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Episode 10 Chapter 1

  Glistening and flawless. Something in Shilo Zander’s life was in order and running smoothly. The pay from the mining, along with savings from the suddenly lowered fuel costs which the news failed to mention and some meager winnings from the bets Briggs made all meant Shilo had a few credits to spare, and he’d settled for giving his classic ride the premium treatment. Cleaned, painted, waxed. Minor upgrades, although he preferred to keep as much of it classic as he could.

  His spaceship was his baby and right now he was in the progress of applying the last layer of wax by hand.

  Daniel Richards spilled the bucket of water over. “Seems you’re making a mess everywhere you go?”

  “Fuck you, Danny!”

  Danny Richards, out of his old precinct. Age had not treated the old pain in the ass kindly. More grey hair, patchy beard and balding, with now a hint of a gut. It troubled Shilo not a bit to see age catching up with him. Shilo picked up the bucket and ignored the puddle of water and Danny. It was time for some lunch. Shilo made sure the spaceship was locked and stopped off at the main service window to let them know he was done.

  “I’m still needing to talk with you.”

  “Hell. You’re still here. I thought we said everything we needed to. You kicked my things over, and I told you to fuck off.” Shilo dropped the bucket by the waste bin and hit the lift. Danny followed him every step of the way. Shilo tried pushing the close door multiple times, but Danny entered the lift in time.

  “You can’t just ignore me.”

  “Why not? Don’t see we have much to talk about here.”

  “You think I came all this way if it didn’t mean something?”

  “Danny. I don’t care why you’re here. I’m just more interested in why you haven’t left yet.”

  The lift stopped and Shilo rushed around the crowd in the central hub to catch another lift with glass windows showing the core of the station as they went up to the top. The way Shilo saw it, Johnny Jesse James owed him a lunch or two. And if he had to listen to Danny babble on, he could at least stick the old man with an expensive bill.

  Danny made it to the commercial lift and gave enough people a harsh look that it wasn’t so crowded. When the lift started up, he asked Shilo, “Was that an old cruiser? Personal police ship that you were polishing up? Rare to see one in such good shape. You doubling as a lackey to some collector? Washing old relics when you’re between cases?”

  “That’s mine. Paid in full.”

  “Yours. Shoot, you’re serious. Those were leaving service when we joined. Just like you to hold on to the past.”

  At Johnny Jesse James restaurant, while considering introducing Danny to Mochi, Shilo picked a modest meal which was still lavish compared to his normal tuna fish sandwiches, just on the off chance he had to pay. Danny picked up some sort of broiled red meat. Shilo wasn’t very interested in the food or the company. Danny continued on like their shared time at on the force meant something. Shilo hadn’t listened much.

  “Look. Danny. I’m not sure why you bothered to fly out here. I’m not much interested in the troubles of the force.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “You're causing a ruckus and need to stop. You're up to your usual shenanigans. That’s why I’m out here.”

  “What are you talking about? I haven’t done anything.” Shilo said a touch louder than he meant, drawing attention from the others at the diner. Why hadn’t he opted for a meal from the station’s food courts? Danny didn’t seem much bothered by the fine dining establishment, but they sure stood out.

  “You haven’t recently been to the mech's territory. Or the Kohask. A couple of defunct or dying colonies. Failed yet promising ranch, promising dinosaurs or close enough. Complaints from the Zyvarn. I’ll admit minor infractions, but don’t act like the police wouldn’t keep an eye on one of their own. You’re building up a list of infractions and should watch your back.”

  Shilo shrugged. “I go where the detecting takes me.” He was worried that Danny knew about the trip to the mechheads. “I’d been straight up retired by near this time. Three years. Three years from my twenty. Then I’d be like every other washed up or spent officer, collecting a pension. How the heck is the office watching me? And why?”

  Danny shrugged. “I just skimmed your report. I’m not even on official business. Kristy sent me with a request. But the warning holds. Building a list like that in your file. I saw enough to see you been testing out the police force modifications in unsafe zero g walks. Gunshots. You’re stirring up trouble. You’ll be lucky if you spend a lifetime behind bars because the way you’re taking risks, you’ll end up dead. Likely in the next six months.”

