Mitchell's Revenge
The Ballroom, Tiberion

Jake clicked off his headset andcarefully placed his teacup on the table in front of him. Lucy looked at himexpectantly, sensing that something was gravely wrong. He looked up from theteacup.

“Anja’s been kidnapped by the IGM,”he said quietly.

“She what?” said Lucy, leaningtowards him.

“She’s been kidnapped by the IGM,”he repeated. “Dad wants us to try and track her down and then keep her locationunder observation until we can rescue her.”

Lucy shook her head in disbelief. Shestood up.

“We’d better get going then.”

Jake grabbed her hand and pulledher back down into her seat.

“Not yet,” he said. “If we try torescue her now they will kill her. The crew who’s got her said they’ll not harmher if we leave her alone.” Lucy shook his hand off.

“Just settle down and finish yourtea,” he said. “Don’t draw attention to yourself.” Lucy sighed heavily. Somethingwas urging her to take action. Now.

“I can’t just sit here and donothing,” she said and stood up again. She bent down to gather her shoppingbags from the floor. Jake gave up trying to dissuade her and stood up. He tookthe largest bags from her and they began to make their way out of the ballroom,weaving between the tables and the patrons having tea.

“OK, we’ll talk as we walk,” hesaid as they emerged from the building and began to make their way back to thedocking bay and Mitchell’s Revenge. Lucy was feeling more agitated with everystep. She scanned their surrounds, as if she were looking for any hint ofdanger.

“What do they know?” she askedJake.

“Not much, at this stage,” hereplied. “But Dad’s convinced the IGM are retaliating for Tatiana Orlov’sdeath.” Lucy nodded.

“If he’s right, getting Anja backis not going to be easy. Is it?” Lucy looked at Jake.

“No, it’s not. But he’s sure we cando it.” Jake was struggling to keep pace with Lucy, who seemed to be movingfaster with each step she took. He grabbed her arm. She shook him off.

“Slow down, will you?”

“I can’t,” said Lucy. “It’s as if something’smaking me move faster!”

Jake paused in the walkway to watchLucy striding ahead of him. He shook his head. “I was wondering when thingswould start to change,” he thought as he stood watching her quickly recedingback.

As he reached the crowded alleywaywith its oddball stores and food outlets Jake looked ahead to see Lucy pushpast a young girl carrying a tray laden with steaming coffee mugs. He watched withdismay as the girl lost her balance, juggled the tray briefly, and then fellface first to the ground, flinging the hot mugs in all directions. Thesurrounding shoppers were splattered with steaming coffee or hit by a flyingmug. A scuffle ensued as the victims turned on the girl who was struggling tostand up.

Towards the end of the alleyway aburly security man witnessed the incident and tried to stop Lucy as she strodeaway. As Jake’s focus was on the girl, he didn’t see Lucy slap the guard’s face,then knee him in the groin and shove him against the wall before sprinting awaytowards the docking bays. The man slid down the wall and lay groaning on theground.

Jake reached the girl, who was nowon her feet brushing spilled coffee from the front of her tunic and receiving atorrent of abuse from the coffee splattered people around her. He pushed infront of them.

“I’m so sorry,” he said to her. “Areyou alright?” The girl stared at him.

“Why should you be sorry?” sheasked. “You didn’t do anything.”

“No, but my crewmate did,” he said.“I saw what happened. And I apologise.” He turned to face the dozen angrypeople.

“It wasn’t her fault,” he said. “Shewas pushed by my crewmate and she lost her balance. I apologise. I’m happy topay for laundering or repairs to any of your clothing if necessary.”

An older blue haired woman startedto laugh. Her grey eyes crinkled with amusement. She looked at the coffeestained people standing around her.

“It’s good to see chivalry isn’tdead! It’s only coffee and it’ll washout. But thank you for the offer,” she said. “Just make sure this young lady’stray is replenished for whoever she was taking the coffee to. Perhaps you couldescort her to wherever she needs to go.” She studied Jake more closely. “Youlook handy enough!”

The others laughed then. Jakesmiled back at her.

“Yes ma’am,” he said. He looked atthe others. “Are you all happy with that?” They nodded their assent and movedaway. Jake picked up the tray, gave itto the girl and began to gather up the mugs from the ground. The girl lookedcuriously at him.

“You didn’t have to do that, youknow,” she said.

“I did actually,” he replied. “Everythinghere is recorded on vid link. If I didn’t make restitution at once, securitywould come after me pretty damn quick. Or at least, after my crewmate whocaused the accident. Let me help you. And I will escort you to where you needto go.” She smiled at him then.

“Thanks,” she said. “I’d betterstart again. It’s this way.” She led him towards the nearest coffee outlet.

When Jake got back to the dockingbay he found two security personnel waiting for him. An athletic looking womanwas accompanied by a tall rangy young man, their thick leather belts adornedwith stun guns, hand cuffs and various other devices. Their name badgesidentified her as Olga Restinova and the young man as Phillip Lumme. Jake’sheart sank.

“I have made restitution to thepeople involved,” he said as he approached them.

“We know that, Captain Stern,” saidOlga. “We’re here about Lucy Savage.”

“It was an accident,” said Jake. “Isaw what happened. I don’t think Lucy even realised what she did.”

“Oh, I think she did,” replied Phillip.“She slapped one of our people on the face, threw him against a wall and tookoff. She’ll be charged with assault.”

“What?” Jake looked at the securityguard in astonishment. “Lucy wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Well she did, Captain Stern, andwe want her off your ship. Now.”

“I don’t understand what you’retalking about,” said Jake. “She bumped a girl carrying coffee. It got spilt. That’sall.”

