Mitchell's Revenge

Jake clicked off his headset and carefully placed his teacup on the table in front of him. Lucy looked at him expectantly, sensing that something was gravely wrong. He looked up from the teacup.

“Anja’s been kidnapped by the IGM,” he said quietly.

“She what?” said Lucy, leaning towards him.

“She’s been kidnapped by the IGM,” he repeated. “Dad wants us to try and track her down and then keep her location under observation until we can rescue her.”

Lucy shook her head in disbelief. She stood up.

“We’d better get going then.”

Jake grabbed her hand and pulled her back down into her seat.

“Not yet,” he said. “If we try to rescue her now they will kill her. The crew who’s got her said they’ll not harm her if we leave her alone.” Lucy shook his hand off.

“Just settle down and finish your tea,” he said. “Don’t draw attention to yourself.” Lucy sighed heavily. Something was urging her to take action. Now.

“I can’t just sit here and do nothing,” she said and stood up again. She bent down to gather her shopping bags from the floor. Jake gave up trying to dissuade her and stood up. He took the largest bags from her and they began to make their way out of the ballroom, weaving between the tables and the patrons having tea.

“OK, we’ll talk as we walk,” he said as they emerged from the building and began to make their way back to the docking bay and Mitchell’s Revenge. Lucy was feeling more agitated with every step. She scanned their surrounds, as if she were looking for any hint of danger.

“What do they know?” she asked Jake.

“Not much, at this stage,” he replied. “But Dad’s convinced the IGM are retaliating for Tatiana Orlov’s death.” Lucy nodded.

“If he’s right, getting Anja back is not going to be easy. Is it?” Lucy looked at Jake.

“No, it’s not. But he’s sure we can do it.” Jake was struggling to keep pace with Lucy, who seemed to be moving faster with each step she took. He grabbed her arm. She shook him off.

“Slow down, will you?”

“I can’t,” said Lucy. “It’s as if something’s making me move faster!”

Jake paused in the walkway to watch Lucy striding ahead of him. He shook his head. “I was wondering when things would start to change,” he thought as he stood watching her quickly receding back.

As he reached the crowded alleyway with its oddball stores and food outlets Jake looked ahead to see Lucy push past a young girl carrying a tray laden with steaming coffee mugs. He watched with dismay as the girl lost her balance, juggled the tray briefly, and then fell face first to the ground, flinging the hot mugs in all directions. The surrounding shoppers were splattered with steaming coffee or hit by a flying mug. A scuffle ensued as the victims turned on the girl who was struggling to stand up.

Towards the end of the alleyway a burly security man witnessed the incident and tried to stop Lucy as she strode away. As Jake’s focus was on the girl, he didn’t see Lucy slap the guard’s face, then knee him in the groin and shove him against the wall before sprinting away towards the docking bays. The man slid down the wall and lay groaning on the ground.

Jake reached the girl, who was now on her feet brushing spilled coffee from the front of her tunic and receiving a torrent of abuse from the coffee splattered people around her. He pushed in front of them.

“I’m so sorry,” he said to her. “Are you alright?” The girl stared at him.

“Why should you be sorry?” she asked. “You didn’t do anything.”

“No, but my crewmate did,” he said. “I saw what happened. And I apologise.” He turned to face the dozen angry people.

“It wasn’t her fault,” he said. “She was pushed by my crewmate and she lost her balance. I apologise. I’m happy to pay for laundering or repairs to any of your clothing if necessary.”

An older blue haired woman started to laugh. Her grey eyes crinkled with amusement. She looked at the coffee stained people standing around her.

“It’s good to see chivalry isn’t dead! It’s only coffee and it’ll wash out. But thank you for the offer,” she said. “Just make sure this young lady’s tray is replenished for whoever she was taking the coffee to. Perhaps you could escort her to wherever she needs to go.” She studied Jake more closely. “You look handy enough!”

The others laughed then. Jake smiled back at her.

“Yes ma’am,” he said. He looked at the others. “Are you all happy with that?” They nodded their assent and moved away. Jake picked up the tray, gave it to the girl and began to gather up the mugs from the ground. The girl looked curiously at him.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know,” she said.

“I did actually,” he replied. “Everything here is recorded on vid link. If I didn’t make restitution at once, security would come after me pretty damn quick. Or at least, after my crewmate who caused the accident. Let me help you. And I will escort you to where you need to go.” She smiled at him then.

“Thanks,” she said. “I’d better start again. It’s this way.” She led him towards the nearest coffee outlet.

When Jake got back to the docking bay he found two security personnel waiting for him. An athletic looking woman was accompanied by a tall rangy young man, their thick leather belts adorned with stun guns, hand cuffs and various other devices. Their name badges identified her as Olga Restinova and the young man as Phillip Lumme. Jake’s heart sank.

“I have made restitution to the people involved,” he said as he approached them.

“We know that, Captain Stern,” said Olga. “We’re here about Lucy Savage.”

“It was an accident,” said Jake. “I saw what happened. I don’t think Lucy even realised what she did.”

“Oh, I think she did,” replied Phillip. “She slapped one of our people on the face, threw him against a wall and took off. She’ll be charged with assault.”

“What?” Jake looked at the security guard in astonishment. “Lucy wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Well she did, Captain Stern, and we want her off your ship. Now.”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” said Jake. “She bumped a girl carrying coffee. It got spilt. That’s all.”

