1.10.2

Unpleasantries

The first to address them, a woman with waves cut to a brunette to blonde bob, beamed in recognition.

“It is you! And Tenya!”

“Shit.” Tenya’s voice rode out under her breath as she rotated next to Astrid.

The three strangers, armed with blackened weapons at their hips, stretched across the path behind them. A stylized elongated “T” inside a painted circle marked insignias on each chest.

“Who is that?” Astrid asked.

“Trouble,” Tenya muttered.

But the lieutenant reached a hand to shake with the woman, who brushed the offering away to hug him instead.

“It’s been too long! What the hell are you doing out here?” The woman split a wicked smile on painted lips. Dark lines accented her emerald eyes.

Her company, another man and woman, only nodded pleasantries to the team as their lead spoke with Anders directly.

“Just shopping, Jenna. Some things just don’t get commissioned fast enough,” he deflected.

“Ha! Yeah, right, not for you guys,” she balked.

Rue seemed perfectly comfortable with the equipped strangers, but Karth fell back to stand close to Tenya and whisper to her.

“You know them?”

“They’re Tetrians. Coterie.” Tenya’s eyes slid to the symbols emblazoned on their armor. “They weren’t so bold last we were here. And she wasn’t with them.”

Eyes turned to the woman now playfully brushing the lieutenant’s arm while she chatted.

“She knows you’re military?” Karth asked.

“Yup.”

“That’s a problem.”

“I know.”

Astrid kept quiet as the chief and commander assessed the implications. She watched Rue strike up a conversation with one of the band, to compare equipment.

“Seriously, what are you doing here?” Jenna tried again.

“You know I’m not going to tell you that.” Anders softened his swerve with a smile. “But maybe you can help me? We’re looking for something that can give us an edge on our next mission. Legalities aren’t so much an issue for us.”

“Yeah, tell me about it!” Jenna grinned. “But look, the Tetrians carry the best on the market here.”

The woman casually proffered the sleek black pistol hitched above her hip, as if showing off a fresh manicure.

Anders took the weapon and turned it in the light to inspect it. But Astrid, and Anders, she presumed, already knew it wasn’t what they hunted.

“This is the deadliest you’ve got here?”

“Are you kidding? It can drill between the eyes at a hundred paces and still have power for splash.”

Astrid winced at the visual.

“It’s nice. But I know you’re always looking for the newest toys...”

“Don’t pout, Andy, I like my old toys, too.” Jenna smirked coyly. She reclaimed her firearm and holstered it back at her side. “Anyway, if you’re looking for better, you’re barking up the wrong tree. We still have Customs here. I hear there’s some new stuff hitting the lines out on Penny Station. I’d check there.”

“That’s quite a ways out.”

“Hm.” Jenna tossed a shoulder. “That’s probably the point.”

“We’re expected.” The man at Jenna’s right intruded on the brief exchange, and with a theatrical sigh the woman pouted.

“Oh, I suppose. We have to go. But don’t be a stranger, Andy. Next time you’re in town.

“But uh, don’t bring the family.”

She nodded to the rest of the troupe behind him, winked, and drew her escort away and down the road, effectively leaving the Aldebaran’s crew to their task.

“It bodes very poorly that the Tetrians are openly recruiting crazy,” Tenya commented once they were out of ear shot.

When Anders turned back to the group, he looked flushed. He brushed a hand over his close-shorn curls, still flustered when he spoke.

“Helpful, Tenya. You could have said hi. Shared some of the attention.”

“Yeah, no thanks.”

“Think she was telling the truth?” Karth interjected.

Fern eyes followed the stretching shadows of their visitors.

“I doubt it.”

Karth watched the three bodies disappear down the road, then concluded, “It doesn’t matter. Our cover is blown. We need to get out of here before word spreads we’re in town.”

“If she’s going to a meeting, I give it ten minutes,” Anders huffed.

