In Every Eden (The Heroes We Can Afford)

Chapter 20: Inside and Out

 Morgan scrubbed down and dressed himself in the ill-fitting jumpsuit the guards threw at him off and shoved him unceremoniously into a cell.  The bars generated a plasma field between them.  A blue shimmering field that made a harsh buzz and left a strong smell of ozone in the air.

He settled carefully into the lower bunk. He still shook, although not as bad as before, and the metal frame of the bed, cheap as only furniture built to hold up in low gravity was cheap, rattled fiercely.

His head was buzzing, and not just from the last shuddering effects of the stun.  Too much had been happening, he needed to think it out.  In a way he was almost grateful for the cell. At least it was quiet.

“Whoa there, Earth, that you?”

A grinning face appeared from the bunk above.

“Void!  You look like recycled waste, buddy.  And that smell, is that you?”

Hector Rukh.  So much for quiet.

“Ah, seal up, will you, Hector?   I've had me a day.”

“Yeah, I'll bet you did.  Void, from what I heard, you had that and then some.  You've been flying off sensors for a couple of shifts now.  When the Militia came for the Captain and me they said they lost your as during those first riots down by the docks.  And the Captain was a all worried about you and shit, but I was like if there's anyone can handle himself in a riot, it's Earthside.  Shit, Morgan Gannis loves a good riot, you know...”

“Yeah, a little.”  He chuckled and then winced as pain shot out from a rib.  “Less fun than if looks, maybe.”

He closed his eyes and let Hector keep talking while he unraveled the tangled weave of words coming out of his mouth.

“...and these Militia guys, no sense of humor.  I mean, these guys are supposed to be your buddies, right?  Well, with friends like those, let me tell you...”

“Wait, hold up a moment, Hector.  What did you mean by 'first' riot?”

“Well, you see, and this might be a little complicated for a dirtwalker, so try to follow along, huh?  But where I learned numbers, 'first' generally indicated the part of a sequence that came before 'second'.  We're dealing with single digits here, so you shouldn't have to take your shoes off to count, which is probably a good thing, because if you smell like this with them on... ow!  Hey!”

Morgan slammed a hand into the underside of Hector's bunk.

“So there was second riot, huh?”

“Wow, where you been hiding out these last couple of shifts?  Yeah there was.  A bunch of those guys from that other moon...”

“Xbalanque.  The Jaguar Sun.”

“Yeah, them.  Well last sleep shift, they broke into the storage warehouses, you know, just past the monorail docks?  Anyway, they cleaned out a whole storage unit before the Militia busted them up.  A whole bunch got nabbed and the miners started a little 'welcome party' for them here, it was quite a bash, before the Militia stunned them all.  A 'bash', get it?  It's a bash, see, because...”

“Yeah, got it.”  'Direct Action' huh?  What had they taken?  What were 'his' Greens up to?

Morgan picked another thread from the word tapestry.

“So, Suze got picked up too, you said?  And if she ain't here, then where is she?”

“'She'?  You mean your beloved Captain?  Well, while you two have been loafing here at the Planetary's expense, she's been out working tirelessly for her crew's interests, just like always.”

The Captain was standing just outside the cell, arms crossed and smile akimbo.  A Militia trooper frowned at her left elbow.  Her image shifted and wavered through the field.

“Hey!  Captain!  About time!  We getting out of here or what?  You cut us a deal?”  Hector leaped down from his bunk and sprinted right up to the bars.

“Got it in one, Rukh.  We've been released to the custody of...  of...”  She leaned around Hector to take a look at Morgan, who still lay aching in his bed.

“Morgan?  That you?  I'd heard that they had brought you in.  You alright?”

“Ah, it ain't nothing that won't grow back.”  He raised his head and managed a thin-lipped smile.

“That's what I like to hear.”  Her grin looked even more lop-sided than usual through the rippled field of plasma.

“Rukh here figured you were done for when he heard they'd lost you, wanted to make a run for it then and there, but I told him that if there was anyone who could take care of himself in a riot, it was Morgan Gannis.  I know how you love a good riot, shortpants.”

“Hey!  I never...”  Hector looked offended without any hint of guilt.

“Figured.”  Morgan's laugh rumbled low in his throat and his ribs paid the price.  But it was well worth paying to be back with his crew.  After several shifts spinning in Circles among the farmers of Xbalanque, there was a comfort in the familiar, even in jail.  Maybe even especially in jail.

“So what's the deal with this... ah... deal?”

“You do have a way with words, Rukh.”  The Captain laughed then tossed her head at her militia escort.  “This friendly representative of the law is here to take us to our new keeper.  We're on parole.”

The officer's datalenses lit up her eyes and the blue field disappeared from between the bars, although the stench of ozone remained.

“Vasca?”  Hector asked.

“Vasca.”  The cell opened and the Captain gestured them out.  Morgan groaned as he slowly levered himself up off the bunk.

They walked ahead of the Militia trooper's laser, out of the cell block and into the long, sterile hallway beyond.  There were troopers hurrying across a t-intersection at the end of the hall.  An official in a Conglomerate jumpsuit was arguing passionately with someone wearing the insignia of an officer in the Militia.

A door opened down the hall from them and a trio of figures emerged.  Two wore the khaki of the Colonial Militia, standing behind and to the sides, weapons out and at the ready, focused on the middle figure.  Tall, lanky, with a complexion so pale as to nearly by an albino, dressed in the faded blues of a uniform of some sort.  Morgan knew him.  The Tritonian from the riots.  

“Oy, lad!  No hard 'uns, boyo, see you 'round.”  The smell of spoiled milk came off him as he and his escorts passed going the other way.

“Three of us and we only got one guard and that one guy has two?  What, are we not dangerous enough or something?”  Hector followed them with a resentful glare.

“Fire your retros and back it up, spacer.”  The Captain put a hand on his shoulder.  “Not everything is a competition, Rukh.”

“I don't know, does seem a bit unfair.”  Both Hector and the Captain turned around and looked at Morgan.

“What?  It's a matter of principle.  I beat that guy at least once, you know.  Figure that should be worth something.”

The Captain shook her head.

“Hopeless, the pair of you.  Besides, you're both forgetting something.”

While she was talking, their guard stopped them and walked around to open a door.

“We're not prisoners anymore.  We're on parole.  Who's winning now, boys?”