Duval Dirtbag

Murder On The Base

Chapter 40 - Meetings of the Minds (Vibes were off)

Finley pondered his escape the whole ride down to Daytona in Old Man Bill’s Enclave. There was room enough for himself, Jack, and Tex while Old Bill drove. They’d ditched the masks, but the mere view of their black woolen turtlenecks made his skin itch.

It’s not like I wanted to stay in prison, but I don’t know what the next steps will be. Now that it’s been revealed that I’ve been a member of the Aurums, how will the rest of the Pack react? I already know how Ssgt Remington reacted. Not well. Who would Fala side with? It seemed obvious that she would follow the rule follower and not a, um, strong silent type like me.

Finley pondered where things would lead the entire trip from the base to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Daytona. “Why are we back here?” he asked.

“Well we can’t take you back to Sharon’s house, that’s where they picked you up.” Old white Bill explained.

Finley nodded in acquiescence.

“Don’t worry though, we’ve arranged for the Pack to meet us there.” Bill assuaged.

Finley couldn’t tell whether he was happy to hear that or not but what choice did he have? He was already on the run. Until he could get away from his rescuers and the Pack, he wasn’t sure what his options were. He followed the old men into the VFW.

The Pack was already inside greeting him with various degrees of familiarity. Though none by touch, Finley noted. Ssgt Remington was just shy of confrontational; he didn’t growl, but there was no tail swishing or familiar movement of any kind: Remington stood still as a statue when Finley walked into the room.

“Welcome back to Daytona.” Fala smiled diplomatically.

“Thank you.” Finley replied with his tail between his legs.

“We’ve given this a lot of thought—” Fala began before she was interrupted.

“I’m going to stop you right there.” A voice rang out from the door to the kitchen. “I heard your little conference about what to do and what to say.” A round feminine form wearing overly tight fatigues emerged from the kitchen, followed by a cherubic face. “It’s all bullshit, Finley.”

The whole Pack turned to see what was going on at that point. Harley gasped in recognition, “You were at the race.”

“Was I?” The woman feigned clutching pearls with a shiny prosthetic that wound its way up her sleeve.

“You were a part of the sabotage that killed and hurt so many people!” Linnet cried.

The woman shook her head and recoiled from Linnet’s cry. “I don’t know about all that. I don’t even know that I was at the race.” She straightened up and pointed at the sky. “But I do know it seemed like someone sent a message to the Shil’vati and that’s good enough for me.”

Finley recalled the carnage and beamed admiringly at the woman.

“We have no love for the Shil’vati either,” Fala implored, “but murder is not the right way to—”

“Murder is how they got where they are on a galactic scale. Murder may be the only language they understand.” The woman pointed at herself, “If you don’t remember me, I’m Rachel. I’m called a ‘rebel,’ but Finley knows as well as I do that ‘rebel’ is what the bad guys call the little guys. The ones getting stepped on but refuse to be crushed. One person’s rebel is another person’s ‘hero’.” Rachel scanned the Pack. “Who wants to be a hero?”

***

Michael and Bill sat across from each other in their room on the Shil’vati base in Jacksonville, Florida. Michael was gathering the children’s dirty clothes into a plastic bag which he would then send back in their luggage to their mother. Bill added to his stack of shirts as he drew them out and folded them. Doug was soaking in too much screen time, bathing the common room in the sounds of gunfire and explosions. Katherine sat just outside of Bill and Michael’s room with earbuds in, listening to It’s a Small World for the millionth time while drawing on her iPad. They were all biding their time until Jessica came to pick them up.

Michael tied off the top of the Publix bag and looked up at Bill, “Are you concerned about your mother being amongst terrorists?”

Bill breathed deeply, considering what he said before he said it. “Did Mom tell you the story about when she was still in the Philippines and an American soldier took her on a motorcycle ride?”

“Refresh my memory.” Michael requested.

“She got on the back of the motorcycle and the dumbass yanked the throttle of the bike so hard that mom fell off the back of the bike.” Bill smiled at the mental image. “Left her in the dust.”

Michael cocked his head to the side, “What’s that got to do with this?”

Bill grabbed his stack of shirts and walked over to a purple dresser across the room from his bed. “Mom’s seen hard times, but she’s a survivor. She’ll do what she thinks is best for her.” He put his shirts away, walked back to his bed and plopped down admiring a job well done. “We may not see eye to eye, but she’ll do what she’s got to do to get by.”

Michael continued. “Don’t you worry about her?”

Bill rubbed at where he’d been stabbed and then wiped his face, from his nose down opposite sides of his mouth before answering. “Of course I do, but she’s got her shit together better than me or you.”

