1.23.2

Players Pending

“We might be behind the eight-ball here, Captain," Romo announced the next day. The Aldebaran sped toward Independence station, but the agent and specialist couldn’t wait until after their mandatory leave to warn London. “This might be the ‘friends in high places’ the S.O. talked about.”

Around the briefing table, the team gathered to share in what they'd learned.

“I thought they meant billionaire private investors,” Dell fretted. “Private sponsors, maybe even tech or arms developers. At best some politicians. If they have Admiral support, we’re screwed.”

“I doubt it’s the whole Board, or we would have heard something official by now,” Anders guessed. “Especially if word got out we have Astrid. They have to know. They're probably protecting plausible deniability at this point... at least until we go home.

"Either way, I suppose it's equally unlikely all the Admirals would see things our way as all of them being on the S.O.’s side.”

“What does this mean for the mission? Are we supposed to walk away and drop it?” Astrid asked. Though, she didn’t much like the sound of that.

“It’s too late for that,” Captain London affirmed. “Besides, if what Rue said is true, that’s the least of our problems.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not just about you, or what we’ve done here, Kitten,” Tenya explained soberly from Astrid’s side. “Civilians taking up arms is bad enough when the Service is united. But if the Admiralty splits, the military splits. We’re trying to change the laws of civilization, here. A divide in our forces this deep, this impassioned...? it could mean more than a war for your people.”

“Civil war,” Anders proclaimed. “And we’d have no way of knowing who’s on whose side until fights are breaking out all over the fleet.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, here,” Captain London interjected. “Right now, all we know is someone in the Service supports a rogue faction. It’s not the first time, and there are protocols for this sort of thing.”

“If it is in fact just one person,” Anders contended. “Even an important one.”

“Rue didn’t say this to try to get under our skin, Captain, she said it in anger. Just letting things fly. It’s real, whatever else it is,” Romo argued.

“Yes, I’m very aware of the unorthodox lure you used to draw it from her, Romo,” Captain London admonished. “Don’t assume I didn’t notice, and we will be discussing it.”

“But what do we do?” Astrid interceded. “What does this mean for us, Captain?”

All eyes turned to London for direction. With solemnity, he laid the truth before them.

“It means we can’t go home until we find proof. Not only of who is involved, but of all the terrible and immoral acts the Static Opposition has committed. We need to expose anyone who supports them as knowing and willful participants in heinous crimes against civilians. We can’t step foot on Earth until we have evidence that the rest of the Board absolutely cannot ignore.

“Unless we have that, this is little more than a moral debate for academics. And there is no room for that with the fate of lives on the line. We cannot allow there to be any room for semantics.”

“What if we don’t find it, Captain?” Tenya dared. “Things are already in motion. We have to be on a clock here.”

“Then we keep the mission active until things fall apart. If that happens, eventually everyone will have to openly pick sides. Only then will we know for sure where our allies lay. Then we join with them and do our part.

“It won’t get that far,” the captain added, when collective faces steeped in concern. “You’re each here for this very reason. I know we’ll get what we need.”

~~~

To Astrid, it seemed superfluous, if not disrespectful, to take up a social outing after such a tumultuous week.

The chaos of their mission nearly gave her whiplash. And the promise of a night out to drink and “have fun” as the team put it, only brought more.

“Trust us, when things get this hairy its especially important to get some time to relax,” Tenya insisted while she threw clothes at Astrid within the bunk room.

“It feels like we have a hundred other more useful things we could be doing right now.”

Astrid frowned at glittery fabric while Tenya delved through her wardrobe for more.

“Despite what’s happened lately, we’re still kind of flying blind. We don't know where to look next,” Tenya defended. “It’ll take some time to get the hang of it, but believe me, sometimes taking a breather is exactly the most useful thing we can do. The second we lose sight of how good it can be, things start going downhill in a really bad way. Besides, it's six hours, tops.”

“Tenya, I don’t think-”

“Okay, seriously, Astrid. Stop,” Tenya interrupted. With a hand on her hip, the woman's stern tone caught the Channeler off balance. “As far as I’m concerned, this is part of your training. You don’t get to tell us what training you do and don’t need.

“I know you can’t see it right now. But you couldn’t foresee any of the other stuff we’ve done just to come this far, could you? Can you just trust me? Okay? This is important!"

Tenya had never lead Astrid wrong before. But the desperation laden in the chief’s voice did anything but console the Channeler. It must have shone on her face, because Tenya sighed and tried again.

“Sometimes,” the chief drifted a moment, almost sorrowful, before she finished her thought, “Sometimes these moments with the team, it saves your life, alright?”

Feeling thoroughly chided, Astrid bowed her head to observe the silver shimmer of the blouse in her hands. As foreign and strange to her as her first weapon.

It’s true, Astrid told herself, she didn’t understand. And maybe that was enough to rationalize maybe she did have more to learn. So, she submitted and let Tenya have her way.

She made herself the woman’s living doll, to be dressed and made up to the chief’s satisfaction. And she did her best to plaster an optimistic smile in place by the time they joined the men in the airlock and prepared to disembark.

“Okay, rule Number One!” Tenya declared while she donned her jacket. “No talk of the mission for the rest of the night. That voids the whole damn evening!”

Dell conceded on their behalf. “Deal.”

“Rule Number Two,” Tenya continued when the doors parted for them to exit, “our Astrid does not wander off alone. It’s our job to keep her safe during her first dalliance into civilian life.”

When they moved to join the rest of the station, the team, save Astrid, nodded, content with that decree.

“And Number Three, the night is deemed an utter failure unless we've all had at least one good laugh before the end!”

“Look who’s Queen Demandypants all of sudden,” Romo jibed.

“Yes,” Tenya flouted. “I am!”

“So, what do we want to do first?” Dell’s lanky form afforded him the advantage of seeing over most heads to look about the station.

“Drinking,” Romo suggested while they melded into the stream of foot traffic.

“That goes without saying.” Tenya rolled her eyes. “Seriously, at least we know Astrid’s done that. There’s gotta be more we can show her, right?”

“Well, if we’re drinking, we should eat first,” Anders insisted. “Let’s not have the fast-metabolizing rookie drink on an empty stomach.”

“Ooh!” Tenya cheered, “I know, let’s find some zero-pool!”

“Some what?” Astrid asked.

“Zero-pool,” Anders answered. “It’s an arcade game.”

“Zero-pool is a classic sport!” Dell defended proudly.

“Not a sport!” Tenya denied. She linked her arm through Astrid’s. “It’s in the arcade.”

“Say that to the contenders of the Colonial Championship Games!”

Tenya laughed Dell off. She leaned in to mutter conspiratorially to the Channeler, “It is not a sport. But it is good fun!”

“What, exactly is ‘zero-pool’?” Astrid questioned.

“It’s kind of like pool, but without cue sticks. And vertical,” Dell described enthusiastically. “You play inside a small zero-gravity chamber. Each player takes turns on the inside and has to throw colored balls into corresponding pockets. The person who sinks the most balls in a timed round wins.”

“The trick is that we forget how accustomed we are to gravity and the part it plays in how we throw and move,” Tenya contributed. “What would work out in the natural world causes massive curves in a Zero-G chamber. And power isn’t as important as aim.”

“Okay, one more question.” Astrid matched her strides with Tenya. “What is ‘pool’?”