The Fringe Wars

1.10

Building a Rebellion

"What do you mean, 'we're not leaving the Coast'?" Throttle asked. "Two hours ago, you couldn't wait to leave."

"Change of plans. We've got to talk," Reyne said and plopped down on a seat in the commons. He looked around. "Where's Sixx?"

Throttle fidgeted. "He..."

"He stepped out to see someone," Doc said. "He said he'd be back before thirteen-twenty."

Reyne muttered a string of curses.

Boden, who lounged in his chair across the table from Reyne, nodded to the doorway. "Speak of the devil."

Reyne turned to see Sixx walk in. Reyne kicked out of his chair and pointed. "You can't keep it in your pants long enough to look after the crew?"

Sixx scowled. "Boden had things covered. I had to see someone." He paused. "It won't happen again."

"Damn it, Sixx. If something had happened, it'd be on you."

Sixx held up his hands in defeat. "I know, I know. I'm sorry. I made a mistake."

Reyne froze, shocked at Sixx's words. "Whoa. Hold on. You never apologize."

Sixx grabbed a drink. Everyone watched as he took a long swig in silence. When he finally spoke, his words were barely above a whisper. "I heard a rumor that Qelle was here."

Reyne's jaw dropped. "Your wife?"

Boden frowned. "I thought she was dead."

"She is," Reyne said. "Or, at least she's believed to be. She was on a CUF hauler when it went off-grid. Neither that ship nor any of its crew has ever been recovered." He turned back to his friend. "Sixx, she's gone."

"I know." He pulled out his comm. "Kason still runs searches across all video channels for me. He sent me a feed from Nova Colony's hallways. It's grainy and dark, but it came back as a seventy-nine percent match. It's Qelle. I know it."

He handed his comm to Reyne, who examined the lo-res video. "It's too poor quality to make out anyone. If it was Qelle, why didn't she contact you?"

Sixx slumped into a chair. "I don't know, but I can't shake the feeling that she's still out there, somewhere."

Reyne made a mental note to tell Kason to not send any more videos to Sixx. It did no good to get the man's hopes up when his wife had been lost to the abyss over ten years earlier.

No one spoke for a long moment. Sixx looked up. "What are we sitting around for? Let's get the hell out of here."

"Change of plans," Throttle said, echoing Reyne's earlier words.

"Shit. That's never a good sign." Sixx eyed Reyne. "How dangerous is it?"

Reyne sighed and pulled his torrent pendant out from under his shirt. "As dangerous as it gets."

*

Two days later

"How long do we have to sit around on our asses and wait for our next run? So far, being a torrent runner is boring," Throttle said as she organized the cabinets in the commons for the umpteenth time.

"Remember how I said that boring is good when it comes to flying?"

"Yeah?"

"It's also good when it comes to being a torrent."

She blew out a sigh. Reyne ignored her and kept reading.

"Look at the bright side," Sixx said, not taking his eyes off the news. "As long as we're sitting in a dock, we're not doing anything that would get us locked up in the Citadel."