Deep Space Endeavor (29 page)

She
looked confused as she asked, “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, I’ve been on the receiving end of what you’re capable of doing, and you weren’t even mad at me.”
He smiled as he knew she did not yet understand. “I’m the one you ambushed at Outpost Twenty-One, Miss Tamanorra. You kicked me right off my bike, and your second kick knocked me out cold. You know," he added with a smile. "You didn’t have to destroy my bike. It was my favorite one.”

“That was you,”
she felt herself tense as she reached for her blaster.

“Whoa, whoa, there’s no need for that. Captain Topanar was my boss at the time. Believe me, I am aware that he’s not a good guy, but he wasn’t asking me to do anything illegal. I had no cause to refuse a direct order. I’m on the Mayor’ personal task force now, trying to take down the Captain’s uncle, and the Mayor himself asked me to escort you tonight.”

She was still trying to decide whether or not to trust him when Topanar’s aircar came to stop at a large warehouse.

“I promise, I’m telling the truth,”
he added. “Trust me, I hate him, too.”

She
thought Sandstorm reminded her a bit of Jesse. She noticed the
Interrogator
inside the warehouse as the door opened to let the aircar inside. There didn’t seem to be a lot of security.

“Where are the rest of his men?”
She asked.

He
replied, “He only actually has thirty or so men. The rest are hired guns that do not work for him when the
Interrogator
is docked because he’s too cheap to pay them the extra couple days.”

“So, as long as he is docked here on Kaldor, he only has thirty men.”
She stated, a plan beginning to form in her mind.”

“Not even,”
he continued. “He has to give them some down time, so they take shifts. At any given time, there are only approximately fifteen of his men guarding that warehouse. That’s why he hides the ship, because he doesn’t have the resources to protect it properly while docked here on Kaldor.”

“This is good news.”
She responded, smiling for the first time since she had met him. When she smiled, it made her almost irresistible, and he made it a point to find out if she was with anyone.

“Don’t get too excited, Kimiko,” he started. “Corrupt or not, Topanar is still law enforcement on this planet, an
d breaking into his warehouse carries a big risk with it.”

She
knew he was right. She had all the information she needed, so now she just wanted to get back to
Endeavor
and check on Reece. She did have one last question, though, “How do they get the ship inside the warehouse?”

He
smiled as he told her that the roof of the warehouse retracts, and she looked up and she nodded her understanding while they made their way back to
Endeavor
.

______

Suzy and the two medbots were still in surgery trying to save Reece’s life, and Jesse knew better than to let anyone disturb her. She had even had Collin and Wennagal take Josiah to his room so that he wouldn’t distract her when he woke up. He just couldn’t understand how it happened.
What was he thinking going after her? What was he thinking not wearing his battle suit?

Collin was voicing those same frustrations when Kimi came in.

“How is he?” She asked, genuine concern evident in her eyes.

“We’re not gonna know anything for awhile. All we do know is that his wounds were too severe for the
recovery pod. Suzy is doing everything in her power to keep him alive at this point.” Jesse stated as he looked at the floor.

Cassie had the look of someone carrying a heavy burden as she spoke. “That was just so stupid.” she started, tears welling up in her eyes. “What was he thinking? If he had just stuck to the plan, he would be fine right now.”

Everyone knew Cassie was blaming herself. Kora was her friend, part of her crew, and she had brought her aboard
Endeavor
. But Jesse just looked at her, compassion in his eyes, and said. “It’s no one’s fault, Cassie. Reece was in love, and he tried to stop Kora because he loved her. Love makes people do crazy things.”

Cassie just nodded and walked away in tears. As Jesse went to follow, Wennagal put up his hand. “Leave her be for now. Let her work out her feelings and join her in a little while,
Colonel.”

H
e nodded, trusting her friend knew her well enough to make the call. He looked at Wennagal and added. “No one blames you either, Wennagal. We all trust you and Cassie, and that won’t change.” Wennagal nodded his thanks, but Jesse could see a deep sense of appreciation and relief in his eyes. While they were standing there waiting, Kimi delivered the Intel she had gathered with Sandstorm. As she was speaking, SAMMI’s voice called out over the ship speaker. “Colonel Marcos, we have a visitor at the landing bay hatch.”

“Send
the image to my portable screen, SAMMI.”

“Image sent,
Colonel.” As Jesse received the image, he wasn’t sure who he was looking at, so he held the image up for the others to see.

“Sandstorm,” Kimi called out. “What’s he doing here?”

“Let’s go find out,” Jesse replied.

They
walked to the landing bay and lowered the hatch. Sandstorm was wearing a black military uniform and he had a blaster strapped to his leg. As Jesse approached, Sandstorm slowly removed his blaster and handed it butt-end first to him. Jesse then placed it on a nearby shelving unit. The landing bay hatch began to close, and their visitor began to speak.

He
was about the same height as Jesse, and they could see even with the uniform on that he was in good shape. He had close-cropped blonde hair and an easy going smile. Jesse could tell by the way Kimi looked at him that there that there was some apprehension there.

“I’m sorry for coming to your ship unannounced. I just came from the Mayor’s office to hand in my resignation.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Jesse interrupted. “But I’m not sure why we care.”

“Please,”
he smiled. “This is difficult for me, please allow me to finish and it will be clear soon enough.”

“My apologies. Please continue.” Jesse wasn’t sure where this was going, but Sandstorm had Valinor’s confidence, so he should at least hear the man out.

