Haywire (5 page)

Gimble agreed, but saw little point in chewing on the incident any further. “Most likely so, Mr. Crowe, but there’s no use grousing. We still need to get the
Lady
and her salvage safely landed. We can have a chat with Smitty once the captain’s had a look at what we brought him.”

On the small screen next to his right knee, half a dozen yellow dots flew wide orbital patterns around the asteroid that served as their base of operations, ready to destroy anyone who wandered too close. Other ships were already docked, their hulls sparkling against the rocky exterior of the asteroid.

Puerto de la Sombra had once been rich with metal deposits, but after miners had sucked its bones clean the hollowed-out rock had been left to tumble its way through the solar system forgotten. Captain Voorhees, who’d founded the Crimson Kings and served as its captain before finding himself on the wrong end of a Eurasian pirate hunter’s broadside, had been the one to discover the abandoned asteroid and see its true potential.

Once they were close, Gimble fired the port thrusters to swing them about and line them up with their docking connectors. His hands were steady as he guided them closer and closer. When the connectors hit their airlocks, the ship barely rumbled.

As he unlocked the belts strapped across his lap and chest, Crowe reached over and laid a hand on his shoulder.

“
The captain won’t be too upset, will he?” Crowe’s bulging eyes were twitchier than usual.

Gimble started to shake his head, but then he shrugged and slumped in his seat. “I’ve served with Laroux for a long time, same as you, but I no more know his mind than I do my ex-wives’. We did the best we could, and we managed to bring something home with us. To my mind that’s a good day. All we can do now is hope his eyes have a kind twinkle in ‘em when he sees us. If not, it’s been good serving with ya, Crowe.”

Crowe sighed, then nodded his long skull up and down in slow motions. “Aye, indeed. Serving with you has been an honor and a pleasure, Mr. Gimble.”

Behind them the bridge airlock opened with a long hiss, and Gimble hoped their lives didn’t end at the gangway.

Once outside the customs area of Arcadia Spaceport, the smell of humanity – a heady blend of sweat, bad breath, and weariness – punched Shawn across the face. Too many hours in the scrubbed atmosphere of the shuttle and the small spaceport terminal had made him forget what real life smelled like. He wrinkled up his noise, but it wasn’t all bad. If nothing else it was real, and he appreciated being grounded again. And, as pungent as it might have been, it was nothing compared to the smell of a club packed with people drinking and dancing.

The sudden thought of Ilona, his band, and their upcoming gig at Minerva’s Den flashed through his brain, and a fresh wave of resentment at his situation washed over him. He clenched his jaw to keep from shouting in frustration at the innocent people around him.

Past customs was a row of stalls advertising local hotels, restaurants, and sights of interest – though he figured their definition of interest was much different than his. He walked past each one without looking at or caring what they promoted. So far as he was concerned, two weeks spent alone in his room at his mother’s house would be just fine. At least then he could practice his songs and get something useful out of the trip.

As he passed the last of the kiosks he glanced up to see who waited to meet him. If there’d been someone to bet with, he would have laid good money down on a lackey from the museum. It wouldn’t have been the first time, and he didn’t see any reason why the trend would be bucked now. But to his surprise, standing near the tram terminal that covered the short distance between the spaceport and the domed city of Arcadia, was his mother.

As Shawn got older, he hated when friends and classmates saw pictures of his mom because, inevitably, they whistled and made comments about how attractive she was. He knew they said that stuff to bother him, but that didn’t mean they weren’t being honest too. Yes, for all her flaws as a mother, Dr. Alicia Campbell was pretty, but he thought the lines of her features were too sharp, too precise – high cheekbones, pointed chin, thin lips. Her long red hair should have warmed her appearance, but even there she seemed too perfectly combed and shaped. The icy blue eyes that looked out from her face, her slender build, and the perfectly pressed material of her charcoal gray slacks and suit jacket completed the image of the upwardly mobile, educated professional.

