But that Lu. She’s a puzzle. She can sit and have tea with a group of cult members and not blink an eye. She can lift an engine block and cradle it like a baby. She doesn’t talk much about her people. I know she’s very religious and I love to hear her stories. I swear she’s got a few of them mixed up, though.

I never had much truck with Jesus before. My Ma tried to give us a good understanding of the popular religion, but since she wasn’t a believer herself, well it was a mite limited.

Lu is serious about her religion. She should be one of them Shepards. Fit right in, though some of her stories seem…. off.

She tells this story about how Jesus converted a bunch people with the miracle of the Dogs Playing Poker. She does have a picture of it in her bunk. So maybe it is true. I do love the picture.

She has one she picked up when we were last in the Core. She says it is a picture of Jesus in his last incarnation, some hundreds of years ago.

It is a nice picture and all and his eye seems to follow you around, but I don’t understand that necklace he’s wearing or why we see him about to eat something…. Religion is weird.

What I love about Lu is that she jumps in on any job with both hands and both feet. She lends a hand and her strong back to whatever project I got going on. Who knew that when we landed on that dust bowl of a planet with that chunk of comet, that we’d leave with such a treasure as our Lu?

Sarah used tarot cards to lay out a random town for us to explore. That was very fun.

That way we (gulp!) split the party and all did our own thing. Roark went to a strip club. Brigid, Maggie and Prudence went to the rendezvous at the casino. (Prudence went for the Faro game) And Swei and Lu went in search of pawn shops. You never know what kind of parts you’ll stumble on…. Which might have been what Roark was thinking, too.

While Lu and I were on the tram in town, this oddly dressed man approached us. His name was David? — the question mark is there to denote the odd upward inflection in his voice when he said his name. He represented a group of travelers who wanted to get to the planet Angel. They had money and well, what the hell do Swei and Lu know about sizing up people? So we told David? to meet us at D-VA first thing in the morning. His group was pretty odd, what with the robes and the hats. But they were quiet and their credits were real.

Brigid is always ready to throw a party for people and cult members are no exception. Everyone had to sit for tea and petit fours (which Swei loves, so she changed into clean clothes for the party).

The cult members passed out one of their newsletters. Swei’s had writing on it.

What floored Swei was that the words on the newsletter were her brother’s Spacebook user name. This is her brother who was wrongly imprisoned. The cult member who handed Swei the newsletter was named Steve! (note the inflection). And he was the shortest of the bunch, by far. Swei invited Steve! to tour the engine room.

Another member, Celeste. (you can tell she’s a serious one by the full stop after her name) came along, which annoyed Swei. She had wanted to have Steve! alone. She improvised a note to Steve! to meet her at midnight to talk.

When midnight came and no Steve!, Swei listened in to the bay where the cult members were bunked down. There was an unnatural sounding snore mixed in with the other sounds. Swei and Roark decided to check it out. What if the cult members were secretly arming themselves to take over the ship or something? But, what they discovered was nothing…. Everyone appeared to be sleeping soundly.

Next day, they arrived at Angel, where Brigid was to bid on a shipment of water that the casino owner wanted. He couldn’t make the auction himself, so Brigid was to bid in his stead. And if we lost the bid, we had a map of the house where the water would be so we could steal it.

Bidding was fierce at first. Five groups were bidding on three casks of water. Shoulda known something wasn’t right.

Things continued to be hot. Brigid’s bid is the gray block. The auctioneer allowed that people could also bid for lots using the promise of future jobs. So to extend our cash, Brigid offered over 700 credits in jobs.

When at last the gavel fell, the water was ours!

Swei, Maggie and Lu were at the ship. The cult members had taken off and the others went to the auction.

Once we had the water and a side job to perform as part of the auction bid, we were ready to take off for water delivery!

Over dinner Roark asked “How’d you learn to drive a team, Doc?”
“Oh” the Doc waved her hand vaguely, “in the course of my research I lived in some very remote areas. There is even a place in the Georgia system where grav carts don’t work. In a place like that, you learn to rely on the old methods.”
“I like animals.” Lu smiled broadly. “And this is fine vittles, too.”
I caught Miss V’s eye. “I’d like a word later, Miss V. If you don’t mind.”
She smiled and stood up. “Swei, you can help me with the dishes.”
“We could use a hand and that Lu, well she is a strapping thing. She can lift a turbine by herself! She’s quiet and does as she’s told. I could use a helper, and –”
“Swei. It’s fine. We could use a little more help around here. She seems very nice. And Imago checked her on the Coretx. She’s a bit um, preachy, but I think she’ll fit in well.”

