2.20.2

Rendezvous and Recon

Astrid donned an outfit that didn’t see much use. A uniform, neither fatigue, nor armor. But a charcoal tunic and pants, in Service colors. The only distinction sat in her name, emblazoned over her breast, and a silver pin depicting outward-pointing chevrons.

Anders and Tenya dressed similarly, and the three stepped into a docking tube to make the short trek into the station.

A small port, it served little purpose than the resupply of passing ships. Yet, they maintained their own security, which made is easy for the Aldebaran to coordinate for a secure room, and a semi-private location to meet their rendezvous.

Romo disembarked well ahead of them, to take one more run at the girl, Ava, while the others sought to convene with her brother.

“You look nervous,” Anders commented to her after they stepped through to lobby just on the other side of the docking bay.

“I am,” she admitted.

“About the brother?”

“I talked to her a little,” Astrid admitted. Though her companions didn’t even lose step when she shared. “She has her reasons. We don’t know how this is going to go.”

“Remember what Romo said,” Tenya consoled. “Trust me, if lil’ sis thought he’d support what she was up to, she would have told him.”

“Listen to the Super-Sibling over there,” Anders nodded. “He seemed mostly concerned in his missives. Mental illness may play a part here.”

“Anders, you’re going to have to accept at some point that people don’t need to be crazy to hate me.”

After a brief exchange with security, Anders gathered directions to the offices, and to where he could find Romo and their charge.

Their credentials with the Service granted them entry, but they stayed outside the room while Romo conducted yet another interrogation.

They paused only a moment to watch. Astrid noticed the bruised side of Ava’s mouth seemed to heal well enough, as it faded to yellow in places.

Within, Romo paced and pitched all the usual questions.

“Why the children?” “Where are they taking them?” “How many Sanctuaries have been hit?” “Are more coming?”

Each time the girl insisted, over, and over, “I don’t know”, until she rocked in her chair.

“Is Ramsey here?” Came the only question she would ask in return.

“The sooner you help us, the sooner I can get you transferred to him. I just need to know what you know, Ava. Help us, so we can get you help.”

“He’s not going at her too hard,” Tenya observed casually.

“He doesn’t need to.” Astrid could feel the static fizzle just on the other side. A sense of vulnerability, but not defiance. “She’s scared. Too scared to answer, even. This is little more than formality, Romo knows that. He just has to try.”

“Come on.” Anders goaded them onward. “The brother is waiting further down the hall.”

The three moved to the right, as a security guard passed on their left in the other direction.

Until they were delivered to much larger room, which Astrid could only presume served as a lounge for security personnel.

At the far end, beside a large window that looked over the expanse of space, a man stared into the coffee table from a plastic-covered couch.

His brow pinched together. His dark hair combed back neatly. And he too, dressed in a Service uniform.

It took a moment for him to notice the company. But when his darkened eyes fell on the three newcomers, he too noticed their garb and instantly rose to his feet at attention.

He saluted when Anders approached. Astrid and Tenya stood behind, to flank their officer, while he returned the gesture, then shook the man’s hand.

“Lieutenant JG, right? Ramsey Owens?”

“Yes, sir,” the man immediately responded. His face fluttered through emotions as though he worked to manage his decorum under the circumstances. “I’m sorry to hear of your delay. Is Ava alright?”

At the mention of his sister’s name, Astrid felt a flurry of concern barely masked under the man’s taut voice. A sincere, raw, worry. She almost pitied him.

“She’s in a bit of trouble and seen some action. Took a blow to the face in her capture. But otherwise, she’s alright. It seems she may need some psychological care more than anything. May we sit?”

Anders indicated the couch from which the man, Ramsey, rose. And after the lower officer nodded, Anders moved to sit across from him.

The women remained standing, to keep their distance and provide at least the charade of privacy between their talk and the rest of station security that occasionally passed by.

“What, uh... I don’t understand. What action? What kind of trouble?”

When Ramsey Owens sat, he hardly settled. Upon the edge of his seat, he leaned forward and braced his arms on his knees. It remained clear he claimed a great deal of responsibility for his sister.

“Lieutenant Owens, are you familiar with a faction called the ‘Static Opposition’?”

The man blinked. And while Tenya shifted over her hips to listen, Astrid couldn’t tear her gaze from the man’s face. In her anxiety, she couldn’t help but seek deception.