Michael pondered that for a moment when he heard the main door to the pod building open. He heard the footsteps take a minor hesitation before heading straight to his door. Joph’rena popped her head in and hissed, "Michael!" She then turned to Katherine and gave her a pleasant smile and wave.

Michael glanced at Bill, then looked at Joph’rena. “Yeah?”

Joph’rena hooked a thumb toward Doug, “Are you going to let him play that trash all day?”

Michael half smiled and half frowned, “I mean, he can get some mindless entertainment until his mom gets here.”

“Goddess,” Joph’rena rolled her eyes, “Just when I think you’re not a half bad father, you go off on this Turox shit.” She glared at Michael, “The boy is going to rot his brains. He needs to learn about morals and family values that he’ll have to teach to your grandkids.” She leaned her head back to try to make eye contact with Katherine but she had her nose to the grindstone drawing in her iPad. “You ought to give her a chance with the violence. A woman’s place is on the battlefield.”

Bill closed his eyes and didn’t speak.

Michael let out a frustrated breath, “Is there a reason beyond criticizing my parenting that you’re here?”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

“Yes actually. I need to talk to your ex.”

As if on cue, the main pod door opened and Jessica walked into the common room.

“Mom!” Doug hollered, pausing Call of Duty and tossing the PlayStation controller on the couch cushion beside him. He ran up to and hugged Jessica.

“Hey, my baby.” Jessica started then bent down to gently remove one of Katherine’s earbuds. Katherine pressed the iPad to her chest and made eye contact with her mother. “Babies.”

Katherine smiled up at her mother, “Mommy!” And hugged Jessica’s nearest leg.

Michael got up, zipped the kids’ luggage closed and went out to meet Jessica.

Joph’rena offered Jessica her hand, “Hello! Nice to meet you Jessica.”

Jessica was caught off guard, all the same she reached up and clasped hands with Joph’rena. “Hi. Sorry, I don’t know your name.”

Joph’rena tried to soften her face, “Oh no, I don’t imagine I come up much in your and Michael’s conversations.” She looked at Michael with an expression that looked like she wanted to spit at him. “All the same, I’m Joph’rena. I am an Interior Agent here on the base. I try to make sure the ship keeps sailing smoothly as it were.”

Michael watched Jessica put on her business face. “That’s not dissimilar from my role. I make sure my company’s operations run smoothly as well.” Michael could see through the mask; Jessica was exhausted.

Joph’rena smiled knowingly. “Yes. About that, I wanted to catch you here while we have you on base.”

“Oh?” Jessica gave the kids a squeeze then ushered them to collect their things, go potty and otherwise get ready to leave.

Joph’rena looked at the floor a moment until the adults were alone and could speak freely. “How are operations coming along on Mars?”

“I…” Jessica looked accusingly at Michael. “…I don’t believe I said where I was going. How do you know where I was?”

“Fuck if I know.” Michael said with his hands in the air. “You only told me that you were going ‘off planet’.”

“Yes.” Joph’rena said with the superior air of a member of a conquering race. “Perks of being an Interior Agent.” She winked at Jessica.

Jessica measured how much she should actually admit to Joph’rena. “I might as well tell you, since you’re poking your nose into my business and I don’t have any answers.” She looked at Michael to see if she could really trust Joph’rena. Michael nodded in an affirmative. Jessica continued, “I work for a company that’s primarily invested in paper.”

Bill fake coughed, “Toilet paper.”

Jessica gave him a hateful look. Joph’rena didn’t break her focus from Jessica to answer the hateful look. “He’s a charmer.”

Annoyed but undeterred, Jessica continued, “Yes, toilet paper is a major product. Paper towels. But that’s not the only thing we make—“

“There’s no need for paper on Mars.” Michael wondered out loud.

“Not yet,” Jessica paused, “but there is a need for an atmosphere. And the way we make an atmosphere is through terraforming. Terraforming means trees. Trees mean paper. We know how to manage the renewable resource of trees. Therefore, we were asked to play a role in the development of trees on mars.”

“Shut…up.” Michael said in amazement.

“No, for real.” Jessica said to Michael in a manner that seemed all too familiar for a relatively recently unmarried couple.

“Then what’s going wrong that you got called in at such short notice?” Michael asked, genuinely interested.

“There was an explosion near enough to the dome to interfere with the seal and a couple of people got hurt.”

“An indirect hit caused enough trouble to get people killed?” Joph’rena inquired.

Jessica shrugged. “Terrariums are self-sustaining on the inside but any imbalance outside of it can cause havoc inside.”

“Sensitive buggers, eh?” Bill suggested.

