Chapter Eighteen

"I found all sorts of things we can use in the salvage yard, boss," Loz said as he poked his head out of the back of the shuttle. "And I got most of it at a steal of a deal. Like this!" He pulled out a large piece of machinery that was burnt at one end, although the mechanic brushed his hand over it and most of the dust seemed to shake loose, as if much of the damage was cosmetic. "This is a perfectly good Wilksborough delineator with plenty of good life... in..." He realized everyone seemed to be in a bit of a shocked state. "I've missed something massively important, haven't I?"

"The Captain's a member of The Calm, Loz," Imogen said.

The younger man craned his head to one side. "What?"

"He's a Storm, little brother."

The words took a bit longer than anyone expected to sink in, and the young man still didn't seem to believe them at first. "Bullshit, he hasn't got the weapon things a Storm has."

"I didn't yesterday, but--" Sketch said as he reached to the table and picked up his Kazshi, placing one in each hand as he turned them on, and the young man's eyes widened.

They are very elegantly formed, Storm Walker, and with purpose.

'Thank you, Fury Rose,' he thought back at her.

"No fucking way."

"I've sort of been half a Storm for a while, Loz," Sketch said with a sigh. It was remarkable how comfortable and natural the weapons felt in his hands, even after so long. He'd spent so much time using them, he'd been carrying around a phantom weight while they were gone, and now that he had them back, he felt whole again. "There's two tools of the trade for Storms, and up until recently, I've been without both of them."

"I thought all the other Storms were wiped out decades ago," Loz said to him curiously. "How'd you get missed?"

"Turns out it's hard to kill people who are in cryo sleep," Sketch laughed. "And I was in it longer than anyone really thought possible. Charlotte here, who'll be joining our crew, was also doing similar things, although with more breaks in between. Anyway, when I was stuck in cryosleep, both my Kazshi," he said as he twirled the weapons around a bit before snapping them off, the blades retracting into the hilts. "And my Ashaka, which is a sort of mental regulator that Storms and Furies use to keep their abilities from acting up on their own. Both of those tools of mine were destroyed in the accident that kept me in trapped in cryosleep. As such, I was alone on the ship the entire time. Then, a couple of months ago, a delivery went south, and I ended up taking on some new crew members. They helped me find and acquire an Ashaka, which let me get my abilities back under control."

"Wait wait wait," Charlotte said. "What do you mean the other Storms? Have you two met a Storm before?"

Imogen looked at Loz conspiratorially, but her younger brother only shrugged back, both of them unsure what to do next. She sighed and then began to speak. "What do you know of the Yokixola?"

"I didn't know anything about it when you first mentioned it," Sketch said, "but I made a point to look into it after you joined up. Some sort of mass passenger transport ship that had a fuel cell malfunction and ended up causing the ship to crash into a planet. Over half the passengers died on impact. Most of the survivors were picked up by the Rataki Cartel, who were suspected of sabotage of the Yokixola, but nobody could prove anything."

"Why were they suspected of sabotage?" Charlotte asked.

"Because this sort of thing happens a lot when they're involved," Imogen said. "They show up almost immediately after a major disaster has happened, as if they knew it was coming, and they provide 'rescue services,' putting those people deeper and deeper into debt, until they can eventually take everything their family owns, or even put them into slavery, if it comes to that."

"They pushed hard to get Immy to tap out and become one of their companions," Loz said, "but me and her refused to be separated, and we had enough capital to cover a down payment on a loan from the Waverly Syndicate to be able to cover a share of it, in addition to what Pauline covered."

"There was a Fury on that ship with us," Imogen said cautiously. "She died trying to minimize the casualties from the explosion, but before she did, she told me to get something from her quarters and to hide it on my person and keep it with me 'until the day I ran into another Storm.' I asked her how she knew I would, and she said, 'she could feel it in The Calm.' I remember thinking it sounded like bullshit, but here you are."

"What was her name?" Sketch asked.

"Fury Topaz."

He shrugged. "Means nothing to me, not that I'm surprised."

"Wait, tiny little woman? Built like an acrobat or a tumbler?" Charlotte said.