The next morning Bailey Sackett was at the port with the chitty.
“Here it is, all made out official.” He handed it to Prudence, who handed it to Miss V. Miss V promptly handed it to Roark. “I am sure it is all in order, my dear Mr. Sackett.”
Roark held the paper to the light. “Looks right enough. Take her to the bank right now.”
Sackett held up his hand. Well now, that’s the thing. We got this here parade and all. And the bank….” He stopped when he saw the look on Roark’s face. He grabbed his hat and motioned to Prudence. “Come on, missy. You & me are going to the bank. Blair knows me and we’ll just get him to open up long enough to deposit this!” He stopped short when he saw the Doc come down the ramp. “Oh, er, the horses are right over here, um ma’am. We’ll be back lickety split.”

Imago and Roark went out to the wagon and introduced themselves to Mr. McKlaren.

I turned to Lu. “I’m going to finish with the left stabilizer, but you should have some fun. We’ll be off this rock soon and you might have some goodbyes to make. You take the mornin off, you hear?”
She shrugged. “No one to say goodbye to, not as such. But I do like a parade. And there’s an ice cream social later. You’ll come for the ice cream?”
“Oh course she will, Lu.” Miss V’s voice carried over all other conversations. “I expect all of the crew to attend the social. We are guests of Frisco and we should act like it.” Well, I know that tone of voice and there ain’t no way around it. I hitched up my coveralls. “I ain’t paintin my face or nothin.”

All that happened later, I heard about it at the social. I was elbows up inside D-VAs main drive shaft. Sackett had been nice enough to loan me a man for the day. Quiet kid named Ben who knew his way around a torque wrench, fer sure.

All the folk in the town lined up for the parade. The ladies had their prize rose bushes on display.

The band was lined up and poised to strike the marching tune. Lu was on the far side, watching the festivities.

And it was a good thing. Someone in the band struck a sour note and the horses shied away and then all hell broke loose. The Doc couldn’t get the team under control and them horses ran right through the parade folk. No one was killed, luckily.

Takin a leaf from Lu, the Doc climbed down on to one of the horses. She had a big old needle filled with who knows and she tried to stick the horse’s ass. It was amazing that she didn’t jab herself or Lu.

When it was over, Mr. McKlaren declared it was fun, but that the time Roark said he was a bit green around the gills.

While that was happening at the other end of town, Miss V came out a few minutes after the commotion and helped restore order. She talked with Blair, the banker and vowed to get to the bottom of the mischief.

Per Sackett’s request, we got McKlaren to the saloon so he could “prepare” for his speech. Roark stayed and made sure that things went fine.

Miss V got the parade under way. Lordy that woman is somethin else!

When the parade got to the saloon, McKlaren declared himself ready to join in the procession. Not that he could say the word procession.

My folk had moved off to the right, keeping low and out of the way. I saw a man step out from a shed on the right, with his hands in the air. “I’m Hawks” he said. “Who wants to know?”
I just couldn’t help it. I saw red all over again and grabbed a ‘stick and punched a button. One of the mules began to move. I suppressed a giggle. I aimed it right at Hawks.

When he saw it coming, he let out a yell. The man behind him looked around wildly. “Teach you to leave me! Huh, Hawks? Not so tough now, are you Sarge?” I stopped the mule about a foot from him. All eyes swung towards me.
The man in the top hat squinted. “Who the hell are you?” His voice was bewildered.

“Swei, for goodness sake! Stop playing and come here!” Miss V’s voice cut through the tension. I hopped down from the control pad and walked slowly to where Miss V and the Doc were standing. She put her hands on her hips and said loudly, “Now. Who is going to explain this?” She looked at Hawks and at the man with the top hat. “Hmm? I’m waiting.”

The two men looked at each other. The man in the top hat smiled real big. “Well, Missy, I am the mayor of Regina and this here man is wanted fer, fer questioning.”
“Now you want a gorram minute. This is my mine and I want to know who the hell all y’all are.” Hawks swept his arm around and I realized he had a black glove on his left hand.
“Aw, did you hurt your paw when you left me on Hera?”
One of the men with the mayor moved towards me. “You need to step off, alright?”
“Where were you when I was fighting for your freedoms? Huh, you sonuvabitch!”

Hawks’ head snapped around. “What’s yer name, soldier?”
“Why don’t we talk and work, OK?” Brigid walked over the the mayor. She held out her hand. “Brigid Von Schindler at your service.”
Josiah Fox, mayor-elect, at yours little lady.”  Miss V took his arm and pulled him away a little bit. “It seems that our interests intersect. Would you agree? We’re here to get ice for Regina and you, being the mayor-elect, would wish us success in this, yes?”

