Girls' Day Out

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Kim and I got this one done at the last minute and wow, was it fun. ^_^ Thanks, Kim!--Maer


Kiera looked around her cabin, pursing her lips. Spartan, spare, nothing in it indicated that she lived there or would live there. She could be gone tomorrow and the cabin would still be there, waiting for its next occupant, nothing needing to be done except for changing the sheets. Only the rock holding the door open was really hers; she had found it on one of her walks before the snow set in, striped and freckled black on white quartz. She was fond of it, but didn't know what to do with it when the annoying Smartship program finally worked and the door would stay open or closed on its own. The thought of being killed by the thing hurtling through the air during one of this crew's frequent, crazy maneuvers did nothing to make her want to keep it. But it was her rock. It was irrational, but she knew that she probably try to store it somewhere. It really wasn't that big of a rock at all.

She sighed and flopped onto the bed, a bit puzzled. She had never even decorated any of her containers. It seemed a waste of time. A photo, a holo, anything that showed a potential enemy that there was someone that she cared for just wasn't gonna be put up. Hell, she had even left the holos of her favorite horse and dog behind. It had not made sense to take them when she was only going to university. And then when she had graduated she had never really set up a home for anything to be moved from her old rooms at her parent's house. A wry smile lit her face.

Her father had probably had everything packed up and in storage the moment that she walked away from her practice. Or had just had it packed and sold it all. She knew that she hadn't been the daughter that he thought that he deserved. And yet she knew that if she'd just come back and re-open the office and be the child that he and her mother could brag about to their friends, then all would be forgiven. She was fairly certain of that; he had hinted as much in their last communication. It was more than it wasn't useful to his career or really something that his trophy wife could brag about at the country club. Ah well, came the echo of her father's distinguished voice, she's a freelance doctor. You know, thieving and slumming her skills across the Black. Could have used those skills here in the Core and made some money, but no, she wanted to run around with the scum of the stars. Very proud. Very proud.

She couldn't help but grin. She'd go back one day, but she was still young and wasn't ready to be responsible, upstanding and trotted out for corporate events, dinner parties and cocktail parties of the rich and uptight. That is if she didn't get killed beforehand. The wounds that the Stitches had dealt her were still stiff as a board. She’d have to talk Arden through the surgery to remove and reduce the scars; right now, her torso looked as if it went through a meat grinder and felt just about as good. She stood up on the bed, bouncing lightly. The room was still bare and all this thinking wasn't doing anything to make that different.

All the knickknacks of one's life and she had none of them. Except a rock. She jumped down off the bed and went to find Rina or Joshua. She needed some paint.

---

Monday, 22 Dec 2521
Johannsen/Earhart Ranch
0930hrs, local time

Living dirtside had its advantages: air and water you didn't have to make, gravity free for the asking, food that wasn't grown in a vat. There were disadvantages as well. Weather, for one; sunrise the other. Even though I was long accustomed to rising at 0530 hours every morning shipside, keeping to that same schedule dirtside was impossible. By some unexplained terrestrial voodoo, I would invariably find it harder and harder to rise in the darkness, instead waking ever later until I woke with the sun. This time of year made sunrise almost three hours later than usual. Joshua, however, was more flexible and often he would be gone by the time I finally pried my eyelids open.

I'd just changed into a clean pair of borrowed coveralls and was washing up the breakfast things when I heard someone's steps ringing on the porch of the guest house. I recognized the ambulatory cadence and I hollered over the water running in the sink, “It’s open, Kiera. Come on in."

---

Keira pushed open the door. "Wanna go shopping? And what kinda paint sticks on the walls of the cabins? I don't think I can stand those blank walls in my room anymore."

---

"Sure," I said, cutting a look at her as she took a seat at the table. "Could use a change or two. As for the paint ...." I turned off the water and started scrubbing. "Metal walls. Powder-coated factory finish. There’s enough nap to the surface that regular house paint should stick." I glanced at her again as I rinsed a dish. "If you paint your walls, you can kiss your security deposit goodbye."

---

That brought a hearty laugh. "I can repaint before I move, ma'am. I promise." She watched Rina wash for a moment and then said, "Need someone to dry?"

---

"Incoming." I pulled the dishtowel off the drawer pull and tossed it to her.

---

Kiera rose to her feet and settled in beside her, taking the first wet dish. "I want to paint a mural. Not just one color." She looked thoughtful as she put the dish down and picked up another. "Although the other three walls might be nice painted too. But there's nothing of mine there. I don't have anything but a rock." She looked at Rina a bit sheepishly. "Probably shouldn't keep it. One barrel roll and it will knock me dead. But the door stays open for now."

---

"V'seriozna? A rock?" I handed her a glass. "So stow it, you goon. It can't brain you if it's contained somewhere. Beglan and I pretty much got the doors off the SmartShip system. You can’t lock it but you can operate it on your own power. I'll be happy to check it if you're having problems with it."

---

Kiera looked sheepish. "Got used to having it open and haven't even checked to see if it worked okay now. I can put the rock up, but," and she tilted her head as she took the glass, "I found it." It wasn't a good explanation at all and she knew it. Her eyes fell on Rina's, soft and amused. "I don't own anything anymore, Rina. Just a rock. It's mine. I sold the container for the cash. So all I got is the rock." She shrugged and reached for another glass.

---

"No, it's fine. A rock has many uses. Paperweight. Doorstop. Blackjack...." I chuckled. "Hell, Kiera, I've been reduced to less than the clothes on my back more than once. You always have to start over with something. A rock is as good as any other. Sorry about your container, though. I know what it's like to lose the tools of your trade, and a custom job, too. Sucks."

---

Her eyebrows came down over her eyes as she smiled. "Things come and go, Rina. Friends don't. I may have avoided having them, but there was a reason. You guys are a horrible liability for me now. You can be used against me. Anybody who knows me in the past knows that. I will kill to keep you guys safe." She winked. "I would tell you to keep that secret, but Nika would keelhaul me. But it's true. I am a softie." She took a plate and then looked around for where to put them after she dried them. The counter was rapidly filling up.

---

"Top left." I caught her eyeballing the kitchen. "Just stack'em with their mates." I scrubbed the last dish and rinsed it. "As for the rest of it, we become liabilities the second we're conceived, Kiera. There's a saying: We all enter this world naked, screaming, and covered in someone else's blood. And if we live our lives right, that sort of thing doesn't have to end there."

I yanked the plug and rinsed the suds down the drain, then dried off with another dishtowel and hung it on a convenient drawer pull to dry. I leaned against the sink to regard Kiera.

