A Thing of the Past

Posted on Mon Jun 1st, 2020 @ 9:29am by Alden Loxley & Alison Bliss
Edited on on Wed Sep 23rd, 2020 @ 10:08am

Mission: Sweet Emotion
Location: Ares
Timeline: 21 months ago (early 2515)

Ares. Alison didn’t really know why would they need to land here. Captain Everett insisted there was a job here and a well-paid one. Alison had little say in that matter. So here they were. Picking up some kind of a military cargo, and while that was being sorted, the captain wanted them off the ship. So they headed to the nearby bar, a few blocks from the spaceport. The one thing Ares was known for was seen clearly on the orbit of the moon - Iskellian shipyards. Moreover, this was plastered everywhere, fifty-fifty, the military presence and the corporate presence united in building warships. Similarly the people around where the mixture of both.

There was also one additional thing that kept Alison a bit on edge. Walking with Alden, she tried to stay off to the side to attract the least amount of interest. As they approached the bar, she could sense that Alden was curious about it. She was going to tell him everything over the drink. She decided on that the moment she heard a call.

“June?! June?! Is that you? June Montgomery!” Alison heard from the left and sighed. Giving Alden a ‘follow me’ look, she turned her attention to the guy who was calling her. A commander… not good.

“Hey…” Alison said with a soft wave of her hand in greeting.

“Hey? Come on… you were gone for… almost three years! What happened?!” The man had the uniform of the Alliance Navy and the rank of commander.

“Well… you know how it is. After the admiral died, I was devastated, I needed to leave.” Alison said with sadness, her voice getting stronger. Either she would bluff her way out of it or they were screwed.

“Yeah, I understand. His brother was also devastated. I think he was looking for you.” The commander stopped and looked closer at Alden. “And who are you?”

Who the gorram hells was June?! That was his first thought as the shout came up from the street. His second was - Tzao Gao (oh crap) - as his eyes locked with Alison's and he realised something far too quickly. It was her, wasn't it?

She waved, Alden kept his eye roll internal and opted for the easier route. Don't talk, follow her lead and figure it out on the fly. Y'know. The Usual.

Only this time the potential trouble, the old boyfriend (or whatever this man was to his friend) was dressed up to the nines in Alliance colours and displaying a Commander rank.

Alden knew she was bluffing, not because of any lack of skill or giveaway 'tell' on Alison's part, but for two other reasons. He'd known her for a couple of months and she really didn't strike him as the Alliance type, and her name had never been June.

After the Admiral died?! F'n Zse... Deep crap

Then Alden jerked his own head up in the Commander's direction as the next question out of the nice Alliance man's mouth directed at him.

"Alden Loxley," said Alden honestly. No point in lying, he didn't have the fake ID for it and his record wasn't tainted nearly enough to raise any alarms with the Alliance. Yet anyway. "Uh... good to meet you, Commander," he added, a little awkwardly.

The commander glanced at Alison.

"Is he like your bodyguard?" He asked curiously and looked closer at Alison. Alison could sense that things started not adding up for him and she could sense a growing suspicion.

"No." She said with a slight shake of head. "I know, I know! You probably think what is going on here then? Right?" Alison leaned forward and giggled gently tapping the commander on the chest. "You see I had to run, admiral's brother never liked me and he wanted James' money... in fact, he stole all the gold." She shook her head. Her voice intonation changed subtly and also her mannerism became more vivid as she slipped back into the role of June Montgomery. "Only because he did that I realized he wanted to..." With the last words she made half a step forward and leaned forward to finish with emphasis. "...kill me! I had to run."

"What?!" The commander was shocked. His eyes warmed up and lips pursed. "You should have ome to me..." He said softly and then cleared his thoughts. "June, listen, this is a big accusation. Do you have any evidence of that?"

"Of what? That he was going to kill me?" Alison winced in dramatic disbelief. "Of course not! That..."

"No, no." The commander softly interrupted and put a hand on her shoulder. "Of the fact he stole the gold."

"Not really. I can tell you exactly what had happened though and how he did it." Alison offered.

"Hmmm..." The commander mused over what he heard briefly. "Very well, let's go."

"Uhmm, I can't. We have to finish our run. I am working on a ship. When I finish it I can go then."

"What run?" The question was quick and it was directed at Alden. Alison knew when not to speak. The commander was counterintelligence. That she remembered. He would sense if she would try to overplay her bluff and he was checking it, counting that her friend would fail in providing a good explanation. Alison hoped that Alden was on the ball.

It was scary how fast, how easily she shifted personality, but given he wasn't in any currently obvious danger, Alden simply listened and allowed himself to feel suitably impressed. Alison aka June was clearly a wily piece of work, and he made a note to ask her what had really happened to that gold. And what had really happened to the gent who was accused of stealing it. Of course, he considered, probably better to not know. Harder to screw up a lie when you knew the truth.

Then the man was looking right at him, expecting an answer and Alden opened and closed his mouth, goldfish style before shifting attention sideways. "Albion," he said. "Captain's picking up some bits of tech for the experimental labs I believe," Alden shrugged, acting disinterested. "Not rightly sure exactly what, just along as added security." He didn't want to draw particular attention to his piloting skills right now, besides 'hired gun' implied less responsibility or blame for said mission in hand.

The commander eyed Alden for a longer moment and finally nodded.
"Fine." He looked back at Alison. "Be at my office in two hours."

Alison gave the man a wry grin.

"Sure. I will." She said resigned and pulled Alden inside the bar. As soon as they entered, she headed toward the back.

Moving between people, Alison gave him an apologetic grin.

