By the time they made it back to the Fenris, Logan was beyond exhausted. From the hours it took to wait for a relief crew to arrive, as well as waiting for the gravity lifts on the ship to slowly transport them up the miles and miles of atmosphere until they were safely aboard, he could barely keep his eyes open. Luckily, when Aurora greeted him with a sealed letter marked TOP SECRET, it woke him up fairly quick.

“Where did you get this?” He asked, taking the letter from her and turning it over in his hands as Aurora explained everything that had happened in his and Cameron’s absence.

“About two hours ago,” She said, eyes focused intently on the letter, sounding slightly concerned, “Some small, speedy ship bearing EarthGov markings pulled up and requested an audience. I told them you weren’t available, so they just sent this over through a bridge tube and sped off.”

“Interesting…” Logan said, running his thumb over a raised crest at the bottom right of the envelope. He looked up, seeing Aurora’s nervous stare at the parcel, causing him to put the letter in his back pocket, taking it out of her view and causing her to look up at him.

“I-I’m sorry boss I wasn’t trying to-”

“Go get Cam out the Headsman, and radio for Marcus to meet me in my quarters.”

“Oh… Y-Yeah sure…” She said, her eyes downcast in a strange sense of disappointment. She chewed her lip for a moment, contemplating what to say, if anything. After a moment, she spoke, sincerity in her voice as she voiced her concern, “Everything okay? We’re not in trouble or anything are we?”

“Hm?” He said, looking up and showing that he was clearly lost in thought, “Oh… yeah. Yeah we’re fine. We should be anyways.”

“Should be? What’s going Logan?”

“Aurora,” Logan said, his tone growing hard and cold, “Just do your fucking job and stop asking me questions. This doesn’t concern you.”

The light left her eyes then, along with the warmth. She bit her lip, likely to stop herself from saying something she’d come to regret. Instead she just nodded, widening her eyes cartoonishly to avoid rolling them, as she responded in tense, professional tone, “Sure thing… boss.”

Logan didn’t bother to respond, he was already walking away, envelope in hand, and anxiety mounting.

***

Cameron’s body felt stiff and sluggish as he hopped down from the cockpit, feeling the cool air waft across his skin as he stretched, watching the exchange between Logan and Aurora from across the hangar. He watched Logan stalk off from his landing pad, towards the automatic doors leading towards the crew quarters. His gaze then turned to Aurora, looking downtrodden and deep in thought, before with a heavy sigh she turned and made her way to where Cameron was standing.

“What was that all about?” He asked, point with his chin towards the door leading away from the hanger.

Aurora shrugged, sighing again, “I don’t fucking know. Some EarthGov letter came for him while y’all were planet-side and he got all weird and bitchy.”

“EarthGov?” He asked, “What the hell does EarthGov want with a Gamma Class?”

“You’re guess is as good as mine Cam,” she said, looking back towards the doorway before blinking and craning her neck back to look at him, doing a double take, “Wait… did you say Gamma Class?”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Hm? Oh, Yeah. He hit Gamma class, and I hit Alpha Primus.”

“You hit Alpha Primus?!” She exclaimed, causing Cameron to look at her with slight befuddlement.

“Yeah? I mean we fought a Gamma down there after all, so it wasn’t-”

“You fought a Gamma?!”

“You gonna let me tell the story or not?!”

She scrunched her nose cutely, a soft blush forming on her cheeks from embarrassment, as she held her hands up in surrender, “My bad… Please continue,”

Cameron eyed her warily for a long time, eyebrow raised in uncertainty. After a moment however, he shrugged and went back to recanting his and Logan’s adventure planet-side.

“Anyways,” he began, “Yeah, so after me and Logan got rid of like five Squires and four other A.R.M.S. units, we-”

“There were how many A.R.M.S. units?” She asked, a smirk beginning to form at the corner of her mouth, as she feigned astonishment.

“I’m gonna push you out of that fucking airlock.”

***

Logan paced back and forth, arms clasped tightly behind his back as he waited for Marcus to arrive, his eyes focused intently at the unassuming envelope that lay atop his desk, cut open and it’s contents splayed out for all to see. So intently was his focus, that he barely registered the sound of the door opening, as well as Marcus’s polite clearing of the throat in order to draw his attention.

“Marcus,” Logan said, not bother to look around, “How much money would it take for you to take a job you had no sense in taking?”

“I sorry?” The old man said, surprise in his voice.

“It’s not like it’s something I haven’t done before,” Logan said, still keeping his back to Marcus, “Well… some of it I’ve done before. But the rest of it… it’s not sitting right with me.”

“Why even consider it then?” Marcus asked, “You’ve been in this field long enough to know when to trust your gut.”

“Because they’re not asking so much as ordering,” Logan said, finally turning to face Marcus now. He reached down to grab the contents of the envelope before handing them over to the man, pointing at them with an accusatory finger, “Read that.”

Marcus grabbed the documents and analyzed them. Over and over again he read, becoming increasingly more visibly stressed as he did so. Finally, with a frustrated cry he threw his hands up in defeat and bellowed out, “What the hell are they playing at?!”

“Well shit,” Logan said, giving a small chuckle, “If they have you getting all up in arms, then I know the situations fucked.”

“This isn’t funny, Logan,” Marcus said, gazing up at him like a father chastising a child.

“I know it’s not Marcus, but what the hell are we gonna do? I mean for one, it’s not like we exactly have a choice in the matter. Free-Space or not if EarthGov is hand delivering something, then it’s not exactly a fucking request. And for two-”

“The money,” Marcus finished.

“Yeah the money,” Logan acknowledged nodding his head.

“Well…” Marcus said, looking up to meet Logan’s eyes, “I trust you Logan. What are you planning to do?”

Logan looked at Marcus for a long time, chewing the inside of his cheek as he contemplated. After a while, he turned and walked over to a nearby intercom system set into the wall. When his mind was made up, he pushed the button to relay his orders to the VI navigation system.

“Vic, set a course back for Arsius. And ping Alistair Kincaid on his captain’s code. Number 152-A31. Tell him that I’m coming to talk about the contract and I expect to be welcomed with open arms and expensive whiskey.”