"I've been meaning to take some of my pay and go shopping for some clothes. It would be nice to have skivvies to call my own. More than nice, actually." I suppressed a cringe. I could plunge my arms full length into festering rat stew, I could gut game barehanded, I can make myself tinker with a freakin' dirty bomb while unprotected, but the prospect of wearing someone else's borrowed underwear just made my skin crawl. Everyone has their squick buttons and that one just happened to be one of mine.

---

Kiera finished drying the last of the dishes and put them up. "So, wanna go to town, missy," she asked in her best Rim drawl, "and find us some duds and some undies that nobody's hinny has touched?"

---

"Sounds like a plan." I grinned. "Just gotta leave a note." I grabbed what I needed out of the junk drawer and scrawled a hasty message: J: Out to town. Buying pfx. Back after lunch. --M. I pinned it to the fridge with a magnet and turned around. "After you."

---

Kiera almost danced out the door; she hadn't left farther than she could walk and the thought of going somewhere almost made her giddy. "You think that they will let us borrow the mule? If I'm along," she clarified.

---

"I doubt it'll be a problem. Should there be?" I pulled my jacket off the door-side rack—another borrowed item—and shrugged into it.

---

Kiera laughed. "My name is mud here, lady. I can't stroll up to this bar and get a beer." She leered. "You are running with the bad crowd. And I'm gonna make you try on sexy underwear."

---

"So we'll avoid the bars,” I replied, deliberately missing the point. I didn’t want to go there. “If you gotta drink, we'll buy a bottle and share it when we get back." I hit the porch and took the three steps down, my boots crunching on newly iced-over snow. The barn wasn't too far away and the temps weren't too punishing to make the trip hell. Still, I pulled my hat and gloves from my coat pockets and donned them. The mule had an open cab and once we got going, the wind chill would be brutal. I turned around and spoke on, walking backward. "And I don't care how sexy you think it is, I am not trying on butt floss. You pull any of that crap on me, I'm driving home and leaving you high and dry."

---

Kiera made a face. "Butt floss ain't sexy, it's damn uncomfortable. Sexy, girl, not torturous." She strode through the snow, jamming her hands into her pockets. "You gotta help me pick a nice outfit. I want a set of work clothes and a set of nice clothes. The casual and the medcoat I can pick, but work clothes that I can wear to help you around the ship or nice things, I'm rusty at."

---

"You know you're asking the wrong person for that, right?" I said as I got behind the wheel. The engine turned over and purred like a kitten, just as I'd tuned her. I put her in gear and pulled away from the barn. "I spend my days in coveralls and cargo pants. You sure you want my opinion on the feminine and frilly?"

---

An eyebrow raised. "Just cus' you dress like a boy doesn't mean that you can't give some helpful advice on pretty, Rina. You know what is pretty and or sexy. I don't necessarily want frilly. I tend to look better in more conservative fancy dress. More classic and modern than Rim frilly. I don't tend to project girly, do I?"

---

I slid a look at her and raised a brow and said nothing. A knockout redhead, Kiera had to be joking.

---

Kiera noted the brow. "What?" she asked. "What is girly about gunning you down or being otherwise coated in blood? I ain't girly. If you ain't noticed, I tend to drive men away. Hell, I couldn't even get Beggar to dance more than a bit."

---

“Point to the lady,” I conceded. “Although I don’t recall you gunning me down. Still, you have to admit, Kiera, you’re a stunner even if you aren’t girly. You own every room you walk into.”

---

"Cus' I'm a bitch," Kiera retorted with a laugh. "You ain't no bag of potatoes, lady. Oh, before you demur, let me point out the cutie whose bed you share." She winked. "And on that note, please keep the noise to a minimum until I can get a stereo or something. We do share a wall."

---

It was a damned good thing the mule was the hover type. Had there been rubber on the road, I would have skidded us clean into a ditch at her comment about the wall. Or Joshua. Both, actually. I stared straight ahead through the windshield and kept on driving.

---

Well, now there was silence, Kiera thought. "Hey, everything went quiet. What's up?"

---

"Compliments. Private life. Me. Not an easy combination." It wasn't, really. "Let's leave it that."

---

Kiera looked ahead and nodded. "Consider the subject changed." She was quiet for a moment and then asked, "Will you let me help you pick out something nice? I'd love to see you in something other than coveralls. Please tell me to shut up. I can't stand silence like this and I will babble."

---

Interesting. I filed that away for future reference and relented. I glanced her way and turned my eyes back to the road. Hover vehicle or not, it didn't mean I could get careless with the driving. "To be honest, I'd look ridiculous in something prairie-frilly. Simple lines, solid colors. Nothing too complicated, but nothing too Core-side sterile either. Damn. Can't see how anyone could think wearing what amounts to pajamas is stylish."

---

"Gah!" The redhead just about spit. "Not that Core-ish. Something in the middle. Not frilly, not sterile. Have a little faith." She was silent for a while, watching the scenery roll by. "What's up with the Nika-Joshua captain thing?" she finally ventured. "I'm kinda curious. Joshua hired me when he was Captain, but I'm not certain that Nika will hold to that deal."

---

"I don't know," I sighed. "I'm not touching that one. Let them work it out, Kiera. The less cooks involved in that stew, the better." I spied the sign pointing the way to Vandenberg and made the requisite turn. "Nika and Joshua don't dictate to me what I do in the engine room. I don't tell them how to do their jobs either."

---

The answering smile was bright but tempered. "As long as I have a job, I don't really care. So, you know, you've never told me about yourself. Wanna trade questions? You can pass if you don't wanna answer."

---

Ask me anything. Those words I’d uttered on Meadow had come back to haunt me and for a second I debated the wisdom of leaving myself open like that. To be sure, we had just come down from a hellish situation and I’d been overwhelmingly glad to be alive. A good portion of it was completely due to her pulling our collective asses out of the fire. My forgiveness was born of that and the realization that one could carry a grudge only so far before it killed you. Like swallowing poison, it was ultimately deadly and I was tired of grinding axes. So I'd forgiven her and opened a door that she was now walking through. How much of my house did I want to show her, how detailed a cook's tour did I owe?

She'd seen me naked, wounded, and covered in blood. She'd sewn me up, likely saved my life, and saved Joshua at least once. She'd also stabbed us in the back and delivered us to the man who would have tortured us to death. I had to weigh that against the possibility that her repentance and remorse were genuine and as I'd done on Meadow, I didn't overthink it but went with my gut.