“After she bumped the coffee girl,”said Olga. “One of our security people tried to stop her for the restitution andshe assaulted him. You obviously didn’t see that because you were assisting thegirl. We’ve got the whole thing on vid link. Here, I’ll show you.”

She unclipped a touch pad from herbelt and flipped the screen on. Jake watched in horror as the scene unfolded infront of him. It had happened so fast that without the vid link evidence,no-one other than the security man and Lucy would have seen what took place. Thebehaviour was so uncharacteristic of Lucy, that Jake could only think that her bionicshad taken over. This was not good. He needed his co-pilot. Especially now. Hethought quickly.

“What can I do to make this right?”he asked, looking at Olga, who appeared to be in charge.

“Hand Lucy Savage over to us,” shereplied. “You know what the rules are on Tiberion. This cannot go unpunished. Ourman has a broken nose and medical treatment doesn’t come cheap.”

“So the major concern is medicaltreatment for your man?” asked Jake. Olga nodded.

“Bottom line, yes,” she said. “Youknow as well as I do that fights happen here all the time. If we chargedeveryone, every time, we’d have more jail birds than general population. It’sunfortunate that she assaulted one of our people, and that we have vid evidence.What do you propose?”

“That we pay for the medicaltreatment for your man, and we make a donation to the Tiberion security pensionfund. You don’t arrest Lucy and we pretend this never happened,” Jake said.

“Let me confer with my colleague,”she replied, and walked a short distance away from Jake, speaking quietly tothe young man accompanying her. Jake stood at the base of the boarding rampwhile they talked. He looked up at the ship to see Em looking down at him fromthe top of the ramp. Her emerald eyes glittered and her top lip drew back in asnarl as she watched the security personnel. Jake hoped Lucy had enough senseto stay on board and out of sight.

“Get back inside,” Jake hissed ather. “I’ll call if I need you!” The big cat disappeared as Olga and Phillipturned back to Jake. He moved towards them.

“We’ll take your offer,” advised Olga.“We know how much Universal Starship Enterprises has invested in EQ2, and weknow you’re good for the cash. The medical expenses stand at 7,000 credits. Ifyou make an equivalent donation to the pension fund, we’ll leave it at that.”

Jake looked stunned.

“That’s highway robbery!” heexclaimed. Her dark eyes were hard as she smiled at him.

“In that case, we come on board nowand arrest Lucy Savage.” She took a step towards the boarding ramp. Jakestepped in front of her, blocking her path.

“Okay, okay,” he said. “How do wedo this?’ Olga smiled.

“Direct transfer to the stationsecurity account will be fine,” she replied. “Come with us now, make thetransfer and we will terminate the matter.”

“Just let me advise my crewmateswhere I’m going,” said Jake. He pinged Henri on the bridge and quicklyexplained what was happening. “If I’m not back in thirty minutes, you’d bettercome and get me out of the lock up!”

As Jake followed Olga and Phillipto the main security office he reflected that this was not a good start for Mitchell’sRevenge and her crew. But he needed Lucy now, and even though this was a costlyescape, he thought there were enough credits in their unforeseen events accountto cover it. If there wasn’t, he’d just have to cover the rest himself. Insaving Lucy’s life, U.S.E. was ultimately responsible for the behaviour effectedby the experimental bionics.

By the time Jake got back to thedocking bay and boarded Mitchell’s Revenge, Lucy had run several worst casescenarios for the IGM kidnapping on the shipboard computer. She came to theconclusion that they needed more information, primarily about the ship that hadsnatched Anja.

On his way back to the ship fromsecurity, Jake had plenty of time to think. Despite Lucy’s anxiety to followAnja, he still had a business to run. His primary instruction from Tim was tocontinue with business as usual whilst looking for Anja. If any more ships wentrogue because they had not repaired the software in time, U.S.E. would be inmore trouble than he cared to think about.

As he made his way towards thebridge Jake pinged Fred Laine leading the team working on the Rubicon. Hethought they should have been finished by now. But, as always, the softwareissues were more complex than they first appeared. It was impacted by the factthat the Rubicons’ on board engineer had tried to fix it himself prior tocalling the manufacturer. Fred reported that they were making good progress,but they would be a few more hours yet.

Henri’s shipboard work was finishedwell before Jake returned. Jake found him on the bridge, sitting with his eyesclosed listening to Goth heavy metal music through his earpiece. He tapped hisfeet and his fingers twitched as if he were having some kind of fit. Jakeflicked him on the head to break him out of his musical reverie. Henri’s eyessnapped open and he swatted Jake’s hand away.

“Welcome back!” Jake laughed athim.

“You bastard! I was just getting to the best bit,” Henrisaid.

“I don’t know how you can listen tothat noise,” said Jake. “It makes me anxious.”

“I always thought you were a bit ofa musical sook!” said Henri. “Good thingthey didn’t lock you up instead of Lucy.” Henri chuckled.

“We got out of that one by the skinof our teeth!” Jake looked at Lucy. “I should have mentioned the RestitutionRule that applies here, before you went knocking coffee everywhere and beltingup security guards!” Lucy looked at Jake in exasperation.

“I honestly don’t know what cameover me,” she said. “I had no idea I’d knocked that poor girl over, and I’venever attacked anyone like that unfortunate security man in my life before. Ithappened before I could stop it.” Lucy rubbed her eyes and ran her handsthrough her hair.

“How much longer are they going tobe?” she asked Jake. “We need to get moving!”

She began to pace back and forthacross the bridge. Em appeared silently in the doorway. She padded across toLucy and rubbed against her legs. Lucy stopped pacing to scratch the big cat’sears and rub the top of her head. She began to calm down. Em began to rumblewith satisfaction.