Redemption(16)

"The Defiant is breaking orbit," Doc said after a few more strident messages hit their com node. "She's coming about and looks to be pursuing."



"So much for being long gone by the time they found out," Jason said.

"Don't blame me," Kage said. "I can only do so much. There wasn't enough traffic on that downlink to hide in. They were always going to find out I'd been there."

"I wasn't blaming you," Jason said. "Instead of whining about it, why don't you get our slip-space vector ready and I'll get the drive online."

Jason could see on his display that the Defiant was making a good show of trying to catch him, but Kellea knew her ship didn't have a chance of running the Phoenix down. Given the headstart they had on the battlecruiser he assumed they were just trying to make it look like they'd done everything in their power to catch the fleeing gunship.

"Course is ready and locked in," Kage said.

"Let's go get our boy," Jason said and slapped the control pad near his right thigh. With a slight shudder the Phoenix jumped into slip-space and far away from the trouble they'd caused in the Faulli System.





Chapter 5




Jason walked back into the com room and shut the door, dreading what was coming next. He'd seen from the pilot's seat that there were two messages waiting in his queue, each from a familiar com node address. He selected the least distasteful message first.

"Captain Burke," Crisstof greeted him cordially though his face showed a barely contained fury. "I'm not going to pretend I don't sympathize with your situation nor am I particularly surprised by the extreme nature of the action you've taken ... but I hope you fully understood the ramifications of those actions before you took it upon yourself to violate the trust of myself and my ship's captain.

"You have destroyed our negotiations with the Faullian government. I won't bother going into what that means since you quite obviously do not care about the larger scope of things around you. As of now I am cutting all ties with your organization. Your operational accounts are suspended, all our resources will be made unavailable, and all my carefully cultivated contacts across the quadrant will be notified that you no longer represent me or my interests." Crisstof paused, looking away from the camera as if collecting his thoughts.

"As I said ... I am not unsympathetic. I just don't have the luxury of indulging in my every impulse without a moment of thought. I hope you find Crusher alive and well. Goodbye, Jason."

"That man loves the sound of his own voice," Jason muttered as he flipped over to the message he was dreading. He wasn't sure what emotional state Kellea would be in, but he could see right away from her face that it was a good thing that he was a few lightyears away at that moment.

"You bottom-feeding asshole," she said without preamble. Jason winced. So it was going to be that kind of message.

"I cannot imagine what was going through your head to think that drugging me was somehow a good plan. You have put my career, my entire life at risk. I now have to prove to Crisstof that I am not a security risk, but thanks to your selfishness that's going to be exceedingly difficult. Did it ever occur to you to just ask for my help so we could work on the problem together? At the first bit of difficulty your first solution was to betray me and run away like a coward. Do not bother replying to this message, and in case you're so dense you can't figure it out, whatever was going on between us is finished." She closed the channel with a vicious stab of her finger and the display went dark.

Jason leaned back in his seat, trying to sort his feelings out about both messages. He couldn't care less about pissing off Crisstof, though losing the resources he provided was a major blow to their operation. The end of his relationship with Kellea, however, was something he had mixed feelings about. He wasn't happy it was over, of course, but he also firmly believed that he'd done the only thing he could to guarantee they got the information they needed to find Crusher.

"I thought the bottom-feeding asshole part was a bit harsh," Kage's voice came over the intercom just as one of the monitor's lit up, showing the Veran's face.

"Are you kidding me?" Jason snapped. "Is there nothing sacred to you?"

"Oh please," Kage said. "You think you're the first one to get dumped by a woman because you drugged her and stole something?"

"I don't even want to entertain this conversation," Jason said. Just as he reached over to switch the feed off, he heard a muted snort. "Who else is there enjoying the show?"

"Hey, Captain," Twingo said, his face coming into the frame. "We were just checking to make sure you were okay."