"So long as you understand there are things I can't answer, sure." Why the hell not? Quid pro quo. I might learn something.

---

"What system were you born in?" Kiera asked. Not the planet. Rina had waited too long to answer, was cagey and not coming off of it. Friends maybe, but not buddies. She was still on the outside. She swallowed, aware that she might always be on the outside looking in. Time would tell if they had the forgiveness that they preached and espoused. She couldn't quite hide the flicker of irritation in her eyes, but she was looking at the windshield. Always the wall with them. Ezekiel had taught her how to take hers down; she was trying to be the person who they had said that they wanted her to be. Before the corporate world, before the expectations of her parents, before the rules and regs of the underworld and the harsh lessons of life. She was realistic enough to know that it would not come quickly, but she had never been gifted with patience.

---

What system were you born in? Not What planet were you born on? What system. She’d given me an out and by that I understood she didn’t expect me to trust her. I had a choice. I could give her Marina’s or I could give her mine. Mine, not even Joshua knew. Nor Nika. Did I really want to hand it over on a platter to Kiera? It wasn’t just my own neck on the block if I misjudged her, but my entire family. I’d forgiven Kiera for her part in handing us to Potemkin, but forgiveness wasn’t the same thing as trust. Forgiveness is given, but trust is earned. It was a distinction I understood, even if others didn’t.

“Georgia,” I said, planting Marina firmly in the mule with us. “You?”

---

"Londinium. But I think you knew that." She continued to look outside the mule, trying to keep the situation from seeming like an interrogation. It was small talk and yet so much more. An attempt to begin to reach out by her, to get to know these people beyond the stress of each frying pan into the fire situation that they seemed to get into. Unlike the others, she was beginning to think that she had nothing to hide; what little she had found out about them told her that she had been pretty small fish. With sufficient resources, her background was fairly easy to find. She didn't talk about it much, but it wasn't hidden. Didn't need to be. It would take a lot to get to her parents. She was their weak spot, not the reverse. A ghost of a smile ran over her lips. That is why she just went by Kiera most of the time. "So what did you study to do? Was it always mechanics?" she asked after a moment.

---

Londinium. Huh. We're practically neighbors. Not that I could ever tell her. I could see the conversation was limping to a halt and I took pity on her. She was trying to carry it forward and I was giving her jack to work with. Her next question, however, landed me in safe territory and I was grateful for it.

"Mechanics. Engineering. Tech. Science. Math," I said. "If it had moving parts or electronics, if it used power or made it, if it could be applied to any of the above, I loved it and wanted it. Drove my family nuts the day I discovered the screwdriver. I'd dismantled quite a bit before they managed to take it away from me and even then, it took them months to find everything I'd loosened. Where most toddlers asked 'why?' I asked 'how?' By the time most were asking how something worked, I wanted to know how to make it work better. I learned early on that everything was a machine, either mechanical or biological, and science and math could describe the workings of both." I chuckled. "I think my teachers secretly hated to have me in their class as much as I loved being there to pick their brains. Needless to say, most people didn't know what to do with me and for the most part, I didn't know what to do with them. I had a hard time finding common ground. My people skills aren't what you'd call stellar and that's partially the reason why. You, on the other hand, strike me as someone who knows how to work a room and own it. Is that what you were raised to do? Were you groomed for it? To take over your father's business?"

---

Kiera shook her head slightly, glancing at Rina. Ah, sturdier ground. "Not really. If my father doesn't disown me, I'll have a hand in it later, but mainly as a silent board member who is expected to stay quiet and let everyone else make the money for me. I was raised to be the perfect daughter of a trophy wife and a rather successful businessman. My job was to charm people at their parties, mix well, converse well and fulfill my destiny with a career that they could talk about with their friends and enemies. I did it as well as I could." A snort and she added, "I'm not good at meeting people's expectations. My instinct is to actively try not to meet them. I suppose that I was born to rebel against authority. It started early with me. My early years were very structured you see." She took a deep breath. "Did you have a nice childhood? What pets did you have? I can guess that dolls weren't your first interest?" Her gaze went from the window to Rina to give her a wink before falling back to the passing scenery. Keep it light Kiera. Don't pin her and make her quiet. It's too damn far between the farm and the city to ride it in silence with company. That's a lonely worse than being alone.

---

“Funny you should mention dolls. You could say it was dolls that got me in trouble. Nearly burned the house down.” I cut a glance her way to see how Kiera took it.

---

That got her a steady stare. "Care to explain?" she answered with a raised eyebrow.

---

"My father made matrouskas one year on his lathe. I was ... four? five? He wouldn't let me help. I got booted out of his work shop and I snuck in after lights out and turned it on. Then I had to find out how it worked. Next thing I knew I had the panel on it open and it was on fire and ... Well, let's just say Father was quicker with the extinguisher than the fire was on the lathe. We spent the next two months rebuilding it."

---

Kiera grinned. "And I thought that flunking out of med school was bad. I never set anything on fire." She paused for effect, looking away and then back. "You haven't done anything like that recently. You know, like with a ship engine or something. Like before I met you. . .this is a new ship we stole. Kinda like it in one piece." She stole a look to see the offense on Rina's face before laughing. "I really like the Equinox. It's a new beginning, a new start on a new ship. New horizons maybe. No more lurking from place to place.' She took a long breath and let it out between her lips. "So how'd you end up sailing the Black? Long way from lathes to ship engines."

---

Not on fire. In one piece. Wasn't me that did that to our girl. I white-knuckled the wheel and got a grip. She's yanking your chain.

"As for how I ended up out here? I signed up with the military, convinced them there wasn't a better engineer in the Verse but me. Shipped out. Saw the Verse. Saw more than I bargained for. War. Peace. Or what passed for peace anyway."

---

"Sorry to admit that I never saw service." Which side? her mind screamed to know, but she tamped it down. "I reckon that you were right, Rina. You're pretty amazing with machines." The next argument in her head was brief; she had seen the white knuckles on the wheel, inferred immediately what had caused it. Well, Kieracat, in for a credit, in for a platinum. "Is that where you met Mike and Nika?" She couldn't see Arden in the military at all, Browncoat or Alliance. Period.

---

"I met Mike first, during the War. Met Nika after it. But both were in it." I kept my mouth shut on the closer connection between the two. It wasn't my story to tell. "Arden was a passenger on the Gift. I was already the mechanic on her, so that's how we met. Over the years people came and went, paying passage, hauling cargo. Most reached port and left. Some stayed. God knows why. You could probably answer that one."