In a few minutes we were working like bees in a hive. Prudence was operating one of the rigs and Roark was driving the tag-along like he was born to it.

I was, as they say, In my element. Anytime a machine threatened to conk out, I was there fixin’ her up.

I was bent over one of the compressors, checking for leaks when I heard a voice behind me. “I remember you. You were the mechanic. You hung around the fat guy. What was his name?”
I put my hammer down. “His name was Rich and he died waiting for the Amnesty release paperwork to come through. Ever been in prison, Hawks? It can get a might damp and a feller can get croupy in there.”

He was silent a moment. “We were gonna come back. We were. It’s just…..” His voice trailed off.
“Forget it,” I said. “Pfft. Just forget it. Old news and no one cares any more. Lest of all me.” And I walked away.
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We stepped in real slow. Because you don’t expect a mining facility to be all quiet. Roark had a submachine gun at the ready. The Doc took one look at his gun and pointed up. “This is an enclosed dome. So careful where you shoot that thing.”

“Where do you think everybody is?” Prudence voice was barely a whisper. I walked a little ahead of everyone and spotted the main control panel. “Miss V. I got this covered.” And I shrugged off my pack and walked across the room to the control panel. When I was about halfway across, I thought I heard something, but I didn’t let that stop me. It was only later over dinner that I heard I’d almost been shot. At that moment what mattered to me was getting to the control panel, figuring out how to run everything, how to mine the comet and get us the hell out of here.

I was just getting everything booted up, when outta the corner my eye I saw movements of the left. Four men came striding into the room. My friends were right across from me and I saw them crouch for cover. Imagine my surprise when off to my right there were suddenly two men armed to the teeth and ready to fire on the first men. I just sat there with my fingers on the keyboard as I didn’t know what else to do. The two groups seemed intent on each other and I don’t think they’d noticed us yet.

You could’ve knocked me over with a feather and left me laid out for a day when I heard one of the men on the left call out “Sgt. Hawks?” When he answered, it was the voice I remembered all too well……

Everybody has war stories. I was at the Battle of Serenity Valley, but that don’t make me special. A lot of good people died that day, on both sides. Mine was a small war. I swear I spent most of it in the engine room of one ship or another. It all seems so glamorous at the beginning. Being a freedom fighter and all. But being a Brown Coat well, can you admit it? It was a little disappointing. We never had the supplies, the men, the leadership, the equipment or the heart to win. And in the end what have you got? You got your own actions; you got your own morality as you have to live with those choices every day. Every. Day.

I ain’t talkin about my choices. I sleep just fine at night. But that Sgt. Hawks, I just wonder how well he sleeps?

You ever wondered why I’m so hard of hearing? He might not know it, but Sgt. Hawks is to blame. It was late in the war, well hell, it was Serenity Valley. That’s how late it was. I’d been assigned to Lucius Newberry. She was a fine ship, if a little old. But by then I was almost as good a mechanic as I am now. So I kept her in the air and we kept fighting. So one day this Hawks comes to me and my buddies and he says the Major’s got a job for us. We’re just going drop down to Hera, he says, “and get a little something.” The pilot dropped is right where we needed to be and a couple of squads hopped out with two mules. I was in the second team and by the time we got to the site, the bombs started dropping. It was just a little shack, felt like it was the middle of nowhere. But inside stacked to the ceiling were metal crates. When I got closer I could see that somebody tried to rub out the serial numbers. And they hadn’t done a good job. Probably officers….. That’s a joke.

Me and my buddy Rich lifted one of the crates and it was a heavy son of a bitch. There were mortars comin’ in and one of them hit our mule. So we overloaded the other mule and that squad took off. While we waited for them to come back, we moved the crates from the shack to outside. It was heavy work and I was scared. But we had orders and so we followed them. The empty mule came back and as quick as we could, we loaded those gorram crates. The mortar fire became heavier with every passing moment. One went off right behind me. I must’ve lost consciousness at least for a few seconds because suddenly Rich was shaking my shoulder and his lips are moving and I knew he was saying my name, but I couldn’t hear him.

We scrambled up on that mule and high tailed it to the ship. The roar of the firefly’s engines competed with the bombs. The hatch was up and I saw Sgt. Hawks and even the Major doing their part to load the crates into the ship. Me and Rich took the thankless job of being at the end of the line. It was like a bucket brigade, moving those crates from the mule. There were still a couple left in the mule when Rich took my arm. “We got to go darlin’. That there ship is going to leave us.” I dropped my end and scrambled around. The Lucius Newberry was about a foot off the ground and rising rapidly when we got to the hatch. Sgt. Hawks was holding on and yelling. Later Rich told me that he said they’d come back for us.
But they didn’t. They never came back.