"Two hours and eleven minutes," replied @zerogstar, "assuming we avoid the known Solar Union outposts, major ship routes, and settlements."
@zerogstar was turning out to be a more-than-efficient navigator and biodatascientist. Even if we got @foxcutter back, and I was confident we would, I planned on asking @zerogstar to stay on with us. She seemed happy to be a part of the crew.
"Plot course. Let's go get @foxcutter."
We were back on the clock now. I was grateful for the bit of downtime to sort out the Island of Misfit Toys, but other than scheduled rotational breaks for the crew and I, we were fully onto the next task. Even with adjustments to our course, we were passing through Solar Union territory, so we needed to be cautious.
I was tired of looking for people. Find the contact at Void's Edge. Find the Shoemaker. Find @zerogstar. Find Valentine. Find @bitchfrog. And now we were on to find @foxcutter and find @awesomedog. I get it. Vanquishers do a lot of hunting. I just wish every once in a while it was simple. Tell me where to go Vanquish stuff. Go here. Destroy that. My brain hurt.
The Pharaoh took off from 995658 Flummox in glorious fashion. The Misfits saw us off with a lovely holiday light show, celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and, of course, Christmas. The festivities continued without us, and I was happy for @biclops to have found herself a home in the solar system. We promised to return as soon as we could.
Now that we were underway, I could finally confront @auroraloon. She hadn't put herself on the naughty list, per se, and we had revoked her prisoner status. She was free to roam about the ship under close sensor monitoring. The real problem was that she returned to the ship with a human from Santa's Workshop in tow and very little explanation.
I know. Why would I allow her to board the ship again, with someone new joining us, without a good explanation? Why not have her take a different ship or wait to be picked up? I asked myself those same questions, but I knew the answer. I wanted to spend time with @auroraloon. I tried not to think of her taking advantage of me. She knew I liked her. And I knew she would use that against me if it benefited her. Win-win?
I walked over to the medical room, where @bitchfrog was running medical checks on our new companion. I entered to find her doing a comprehensive exam on our newcomer, with @auroraloon sitting in a corner. She somehow looked nervous but relaxed at the same time. She sat cross-legged on the chair, but her face was too tight. She was going to have a sore jaw.
I'm not a total idiot, though. We did an initial intake scan before we took off. I'm not going to let someone infested with worms, for example, board our ship. Our newcomer was not infested with worms. Let me be clear.
But have you ever been infested with worms?
I have. That was death number 481, and it was extremely unpleasant, so you'll have to forgive my paranoia.
@bitchfrog insisted on the exam, even though I had insisted she rest from her experiences on Eros, Valentine, and the Island of Misfit Toys. What can I say? She's dedicated to her profession. I think she also just wanted to jump right back to work as a distraction, to give herself time, to try not to think about everything that had happened. I gave her an official signed request for professional mental health support and time away. Whether she used it or not was up to her. I also made a note to offer her a safe space and a quiet listener if she ever wanted to talk about it.
Humans. They can't just easily delete their trauma. Not that I do that often. Better to learn from it, but I can at least separate myself from it through reanimation.
"Name," @bitchfrog instructed.
"John," our new human replied. He was a dark-skinned man, slightly taller than me, with an athletic build. He had a long beard that must have grown out over his time at Santa's Workshop and medium-length hair that had been pulled back with a headband until @bitchfrog asked him to remove it.
"Full name," @bitchfrog said.
"Don't answer that," @auroraloon interrupted. She had a cold look and stern demeanor. Her attitude clashed with the yellow t-shirt she had borrowed from @bitchfrog that read You Make Me Smile. The shirt probably made her frown even more.
Oh, what a bundle of sunshine you are right now, I thought.
"We need to know who he is," I said. "You can't just bring a stranger on board without letting us understand why."
She knew this would be the argument. That's part of why I didn't want to get into it until we had taken off. I wanted to force the discussion without her running off again. If I didn't like the answers, I could always drop them off somewhere - probably Ida, since we would be setting up there on our way to investigate its moon, Dactyl.
Stolen novel; please report.
"If I tell you who he is," @auroraloon said, "you'll all be in serious danger."
That was a bullshit response. I knew she could do better.
"Ooooooo … serious danger!" I mocked her. "We're already in serious danger."
She absently started counting her fingers. I wasn't sure if she was actually counting or just thinking about something. "My mission," she began, careful with her words, "was to retrieve someone. I set the events in motion so that I could take that pirate contract to follow Valentine and defend it from interlopers. All because I needed to retrieve this man."
She motioned at John with her arm, then went back to counting fingers, picking up right where she left off. "I didn't know who I was picking up. Just someone important to the Solar Union. Not uncommon for an Infiltrator to get partial information."
"Happens to Vanquishers all the time, I'm learning," I said.
"Well, he's …" she stopped herself. "He is nothing more than a rumor, but now that I know who he is." She looked up at the ceiling, thinking. "I can't give him to anybody, Solar Union or Alliance. Nobody."
"How do you know who he is?" I asked.
"He told me," she responded, with a look that implied I was dumb as a space rock.
"You believe him? You believe he is who he says he is?"