---

"Nope,' Kiera replied. "Can't answer. Can only answer for me and sometimes I don't even know why I'm here." The edge of the city was fast approaching; she could only slip in one more question before they hit the stores. "You guys help Joshua escape from Blue Sun or did he stumble out on his own?" It was the one that she might not answer, but Joshua was still the mystery snake that could bite. That Rina and Mike were a couple and Mike was secret ops, well, she'd have to have been blind, dumb and deaf to not guess that. That alone would make Rina twitchy anywhere, much less the Core. Arden had spilled the beans on his and Nika's adventures. Not all, but enough to tell her why they were reluctant to go Coreward. But Joshua? Did they let him go on purpose or did he escape? It made a difference.

Before Rina could answer or not, she told her just that, wanting to be honest with her. They didn't trust her; well hell, she had told them not to. But Nika had sworn her not to lie and everyone wanted the truth. Well, she'd let them know what she was thinking and mostly how she got there if it pissed them off or not. Honest until it kills them. That worked too. Rina was right. She had been raised to play the room and get people. She could roll with the best of them; it was her talent and one that her father had taught her well. That she wasn't there where he could use it was his own fault; he had held too damn tight a rein. But she knew her craft and she knew to look for the blackness in the Equinox's crew now. They weren't angels. She wasn't either. To be honest, she probably didn't trust them to tell her what she needed to know to get her job done any more than they trusted her. That was the underworld that she knew. They've be mighty offended to know that she compared them to the scum of the Black. But in many ways that was the way they operated. Maybe more upstanding, maybe morally better, but they were "family" and one had to watch one's back with "families" that weren't your own. She studied the buildings quickly approaching and waited for the silence or the answer.

---

Did they let him go on purpose or did he escape? It was a question that had occurred to me several times soon after Joshua joined us. How better to plant a spy than by presenting him as a victim in need of rescuing? Or as an ally gained under fire. Joshua certainly covered both bases. But that would presuppose our circle was one that needed infiltrating and the events that followed proved otherwise.

"Do any of us truly escape our past?" I slowed as we hit the edge of town. "We can live in fear of it or in defiance of it. Mostly we do a little bit of both."

---

The barest edge of irritation showed in her voice. "Rina, I'm not being nosy for nosy's sake. If I wanted a Shepherd's answer, I'd go find one. I just told you that I'm a bit concerned about leading you guys deeper into the Core cus' everything that I’ve sussed about you says that you all don't need to be going there at all. Joshua is the last mystery. I don't know if Blue Sun is looking for him. I don't want to found out that there is a bounty on him and my friends will be dancing for joy that I brought him to them. I've re-activated old aquaintances that aren't the best of people. They are damn useful, but there are no friends in that world. We understand that with each other. But I'm bringing people that I call friends now to meet with that world. I don't want to find out that I've thrown you all to the wolves again by accident." She looked at Rina earnestly, a softly worried smile on her face. "I don't want to ever do that to you guys again. I've been yelled at for almost two months for not getting enough information on Potemkin. Well, now I'm doing my homework and I'm being stonewalled by the very people that want me to check everything out. Do you understand if I'm a bit peeved?"

---

Ask me anything, I'd said to her once. Time to stand by it. "I wasn't trying to be evasive. I was just making an observation. But in truth, I can't be certain if Joshua managed to escape on his own or if he was let go as part of a Blue Sun conspiracy. Is he a sleeper agent? Or is he free of their control? I don't know. He doesn't either. For his sake, I want to believe that he isn't a mole, that he's really free." I kept my eyes on the streets now that traffic was heavier, mixed with pedestrians. "I have to believe. If I doubted it, he'd pick up on it and it would ruin his confidence and that would ruin everything he's managed to build for himself. Blue Sun has taken so many lives away, Kiera. It's time we saved one back." There was a more compelling reason I believed in him, but reckoned it didn't need mentioning. I found a parking lot closer in to the commercial district. It was nothing more than a roped off square of dirt between some buildings and I nosed the mule where the attendant waved me. I pulled it to a stop and set the brake, cut the engine and twisted in my seat to face Kiera square.

"Joshua doesn't know how long he's been in Blue Sun hands or how many Borrowings he's done. Some of them they've erased clean off his memory, like wiping a chip. There's no telling what enemies from his past jobs are waiting for him. But think on this: Blue Sun goes everywhere and so conceivably did he. So far, none of his past enemies have jumped at us and it's been over a year since we bloodied Blue Sun's nose. You think a corporation like that is going to wait to reclaim Joshua if they could?" I remembered kissing him before pulling the trigger on his gun, could still remember the shock of the bullet slamming into me. "They had him once. Put him under with code phrases. Made him their puppet. We managed to win free regardless and he overcame it. The fact that he could gives me hope he can do it again. As many times as it takes."

Wheels within wheels within wheels. I thought I left that crap behind on Highgate. I sighed.

"I don't have the answers you want Kiera. I'm sorry but I don't. If I had to make an educated guess, Blue Sun won't know we're flying Equinox. They'll be looking for Summer's Gift. If I had my druthers, I'd have fake IDs run up for every single one of us while we're in the Core. Disguise our footprints. Make as few signs we were there as possible. Get in, get out, get gone. We'd had the opportunity to do more with Foreman but I confess I wasn't exactly thinking that far ahead. I was in too much pain and drugged to the gills most of the time to think straight. Anyway," I added. "You can go crazy with the what-ifs and the if-onlys. Just plan for the worst, hope for the best, and keep your options open. You know, tighten your gut before the blow lands, roll with the punch."

---

The redhead listened carefully, nodding as Rina finished. She sighed deeply and then said, "Well I can't ask for more than that. Hang on a second before you get out and I'll give you one more thing about me and why I'm so worried and yet fascinated by your man." She swallowed and out of habit, glanced around them before leaning near to Rina. There was no one there of course, but she still looked.