"I know, I know..." She said and went into the bar's back ignoring a waiter looking at them confused. Alison navigated through the back rooms to the rear exit but stopped before opening it. She turned to Alden and took deep breath. "In short... I was the admiral's wife. I stole the gold. After admiral died." She shrugged. "Commander Maxwell is counterintelligence. I give us 30 minutes before he checks you and me and arrests Everett. "By then we need to be on a different ship."

He was a little surprised that he didn't resist Alison dragging him into the nearest tavern, but Alden was already inside by the time he realised he hadn't put up any kind of a fight. He followed her towards the back, driven by curiosity, and anxious for a cold beverage from which to sip as he heard the truth of this tale. Or at least whatever version of the truth Alison would be forced to tell him now he'd been party to the lie.

Alison didn't disappoint.

Alden choked on the words, raised both his eyebrows and made out as if this was the worst thing he'd ever heard in his life. Though.. Growing up on Ezra, under the dutiful and partly insane watchtower of Adelai Niska, there had been many stories on par at least.

"Qing Wa Cao De Liu Mang!" (Frog-humping son of a bitch) Alden said on an outward breath as he looked into the angelic face before him. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it again, thought for the merest of seconds and then went for a second attempt. "You stole the gold? From your husband?"

An impish grin. Then a darker frown. Then the grin returned.

"He just happened to die?" Alden asked, quietly, as he wondered at the timeline of said events and the part Alison might have played in them. "Wouldn't that mean the gold went to his dear wife anyway?"

Then he paused and asked yet another question. "Wait - why would he arrest me? I didn't do anything?" But she was right and Alden knew it. The arrest was gonna happen. He adopted a seriously unhappy expression and sighed again. "Different ship... yeah..."

Alison cautiously opened the door ajar and glanced outside. She closed it almost instantly.

“We have the Alliance already guarding the alley.” She informed and turned around.

“Wei, you can’t be here.” A guy stepped in their way. A big one. Alison guessed it might be a cook.

“We were just leaving, love.” Alison said softly and blew the man a kiss, as she passed him.

A little confused, the man didn’t object. But Alison didn’t go all the way back to the main room. Instead, she turned left at one point, toward the stairs she noticed earlier.
“Technically yes, I should get the gold. So, according to the law, I didn’t do anything wrong taking it.” Alison explained. “But, you see… the admiral died surprisingly to everyone and out of the natural causes.” She glanced at Alden to give the next word proper weight. “Honestly. There was no foul play. The brother was unhappy because he didn’t force the change of the will that would give him the right to the gold in time. But he managed to lock up the gold.”

The cook wasn't the only one confused, but Alden followed her regardless because the opposite direction led back to the Alliance and he didn't fancy trying to defend his own position to those fellas. He wasn't entirely buying the 'natural causes' line, yet given his relatively short working relationship with Alison, he didn't feel like pushing that right now. "Sure," he said, sounding decidedly unsure. "But you ended up with the gold?" He asked, wanting to hear more about that side of things. It sounded like it'd be worth a lot, obviously. And the way this was going, financial support would be a bonus.

They reached the top of the stairs and the door to the roof. The door was locked but it had a simple bolt mechanism on this side so she opened it and stepped on the roof.
“Then he tried to catch me, to either have me give him the rights, or maybe just kill me. I was smarter and I stole the gold while he was looking for me.”

Alison stepped to the edge of the roof and assessed the distance to the next roof.
“We need to jump.”

"Where's the gold now?" Alden couldn't help but ask. He looked over the edge and stepped swiftly backwards as the height made his stomach roll. "And yeah..." Like his companion, he gauged the distance and frowned. "Okay."

With no more warning than that, he took a short run up and leapt, all out, for the far roof. He missed the landing, but swung from his right arm on the edge, shifting his weight and dragging himself slowly upwards. Once safely standing on the other side, he punched the air and beamed a dumb grin.

Alison landed next to Alden and giggled, ignoring his grin.

"Oh... I lost all the gold gambling. I had to learn those skills somehow." She replied lightly.

Alison took the lead again, this time taking the fire escape stairs down to the ground level and walked out on the street. She looked around but seeing nothing suspicious, she turned toward the spaceport. Alden followed closely behind, letting Alison forge their path.

"I think I saw three other ships in the port and at least one of them was readying to take off. How about we try there first." She glanced at Alden. "Unless you have other questions?"

"All of it?" He asked, rhetorially, because it was obvious that she had. There followed muted cursing. "Ta Ma Duh, if only I'd been there to help, we might be rich now," Alden half-teased. "I'm real lucky at games of chance," he added. Then he turned more serious. "Yeah, there were three," he confirmed, because, like Alison, he noticed things like that. "A walkabout, a modified transport and what looked like a homesteader ship..."

"Let's try the one that was ready to take off." Alison decided and winked. "I lost a lot more on gambling. I probably could buy myself a small moon for that." She shrugged, walking casually. Now as they blended into the crowd, she was calmer, though still watching everything carefully. Last thing she needed was to run into Maxwell again. "Back then though, it seemed more important to learn and win, than to actually spend all this money. I was so rich." She sighed.

"The Helix it is," agreed Alden easily enough, because - yes - he'd noticed the name of the ship prepping to leave. Old habits. He shook his head as the pretty blond minx winked at him and then closed his eyes tight just for a second. "A whole gorram moon?!" Alden added on an exhale. "Shiny... And I meet you now, when you're poor as a mouse huh? Zhen Dao Mei (terrible luck)"

He could see the Helix now, and as they crossed the busy ground of the docks, Alden waved to the young lady on the cargo ramp. He grinned as she waved right back.

"Yeah, this one looks good," he told the dangerous, but currently poor, blond at his side.

-----