NOVEL SIMPLE 57. Investing in the Future
I had no clue what my old captain had in store for me, but it seemed that, much like everything else we’d done on the day, it was completely planned. Well, minus my emotional outburst. I couldn’t imagine that anyone planned for that. I watched Jay wave at Marcus and tell him cryptically that we were leaving for the meeting a bit early. The other man nodded silently, a soft smile on his face, still locked into the family hug around his father and daughter. By some small mercy, I wasn’t entirely sure that Echo had noticed my retreat.
Despite my personal feelings, I held no ill will towards the Ericksons. Echo had everything I’d ever dreamed of in a family, and yes, that hurt. I wasn’t about to let that pain change the way I looked at them, though. Every one of them had proven their heart and it simply wasn’t within me to see them as anything less than incredible people. Sure, they had their faults, but they were human just like the rest of us. The Ericksons were the proof I’d sought for years, proof that humanity wasn’t a lost cause. The possibility of them becoming my legal family as well—depending on how mine and Echo’s relationship went—was not lost on me either, though for the sake of my own sanity, I didn’t allow myself to ponder that thought too hard. I was still wiping tears from my face as a hand gently guided me out the room and down the hall a few doors.
When my walking companion spoke, it was with a voice that spoke of safety within the storm, that wrapped my heart in warmth, protecting it from the cold feelings. “Now, I know that this might be odd timing after all of that, but do you believe you can handle meeting with someone important? If not, there is a public concourse not far from here. We can sit for a bit until you are ready.”
Jay’s voice carried a softness with it that I only rarely heard while I was still part of his crew. I took a deep breath and ran through a mental checklist for my own mental state. That list had seen a lot of changes since my visit to the Celeste Institute, as my body reacted quite differently to emotional states compared to the old one, but much of it still worked well enough. Nothing was actively clenched, though my heart was beating faster than normal and shaking the darker feelings was taking a lot more effort than I cared to admit. Rather than just give in, I performed a breathing exercise my recently acquired therapist had taught me.
Breathe in through the nose for four beats, hold for seven. Exhale through the mouth for eight beats, then repeat thrice more. ‘My emotions are my own,’ I intoned to myself mentally. ‘The past is over. I am enough.’
The man in front of me waited patiently for me to finish my exercise. At some point, he must have pulled us off to the side of the corridor so as not to impede traffic. After one last steadying breath, I replied, “Y-yeah, I’ll be okay. Not quite as in control of my emotions as I’d like to be.” There was a deep-seated weariness in my tone that I wished I could take away. For the time being, things were going well in my life. That was something to be celebrated. As my therapist was trying to teach me, though, the trauma I’d experienced was always going to be there, lurking in the back of my mind, always looking for an opportunity to spread its infection. I’d grown up without family, but I had one now — and they weren’t letting me go. I just had to convince myself that it was enough.
My pain seemed to be echoed in the voice of my mentor. By the void, how I must have worried him, both in the moment and during my time on his ship. “An old friend once told me,” Jay began solemnly. “That you shouldn’t try to control the emotions, merely how you react to them. Probably the best advice I could give on that matter.” The man shrugged nonchalantly and turned away slightly. “Not that you asked for any.” I could only nod in agreement even as a small smile pushed at my lips. No matter who I became in life, John Terry Blackburn could always be relied on for dry humor.
A bit of levity injected back into my mood, I filled my lungs one more time and then let it all go. “Keep giving advice unprompted and I’ll be calling you Dad before long, old man.”
Jay suddenly had a dire need to clear his throat and did so while very intentionally turning forward after I said that. “Well then,” he managed in a clipped tone, pointedly steering the conversation away the feelings both of us were dealing with. “If you are ready, we can get moving again. Trust me, you won’t want to miss this meeting.” Maybe it was just my imagination, but I was pretty sure I caught sight of a glittering in the corner of one eye on my mentor’s face while he turned.
“Lead the way then, Captain Blackburn.”
In a much more companionable silence as we both soaked in the emotions, the two of us made tracks through the labyrinthine network of human sized ant-tunnels. Occasionally, Jay had to look down at his personal data pad to look at a map, but we managed to arrive at our apparent destination: another office. It was similar to the one we had left, though on smaller scale. The sole occupant of the room was turned away from the table in the center of the room and towards the currently closed windows opposite the door. The pressed suit and grayed hair, along with the logo in the corner of the rather legal looking paperwork on that conference table, clued me in pretty quickly as to who it was.
Jay stepped inside and addressed the seated man. “You must be Beverly Yates, then? Nice to finally meet you, hope we aren’t intruding.”
Mister Yates held up a finger, wordlessly asking for a moment. We gave it, and after several more awkward seconds of apparent silence, Yates turned his chair back around to face us and stood, offering a hand to whoever was willing to shake it. My mentor took it first, but I took my turn greeting the lawyer as well.
“Apologies for making you wait,” Yates said diplomatically. “I wasn’t expecting you quite yet and was finishing up with a call as you came in.”
Reassuringly, I didn’t see any real concern on his face, so I felt no need to pry into what may well have been a business call. “No complaints from me, Sir.” Of course, I couldn’t help the small amount of snark that manifested itself as a small chuckle. “Though I’ll admit some surprise at seeing you here — I’m learning rather quickly that the older Ericksons, and my former captain here, orchestrated an awful lot of today’s events behind mine and my girlfriend’s backs.” I shook my head at the ridiculousness even as I smiled at the love and care that was being shown in their doing it. “Am I safe in assuming that this is one of those?”