"Yes, although she'd lived a rather full life, and wasn't as agile as she might have once been," Loz said. "Did you know her?"

The Weaponeer smiled softly and nodded. "You have to remember, Sketch and I have spent a lot of time in the freezer, so I knew Spark Topaz, and she was just an initiate getting started in her training. That was when I was beginning my training for Weaponeer, and I got shipped out a few months later. She obviously didn't have any cryo sleep trips so she aged up the natural way, although I'm surprised she survived the Purge, and even more so that she told you what she was."

"She didn't," Imogen sighed. "Not at first. Not until she was charging into the damaged sections, trying to pull survivors from the wreckage. She used her abilities to keep me calm, which is how I knew what that feeling should be like. Before that, she described herself as pilgrim, and we assumed she was part of the Kowa Missionary group. She dressed like them and spent most of her time associating with them, so I guess that was her cover. We didn't even really know what Storms were back then, and even now we've learned to be very, very careful who we ask about them, and how. The first time I had to throw a client to the wolves. Thankfully, he wasn't a very good client."

The speakers crackled to life and Lara's voice came through over the comms. "Captain, you said something about wanting to leave as soon as possible?"

"That I did, Lara."

"Well, the kid's back with the shuttle, the dignitary's off the ship and there's an opening in the departure pattern in five minutes, if we act now," she said.

"Get us that queue slot," Sketch said. "We're on our way to the bridge now."

He moved to clip the Kazshi onto his belt, and then untucked his shirt, pulling it out to hang over the hilts, keeping them concealed. He wanted them on hand, but he also knew they were distinctive enough not to be flashing them around casually. He would find a better way to hide them on his person, but for now, the overhanging shirt seemed an easy fix.

"Captain, I didn't give you the thing that Fury Topaz gave to me for you," Imogen said. "She said it was vitally important to the survival and future of The Calm."

"I'm not going anywhere without you, Imogen," he said. "Give it to me when you have a chance. Right now, I'm going to make sure we take advantage of that information your client gave us and ensure we don't get searched on exit."

Imogen stayed behind with Loz to help him unpack the shuttle while Charlotte followed Sketch to the elevator. Serena had already headed up to the bridge some time ago, to assist Lara getting the ship ready. As they stepped into the elevator, once the doors closed, Charlotte immediately pinned Sketch against the wall and kissed him hard, her hands running along the back of his neck, the whole move taking him completely by surprise. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it was plenty time enough to remind him of what he and Charlotte had once shared. "Just reminding you, Miles Walker, that you and I have a history that is not forgotten by me," she giggled as she pulled away from him. "How many people on this boat are you banging anyway?"

"Right now? You'd make three, but I suspect that's going to go up to six before I know it," he sighed. "The princess and her bodyguard are both in a thing with me, and I've been told I have an open invitation to the pilot and the medic's quarters. They're a married pair of women, you see."

"And the companion?"

"She's offered me 'professional services,' but what need do I have for that with all these beautiful women on board? I get the impression she's thinking about wanting to try the only available cock on the boat she's not related to just for her own sanity's sake."

The elevator opened and they stepped out and onto the bridge. Lara was already seated at navigation, Jez was milling around near Lara's station, Serena was sitting at the usually neglected weapons terminal, and nobody had gotten anywhere near the Captain's chair.

He hated to admit it to himself, but he liked that, that everyone respected him too much to even sit in the chair where the shots were called.

Sketch moved to hop up the stairs to climb up to the chair and settled down in it.

"A'ight, let's do the dance."

Navigating the intake/outtake queue at a bustling spaceport was a complicated process on the best of days, even when there wasn't contraband on the ship. But one thing Sketch had learned right away - Lara was good at the dip'n'dash.

Departure queues were usually planned a couple of hours in advance, so that everyone would have time to be vetted, but sometimes people were detained or needed more time for their business, and a 'quick departure' slot would open.

Those were the best windows for the people in Sketch's line of work.

Technically, they were supposed to be the windows that got the most attention, because they were last minute, but instead, the people managing the queues were already so backed up that they typically skated on by with minimal, if any, inspection or attention.