Despite his resentment, Shawn wouldn’t have minded sharing a few of her less severe features. He had her eyes – which Ilona never stopped telling him she loved – and the red hair that forever seemed disheveled on his head no matter what he put in it was a perfect color copy of hers, but his ruddy cheeks, round chin, and stocky build came compliments of his father.

His mother’s lips curled into a broad smile as he approached, and for a moment he was taken aback, remembering the woman he’d known as a child, back before she’d gotten the museum director job and left her family. It was an odd sensation, and his feet nearly tripped over themselves.

“
Shawn,” she said, her voice loud enough to be heard over the spaceport noise but not loud enough to attract unnecessary attention. If there was one thing his mother didn’t like, it was a spectacle.

He raised his free hand and waved. After stepping around families clustered at the city maps near the tram terminal, he approached her and set his bags down.

“
I hope you had a pleasant trip,” she said, stepping toward him. The hug she gave him was brief, but it was tighter than he’d expected.

“
It was fine, Mom.”

Stepping back, she looked him up and down slowly. Her scrutiny made him fell like she was cataloging an item in her collection, making sure nothing was damaged or out of place. Once she completed her review she said, “I don’t like to rush, but the tram is about to depart, and the next one won’t be around for another ten minutes, so if we want to make it we should leave now.”

Shawn bent over and picked his bags up with a short sigh. “Yeah, I’d hate to stand around hugging and making a scene.”

“
That…” She looked like she wanted to say more, but instead she stood silent, hurt and anger flashing in her eyes.

He was glad, happy to know he’d struck home, but part of him regretted continuing their old antagonism. Everyone told him he should try to find a way to be closer, to have a relationship that went beyond curt emails and vid chats, and he knew they were right, but deep down he still felt betrayed, and because of that he lashed out.

“
That isn’t what I meant,” she finally said, looking in his eyes and then glancing away.

His face warmed and the muscles of his neck bunched together as he struggled with his frustration, both at himself and at the woman in front of him. “Yeah, I know. Whatever. Let’s... just go.”

She tilted her head up to look at him, and this time her stare didn’t waver. Words piled up behind her thin lips, and in that moment he wanted them. He didn’t care if they were words of anger or regret or even love. He just wanted to hear her say something other than the perfunctory lines that had been her script since the divorce. The setting was terrible, yet the moment was perfect. But, instead, she turned and gestured with her perfectly manicured hand toward the tram terminal. The walk toward it was silent.

The tram to the dome-covered city of Arcadia was crowded, but the trip was thankfully short, and they quickly found an auto-taxi to take them to the townhouse where his mother lived. It was in the more affluent section of Arcadia, if Arcadia could be said to have affluence. Most of the buildings in the dome were made of standard issue prefab material, but the buildings in her neighborhood were built of actual brown and red bricks - a premium item for a lunar colony. In front of the townhome was a small courtyard crowded with flowers and tall plants that perfumed the air with sweet, earthy scents.

When they neared the entrance, a speaker above the door crackled to life and a synthesized voice said, “Welcome home, Shawn.” The door swung open automatically.

“
I see you still haven’t upgraded the domestic AI,” he said, crossing the threshold into the house. Lights were already on in the foyer, flooding the space with a bright glow, but gooseflesh broke out on his arms at a sudden drop in temperature. His mother liked her home to be exactly like the museum – well lit and cold.

Behind him the door closed and she pressed her hand against a panel to lock it. “The house computer does what I need it too. That’s all I require.”

Shawn snorted. He shouldn’t have expected anything less. “You don’t know what you need if you don’t try newer systems out.”

His mother sighed and walked past him to the main living area. The beige walls and sand-colored floor tiles were pleasant, neutral colors that properly accented furniture just comfortable enough to be useful without being excessive in any particular way. Useful, appealing, and in its place – exactly how Dr. Alicia Campbell liked everything in her life.