  Kristen, Shilo’s ex-wife. What was she wanting? Nothing came to his mind. They’d drifted apart, and she didn’t want any bad optics to fall on her. It hadn’t been much before his job on the force dried up and nothing official or unofficial existed to explain his forced early leave. Except for the corruption he’d found, aside from the fact no one cared to explain, and it was all washed up as some undercover operation that Shilo needed to drop. That had been his death sentence with the precinct. He could see it now. Telling Shilo Zander to drop something was the exact opposite that he’d do. Shilo had flopped on easy cases, stumped on a corruption case that ran deep through the force and left him suspecting everyone and stirring up nothing but ghosts. It’d been a damn embarrassment to him when upper management finally presented enough evidence that the corruption was a sanctioned operation that Shilo was damaging. He’d burned his career down, stuck on the idea it was something bigger.

  “Nothing comes to mind on why she would be sending you, of all people.” He couldn’t imagine Kristy wanting to relive any of his countless nights burning his bridges and isolating himself from his friends caught up in a case of nothing more than figments. Her ambition and her career was going somewhere and Shilo had been the boat anchor holding her back.

  Danny wiped his face using the fine linen napkins, smearing more steak sauce across his chin, than cleaning it up. “She’s found out that you’re doing some detecting here and there and now she needs some consulting done.”

  “And you’re who she sent as a messenger.”

  “I was the only one who picked up the phone call and knew how to find you. So yes. Good old Danny to save the day.” Danny pushed a note card across the table. “This is her information. She says you need to be at Prime by the middle of the week.”

  “Prime. New Earth? That’s not jurisdiction.”

  “Often, I question how sharp you really are, Shilo. Kristy’s not looking for outside consultation. The police have their own detectives. You know, the ones still mucking through the back log of cases you left for them. She’s gone private like you. Well, maybe a touch more successful than your backwater operation.”

  “Private consultation?”

  “Yeah. I can see it on your face. You’d think a detective would have a better poker face, but I guess you always had a soft spot for Kristen. She’s with the department of space transport. Human division. New Earth. Head security operations.”

  Shilo grabbed the card. Then in the bustle of him explaining to the waiter how his lunch was on the house specialty of Johnny’s and while he smirked at Danny’s jaw dropping at the expense on the receipt which went into a tirade of Danny harassing the staff and calling for management Shilo swiped Danny’s identification badge from his wallet which he’d left on the table during his excitement. Shilo glanced at the identification before pocketing the identification card, Captain Daniel Richards. An early promotion for the old man or a meaningless deck job where he did nothing and was a blight on society? Considering how corrupt Danny had been on the job, Shilo wasn’t sure which.

  “You left your wallet at the table.”

  “Thanks. Look Shilo. You still don’t seem convinced. I urge you, find some common sense in your crowded skull. Amongst all those bad ideas, you have take Kristy up on this case. There’s got to be some money in it. She’s working security for the FTL lanes, not doing whatever the hell you call this. You’re still not convinced. Kristy said if I thought you’d brush me off to say, this is a wasp moment. That you’d know what that meant. So, what is a wasp moment?”

  “Kristy isn’t much for bugs. During our vows, she improvised and wrote some additions to mine as well. I vowed during our wedding to smash all the wasps that may harass her. Seems to me that vow holds no weight after a divorce.”

  “She also said to pull on your passion for mysteries. She said, Don’t you ever wonder why earth isn’t part of the FTL network?”

  “Earth. Old Earth? Simple. You call this place a backwater. Earth is a backwater. History has it humans were trying to send a century ship to Alpha Centauri when they crossed paths with an FTL jump point, just a small service point, and lucked out finding an ore hauler passing by. Each of us are descendants of that decrepit junker. FTL works on fixed pathways. No one wants to waste countless resources and years of spaceflight looking for Earth. There’s no mystery there.”

  “Unless the history books are wrong.” Danny shrugged. “I can’t believe I wasted my time coming here for this.”

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