The Praeteritus moved from its docking bay out to join the queue, sliding in right behind a Starless Dominion cluster ship, to everyone's great nervousness.

"Boss..." Lara said.

"Steady as she goes, Lara," Sketch replied, his voice trying to give as even a keel as he could to their situation. "Nobody pays attention to the asshole behind them in line unless the asshole makes them. We're just another run of the mill ship, taking advantage of an early departure window that just happened to spring up."

Although it couldn't have been more than a few minutes, it certainly felt like an eternity, watching ships slowly move up to the scangate, running through it, waiting and then being the go ahead to hop into one of the several ringgates scattered in the empty space just past the security terminal.

When the Starless Dominion cluster ship reached the scangate, it just rolled on through, barely even slowing down, just a great hulking monstrosity that refused to show a bit of sympathy or gratitude for the free pass.

Sketch was under no misconceptions that The Praeteritus would get similar treatment. He held his breath when they slotted into the scangate. Not that he didn't have faith in his cloakers - he had more faith in them than just about anything on the ship. It was more like he was worried about what sort of details he might have overlooked since the last time he'd passed through them.

He rolled down his sleeves and gestured for Charlotte to do the same, covering up their tattoos, just in case someone truly was on the lookout for them.

The screen crackled to life and a squidlike alien from a race Sketch didn't recognize appeared in the holoscreen. "Omertagi Station Control to Praeteritus," the being said in a slightly surly voice, as if they disliked irregularities. "I've got you on the roster to be here another two days, Praeteritus. Didn't like the food? What's the hurry and why are you rushing off?"

This was one Sketch already had prepped and planned for, and he could use actual information to do it. "Picked up a couple of new crew back at Wispbeetle Station, OSC, and it turns out the debt I bought them off for only had the majority being held by the shop at Wispbeetle. The rest of it's owed to the Waverly Syndicate. Didn't find that out until we got here, and I don't much care for being under those penny-pincher's scrutinous eyes--"

"And exorbitant interest rates," the dispatch chuckled.

"That too," Sketch agreed. "So since our passenger arrived early, I decided to call off the couple of days planned R&R time and we're heading out to make delivery and pay off the Syndicate, since they've got an outpost over in Breench, which is where my passenger's heading. Saw you had an opening, and we figured we could probably save ourselves a bit of interest by heading out now. That cool by you?"

"Long as the scan comes back clean, Praeteritus, you can be about your business instead of yapping with me."

No matter how many times he went through the scanning process, he always got a little nervous each time. His scanner blocker had always held, and if it didn't, he did have an emergency escape plan, but the problem was that Tropage ships were far too rare for him to just change his transponder beacon and get a new name. That meant once the game was up, it would be up for good, or he would need to abandon the ship he called home, something he absolutely refused to do.

He held his breath and counted, but sure enough, the moment passed without concern and the greenlight ticked as his scanner blocker did its job, and none of the questionable contents of his ship went detected. Almost everything on the ship right now was accounted for in the manifest - they'd even gone about refurbishing and reclaiming Aliara's dart The Barrow as legitimate salvage, renaming it The Tiny Dancer, after an old Earth folksong that the P'Nox had taken a liking to. The only part of the cargo bay that needed real shielding was Charlotte's toolbox, and even that he wondered if it was something they were still on the hunt for. Not that he wanted to put it to the test.

"You're good to go, Praeteritus. Happy hauling."

The transmission cut off and Sketch let out a deep sigh of relief.

"Well, let's get out of this box and into open space. Lara, the gate if you please?"

"Roger dodger. We are hitting gate space in five... four... three... two... and away we go."

The Praeteritus dropped into warp space and in second, the sprawling spaceport of Omertagi was a distant blip in their wake and they were back among the black of empty space.

"The Waverly Syndicate?" Charlotte asked him. "Still picking up lost puppies in need of rescue are we, Miles?"

"This one came mostly in my favor," he said as he climbed down from the Captain's chair. "I needed a mechanic, a real mechanic, one with skill in working on Tropage ships. That's a rarity these days, on account of the Tropage being a rarity these days..."

"Their war caught up with them?"