Jay laughed heartily and even the prim and proper looking gentleman lawyer smiled broadly before answering my lighthearted accusation. “Marcus mentioned something about all of this being a surprise, yes. I rather thought they would have told you what was happening by now, though.”
Jay made a show of shrugging his shoulders, feigning innocence. As my captain, John Blackburn had always been even-keeled and generally serious. I’d not even seen the old captain participate in the prank wars that happened happened back on the Forge; yet, I had seen him laugh and smile more in the last few weeks than I had my entire time as his apprentice. For him to actually participate in a scheme of this scope was utterly unlike my experience with the man.
“Well,” started the lawyer. “In any case, I have a few things for you to sign, Miss Matson. Your friend here can fill you in whenever he is ready to.” There was a spark of amusement keeping Yates’s face from going back into its statuesque professionalism. For his part, Jay just grinned. I was going to get them back for this, him especially. This level of hoodwinking could not be allowed to go unanswered.
Unable to really do much else for fear of breaking social contract, I bit my lip and breathed deep. No use in wasting the lawyer’s time. It was expensive, I was sure. “What do you have for me, then? What needs signed?”
The documents I had seen upon entering the room were slid across the table to me. “Settlement paperwork. Apologies that I could not get more for you. As we expected, after legal penalties and the corporate side of this case were completed, not a great lot was left of the seized assets of Harvey Kruger as compared to what they totaled to originally.”
Disappointment began poking into my thoughts, but any such feelings were swept away as soon as I saw the number on the paperwork. “I uh… Am I reading that correctly? I thought you said this wasn’t a great lot??”
Calmly as one might expect from a career lawyer, Beverly Yates took my shocked questioning in stride. “As long as the number you are seeing is just a bit under three million Union Credits, then yes, it is correct. Do keep in mind that Harvey Kruger was an executive manager of a Torgal branch. The man also had an unexpected amount of investments and annuities in various other companies and entities, with a penchant for those around D’reth Station, it seems.”
I blinked. “That.” I paused and sighed in exasperation. “That isn’t a surprise, really. It felt like he ran that entire station half the time, even outside the scrapper arm.” Once more the number on the document caught my attention. “This though… Wow. I could just about build a brand new ship with that much.”
My mentor snorted loudly at that and my suspicions started rising once more. “Funny you should mention that, Adresta.” At his statement, I fully turned to face John Blackburn, my eyes doing their best to bore into his skull.
“Alright, old man, fess up. What’s going on here? We already saw the ship, but there’s more here than that, isn’t there?”
Rather than answer me though, much to my annoyance, Jay just smiled, stood, and walked over by the still closed window. “Mister Yates, I believe you have an investment opportunity for our young friend here, something to do with all of that money?” Cheekily, he peered over his shoulder back at me. “Quite the fascinating little project, really. Our friend Victoria had some inspired thoughts about how to make things a lot better than I could have done myself. Even her father was impressed with her ideas.” With a casual touch to a wall mounted screen, Jay activated a holo-projector hidden in the table. Might be better just to let her tell you though. Miss Victoria? If you would.”
The voice and face of the nicely dressed, female-presenting person shown by the holo was a lot more familiar than the rest of her appearance to me — albeit with a bit more natural human tone and inflection than I typically heard from my talks with Vox. There was no doubt that indeed was who was showing up, though. This was made even more clear when the sentient assistive intelligence spoke directly to me, both from the projection and directly into my head.
“Good afternoon, Miss Adresta. It is a pleasure to see you so directly again.” Not wanting to spill her secret, and also quite shocked to see her like this, I felt unable to respond effectively. About the only thing I was able to do was blink owlishly at the projection.
“Well I did tell you that this was a surprise that wasn’t just for your benefit.” My blinking intensified. Vox, in her guise as ‘Victoria’ laughed lightly at me. “That being said?” With a wicked smirk that felt all too human, she finished her statement: “Surprise!”
The window shutters opened and a notification pinged at my HUD, direct from my digital friend. A document was being sent to me with the tag: ‘Hope you like it.’
From what was quite suddenly behind me, I heard the Lawyer chuckle and say, “So, about that investment opportunity…” Evidently, I’d discovered teleportation technology and had went from the side of the table with the door directly to the window. Yates’ words were lost on me. I hadn’t been so enthusiastic looking at the newly named Bifrost, incredible as that vessel was, it wasn’t my ship. The same couldn’t be said about what was waiting for me on the other side of the observation window.
Vox picked things back up after allowing me a few moments to simply look. “I took what we learned in the construction of Oxide, alongside what Captain Blackburn could record of your conversations on Illume Station. Your suggestions were taken into account as much as could be managed in the time we had available, and I personally ensured that your designs for a cockpit were integrated fully.” Once more I could pick out the hints of emotion in Vox’s otherwise even voice. She was proud of this project.
Of course, her words were still eliciting some thoughts in my otherwise preoccupied brain. Quietly, I muttered a painless curse at Jay. “I knew he hadn’t ‘forgotten’ that much about construction. The asshole just wanted to pick my brain, didn’t he?” There was nothing but love and gratefulness in my heart, though. It was hard to be angry at the people who had made this happen.
In a significantly smaller hangar than the one we’d seen the Bifrost in, sat the very thing that was bringing tears to my eyes:
ICV Carbide. The ship Jay and Vox had built for me. A ship I had unknowingly designed.