“Then let’s pull out.”

~~~

Back in the War Room, after dressing down in silence, the team assembled for a briefing with the captain.

“So, you didn’t find anything?”

“No.” Rue folded her arms and smirked. “‘Andy’s’ ex made us before we got that far.”

“They may have been hiding something, but it’s still a trade port. It could have been anything.” Karth cut in. “There’s always the chance the weapons were there but have moved on by now. Tetris might not have been the destination. Just a transit stop.”

“The Tetrians suggested the Penny Station,” Tenya added.

“Penelope?” Captain London straightened. “It was in the smuggler’s log. Might be a good place to hit next.”

“Penny Station used to be an old research platform before funding dried up, and the private enterprises took over. It has no government or authority on trade.” Dell explained to Astrid from beside Romo.

Romo added, “It’s also far enough out of the way to keep casual tourists from crossing. It’s one riot away from being a Raider-station.”

“I don’t know.” Karth rubbed at his close-trimmed beard. “Something about this feels off. These weapons are being smuggled, in transit, but aren’t turning up on the open market. It feels like they’re already slated for a purpose. This might not be a trade item.”

“Not for consumers then,” Tenya speculated. “Specific commission for a fringe group?”

“But someone still has to be the middle-man between production and delivery,” Anders countered. “Maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way. We’re not looking for an open shop, we’re looking for a specific broker.”

“Benson,” Romo declared shortly.

The captain asked him to elaborate.

“Benson runs a brokerage on Penny Station. He’s who you go to for big gun orders. But it’s never a storefront. It’s a conversation. You have to know how to get to him.”

“And do you?” London pressed.

Romo shook his head, but he looked to Rue.

Arms still folded, Rue shifted her weight. A long paused stretched as everyone followed Romo’s expectant gaze to look at her.

Rue shrugged dismissively. “Yeah. I know who to look for. But he’s careful. He won’t work with just anyone. And especially not military. He does some work for the Fiends, and he protects that cash horse.”

“I’m sorry,” Astrid interrupted. “The ‘Fiends’?”

“Construction on the Fifth Fleet for Earth was abandoned when the operation was attacked by Raiders nearly a decade ago,” Anders explained. “Because transport of resources gets so expensive out on the Rim, Earth thought it would save money by building a shipyard right over the materials they’d need. But it was too far out to defend.

“It was a bust. They couldn’t protect it when the attacks hit. Those stationed there yielded the site, and the Raiders dug in. They use it as a base now and call themselves ‘The Fifth-Fleet Fiends’. They’ve repurposed the supplies and the ships left neglected, and they’re the largest and most organized gang that we know of.”

“And there’s no chance this group is the one that is making, or purchasing, these weapons?” Astrid asked.

“It’s one of the first things Intel checked,” Romo assured her. “We keep close tabs on them. They’re comfortable right now. They’re in a good spot and at peak capacity for controlling their own people. They have no need to rock the boat or stretch themselves further. We’ve got eyes on them.”

“Still, it sounds like Benson might be a good source,” Tenya presented. “If we have to head out to Penny anyway, we might as well try.”

“He’s not going to want to talk to us.” Rue asserted brusquely.

“Agreed.” Captain London drew attention back to the head of the table. “In these early stages, we can’t risk people like Anderson and Thompson being recognized again. We need fresh faces. People non-threatening to his operations but still hard enough to make convincing clients.

“Rue. You think you can take point on this?”

“If that’s what you need, Sir.”

“It is. And you’ll take Hale with you. She’ll need to be available if you find what we’re looking for.”

Astrid couldn’t bring herself to face the look of distaste on the soldier’s expression, but Rue answered anyway.

“She doesn’t exactly fit the clientele. She could blow our cover just as easily.”

“Then she’ll fake it,” the captain insisted. “And I trust you capable of being gruff enough for the both of you.”

Rue looked to Astrid, in the briefest flicker of disapproval, before she resigned.

“… aye, aye.”

“It’s a good plan,” Karth concluded. “Even if we don’t find the weapons themselves, we should get a good lead.”

“Let us hope so,” Captain London replied. “A thin lead is still the most promising one if it’s the only one we have.”