“After she bumped the coffee girl,” said Olga. “One of our security people tried to stop her for the restitution and she assaulted him. You obviously didn’t see that because you were assisting the girl. We’ve got the whole thing on vid link. Here, I’ll show you.”

She unclipped a touch pad from her belt and flipped the screen on. Jake watched in horror as the scene unfolded in front of him. It had happened so fast that without the vid link evidence, no-one other than the security man and Lucy would have seen what took place. The behaviour was so uncharacteristic of Lucy, that Jake could only think that her bionics had taken over. This was not good. He needed his co-pilot. Especially now. He thought quickly.

“What can I do to make this right?” he asked, looking at Olga, who appeared to be in charge.

“Hand Lucy Savage over to us,” she replied. “You know what the rules are on Tiberion. This cannot go unpunished. Our man has a broken nose and medical treatment doesn’t come cheap.”

“So the major concern is medical treatment for your man?” asked Jake. Olga nodded.

“Bottom line, yes,” she said. “You know as well as I do that fights happen here all the time. If we charged everyone, every time, we’d have more jail birds than general population. It’s unfortunate that she assaulted one of our people, and that we have vid evidence. What do you propose?”

“That we pay for the medical treatment for your man, and we make a donation to the Tiberion security pension fund. You don’t arrest Lucy and we pretend this never happened,” Jake said.

“Let me confer with my colleague,” she replied, and walked a short distance away from Jake, speaking quietly to the young man accompanying her. Jake stood at the base of the boarding ramp while they talked. He looked up at the ship to see Em looking down at him from the top of the ramp. Her emerald eyes glittered and her top lip drew back in a snarl as she watched the security personnel. Jake hoped Lucy had enough sense to stay on board and out of sight.

“Get back inside,” Jake hissed at her. “I’ll call if I need you!” The big cat disappeared as Olga and Phillip turned back to Jake. He moved towards them.

“We’ll take your offer,” advised Olga. “We know how much Universal Starship Enterprises has invested in EQ2, and we know you’re good for the cash. The medical expenses stand at 7,000 credits. If you make an equivalent donation to the pension fund, we’ll leave it at that.”

Jake looked stunned.

“That’s highway robbery!” he exclaimed. Her dark eyes were hard as she smiled at him.

“In that case, we come on board now and arrest Lucy Savage.” She took a step towards the boarding ramp. Jake stepped in front of her, blocking her path.

“Okay, okay,” he said. “How do we do this?’ Olga smiled.

“Direct transfer to the station security account will be fine,” she replied. “Come with us now, make the transfer and we will terminate the matter.”

“Just let me advise my crewmates where I’m going,” said Jake. He pinged Henri on the bridge and quickly explained what was happening. “If I’m not back in thirty minutes, you’d better come and get me out of the lock up!”

As Jake followed Olga and Phillip to the main security office he reflected that this was not a good start for Mitchell’s Revenge and her crew. But he needed Lucy now, and even though this was a costly escape, he thought there were enough credits in their unforeseen events account to cover it. If there wasn’t, he’d just have to cover the rest himself. In saving Lucy’s life, U.S.E. was ultimately responsible for the behaviour effected by the experimental bionics.

By the time Jake got back to the docking bay and boarded Mitchell’s Revenge, Lucy had run several worst case scenarios for the IGM kidnapping on the shipboard computer. She came to the conclusion that they needed more information, primarily about the ship that had snatched Anja.

On his way back to the ship from security, Jake had plenty of time to think. Despite Lucy’s anxiety to follow Anja, he still had a business to run. His primary instruction from Tim was to continue with business as usual whilst looking for Anja. If any more ships went rogue because they had not repaired the software in time, U.S.E. would be in more trouble than he cared to think about.

As he made his way towards the bridge Jake pinged Fred Laine leading the team working on the Rubicon. He thought they should have been finished by now. But, as always, the software issues were more complex than they first appeared. It was impacted by the fact that the Rubicons’ on board engineer had tried to fix it himself prior to calling the manufacturer. Fred reported that they were making good progress, but they would be a few more hours yet.

Henri’s shipboard work was finished well before Jake returned. Jake found him on the bridge, sitting with his eyes closed listening to Goth heavy metal music through his earpiece. He tapped his feet and his fingers twitched as if he were having some kind of fit. Jake flicked him on the head to break him out of his musical reverie. Henri’s eyes snapped open and he swatted Jake’s hand away.

“Welcome back!” Jake laughed at him.

“You bastard! I was just getting to the best bit,” Henri said.

“I don’t know how you can listen to that noise,” said Jake. “It makes me anxious.”

“I always thought you were a bit of a musical sook!” said Henri. “Good thing they didn’t lock you up instead of Lucy.” Henri chuckled.

“We got out of that one by the skin of our teeth!” Jake looked at Lucy. “I should have mentioned the Restitution Rule that applies here, before you went knocking coffee everywhere and belting up security guards!” Lucy looked at Jake in exasperation.

“I honestly don’t know what came over me,” she said. “I had no idea I’d knocked that poor girl over, and I’ve never attacked anyone like that unfortunate security man in my life before. It happened before I could stop it.” Lucy rubbed her eyes and ran her hands through her hair.

“How much longer are they going to be?” she asked Jake. “We need to get moving!”

She began to pace back and forth across the bridge. Em appeared silently in the doorway. She padded across to Lucy and rubbed against her legs. Lucy stopped pacing to scratch the big cat’s ears and rub the top of her head. She began to calm down. Em began to rumble with satisfaction.