He nodded. "Mutually assured destruction of both the Tropage and the Mizzol homeworlds, so the travelers were just about all that remains of them. Last time I saw a Tropage in the wild, they desperately hailed me, looking for additional breeding partners, and I had to disappoint them."

"Yeah, I can't imagine our species being compatible with theirs," Charlotte said mournfully, "no matter how much they need it."

"I offered to jerk off over a handful of their unfertilized eggs if they thought it would help, but they seemed to think that would do more harm than good."

"Let it never be said you aren't a giver, Miles."

"But anyway, yeah, came across that kid mechanic Loz over at Wispbeetle and he was eager to get him and his sister off the station. Local governor's kinfolk had taken a liking to Imogen, and she wasn't interested in providing the flavor of service he wanted. But politics being what they are, kid figured his sister wasn't going to be given a choice much longer, and as soon as he saw a way off the rock, he took it."

"But he didn't mention Waverly."

"His sister did, first chance she got. Said they hold a minority stake in their debt, so we're going to see to it the only people they're in debt to is me, and that just means they're working it off with me."

"Like Wilhelm, back in the day?"

"God! There's a name I haven't thought about in at least a decade. Hopefully he got his happily ever after."

"He did," Charlotte said. "His daughter's in the smuggling business. She was my lift a couple of jumps back, so I spent a couple of years in cold storage on her boat, Mirth & Merriment. He's retired from the business, now, obviously, and I imagine his daughter's probably thinking about it now as well, but you could reach out and reminisce."

Sketch shook his head. "Been down that road. There's too much unwarranted resentment at me for not having aged." He laughed slightly, tilting his head. "Not that I had much of a say in that. And I think deep down people know that. But it's easy to see me and remember how much younger they used to be. They never seem to stop and think about how much I lost over the freeze. Not just professionally but personally as well. You remember Darren?"

"What, the kid you turned into your own personal Artful Dodger? 'Course I remember Darren. He was just about starting to get whiskers when you went out on assignment for the Tropage."

"Well, he was Lord Darren Arbard to Serena here," Sketch said with amusement. "Must've been pushing ninety when he sent her my way. Still haven't figured out entirely what happened to him. He was supposedly going to stash some cash at coordinates left in Serena's stasis pod for us, but when we got there, whatever had been buried there was long since gone. Best guess is the pirates tortured the location out of him and then killed him."

"Darren wasn't the kind who'd break easily, Sketch," Serena said, as she had when they'd found the empty hole where the safe was meant to be.

"No, I agree, Serena, but nobody can hold out forever, no matter how much they want to. It's just the law of the land - everybody breaks eventually. So the free payday that was going to come for me playing royal babysitter dried up too."

"You're getting far too much free pussy to complain about it, boss," Jez said with a soft laugh. "Between her and Aliara, you've got muscle and comfort basically on tap whenever you want it."

"The extra reserve stash wouldn't have hurt," Sketch said with a bit of a laugh.

"Neither would you throwing me and my wife a boning now and then," Jez snarked.

"You've got the kid keeping you busy right now."

"Loz is a bit of fun, but he's not as satisfying as a real man would be," Lara said.

"Well, don't let him hear you say that. His confidence is already on shaky ground."

"And you don't mind me strapping on as part of the crew?" Charlotte said.

"I do," Jez joked. "But it's not up to me."

"All crew decisions are up to me," Sketch said.

"What's she going to do?" Lara asked.

"Additional muscle, most likely," Charlotte said. "Not that Sketch ever really needed much help in a fight before. But it doesn't hurt to have a few extra people in that job, especially when you're dealing with unsavory clients. And between him and I, we can go about trying to start up a new chapter of The Order, albeit one we keep very, very, very quiet."

"That much is certain," Sketch said. "And I have no doubt Charlotte will earn her keep as much as anyone else on this boat. The majority of the people on this boat have a heavily vested interest in us staying off the Dominion's radar, which means no matter how any of the other things go, we're all going to keep that in mind, and not getting anyone wanting to look at us under the hood."

"You're not worried about Imogen's traveling business being too much of a spotlight?"