"Oh yes. Not a doubt."
Okay, we were getting somewhere. "I still don't understand why we can't know. Don't you think we can provide better assistance if we know?"
"You're Darksiders. Isn't it treasonous to help a secret Burner mission?"
I couldn't help but notice her pivot to our more divisive names instead of the Solar Union vs. Outer System Alliance. Clever. It was a subtle way of trying to create a further divide and get us to drop it. But I wouldn't.
I leaned against the closed door and crossed my arms, considering my role as a Vanquisher. "I have decided that I get to decide what is treasonous. We've already disobeyed orders. I believe a certain autonomy has been established for Vanquishers to do whatever it takes, including playing in the margins, if the long-term outcome benefits the Alliance Starmada."
"That's the problem," she said. "If it benefits the Alliance Starmada. If your edict was to benefit the Solar System, we could talk."
I considered that, and I was shocked to realize I hadn't considered just doing what was right, regardless of the faction. I had already started down that path in rescuing @bitchfrog against orders. I felt like that was the right thing to do, but maybe more selfishly.
My ethics were simple. What choice do I think everyone in this situation should make? What kind of example do I want to set for others? It is through my actions and the example I set that I create meaning in the world. To others, I am just someone for them to learn from, the good and the bad.
Was I loyal to the Alliance Starmada? I knew they couldn't be trusted. Why would I continue to be their puppet, do what they wanted, if I had established that they were not to be trusted? It really wasn't that much of a stretch to reject any loyalty to them, to use my affiliation with the Alliance Starmada not for their benefit, but for the benefit of the entire Solar System.
And here I was, thinking @auroraloon was a loyal Infiltrator, among the most evil and secretive enemies we could encounter, someone who would lie, steal, cheat, kill, and trick her way around us to get whatever she needed for the Solar Union. That wasn't @auroraloon at all. She was an Infiltrator, sure. But she just did what she wanted. She just did what she thought was right.
And I admired her for it. She was doing what I wanted to do. She was showing people the way. She was being the example to follow. I liked her even more now. She was beautiful, of course. A lot of people are these days. I was attracted to her attitude, her snarky responses, the fact that she challenged me, put me in my place. And I trusted her, sure, but with a healthy degree of skepticism. She was always abandoning me, beating me up, taking my things. I thought she did it because she was a Burner, because she had a mission.
I had to rethink everything I knew about @auroraloon. She was just trying to do the right thing, for herself and the world.
"Fuck the Alliance Starmada," I said at last. "They're engaged in trafficking with the Gravemind Syndicate. They have manipulated me, and my crew. I have no idea if they are caught up in the virus as well. At this point, it wouldn't surprise me. I need them because it's how I stay alive. I told myself they were doing it, the good and the bad, for some greater good. But yeah, let's not delude ourselves. It's always about power and money."
"That doesn't mean there aren't good people in the Alliance Starmada," @bitchfrog interjected.
"No, there certainly are," I acknowledged. "I'm sure there are among the Solar Union as well."
"But @auroraloon is right," @bitchfrog added. I was a little surprised, but why was I? @bitchfrog was one of the good ones, to be sure. "Our first duty should be to people, not governments."
The ramifications of those words … shifted something in me.
"What do you need from us?" I asked @auroraloon. "We'll do what we can. Tell us what you think we need to know."
Silence followed. This whole time, John sat quietly on the examination table, absorbing every word, nodding along, processing. He looked strong, in more ways than physically. He didn't have the posture or physical responses of someone who had been imprisoned. He wasn't being quiet to be diminutive, humble, or respectful. He was being quiet to learn. He looked like a leader.
@auroraloon must have finished her mental countdown. She stopped fussing with her fingers. "Tell them who you are, and your origin."
We all looked at him eagerly.
"I'm Jonathan," he started, and then coughed. @bitchfrog handed him a small cup of water. He accepted it with a gracious nod and slowly drained it.
"I'm Jonathan Michael Durriper," he said, carefully drawing out the words. He looked at @auroraloon as he continued. "I have no origin. I am the origin."
Holy fucking shit!
I accidentally bumped a switch and fell through the door as it opened, toppling into the hallway with a series of bangs as I failed to catch myself. @bitchfrog sprang to my side. My head was spinning. John just sat there looking at me, cool and calm. @auroraloon gave me a look of I told you so, with a satisfied grin.
Jonathan Michael Durriper!
I had just met the most dangerous man in the world.
Or rather, I guess he wasn't really the most dangerous man in the world. Not yet, anyway.
My mind was catching up, reshaping the world around me.
The most dangerous man in the world wasn't this man. It was his aiways, the clone of this man before me.
"@mickeymouse," I said aloud, in barely a whisper, letting fear grip me. I was scared suddenly that the ship had heard me. What if @mickeymouse was listening? I didn't know how I was going to sleep at night after this.
"My friends call me Mickey," John said.
The Awesometacular Space Adventures (TASA) series that you are now reading. I get to rethink everything for TASA and start over. But some of these characters have had separate fictional lives in my brain already. TASA is by no means a re-write. I scrapped everything because I wasn't happy with it. But I take inspiration from those worlds and characters.