Yet, his eyes crinkled with distress all his own. “No, I’m afraid not.”

“Well, they’re a group of rebels, and some rogue military, that have been targeting civilians. Namely, they’ve made themselves a private army against Channelers. And they’ve been quite aggressive about it.”

“Anti-Channeler?” The young man repeated. “And Ava, she was caught up in that?”

Anders nodded gravely. “This looks to be a surprise to you.”

The man in question sat, further perplexed, and momentarily cast his gaze out over the stars, as if pained. But Anders pressed on.

“The Static Opposition has been ardently active, its followers radicalized. They’ve captured, and killed, several Channelers in the past. Most people in this organization seem to have very personal reasons for their allegiance. Can you tell me any more about why Ava would be involved in such a thing?”

Astrid waited for the first sign of a lie. For any reason to believe the man before them could be another soldier already recruited into the Opposition.

But Ramsey combed his fingers through his hair in equal parts stress and disbelief. “Damn it…”

Anders tactfully waited. Long after Tenya grew restless, and again, shifted on her feet.

“Our mother died when she was young. In childbirth.”

“To a Channeler?” Tenya finally interjected.

The man looked up to the woman, and after a pause, nodded. “Yes. Ava’s struggled with it. But she’d been getting therapy over the course of the last several years. I thought it was getting better.”

“When was the last time you heard from her?” Anders probed next.

“Maybe a year or so ago. But that’s not uncommon. I send her money when I can, and I visit every few years. But I guess, after I joined up, she must have felt very alone.”

The man looked thoroughly guilt-ridden.

“I tried to check in, but she resented that I moved on, and she couldn’t, I think. But she got into a good school. An excellent school even. She seemed to be getting better. Starting her own life, finding her own interests.”

Again, regret colored the man’s grey eyes. Astrid wondered if the others caught it.

“You said she needs psychological care?” Ramsey’s voice strained. “Is she… I mean, how is she?”

“She’s lucid. But her reasoning skills seem unstable. I imagine she might have been vulnerable to the Static Opposition. They capitalize on these losses, like that of your mother.”

“Do you think I could get her into a facility? Will you be releasing her?”

“At this point it would be a kindness,” Anders offered. “At most, all we can charge your sister with directly is Attempted Kidnapping. With the right diagnosis, maybe her future can be salvaged.”

“Attempted Kidnapping?” Ramsey balked.

“It could be worse,” Tenya told him. “This group, they’ve done everything from murder to terrorism.”

At that, the young man cringed with fresh disbelief.

“Lieutenant, we checked your records,” Anders redirected. “I know you’ve been with a detachment on the Rim for the last couple years. But do you swear, you had no idea any of this was going on?”

“No!” Ramsey insisted. “If I’d known she was going through something I would have come back. We’re not close, but she’s still my sister!”

“Is there any chance she joined up to look for the sibling you lost?”

“No. I don’t know. I have no way of knowing. But if she wanted closure or to find our sister, I feel like she would have told me. There’s no shame in that, I would have understood!”

Tenya side-eyed Astrid in a silent, “I told you so.”

“I thought things were on the upswing for her!” Ramsey asserted further. “She seemed so dedicated to her studies, and her work. It was the first thing she spoke of with passion for as long as I can remember.”

“What kind of work did your sister do?” Tenya pried.

“She was studying electromagnetics at the Maxwell Academy,” he answered. “She was doing research under one of her professors there.”

At that, Anders and Tenya shared a heavy look.

Ramsey’s eyes darted between them. “What?”

Anders chose his words carefully. “Are you aware the school took damage last year?”

Ramsey grew increasingly confounded.

“I read a quick brief of some kind of incident, but that’s all we heard in the Fourth. I messaged Ava, but she got back to me almost immediately, and said everything was fine. That the academy reopened, and she was back at work.”

“They shut down the school.” Anders told with an expression contorted in contemplation.

“They shut it down?”

With the last bit of news that Ramsey held no earthly idea what transpired in his sister’s life, he sank back into the couch like the weight of the world fell into his lap.

“They shut down the school,” he repeated to himself.

But Astrid, in a swirl of thoughts and theories, landed on a terrible and tempting possibility that now blared in her mind like an alarm.