got aboot th’ same results. Y’dinnae really think aboot how big space is until yer lookin’ fer a needle in a really big haystack.”

“It’s been on my mind the last few years,” Ben couldn’t help but laugh.

Kat smiled in response. “So when we couldnae find ye anawhere between here an’ where we guessed y’started, we turned to Jos.”

“The flowers,” Ben agreed. “You thought she would lead you to me?”

“We didn’t know what ta think. But it was clear she was involved,” Ry growled. “The Krita picked up yer old hobby. Ya always said ya thought Jos was behind th’ war in yer homeland. Took Travers some time ta’ break th’ encryption on yer files. Hope ya don’t mind.”

“And? What’d he find?”

Ry shook his head. “Precious little. But he shared what he found with yer countrymen. We’re not sure how seriously they took it. They don’t trust outsiders. And they have their hands full.”

Ben looked amazed, nearly shocked. “The war? Still? It’s been ten years.”

Kat took a long pull from her bottle then shrugged lightly. “Aye and nae. Some lord er another claimed victory aboot seven years ago. Nae ev’ra one was happy aboot that though. Max says there’s still scattered fightin’. Occasional car bomb. Resistance tactics.”

“Which means they’re still being funded.”

Kat nodded. “Probably.”

Ben’s jaw clenched a couple of times, “I want to see what Travers found, but I’m starting to think that I was going about it all wrong. Follow the money, I told myself. That’s what I was doing. Apparently I got close enough to make Jos worried. She took me out of the game easily enough. I never asked why she was she interested in some war on some out of the way planet. What was she after?”

“Besides chaos?” Ry shrugged and sipped from his ale.

Ben looked doubtful. “Jos thrives on it, sure. And she never misses a chance to twist a knife in your side, Kat, but she doesn’t do anything without a reason. She wouldn’t be so successful if she did.”

“Travers said he had somethin’. Krita will be checking in in about six hours.

“Maybe.” Ben shook himself and took a drink. “I’m not jumping into anything just yet. I need some time to plan my next move. Get my bearings.”

Kat glared at Ben. “Our next move, Ben. We’re in this t’gether.”

Ben grinned at her, “I know. Not exactly what I meant. We can talk about this more when we know what Travers has to tell us. I just haven’t thought about these things in eight years and I’m not anxious to start back up right away. Did I tell you that Jarrid and Marissa had a kid while we were stuck out there?”

Kat smiled and Ry chuckled. “I guess that’s one way ta kill time.”

“I’d like to think they would have gotten around to it eventually.”

It was Kat’s turn to lean back in her chair, finally releasing Ben’s hand. “I’ve kept up yer cabin and Tarin’s kept ya in the profit share. Y’ve got a tidy sum waitin fer ye. Ah bloody ‘ell. I fergot ta comm Tarin!”

Kat suddenly left her seat and moved back over to the car she had been working on. Pullin the comm out of her pocket, she began a rapid conversation.

Ry smiled as he watched his wife, then turned his attention back to Ben. “What about th’ others?”

“Well, Jeff was really the only one with ties to Galiese directly. The others were excited to get some fresh air though. I think Jeff and Chico were going to go see Jeff’s family. Sandra said she’d come down after calling home. I didn’t get a chance to see Jarrid and Marissa before I flew down. Becky’s never been on a planet before. I think they might ease her into it.”

Ry nodded. “It would probably be smart. We took some losses while you were gone. Mog. He passed away in his sleep. Tilvos…“ Ry sighed and returned his gaze to Kat. “Tilvos is gone too. A few others. Pets mostly; Grizz, Joke. Have some new additions too. Over the years, Travers has run across several members of Kat’s old unit, the Midnight Raiders. He has them with him on the Krita. Kat gave him the commission there.”

Ben frowned. "Jack?"

Ry shook his head. "Not yet, at least."

Smiling, Kat returned to the table. “M’thinks y’best make an appearance a’th’ office soon er she’ll hunt ye down.”

They talked for the rest of the night, catching up, remembering and getting drunk. None of them wanted to cut the reunion short, but by sunrise they realized there would be time in the days to come.