"Just in case you wondered, yes, I've been kidnapped and held for ransom before. Stupid wealthy girls hanging around with the underworld are money on the hoof. Early in my criminal career and by a group that called themselves my ‘friends.’ She used the quote fingers with a wry smile. "Ransom demand was sent, what they got back was multiple time-stamped video clips showing me at one of the numerous minor charitable events on Londinium. I was supposedly just returned from Regina where I had helped with the setup of a clinic to deal with and research ‘Bowden's malady.’ The last video clip was of me and my father at our pool with my father calmly telling the kidnappers that he didn't know who they had, but his daughter was very safe and comfortable on the family compound. I went up to the camera and said a quite sassy hello to the poor slob who was impersonating me and then went back to sun myself on a chair. What little that my ‘friends’ could find out verified everything that was said and that it was true that I was currently back home on Londinium." Kiera looked at Rina, her eyes steady on the little engineer. "I know that my father hired someone like Joshua to be me. I know that they exist. I've done work on one other besides Joshua. I don't know why they have been let go. It makes me nervous." She suddenly leaned back. "It did accomplish the most important thing tho'. Word got around that Kiera Sullivan was a two-bit shyster surgeon who had work done to look like some wealthy girl who also was a doctor to try and get some better quality clients."

She abruptly grinned. "Covered my father's ass and mine all at once. Don't know what I'm supposedly doing now. I stopped keeping up with it a long time ago. I can't guess how much it cost him to arrange that. I know that my kidnappers made me work for free for them for a month before letting me go. Good introduction to that world and what kind of friends one finds there." She shook back a wave of red hair and then got out of the mule. "Come on," she said through the still open door. "I won't make you try on butt floss." Her green eyes turned wicked. "Besides I wanted to find you a dress that you won't need to wear underwear with." With that, she shut the door and waited for the engineer to join her.

---

There was no point in locking the doors. It was an open cab and nothing in the compartment was worth stealing. I pocketed the key and leaned against the mule, not going anywhere.

"You're lucky those friends of yours didn't kill you once the month was up. You had a month's worth of skeletons to expose. Why let you walk? Why suffer that liability? What did you do to convince them to let you go?" After all, the entire Verse had proof the kidnappers had nabbed the wrong girl. The ‘real’ Kiera Sullivan was safe with her family. The kidnappers had only a two-bit nobody. Killing her would have had no repercussions. The news that she'd been kidnapped and her father had refused ransom, had even arranged for a double to impersonate his daughter while she remained a captive ... the ruthlessness made my blood go cold. And yet, what did her father gain by having the name Kiera Sullivan tagged as a two-bit shyster surgeon? Sullying her name sullied his. Ruthless the man might be, but I knew types like him were too smart to exercise it to no advantage. "Was it staged against the kidnappers from the start? Did you and your father cook it up yourselves? Why? There's a puzzle piece missing."

---

The shrug was simple. "I didn't have anything to do with it except pray and be scared silly. He could have cooked it up. He's a brilliant businessman, ruthless as hell." Kiera looked at the storefronts, assessing the goods and wares within them, her lips pursing as she looked. "I'll never know, Rina. Even if I could find them again, they wouldn't tell me and he sure as hell won't either." She stopped midstride. "I don't talk to him. Asking him for that money for Nika's eyes was the first time that I've heard his voice and he mine in over three years. He asked that I not communicate with him again until I was willing to come back home and be the daughter that he wants me to be. I'm not ready yet, so I guess I'm gonna go radio silent. Sometimes, you can ask all the questions you want and the answers aren't what you want or aren't gonna come. You've as much told me that that is what I need to accept about Joshua and you, so I gonna be as honest as I can and tell you that I can't tell you what you wanna know. I don't know it either and frankly, don't give a damn to know." She abruptly turned back to the display window. "OOooo! That slinky number! You, me, in there, now!"

---

I expected something of the sort for an answer. I'd really only been thinking aloud and given my tendency to latch onto details like a bulldog, I didn’t realize I was doing it. So I let her pull me along the boardwalk and looked in the storefronts with her. And checked the street behind me in the reflections in the glass. I didn't think we were followed into town—the road was pretty damned empty in our wake—but town itself was a different matter. So Kiera window shopped and I kept my eyes peeled and listened to her reply. Her squeal, however, brought my head around and I followed her pointing finger to see a long fall of blood red hue. Then my boots were stumbling across the threshold of the boutique as Kiera dragged me inside.

It was dimmer indoors and the shop exuded a lush sensuality that had nothing of sleeze in it. It was all in the drape and cut of the clothing, the luxury of the fabric, the colors of everything in the store. Brown and navy, blood red and black, turquoise and touches of deep ochre and bittersweet orange. Garish enough in the telling but exquisite in the seeing. And feeling, as I brushed an evening gown with my hand as Kiera hauled me back to the storefront window. Simmering in the muted light streaming through the window sheers was the dress. It flowed effortlessly from the mannequin's shoulders, the seams at its sides discreetly bidding it to hug every curve nearly to the waist, there to fall gently to the ankles. I eyeballed the length, found it overlong and then considered the silhouette. It fell straight from the ribcage down in soft folds and lacked any horizontal element that would be lost if hemmed.

And I was already reallocating my expenses on my mental shopping list. Like that luscious blue dress Joshua had spied on Pericles Station, this dress was silk velvet and I wanted it. I had forty credits burning a hole in my pocket and swallowing hard against the inevitable disappointment, I reached for the tag.

I took in the price without comment. It wasn’t everything I had but nevertheless a sizable bite, nearly half. I looked at the dress again. Still… Turning around, I saw the attendant making her way toward us and it wasn’t long before I had that dress off the mannequin and myself installed behind a curtain to try it on. Years of watching my mother design her stage costumes allowed me to note the details. The dress was of good quality, sewn with care. It was floor length and its long sleeves were cut to a tight fit. Sewn on the bias, it had a fair amount of stretch to it and it draped beautifully. It had a boat neck, a near-straight slit of a neckline that skimmed over my collarbones when I put it on, closing at the points of my shoulders. The back was equally high but slit down the center to the small of my back, held closed at my neck by a single ruby glass button. Nothing flapped loose or billowed behind but I knew the slit would flash my bare back with every step I took.

No wearing a bra with this thing. Huh. Looks like Kiera might get her wish after all.

The dress puddled at my feet just as I’d suspected it would, too long by several inches. I wiggled my bare toes against its softness and smoothed the dress down. The action reminded me of Joshua’s hands on me and I sternly recalled myself to the right time and place. Holding the dress off the floorboards, I stepped out so Kiera could take a look.

“What do you think?” I already knew I’d get it despite the extra length, but it never hurt to get a second opinion.

---

Kiera whistled in approval once Rina cleared the dressing room. "Well, yeah! Ha, I knew that you'd look good." The brightness of her face dimmed a bit. "Is it affordable?" she asked in a low voice. "Cus' it'd be a crying shame for you to leave without it."

---

That wolf whistle sent a spurt of guilty pleasure shooting through my belly and I knew, come hell or high water, I’d be taking that dress home. Even so, the compliment made me uneasy and I ducked back behind the curtain.