“So it seems.” Jessica agreed, not quite sure whether she appreciated Bill’s involvement in the conversation. He had struck her as a sarcastic wildcard. “I had to go out and make sure the repairs were going according to our standard operations.“

Michael wanted to hear more. “Any idea what caused the explosion?”

“Not particularly.” Jessica mused, “Meteorite? We don’t know.” Leans in toward Joph’rena. “Do you?”

Joph’rena hesitated to answer. “We suspect it might be pirates. Specifically the Aurums.”

“No way!” Michael blurted out.

“For real.” Joph’rena copied the energy she’d seen Jessica’s display to Michael’s previous reaction to revelations. “In fact, we have reason to suspect that Finley may have directed his gang of toughs to seek out gold on the asteroid belt.”

Jessica looked confused. “Then why were my domes attacked?”

“I doubt they were attacked.” Joph’rena twisted at her tusk. “I imagine it was more like collateral damage.”

“They don’t give a fuck.” Bill rubbed his arm again. “Especially if they’re anything like Finley.”

Jessica took a quick look at the kids. They were almost ready. “I take it the murderer was this ‘Finley’ character.”

Joph’rena turned to look at Michael as if to say, this question is for you, big boy.

Michael looked around the pod at the empty rooms sheepishly. “Yeah, um, so the reason we ended up living on the Shil’vati base is because we were kind of adopted by this group of Rakiri.”

“Linnet and Fala invited him.” Katherine interjected while slipping her hand into her mother’s.

“Finley gave me the willies.” Doug said absently as he drug his bag to his mothers feet.

“Yeah, the vibes were off.” Katherine said to no one in particular.

“You hear that?” Jessica half chuckled as she looked at Michael. “‘Vibes were off.’ Where do you learn these things?”

Katherine looked up at her mother, “I have too much access to the internet.”

Joph’rena looked down at Doug. “Yes and this one has too much screen time with violent video games.”

“I’m sure he does.” Jessica replied, looking squarely at Michael.

Michael looked at the floor, trying to disappear.

Jessica resigned, assuming that was the end of the conversation. She squeezed Katherine’s hand and looked down at her. “You ready to go home, baby girl?”

“Yup!” The children replied cheerily.

There was a brief cacophony outside the main door before it entered the pod. Michael recognized the voices fast enough to shift his family and their belongings out of the way of the door before they got ran over.

Fala led the Pack through the door. She took one look at Joph’rena and spouted, “They’re crazy! Wherever you need. We’re in.” She took in the rest of the room and noticed Jessica and the kids being cordoned to the side by Michael and put two and two together. “Oh! My. Where are my manners?” Her body somehow relaxed and stiffened at the same time. “I’m Fala. This is Linnet, Bel’a, Harley, and Ssgt Remington.” She gestured to each of them in turn. They all acknowledged Jessica in their own guarded ways.

Katherine broke from her mother’s hand and went over to Bel’a to hug her. Placing her face distinctly in her ample bosom. Jessica looked at Michael admonishingly. Michael could only shrug. Linnet picked Katherine up to unlatch her from Bel’a. The rest of the pack touched her lovingly. Fala stroked her hair. Harley gently scratched her back and Ssgt Remington gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

Meanwhile, Doug tried to grapple Ssgt Remington but missed. Bel’a swept around to pick him up to hold him upside down. Jessica made a move to retrieve her children, but Michael held her back. “This is how they say ‘hello’.” Remington gave Doug soft punches to his upside down tummy. Harley held back Remington’s blows, but “accidentally” swished Doug’s face with her tail. Fala grabbed Doug’s arms for Bel’a to let him go. He swung right side up and clapped the floor with his shoes. Linnet lunged down to bring Katherine to her feet and returned the two of them gently to their parents.

Joph’rena, like Jessica, was all done with this display. “Now isn’t the time to make plans. Let’s regroup later in the week. I’m glad to hear you all are back on board.” She said to the Pack. She turned to Jessica, “If it is alright with you, I’ll get your contact information from Michael so we can investigate the incident on Mars.” Jessica nodded in agreement. Then she waved farewell and left.

Jessica and the children followed Joph’rena out. “Nice to meet you all. Have a good week!”

Everyone turned back to return to their rooms. Michael tried to digest all that just happened. Finley, the little twitchy pipsqueak was a killer. He had recently escaped imprisonment on the base and Joph’rena knew about it. He had likely also been feeding information to the other Aurums and their recklessness had caused trouble for his ex wife. Where was this going to go?

Little did Michael know, he had more pressing matters. A rumble grew from Fala and Harley’s room. Fala emerged and looked directly at Michael. “Why did you let Doug piss in my bed!?!”