“
Alex is already badgering me to upgrade. I don’t need you helping him.”

Shawn’s head jerked around at the mention of a guy. He thought he knew every man in his mother’s life, not that there were many to keep track of. Besides himself and his father, the only other guy Shawn knew to be in her life was Joseph Beddor, her assistant at the museum. Hearing her mention someone new startled him in ways he hadn’t expected.

“
Alex? Who’s that?”

She turning back to him with a strain around her eyes that said she wished she’d chosen her words more carefully. “He’s... someone I’ve been seeing for a couple of months.”

Shock rolled through Shawn’s mind like a thunderclap. Not once, in all the years his parents had been separated, had his mother ever dated someone. Not that he’d known about, at least. His father had remarried years ago, but his mother had stayed single. He’d assumed it was because her job had become her spouse. It would be hard to love someone else when every bit of her heart was already devoted to her precious, long-lost Titans.

“
A couple of months and this is the first time you mention him?” he asked.

The ice in her eyes thawed some with the warm blush that rose on her cheeks. “We’re still getting to know each other. I didn’t want to cause a scene.”

Shawn’s head spun at the unexpected turn his visit was already taking. For the first time in years, his mother seemed like an actual person, and he wasn’t sure how to deal with that. “He’s a guy you’re dating, Mom. Not a traffic accident.”

A hint of a smile touched her lips. “He’s a... good man. There’s a picture of him on the table behind you.”

Shawn turned toward a plush chair and side table. Knickknacks weren’t something his mother indulged in, so the framed photo sitting on the small table was all on its own. The tan face that looked out at him appeared older than that of his father, with gray around the temples and in the goatee that circled his mouth. Lines sat like canyons around deep-set brown eyes. The man had a ruggedness Shawn hadn’t anticipated his mother would find appealing, with a broad, easy smile. He seemed okay, at least so far as a picture could convey.

“
Is he in the museum biz too?” Shawn couldn’t think of any other way she would have met someone. Envisioning her in a singles bar was too much.

“
No. He’s an Alliance Federal Investigator.”

Surprise rolled through Shawn a second time, tilting the floor beneath his feet. “A fed? Really?”

“
Yes. He came by the museum to do an inspection of our security system after being transferred here. We chatted, and he asked me out. We’ve been seeing each other off and on since then. I wouldn’t classify him as a ‘boyfriend,’ but I’m fond of him.” Her eyes lost focus and drifted, and her smile widened, but she shook her head before it could grow too large. “Anyway, enough about that. Finish taking your bags upstairs. Dinner is heating in the kitchen.”

“
Can I at least take a shower?” he asked over his shoulder as he walked toward the stairs, amazement still sizzling across his synapses.

“
I encourage it.”

He wasn’t sure if that was a joke or not, and he wasn’t prepared to deal with it if it was. For too many years his mother had been a distant, cold figure. Now she was dating someone, someone with a gun and a badge no less. Adding humor to her personality seemed like too much. His universe could handle only so much change.

“
I also need to call home to let them know I got in okay.”

“
Fine. Speaking of which, when will I be meeting this Ilona?”

Shawn sighed as his feet took him up the first set of steps. “Soon, okay? I’ll be down in a few.”

His mother didn’t say anything further, so Shawn lugged his bags up the stairs. Her guest room was nicely appointed, but the too clean furniture and lack of decorations made it feel more like a hotel room than a home. He put his backpack on the dresser, set his guitar on the floor next to the bed, and fell back onto the mattress with a huff. After taking a moment to catch his breath he put his comm glasses on and hit the power button. “Call dad.”

A comm line opened, and Shawn imagined colorful transmission streams spiraling through multiple wormholes as he reached out to Mars. Seconds later his father’s plump face hovered before his eyes.

“
Hey, Son!” Robert Campbell said, his eyes bright and mouth open in a toothy grin. “Looks like you got in okay.”