“No need for cryin’, Kiera. I have enough,” I said loud enough for her to hear. I wondered how a boutique of this caliber made a living out here on the Rim, but Vandenberg wasn’t exactly a one-horse dorp. It had people, it had bustle, and most importantly, it had business. I considered it as I slid the dress off me. Boros was an Allied World and likely it did a goodly amount of business with Core-siders in addition to those on the Rim only interested in converting their platinum. It afforded Boros the chance to go beyond the usual frontier offerings and I decided that it might mean the secondhand shops in the area would have more upscale goods. Like clothing of a quality that would last, despite the lower prices I could afford once I’d bought the dress. I quickly zipped into my coveralls and exited with the dress over my arm. “And no need for underpinnings either. So, no butt floss.”

---

Her usual smirk returned in force. "I know what I'm doing. I ain't the dumbest thing to fall out of the tree." She winked as they walked over to pay for the seductive piece of heaven. "Tell Joshua he can tell me thank you whenever he wants to." She settled back to wait for Rina, leaning against a wall as the transaction was completed. "And now a holster for me," she chirped merrily. "And then something nice for me to wear too." An eyebrow raised. "Not as slinky as that. I ain't got nobody."

---

I forked over the credits with only a twinge of regret. Kiera had one thing right—Joshua would enjoy seeing me in it and then getting me out of it, and that added to the anticipated pleasure of owning it. As the attendant wrapped the dress in tissue I said over my shoulder at my shopping partner in crime.

“Kiera, I guarantee if you wore something like this, having nobody would cease to be a problem.”

---

"Kinda got a crush on a man chasing a dream right now. Besides, right now I got enough trouble without inviting more."

---

“Mm,” I said, and pursued it no further. I saw the line she’d drawn in the sand, clear enough. I thanked the attendant with a genuine smile and took up my change and my shopping bag. “Come on,” I said to Kiera. “I need to find a secondhand store for the rest of my shopping list. It’s the only way I can afford to get what I need.”

---

Kiera nodded and trotted out the door behind her after a short pause. There had been a silk number in the deepest of greens, a sleeveless number that pooled on the floor even as it draped across the mannequin's body in a way that both was beautiful and feminine as well as sexy.

It would have looked good with her coloring. She smiled a tiny smile. She needed a gun holster and a set of businesslike casual clothes and businesslike formal as well as some scrubs, underthings, and a work outfit. If she ever found someone that took her fancy again, she think about a dress like that. So far there had only been Allen and the stranger with the sword. And she was fairly certain that if she ever saw the stranger again, neither he nor she would care what they were wearing until well into the next night. The thought made her laugh, but as Rina looked at her, she only let her eyes twinkle as the answer.

---

I looked over at the sound of her laughter but all I got in return was a twinkle of her eye. Her laugh had the tone of someone contemplating a secret pleasure but nothing of malice rang through it. So I let it slide and told my inner twitch to shut the hell up. Sometimes a laugh is just a laugh, you.

"Like shopping, do you? Personally, I'm not too fond of it. Having company helps, though," I added, meaning it. "Still, I hope the results of this shopping trip fares better than my last. Just about everything I got at Pericles died on the Gift."

---

The mirth died as rapidly as it came. Even though Kiera still smiled, her eyes lost all their warmth and reverie. "I enjoy making people look good, so I enjoy shopping with someone I'm fond of and want to look nice. Let's go look in that shop over there. It says it's a consignment shop; prices are usually good in those for some decent clothing." She stretched out her legs to walk towards the store, a brittle smile etched tenuously on her lips. Probably didn't mean it the way I took it, she thought, but damn, that ship is gonna haunt me until the day I die. "I might find me some clothes to do cargo and passenger negotiations in. The Equinox is a much fancier ship. Can't negotiate in rags and convince someone that it's worth the fare."

---

“Hey,” I said and stopped her with a hand on her arm. I saw how I’d killed her mood and that was not what I’d intended. God knew, we could use a little cheer and I didn’t want to go squashing what little came our way. “Not blaming you for anything. Was just saying I had a lot to replace.”

The rest of her statement was instructive and I filed it away for future reference. Right now, however, I wanted to address the immediate hurt. The rest could come later.

---

Turning, Kiera blinked at her. "I'm just sensitive about what happened. I'm sorry. I'm feeling sorry for myself and a bit unfairly beat up. Nothing like what you all went through, tho'." She patted Rina's hand on her arm. "I'm a big girl and I know no one wants to hear how upset I was during the whole thing." Her brows met for a moment before retreating back to their neutral positions. "I need to get over it. I don't need---" Sympathy, she finished silent, trying to find a word that wouldn't offend. She was tired of being the whipping boy. Two months of work, two months of trying and two months of self-recriminations. She wanted off this planet so bad that it hurt at night when she was alone. And in the foolish hope that in time, everything would be okay. But it wouldn't. It never could. She wasn't family. Never would be. She grinned. "I need clothes. We're okay. Let's let it go. We've got money and things to buy. Time to shop."

---

Let it go, she said. Very well. I followed her into the consignment shop and saw she’d been right about the offerings. I left her with the fancier stuff and looked for a rack that had work clothes. Nothing much there, since work was apparently defined as being a desk job or the hospitality business. Too nice to crawl through an engine room in. I checked my watch (another borrowed item) and reckoned we’d have enough time to hit two or three more stores before turning around for home. So I meandered through the racks and tables, looking at everything and giving Kiera time to shop.

---

An indigo skirt and long coat caught her attention, along with a fern green pantsuit. Kiera took both with her to the dressing room. The pantsuit was a bit more Core, sleek, modern, and businesslike, but yet fitted better than the pajamas that Rina had referred to. But the blue skirt and coat, embroidered in flowers and fanciful leaves and swirls, flowed from her shoulders, accentuating the slender skirt that just screamed for some great boots. The coat could be worn without anything underneath or unbuttoned to show a shift underneath. She wore the pantsuit out first, holding her hands out. "Would you book a flight from me?" she asked.

---

I turned from inspecting a burn-out velvet stole and froze, stunned. Kiera stood in a green pantsuit the color of shaded ferns, not too yellow and not too blue. Just the perfect shade to bring out the color of her eyes and to complement her hair. Looking closer, I could see it was cut in the traditional Chinese manner, from the mandarin collar to the asymmetrical placket to the vented jacket hem. The trousers skimmed to the instep of her shoes with nary a wrinkle, not too wide or too thin. The material was matte, nothing glossy to make it look garish or cheap, and it was clearly a quality grade of silk. Embroidered clouds and mountain peaks and tree branches in bloom were stitched in a subtle darker thread all over it, supporting the overall impression of dignity, integrity, and tradition. On her, it was utterly convincing. To say nothing of captivating.