"Nah," he answered. "The traveling courtesan profession has even gained popularity from where it was when I went into the freeze. The rules are well-established, and how they choose to travel given a layer of discretion we might not be afforded otherwise. No, I have a feeling it'll be a net positive for us in the long run."

"Anything the ship still really needs?"

"Shy of an alien up to date on current politics both local and inter-system? Not especially. I wouldn't mind getting a sherpa of some kind, just so I have less trouble reading what the Dominion's up to, but that means trusting someone we don't know and don't have an in with. If we stumble across someone to fill that job, sure, I'll take them, but until then, we're getting along just fine without them."

"But you're just going to pay off the kids' portion of debt to the Waverly Syndicate?" Charlotte asked him.

"First off, Loz is probably half-way between twenty and thirty, and his sister's likely approaching thirty, so they're not exactly kids, and second, I'm not paying it off - I'm buying it out," Sketch said. "I don't like the idea of anyone on my crew having a marker on their head for anyone else but me. It's not that big a debt, so I'll just buy it out and add it onto their tab. Keeps everything on one book, and my interest rates, not the Syndicate's."

"Yeah, because crime gangs are so well known for their ability to adhere to a deal," Lara interjected.

"They'll probably tag on a 'buy-out fee,' or something, but that just gets passed on to Loz and Imogen, much like the interest would've otherwise. Besides, I thought you liked them."

"Oh I do like them," Lara said. "I'm just warning you that the Syndicate's gonna be a pain in the ass about you trying to buy out a marker from under them."

"It's well within my discretionary fund," Sketch said. "Besides, the other option is they refuse my money and just give up the claim, and I can't imagine that option is more appealing than 'take the money and run.'"

"What if they try and draw down?"

"If they try shit like that on me, I know where all their soft targets are, and I'm stubborn enough to be willing to spend a half a year proving a point," Sketch said calmly. "I'll explain all that to them if they get snippy about it."

Sketch was just about to head back to his quarters when Imogen walked onto the bridge, holding a box about the size of a human head in her hands. "Captain, if you have a moment? This is the thing that Fury Topaz told me to take from her chambers and bring with me. I haven't opened it, as per her instructions, but she said she knew my lifepath would put me in contact with another member of The Order at some point in my lifetime, and I should give them this when I meet them."

She extended the box to him, and he took it from her, bringing it over to the steps he used to climb to his Captain's chair. He recognized the lock on the box, and realized the lock system actually required a member of The Order to project three emotions into it, in order for the box to open.

You know what this looks like, Storm Walker?

'I do, Fury Rose,' he thought. 'But that seems so unlikely.'

However unlikely, it remains most true.

He projected the emotions in sequence at the box, and the gold filigree tendrils of the lock retracted, leaving the box lid vulnerable to opening.

"It can't be," Charlotte said next to him as he brought it open slowly.

But sure enough, there inside the box lay an object both Sketch and Charlotte knew quite well. It was a massive chrome-like ball, with eight smaller balls protruding from what would've been cube corner coordinates. The shiny, mirrored surface shimmered and flickered, red and blue bolts of lightning skittering across the surface, while the device itself gave off a gentle and comforting hum.

"What is it?" Imogen asked, peering into the box.

"It's..." Sketch started then stopped. "It's a library. A history of histories for The Order."

"It's more than that," Charlotte said. "It's not just a holy book; it's more like an archive of how The Order does everything, and why, and how those lessons were learned. It's a Keystone, a lynchpin of what someone would need to restart The Order."

It should be you, Storm Walker.

'I thought you were constantly telling me I wasn't up for the task.'

You had no Kazshi, and you were without a second, another Storm to help you rebuild. This, this is a sign. You should take the trials.

'There's no one to administer them.'

I can do them, and your second can witness.

'Let... let me think about it, yeah?'

"You okay, Miles?" Charlotte asked. "I mean, this is big, but don't blank out on me."

"Sorry, I was just talking to Fury Rose about this."

"Oh yeah? And what does the Old Lady have to say?"

"She thinks I should test up into being a Fury, and restart The Order."

He waited for the disbelieving laugh, but it never came.

"You know," Charlotte said measuredly. "That sounds like a pretty good idea to me."