Sandstorm continued, “He didn’t accept it. He wants me to work more closely with you and your crew, but before I can do that I have to tell you what I told him." He took a deep breath and continued. "I used to work for Captain Topanar. More than just in Kaldor’s law enforcement. I made a big mistake when I was younger. It was my last semester of university and I had just been accepted to the law enforcement academy to become a special agent. I went to a party with a lady friend I had met that day to celebrate. While I was there, I drank too much and got into a fight with a few guys I didn't know. I lost the fight, but when I woke up, my lady friend was lying dead next to me. I know I didn’t kill her, and I’m pretty sure Topanar did. If he didn’t, he probably had someone do it, but I couldn’t prove it. I was about to go into the academy, and this scandal would have excluded me. But Topanar swept it under the rug, and in my youthful naivety, I allowed him to, hoping it would all just go away. I eventually figured out that the whole night was just one big set up for him to get his hooks into me. Finally, about six months ago, he began blackmailing me. He began making me do off-the-books assignments for him. He never had me do anything illegal, although I knew that time was fast approaching.” He looked both nervous and a little ashamed while he spoke.

"
Everything he had me do was actually pretty good, the kind of stuff one might even be proud of. He had me plant the equipment that caught his uncle conspiring against the Mayor. He had me save the Mayor’s life when the aircars attacked, but I knew it was to his own ends and not for the greater good. I couldn’t take it anymore. After gathering intelligence on the man blackmailing me with Miss Tamanorra tonight, I decided I had had enough. I went directly to the Mayor and told him exactly what I just told you. He thanked me for my honesty, and to my surprise, begged me to stay. He told me that if I worked with you and your crew without Topanar’s knowledge, the time would soon come that I would be able to clear my name of any wrongdoing. If we caught Topanar, I would not have this weight hanging over me anymore. After the Mayor told me what had just happened here tonight, I couldn’t ask you to trust me unless you knew the truth.” As he finished, he looked around, wondering what this tight knit group that had just been betrayed would think about his confession.

As they stood there, not quite sure what to say, Wennagal was first to break the silence. “I’ve got to hand it to you, Sandstorm, you’ve got guts
, coming in here and telling us all that on tonight of all nights. To be quite honest with you, I’m not sure how I feel about it.”

“If Valinor trusts him, I say we should, too,” Kimi jumped in. “Plus, we could use the extra pair of hands until Reece and Josiah recover.
"

“It’ll be easy enough to check his story with the Mayor. If it checks out, and the Mayor actually does still trust him, I’m ok
ay with him helping us.” Collin added.

Jesse still hadn’t spoken, and tonight wasn’t the best night for a story like this to be taken in by him. But life didn’t give you choices of when you received information. You did, however, have the choice of how and when you acted on that information.

“When the Mayor said he wanted you to work more closely with my crew,” Jesse started. “What did he mean by that?”

“I’m not sure,” Sandstorm shrugged. “But it seems to be his intention for me to trip up the younger Topanar. He doesn’t own me anymore. Even if the information comes out, I will have a mayoral pardon, but Topanar doesn’t know that. The Mayor wants me to use that to my advantage.”

As his three crew members looked on in anticipation, Jesse extended his hand and replied. “Pending a conversation with Mayor Valinor, I accept your proposal to work together to take down Joldas Topanar. I do have one more question,” he added as Sandstorm, looking relieved, shook his hand. “What’s your first name?”

Agent Sandstorm looked at Kimi as if seeking her approval, and replied. “Ogen.”

“Welcome to the team, Ogen.” Jesse replied as the rest of the assembled crew greeted him as well.

______

After Sandstorm had left, Jesse went to find Cassie. He had given her some time alone, and he wanted to make sure she was alright. He found her sitting alone in the room the artifacts were stored in. She was sitting at one of the tables, and it was evident that she had been crying. As he entered the room, she looked up to see who it was and then looked away, shame evident in her eyes. He walked over and sat on the table she was facing and said, “You look like you could use some company.”

She
looked up, “I’d rather be alone,” she replied, still not meeting his eyes. As he stood to leave, she changed her mind, “Actually, if you wouldn’t mind staying…” She stood up and sat on the table next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. “I really messed this one up, Jess. She was my responsibility. I was her captain.”

H
e put his arm around her to comfort her. “This was in no way your fault.” He began. “The plan was my idea. Telling Reece was my idea, and not having the crew watching him more closely after he did know was my mistake. Reece should have known better, too. There’s plenty of blame to go around, Cass, but none of it will change what happened, and none of it will be of any use to Reece.”

“You don’t understand, Jess. She has been a member of my crew for eight years. She’s been with me and Enso since the beginning. She was the first person I hired when I bought the
Catamaran,
and I thought we were friends. I didn’t lose one friend today, I lost two.”

H
e rubbed her shoulder as he answered, “We haven’t lost Reece yet, Cassie. Suzy is the best doctor I have ever seen. If anyone can save Reece, she can. And you can’t blame yourself for Kora. I’m sure she was your friend most of the time you guys were together. She just fell for the wrong guy and let it change her. These things happen, and it doesn’t change the fact that you are a great captain.”

Sh
e looked at him and smiled through the tears. He was once again struck by how beautiful she was. He lowered his head, not wanting his thoughts to go in that direction while she was so obviously upset.

She leaned on
him for comfort and replied. “But I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to trust my instincts again. Even after you played the transmission for me, I didn’t want to believe it. I still never thought she’d be capable of ….” Before she could finish her thought, her breath caught and she was once again fighting back tears. He just held her and comforted her while they sat in silence.

“I don’t know how you can be so kind to me. I’ve brought misery to this ship, this… family. From the moment you met me, I caused you pain, and now your friend is in there, hanging onto life by a thread, and you are here comforting me. Why?”