"Kiera," I said, shaking off the shock. "If you were booking flights to Hell, I'd buy out First Class. Tell me you're getting it."

---

"Wait," the redhead announced and then went back into the dressing room to quickly change in the indigo blue outfit. It was suede and more rustic, dressy enough for business and yet more Rim suitable. She returned to stand for inspection, turning slowly. She would need shoes and nicer boots, but four full outfits were what she planned for, so hopefully she would have money left for them. "Better?"

---

As impossible as topping the pantsuit would have been, this outfit did it and did it exceedingly well. The dark chocolate suede jacket accentuated her waist and gave her shoulders a sleek square for contrast. It had a notched collar in black velvet and a deep plunge to a two-button close, with welt pockets sewn at an angle. Black leather accents graced the jacket in the piping of the pocket welts, the triangular gussets at their edges, and the covered buttons at waist and cuff. Kiera had a taste for embroidery, I saw, my eye tracing the mahogany-hued stitchery on the shoulders, placket and hem: twining foliage both natural and abstract warmed the jacket up, and accents in forest green, deep blue, and dark red lent it subtle tweaks of color. The slender broomstick-pleated skirt held its own against its partner, falling from under the jacket in folds the color of the midnight sky. Black embroidery along the hem snaked upward through the pleating, tiny vines with leaves adding their shadow to the indigo shade of the skirt, lending it even more depth. The overall effect was pure Kiera--casual yet well-turned out, exotic but approachable. All she would need was a pair of plain black boots and she'd be set.

"Yes." I managed. "Oh yes. Much. Better."

---

"I still need to get a pair of pants, tank, and short jacket and then some scrubs." Kiera shrugged. "I need a casual, going to town outfit and then something dressy. Should I get both? Is the green too dressy? Ugh!" She turned, spinning for Rina to look at the outfit again. "I don't know what to do. I love them both. Will the blue do for both casual and dressy?" She sighed and shook her head. "I'm not used to not being able to get what I want. Help me!"

---

"Hang on. Slow down. Breathe." I said, her rising desperation putting me on familiar ground. How many times had Mother done the same, second-guessing her costume choices until she was reduced to tears? Too many to count. Little did I know the hours I'd unwillingly spent at her side would stand me in good stead here. I gauged the silhouette of the jacket through my lashes. "Just as I thought. That jacket is long enough to wear with pants. See if you can't find a pair of slacks in something with a medium weight, something like wool or brushed cotton denim. And you're tall enough you can even go with cuffs on the hem," I added. "Go an inch or two long--you'll be wearing them with dressy boots."

---

The advice seemed to strike a chord in Kiera and she nodded. "Thanks!" she chirped and went back into the dressing room. She changed back into her former clothes and came back out with the jacket and skirt over one arm, the green silk number back on its hanger, ready to go back. But she fingered the silk with a gentle finger, her lower lip just edging out in a pout. After a moment, she hung it back where she found it. "Well, let me get this and we'll go look for some jeans and boots and maybe a pair of slacks."

---

“I think you made the right choice. The Mandarin style is elegant but it’s not … quite … you. It’s Core and it doesn’t match your spirit. And the jacket would look humpa-slammin’ over jeans and a pair of cowboy boots. You know that, right?”

---

The nod came slowly, although she thrust her lips into a full pout, albeit with a smile. "It's pretty," she countered as she paid for the outfit. "I wanted it." She took her change, jammed it into her pocket and took the bag. "So where'd ya learn about clothing?" she asked as they went towards another store. "Oh and don't let me leave without a bootknife and holster today."

---

“My mother,” I said, eyeing the windows to check our six again. I wanted to be truthful but I knew I was skating on thin ice where it came to my family. The less Kiera saw of my expression, the better. “She was involved in the theatre and made me sit through interminable costume consults and fittings. She was disappointed in me, I think. After four boys she’d hoped for a girly daughter to share her love for the sumptuous and frilly. All I wanted was overalls and boots to get dirty in. Still, it wasn’t time wasted. I picked up an eye for form and color. The details fascinated me even if I would never apply them to myself.”

A thought hit me and delighted by the snarkiness of it, I turned to her with a grin.

“She’d positively swoon if she thought you intended to wear a knife under that outfit you bought. And as for the gun? Break out the smelling salts. She hated guns. Too loud and violent.”

---

"Well, we have that in common. We both disappointed our mothers." Kiera laughed and went pushed the door into another store, the walls laden with jeans, boots, overalls, and other such things. "Mine wanted a girl who'd tell her which of her frenemies was having work done and yours wanted an artist. Instead mine got a gunslinger surgeon and yours got a machine artist. Ah, now here's the ticket. Those boots will do just fine." She beelined for a long chestnut pair that would come to her knee, picking them up and looking them over. Without thinking, she waved over one of the clerks as if she were the queen of the palace, settling herself down into a chair and told him her boot size and pant size. She patted the seat beside her. "Come on, sit."

---

“ ‘Frenemies’. Huh. That fits,” I said, thinking of the backstage sagas my mother filled my ears with during our hours spent on costumes and accessories. Opera was not a profession known for its lightweights—everything was done with the utmost passion and abandon, from hitting the high note to backstabbing colleagues for a coveted role. I sat down next to her and gave the clerk a small smile and a shake of my head: nothing for me thanks. “Sounds like a high-powered, high-pressured world you left behind.”

Never good at small talk, I hoped I gave her a hook to continue on and settled back to listen.

---

Kiera nodded as another clerk laid a pair of jeans by her. She checked the size and smiled, mouthing her thanks. The other clerk returned with the correct size of boots and she pulled them on and stood up, walking around to see if they felt right. The soles were spongy; they would give and stick nicely on the ship floors and keep her feet from fatigue. She turned her legs to see the back of the boots and then flopped back into the chair to pull them off. "Horrible if you don't like that kind of thing. Great if you do. Kinda instructive for my later criminal career tho'." She grunted, pulling off the boots and putting them back into the box and laid them and the jeans in the empty seat on her other side. "You never had friends. You had competition. You never gave away any weakness that might be used against you. You never, ever, let them know that your true emotions and most important, you tried to find out any secret that might be used against them or their husband. Our parties were lots of fun. Miss it everyday." She put her old boots back on and went to the register and paid for her new things. "Before we leave this block, can we go back to the store where you got your dress?" Her voice was wistful. "I want your opinion on something. Then we need to go get some undies and coveralls for you and some scrubs for me."

---

I listened to her description and found it amazingly similar to my stint on Ariel. Mind, my goal was different but the same methods applied. All that was missing from Kiera's world was the clandestine paranoia and the certainty of a firing squad. Even so, it was a telling picture of her background and helped me map the woman it molded. I followed her out the store and turned back the way we came.

"Sure," I said. "You know I'm good for it."

---

Kiera led her back to the first store and had them take the emerald green silk gown from the mannequin. Without a word, she disappeared back into the dressing room and then emerged, looking at Rina with a self-deprecating shrug. "You think someone would like me in this?" she asked.

---

"Wow." I couldn't help it. My jaw dropped and my eyes popped. Wake up, dummy. She needs a second opinion. So I pulled myself together and walked around her once, taking in the details.

The dress was an emerald green, meaning it was at the bluer end of the spectrum. It matched the value of her auburn hair, neither overpowering it or overpowered. Just right. It was a sueded silk charmeuse, drapey and clingy in all the places I knew men loved to put their eyes and hands. Sleeveless, halter topped, tied behind the neck with spaghetti straps, it was backless all the way down to her kidneys. Diagonal seams emphasized her curves and made the dress ripple as she moved. It skimmed the floorboards in front with a slight train in back. A swallowtail peplum at the derriere gave the eye something to fasten on and I knew it would sway seductively when she walked. Nothing too long or wide enough to be seen from the front, it was a surprise bonus gained when she left the room.

"Delicious," I said. "Don't change a thing. Wear your hair up and something dangly at your throat or ears. Needs heels." I squinted through my lashes to check the silhouette. "Maybe a stole. Your shoulders are going to get cold." I opened my eyes and grinned at her. "Stellar choice."

---

"Thanks," came the unusually shy answer. "Now I get to put it up. I just wanted to see it on and have someone else tell me that it would look good." She went back into the dressing rooms and soon brought the dress back out. "Thank you," she told the shopkeeper with a warm smile. "And thank you, Rina. Your face said as much as your words. Maybe one day, I'll have a reason to buy something like that." She crinkled her eyes as she led them outside the shop again. "I'm just glad that I got you into one of them. You're gonna knock Joshua's socks off. Just make him cook you something nice first. Shall we go get work clothes and some toys now?"

---

The sun was lower in the sky when we headed back to the ranch, the breeze colder coming over the windshield’s edge. It would be a frigid ride back home but at least now I was properly outfitted for it. Newly purchased insulated gloves protected my hands and a hooded all-weather coat armored me against the cold. A new work wardrobe plus a knife and holsters were stowed in the back along with my dress.

“I can’t believe you walked out of there without buying it.” I said over the noise of our passage. “Well, okay, you’d already bought too much to afford that too, but still. Will you remember it well enough to recreate it later? It’s a damned shame that I was the only one to see you in it. If Beglan had seen you in it, he might have stayed for more than just one dance.” I cut a look at her with a raised brow. “Maybe more than just dancin’.”

---

Kiera had propped her feet up and made herself comfortable, playing with her new bootknife. It was weighted well, not really good for throwing, but comfortable to hold and to use. She rolled an eye at Rina. "Don't need to be mixing business with pleasure, Rina. Beglan was a bit of fun. Ain't gonna go nowhere. So who am I gonna wear it for?"

---

"What about that guy you said you're infatuated with? The one you met after we'd parted company, the one you left to come back to us. The one who made you happy." I recalled her expression when she described him, the mystery man chasing a dream, and it was pretty clear to me how she felt about him. Still, it wouldn’t do to slap the word love on it. I didn’t know the entire story, after all.

---

"Might run into him, might not. Silly to carry a dress or a torch around for someone that you may never see again." She looked at Rina and gave a simple smile. "It was a day and night of happy. Probably won't happen ever again." She looked down at the knife and then back again. "You don't plan for serendipity." She then leaned back into the seat, closing her eyes.

---

Silly to carry a dress or a torch around for someone that you may never see again. That was too close to what I'd done with Mike, uncomfortably close, and Kiera didn't need to know that. My thoughts occupied me for the next several miles as I considered the nature of long-distance relationships and self-deception. If Joshua left tomorrow, would you stay or follow? Would you drop everything to find him or sit tight and wait for him to show? Like Mike. God help me, I didn't know.

---

In the following silence, Kiera cast her mind outward. Hope you're having a good time Ezekiel. Be safe. The corners of her mouth twitched. As they had both said when she had left him, Hope to see you again. And thank you. There had been no promise, no ties, only the exchange of her contact point and a deep gratitude for the bond that they had shared. It had been a magical time and he had been kind enough to share it with her. But they both had destinies and responsibilities and the wanderlust to go with them.

Would she have stayed had he asked? No, came the clear answer in her head. He wouldn't have asked nor would he have respected her had she asked him. And she wouldn't have respected him. They were what they were and they both had tasks to do. Maybe when the stars fell from the skies and they were done.

Maybe.

---

The turn off for the ranch hove into view and brought me back to the present. I threw a glance at Kiera and said loud enough to be heard.

"I know it's rough getting the cold shoulder from everyone. Betrayal hit them hard. Or what they believe was betrayal. Regardless of reality, what they believe happened is what they're going with and it sucks because it means you're on their shit list. I'm in an uneasy position, too. Since I'm the only one in your corner, they're not quite sure of what to do with me or where my loyalty lies."

I hauled on the wheel and made the turn.

"There's something they don't know. I've been betrayed before, Kiera. Betrayed and had everything taken from me. My entire life, actually. So I've been there, done that, carried the scars. Still do. I can never find the party that did it and forgive them. Or kill them. Closure ain't gonna happen. I'll live with that cuz I have to, but you? With you I've got the chance to wrap it up and make it right. For both of us. So it will mean something. I'd hate to go to my grave and know it was all for nothing, Kiera. I've already got that stone on my soul and I don't want to add another. Carrying too much already."

---

She waited until they were parked, nodding in silence as Rina spoke. Once the machine was off, Kiera leaned over and gathered her in a tight hug. "Thanks," came the whispered word in her ear and then she released her to get out of the mule.

---

I hugged her back and stayed behind the wheel when she slid out. I stared at the landscape until she was gone, then gathered myself up and went inside.

---

Go back to: Timeline Season Four, April 2521 to Dec 2521
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